You are cordially invited to the

24th Annual Ministry of Magic Auction and Gala

to celebrate history, friendship, and magic.

Items for auction include a diamond necklace, said to have belonged to Helga Hufflepuff,

and brings sudden clarity to the wearer,

a ring bearing the Black family crescent from the 16th century,

and the bludger from the infamous accident at the 1924 Ireland vs. Norway match

and many more.

~To be this Tuesday, 7pm, in the ballroom of the Magnum Palace~

"An auction and gala," I read softly. My eyes meet Scorpius'.

"Yeah, my parents go to it every year," he says. "There's dancing and food and things like that."

"My mum says it's just an excuse for old woman to gossip, but she loves to dress up for it anyways," I tell him. She really does, too, which is odd because normally she doesn't care much what she looks like. But for these galas she goes all out- she even uses Sleakeasy Hair Potion, which I didn't even know she owned until I saw her getting ready for last year's gala. I think it's because when she comes down stairs in a ball gown Dad's jaw drops every time.

"Today's Sunday," Scorpius informs me randomly.

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Mr. Malfoy," I tell him, a little confused.

He rolls his eyes at me. "No, I mean, this gala or whatever is in two days."

Oh wow. I hadn't even realized it, but he's right. What are we going to do? "Are we really just going to wait two days to try to get Al? That sounds mental!"

Scorpius runs his fingers through his hair, thinking. "We know he's probably at the Burke Manor by now. We should do something."

I nod. "But what are we going to do? There's only two of us and who knows how many of them! They'll bloody kill us!"

"Rose, we know they're all idiots, except for Yaxley, and he probably wouldn't bother himself with keeping watch over your cousin anyway," Scorpius reasons, but I can't help but have my doubts. He's got a point though, but I hate not knowing anything for sure. What if they're not as dumb as Scorpius thinks? What if Yaxley's really there? What if they've done something horrible to Al already?

I mean, it's not very likely, but what if?

But then, I'll never forgive myself if I don't try now and they kill him at the gala.

"Okay," I concede, "But we're going to need a plan."

Scorpius smirks. "I knew you'd come round."

"Are you sure about this?" I whisper, grass itching my ankles.

"Rose, we've gone over this a million times already. They'll be keeping him in the basement room, so we'll go in through the window and then-"

"I know, I know, then I untie Al while you take care of the person watching him and so on," I finish for him. I feel jittery and nervous and my hands are clammy. Of course, Scorpius manages to look totally calm, as if he does these rescue mission type things all the time. I glare at him in the dark, but it's mostly because of the nerves.

We've been sitting out here for only a couple minutes, after wasting the day going over our plan and waiting for the sun to set. And eating, of course. We got sandwiches from a deli and ate them on the steps of an old library for lunch. Dinner was at some little Muggle restaurant and I had a good laugh watching Scorpius try to guess what Toad-in-the-Hole was while he was scanning the menu.

But back to reality. All of that seems like it was days ago, maybe even weeks ago. Now I just feel scared.

"Are you ready?" Scorpius breaths in my ear. I feel a shiver down my spine and assume it's from nervousness. I start to nod my head until I realize he can't see me in the dark.

"I think so," I whisper, but my voice sounds shaky and I'm sure he can tell I'm afraid.

"Aren't you supposed to be a Gryffindor?" he says teasingly, to which I bat him on the arm. With that, I go through the small open window that I slid through before, the dim light making my skin look orange. Scorpius follows me in, and we start to look around.

But there's something completely wrong.

Al isn't here.

In fact, nobody's in this basement room. I rub my face in my hands. "Bloody hell."

"Rose, I-"

"Please stop talking. I can't believe you talked me into this! I bet they found out we were coming and took him someplace else! I bet they tortured him even more! I bet they killed him! And what if it's all our fault?" I hiss at him, my hands clenching into fists. "What if he's in pain or he's dying because we tried to break into this bloody manor and they hurt him and it's all our fault?" Maybe I'm a little hysterical, but it's like walking into your house, expecting to find your surprise birthday party, only to find no one actually planned one.

