Author's Note: This chapter is really exciting for me because it's the first one I'm posting that has never been posted before! This is the chapter I left off at when I stopped writing for years, and it's so cool to have been able to pick this story back up. But then I made a bunch of continuity errors because I forgot so much. But then I fixed them (at least, I think I have) and we're moving forward.

Content Warning: Strong language.

Chapter 16

Taking the Plunge

(Scorpius)

I sat huddled on the leather armchair in the room at the end of the hallway, Matilda and Fidelio's room. It was almost 3 in the morning. I hadn't been able to sleep that night, so I had thrown on a large, warm jumper and a pair of slippers and had made my way through the silent castle until I entered my sanctuary. I pulled out the gramophone and played music in the background while I read a book about the lost lake Vostok, in Antarctica. A massive lake, 30 000 000 years old, buried under 4 km of ice, it was half the size of Wales.

I had selected the book hoping it would turn out boring and send me to sleep, but it was far more interesting than I had expected. It wasn't long though; I could be done it if I continued for a couple more hours. I shovelled a handful of jellybeans into my mouth, dropping a couple by accident. A Bertie Bott's box stood upright on the desk, only one of the many I had stashed away in my trunk. At the beginning of each school year, I packed several boxes in my trunk, but they inevitably ran out and I would need to pay a visit to Hogsmeade to replenish my stock. They usually didn't leave the dorm though; that's what my patchwork bag was for, just beans. It would be with me now were I able to find it.

I'd never lost the bag before, save when I was a child. That time I had thrown an almighty fit and my father tried to buy me things to make me feel better, but nothing would console me. It turned up a few days later, though, under my bedside table. After that, it never left my possession. Until now, that is. It felt strange; I kept reaching into my pockets to find it.

I yawned long and hard. In the background, a jazz instrumental attempted to soothe me to sleep. I read for another half hour, until the words began to blur into each other. I closed the box of jellybeans, turned off the music and put the gramophone away. Then I made my way back to the dungeons. Back in the room, the chalkboard bore a sentence I had written and rewritten, phrased and rephrased. What I had finally settled on was, "should we meet?"

Not that we hadn't technically met before. That night in the dark, her soft hands so small in mine. Her head resting on my chest, the smell of wildflowers that permeated her silky hair. I had been thinking of that night almost constantly, my mind was in agony at how close we had been, and how I still had no idea who she was. It had been such a perfect moment, neither of us had wanted to ruin it. Neither of us had voiced any such suggestion of leaving the room to go somewhere with more light, nor had we felt that it was an appropriate time to share our real names. We hadn't even talked, we had just stood there, together. And kissed.

It had been the most incredible kiss of my entire life, it had felt for that moment like I had no body, or mind, like all I was was the feeling of that kiss. My whole existence was wrapped up in those lips. Then I felt a hand run through my hair, and suddenly, that was me too. All I was, all that really existed in that moment, were the parts of me that were in contact with her.

But who was she? And what if I never found out, would I ever know myself? But what if it was all wrong, what if we met and I saw her and felt nothing? What would happen then? What if I was repulsed by her? Or she by me? Should we meet?

I felt the anxiety rising in my throat at the question. I was afraid and excited at the same time; I wanted to share this feeling with the real Matilda, but I also had to deal with the real world and my real girlfriend. I sighed, mentally shoving away my troubling thoughts. I muttered the password to the wall and the stones slid away to form an arch and reveal the passage leading to the common room. I passed through, the stones quietly shifting back into place behind me.

I folded myself into the cold covers of my bed and closed my eyes as I waited for them to warm to my temperature. I fell asleep before they did though, and in my dreams, I found myself trapped beneath the ice. Everything was pitch black; of course, it would be, under 4 km of ice. The water was freezing, I was so cold I almost couldn't feel my fists pounding against the ice. My lungs were about to burst. I awoke just as I was about to suffocate. I gasped in a deep breath of air as I shot up in bed. I was drenched in cold sweat.

