Folie à Deux

by ItsLeviOsa-NotLevioSA

"In truth, if the last six years had been any indication, sharing the Head position with Malfoy was going to be awful; living with him insufferable. Then again, although he was as caustic as ever, nothing outrageous had happened between the two yet. True, it was only Wednesday, but for them, it was almost a record." My best attempts to write a believable high school fic. Enjoy!

16. Dream A Little Dream Of Me

Chapter 16: Dream A Little Dream Of Me or, I Don't Want No Saviour, Baby, I Just Wanna Have A Good Time

Rating: M mainly for language, and I can't discount any funny business later on

Disclaimer: I work with only what the infallible J.K. Rowling has given me.

---

Scorpius rubbed tiredly at his eyes as they adjusted to the soft rays of light pouring in from his window.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he had the distinct feeling that he'd woken up halfway through a dream. He blinked slowly, automatically tightening his hold around the duvet engulfing him, its warmth spreading around his body like his blood had been heated. And yet, it was as if the warmth was within him; he felt warm and good and…well, confused. Confused about a dream he was sure he'd had that he could feel but not remember — it was on the tip of his tongue, like a flint that continued to spark but refused to catch flame.

He didn't often wake before his alarm, and he turned in his bed to check the time, his eyes still having trouble focusing—

At least until they fell upon the numbers blinking red on his clock's interface.

In seconds, Scorpius had leapt out of bed, that warm, fuzzy, unexplainable feeling smoked out and replaced by a sheer panic that had wormed its way past his grogginess with impressive speed and force.

He had never slept through an alarm in his life.

He scrambled out of his pyjamas and into his uniform, hopping ungracefully into his bathroom as he tore a brush through his hair and then over his teeth, splashing his face with cold water for good measure. After towelling off any damp skin, he packed up his books and wand from where they were set on the table and reached urgently for his socks and shoes, darting a quick look in the mirror before he grabbed his now packed bag and left his room.

Once in the living area, he stopped short in surprise.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

Toby raised a finger without looking up and continued to scribble on his parchment. "Hang on, just finishing this up now, one sec — aaaand, done!" He brandished his completed assignment at Scorpius before rolling it up and standing. "You didn't come down to breakfast, so I came up to look for you and brought you some food," he explained. "Your lights were still off so I figured I'd wait and see if you'd come out, I was just about to come and wake you actually, we do have to go rather soon, oh oops, make that rather now—"

Scorpius' brain ached, and he shut his eyes, wondering whether if he willed it hard enough he could be back in that bed feeling warm and good and left alone to figure out just why he was feeling that way—

His stomach growled, another reminder that that lovely wish of his was merely a wish, and he took the muffin and banana Toby was offering to him, biting into the muffin instantly.

"Thanks," he said, voice muffled. "We'd better head down."

Toby continued to speak at him as they descended towards the ground floor, Scorpius occasionally grunting in order to convey a sense of engagement, though in reality the sudden lack of urgency he was feeling meant that his brain had instinctively wandered back to what it was doing earlier. He didn't know why he couldn't help but grapple with this, but there was something about it that felt important, important enough that his body had reacted to it - was still reacting to it if the incessant tugging at his stomach was any indication.

They turned the corner into the Transfiguration classroom, and McGonagall briefly looked up from her writing to nod at them by way of a greeting as they passed by, and then Toby gasped in disgusted anger before he hissed, "Those two fuckers have stolen our seats, hang on, I'll make them move—"

"Miss Weasley, may I see you for a moment?"

The girl in question's head angled up from her desk, raising directly into the thin line of Scorpius' awareness, and she caught his eye for a brief second before she answered, "Yes, Professor."

And suddenly, that voice incinerated that heavy, warping cloak of disorientation, violently dissipating his scrambled haze of amnesia, and Scorpius' brain grasped at a memory, latched onto it, and pulled.

"Fuck."

---

"I am hoping that it has not escaped your attention that we are approaching the end of the school term, wherein your two weeks of Easter break will be your last opportunity to revise for your upcoming N.E.W.T.s unimpeded by class attendance."

McGonagall's eyes swept over the quiet classroom, which, after a particularly gruelling session, looked impressively alert. "I feel I don't need to impress upon you all how important it is at this stage to remain on top of your learning so as to avoid a mad scramble at the last minute." She paused, her tone shifting. "That being said, an opportunity to give yourselves a leg up has arisen. Yesterday evening, Professor Flitwick alerted myself and the rest of the staff to the behaviour of an adolescent Murtlap that had been left unattended in the 2B Charms classroom overnight. We believe it has been bewitched from a harmless, genial animal into a violent and aggressive menace. Unfortunately, none of the usual spells have worked." Her eyes flicked towards where Rose and Al were seated in the front row. "It may instead have ingested something that is causing its erratic behaviour. Perhaps the work of the Weasley shop recently opened in Hogsmeade."

Rose and Al shared a glance, the latter shrugging at his cousin and then at their professor.

McGonagall looked a touch amused. "Unfortunate. Regardless," she continued, "because nobody has admitted to bewitching it, the first person to revert its temperament back to normal will be granted a grade raise on the essay you have just handed in yesterday, or if that is unnecessary, a grade raise on their lowest assignment."

While she had been speaking, a low hum had begun to fill the classroom; McGonagall was an infamously strict teacher, and top grades were hard to come by. Rose's fingers began to drum on the desktop in anticipation.

Al gave a quiet groan from beside her. "Well, it's alright for some," he whispered gruffly. "I'll probably end up wasting the time on this extra credit that I could've used on my other assignments."

"Don't do it then," Rose whispered back absentmindedly, her sights already set on the Charms book that was housed by the library's Restricted Section. It was times like these when her friendship with the ill-humoured librarian came into good use.

"Nah, McGonagall gave me a P on my History of Human Transfiguration essay."

"You thought it was Humane Transfiguration until, like, thirty minutes before the class," Rose pointed out dryly. "I think you got off lightly."

Al grunted. "Evidently, I need all the help I can get."

McGonagall cleared her throat, and silence fell over the classroom again. "The Charms classroom will stay open one extra hour in the evening so that you all may maximise your chances of finding a solution. You may alert me if and when you have been successful. Class dismissed."

---

Rose entered the library, slightly breathless from her speed walk up from the Great Hall. She had scarfed down her lunch and decided to take advantage of the emptiness of the library at meal times in order to grab the book she wanted from the Restricted Section; Madam Pince's mood more than often correlated directly and inversely with the amount of people in the library, though more than that, Rose wanted to catch her before her quota of patience for the day had been expended.

When she didn't immediately find the librarian policing at the front as she usually did, Rose went on a little hunt around the aisles and bookshelves, pricking her ears for that low voice usually spoken as an irritated hiss, but she heard nothing of the sort.

With little else to do but wait, she made her way over to the Restricted Section, figuring she might as well stand by the rope until she could identify where the librarian was. But as she turned the corner, she immediately saw the back of a very familiar, very platinum head of hair already standing in her intended spot, leaning over the red oak checkout desk.

By nature of the thin aisle before the library widened out again, it was hard not to look at him as she approached, and she couldn't help but notice that not everyone could pull off the school's slacks, but when someone could, they really could—

She shook her head firmly, appalled by his efforts to thwart her — or, er, her own efforts to thwart herself - or, a team effort to - whatever, it was unimportant. If anything, it only fuelled her more.

"What are you-" she began saying, far more aggressively than she had anticipated, but as she got closer, her line of vision changed, and the librarian's grey nest of hair surfaced from Scorpius' right shoulder. "Madam Pince!" she exclaimed, surprised. "What—what are you-"

Scorpius' head had pricked up at the sound of her voice, and he took his time turning to face her, flashing his teeth.

"Ah, Weasley, what kept you? We were wondering where you'd been."

"We?" Rose echoed in a near strangled voice.

"Certainly," the librarian chimed in, coming fully into view now, but something was off about her face, something extremely disconcerting. "Mr Malfoy expressed that he expected you sooner."

It took Rose a second to realise that the 'something' that was off about her face was that she appeared to be…smiling.

"Madam Pince," Rose whispered, horrified. "I—I-" As she got closer, her eyes zeroed in on the book resting on the checkout table, half its title hidden under Scorpius' hand, but Rose knew exactly what it said anyway: Devious Charms and their Many Devious Uses.

"Planning on checking out a book?" Scorpius asked, his eyes glinting. "Any of them catch your eye?"

