Disclaimer: I do not own any recognisable characters in this Fan Fiction.

Chapter 6: Anytime

Scorpius's hangover was worse than he had expected. His head was throbbing and he felt like he was going to be sick at any moment. Why had he let Weasley talk him in to drinking half a bottle of vodka? Straight from the bottle. It was a good night though, despite the fact that any sound he heard was pounding into his brain. He was grateful that his roommates had not opened the curtains; he wouldn't have been able to deal with the sunlight very well and would have probably taken it out on the nearest first year. He was just glad that it was a Saturday, making the lie-in something he could do without arousing suspicions. Of course the fact that he hadn't returned to his dorm until well past curfew would raise a few eyebrows, but he could deal with that. He found himself wondering if Rose had had the same response to her return, he concluded that she somehow wouldn't have gotten away with it as easily. This distressed him slightly but that was soon brushed off when suddenly someone crashed through the door. Scorpius groaned at the unnecessary ruckus and buried his head in his pillow. Austin Nott swept over to Scorpius and chuckled to himself.

"Hey cuz!"

"Stop shouting," Scorpius said sounding drowsy.

"Here, drink this," Austin said, handing over a small cup of hangover potion, "and then tell me the gory details!" Scorpius took the potion from him and downed it. He then turned to his cousin and looked him straight in the eye. He couldn't understand Austin sometimes, especially at moments like this, when he seemed more interested in the gossip. He must have picked that up from his mother, from what Scorpius from his own mother; Daphne Greengrass had been quite a gossip mouth during her time at school. Scorpius was just curious as to why Austin had never picked up his father cool, sultry and seductive methods.

"There isn't much to tell," Scorpius said eventually, "she came to find me, which you know about already, I took her out to the grounds and she screamed. Then she offered me some vodka. We drank the whole bottle between us plus a bottle of Firewhiskey. I don't remember much but nothing 'gory' happened. Sorry,"

"It's alright," Nott said, although from the look on his face he was a little disappointed, "what's with you two anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you always running to her every beckon call?"

"We're friends; that's what friends do. Isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Thanks for the potion Aus,"

"Anytime."

'Thank Merlin it's Saturday,' Scorpius thought as he entered the Great Hall, his head still painful from the night before. Nott was close in his wake actively talking about nothing that was particularly interesting to the blonde. He snuck a look to the Gryffindor to see that Weasley seemed annoyingly unaffected by the antics of the previous night. This came as a surprise to him as she had been the one who had been out of her tree, not him. He could, however, see a slight undertone to her smile. Like she was only smiling to keep up appearances. Maybe she was just better at dealing with this kind of thing than him. He had got the impression from her actions she got drunk quite often at home.

"Scorpius?" a clear voice ripped through his thoughts and he suddenly focused, seeing Nott's face in front of his.

"Yes?"

"Were you listening?"

"Do I ever?" Scorpius said sitting down at the Slytherin table. He grabbed a roll and buttered it before placing two rashers of bacon and three sausages in the middle.

"True. What I was saying was have you thought about the dance? I mean have you asked anyone yet?"

"No, I was going to ask Eleanor Zabini but father's banned me from speaking to the family. Don't ask, long story. I don't really know who to take, to be honest; maybe I'll go alone, then it's a bonus if I have a girl by the end of the night."

"Mmhmm," Austin said a little distantly, "I've been thinking,"

"Oh that's never a good sign," Scorpius muttered. Nott ignored him.

"I was thinking about asking that Weasley to the ball, not your new buddy but the one in my year, you know the pretty one?" Nott was in the year above Scorpius but due to them being cousins they had always been quite close.

"Oh you mean the Johnson girl's daughter? Yeah she's pretty I suppose," pretty was a bit of an understatement. She was stunning. She had a well proportioned, curvy body and long dark hair. Her skin was dark which made her unusually bright blue eyes prominent. Scorpius hadn't really been looking at her when he was with the Weasleys though; he had been too concerned with Rose's welfare than checking out her cousins.

"And I was wondering..." Nott trailed off,

"I'll see what I can do. I can't promise anything though," Scorpius said, understanding what his cousin was insinuating.

"Thanks mate," Nott said, standing up and grabbing a piece of dry toast, "well see you later."

"No problem, anytime," Scorpius yelled after the retreating figure.

"Malfoy," a voice said from behind Scorpius. It sounded angry. 'What did I do now?' He turned to see James Potter looking at him with a sneer on his face.