I pushed the hair off my forehead as my breathing slowly returned to normal. It was still dark when I withdrew the hangings of my bed. I checked my watch and found it to be almost half-six. I was desperate for a shower, so more sleep wasn't an option. I rubbed my eyes and stumbled through the dark and disordered dorm room until I entered the bathroom. I turned the light on, winced and shielded my eyes from the unexpected brightness, then I shed my damp clothes and took a steamy shower.

I'd never been one to take long showers; I was in and out in ten minutes or less. Nobody else at Hogwarts worried about water or heating bills, but for some reason, I did. I'd grown up constantly being nagged by my overly frugal mother about everything I did that would cost them even a little bit more than the bare minimum. My father hated it all more than I did, for he had grown up with no limitations, financially or otherwise. They quarrelled almost non-stop, almost always about money. And with my father's reputation, he had a difficult time finding work or keeping it. My mother was constantly belittling him for his past and for his inability to find a steady job. He was always being investigated too, for any dark magic or ill-gotten wealth, but of course, they found nothing. However, his shady past was never far from anyone's minds, and he continued to be investigated.

Because of this, he was almost always a surly, drunk bastard who spent more on cigars and liquor per month then he did on me ever since I started going to Hogwarts. And his hatred toward the Potters and Weasleys never abated. He blamed almost every negative aspect of his life on them. It was even sometimes difficult for me to differentiate the truth and the history he fabricated through his longstanding bias. And whenever that prick James Potter was involved, it was near impossible for me to see anything but red. Not that I blamed that entirely on my upbringing; that twat was a bad seed to begin with, an arrogant twat with a shit personality and a questionable sense of humour.

I felt a great deal better after the shower, smelling freshly of sandalwood from the new bar of soap I'd bought. I dried myself off, glanced at my distorted reflection in the steamed-up mirror, then returned to the sleeping dormitory to find an outfit for the day. This usually took longer than I would like, and in the dark it was even more difficult. I settled at last on a pair of tan trousers and a maroon crewneck with a coat of arms, featuring a quill, a wand, a music note, and the letters WSLAM, the symbol for the Wizarding Society of Literature, Arts, and Music (or WizLamb) in white superimposed on the front.

I left the room before any of the others could awaken and I made my way down to the Great Hall for some breakfast. There were a few students at each table, though none took any interest in me but the three girls with matching buns on top of their heads at the Hufflepuff table. They wore similar outfits as well, oversize sweatpants and low-cut tank tops. They each trained hawk-like eyes on me and I averted my gaze as soon as possible.

I sat down at the empty end of the Slytherin table and tried to figure out what kind of breakfast food I was in the mood for. When I at last began to reach for a croissant, I found that I wasn't alone anymore. The girls, to whom most of Hogwarts unkindly referred as the Hufflepuff Hags, were just sitting down across from me.

"What do you want?" I asked them.

"Just wanted to say good morning!" Clara replied, fluttering uncomfortably pale eyelashes at me. "Also, we wanted to ask about Eve."

"Why not ask her?"

"Well, she doesn't wake up as early as you do," Yolanda responded. It wasn't an answer, so I looked away and back at the platters of food. I reached for the croissant again and put it on my empty plate. "Okay. We were just wondering if it was true what everyone's been saying about her."

"I haven't heard anything."

"Oh, I guess they wouldn't say it around you."

"What have they been saying?"

The girls exchanged an impish look, then Sara's mouth contorted into a smirk, and she leaned forward.

"Well, they've been talking about her and Lacey," she answered.

"What about them?"

"They've been spending a lot of time together," Sara continued. "You know what teenagers are like, especially at Hogwarts, so who knows if the rumours are true..."

"What rumours?" I asked impatiently.

"Don't jinx the owl or anything, but I heard they're, well, shagging."

I wasn't sure what I had been expecting, but this was by far the most ridiculous rumour I'd heard in all my years in this school. It was weirder even than the rumour that Sheena Collins, a third year Hufflepuff, had a crush on a House-Elf.