"Yes, in fact," she said distractedly, still staring at it, "there was one in particular-"

"I'm afraid, Miss Weasley, that we only stock the one copy," Madam Pince said, and although she looked genuinely remorseful by her standards, her betrayal was far too fresh for it to matter. "However, I give you full permission to use it once Mr Malfoy has finished with it."

Rose felt her mouth form a forced smile. "Thank you. Well, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to the Charms section."

She turned on her heel and made her way back through the library until she had reached the shelves housing the Charms textbooks, and she pulled one out at random before she sat herself down at her usual table.

No sooner than she had stooped down to extract a quill and parchment from her bag, a thick black book thumped down in front of her, filling her field of vision. Already grimacing, she raised her head up to see its owner grinning down at her.

"Couldn't find the book you wanted?"

Rose swiped the book aside, grounding her elbows on the table and leaning up towards him. "Since when are you and Madam Pince friends?" she demanded. "She only has the tolerance level for one student friend, and that spot has already been taken."

"That seems a rather harsh way to talk about one's friend, Weasley," Scorpius tutted. "I think you would have found - had you known her better - that Irma can be extremely tolerant."

"You were flirting with her."

"Don't be ridiculous," Scorpius dismissed, lifting the strap of his satchel from around his body and dropping the bag onto the table. "I think it's fair to say that her eyes are looking particularly blue today."

"You don't even like blue."

"Well, yes, clearly I only mentioned that once I had hoodwinked the book from her. Besides, that's somewhat decisive, wouldn't you say?"

Rose raised an eyebrow as she said flatly, "I thought I gave a pretty verbatim account."

Scorpius paused, and he allowed a little smirk before he slipped a hand under the cross rail of the chair next to Rose, pulled it out, and swiftly lowered himself down. "Not to question your proficiency at Charms, Weasley, I mean, we all know how far you've got Flitwick up your ass, but I am curious to know how a Charms book for marine and cold-blooded creatures is going to help with this very land-based, very warm-blooded one in the Charms classroom."

Rose darted a look at the title of the book she had carelessly picked out. "Creatively."

"Mm-hmm." Scorpius crooked an amused brow at her before he opened up his book to the contents page. He ran his finger down until he found the page he needed and immediately flipped to it. Rose kept her eyes occupied by studying her own book.

She counted a silent thirty seconds in her head before, without taking his eyes off the page, her desk partner drawled, "Weasley, if you're going to return that, perhaps you'd better do so sooner rather than later."

Flicking her eyes briefly in his direction, Rose deliberated for a long moment before she closed her book and then pushed her chair back, purposefully leaving the book on the table. "You just reminded me, actually. There's a…companion volume that I forgot to get. Better go before someone grabs it."

As she walked away, she chanced a look back to where she could see Scorpius, still reading his book, his grin visible underneath the hand cupping his chin. What little breath she had left her, and she hastily turned back around.

She picked out a few books she thought she could at least get some information from; she wasn't entirely hopeful, but she couldn't go back empty-handed.

Scorpius regarded the books she had dropped onto the table before turning back to his own. "Merlin, how many books did this guy write?"

Rose paused. "Several."

He shook his head a little, letting out an amused exhale, and paused to write something on the parchment he had evidently gotten out of his bag while she had been gone.

Rose turned the page she was reading on induced temperament alteration, but when her gaze travelled upwards, a word from Scorpius' book caught her eye - damn, she needed that section on Feral Charms - and she unwittingly finished the sentence before automatically moving onto the next one.

Suddenly, the angle at which she was reading changed, and she looked up in surprise as Scorpius wordlessly continued to move the book so that it rested in-between them.

"Malfoy-"

"You know, Weasley," he interrupted her, that half-grin still on his face. "All you had to do was ask." He nodded down at the book. "Knock yourself out."

Rose hesitated, pressing her lips together.

"Come on, Weasley, you know you want to."

"It's a race," she said slowly. "That prize only goes to one person."

"It wouldn't be a very good one if I won on a technicality," Scorpius scoffed. "Come on, you gotta give me more satisfaction than that."

When she still looked uncertain, Scorpius lowered his head until he stared her straight in the eyes. "I dare you."

Rose immediately pulled back a little, furrowing her brow, wondering why that sounded so familiar.

Isn't it too early to go clubbing?

So you wanna wait out here for a reason as stupid as that? Come on. I dare you.

Startled, she swallowed, his eyes coming back into focus as she blinked the memory away. "Alright." She paused. "Um…thanks."

As she bent to study the book, movement at the library's entrance caught her eye, stopping her — apparently, lunch was over. Two girls from their Transfiguration class walked in, and, upon noticing her and Scorpius poring over a book together, exchanged a look, and then promptly left.

She lowered her gaze, fighting a tiny, self-satisfied smile, and then her brow suddenly lined in thought. "Hey, who do you think did it?"

"Huh?"

Rose shrugged. "I mean, if we can narrow down who was most likely to do it and we can gauge their ability level, it might help us to figure out what charm they used. That is, if they used a charm."

Scorpius considered. "Well, who had Charms last yesterday?"

"Um…" Rose racked her brains. "Sixth years, I think. Wonder what they're studying now."

Scorpius raised his head and looked around at the library, which had been steadily filling in the few minutes since lunch had ended. He leaned over towards the two girls at the table closest to them. "Hey, are you two sixth years?"

The two girls exchanged a look, two identical, nervous smiles flitting across their faces. One of them - the braver one, Rose thought - said, "Yeah", pink tinging her cheeks.

"Did you have Charms last period yesterday?" After they both nodded, he continued, "What's Flitwick been teaching you?"

The same girl who had spoken before pursed her lips a little in thought. "Um…we just finished learning the Harmonia Nectere Passus Charm, and we're just about to start Calming Charms."

"Right, thanks," Scorpius said, turning back to face Rose. From behind him, both girls pouted in disappointment at the brevity of their conversation.

Rose sighed. "Well, Harmonia Nectere Passus only works on inanimate objects, so that's out."

"Doesn't seem like the Calming Charm did the trick either."

"Maybe it wasn't them." Rose pulled in the side of her mouth, tapping her finger on the table. "It could easily have been someone who sneaked in past hours. I mean, it doesn't matter anyway, no Calming Charm I know could do that-"

"Which Calming Charm?" Scorpius asked suddenly. "There's a few, I should've asked them to be more specific-"

"Oh my God," Rose said, her mouth dropping open. "That's it. In fifth year, when Hagrid taught us the spell to calm the Grindylows down, he told us we could only use it on marine animals since-"

"It targets their respiration, and marine animals respire differently than land animals," Scorpius finished, sitting up straight in his seat.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "If someone messed with your breathing and used a spell that wasn't designed for you on you…"

"You're bound to get a little pissed."

They were both slightly breathless, overwhelmed by their sudden, shared epiphany. After a few moments of protracted silence, Scorpius cocked his head. "So what spell was used exactly? Care of Magical Creatures was so long ago, I can't remember..."

A wry smile traced its way across Rose's lips, and she held out Charms for the Cold-Blooded and Marine to him. "Knock yourself out."

---

It had felt so real.

Of course it had, Scorpius' brain conceded logically. Everything feels real in a dream, that's why most people find it so difficult to become lucid. Looking back at it now, though, there was a lot about it - a lot about her - that should've served as a red alert to Scorpius' dream self that none of what he was seeing existed outside the cavity of his mind. Take her clothes, for instance — Scorpius had never seen her wear anything like what she had been wearing. And her hair — it had been worn down in a soft, shiny curtain of red so that she took up his entire field of vision, and suddenly there had been no one else in the world but the two of them. Except Rose never wore her hair down, so that was stupid. And they had been talking about going to Greece, but she had never even expressed an interest in going to Greece, and certainly not with him, so why would they be talking about it? Granted, the dream hadn't consisted of that much talking—

And when was the last time he had ever recalled a voice from a dream? Of course it would've sounded like hers at the time, just like the way his mind had constructed everything else about her, but when Scorpius really thought about it, he could never remember the way anyone had sounded in a dream. It followed then that, objectively, that voice might not have been hers at all.

Then why did hearing it feel like a battering ram to the chest? piped up a bold and entirely unwelcome little voice of dissent.

Scorpius ignored it. He ignored it so well and commanded his brain to only think logical, smart thoughts, ones that twisted her image into little abstract, unfamiliar pieces, until by the end of Transfiguration, the girl in Scorpius' dream could've been any girl with red hair and blue eyes.

But it had gotten harder when they had been working together in the library. The more he was around her, the more he heard her voice, the more he began to remember. Well, harder but not impossible since his brain had been preoccupied with the assignment at hand, but once the brainwork there was done too, that couldn't serve as a distraction anymore either.

