Rose burst from her dormitory after depositing her school bag on her bed. She had been on a secret quest all day and had thought to have failed until sorting her books just two minutes ago. Jumping with triumph, she nearly knocked into Tyler Garner on the stairs. He shouted something probably snide or sarcastic as she continued into the common room, but she didn't hear what it was. Max's was sitting on the couch shuffling cards and waiting for her. She jumped over the sofa to land next to him. The cards flew from his hands to scatter across the floor.
"Guess what!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"You're not going to help me pick up these cards?" he guessed, leaning down to retrieve them.
"I've just found a huge lead in Alcor's secret!" she bypassed his question.
"Alcor?"
"Albus + Scorpius," she explained. "Albus and Scorpius takes way too long to say."
"Wouldn't it make more sense to call them Scorbus?" Max asked.
"Uh, no. Scor and bus make actual words, it doesn't work like that," Rose replied.
"But Alcor is an actual name," Max said.
"Who has a name like Alcor?" Rose crossed her arms.
"Your version just sounds a little forced, you know, it doesn't roll off the tongue."
"And you're saying yours Scorbus does?"
"I think we're off topic," Max reasoned.
"You changed it… Anyway, I switched Al's and my transfiguration books!" she exclaimed, holding out Al's worn school book.
Max looked up at her disappointedly.
"I didn't mean to," she reasoned. "but I'm sure glad I did! Look!"
She pulled from the pages of A Slightly Less Beginners Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch a stack on concealed pages. She flipped through to find the one she had been considering in her dorm.
"What does this look like to you?" she asked happily, shoving a potions essay with a print traced over the pages under his nose.
She thought she saw something shift in Max's eyes for a moment, but it was gone when he looked back up at her.
"It looks like a duck print," he replied.
"But it's not!" she jumped up. "Why would Al have a tracing of a duck print over Scorpius' essay? I know it's Al's handwriting; he always drew lightly. But look, look, look!" She shuffled through the pages and pulled a small stack of notecards and thrust them into Max's hands causing him to drop the playing cards that he had been gathering.
He looked at the assortment in his hands then looked at her with pity.
"Don't give me that look!" she snapped. "It's something I know it! See? These are all notes on transfiguration and potions and-"
"Rosie?" Max interrupted her, taking her by the hands like she was ill. "We are at school, there will be notes on our subjects."
Rose scowled. "Then how to do explain Sugamina?"
"What?"
"Sugamina," she repeated, taking the last note from Max's hands to jab at the words scribbled on the parchment. "It's all over their notes."
Max stared at the card for a moment then seemed to smile slightly. He handed the notes back to her.
"Want some advise?" he asked.
"Don't tell me to leave it alone again," she hurried. "Because you know I'm not going to."
"I was going to tell you to stop overthinking," he said.
"I'm not making something out of nothing," she argued.
"I never said that," he replied with a smirk that only appeared on his face when he knew something she didn't. "I was going to advise you not to over think. Don't over think."
Rose found this advise odd, but even more, she found Max's demeanor to be peculiar as well, as if he knew something she didn't. But Max would tell her if he knew something about Alcor's secret, surely, especially since he knew how much she wanted to know.
"Scorbus wants to study in the gardens today," Max said tucking his want into his robe pocket. "Al's probably freaking out about that book. You can give it back."
"I'm not giving it back! And it's Alcor," she said crossly.
Max snatched it from her unguarded grip and held it above her head pompously as she jumped.
"I hate keep-away!" she growled irritably as she swatted at the book above her head.
"He needs his book," said Max. "We're going to the gardens to give it to him. Don't be a thief."
"I'm not a thief," he hissed, climbing onto the couch to reach.
"You are if you steal the book."
She stopped reaching for it and scowled at him. Max picked her up from the sofa and placed her on the floor before pressing Al's transfiguration book close to his chest.
"Come on," he said. "We can see Yoman."
Rose had nearly forgotten about Yoman. He was one of the head house elves usually in the kitchen. He had helped them a bit last year, also almost sending Max into an enchanted sleep by means of his boobytrap, but it was Max's own fault for walking into it.
They left the common room to find the halls of Hogwarts rather crowded with students as it always was at this time of day. All the students were celebrating their freedom from classes for the day and pretending that they didn't have any tomorrow. This was Rose's third favorite time of day. Her second was classes and first was studying at night with Max. At this time, through these hallways, were where you could find the most peculiar happenings; it was everything you would expect from a wizarding school.