"That's absurd," I replied with a snort. "I know you girls like to gossip, but really, can't you do better than that? There's a ton of fucked up shit going on around here but you're spreading rumours like that?"

"Not spreading, just asking for your take on it."

"Yeah, and you have it now," I replied with a hint of annoyance.

"Fine," Clara snapped as she stood up suddenly, "deny it all you want, Scorpius, just know that sooner or later, we're always right." Yolanda and Sara stood as well, then they each uttered a parting word or two and left.

I found that my appetite had been restored and I filled my plate with whatsoever I desired and dug in immediately. I didn't even look up from my food except once, when my eye was caught by a flash of red hair. It hung from the head of Rose Weasley, straight and smooth, not a single hair out of place. She bumped into the Hufflepuff Hags as she made her way into the Great Hall. They started talking. I wondered whether it was more nonsensical gossip. They were all laughing, Rose the loudest of all, so I wonder whether they were discussing the rumour they had just shared with me. None of them looked over at me, however, so they might as well be talking about anything.

I went back to my meal, slicing a sausage in two. When I looked up again, Rose was sitting down beside Aura at the Gryffindor table and the other girls were nowhere to be seen. I scarfed down a couple sausages before looking up again and meeting the gaze of my girlfriend as she stood across the table from me. Her appearance was so sudden that I jumped and choked a little.

"Hey hun, just popping over to say good morning," she greeted me merrily, grabbing a napkin and a few items for breakfast. "I'm going for a study sesh with the girls and I'm kind of late." She leaned forward to give me a kiss on the cheek.

"What girls?" I asked. "Lacey?"

"Hm? No, she's busy," she replied breezily. "Just a couple Hufflepuffs." She smiled, then hurried off and out the door. Hufflepuffs? What was it about those girls always butting into everyone's business. They were usually a nosy bunch, but they had never been so ubiquitous in my life as they were now. Today alone they had gone from me to Rose to Eve in a matter of minutes. A couple days ago I had heard from Lacey that they'd been inquiring about June's unstable mental health as of late, and they had been pestering James as well. And only a week ago, they'd had a squabble with Aura in the halls. They seemed more obnoxious than ever. And, as much as I hated to admit it, it seemed to have gotten worse after I had seen Eve walking around the grounds with them early one Wednesday morning. And upon my mentioning it later that week, she told me she had slept in on Wednesday.

I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach, not about Eve, because, although she worked in mysterious ways, she had never been disloyal to me. She was troubled and fickle, but she was mine, and I trusted her. What I was worried about was what the Hags's angle was, whether they had some sort of grudge against Eve, myself, Lacey or any of the others. It was hard to tell with them; sometimes it seemed as though they had a grudge against everyone but themselves. It could just be harmless, irritating rumours, or just messing with us in small ways, but at Hogwarts there was always the potential for things to get out of control.

I didn't want to think about it, I just wanted to find someone to hang out with. I wondered what Lacey was busy with, but then I remembered that a majority of the time, when Lacey wasn't with me, she was with James and his friends. If I remembered correctly, she had Astronomy first thing today. However, Eve had said she was busy, not that she had class, so it was possible she was skiving off. She was so far ahead in all her classes that the teachers didn't even care if she missed a class or two, and she rarely skipped anyway, so the odd day or two off wasn't a big deal.

I figured they would be meeting again to figure out what to do about Aura. In fact, now that I thought of it, Lacey had even invited me to help out, but at the time I had refused immediately on account of Potter of course. Merlin, was I predictable. But then again, so was he. I patted my pocket in search of my jellybeans again, but to no avail. Where was the bugger? I scowled to myself, then went back to boiling over about James Potter. I knew he would be more of a hindrance than a help to them if his study methods were anything to go on. But I knew I wouldn't be able to put my best effort in if he was there, so the decision wasn't an easy one to make. In the end, however, my respect for Aura won out, and I knew I had to find them.