And that voice—

It echoed in his brain whether she was speaking or not, the voice he had become so damned accustomed to, day in and day out, and suddenly her dream self and her real self were speaking to him in tandem, one and the same, logical thoughts be damned.

His entire body had slumped in defeat. That voice was unmistakeable.

As they had left the library, she had reached up to redo the bun she wore her hair in (see? She never wore her hair down), probably to ensure that she looked presentable before they went to see McGonagall, and a whiff of her shampoo had almost stopped him short. He didn't know that much about how smells worked in dreams, but goddammit, even his dream self had gotten her shampoo right. Scorpius had never really noticed before, but now that he thought about it, she always smelled like that, like sweet and fruity and flowery all in one.

Clearly, his brain was intent on fucking him over.

Like it was doing now, as he struggled to pay attention to what Rose was reciting to McGonagall about what they had discovered from their library session over the turbulence in his head. He hastily zoned back in.

"…remembered what he had told us about the differences between marine and terrestrial respiration, and we guessed that whoever bewitched the Murtlap must have used the Calming Charm intended only for marine animals, which would explain why the Murtlap is behaving so erratically."

Scorpius consciously forced his expression into one of concentration, and he nodded in affirmation when McGonagall's eyes passed over him.

"Well," she said after a moment, finally putting down her quill and straightening up. "I must say, I was optimistic, but I didn't expect anyone to come to me with a solution this quickly." Her mouth quirked. "The pair of you managed to figure it out even faster than I did. Of course, I didn't think to ask Filius what he had been teaching his students," she mused. "Very resourceful."

"You knew?" Rose asked, her brow furrowed in surprise.

McGonagall surveyed her from underneath her spectacles. "I am the Headmistress, Miss Weasley," she said dryly. "I regarded it as an opportunity to work a little outside the curriculum."

Rose glanced at Scorpius meaningfully, her mouth slightly parted in disbelief, and it was the first time she had properly looked at him since they had entered the Transfiguration classroom. As soon as their eyes met, the part of his brain that he had commanded to become dormant flickered back to life, and it thought about something that, at the present time, was most definitely not what it should have been thinking about.

Word had travelled fast about the explosive argument between Rose Weasley and Liv Roux near the Owlery on Fireworks Night. Of course, the Hogwarts Gossip Mill was seldom without some sort of tale circulating, but this wasn't what people would consider to be idle gossip, given those involved and especially the subject matter.

Between what he'd heard about that night and now his dream, Scorpius' brain wasn't exactly operating at peak function. It suddenly occurred to him — while standing in that Transfiguration classroom for the second time that morning — that maybe it was because of what he'd heard about that stupid fight, what people had been whispering and what Toby had eventually told him, that he'd had that stupid (stupid, warm, good, wonderful) dream in the first place.

He'd heard silly little wisps of information and now his brain had plucked them out of context and told him that they meant something, and that same brain, traitorous as it was, had decided to listen, and had spat back out a stupidly warped fantasy that fucked with his head and filled him with an ache he had never felt before.

"Well." McGonagall's voice cut through his inner monologue and he blinked, roused. "To be honest, I wasn't planning on awarding the prize to two students-"

"She can have it."

"He can have it."

Their heads automatically snapped towards each other.

After briefly meeting his eyes, Rose quickly shook her head. "It was his idea to question which Calming Charm had actually been used, without that I would never-"

"And if she hadn't thought to ask what Professor Flitwick was teaching his students, I would never have figured it out either," Scorpius interrupted.

McGonagall continued to regard them in silent amusement. "You didn't let me finish," she said in a way that Scorpius could only describe as wry. "However, this has clearly been a team effort, and since I can't very well give the prize to neither of you, you'll have to share it. If you can live with that."

Rose bit her lip and smiled a tiny smile at him, and God, that ache almost nauseated him.

"Splendid. Well, if my memory serves me, you've each received one Exceeds Expectations grade at some point this year, so I shall raise them both to Outstandings. Ah, that reminds me." She rummaged through the stack of parchments on her desk and extracted two, holding them out to each student. "Congratulations."

Right then as they looked down at their two identical O's, Scorpius came to a conclusion: the best thing - the smart thing - would be to forget it. No matter how good it had felt, no matter how real it had felt, it hadn't been real.

It had never been real at all.

---

The rest of Scorpius' week passed surprisingly without incident. It had been three days since his dream, and somewhere in that time, his brain had decided that they played for the same team, and had kept his thoughts firmly revolved around those of the awake variety.

It was a bright Saturday morning, the kind of morning that was still rare for late March, so Scorpius decided that he wouldn't waste what little remained of it working in the library, instead opting to grab the book from his bedside table and read it out on the grounds.

"Lovely morning," John remarked to him when he arrived back at the portrait hole. Rays of sunlight filtered in from the window, shining in diagonal slats across the oil surface of the painting, illuminating all of the ridged imperfections and dust particles that had settled over the years.

"Haven't seen much of it yet," Scorpius replied, holding up his textbook. "I'll be right back out. Leo Anguis."

"I'll be here."

However, as soon as the portrait door swung open, Scorpius realised that he would not, in fact, be right back out. Standing with her back to him, Rose's left hand was clenched in her hair, and from where he stood, he could see the whites of her knuckles standing out against the red. She angled her head down and then stamped her foot, groaning audibly.

"Heavens, what a sight."

She whirled around, her other hand clutched tightly around her wand, and she blew out the hair that had fallen into her face. Her expression wasn't exactly welcoming, but Scorpius made the educated guess that this was the occasional situation of which her annoyance was not directed at him, so he took a step forward. "What exactly are you doing?"

She was partially concealed behind the couch, but Scorpius saw her hand as it moved beside her. He heard a soft thump. "Nothing."

A smirk pricked at the corner of his lips. "You can read that book a thousand times over. It won't help."

Rose exhaled sharply, folding her arms. "It has to," she said stubbornly.

This was precisely the kind of situation that Scorpius should have avoided. His book was sitting on his bedside table; all he had to do was walk ten steps, grab it, and be on his way. But even as the sun beat down through the window pane, he knew that book was staying where it was.

He strode over, passing the couch so that he was standing in front of her. "Get out of your comfort zone, Weasley." He reached out a hand to pick up the book from the table, and she made to grab it, but he swept it past her fingers, putting it on the table on his other side.

"That's mine," she sighed.

He crooked a brow at her, and she deflated.

"What are you even doing up here?" he asked suddenly. "Everyone else is downstairs."

"The sixth years are downstairs," Rose said shortly. "Most of the seventh years have already passed."

"No more than twenty, I assure you."

She seemed to take a little comfort in that. She bit her lip. "My cousin — well, not my cousin — but…Teddy Lupin told me that they Disarm the entire castle during Apparition training, so I thought….well…"

"You didn't think Hogwarts could bear seeing its Golden Child not head and shoulders above the rest as per usual?"

She met his gaze, and crossed her arms again. "I can't concentrate in there."

When Scorpius didn't reply, they lapsed into silence, Rose tapping the wand against her palm, a nervous tick that he had seen her build up over the years.

"Show me," he said.

"No," Rose said, resolute.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to."

"Don't be a brat."

"I don't want to do it at all."

That made Scorpius stop. "You're not even going to try?"

Rose's eyes seemed to search the couch, and her gaze lingered on it before she sat wearily down. "I just…I'm not used to things not…"

"Coming easy?"

She raised her eyes to meet him, and Scorpius took that as an affirmation.

"I'll tell you one thing, Weasley. You're not going to get any better sitting there trying to extract any further meaning from that book. You have to put it down and be completely hands on with it."

"What if…" she faltered. "I don't want to end up, well, splinching myself — the school would have field day if word got round that the Head Girl managed to splinch herself and is sitting in the Hospital Wing legless and potentially approaching death."

"You'd think you'd be more concerned with the actual fact of death," Scorpius observed. "Besides, I think you'd be far more approachable without a leg."

"I'm not approachable?"

"A simple observation, not a judgement," Scorpius said smoothly. He hardened his gaze. "Now. Get up."

She appraised him for a few long moments, and then, her eyes darting back towards the book that was now in arm's length, slowly got to her feet.

"There, that's the hardest part over with."

"Really?"

"No."

A laugh slipped out then, and it seemed to surprise Rose as much as it did Scorpius. She cleared her throat. "Destination, Determination, Deliberation." She muttered it again, as if she were trying to burn the words into her mind.

"Absolute rubbish," Scorpius said sternly.

"What?"