Rose and Max backed quickly between a suit of armor as Fred, Roxanne, Ortho, Fritz, Cian and James ran pass in terror. Ortho and Fred were cursing, Fritz laughing, Cian enraged, and James wondering how in the world he had gotten himself into this. Rose and Max glanced at each other before daring to peek pass the armor. Thirty flamingos were chasing the flock, hollering and breathing fire. After the last pink feather floated to the ground, Rose and Max began to laugh before continuing to the kitchens.
"Why aren't we using the secret entrance on the grounds?" Rose asked as they skipped down the stone steps.
"Scor said Danielle is camped out in front of it," Max replied.
He stopped walking suddenly and put a hand in front of Rose to indicate that she do the same. Max pressed a finger to his lips and listened. Now that their feet weren't slapping against the steps, she could hear faint pounding and grunts. Max slipped away from their staircase and took the passage to the left. As they grew closer, the noise grew louder until it sounded to be right next to them. Max reached out and tore away a tapestry that concealed a tunnel. Behind the tapestry was a scene that made Rose lunge like a mother tiger. Three large Slytherin boys had Hugo and Obadiah pinned to the stone wall. Obadiah was crumpled into a heap on the floor and one boy had Hugo by the shirt who had the Slytherin by the hair. The fight froze when they saw the two walk in. Max had to grab Rose by the arms to keep her from tackling the boys twice as large as she was. Rose recognized the boy holding Hugo as Relctory, a Slytherin a year older than his victim and probably the combined weight of everyone in the passage. With one look at Max who glared at them with his wand in the hand that he wasn't fighting against Rose with, the Slytherins slithered pass and ran in fear of the kid who was known to be an aggressive dark wizard who dry drowns Slytherins before breakfast. Hugo fell to the floor as the others fled. Max let go of Rose who ran to the young Gryffindor's aid and hestared after the Slytherins.
"Excuse me," Max growled in a terrifying way as he followed the brutes.
"Oh my God, Hugo!" Rose exclaimed, fussing over her little brother. "What happened?"
Hugo was trying to swat her hands away and they combed his hair down. "I was fine," he grunted. "I had him by the hair."
Obadiah sat back up, he had a black eye and swollen lip but seemed to have been playing possum.
"They cornered us," he said.
"Shut up, Obadiah!" Hugo ordered.
"Because we like muggles," the boy finished.
Hugo glared at the ground.
"Said that we were traitors for supporting the filth that is muggle kind," Obadiah finished.
"I think you've covered it!" said Hugo quickly.
"Drug us behind the tapestry and beat up to a pulp," he continued.
"That's enough!" Hugo shouted, turning around.
Rose looked around and found his number 2 pencil that was always behind his ear, cracked and on the floor in shards.
"Oh Hugo," he pouted. "This was your favorite,"
"It's okay," Hugo muttered.
"No, no, I can fix it!" she assured him.
"Rose…"
"I don't know if reparo would work. Maybe I can put the pieces together."
"Rosie!" Hugo stopped her, taking the pieces from her hand. "They cost less than a knut; I have fifty more in my dorm, it's okay."
Max came back into view. His red and gold tie was askew and the shoulder of his robe was torn, not to mention he had a purple welt on his cheek and his wavy curls were now frizzy.
"Got one!" he said triumphantly.
"Which one?" Rose demanded, standing up angrily.
Max held out his arms and did a spin so to show her his tattered clothing.
"Which one do you think?" he said.
"What'd you do to him?" asked Obadiah eagerly.
"I don't know," said Max thoughtfully. "but Relctory now has tusks, toothbrush hair, and an elephant trunk as an ear, so…"
"Where are you going?" Rose asked as Hugo stood up and started off.
"I'm going to beat the other two to a pulp," he said obviously.
"I don't think you need to," Max called after him. "Your girlfriends were chasing them into the owlery last I saw!"
Hugo and Obadiah looked at each other wide eyed and ran up the stairs.
Rose was heaving with anger.
"Calm down," said Max.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" she shouted. "They dare hurt by brother? I swear, they're never going to see the end of this! I'm gonna-"
"It's not your fight," Max interrupted.
"He's my brother! It's my responsibility to-"
"To what? Defend him?" Max stopped her again. "He can take care of himself."
"He's only eleven!"
"And so were you last year," he laughed. "How would you feel if James thought it was his responsibility to defend you?"
"I don't need James! I can take care of myself!"
Max raised his eyebrows as he always did whenever he reached the point he was trying to get at. She understood and sighed angrily, knowing it's no use to argue further.
"Where do you think this tunnel goes?" Max asked, staring town the passage concealed behind the tapestry.
Rose grinned suddenly, met with an adventure.
"Why don't we find out?"
