In the Previous Chapter…

"He hit you!" Scorpius raged, vowing that he'd punch the guy the second he showed his face.

"That's not all, Scorp" Rose muttered. "He said that unless I did what he wanted by the end of that day, he'd bring Lily here and do the same thing to her" she said. "I couldn't let him do that to Lils" Rose sobbed, "so I did as he wanted" Rose cried harder.

"Shh Rose, calm down and tell me what he did to you" Scorpius begged.

"He… he…."

"He what?"

Rose gulped, before bursting into fresh waves of tears as she whispered miserably "He r-r-raped me."

Although he was fuming at hearing this, Scorpius contained his anger for Rose's sake. Inside his mind he was screaming WHAT A FUCKING BASTARD I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!, outside he gently consoled Rose until her tears ran dry.

"Scorp, you don't need to worry about me" Rose sniffed. "Just because I'm having a bad night doesn't mean you need to lose all of your sleep too" she said, turning to face him.

"Rose, I really don't care about losing sleep – you need someone to be there for you right now, and that happens to be me" he said gently.

"Scorp, I'm not going to be able to sleep for the rest of the night" said Rose. "I've had this nightmare before, and I can never sleep afterwards. I've only ever been able to get back to sleep when I'm at home, and that's only because Hugo lets me sleep in his bed with him for the rest of the night" she said sadly.

"Right then" said Scorpius determinedly, "you're coming with me" he said softly as he stood off of the bed and offered Rose his hand. Rose only noticed at this point that Scorpius was completely topless and that the waistband of his trackie bottoms had sunk rather low, and wow she thought, he has a pretty fit body.

"Rose?" Scorpius asked, waving his hand in front of Rose's face, "You blanked out there for a second" he said, before stretching out his hand again before saying "follow me."

Curious, Rose gently took Scorpius' hand and followed him through the bathroom and into his bedroom. She stopped at the door way and watched Scorpius make his way towards his bed. Rose smiled guiltily when she noticed how messed up his bed sheets were, from where he had obviously thrown them off of him to get through to her. She was surprised when she saw Scorpius climb under his covers.

"Scorp, what am I doing in here?" she asked.

He patted the space next to him in the bed and said "You said you needed company to get back to sleep" he said softly, unsure about how Rose would react, "and I'm offering to be your pillow for the night" he smiled before again patting the space next to him.

Rose walked slowly over to him, wondering if he was taking the piss, but as she neared, he pulled back the bed covers for her to slide in next to him.

"I won't bite" he smirked. At this Rose finally decided that it wouldn't hurt to have Scorpius to comfort her for one night, and climbed in next to him. Scorpius automatically wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into a comforting embrace. Rose was a bit startled by how easily she and Scorpius interacted, but felt quite comfortable, so snuggled closer into Scorpius.

"You didn't have to do this" she muttered sleepily.

"But I am, so shall we try and get some sleep?" he yawned, "We probably should go to lessons tomorrow – we only have Potions and Charms in the afternoon, so we can sleep in if you'd like" he said.

"Mmmmmm" Rose murmured, "That'd be nice" she said as she started drifting asleep with her head resting on Scorpius' chest. Scorpius leant back against his pillow and used the hand that wasn't cradling Rose to stroke her hair. She softly moaned in pleasure. Scorpius smiled at how easily she relaxed in his care.

"You like that, huh?" he laughed quietly.

"Mmmhmmm" Rose replied.

"You don't mind me sitting here holding you then" whispered Scorpius.

"Nah, it feels nice" she whispered back, "I feel safe" she added as an afterthought, before moving her head to look at Scorpius. "Thank you for looking after me" she said.

"You can come here if you do get any nightmares again" Scorpius said, seriously. "If it helps, just crawl in and I'll be here" he whispered.

"That's really generous of you, Scorp" said Rose, who had adjusted herself so that she could see Scorpius, but it also meant that she was laying half on top of him.

"Rose, I think we should go to bed" Scorpius yawned. Rose then seemed to remember that it was nearly half three in the morning and snuggled back into Scorpius' embrace.

"Night Scorp" Rose murmured, draping her arm across Scorpius' stomach.

Scorpius looked down at Rose, and realised that he could get used to this. Rose seemed to be comfortable too, snuggled up in his bed. He leant down and gently kissed Rose on the forehead before whispering "Goodnight, Rose" before laying his head back on his pillows.

Rose was slightly surprised by Scorpius' kiss, but found that she actually quite liked it. She hugged Scorpius' middle with the arm she had draped over him, and in return he pulled her closer. Both students drifted asleep with contempt smiles on their faces, and wondered what it would be like to go to sleep like this every night.

Rose stirred the next morning and woke in a different room to what she was used to. This wasn't her dorm or her room, where was she? The events of the previous night fell into place as she felt Scorpius stir next to her. They were still tangled up in each other's embrace.

"Morning" Scorpius croaked, before clearing his throat and repeating his greeting in his normal, deep yet gentle voice.

"Morning" Rose whispered in return. "Umm, do you mind if we don't mention this to anyone?" she asked, slightly worried. "Don't get the wrong impression, I don't think I've actually slept that well in weeks" she hurriedly said, "but I don't think it will help either of our situations if more rumours were to get around" she explained.

"Yeah, don't worry, I won't" he said, "I kinda wanted to keep it to ourselves too, as after Al kinda attacked me yesterday I don't want your family to get the wrong idea and try to kill me or anything" he joked.

"Yeah, my family can be a bit tempermental sometimes" Rose giggled, "I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry, do you want to go down to breakfast? We seem to have woken up relatively early for people who were awake in the middle of the night" she said, guiltily.

"Yeah, why not" Scorpius agreed. "I know you'll be at a different table to me and everything, but if anyone gives you any trouble, come find me and we'll sort them out" he said. Rose knew perfectly well that Scorpius had meant if Daniel came to cause trouble then he would help out. With this, Scorpius offered Rose his hand and led her over to the entrance hole. Although they didn't hold hands, Rose stuck very close to Scorpius. Scorpius noticed this, and realised that Rose was trembling.

"Hey," he said, "It'll be fine" he said and grabbed her hand from by his side to give it a reassuring squeeze.

They walked the rest of the way in silence and said goodbye at the doors.

"We haven't got any lessons this morning" Rose said, "Do you want to spend the morning playing Chess or something in our common room? We could get to know each other better" she suggested.

"Sounds nice" Scorpius smiled. "I'll see you back in our common room after breakfast then" he smiled before turning towards the Slytherin table.