"Potter," Scorpius said with a genuine cheeriness in his voice, "to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Cut the crap, Malfoy, what were you doing with Rosie last night?" 'Oh shit.'

"We were walking out by the lake,"

"Until 2 in the morning? Rubbish!"

"We were talking!" it wasn't a lie, they had been by the lake, they had walked to get there, they had been talking too. It was just the bottle of Smirnoff that he knew wouldn't go down well.

"If you lay a finger on her, Malfoy, I will make sure you don't have a single finger left by the time I'm done with you," Potter threatened. Scorpius was a bit perturbed by this; he had always though he'd been getting on with the Potters and Weasleys pretty well. Where had this come from anyway, it wasn't like they were... 'Oh no!'

"Believe me, I wouldn't do anything to her... with her... unless she wanted – I don't like her in that way... not that I wouldn't... she's pretty and I'd -" as he was saying this he realised that Potter's eyes were getting wider and his face getting angrier as he went on 'Hey Scorp? Want another shovel? I don't think that hole's big enough,' said a voice in his head. He decided to start again. "Listen Potter, I like her as a friend, I respect her too much to hit her or do... things... with her. If we were going out I'd still hold that respect for her. If you hadn't noticed recently she's been feeling shit. I'm not my father's son, I don't kick people when they're down," he snarled. 'The nerve of some people!'

"Good. Well. Yes well thank you," Potter said, a little thrown.

"Yeah, anytime." Scorpius said before walking away. 'Prick,' he thought.

Scorpius was really enjoying the book his reading and the quiet of the library gave him the liberty of peace that his common room didn't. Plus he was avoiding both Eleanor Zabini, who was constantly dropping hints about the ball coming at the end of the week, and Nott, who was constantly asking if he'd spoken to the Weasley girl yet. He hadn't; in fact he hadn't spoken to any of them in three days. He wanted to keep his fingers.

"My Dad's having an affair," came a matter of fact voice from across the table. He looked up to see haunted hazel eyes. He didn't know what to say, the words had been said so matter-of-factly that there was nothing he could say, "well, I don't know for sure but Mum is always saying he's coming home late, he never owls me or my brother. Mum hasn't even bothered to put the usual 'your father says hello' in her letters. Then there's what Zabini said..."

"Don't listen to him, he's a dick. Your Dad's an Auror right? Well they're always busy,"

"True, but if he's on a job he'd send letters himself. Mum seems ignorant, bless her, I love her but she can be rather stupid sometimes. Ironic really considered she's the brightest witch of her generation," Weasley said. Even Scorpius hadn't noticed how cynical she had gotten. He supposed he was partly to blame for that. He needed to get her off the drink somehow. He looked at her and noticed the bags under her eyes had gotten particularly bad recently. She had also seen that her eyes were constantly blood shot too. This had got really bad now. She needed comfort; the type that he wasn't sure he could offer her, the kind that she would be assured that it wasn't true, that it would all turn out fine. She was too stubborn to accept it though, and whenever he tried to tell her otherwise she would always shoot his reasoning down.

"Sorry. I needed to vent," she said after she'd explained all her reasoning to her theory and all the problems her cousins were causing her recently. Scorpius had to explain the reason that he wasn't meeting up with them when she mentioned it.

"It's alright," he said sincerely "anytime." After that she came to him every time.

"You have a date," Scorpius said simply to his cousin after sitting down at the Slytherin table for dinner on the Wednesday before the ball.

"Thanks!" Nott said, all too enthusiastically. He got that from Aunt Daphne, Uncle Theo wasn't enthusiastically about anything.

"There's a catch though," Scorpius said cautiously,

"What?" Nott asked, his suspicions aroused,

"You have to tell her family, and she said, and I quote, if they tell you you're 'dead meat', you have to meet her at the ball, even if you do wear a mask."

"Oh," Nott gulped, "thank god for masquerades, eh?" Scorpius chuckled at his cousin's positive attitude to almost everything.

"Yeah," he agreed. He was pleased for a different reason though, "if you need help I can try and get Rose to talk to them."

"That'd be great mate, thanks!"

"Anytime," Scorpius said, standing up to leave.

AN:I know it's short but I didn't have much I wanted to say for Scorpius recently. The All Hallows Eve Ball next. That chapter will be slightly different and change between Scorpius and Rose; each break will be a change.

Thanks for all the reviews, they make me smile. If you have a suggestion as to something Slytherin it would be greatly appreciated.

Preview:

Nervously she stepped through the great oak doors, thankful for the mask and make up she was wearing hiding her blush. She didn't like everyone looking at her.