Scorpius shook his head. "It's absolute rubbish, that's what." He rolled his eyes. "One must be completely determined to reach their destination. Not with haste, but with deliberation. It's all a bunch of bollocks."

"It's Ministry-approved guidelines," Rose sputtered. "The school endorses it, you would think-"

"Out of the two of us, I'm the only one who's passed — or even attempted — their Apparition Exam," Scorpius interrupted. "Ergo, it will be my approved guidelines that we'll be following."

She narrowed her eyes at him, and Scorpius realised that what he was asking was no small feat for her. Still, the gaze he returned was unshakeable.

"Fine," she said with a sigh. "I suppose you can't make me any worse."

"I'll do my best, to be sure."

The side of her mouth lifted up; an almost smile for an almost joke.

"Close your eyes," Scorpius instructed.

She blinked at him, and slowly closed them, though they fluttered almost infinitesimally.

"Close your eyes," Scorpius repeated, amused. She half-opened one, and then shut them both.

Scorpius moved closer, ignoring Rose's tense shoulders as she sensed his movement. "I want you to think of a place," he said calmly. He waited a few moments before asking, "Do you have one?"

She nodded.

"Describe it to me."

"It's um…it's a meadow a little ways off from my house. I go there sometimes to think, to be alone. The grass is tall, almost knee high, most of it's green, some of it's brown. Whichever way you look there are white and purple flowers."

"That's not enough." He thought back to his first successful Apparition. "What can you smell? How cold is it? What can you hear? Feel it. You need to believe you're there."

She furrowed her brow. "Meadowsweet," she said. "It's heady, but not strong enough that you can't smell the wildflowers. It's damp, with early morning mist that the sun hasn't burned away. It smells like rain, like moss."

Scorpius listened to her speak, watched as the tenseness of her shoulders seemed to give way, and the lines in her brow disappeared. He could see it too. He could see her there, eyes closed just like they were now, half concealed in the grass, the sunrise setting her hair alight in a flaming halo around her.

He blinked several times, startling himself, and he swallowed. "Open your eyes."

She did, and she didn't seem surprised in the least to see him at least three feet closer to her than he had been before. "How did that feel?"

She exhaled, her gaze dropping to the carpeted floor. "Like I was there. Like I could…be there."

"Good." Scorpius nodded. "That's how it needs to feel. And when you feel like that, that's when your confidence comes in. Knowing exactly where it is you need to go is half the battle."

"And the other half?"

"You need to want to be there. You need to fill yourself with it, every particle in your body needs to want it. You need to picture yourself there — see yourself disappearing from here, and appearing there. You can't doubt it for a second."

"That doesn't seem like that's all there is to it," Rose said dubiously.

"The rest of it," Scorpius said, amusedly, "you've already mastered from that bloody book. The technicality of it, the physical movement." He clicked his teeth. "You're going to try it."

Rose looked horrified. "What, now?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I mean, we could always go for a spot of tea, maybe mulch around in the Entrance Hall for a little, say a little hello to the Giant Squid, maybe pop into Hogsmeade while we're at it-"

"Alright."

He folded his arms against his chest in satisfaction. "Close your eyes again." This time she did straight away. "You're going to Apparate within this room. Pick a spot, any spot you like, and see it the way you saw the meadow."

She opened her mouth.

"You don't need to describe it to me," he said, his voice coming out much softer than he had intended it to. He backed away, his footsteps dull on the carpet.

He saw her take three deep, steeling breaths, and then she pivoted and was gone in a loud crack. Before Scorpius had time to think about it, his hair was blown out of his face, and Rose reappeared, and suddenly they were almost nose to nose.

Though his heart began to pound, and his brain swirled as it frantically screamed, Too close, far too close, he didn't flinch, and he inclined his head at her. "Well done."

He could count the number of eyelashes that framed her eyes. Much too close. He averted his gaze. "Good grief, you've got both your legs."

She looked stunned. "I did it."

"You did," he confirmed.

"I..." She looked at him in incomprehension. "You- I…thank you."

He held her gaze. One, two, three, four... "You're welcome."

In the silence that followed, they both suddenly became aware of what little distance existed between them, and Scorpius immediately side-stepped back towards the couch.

"Right, so…um…that's definitely an improvement."

Rose bobbed her head in a somewhat over-enthusiastic nod. "Yeah, I uh…I guess I should just practice that a few more times before we uh—" She distractedly lifted up her watch to inspect it. "—before the session finishes downstairs."

Scorpius nodded. After a second, he asked, "Feeling confident?"

She pursed her lips, fidgeting. "More than I was before. Not as much as I need to be."

Scorpius' fingers wound around his wrist, shuffling his own watch. "Something that worked for me in the beginning was using something as a grounding tool, something that I could use to block out anything around me that might be distracting and concentrate on where I wanted to go."

"Something like a watch?" she asked, staring at the movement of his fingers.

He followed her gaze, letting out a sheepish laugh. "Uh…yeah, exactly." He hitched up his shoulders. "It helped me in the exam, it might do the same for you."

She hadn't even asked for his help and here he was, helping her like he really cared whether or not she passed her Apparition Exam, missing the hour of sunlight that he could see was steadily disappearing from beyond the window, and sacrificing any peace of mind he had gained by standing far closer to her than he had ever dared.

While he had been mulling this over in his head, she had taken off her watch and was clasping it in her fingers, closing her eyes and murmuring to herself.

"...Is it helping?" Scorpius finally asked they after had stood in silence for a while.

She nodded, her eyes still closed. "I think so."

"Uh…good." He immediately cringed at his one-word response. When she re-opened her eyes, he cleared his throat. "Do you wanna try again? You know, before they put the Charm back on?"

She pressed her lips together, and nodded in determination. "Yeah. Okay." She clenched her hand into a fist again and let her eyes shut, her brow furrowing in concentration. She took a breath - only one this time - and spun.

She reappeared on the other side of the room, next to Scorpius' bedroom door, and he willed away the tiny surge of disappointment that seeded up within him so quickly that it was as if he had never felt it. She looked triumphant, but her eyes were soft, and a smile pricked the corner of her lips.

Almost as if.

"You're a pro," he said.

She let out a relieved breath. "I wouldn't go that far, but uh-"

"You'll take the test next Saturday?"

She smiled. "Yeah." She paused, and then fastened her watch back around her wrist, making her way back towards the couch. "Hey, thanks. Really, I mean it. You've kind of been a godsend, actually."

Scorpius shrugged. "Happy to help."

Rose's eyes suddenly brightened and her lips pulled up into a grin. "If I pass, you won't have to do Side-Along with me on any more Hogsmeade trips," she joked. "You'll be happy you helped then."

Scorpius hoped the laugh he let out hadn't sounded half as unnatural to her as it did to him.

---

The school day had just finished on Thursday afternoon when Rose saw Christian with two of his friends across from her in the corridor.

"Christian!"

He turned, and when he saw who had called him, smiled. Rose saw him murmur something to his friends before navigating the busy halls alone towards her.

"Hey, Rose, what're you up to?"

She shrugged. "Same old. Anyways," she smiled a little sheepishly. "I realised I never thanked you properly for the other week. I'm sorry again that I made you miss the fireworks."

Christian opened his mouth to reply, but upon seeing students spilling out from the two classrooms nearest to them, tugged on her arm a little so they moved well away from the crowds milling through the corridor. "You know, the good thing about fireworks being in the sky is that you can see them from anywhere."

"Right," Rose laughed, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "But, really, thank you."

"Don't mention it," Christian said, a soft smile on his face.

She had missed him, a little, in a weird way. She had forgotten how easy he was to talk to.

As they stood there, a girl passed them - a sixth year, Rose thought - and she tapped Christian on the shoulder, giving him a little wave when he wheeled around. Christian waved back, and when he turned to face Rose again, the tiniest tints of pink had appeared on his cheeks.

Rose felt her lips pulling up into a smile. "Who's that?" she asked.

Now he really was blushing. "Oh, er…just a friend from choir. She's a sixth year."

"Just a friend?" Rose pressed, her eyes twinkling.

Christian bit his lip, and then smiled at her bashfully. "I'm not sure."

"Well, I hope it all works out." She really did. Just because she found Stubby Boardman about as interesting as paint drying, she thought he might be barking up the right tree with this sixth year from choir.

"Thanks, Rose. Any fun weekend plans?" he added politely.

She made a face. "Unless you count the Apparition Test, no. Are you taking it?"

Christian grinned sheepishly. "I already passed it, actually."