This proved to be easier than I had anticipated; the Room of Requirement was such an obvious place for their centre of operations that I almost didn't try it. Luckily it was the first place I went, and I hesitantly placed my hand on the doorknob. I hated walking into uncertain situations, or rooms full of people that very well might despise me, and I hated walking into a room where all eyes would be on me.

I opened the door. James, of course, was the first to register my arrival and his response was to immediately whip out his wand and point it at me.

"I knew it was you!" he shouted. "And now you're here to finish the job! But you didn't count on us being here, did you?"

"Well, I did," I replied dumbly. "I came here to help."
"That's exactly what you want us to think! Traitor!"

"Oh, shut it," Lacey cut in, clocking him on the head with her book as she stepped forward. "Thought you had better things to do," she said to me.

"Yeah, well, they ended, er, real early."

"Well, glad you're here. You can sit with Teagan and Amelia. Someone needs to make them focus."

"Babysitting? That's my job?"

"Well...you got here late. We were all on time." She had a little sassy smirk for a moment, then it disappeared as she led me over to the table where the fifth-year girls sat. Lacey placed me in a seat between them, then went back to her seat beside Aura.

"What's the point of all this reading?" I asked after a while, making sure I spoke loud enough to be heard of James as he pestered Lacey. "Shouldn't we get out there? Bash some heads, turn up the heat a little, do some investigating? A little good cop, bad cop?"

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" James shouted as he jumped up and looked over. "Oh, you said that? I was actually being sarcastic; it sounds like a dumb idea." He kicked the desk, glaring at me, then he walked to the other side of the room where June lay, wrapped up in a large sweater. James sat down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. It surprised me when she let him stay there. She didn't seem to be in a good mood, and I wouldn't be able to stand him even if I was in the best mood.

"He's got a point though," Lacey said. "This is getting us nowhere. I think we should do some good old-fashioned investigating."

"We should split up into groups," Riley suggested.

"Yeah, but we're running out of time; first period's almost over."

"After school then?"
"Ooh! I can't," Rose piped up. "Sorry, I have a study group already scheduled."

"Well, then that leaves eight of-"

"Wait! June says she's not down," James interrupted. "She needs to take it easy after school. She's going to the rest of her classes today. Double Potions, you know, that one's gonna be tough," he added in explanation.

"Oh, of course," Riley replied. "Good for you, June." June smiled back weakly, then her face settled back into a faint look of dread. Aura had begun writing something on the enchanted parchment before her. As she wrote, the words became visible on the wall opposite her, the one at the front of the room, in glowing cursive:

"I don't think I should go with you. My presence might hinder the investigation. And I'll be of no use without my voice."

"That makes sense; we'll be more likely to gain information about you if you're not there," Riley replied. "Okay then, I guess there's six of us."

"Oh, Amelia and I can be a team," Teagan said immediately. "We're always together anyway."

"Right," Riley said. "Lace, I need to talk to you anyway, so we should pair up."

"Um, sure, okay."

"And that just leaves..." Riley looked back at me, then he looked away again quickly. "Well, the last two can be a team. Okay, let's all pack up and get out of here."

Everyone scrambled to get out in time to get ready for the next class and before I even realized what had happened, they had all gone. All except James and June.

"Did that really just happen?" I asked, but the only answer I got was a glare from James and then he gathered his stuff and ran out the door after Riley. He was so angry he forgot about June. June and I looked at each other. I nodded awkwardly and she smiled a little.

"Well, what's your next class?" she asked as she sat up and gathered her stuff.

"Oh, Arithmancy," I replied.

"Ugh," she replied, "I don't envy you."

"Heh, I know."

We left the room of requirement and stood outside for a moment as we watched the door melt into the stone wall. Then I turned to face June, wondering whether I should walk her to her next class, like I knew James had planned to do, but I wasn't sure. I wasn't James, I couldn't do the nonchalant small talk, I didn't know June that well either.

"Well, I'll see you later, maybe?" she said, forcing a smile.

"Yeah. Good luck with your day!" I said, a little too forcefully. I smiled back, then we each went our separate ways.

