J. K. Rowling has claim to everything in this story! I claim nothing, except perhaps the plot and some characters I made up but if she wants them too she can have it.

Scorpius was a bit worried, he hadn't seen Eva in classes for over two weeks, so since the beginning of term – although he did know that she'd been in the Hospital Wing for the first week, something he'd learnt from Roxy instead of his sister. He was almost certain that his sister was not still in the infirmary, because knowing her she'd be annoyed at the fact she was missing her classes and would insist on being released, making it more worrisome that she was still not in classes.

He turned the corner and strolled into the Hospital Wing, searching the beds for his twin as he walked down the aisle. He frowned when he got to the end of the room and Eva was still nowhere to be seen.

"Is there something I can help you with, Mister Malfoy?" Penelope Clearwater asked as she exited her office, noticing the boy was frowning.

"Have you seen my sister, Madam Clearwater?" He asked when she made no response except to raise an eyebrow he hastily added, "Eva… not Mel."

"I'm afraid I cannot help you there, your brother and other sister, however, were in here to apologise to the fourth year they had played a rather nasty prank on."

"I'm surprised they apologised."

"They were certainly reluctant and only did so after having their prank supply threatened." The mediwitch glanced at a patient who started to groan, "If there is nothing else, you'll have to excuse me." Scorpius nodded and she started to make her way to the boy who was clutching his stomach as he vomited Jellyfish.

Scorpius scowled as soon as he left the Hospital Wing and was very tempted to play tricks on some poor first-year sod, but he settled on kicking over the closest suit of armour instead.

"Mature, Malfoy. Very mature." A voice remarked behind him.

"Piss off, Potter," Scorpius replied without bothering to turn around.

"You know I'll never do that, mate."

Scorpius sighed, "Seen any sign of Eva at all? I haven't seen her in any classes and I haven't noticed her at your table at meal times… What if something's happened to her?"

"What could have happened to her? It's not like Moldymort is still alive and terrorising everyone, I'm sure it'd be pretty minor if something has happened."

"But Rox says she's barely in the dorm and keeps odd hours."

"Well you know she's alive then and wasn't kidnapped." James chuckled, Scorpius, however, was not amused. James rolled his eyes, "Maybe they had a fight and she's avoiding Rox." James suggested.

"To the extent that she'd miss classes?" The Slytherin asked incredulously. "That doesn't sound like Eva and you know it." Scorpius spun on his heel and sighed in annoyance into his hands.

"Your parents would know." When there was no initial response the Gryffindor turned to the Slytherin and spun him back around to face him. "Have you asked your parents?" An eyebrow quirked on James's forehead as he asked Scorpius – who had suddenly turned bright red, a sure sign that he hadn't even thought of that. "Really? You haven't asked them?"

"Well no," Scorpius spluttered as he tried to come up with a reason, "But what if they haven't heard from Eva and my asking just sends them into a worried frenzy?"

"Your parents would have stormed into Hogwarts and searched the entire castle if they hadn't heard from her by now. And besides, Rox has seen her – she's fine." James turned on his heal and started to walk in the other direction. "The others and I are having a friendly game of Quidditch if you want to join." He announced as he walked, slowing down just before he went around the corner to hear Scorpius's answer.

"Thanks, but I think I should probably write a letter to Mum and Dad," Scorpius ran a hand through his hair as he admitted guiltily, "I haven't actually written one to them yet this term."

James laughed at the admission, "Bet your Mum is fuming."

Hermione, Draco and Nikki were sitting in front of the telly enjoying a night of watching 'Marvel's Spider-man: Homecoming' when an owl swooped through an open window and dropped a letter on Hermione's lap. Before Hermione could think of getting up to get a snack for the bird, the owl flew out the window back towards the castle it had been sent from.

"Looks like Scorpius finally decided to write," Hermione commented, glaring at the envelope containing a letter that had taken far too long for her son to write. Draco paused the movie which caused Nikki to groan in protest, but luckily for her Hermione quickly grabbed the remote and pressed play. "If it took this long to write, it won't be that important."

Draco looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "I know you want to read it, regardless of how long it took."

Hermione looked torn between opening the letter and stubbornly ignoring it until they'd finished the movie. In the end, she gave in to wanting to know what was going on in her son's life and ripped open the thin paper that contained the letter. Draco turned his head back to watching the film that Nikki hadn't turned away from.

"Oh cripes." Hermione sighed into her hands after reading the letter.

"What sort of trouble has he got into this time?" Draco asked, "It can't be anything worse than what Mel and Markos have done."

"No, he's not in trouble," Hermione paused before adding as an afterthought, "Though his apology for taking so long to write could be longer."

"So what's wrong? Other than Scorpius's two paragraph apology."

"It seems Eva hasn't told Scorpius that she's already taken her O. and now he's running around school like a headless chicken trying to find her because she hasn't been in classes with them."

"Ah." Was Draco's only response, not really sure what else to say.

"I can't understand why Eva hasn't told him already, all of her letters so far seem to indicate that everything is fine. I assumed that meant that the others knew."

"Maybe she's worried about how the others will react," Draco suggested after a moment of silence. "She might be worried the others think she abandoned them."

Hermione frowned, "I hope to Merlin that they don't see it like that. At least Fred is in a different year, she'll still have at least one friend if the others need some time to come to term with it. Do you think we should tell Scorp?"

Draco shook his head. "I think we should leave it to Eva. Scorp may be angrier if he doesn't hear it from her… But it doesn't hurt to point Scorp in the right direction, maybe suggest to him that he needs to ask her a question."

"Could you two please zip it?" Nikki asked in frustration. "I'm trying to watch the movie but can't hear a thing with you two yapping."

