"Professor, my detention?" I said with a hint of smugness in my voice. A frustrated looking Professor Flitwick marched passed me into the Ravenclaw common room.

"Nevermind that, Potter," he tutted, not even looking at me.

"Weasley." I corrected dryly. Not that he could hear me. He was already in deep conversation with a group of Ravenclaw prefects in the middle of the common room.

I sunk back down beside Abby who was playing Exploding Snap with Kenny. Neither of them seemed too bothered about anything. If you ignored how crowded and overheated the common room was it could've easily passed for a normal Thursday night.

Abby sighed irritably for the tenth or so time and I finally gave in. I asked her what in Merlin's name was wrong with her.

"I can't go out with Kenny and practice tonight," Abby said as the cards crackled. "I can't afford to rest. My muscles will turn to jelly and not the tasty kind the house elves make in the kitchen."

"You'll be great." I squeezed her arm. "And you're not up against anyone so…" I trailed off letting her fill in the gaps.

"You should be equally as pissed off, Rose, right about now you're usually snogging Scorp."

"No," I narrowed my eyes. Maybe that was partly true... how in Merlin's name did Abby know that? "Right now I am usually studying and finished off homework with Pumpkin." On cue, my oversized furball of a cat let out something between a purr and growl as the cards sparked and exploded.

I clicked my tongue and he slinked over beside me. "Tell Scorpie I said goodnight if you see him," I muttered into his furry black ear.

"Stop cheating, Abby." Kenny leaned against the wall, clearly done with Abby winning their seventh or so game of Exploding Snap.

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat and the common room fell silent. He stood up on a chair and wiped his glistening forehead with an embroidered handkerchief. "Ravenclaws," he took us in. "It is time for bed. No one is permitted to leave the tower until eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

United as one us Ravenclaws let out a gigantic annoyed sigh. What in Merlin's name? Library opened at half six, not that I was awake at that insane hour but it was comforting to know it's shelves were ready and waiting for me.

And could he not even give us an indication of how serious this was?

The common room filled with questions directed at Flitwick which he ignored. He jogged out of the common room suddenly deaf and sweating buckets.

Pumpkin trotted out of the common room after him before the door shut probably to pay Scorpius a visit. I stood up moved towards the windows that were lining one wall of the common room. The prefects milled around behind me trying to round up the first years and send them to bed.

I used the sleeve of my robe to wipe away the cloud of condensation smudging the glass. There was no homely light coming from Hagrid's hut, it looked like he was inside the castle too. It was unnaturally still outside for nighttime, no rustling from the Whomping Willow and no owls hunting.

A second later Abby's hand was tugging on the back of my robes.

"Come on," she said uncharacteristically softly, turning me around. "Let's go to bed."

I pulled away from her. "Not you too."

Abby frowned. "I'm an individual, excuse me."

"Did Scorpius tell you to watch out for me?" I raised my eyebrows. "I have the brain capacity to look after myself."

Abby rolled her eyes. "Fine." She said in a tone that highlighted just how unfine it was. "Yes, he may have said something... but you looked… isolated there. I thought you might be thinking of Harry Potter and your parents again." She put her hands on her hips, all business now. "The translation of what I said is: why don't we go to bed now, the faster we go to sleep, the faster we wake up and the faster we figure out what in god's name is going on."

"Makes sense." I chewed on my lip.

"Yeah, it does." Abby turned away from me and headed to dorm. Despite her upbeat tone, I could see I had hurt her.

I knotted my hands together. So Scorpius and Abby were talking about me. I shuddered. I wanted to know every single word they had exchanged. I watched Abby disappear up the stairs. What they really thought of me. It couldn't be all that good, I couldn't be the only one who felt like I was useless.

I wasn't all that special really. I thought about Mum and Dad when they were my age. They had already 'saved' the wizarding world three times and they were about to help Harry Potter do the same again. They were always at the heart of problems and could always solve them. I thought of the mark I didn't even see fully, I thought of the death eaters I hid from, I thought of Uncle Harry (was he even still alive?) and I thought of how Flitwick called me Potter- I wasn't related by blood to the Potter family.

My eyes stung and itched. I pressed my palms to them.

I didn't know what to do from there so I said goodnight to Kenny and went to my dorm to be with my books.


"You know what we should do today?" I wrapped my arms around Scorpius' neck in the Entrance Hall.

"Snog?"

I frowned.

"Kiss, sorry, I forgot how delicate you are." He pecked the tip of my nose sending warmth to the ends of my fingers and toes.

I smiled at him. "Boggart." I just had to say one word and the playfulness in his silver eyes clouded over.

He pulled away from me, his lips pressed together in distaste.

I raised my eyebrows at him. A silent question.

"I suppose I'm going to have to do it eventually." He said, choosing his words carefully. "Later."

I tugged on his hands. "I was thinking now before class so we don't have to do it for that long."

"Exposing the darkest part of my mind to you, Rose." He replied deadpanned.

