A/N: I know i said i would take ten million years to update, but my patience really does suck. So, instead of seven days, you have this in two. Aren't I brilliant? Oh, also, this fic is rated M for violence because there will most probably be some gruesome stuff in later chapters. Don't think I've forgotten about our lovely killer.

A BIG thanks to Missdagane, XXXmeggie-loves-to-readXXX, Cass and emeralda363 for reviewing the first chapter. You guys are the reason I updated so quickly.

Also, to Cass: I've written ahead a bit so definitely two chapters a week minimum for the rest of this month. Thanks for reviewing! And yeah, there are so many potential sexual tension situations with this plot.

Thanks to all those who've subscribed: Missdagane, MabyeKindaSorta, XXX-meggie-loves-to-readXXX, KatieLou1273, KCornish13, Lizzy0308, renonoelle, Paco the Loser, emeralda363 and lilbuddie715. I apologize if I've left anyone out! Let me know if i have. Also, i'd love to hear what all of you think about this fic so please do review, yeah? It's up to you of course, but they're always appreciated. :D

And finally, I owe this fic to Pal the Bad Ass and Palak. They're like my beta/idea givers/critics. And i love 'em. And again, I don't own Harry Potter.

Now, read.

Chapter two:

"Guys, it looks worse than it is. You don't have to fuss about it so much. Really."

Everyone ignored Rose and continued arguing. Rose clenched her teeth and wished she could just kill them all right now. Except if she did, life would get pretty boring since they constituted like half the wizarding population of Britain.

"Harry, you have to do something! What about the witness protection programme? You can put her in that right? Right? I mean, this is my daughter for Merlin's sake!" Ron's face was red as he flapped his arms around, trying to emphasize his point.

Her uncle Harry just kept pacing the room, clearly thinking hard. "I can't do that Ron. Everyone would notice. You know how the media is. As soon as she disappears, the daily prophet is going to publish something about it and no matter where she goes, people will know it's her. And if nobody finds her, they'll assume she's dead or in rehab. I'd really like to keep a low profile about this."

Rose considered just hexing herself and saving them all the trouble. If only Dom were here right now….she would be such a perfect outlet for her frustration. Rose had practically begged Dom not to tell anyone about what she'd seen in her apartment. And then Dom had taken one look at the words on the mirror and instantly apparated to the burrow to inform the entire world about what had happened.

Which in a way, was nothing. It was just a simple death threat. People got them all the time! It's not as if all of them just dropped dead whenever they got one. And okay, so she'd have to buy a lot of new clothes and maybe a new mirror but most of the stuff had been easily fixed by a simple wave of her wand.

Everyone was just over-reacting. If this had happened any other time, like say when she hadn't just witnessed an almost-murder, the others would probably have forgotten all about it by now. Except that it hadn't happened any other time, it had happened now and there had been no way she could avoid telling them about the guy in the alley. Not when James and Fred had tied her to a chair and demanded answers at wand point, anyway.

Rose tried to listen to the conversation again but everyone was still making the same points they had been screaming about two hours ago and nobody seemed to be listening to each other. Her dad was still yelling at the top of his voice, Harry was now looking pensively out the window, her mum and Aunt Ginny were arguing with Uncle Bill about something or the other and James and Fred were busy prodding something that looked suspiciously like one of the garden gnomes; Dominique was hiding in her room, still afraid that Rose would try to hex her again.

Just when Rose thought she would go crazy and throw a tantrum if everyone didn't shut up already, Harry turned away from the window and cleared his throat. Everyone stopped arguing and turned to look at him; James quickly stuffed the gnome under a cushion.

"All right. I have a few ideas. Everyone except Rose, get out."

"WHAT?"

"You can't do that!"

"I'm her FATHER, Harry!"

"That's not fair, Uncle Harry! We love Rosie too!"

Rose looked around, wide eyed as everyone started screaming at once. Uncle Harry's ears turned slightly pink as he drew his wand and let out a shower of sparks. Everyone fell quiet again, glaring at him mutinously. "Right," he said tersely. "Ron and Rose, stay. Everyone else, out. And don't breathe a word about this to anyone outside this room."