"Oh, that's lucky! You have no idea how much I envy you," Rose said, shaking her head. She fleetingly wondered how Scorpius would feel about that.

"You'll be fine," Christian reassured her. "I have total faith in you." He cleared his throat. "I should probably get going, though. I have choir practice."

"Oh, sure," Rose said, unsurprised. "It was really nice talking to you."

"You too, Rose. See you around."

"See you."

She had just turned away when Christian suddenly called her name. She turned around expectantly as he jogged those few steps back to her.

"You wouldn't happen to be missing a cloak, would you?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh my God, yes I am."

"I think you might've left it in the Astronomy Tower after that night. It's been there for a while but no one's claimed it and then I remembered that the day I had first seen it there was after Friday night, so uh…well, go take a look."

Rose thanked him, and made a mental note to grab it when she had time on the weekend. She watched him vanish back into the crowd with one last wave, hoping once again that the sixth year girl whose name she didn't even know had a thing for nineteen eighties rock bands.

---

The Apparition Test took place in the Great Hall on Saturday morning, with Rose among the hoard of students gathered in the Entrance Hall waiting to be called inside.

Al was muttering to himself from beside her, his fingers rolling an invisible Snitch as they always did when he was nervous or agitated. She wanted to be of help, but with the mounting feeling of nausea roiling in her stomach, she didn't think she could be much of a comfort. Her eyes flicked towards the double doors where Gen had disappeared inside moments before; she was so much better at the whole comforting thing than Rose was.

She had no idea why she was even so nervous about this. It wasn't a big exam by any means, and most people here had failed once already and were on their second - or even third - go, including Al. It wasn't as if any of this would contribute to her grades or anything. And yet. God, she was so nervous.

She wrung her hands together; they were freezing cold from nerves. She stuck them into her pockets in an attempt to warm them, and then a few moments later lifted up her wrist to check the time.

Except that her watch wasn't on her wrist.

Panic blooming rapidly in her chest, she dug her hands back into her pockets - even though surely she would have felt her watch when they were inside there seconds before - and felt nothing except the wooly insides of her jumper. And then she remembered: she had taken it off before her shower and in her nervousness, had forgotten to put it back on.

"Oh, fuck," she whispered. "Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck."

Al turned to face her, his brow creased in concern. "Rose? What's wrong?"

"I forgot my watch," she breathed in horror.

Al immediately looked relieved and patted a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, Rose, you won't even be in there for ten minutes, and besides, they have a mammoth clock in there, I swear, you can't miss it-"

"It's not that," Rose said miserably, pulling a hand through her ponytail in agitation, and then wincing when she pulled too hard through the strands she had forgotten to brush. "It's - oh, God, I can't pass without it, what the hell am I going to do, all that practice, all of it gone down the-"

"Rose." Al took her firmly by the shoulders. "You don't need a watch to pass. Seriously, I have no idea why it's upset you so much, but you can't do anything about it now, alright? And you know, even if you fail, who cares-"

"I care!" Rose cried. "I've never failed a test in my life, Al."

"Well, yeah, but this one doesn't even really count, does it, and anyway-"

"We will now be calling in all students with surnames beginning with J up until P," McGonagall's voice rang from the doorway, cutting Al off mid-sentence.

After a moment of silence, Al swallowed and turned to face her again. "I gotta tell you, you getting all freaked out actually made me forget about how freaked out I am. Wish me luck."

"Good luck," Rose wished him, mustering up all of the comfort she could (which, as established, wasn't very much), and then she was alone.

She took a deep breath, wondering how much longer the contents of her breakfast would stay in her stomach, and then let it out slowly, like people always said to do in order to calm nerves, but then the lack of air in her lungs made her feel lightheaded and somehow worse, so she stopped doing that. Her gaze flicked towards the Grand Staircase where the crowd of students who had finished were leaving, looking equal parts relieved and equal parts disappointed.

She had a sudden, hysteria-induced thought: she could go with them. There was nothing stopping her, really, and then she wouldn't have to be nervous anymore; there was another test next month, she could do the test then and she would make absolutely sure that she wouldn't forget her watch that time.

Most of the crowd had now disappeared around the corner, with only a few trailing at the back, and soon they too would be out of sight. Rose let out a defeated sigh.

She couldn't leave. Giving up would be worse than failing.

Just as she was about to turn away, a flash of blonde suddenly stopped her short, and when Rose's eyes focused, she saw Scorpius Malfoy skidding to a stop at the top of the stairs, his chest rising and falling hard enough that she thought he might have sprinted down from their dorm on the sixth floor. His eyes searched around the crowd, and she was about to raise a hand to signal to him that he had just missed Toby, who had gone in with Al—

But his eyes found hers before her hand had moved from her side, and as he held up his arm, she saw her watch dangling from his fingers.

She only vaguely comprehended him through her furiously blinking eyes as he jogged down the stairs and carved a path through the crowd towards her, but she suddenly felt as if someone had thrown her a buoy out at sea.

Her stomach now rolling for a completely different reason, she watched her lifeline as it approached her.

"Don't tell me you were thinking of bailing on me, Weasley," Scorpius said, one eyebrow raised in amusement.

His voice jolted her - he was here, God, he really was here - and then her mind finally caught up with her eyes, and she felt a slow smile working its way across her face. "Not a chance."

"Good." He held out his hand. "I thought you might need this."

It was then that Rose realised exactly why she couldn't fail this exam, why she felt more nervous for this one stupid test then she could remember feeling for anything before.

"Weasley?"

She snapped her head back up. "Sorry, what?"

He looked at her curiously. "You just got this…weird look in your eyes. Like you found a whole new thing to freak out about." He laughed a little, but Rose was willing to bet he wouldn't find the situation quite so funny if he knew exactly what it was that she had found to freak out about.

"It's nothing," she waved him off hastily, attempting a weak laugh as well, before her gaze instinctively drew back towards the doors. She had already lost track of the time since Al had gone in; how much longer would it be until they re-opened?

She could sense him watching her carefully, and she turned away from the doors, self-consciously skimming her fingers over the smooth glass of the watch face. She was about to say something to him - what, she had no idea - when Conrad Wells suddenly beamed from where he had moved to stand beside her (clearly, he wasn't one to hold grudges).

"Good luck, Rose!" he said cheerfully. "You look a little worried. Need any last minute tips?"

Scorpius immediately snorted. "Wells, you've failed this test at least three times already. Weasley's going to need a whole lot more than luck if she listens to a single word out of your mouth."

Rose automatically backhanded his upper arm in admonishment. "Ignore him," she said to Conrad. "He's only smug because he's already passed."

Conrad, who had been good-naturedly unfazed by Scorpius' remark, then frowned. "Why're you here then?" he asked in confusion.

Rose quickly spoke before Scorpius had the chance to. "I forgot something and Malfoy was nice enough to bring it to me."

"Like your wand?" Conrad joked.

"No, like her watch," Scorpius said, rather shortly. "But it's all sorted out now, don't worry."

Conrad smiled at her again, still looking mildly confused. "Oh, well, that's good. Well, see you in there!"

"You too." Rose returned his easy smile before he turned away and began speaking to the boy next to him. Once again without a distraction, her stomach twisted back into its coil.

"What are you having for dinner?"

Scorpius' voice cut through the dull panic that had shrouded Rose's senses and she blinked.

"Dinner? Oh, um…I'm not sure, what's it-"

"It's a roast tonight, I think. You partial to chicken? You look like you're a chicken sort of girl."

A laugh bubbled out, even though it sounded a little shaky. "I look like a chicken sort of girl?" Rose echoed. "That's a first."

"Well, clearly, that's not what I meant, I-"

"You're right, though. What about you?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I prefer lamb myself, it's easier to eat without having to worry about all the bones and stuff."

"That's true."

In the silence that followed, her gaze once again darted back towards the double doors; surely they would open any minute now. She bit her lip as her chest tightened, her heart creeping back up into her throat.

Scorpius hesitated, and then she felt his hand alight on her shoulder. "Weasley. Your track record for exams is pretty good. You'll be fine."

"What if I'm not?" she asked before she could stop herself.

He paused, and then shrugged. "Like I said, you'd be far more approachable without a leg."

She managed another feeble laugh, before something occurred to her, and she lifted her gaze to meet his. "You know, even if I don't pass, which I'm not saying I won't, I think you should know that it's got nothing to do with you, you've been-"

"Breathe, Weasley," Scorpius ordered softly.

His hand was still on her shoulder.

There was a slight kerfuffle at the door's entrance when the frontmost people were forced to back up as the doors opened out towards them. The crooked tip of McGonagall's hat came into view, and Rose gulped.