"Yes," I said firmly like it was the most natural thing in the world. I didn't mention how he had been discussing the darkest part of mine with my best friend. That wouldn't have gotten me very far with him.

"I thought you'd be obsessing about the red thing," Scorpius asked suspiciously.

I sighed. "Already tried that. It's closed off for Auror investigate." And I didn't want to run into my parents if they were snooping around there. "That's for later. It's annoying me that I can't do anything about the red mark and I want- no- need to do something productive."

Scorpius smirked at me. "What will you give me in return?"

I beckoned him towards me with my index finger. He came down to my level. I pressed my lips against the shell of his ear, "Anything you want." I whispered, his ear turning red against my lips.

Scorpius straightened and adjusted his already straight Slytherin tie. His fingers fumbled over the silk.

I started walking, my heart pounding in my ears. He followed me to the DADA supply classroom on the ground floor where all the boggarts for class and the scratched up duelling equipment were stored.

The door creaked shut behind us and Scorpius slumped against it. Dread was written all over his face as he eyed up a wardrobe that occasionally shook.

"I'm breaking the rules for you," I said, producing my wand with a flourish. "'No student is to engage with a magical creature without Professor supervision.'"

Scorpius' expression didn't change but he took out his own wand.

"Here," I smiled warmly at him, moving so I was beside him. "Let's pretend you don't know how to use a wand." I held his wand hand and pointed at the wardrobe. Even though I knew he wouldn't admit it his hand was shaking between mine.

We probably shouldn't have eaten breakfast before this.

"Relax," I told him gently.

He tensed even more.

"Tell me…" my eyes darted around for something happy and fluffy to talk about. "Tell me about buying your wand."

"I didn't buy my wand." He said slowly.

"You stole it."
"No," he chewed the inside of his mouth. "It was my father's. It's the wand that defeated Voldemort-"

"What?" I stepped in front of Scorpius to look him in the eye, to see if he was joking. He wasn't.

Scorpius rolled back his shoulder. "My mother didn't want me to buy a wand because she was worried the wandmaker would curse it or something because of how obviously I am a Malfoy. So she decided the best course of action was to get Father's old wand out of its dusty box and give it to me."

"And it accepted you?"

"Clearly." Scorpius continued. "Father wasn't too pleased about me carrying it around but he wasn't going to fight with Mother over it. I thought it was the best thing in the world at the time. Holding the same wand as Father did at my age." Scorpius shook his head. "Harry Potter gave it back to Father during the trials but Father didn't want it anyway. Father made me swear not to tell anyone-"

"You hid it from me because of that-"
"I did not." He protested and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm used to it so I forget. I didn't understand at the time but thank Merlin I listened to him. I probably wouldn't be standing here with two working legs if the whole school knew about my war relic."

I ran my fingers along the wood of the wand. The wand that is barely mentioned in any mainstream books on the war. That would kill wizarding spirit if the fact 'the' evil Draco Malfoy's wand had been the one to take down Voldy while Harry Potter's wand was broken inside his robes was taught at Hogwarts. It looked just like the diagram I had seen in one of the only honest textbooks about the magic used in the war. I remembered flipping through it in Mum's study and comparing it to my own wand until Dad told me to go outside and play.

"Tell me about yours," Scorpius said.

"After the boggart if that's what your heart desires." I grinned, stepping away teasingly from him.

"Fine." He hissed. "You're never going to leave it alone otherwise and I've warned you enough times." His hand shook as he guided the wardrobe doors open with his wand.

The doors creaked opened to reveal nothing but shadows and darkness. Scorpius exhaled. "Well, this is anticlimactic."

I yelped as a grime-covered hand clapped onto the side of the wardrobe. Scorpius jumped, more at the sound I made than the hand.

I cupped my hands over my mouth to stop anymore sounds escaping as a creature- no a person, with long mangy brown- no- with blonde hair like Scorpius' only longer- crawled out in an Azkaban Prison tunic from the depths of the wardrobe.

I stepped forward expecting my usual rat to materialise but the boggart didn't even flicker. It kept its eyes/Lucius Malfoy's eyes trained on Scorpius like a predator.

"Riddikulus." I prompted Scorpius, my voice unnaturally high and my skin crawling.

"I can't think." Scorpius murmured, stepping back.

"Filthy little HALF-BLOOD." The boggart spat in my general direction mocking Scorpius. "Scorpius Malfoy, my grandson, SAVE ME!"

I hurried over to Scorpius repeating to myself 'it's just a boggart'. But it wasn't like any boggart I had seen before. It looked too real. It was leaving grime trails as it crawled towards us. The temperature in the room had dropped. I grabbed Scorpius' arm and was alarmed when I found it was damp with sweat.

He was just staring at it. His eyes wide and his face ghostly taking in every word the boggart was saying like it was all important, all true.

I couldn't, I couldn't take it. I couldn't see him like this.

I raised my wand at the creature and shut my eyes thinking of the fireworks in Uncle George's store and how wonderful and happy they were.