"Rose, calm down, he'll be okay. He can take care of himself," Scorpius murmurs with what I assume he thinks is a soothing voice. But it's not. It just makes me angrier.

"How can you sound so calm? He could be dead and we'd never even know!" I shout-whisper, marching around the room angrily until I accidentally bang my knee against the empty wooden chair. "Shit!" I shriek loudly, out of surprise and pain and lingering anger. But my eyes go wide and with a glance at my blond companion, he looks totally shellshocked as well. We stand, frozen and waiting for something to happen.

I hear voices from upstairs but I can't make out what they're saying. There's a screech- a chair backing up from a table?- and footsteps that sound like impending doom. Somebody is rushing down the stairs now, and there's no time to think or do anything. Before the shadow of a person comes into the light, I hear them say, "Accio wands!" and numbly feel my wand leave one of my fists.

Me and my big mouth.

"Well, if it isn't the scary redheaded monster and my little Scorpy, all nice and at my disposal," says a girl's voice, and Margaret Rosier's bodacious figure is illuminated as she takes a step towards us. I swear, this girl is just a big bag of crazy.

Wait. "Redheaded monster?" I can't help but blurt, confused and annoyed and still angry at the lack of my cousin.

She giggles. "Well, it's what you are, isn't it?"

I purse my lips.

"So what are you both doing here?" she asks, twisting a piece of her dark hair around a slender finger.

"We came to... reconsider," Scorpius says smoothly, but when I look at him, he looks a little more nervous than I'd like him to be.

"Reconsider?" Margaret quips. "Whatever do you mean, Scorpy dear?"

I glance at Scorpius' neck, where the hickey is still evident, though lighter than it was yesterday, and fight the urge to gag.

"We want to join you. And I want you, Margaret. Will you have me?" he says softly, taking her hands in his, their bodies centimeters apart. I ignore the twisting sensation in my stomach. He's quite the actor... And this is acting, isn't it? I'm sure it is, but I can't get rid of the itch of doubt in the back of my mind.

"Ha!" Margaret cries, dropping Scorpius' hands. "As if I'd have you, seeing as you've been fucking this half-breed scum!" She laughs derisively and I can't take it anymore. How dare she call me a half-breed, as if that's some sort of insult! And scum? I'm not scum either! In fact, the only person in the room worthy of scum status would be crazy Margaret Rosier! How in the world could she think that in this situation I am the scum!

Besides, she must be crazy if she thinks Scorpius and I have been, er, "fucking," as she so nicely put it.

So I do the only logical thing in this situation. I punch her.

"Whore!" she wails, and as she grasps her cheek with both hands, she drops all three of the wands. I take my wand and Scorpius takes his and Margaret's. I push the poor girl against the wall.

"Now tell us where Al is!"

She looks so frightened that I'm tempted to just let her go, but I can't. Not until she helps me find Al. "H- He's upstairs, on the top floor, in the guest room," she whimpers, shaking.

I let her go before Scorpius stuns her. Our eyes meet, and he raises an eyebrow at me, as if to say, "Shall we go on?"

"Wait," I whisper. "We need to figure out some sort of plan first, right? We can't just go in and attack however many people are in this stupid house!"

Scorpius sighs. "Alright. One of us distracts them while the other goes upstairs and looks for Albus."

"Okay, so you'll distract while I go upstairs."

"What? No, I should be the one to go upstairs, and you should distract," he argues.

I roll my eyes. "Oh yes, because I'm so great at making things up. I thought that was your area of expertise. 'Ooooh Margaret, take me baaaack!'" I mimic, albeit poorly.

Now he rolls his eyes at me. "Fine, since you're clearly not capable at all at acting."

"Fine," I say. "You go up the stairs, and I'll go outside and find a way in that doesn't involve being seen."

"Fine," he says dismissively, and with a humph, I climb out of the window. I hear Scorpius' footsteps echoing in the small room, and I start looking around for a way to get in. He can only be distracting for so long.

There's a tall tree with long branches, some of which go close to some of the upstairs windows. Unfortunately, it's so dark around here that I can barely see the trunk of the tree. But climbing it seems like the only option, and so I feel the trunk with my hands to get a better sense of it. It's low enough that I can climb to the base of the limbs fairly easily, but in this light, I just can't tell if the branches are thick enough to support my wait.