Arithmancy was a bore, as expected. Riley didn't even glance at me, so I was unsure whether James had had a chance to talk to him or not. All I knew was that I wouldn't work with James if you paid me. Maybe if he'd look at me, I could convey the message with my eyes. He continued to avoid eye contact with me for the whole class though, so I was forced to attempt to focus on my schoolwork or stew in my distaste for James. I did both and it proved to be a terrible way to pass the time.

By the end of the class, I had a pounding headache as well as a piercing pain behind my eyes. I had meant to have a word with Riley as soon as class ended but when I looked up from rubbing my eyes, I found that he'd already left. And Aura was just on her way out the door.

"Hey baby!" Eve's arms wound their way around my neck. "How are you?"

"Oh, hi honey. I'm great."

"Really? You don't sound great."

"Yeah, no, I mean I have a headache."

"Aaw, you want a painkiller?" Eve asked in an almost babying voice. "I'll kill your pain."

"No, I think I just need to lie down or something," I answered. She frowned but didn't say anything as I turned and walked away. It was lunch time, but I wasn't feeling hungry, so instead I made my way to the hallway in anticipation of a response from Matilda. I was almost too afraid to look. What if she didn't want to meet me? What if she hadn't even seen my message? No answer might be even worse than a negative answer.

She had seen it though, evidently, as my message had been erased and replaced by a girly cursive that made my heart soar to see it. Matilda always dotted her I's and J's with little daisies, and I could never help but smile when I saw them. It made my neat, contained printing look like hippogriff-scratch.

"After school. I'll be here," was all it read, but it made my stomach flip over. Was this really the day? Would I finally find out who my mysterious crush was? The thought of it made me suddenly sick and I felt the colour drain from my face. I sat down as I felt a dizzy spell come over me. If it were later in the day I would blame it on my skipping lunch, but I had no excuse this time. The only explanation was that I was terrified about meeting my possible dream girl. I felt my hands sweating at the thought. I wasn't ready for this; I hadn't broken up with Eve yet.

But how was I going to break up with Eve? That was something entirely out of my realm of imagination. I couldn't argue with Eve let alone dump her! I could hardly even say no to her, how was I supposed to tell her I didn't want to be with her anymore. It was all too much for me. I couldn't see myself doing it. I just couldn't.

My headache grew worse the more I thought of it, so I decided I should probably go to bed, like I'd said I would, sleep on it. Mostly I just wanted relief from this headache, as well as a brief escape from my decision. The clamour of Hogwarts at lunch hour amplified the pain in my head so that I almost regretted leaving the relative quiet of the room at the end of the hall. But I thought of my bed just a couple floors below, and my resolve strengthened.

When I finally made it to the Slytherin common room, I felt weary, as though I'd suffered through a whole school day already. I wasted no time socializing and went straight to my dorm, kicking off my trousers almost before I entered the room. I threw my shirt away as well and proceeded to fall in a heap on my bed. I fell asleep almost instantly.

In my dream I was standing in what looked to be the stairs of a tall building, but it was an old-fashioned wrought iron spiral staircase. It looked out of place; the walls cheaply plastered and painted. There were no doors. A sign on the wall told me I was on the 6th floor. I wanted to get out, to get to the street level and find my way out. I started to take a step down, but then I heard something and felt something at the same time. What I heard was footsteps on the iron stairs, and an inhuman moaning. What I felt was an impending sense of doom.

I turned and started hurrying up the stairs, my shoes clanging against the metal and the whole structure rattled and rang with my panic. I could hear the creature pursuing me, at least 3 floors below. I kept ascending. Time felt like it was standing still, and every time I saw the next numbered sign, it felt just like the last time. I wondered whether I was in an infinite loop on the same small bit of staircase and the only thing that changed was the number on the sign. It was at 27 now.

