Chapter Two

I had to wait until dinner to hear anything at all about Victoria's mystery lad. Every time I tried to bring it up in class she shushed me. During the last few classes, when I brought it up she pinched me hard on the arm. When the evening post came during dinner, Victoria stowed her letter away quickly into her bag.

"Aren't you going to open that?" I asked, assuming it was from her parents.

"Not right now." She said.

I looked at her, and noticed the corner of her mouth twitching. "I'm guessing last night went on well, then?"

"Shush your big mouth!"

"That's it." I said, putting down my half eaten roll. "You either tell me about it right now, or I'll stand up on the table and demand he reveal himself."

"You'll do no such thing."

"Oh?" I said, rising from my seat and putting a foot on the bench. She pulled me down violently, but I had already caught the attention of several people from the Gryffindor table. I noticed that Weasley sat with them even though she was in Ravenclaw. Probably because Albus was her only friend. I made a face at them.

"If you must know," she said, lowering her voice, "it went quite well."

"Aw, Tor's got a snogging buddy."

"We didn't snog, you git. He's quite the gentleman; all we did was talk."

"For some reason I find that hard to believe."

"Be skeptical if you wish." Victoria swirled her pinky around in her cup of pumpkin juice, lost to her memories. It was so uncharacteristic of her that it made me vaguely ill. "Where's Zabini?"

"Who knows, he probably got lost somewhere." I looked up when I heard a bit of rustling, and saw quite a few kids getting up to leave. I took that as my cue. "I'm going to go in the library for a bit."

"Would you like for me to go with you?" she asked.

"No, I'll go alone." I replied, taking one last bite of food before standing up. I pat her on the top of her head and hurried off before she could try and hit me.

For some reason the corridors were cluttered with groups of students, so I tried to take the paths no one used. I wasn't one for all the noise and scrambling about of my peers. They wandered around the castle without aim, seemingly just to get in my way or bother me. Don't get me wrong; I'm rather rambunctious when it's just me and Tor or when I've had a bit to drink. If I acted like that around everyone, people would trouble the hell out of me at all times. Being cold drives people away, and that is what I want. I'd prefer not to become friends with dim, snot-nosed juveniles. I'm not an anti-social, I swear.

The library was warmer than usual, and I didn't like it. Warmth attracted kids like flies to rotten meat. Maybe that isn't the best thing, comparing a library to rotten meat.

Anyway, contrary to my fears there weren't many people in the library. Those that were present I recognized as kids too shy to talk to me. That was fine with me. I made my way to the back of the library, to a table where I usually sat. I froze when I heard voices, preparing something to say to scare them off. There was a sob, and a whispered response followed. I knew those voices, damn it.

As quietly as possible, I walked into the nook adjacent to my usual one and stuck my ear against the bookcase separating the two. A kid walking by stopped and stared at me, and I waved him off until he went back to the front. I could barely hear their muffled voices, but what I heard was enough.

"Did-did you hear-" said the sobbing girl.

"He doesn't mean it." That voice I was certain of; Zabini's voice rose up a few octaves when he was excited, nervous, happy, sad, concerned, trying to give advice, etc.

"You know he does! I don't know what I did, it's been like this for so long."

"He never told me-"

"- my darling friend. I liked him so much and then-"

"You two were friends?"

I'd heard enough. I rounded the corner to face them, and any nervousness I felt disappeared when I saw their expressions. It was like I fed off of fear. Weasley's face was all red and puffy, and deep down it bothered me, so I didn't look. Instead, I glared intently at Chastin. There were so many things I wanted to say, but all that came out was, "What the fuck are you doing?"

"I came in here earlier and she was just crying away…"

I ran my hands through my hair. What had I become? Yelling at my friends just for helping someone out… I'd changed so much over the past five years, my twelve year old self would be disgusted with who I'd become. Hell, I was disgusted. If my mum knew how I acted at school, she would have hexed me to oblivion. I was always taught to be kind and chivalrous. My mum always read me muggle stories about King Arthur, and told me she wanted me to be like a knight. Growing up, I always strove to be a gentleman. Sorry mum, but that part of me died when I was twelve.

"And you." I said, looking at her. She had been staring at me, but now she glanced away. I found it too hard and decided to study the floor instead. "Don't you go around telling people we used to be mates. It's embarrassing enough knowing you, being friends with you is inexcusable." My hands shook, so I shoved them in my pockets. I hated talking to her.

Her eyes watered up even more, but she looked at me with pure hatred. "You are the most heartless person I have ever met, Scorpius Malfoy. You're cruel, and vicious and cold, and you care of no one but yourself. Your fath-"

She's lucky she stopped where she did. Otherwise, I would have been shipped off to Azkaban that night. "Yeah, tell me something I don't know." I said, turning and storming off.

"Do you remember nothing?" she cried out, and I heard Chastin trying to comfort her. I paused, tempted to go back. How many times had I gone through this? The years hadn't made it any easier. I would yell, she cried. Sometimes she yelled back. I'd leave, or she'd leave. I was always temped to go to her and ask her why she didn't remember what she'd done. Ask her if she was playing some cruel trick. But I never did.

I hoped Chastin knew I wasn't really mad at him. Once I cooled down I'd be fine. I decided I'd make it up to him somehow, and he had better forgive me. I needed to talk to someone, and bad. The only person I was ever willing to talk to, though, was probably off with her soon to be shag buddy and didn't have time for me anymore. Thus, despite it being only eight o'clock, I headed to the dungeons to play chess and cheat some first years out of their sweets. Being an arse-hole always made me hungry for sweets. Treacle tarts especially.

AN: Triple posting tonight because I have nothing better to do! Next chapter should be up in the next couple of days! DiedLaughing, thanks for the review! There will be more detail, I'm just kind of setting everything up. ^_^.