"Riddikulus."

The creature only got louder and faster. I opened my eyes. What was I doing? My default go-to didn't make me laugh or make me happy.

Scorpius jerked his head and raised his own wand. "Together." He said hoarsely.

I raised my wand higher this time and counted backwards from three under my breath.

"Riddikulus!"

Slowly the creature was sucked backwards like a deflating balloon into the wardrobe. The doors slammed shut after it.

I tightened my ponytail waiting for Scorpius to say something. That spell was easy for me. I had never struggled with anything other than the blood stopping charm before. I pinched the bridge of my nose.

I felt Scorpius' hand on my back. "You're just having an off-day." Like he could read my thoughts, but his voice was shaky.

I shook my head refusing to believe him, refusing to let myself off that easily.

"I'm sorry." He said.

I pulled my hands away from my face. "Why?"

He sighed not giving me an answer. He instead walked out of the classroom unhooking his cloak as he did.

"I didn't realise…" I trailed off, following him down the corridor and taking his cloak as he peeled off his woollen jumper.

"That I wasn't exaggerating." He filled in sharply. "That this wasn't something you could fix with a wave of your wand."

"No," I snapped.

"I'm going for a shower now, thanks, Rose."

"We have potions," I called after him sourly, holding his damp jumper and cloak.

Scorpius said over his shoulder. "Like you haven't been thinking of ways to get out of it since yesterday. I know that you weren't sick on Wednesday."

I scowled. Anger boiling. I stormed after him having to run to keep up with his long strides. I was seeing red so vividly I didn't realise I had followed him into the boy's bathroom until he stopped walking and was suddenly facing me.

Even then I didn't really care. Any place I could yell at him was fine by me.

We were at the end of the ground floor bathroom where, like the girl's bathroom the bathroom, it changed into shower stalls. I crossed my arms tight across my chest.

Scorpius and I shared a glare in the empty bathroom.

"Whatever." Scorpius snapped at me, before unbuttoning his shirt that was clinging to his body like a second skin.

I didn't look away.

He furiously ripped it off revealing something I had seen five or so times before. Under my anger his bare skin still made my cheeks flushed a dark red and my stomach flipped.

It was a challenge, a challenge I wasn't going to back down from.

His tore off his shoes and socks then his trousers. I pressed my lips together trying to not to blink and lose my composure. He went into a stall with his boxers on and once the stall was shut threw them over the door at me. I stumbled back, furious, adding them to the pile of his clothes.

"You are such a-" I marched over to the door.

"Be quiet!" he yelled back, giving the door a bang for effect.

I pressed my cheek against the door. "I'm sorry. I don't know what the right thing is to say." My voice was quiet. The only response was the sound of running water. "There has to be a book somewhere out there that'll make this right-"

"Rose," he cut across me sharply.

"Fine!" I snapped again. "Be that way, be a negative Slytherin. What? Are you upset you're closer to my level now?"

"What in Merlin's name is that suppose to mean?"

"I fecking feel ripped up and on display for everyone." I banged my fist against the door. My voice trembled like I was crying but I wasn't. My eyes were dry and my blood was still bubbling with anger. "Sometimes all I feel I have is you and then you baby me and worry about me like we're on completely different levels. And you don't want my help. Is it not good enough for you? Are my reassurances that everything is going to be okay not good enough for you?!"

There was a long pause. The water shut off and all I could hear was my panting breaths. I didn't want to leave him, I knew what would happen if I left the bathroom now. It would say something louder than my words ever could.

"Scorpius, would you bloody say something."
"Could you get me a towel, please?"

I glared at the door. "Answer my question."

"I want to look at you when I say it."

I grumbled and threw him a towel from the rack in the corner. He came out a second later with a towel wrapped around his waist, his blonde hair darker and flat with water.

He looked serious, no playfulness in his eyes. "I think you're deluded if you think that."

He probably hadn't meant it to sting but it stung. I looked away from him and his dripping body, crunching his clothes in my fists.

He was glaring at me now. I could feel the steam in the room from the shower turn to ice.

The door to the boy's bathroom opened at the other end of the room. Scorpius grabbed my arm and pulled me into a shower stall with him. It was a group of guys having a conversation about quidditch tryouts.

I tried to stay as far away from him as I could in the confined space but I was still brushing against his skin.

I chewed on my lip before whispering. "What do you think of when you look at me?"

Scorpius stopped glaring for a second and raised his eyebrows. He cursed and added a soft 'Rosie' to the end of it.

I rubbed my eyes.

"You're going to hate me if I tell you." He said lowly.

I rubbed my eyes harder. "Say it."

"I think 'pretty'." He stated.

I leaned back against the stall wall, eyes shut, and let the word wash over me, his voice.

"One of these days we are going to kill each other." He said more to himself than me.

I opened my eyes. I touched the cute birthmark at the end of his ribcage. "Do you want to kiss and pretend this never happened?"
Scorpius shook his head but he still leaned in and captured his lips in mine.