Scorpius slunk in next to her at Potions and part of her preferred it that way. She wasn't sure if she could handle Jonathan right now. She'd handled the past week, thinking it was just Scorpius. Even though the messages had been getting pretty aggressive she had Scorpius to blame it on and she could trust that no matter how angry he appeared to be, he wouldn't hurt her. Now she knew it wasn't him though, last year's terrors shot up her spine and chilled her to her bones.

"It's going to be okay," Scorpius whispered underneath his breath.

She closed her eyes, trying to find peace there, trying to regulate her breathing. Her potions professor was prattling on about the potion their curriculum called for today but she could barely hear him. She exhaled and inhaled, slow and calmly.

"It's going to be okay, Rose" Scorpius whispered underneath his breath.

Someone had gone into her room, someone knew where she slept. Someone wanted to know about the Rebirth Cult, they wanted to know about her scar.

"Just breathe, I'm here Rose. We'll figure it out," Scorpius whispered underneath his breath.

What if someone came after her again? What it was the cult? 'Dad said they'd caught all of them, save the two who killed themselves!' Who was left? She winced at the thought of last year. Then the soft touch of a thumb brought her back into focus.

Scorpius was facing the blackboard where a charmed stick of chalk was writing down notes, things to keep an eye on when making today's potion. Don't over stir, over stirring could cause potion to bubble over! His hand however was dexterously hidden under his robe, and under his other arm holding onto hers. His thumb lightly caressing the back of her hand. It was soft and gentle and reassuring, otherwise she would have pulled her own away from it. It brought her right back into last year, where they had been there for each other.

"Class! You may begin." The six students paired off and began working on their potions.

"Hey Rose!" Jonny sauntered over. Ughh!

"I'll get the ingredients Rose, you set up the cauldron?" Scorpius announced unnecessarily loud, face straight as nails.

Rose smirked inwardly as Jonny sauntered back to Lycan, Amity and Hyacinth already bustling away. She mouthed a 'Thank you' towards Scorpius and he shot an honest gleaming smile in return, making her insides twist.

Scorpius didn't feel too hungry when dinnertime came round so he read through the notes Professor Stem had given him and played around with his vegetables. It was interesting stuff, going through a week by week breakdown of the stalks potency and usage.

He noticed a weird silence around the table looking up to find eyes around him staring, "Scorpius." He looked up to find Rose in Muggle clothes. "Will you meet me in the library after dinner?" She asked with innocent open eyes.

He tossed a branch of broccoli into his mouth before answering, "You know what that'll look like."

"I don't care." She exclaimed.

"Fine," he rose up dropping his fork. "Let's go now. I'm not that hungry."

He collected his things, and followed her to the library. He followed onward, not listening to the whispers suddenly converge behind them. He watched her and her only and their opinions suddenly didn't matter. He continued his gaze on her, weaving through the castle until he found his gaze fall upon the swish of her dress skirts, her hips. Biting his lip.

'Lip biting really? Oh man, grow up please!' He scolded himself inwardly.

"Here we go, let's get a table up the back!" She smiled. The smile was little but far better that the look of shock during class.

Her hands. God he needed to take a break, he'd gone from lip biting to reminiscing about hand holding in the span of a minute, not even romantic hand holding! Maybe he should stay away from her, like his father had suggested. At the time it seemed like a typical Malfoy/Sltherin thing to say but maybe his father had seen something he didn't?

"Sit." She seemed to repeat. Did he miss her say it the first time? Great now she thought he was a dumb ass.

He sat.

"Okay, well. I was wondering if I could have those notes back." She seemed nervous, worried again.

Fuck. "Um, not really…"

"What?" Her eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean?"

"I gave them to someone."

"YOU GAVE THEM TO SOMEONE!" Rose got a glare from Madam Pince, "You gave them away?" She sounded pleading, "I only threw them at you a few hours ago."

"I sent them to someone… By owl… Someone I hope can help. Someone we can trust," He treaded carefully, his face akin to the one he'd pulled when he had to scoop Hippogriff poop off his robes fourth year.

"Oh, someone we can trust huh? And how do you know that? Huh? How are you so sure?" She crossed her arms over chest. Scorpius knew this would not go so well.