"Where's the attitude coming from Nik?" Draco looked at his youngest with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Your Malfoy genes perhaps." Hermione shrugged before quickly diving further up the sofa before Draco could throw a pillow at her.

"Freaking cryptic parents." Scorpius scowled, "'It might be a good idea to ask your sister a question', that would be a good idea if I could find her or if I knew which question I am supposed to ask." He mumbled under her breath as he made his way to his Arithmancy class.

He was glanced at his watch and noticed he was going to be a bit late if he didn't hurry up. Ducking behind a tapestry, Scorpius jogged down a secret passageway that was a very handy shortcut to cut three minutes off from his journey. Not bothering to check if there was someone on the other side of the exit, Scorpius pulled the portrait open and ran out of the dimly lit passage and straight into a human being causing him to fall back into the passageway. As he fell, he threw a hand out to grab the frame of the closing portrait, which stopped him from landing on his bum, unfortunately, the other person was not so lucky.

"Ooof." The wind was knocked out of Eva's lungs before she promptly landed on the cold stone floor, a sharp pan travelling from her ischium to her upper spine.

"Sorry." Scorpius apologised as he pulled himself upright and out of the passage, he held out his hand expecting the other person to still be on the floor and was surprised to see his sister being helped up by his Quidditch captain. "Eva!" He exclaimed in surprise. "I'm so sorry, I was in a rush to get to Arithmancy…" He trailed off as he realised Eva should be on her way there as well. "Where have you been? I've barely seen you in two weeks and I haven't spoken to you since we left home." He said in frustration.

"I've-" Eva cut herself off, unsure how to tell Scorpius what had happened. Thankfully Higgs was suddenly very anxious to get to class on time after seeing how little time they had left on his timepiece.

"We're going to be late for Ancient Runes, Malfoy." He announced, tugging on her arm to hurry up. "Come on."

"See you around, Scorp." Was all she said before she and Higgs ran down the corridor to their lesson.

Scorpius stared at the two until they disappeared, his brows furrowing with confusion as he continued to his class. It wasn't until he'd started writing a few notes having sat down and mumbled an apology to his professor that his brain clicked what Higgs had said.

"The f-"

"Scorp," Nikolas Zabini hissed, "Mate, could I have my quill back?"

Scorpius looked at the quill in his hand and realised that he'd accidentally picked up his friend's instead of his own, which he had yet to retrieved from his bag.

"Sorry." He apologised rather distantly.

Nikolas frowned, "You alright?"

Scorpius hesitated, trying to figure out if he was alright. In the end, he shook his head. "I- I'm really confused about something and if I'm right about it then I'm pissed too."

"Want to tell me what's going on?"

Scorpius shook his head again, "No. I have to find out what in Merlin's name is going on first."

Scorpius didn't talk for the rest of the lesson, didn't make any snarky comments about anything, didn't raise his hand to answer a question. He just sat there thinking and occasionally writing some notes. He had packed away his things a few minutes before the class had even ended and as soon as the double period was over he ran out of the room towards the Ancient Runes classrooms to see if he could catch his sister before he hadn't a clue where she'd be again until Christmas. He arrived just in time to see the last lot of students trickle out of the room, Eva was not amongst them.

"For goodness sake!" Scorpius groaned in frustration before he noticed a fellow Slytherin leave the room last. "Warrington!" He called out to grab the Slytherin's attention.

Gemma Warrington jumped in surprise at the call and put a hand over jumpy heart as she turned towards the source of the noise. "Oh hello Malfoy, gave me a bit of a shock there." Scorpius sent her an apologetic grimace. "What do you need?"

"I was wondering what the next class was?" When she sent him a slightly bewildered look he hastily added, "For the sixth years. I- I'm trying to find Higgs, it's important."

"Oh! I think he has Transfiguration next."

Scorpius grinned, that was on the way out to Care of Magical Creatures. "Thanks, Gemma!" He said quickly before sprinting towards Transfigurations, hoping that he'd find his sister on the way.

"Bye Scorpius." Gemma waved at him as she chuckled at the boy's need to rush after the Quidditch captain. "Quidditch." She muttered as she made her way towards the library.

Scorpius jumped out of the secret stairway that had taken him to the fourth floor and continued onto towards the Grand Staircases. A little over halfway towards the moving stairs Scorpius turned a corner and caught sight of Higgs and Eva.

"Eva!" He shouted down the corridor.

Eva turned suddenly and saw her brother sprinting towards her. She started to walk a little faster at the sight in hopes that maybe he would tire suddenly and not catch up before they made it to class. When she noticed that he was not tiring, she grabbed Higgs's hand and sprinted down the closest adjoining corridor. "Come on!" She exclaimed as she pulled them around a few corners, hoping that they would lose him. She swore when they turned another corner to face a dead end. Higgs chuckled from beside her.

"This isn't funny!" Eva threw her hands up in the air. "Scorp might come charging down this corridor any second and demand answers I don't even know how to begin to give him."

"I've never heard you swear." He explained as his chuckles faded away.

"Yeah, well everyone needs some way of blurting out their frustration." She snapped, which just caused Higgs to start chuckling again.

Scorpius rounded the bend at that moment and stopped suddenly. "What in the name of Merlin, Eva!" He panted out, running from the seventh floor to the sixth and then onto the fourth to chase his sister down many corridors was tiring.

"Hey, Scorp." She said weakly, waving her hand just as pathetically.

Hi! Sorry it's taken such a long time for me to post another chapter. I've been sitting on the hospital bit of this chapter since January... I think. And I just could not figure out how to get on with the chapter.

I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think.

Lizzy