I stopped for a moment to look around and to listen. The walls were the same expanse of dull off-white as every other floor I had passed. The thing was still making its way, slowly but steadily, up towards me. I started climbing again, frantic by now. I didn't know what the thing was, but I knew it wasn't anything good, so I didn't want to stick around long enough to find out exactly what it was. I couldn't decide whether not knowing was worse than knowing, but I didn't want to find that out either.

Suddenly I heard a loud clang! and felt a lurch as the step fell out from under me. My leg plunged into empty air and the rest of the staircase broke apart. I started falling in a spiral, individual steps twirling around me. I felt a hand close around my ankle tightly and the room was filled with an ear-piercing shrieking.

I woke up then, and for a moment I wasn't sure whether the sound had come from my dream or from the real world. It had stopped though, so it must have belonged to my nightmare. I sat up, feeling groggy and disconnected. I wondered whether I was still dreaming. There was no one else in the dorm when I pushed the hangings of my bed aside and I couldn't tell what time of day it was because there were no windows. I took a look at my watch which lay on the floor, not on the table where I had left it, and saw that it was almost 2 o'clock. I had Defence Against the Dark Arts in twenty minutes, so I got up right away and washed my face with freezing water.

The nap hadn't made my decision any easier, but it had got rid of my headache which was a relief. I left the dungeon and started making my way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. The pit in my stomach grew larger and larger as I went. I hardly saw where I was going, too wrapped up in the hopelessness of my dilemma, I wasn't paying attention to the people and things around me, so it took me awhile to realize that someone was calling my name. I looked up to see Zaid waving. He pushed his way through the crowd to me.

"Why weren't you in History of Magic, dude?" he asked. "I was bored out of my skull! You missed a ton of notes too. But what are you gonna do? Can't win everything."

"Wasn't feeling well this morning," I replied.

"Yeah, but you did make it to Arithmancy."

"Hey Zaid, I need your advice," I went on, ignoring him.

"Oh?" he answered, curiosity piqued.

"I want to," I started, trying to think of the best way to phrase it, but I could only come up with one way. "I want to break up with Eve." Zaid's mouth dropped open.

"Good luck!" he laughed. "You're dead, mate. Dead meat."

"That's all the advice you've got?"

"No one can help you, man, not even a dragon, or Merlin. I don't even want to think about what she'll do."

"Why didn't you warn me about this before I got involved with her?" I groaned.

"We did, dude! You wouldn't listen; you just kept saying you'd never break up with her."

"Fuck. What do I do?" I asked but Zaid just shrugged helplessly. "Fuck," I repeated. I was getting anxious, but Zaid didn't understand why, of course. He didn't know I had arranged to meet with my secret almost-lover after school. For all he knew, I was just dying to get out of a relationship with Eve.

"Man, is she really that bad?" he asked with a laugh.

"No, it's nothing to do with her," I replied. "It's just that I think I'm falling for someone else."

"No way!" Zaid exclaimed. "Someone at Hogwarts? What house? What year? Who is it?" I glared at him for almost yelling.

"I don't really know."

"Huh?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later."

We arrived at the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and paused outside the closed door where a number of people waited and chatted. I wasn't prepared; after this class I had to meet Matilda. I caught a whiff of a familiar, tantalizing scent, like the smell of burning incense and rose petals and satin bed sheets and dark chocolate. I looked up as Eve came into sight, flicking dark hair out of her face. She was flanked by Olivia and Katie. Students moved out of their way as they came and watched them, but especially Eve, in awe as they left.

"Well, you could take this as your chance to break up with her. You'll be sitting together anyway," Zaid muttered.

"No. We're sitting together," I insisted. I wanted the door to open and the Professor to let us in so I could hurry up and find a table for me and Zaid. Eve was almost all the way down the hall. I pretended not to see her.

"Hey there, ladies," I heard as Potter's voice rose above the commotion. "Eve." I looked up to see him taking her hand and kissing it. When he looked back up, he winked and smiled. I saw his eyes flick over in my direction for a second and his smirk widened with self-satisfaction. I scoffed in disgust. "You look ravishing today, babe," he was telling her as they approached. "Simply stunning."