I tie my hair in a tangled bun, mutter "Lumos," while holding my wand, and then stick it through my hair. If it falls out, I'm totally screwed, but for once, I'm grateful for having such knotty hair at the moment. The light still doesn't illuminate very much, but at least I can see what's right in front of me. I climb the trunk of the tree, and look around at all my options. There are only a few branches that look thick enough, but the only one that's close enough to a window looks like it will barely support me. I take my chances and start sliding out on the branch.

The branch starts bouncing when I'm less than a meter away from where I started. I cling on to the branch for dear life and wait for the bouncing to subside. Once it has, I continue to slide farther down on the branch, which gets thinner and thinner the farther I go out. Twigs scratch at my legs and arms but I ignore them and keep sliding. I'm almost at the end when I realize the branch is way too skinny to sit on to get close enough to the window.

And then the branch slides out from under me. I gasp. I'm vaguely aware that I'm falling towards the ground, but I can't let myself fall. My hands reach out towards the house, trying to grab onto something or anything or whatever my hands can grasp. One of my hands catches a windowsill, and I bring my other hand up. The window's closed tight, though, but I don't want to risk punching it open, because I know the glass will get wedged into my hand which is really the last thing I want to happen right now.

I have to get my wand out of my hair.

Oh, Merlin, somebody up there hates me.

Reluctantly, I drop my right hand from the ledge, but I can already feel the fingers of my other hand slipping. My right hand pats frantically around the back of my head, seeking my wand, but I feel my hand bump into it, causing it to slide out. It's slipping but I can't catch it in time and I watch it fall, silently. I put my hand back on the ledge.

I am so bloody screwed.

But wait... Where is it? Glancing over my shoulder, I can't see a speck of light on the grass. And that's when I notice a light coming out of my combat boot.

Hey, maybe somebody up there really is looking out for me after all!

But then again, I have to somehow get my wand out of my shoe without plummeting to the ground. I bite my lip and squeeze my eyes shut as I bend my leg up and grasp desperately for the bloody stick. I feel my fingers curl around it just as my other hand starts slipping.

"Ascendio!" I shriek, and as the window slams open, I put my wand into my mouth to hold as I clamp both hands on the open windowsill, and wish for all I'm worth that I had more upper body strength. I reach up and feel scratchy cloth, which I assume to be a curtain, and yank hard, my feet scaling the side of the house. Finally, I manage to get my feet on the windowsill, and I tumble inside, landing on wooden floor.

I breathe hard, laying on the floor for a moment to catch my breath.

Standing up and dusting myself off, I turn on the light, and see that I'm in an old bedroom laden with musty quilts full of moth holes. I open the door, looking out into the hallway, only to discover the corridor is lined with about a dozen doors.

Suddenly, one of the doors opens, and a boy wearing a hooded cloak steps out.

"Ah, Rose Weasley, it's about time you showed up."

And then Felix Yaxley begins to laugh.

Bloody hell.

A/N OMG! What's going to happen next?

Well, hopefully, if I get my act together, you'll find out sometime in the next couple of days! Yay!

But sadly though, in case you didn't read Love Is (my latest one-shot! Check it out! Wink wink!) and see the A/N there, this is because I'm going to be gone from computers for all of July because I'm going to sleep away camp. Sorry everyone! I'll really try to make it up in the next few days and the days I get home, though! I have plenty of ideas already!

Also noted in the A/N of Love Is (What? You still haven't checked it out? And what is this? You should also check out Nerdgasm too?) I just came back from a trip to Turkey! It's amazing and beautiful and a lot of fun and you should allllllll go there sometime! The food there is amazing!

And a special thanks to those of you who not only review this story (and sometimes every chapter of this story) but who read my other fics and reviewed those too! I love all you, dear readers, I really do! Did you know this story has 46 people who Story Alerted it? Is that not insane? I mean, imagine if all those lovely, beautiful people reviewed every chapter! Crazy, I know! Take the hint!

So please, my lovies, review. Sorry for the minor suckage of this chapter! Keep on reading and reviewing!

xx

Ali