"All remaining students may now enter."

The batch of students who had gone in before them exited en masse, Al somewhere among them, but they were shepherded away before Rose could get a proper look. Toby Nott, however, was on the outskirts of the throng, and, upon seeing his best friend, grinned widely, pumping his hand in a fist. Scorpius flashed his teeth, reaching out to clap his friend on the back before Toby was swept away.

The hand he had used was the one that had been resting on Rose's shoulder, and the absence of its weight felt instantly foreign.

"Ready, Weasley?" he asked, his grin still lingering as he turned to face her.

"As I'll ever be," she replied hoarsely.

"Tell you what," Scorpius said, nudging her forward as students began making their way towards the doors. "If you fail, I'll buy you a drink."

"Buy me two," she half-joked weakly.

He nodded with a smirk that wasn't quite a smirk, and finally she turned away from him, meeting McGonagall's eyes for a moment - and feeling the Headmistress' silent encouragement - before the doors closed behind her.

"Weasley, Rose!" a small man piped up from her left, a clipboard in his hands.

She raised a hand and stepped towards him. "That's me."

"Right. Miss Weasley, this is your first time attempting this test, is it not?"

"Yes, it is."

"Well, then, as you can see, there are two hoops on the ground." He gestured to the one right in front of her. "As you will have been told, you will begin the test by standing within this hoop, and then I would like you to Apparate into that red hoop over there." Rose's eyes followed to where his finger was pointing. "I will then come over and check to see whether or not your Apparition has been successful. All clear?"

She nodded mutely, her wand clenched tightly in her hand, and her watch clenched even more tightly in the hand that he couldn't see. Now that she was inside, she had to stop herself from looking back at the doors. She wondered if he was still behind them.

She stared at the hoop in front of her, inches away from the tips of her flats. Then she lifted her gaze towards the hoop sitting five feet away.

I want you to think of a place.

Her fingers clutched harder.

"Are you ready, Miss Weasley?"

Do you have one?

"Yes."

Describe it to me.

"Well, if you would please step inside the hoop then."

Feel it. You need to believe you're there.

"And remember, Miss Weasley: Destination, Determination, Deliberation."

Rose smiled, releasing her fingers from around her watch, and then she spun.

---

Scorpius walked back from dinner by himself.

It had been an especially loud, boisterous affair (and was, in fact, a roast). Granted, dinners following Apparition Exams usually were, but an uncommonly large amount of students had passed today, so there was more celebrating to be done than usual. The excitement, however, at this stage, largely stemmed from the student body's knowledge that each House would be throwing mini-parties in their Common Rooms for those who had passed, as was tradition for the three weekends a year on which the Apparition Exams were held.

Scorpius checked his watch as he passed the fifth floor; it had just gone eight, and since the party wouldn't start until ten — after the first, second, third and fourth years had finally retreated to their dorms (often reluctantly since they knew exactly what would happen directly upon their departure) — he decided he had at least an hour to take a long, hot shower and freshen up before Toby would come urging him back to his old Common Room.

He arrived at the portrait hole, and although he had seen - noticed, that was - Rose, Albus and Genevieve disappearing after dinner had finished while Toby continued to preach at him the benefits of having a friend who was a chef, he cleared his throat and asked casually, "Weasley isn't in, is she?"

John smiled winsomely at him, propping his foot against the bench as he strummed. "Sorry, tenderfoot, but I ain't seen her since before dinnertime."

Although that was the answer he was expecting, dull disappointment weighed down in his stomach.

"Right, thanks, John." He recited the password and stepped inside, and as soon as his eyes settled on their living room, it suddenly occurred to him that if the purpose of throwing these parties was to celebrate with those who had just gained their licenses, he was sort of defeating it by not doing it with the one person whose license he'd actually had a hand in awarding.

He wondered, fleetingly, if maybe she would be thinking about that too.

Just as quickly, he shook his head, shaking that stupid, childish thought away, and he entered his room, immediately stepping out of his shoes and depositing his bag onto his bed. He began to shuck off the rest of his clothes, folding them into a pile at the bottom of his bed, but as he reached to undo his belt, a sudden tapping at his window drew his attention.

He undid the lock and pushed it open, and Artemis swooped onto the sill, a letter grasped firmly in her beak. After pausing to stroke the fur on her head, he took it, absentmindedly grabbing some treats from his desk drawer with his attention on the Malfoy insignia that held the envelope closed.

He thought about leaving it on his desk and reading it after the party, but his curiosity got the better of him, so he sat down on the edge of his bed and prised it open.

---

With all the celebrating that she, Al and Gen had been doing, Rose had nearly forgotten about her cloak.

She wasn't all that bothered to go all the way to the Astronomy Tower and find it, but she figured there wouldn't be a time when the idea would actually seem appealing to her, so she went anyway.

It wasn't so bad, she thought as she climbed the spiral staircase leading up to the tower. Today had been a good day for examinees, and the Gryffindor Common Room had been teeming with rowdy students all celebrating their newly acquired licenses. Having decided not to partake in tonight's drinking, Rose hadn't been quite so rowdy as the rest and was thankful for a breather.

She reached the tower's door, lifted up the wooden bolt, and then pushed it open, feeling a surge of fresh night air as it blew about her face, and when she raised her gaze, she saw Scorpius Malfoy lounging gracefully on the far side of the tower, nursing a dark brown bottle in his hands.

He looked up slowly at the sound of the door opening, and, after meeting her gaze, looked back down at his bottle in disinterest. "Of all the gin joints in all the world."

She was taken aback by the tone of his voice. The way he sat cloak-less, apparently unfazed by the chill. But mostly, she realised, by the way that he barely acknowledged her.

She spied her missing cloak on the floor a few feet away from him and hurriedly swooped it up into her arms. "I just…I forgot this."

He nodded slowly, digesting the information, still not looking at her. "You've got it now."

She bit her lip, her stomach sinking in confusion and disappointment. "Is…is Toby around, maybe I could-"

"I don't need Toby." He glanced up at her. "Or anyone else. Just this." He held up the bottle in his hands to illustrate his point and took another swig.

"That doesn't look like Firewhiskey," Rose said uncertainly, reluctant to go and now trying to hold a conversation, hoping it would serve as a better alternative.

Scorpius licked his lips clean of the drink and pointed it at her. "This is much better stuff. Much — much stronger. Better." He inclined his head. "Good for celebrating."

"Is that what this is?"

He smiled wryly at her, shaking his head. "If you're about to lecture me, Weasley-" He stopped, sighing, like he had changed his mind about what he was going to say. "Don't."

Rose thought that maybe this was some terrible, horrible dream — no, it was worse than that; like everything in the last few months had been that dream and this was real, and that meant that now they were back to…back to-

"I promised I would buy you a drink, didn't I?"

The terrible thought skittered away. No, these last few months had been real.

"Only if I failed."

Scorpius waved a careless hand. "Technicality."

This wasn't the sort of place that Rose wanted to be; a freezing cold tower with nothing thicker than the not-so-thick shirt she was wearing and a drunk Scorpius Malfoy who reminded her too much of the boy she had spent the last six years of her life fighting with. But in spite of all that, Rose felt her knees lowering onto the cold ground, so cold she could feel its sting over the cotton of her tights, and her numbing fingers pried open her cloak and gathered it around her shoulders.

If Scorpius noticed, he didn't show it. He was staring at the white label of the bottle, but his eyes were vacant, a thousand miles away. Rose's gaze was drawn to the same label, and when she caught sight of the information it was offering, her eyes widened.

"Maybe you should take a little breather from that," she suggested carefully. "I don't think the extent of it has hit you quite yet."

"Oh, I hope not."

She pressed her lips together, deciding that maybe he would thank her for this tomorrow, and she reached for the bottle cap on the floor, but his fingers beat her to it and, without a sound, it had arced cleanly in the air and disappeared into the darkness. Pursing her lips flatly, Rose aimed her wand at the side of the tower the cap had disappeared over and raised her other hand to catch it when it soared back.

Scorpius blinked, staring at it in her palm, and then at her. "That, Weasley, is a very clever trick. You are very clever, you know." He shrugged. "I should know, I'm very clever as well."

He brought the bottle up to his lips again, and Rose instinctively reached out a finger to push it away; Scorpius frowned as he realised his mouth was hanging over empty air.

"I really don't think you should drink anymore."

Scorpius looked up to meet her gaze. "Why? Don't you like me more like this? I'm being nice."