"Are you always this gentile?" she asked with a small smile.

"No, only when you're around, sweetheart," he replied, sliding his arm around her waist. "Oi, out of the way," James ordered, making a shooing motion in my direction. "I've got to defend this lady against twats like yourself."

"Best to just go to a different classroom. You'd be doing your job by staying away from her."

"That's exactly the kind of thing a fucking twat would say." He moved forward, shoving me aside, then gestured for Eve to pass through the now open door. She stopped to kiss me on the cheek first, and to say she'd see me after class, then she followed James to a table. I scowled after them, thinking about what I could do to get back at him.

"Guess that saves you some trouble," Zaid said as the rest of the class filed through the door.

"What?" I snapped.

"Well, looks like Potter's already moving in on your girl. If you just let it happen, she'll probably dump you!"

"Let Potter win?"

"No, you'd really be the winner. Then he'd be saddled with the un-dumpable girl."

"I can't let him think he's winning. She's still my girlfriend."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I'm gonna make him look like an idiot."

"Because he needs help with that?"

We took our seats at a table near the back of the classroom with a good view of Eve and James. I put my bookbag on the desk and rummaged around in it. I never cleaned the thing out and usually had several random items floating around the bottom. There must be something in there that would be useful in this situation. My hand came back out clutching a handful of what looked like little chocolate sprinkles. They were Itchy-Bitz, they'd hop all over his skin and make him twitch and itch. That might be comical. But was it enough?

"Hey, what about if you did something to his voice?" Zaid whispered. "Like, make it super high-pitched? That would be hilarious."

So, that was another option. I watched as James leaned in to say something to Eve. I could hear her laughing from here. James glanced over, caught my eye, and smirked. Oh, how I'd like to wipe that smirk from his face.

Professor Macneill walked to the front of the classroom and stood solid and intimidating in front of the chalkboard, looking stormily at us from tufts of coarse eyebrow- and beard-hair. He began a lesson on spells to incapacitate an opponent without harming them. As he spoke, diagrams of wand movements drew themselves in white chalk on the board. He expected us to be able to name the three most commonly used spells, how to perform them, and describe their effects.

"Quiz me, baby, I'm ready!" James boasted.

"All right, then James," Macneill replied. "Can you tell me what this one is?" He pointed his wand at the chalkboard and one of the illustrations, which lit up. It consisted of three sharp strikes, down, up, down. I knew what it was, but did James? Judging by his smile, he was fairly confident in his answer. He opened his mouth, and I felt my wand flick in his direction, just barely, under the desk. James gave a little shudder in his seat.

"That's the…well," James said, standing up and leaning forward to squint at the illustration. Then he seemed to forget what he was doing and gazed off into the corner of the class for a moment.

"James?" Professor Macneill prodded, and he jumped.

"Yes?"

"You were saying?"

"Oh, yes, well." He waved a hand about the classroom. "I was saying exactly that. Couldn't have said it better myself, in fact." And he fell back into his chair. There were giggles and chuckles throughout the room.

"Okay," Professor Macneill said, "thank you James for that lovely diversion. Anyone else?"

"It's the stunning spell," I said, standing up as well, but actually remaining on my feet, unlike Potter who was now bent over his shoe examining the sole. "Also known as the Stupefying Charm. Performed using the wand movement shown, either nonverbally or with the verbal command 'stupefy.' Successful casting results in the target's immediate loss of consciousness."

"Yes, thank you, Scorpius," Macneill said. Potter's head shot up at my name, and he glared over at me.

"He doesn't know that," he muttered, then looked confused. "Who said that?"

"And what about this one?" Macneill asked of the classroom at large, while a second image lit up on the chalkboard. James eagerly stuck his arm in the air, then his whole body followed, until he was standing on his chair, arm still sticking up. "Yes, James?"

"They call that one 'Dr. Phil's Hair,'" he said, "used as a salad topping." The laughter was even louder this time.

"No, James," Professor Macneill said with a sigh. "Please sit down."