"Er, maybe later, Scorbus is waiting for us," he replied, pushing her onward toward the kitchens.
He had been less eager to explore passageways ever since they had taken one that led to Professor Donima's bedroom and had discovered too much, like how Donima had a tattoo of a unicorn on her back.
They made their way to the giant painting of a bowl of fruit located on the first landing below ground. Max reached out and tickled the pare which giggle and squirmed before turning to doorknob that they used to swing the painting open. They crawled into the kitchens to find hundreds of waist tall, big-eared, large-nosed elves who all smiled at them as they walked in. Yoman was easy to find, he was one of twelve elves that had a red string tied to their sleeve and was holding a clipboard.
"Yoman!" Rose squealed as they caught sight of him,
Yoman turned around and beamed back at them. Rose knelt and gave the elf a hug.
"I is pleased to be seeing you after so long!" squeaked the elf in his high pitched voice. "But I is having a lot of work to be doing and masters Malfoy and Potter are becoming impatient waiting for you."
"They can occupy themselves," Rose assured him.
"Oh, yes miss, they have been," squeaked Yoman. "They is occupying themselves with much talk, talk that is frightening us house elves."
"What kind of talk?" Rose asked, interested and eager.
"They is talking about dangerous things. They is talking about beasts and m-"
Max made a quick gesture over his lips indicating Yoman to zip-it. Yoman looked confused and stopped mid-sentence, carrying the last word like a broken radio.
"Mmmmmmmmm-ustered," he finished and Max knew that mustered wasn't the word that was about to escape his lips. "Dangerous mustered that had gone bad and can make you sick," he improvised.
Rose stared at him, perplexed.
"Well…" she thought. "What about a beast? You said beast."
"No, no, Miss," said Yoman who was staring up at Max who egged him on encouragingly. "I said beef, beef and mustered."
Max let out a forced chuckle.
"In the kitchen so long, all he can thing about is food, nice seeing you Yoman!" and he steered Rose from the kitchens and up a wooden staircase, leaving her looking extremely confused.
"Why would Al and Scorpius be talking about bad beef and mustered?" she asked as they walked through the pumpkin juicery.
"Maybe they ate some," Max suggested.
They found the two boys talking in the shade of an oak tree in the middle of a field in the summer season. Alcor stood up and hurried over when seeing their friends.
"It took you long enough," said Al angrily.
"We got held up," said Max. "But I brought your-" he stopped and felt around his robe and pockets. "Uh…" he let out a nervous laugh. "Well I had your book but, uh, I must've dropped it."
Al's hands slowly rose to his hair which he always gripped when he was stressed or scared.
Rose looked at Al who seemed to be about to tell Max off and felt bad. "No, you didn't," Rose sighed, feeling conflicted. She pulled the transfiguration book from her robe and held it out so Al could snatch it up.
Max looked at her, seemingly impressed.
She had taken it from the floor when Max ran off after Relctory, and had planned on keeping it until she could riddle out the clues. But then she thought about Al and how horrible it would be for her to break his trust. She had worked so hard to build it up and trust was something too precious to be broken over an intangible theory about a duck print and the work Sugamina.
They spent the rest of the day working on practical wand work using the space that the field gave them to cast spells. Scorpius and Albus worked on transfiguration in the grass while Rose and Max dueled by the stream. Rose was better at Defense Against the Dark Arts than Max was. He was swift and quick with is spells that were admittedly weak. Rose was more coordinated therefor her spells had accuracy and strength. They had pleaded for Al and Scorpius to join them, but they refused. Al had gotten much better in transfiguration since just last week, it used to be his worst subject, but now he was turning acorns into peppermints and back again. Sure, the peppermints tasted terrible, but he was getting there.
The days were growing closer to October, sending a breeze through the air though the September sun was still shining through. However, Rose was warm and toasty laying in the summer season of the enchanted gardens. The soft grass tickled her nose as she closed her eyes. The boys were still talking about school and Halloween, the local magic town called Hogsmeade and debating whether they were going to sneak in this year. After a little while, the chattering stopped and she peeked one eye open to see her friends walking away from where she was laying. Were they about to leave her there. She watched as they stopped a few meters from where she was and she closed her eyes again when they turned to look at her. Rose counted to five before she dared open them again. Scorpius and Albus were talking to Max wo listened intently and continued to peak glances at Rose further in the field but the grass hid her face from view. Max seemed to be getting angry and continued to gesture toward where she was, whether to say that they shouldn't be talking in front of her or to include her, she didn't know. But one thing was for certain, Max now knew the secret and she was overjoyed, he would tell her in a heartbeat.