"You're being drunk," Rose said firmly. She put her hands on her thighs, weighing her options. "Though if you told me why you're sitting up here getting drunk all by yourself, I might be a little more empathetic."

"I won't tell you," Scorpius said stoutly, and a little petulantly, "because it's none of your business."

Rose exhaled in frustration. "Fine. Well, if it's none of my business, I'll be going then."

"Be my guest."

Rose straightened, and she looked to the door, and then back to the grousing boy in front of her, and, fuck, she couldn't. She slowly lowered herself back down. Scorpius' expression didn't change.

He held out the bottle to her. "Have a drink."

"No thanks."

He held it out further and tapped the lip of it on her knee. "Have a drink."

She pushed it away. "Persuasion doesn't work that way."

She thought she caught a glimpse of a smirk, but if she had, it was already long gone. He inspected the bottle, turning it round in his fingers. "This is expensive stuff, Weasley. You oughtn't be rude."

"I didn't know Hogsmeade sold expensive alcohol."

"Ah," Scorpius said, lifting a finger and pointing it at her face. "It doesn't. No, this is specially brought from my parents' cellar." He took another swig. "Which makes you especially rude for refusing it." A strange, focused look entered his eyes, as if he had just now realised that she was sitting beside him, and he immediately furrowed his brow. "Weasley. Don't you have celebrations to be attending?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

He shrugged dispassionately. "Misery loves company."

She latched onto his words. "So you are upset about something."

"Not with my happy face on."

Rose was about to press him further, but another gust of wind blew, whipping her hair about her cheeks, and she clamped her mouth shut and burrowed tighter into her cloak.

"You're cold."

"It's cold out here," she pointed out dryly, trying to stop her voice from shaking.

Scorpius put his bottle down, his fingers going to the hem of his jumper. In one fluid motion he had pulled it over his head and was holding it out to her.

She stared at it. "Won't you be cold?"

He shook his head, waggling it at her insistently. "Beer jacket. Put it on."

She hesitated another second, but after meeting his unyielding gaze, took it from him; it was soft, and when she unfastened her cloak and pulled it over her head, she was suddenly enveloped in his scent — his real, non-whiskey-drenched scent, the one she caught a whiff of every time he ran a hand through his hair in thought as they studied next to each other by the fireplace, the one she remembered pressing her nose into in that sweaty, humid club in Hogsmeade all those months ago.

Once her arms were in and she straightened it out she could see that it fell almost to the floor, and the sleeves were so long that she had to fold them back several times over until her hands appeared.

Scorpius had remained quiet throughout this, but when he looked her up and down clad in the jumper he had been wearing, something seemed to flicker in his eyes. "Better?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, thanks."

She could still feel the weight of his gaze as she fastened her cloak back on, and when she looked back up, his eyebrows were furrowed again, his expression thoughtful.

"I'm glad you passed your Apparition Test, Weasley."

She blinked in surprise, and when she hugged her arms around her torso, the soft fabric of his jumper pressed against her palms. "I couldn't have done it without you, you know. And you coming all the way down to give me back my watch when-" She couldn't finish the sentence; she just exhaled and shook her head.

Scorpius stared at her. "You're welcome."

It was fleeting, but when she lifted her gaze to meet his, she thought she recognised someone in them, someone who had, just that morning (or was it yesterday morning now?), untwisted the knot in her stomach and eased the air back into her lungs.

She sighed. "I wish you would tell me what's wrong."

"We all wish a lot of things, Weasley."

She had no reply to that, and in the silence he seemed to consider, and then he twisted away from her, retrieving something from behind him. It was a letter, and he slid it over the stone floor towards her. She gingerly picked it up, her eyes darting back up towards him as she smoothed it out.

She read it twice, her heart in her throat, and then she folded it up for fear she couldn't help but read it again.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, offering the letter back to him.

He plucked it out of her hand and tossed it behind him. "Why'd you look so sad, Weasley? It's not like you knew her."

"She's your grandmother, I understand what-"

"Listen, Weasley, I didn't tell you what happened because I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

She stayed still, worrying her lip as she wondered why he had even decided to show her the letter in the first place, but given that she didn't exactly have an arsenal of experience when it came to consoling an ex-arch nemesis, she hitched her shoulders helplessly. "What can I do?"

His eyes flicked down towards the bottle on the floor, and then back up to meet hers. Underneath all of that blankness, they were silently, mournfully, pleading, and against her better judgement, she reached for it and took a sip. She immediately coughed, pushing the bottle back to him and wiping the back of her hand against her lips. "Oh God, you're drinking this straight?"

His lip twitched. "It tastes nice. Though I should've asked if you're partial to whiskey, cos if you don't like whiskey, you're not gonna like this much."

"It's not the taste," she said, still coughing a little. "I think it's burnt a hole in my throat."

"That's how you know it's working."

His hands wandered towards the collar of his button down - the same one she remembered from the exam - and he gripped the topmost button in his fingertips and twisted it out of its hole, doing the same with the one below it, and Rose's gaze was drawn to the taut skin it exposed as the material drew apart. She hastily averted her eyes, his fingers rolling up his sleeves in her peripheral.

They sat in silence, and Rose could already feel the warmth of the alcohol spreading around her body, its heat still pressing against the back of her throat. It was only after a minute or two that Scorpius' fingers moved from beside him, searching blindly across the floor until he blinked and remembered that he had thrown the letter behind him. He dropped his gaze, and then suddenly—

"She was good," he said. "I know what people might say, but she was always good to me. Even if no one knows it, she was always-"

"She saved my uncle's life." The words came out before her brain had had the chance to stop her.

There was another moment of protracted silence before Scorpius asked, his voice thick, "What?"

Rose swallowed. "After, um…Voldemort used the Killing Curse on Harry in the Forbidden Forest, instead of making sure he was dead himself, he asked your grandma to check for him. She…she reached underneath his shirt and felt his heart still beating, and then she lied. Straight to Voldemort's face."

She couldn't look him in the eyes as she said it, but once she had finished, she chanced a glance. His eyes were faraway, dry as a bone, conveying nothing. But when she looked down, his hand was trembling.

"No one told you what she did? She ended a war."

"My father doesn't like to talk about the war," Scorpius finally said, his voice level. "I guess it's fair enough, he's not proud of it - he probably would've told me if I'd asked." He heaved a sigh, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly. "He and my mum had a long, long week away before they got married, where they talked everything over, and now he doesn't have anything else to say. So we don't talk about it."

It was always strange for Rose to listen to Scorpius talk about his family when she knew him only as he existed here, with her. It sounded stupid to say it, but the only part of his life she knew was the part that had her in it.

"It's hard, you know," he went on, surprising her, "to listen to the world talk about your family when your own family won't even talk about it to you." A wry grin twisted across his face, and when his eyes met hers, they seemed to be the only part of his face not cloaked in shadow. "But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Golden Child?"

"Why do you say that?"

Scorpius smiled. "How could you? You arrived at this school with a golden crown on your head. You couldn't have any idea what it would be like to come to a school where Malfoy's the first name anyone thinks of when you say the word 'Death Eater'."

Her throat tightened, and she wouldn't have been able to reply even if she had known what to say.

"Did your parents sit you down when you were eleven years old and warn you that people you didn't even know might hate you for things you never did, that people would expect you to be made a Slytherin because all Malfoys are Slytherins, but that there's nothing wrong with it - you're there because you're ambitious and resourceful, because you're a born leader."

His hand had stopped trembling.

"I didn't realise you cared about things like that."

"I was a child," Scorpius replied. "All children care about things like that."

He paused, his gaze suddenly hardening before it dropped to the floor."You know that story you told me on Valentine's Day? That you wanted to become a Healer so you could do your best to make sure people wouldn't suffer?"

Something in the pit of Rose's stomach tightened; she thought he'd have forgotten. She nodded.

A bitter sneer overtook his expression. "I did it because I never wanted to be helpless, so I wouldn't have to hate myself if something went wrong and I couldn't do anything about it." His eyes took on a sheen of vacancy, and now Rose could see the moon reflected in them. Then suddenly, it was her own face that stared back at her. "So I've done everything I could. I get top grades, I spend my weekends in the Hospital Wing, I'm Head fucking Boy. What's the point of any of that if you can't save the person you care about?"

Rose began to think he was getting more sober; he seemed to think so too since he put the bottle to his mouth and took another, extra long swig, hesitating for a long moment before he swallowed it down. Rose watched the movement in his jaw, his throat, and she crooked a finger, silently asking him to pass the bottle over.

As she drunk, even through half-lidded eyes, she could see him watching her, and when she ran her tongue over her lips to clean them of the drink, he watched her still.