"Well, I know because… she helped us out last year… with our little problem."

"My mum?!" She cried, receiving a shushing sound from Madam Pince again. "Actually, that's a good idea. She's the one who tracked the Rebirth Cult's magic back to them she could figure out if it's them again." She caught herself suddenly at the mention of last year.

Awkward silence settled between them, maybe he should apologize?

"I-"

"Look, I know that you probably would have wanted to talk about last year but-" She began.

"It's okay your Dad clued me in. He said I shouldn't pry, I won't. I promise," He smiled politely, the memory of her father watching his memories through the pensieve and then un-cuffing him wasn't his favourite memory to dwell on.

"She needs time to heal and you're going to give her that time. You're gonna stay away from her alright!" He'd roared, throwing him out of the utility closet.

"What?" She exhaled.

"What?" he returned.

"What did my Dad say?" She breathed again.

"Shit." Scorpius spat but she wasn't listening.

For her everything was coming into place, clicking together in her mind. "Of course he did. Of course. That explains it all. Wow I really didn't see that did I?" Rose rambled to herself. "I'm sorry," she announced looking back to him at once. "I just thought, all summer…"

She steeled herself, "I woke up in the hospital alone and afraid for you. You were there when I blacked out but after that anything could have happened to you… My parents, they told me you were okay, they told me how you got me there to safety, thank you by the way for that, but you didn't write and you didn't visit. I started not believing them, thinking I had done something wrong. They tried their hardest to redirect my focus from what happened that night, inviting my cousin over, going out every other day of the holidays… I saw you at Diagon Alley. Getting school supplies, do you remember? You looked right through me."

Scorpius didn't have words, he couldn't collect anything in his useless Ravenclaw brain to say anything let alone anything articulate. He probably should have left her there and then wrote a letter that fully explained his every thought. Instead he gave her the dumbest smile he'd ever felt across his face and then exhaled a shaky breath he hadn't known he was holding onto.

"If you could ask me any one question about that day, what would it be?" She smirked brushing her hair behind her fringe.

"Why?" His croaked, hoping to convey everything in to one look as he could.

Her face straightened into stillness. "Right. Um, I thought you might go for that one." She began, shifting in her seat across from him.

He steadied his palms flat onto the table in front of him, holding his gaze, waiting for her explanation.

"There was something about the way they said that I was the Golden Child and you were the one born to the Dark. They treated me fairly well for a kidnapping, the way we dreamt those dreams, it dawned on me that they wanted me to kill you. They could have done it, I'm sure. They coveted my parents and my uncle in the end. I was of value, I was prized to them as a child of the Golden Trio. We weren't getting out of there by simply not doing it. The only other choice was taking them off guard."

"Stabbing yourself? Rose you could have died!" He exclaimed feeling his palms begin to sweat.

"You know that I never wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have done that to you for anything. So I did it for me, really." She flushed, "I'm a terrible Slytherin aren't I?" She chuckled.

"Fucked if I'd know," He blurted making her laugh finally. He felt lighter for it, "You're the Slytherin not me remember!"

She chewed her bottom lip. 'Merlin,' He swore inwardly.

"Can I tell you a secret?" She smirked her own sort of smirk and he leaned into the table playfully. "First year Albus was really nervous about being put into Slytherin House. He told his dad about it and his dad told him that the Sorting Hat took your opinion into consideration, you could ask to be put somewhere else. Albus told us about it on the train ride up to Hogwarts. In the end, the Sorting Hat immediately threw him into Gryffindor." Scorpius just nodded listening to the story. "I've always been my parent's daughter. You can't imagine how many events I was dragged to as a child, memorials, meetings, benefits. I asked the Sorting Hat to put me into Slytherin."

"I can understand that." He began without hesitation or judgement. "I wish I had such a daring secret but the Sorting Hat put me into Ravenclaw about as quickly as he put Albus into Gryffindor. I've always wanted to be something other than my father, I think I may dare call it my greatest fault. It overcomes most of my natural decisions I think, but I understand what it's like to live in the shadows on one's parents." He explained solemnly.

And in this they found some common ground.