Riding the Hogwarts Express back to school was like waking up from a dream, gradually leaking back into reality.
Scorpius had stayed the rest of the holidays and although he got several 'talks' with nearly every male member of her extended family (Hugo refrained from 'such nuisances' -Lily was more than happy to play the part) the holidays went on without incident.
They sat together on the train (arriving to the platform together had already given their secret away!) and napped in each others arms, Scorpius's white blonde hair a sight amongst the sea of Weasley red and Potter black. Actually it was just Albus who had the Potter black, Lily's dark auburn was still too red to be anything other than Weasley-ish.
They rested there and missed the food cart, missed Hugo and Fred Jr argue about Quidditch teams and didn't even make up to Roxanne's incessant giggling. It wasn't until another couple sought them out at their cabin door that they came to, hands intertwined.
"Ugh hello." Don said nervously, "I heard the gossip going round. Heard you two finally came out about your relationship."
"We thought we might too," Alexandria sighed. "At least to you two that is."
"Don, seriously? This is the girl you've been sneaking around with?" Scorpius exclaimed. "Alexandria Nott! Actually that makes a lot of sense."
"Alex! You didn't even tell me you were seeing someone!" Rose rose from her seat, her cousins prattle dimming into a whisper around her. "How did Daphne not sniff this out?"
"Give me some credit Rose, some of us Slytherin's give into the predilection for sneakiness." Alexandria smiled, the kind of smile that Rose hadn't ever seen on her face before. Alexandria looked softer and maybe even a little older too.
"Oh my goodness!" Rose covered her mouth with her hand, "I'm such a bad friend. How didn't I notice all this time. I was so caught up in my own relationship!"
"Actually Rose, I think you'll find they've been together a lot longer than us," Scorpius pointed at them before stretching his arms out after the nap.
"Sorry Rose." Alexandria looked physically pained. "It's just last year with the dreaming thing, I was worried so I started doing some research. And well, Donald helped me with it. He was worried for Scorpius ("No I wasn't!" from Don) so we bumped into each other and got to talking and spent a bit of time together. And then, yeah." Alexandria squeezed at Don's hand after explaining. Rose speechless just flailed her hands helplessly in the air and sat back down next to Scorpius.
"Wanna sit down?" Rose offered.
"It looks a bit packed in here, catch up with you two later maybe?" Don offered.
"Wow, I just realized Daphne's going to kill you. Withholding information. Man are you going to get a reaming!" Rose sang, Alexandria followed her boyfriend down the carriage but not before turning back poking out her tongue and shooting Rose the middle finger.
"Tell me that wasn't strange," Rose nudged Scorpius, whom had leaned back and shut his eye, returning to his sleep.
"I think they're cute!" Lily announced.
"They look happy," Scorpius said with one eye open. Rose kissed him in response.
When they got off the train everything was different. After that it was all whispers and looks, pointing and stares. A couple of ooh's and disdainful looks later and they were riding back to the castle, separately, just in time to dinner.
"I can't believe you hid the fact you were dating Alexandria Nott from me for so long." Scorpius punched Woods affectionately. "I'm kinda impressed."
"You're telling me." Woods laughed stuffing chicken covered gravy into his mouth.
"Looks like she's getting an earful from Zabini over there," Scorpius laughed. Both boys turned to look over at the two girls arguing. Daphne was talking Alexandria's ear off, looks like Rose was right. Wait, Rose. Where was Rose? "Excuse me."
Scorpius didn't care how stupid it seemed, he didn't care what it looked like. He had a bad feeling as soon as he realized Rose hadn't made it to the feast. "Hey, you seen Rose." He interrupted them over at the Slytherin table.
Both girls froze and if startled to see him there, he could almost watch their brains tick over as they realized something was wrong. "She isn't here. I can't remember her saying where she was going. One minute we were heading toward to the hall, the next…" Alexandria trailed off.
Daphne looked blank.
Rose was missing.
When Rose opened her eyes she saw only darkness. Out of nausea she became sick on the floor beside her. She must have been knocked out with some spell. Her hands were magically bound.
"FUCK!" She yelled, struggling against her bonds. She grunted and struggled against them until her frustration was overtaken with panic. She was too frazzled to focus her magic, she'd never been great at wandless magic. Rose specialized in tricky, well thought out magic, things with preciseness and not focus of will. "Oh fuck, this can't be happening, not again."
She felt sweat trickle down her forehead, she screamed once more in frustration.
"Phoooow!" She breathed, time to focus on the bind, focus on the magic there.
"So you're awake. Good…" A voice churned through the darkness, hard to place. "Why couldn't you have played along?" The voice was pleading. "You couldn't have just let me have it? What am I going to do now?!" She voice yelled.
"Melinda?"