"You know, you got the entire school buzzing."

She paused, the lip of the bottle still pressed against hers, and she lowered it. "What with?"

He looked at her meaningfully. "Your little heart-to-heart with Olivia."

She blinked before handing the bottle back. "People know about that?" You know about that? "No one's said anything about it to me," she added, a little defensively.

"You know how you think I scare people?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not the only one."

He pulled a hand through his hair, scruffing it up a little before it fell immaculately back into place, like always. "It was partly my fault, I guess." At her surprised look, he shrugged. "I had no right to talk about Liv with you. It was her business, hers and mine, and it wasn't my place to be spreading it. I guess you were collateral."

Rose's eyes widened ever so slightly. Maybe that was all he had heard, if he thought the part she played in it was so little. It was a tiny hope, but it was hope nevertheless—

"Is that all people are saying?"

He paused. "No."

"So you-I mean, people know what else we talked — fought — about, then."

"Yes."

He didn't say anything else, but he knew. Oh God, she could tell just by the way he was looking at her, he knew everything.

She could deny it. She could deny it and say that you can never believe the things you hear, things get blown out of proportion and taken out of context all the time. But then she realised that maybe she didn't want to say that, that maybe Liv was right, in her own twisted way — what else could explain the tingling that Rose had felt from the second she had come up and seen him sitting here, tingling that had nothing to do with the exam when she had spotted him at the top of the Entrance Hall's stairs, and even earlier when they had worked together in the library, and in their dorm, and — Merlin, she couldn't remember the last time she hadn't felt like this-

"You know, I'm a fun drunk."

The swirl of thoughts dissipated, and she blinked. "Okay."

"No, really, you'd normally like me drunk."

"I like you well enough sober."

His mouth pricked up at the side, maybe, and he cocked his head a little, appraising her. "You look nice in my jumper, Weasley."

She looked down, the grey material swamping her all the way to her knees, the green and silver band lining the hem the only thing that differentiated his jumper from hers. Despite herself, she felt a blush creeping its way up her neck.

"Don't all of our jumpers basically look the same? You know, just…grey."

He said nothing, but as his gaze travelled to the very band that she had been looking at only seconds before, she knew this time she hadn't imagined the smirk at all.

"Why did you help me? With the Apparating, I mean." The question had been prodding at her since that session in their dorm, and she didn't think she would ever get a better chance than this.

Scorpius tapped a finger against the bottle's side, making a sharp plinking noise that echoed in the night air. "So I wouldn't have to do Side-Along with you, remember? You said so yourself."

That's a good enough answer, she thought forcefully to herself when her brain twitched. Just be satisfied with that, just let it go—

"It's not just that." She bit her lip, and she saw his eyes slide down quickly at the movement. "Why…why did you share that Charms book with me when you knew it could've cost you McGonagall's prize? It's — we're always battling for top spot, you and I…it's just…" She frowned. "It's how we are." She paused before adding quietly, "Isn't it?"

He raked a hand through his hair again, and he suddenly looked very tired, his eyes far away. "I have no idea of anything when it comes to you, Weasley. No fucking clue at all."

Her heart turned over, and, God, that feeling welled up inside her again, that tingling feeling that licked its way up her spine and made her shiver all the way down to her fingertips, and she wondered how he could possibly do this to her, how he could possibly affect her this much—

"Why don't you ever wear your hair down?" he asked bluntly.

His voice cut through her concentration, and she immediately flushed, all too conscious of the thoughts he had unknowingly interrupted—

She reached instinctively to touch the bun she wore her hair in. "What?"

"It looks nice when you have it down."

"I…I'm not sure, why do you-" she began to ask, but her voice died when he leaned over and slid out the pin that was holding her hair up, and when it cascaded down around them in waves, for a moment all she could smell was her shampoo in the air.

Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at him, and he blinked at her — she couldn't describe it, but something seemed to pass in his eyes, some flicker of recognition—

"See?" he murmured, even though she couldn't.

He was so close. She thought back to their Apparating session, when he had been even closer than this, but if it was like it had been then, it would only be a second before he moved away—

But he didn't.

"Have you ever been to Greece, Weasley?" he continued in that same, soft voice.

"Once," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, then she consciously raised its volume and said slightly louder, "With my family two years ago. Why do you-"

"You know, Weasley, I'm not that drunk."

"Aren't you?" she breathed.

"No," he said slowly. "I don't think."

"People do stupid things when they're drunk."

"Do you think we're going to do something stupid, Weasley?"

His eyes flickered to her lips again. Then he tilted his head a little bit, contemplatively. "I can see the moon in your eyes."

"You're probably too close, then," Rose whispered, the sound barely audible. A last-ditch effort; she made to grab for the bottle resting in between his knees. "I don't think you should drink anymore of that."

Before she could pry it away, his hand landed on hers. It was warmer than she had expected, though it was probably just the cold air in contrast.

"Weasley."

She blinked and shook her head. "Malfoy, give it to me."

"You have freckles on your nose."

"The bottle, Malfoy."

"Your eyes have some green in them."

"Please."

His eyes stopped searching hers and finally settled on them.

And just like that, she lost all of her resolve.

The almost empty bottle cracked painfully as it made contact with the stone floor, and suddenly Rose could feel wetness beginning to seep along her calf, slithering underneath the minuscule holes in her tights, but she couldn't bring herself to care, not when Scorpius' lips were soft and pressed against her own.

Her heart was pounding, the blood in her head screaming so loudly she couldn't focus on anything else, anything at all, and yet—

She could feel his hands - God, they were so warm - drifting up, skimming the side of her jaw, her cheek, before one of them cupped the back of her neck, the other tangling itself in her hair. Her skin prickled where he was touching her, and she needed to breathe, God she couldn't breathe at all, not when he was here, kissing her, not when his warm, callused hands were brushing the hair at the nape of her neck, the back of her ear—

She could tell he had moved closer because suddenly she could feel the warmth of his leg pressing against hers, and the thought of it — the thought of him — electrified every nerve in her body. She gasped desperately when his finger grazed against her earlobe, and he pulled away, his eyes searching hers again as if to ask, Is this okay? but his hands were still in her hair, hair that she never wore down but that he said looked nice when she did, and his knee was still pressed against hers, her skin searing from where he had touched her—

He had tasted like whiskey, one that had burned in her throat and was far sweeter than she cared for, but right then, as she stared into his blazing eyes, the two of them alone in the Astronomy Tower while parties raged on deep inside the castle, she thought he tasted like the best drink she had ever had.

And Rose leaned forward to kiss him again.

---

A/N:

OMG THEY KISSED. I'm sorry that I said I was gonna try and get these chapters up quicker since it was summer and all, and yet it's been a hot minute since the last one. Let me tell you, writing fanfiction is never more attractive than when it's used as a procrastination tool and now that I have virtually nothing to procrastinate, fanfic writing is taking a backseat in favour of doing absolutely nothing. That aside, hope this chapter (and that moment) satisfied you all — this chapter wound up being waaaaaaay longer than I anticipated, but it might be my favourite yet. Fun fact! I always planned to have some sort of Scorpius-dreams-about-Rose storyline but I hadn't yet decided where to put it, so my first pass of this chapter existed without the dream at all. This is probably obvious, but it was far more boring and didn't actually lead up to the end scene as much as it should have, so I'm super glad that my brain helped me out when it decided to have a spontaneous perusal of the huge document that I dump any ideas I have onto. Chapter titles come from Ella Fitzgerald's Dream A Little Dream Of Me and Fun's At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be).

Oh! And some answers below:

Q: Haha okay so like I dont know if you read the Percy Jackson books but what if you gave Rose, Scorpius, Gen, Albus, Toby and Liv their god parents? haha sorry if you don't read the books!

A: *cracks knuckles while sighing in deep contentment* I have been waiting my entire life for this question. Okay, I'm gonna assume you're talking about the 12 Olympians? I'm just gonna do these quick fire: Rose = Athena, Scorpius = Athena, Gen = Zeus, Al = Hermes, Toby = Hephaestus, Liv = Aphrodite. Also, yikes, Rose and Scorp having the same godly parent. Maybe one of them could be in Apollo lmao except Scorpius would actually refuse to acknowledge himself as the son of (Rick Riordan's canon portrayal of) Apollo and his horrific haikus.

Q: How tall do you see Rose and Scorpius?

A: I see Scorp as being around 6'1, maybe a tiny bit over. Rose is very average height, so I'd probably plonk her at around 5'4/5'5, erring more on the 5'5 side.