"Okay, but I won't enjoy it," James muttered, sitting back down with a thump.

When no one else offered to answer the question, I raised my hand.

"The full body-bind curse, also known as the body freezing spell," I said when Macneill called on me. "Used with this wand movement and the incantation 'Petrificus totalus.' Temporarily paralyzes the opponent. Effects vary based on size, weight, and general resistance to magic."

Professor Macneill thanked me again, while James crouched backwards on his chair and hissed at me like a demented cat. Macneill shouted at James, who yelped, and turned around in his chair again.

"What is the blithering idiot up to now," Professor Macneill grumbled loudly enough for the entire class to hear,

The third diagram depicted a wand drawing what looked like a pretzel. It was, of course, the incarcerous spell. James answered confidently and surprisingly on-topic. However, the topic happened to be that of the pretzel shaped, rather than anything to do with the spell itself.

Most of the students were in stitches by the end of class, while the professor was thoroughly exasperated. Eve, on the other hand, didn't seem perturbed, but smiled and responded to James's antics in much the same manner as always. Every now and then, she cast a knowing look in my direction. It made me feel a little foolish.

"So, you went with a Confundus charm in the end?" Zaid muttered as everyone began gathering their books and quills and parchment. "Went a little wrong though, didn't it?"

"Yeah, well," I replied, watching James orbiting around Eve as she walked out of the classroom, laughing. "I guess I forgot that he's always like that. Just an addle-brained prat all the time."

"You should've done the voice thing," Zaid said.

The voice thing. Something stuck in my mind then, there was something trying to come to the surface. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it bothered me, and I tried to reach for it. It had something to do with what had happened to Aura.

I frowned in concentration. Zaid waved a hand in front of my face. He was saying something to me, but I wasn't listening. Through his waving hand, I spotted a flash of red hair, and I jumped up suddenly.

"Gotta go," I said over my shoulder as I crossed the classroom to catch James before he got too far.

Out in the halls, the mass of students leaving class had already swallowed him and Eve up, and I couldn't even tell which direction they had gone. I picked a direction and started squeezing my way through students. James and I had been supposed to team up after classes anyway, and right now I felt I would be able to put aside my hatred of him just to share with him the thought that was desperately trying to form in my mind. Though I couldn't be sure whether he would listen. He would probably drive the idea from my mind the second he opened his stupid big mouth.

Then, out of the sea of varying hair colours, one flash of bright red stood out. A Weasley, any Weasley would do, I just needed to find someone that could tell me where to find Riley, or Lacey, or any of the others. I hurried forward and put a hand to the shoulder of the redhead. It was Rose. She started and let out a squeak, and when she wheeled around, I half-expected her to be wielding a cross for protection.

"What?" she said with distaste when she saw it was me.

"Sorry," I said, "I just need to know where Aura is. Or Riley, or whoever's working on the— the Aura thing." I lowered my voice and glanced around just in case it wasn't something we were supposed to be talking about in public.

"It's secret," Rose said shortly, and began to turn away.

"Wait, I think I can help!"

She turned back to me and looked me up and down sceptically.

"I'd have to write it down, I doubt you'd remember how to find it if I told you."

"Great!" I said, impatience making me ignore the insult.

"Okay, but I'm in a hurry," she said, rolling her eyes. "Here." She pulled out a scrap of parchment and a comically oversized quill so fluffy and yellow it looked like she'd pulled it off some unfortunately colour-changed, and likely enraged, cockatrice. She wrote something in a looping cursive, then slapped the piece of parchment into my hand, dropped her quill back into her bag, then did an abrupt about-turn and sped off.

I looked down at my hand and froze solid and cold as a block of ice. I felt as though I had just plunged into a freezing lake, my veins were filled with ice water, my head brimmed with black static. I had stopped breathing.

A moment later, I was able to unlock my throat and I took a shaky breath. I blinked hard and stared at the parchment again.

I had seen this writing. I had traced it with my finger, every loop and flick and flourish. Only this time, the daisies over the I's filled me with horror.