Everyone except Rose and a triumphant looking Ron filed out tetchily, with more than a few death glares being tossed towards Harry.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, messing it up in the typical Potter way. "Sorry about that Rosie. I wish Dominique hadn't felt the need to announce it so publicly. I can't believe though, that you weren't going to tell us at all." He pinned her with a reproachful stare and Rose hurriedly commenced an examination of her shoelaces.

"Yeah, Rosie!" her dad whined. "How could you not tell me? You can tell me anything, you know that, right?"

Yeah, right, dad. If she told him half the stuff she'd gotten up to over the past five years since graduating Hogwarts, he wouldn't be saying that to her right now. Mostly because she would have been gnome chow by now.

"Rose," Harry began. "The witness protection programme is impossible without drawing unwanted attention. Which leaves me with only one option. And you're not going to like it."

Rose looked at him warily. What was he up to?

He seemed to be summoning his courage as he went on. "While you all were arguing, I sent a patronus to my department at the ministry. They're going to be sending someone over in a few minutes. I want you to remain calm and act professional about this."

His department? Uncle Harry was Head of the Auror Office. Which meant this 'someone' was an auror. An auror she apparently knew and didn't like. Uncle Harry was visibly sweating now; he swiped his brow with the back of his shirt sleeve.

"Umm, see the thing is Rosie, there is an alternative to the protection programme. Instead of having to move away and change your name and all that, you can continue to live in London and go to work and everything. But err, you'll have to have a…well, I've assigned an auror to track you and watch over you at all times."

Rose held in the explosion building up in her. She knew this wasn't the worst part. Oh no, he was beating around the bush about something and when he finally came out and said it, that was when she was really going to explode.

She indicated for him to continue. "I assure you, he's the best we've got and it's either him or a full security detail, I mean that's how good he is, you know? And I know you don't want five people following you around all day, I mean one is so much better, don't you think, even if you don't necessarily get along too well." He was babbling now, his calm demeanor from earlier gone. "And it's only for a little while till we apprehend the intruder and maybe it won't be so bad, you know, I think it'll be good for you actually. I mean, he's just going to be acting as your…er bodyguard for a while. Really. Just a while." He petered off feebly and tugged at his collar.

"Uncle Harry," Rose said through gritted teeth, "Who is going to be my…'bodyguard'?"

Harry gulped and seemed about to answer when green flames flared up in the grate. "Him," he said, with palpable relief, pointing to the figure that was stepping out, dusting ash from his expensive robes.

For one heart stopping moment, Rose convinced herself it couldn't be him. It couldn't be.

And then the blonde man turned around.

"Scorpius Malfoy, reporting for duty, Sir."

Rose exploded.

XXXXXXXX

Rose knew she probably looked wild right now, with her eyes wide and mouth gaping and her hair flying around her face, but she didn't really care.

"NO! Absolutely not! Are you saying- are you telling me- HOW can you expect me to spend more than a minute with him? Uncle Harry, no!"

She was on her feet, chest heaving, eyes locked with Malfoy's. His face was impassive and yet he managed to convey the aura that his sentiments matched hers exactly. Great. Good. At least they were already agreeing about something. This was a stupid idea. Uncle Harry had clearly made a mistake.

"Rose, calm down-"

"Harry! How can you do this?" Rose turned, surprised, to see her dad glaring at his best friend, face red and fists clenched. "I'm not letting that boy near Rosie again! You know what happened in their seventh year-"

"Ron, this is much more important that what happened when they were in school! Rose's life could be in danger here! Surely you won't hold-"

And they were off, arguing over it heatedly.

Rose's eyes flickered back to Scorpius. She mustered the most hateful glare she could and directed its full force at him. He didn't so much as blink, just continued to stare at her with the same blank look on his face, as if she were beneath his notice.

Rose hated that he looked so much like he had five years ago- the same artistically arranged hair which he probably still didn't brush, the aristocratic planes of his face, the grey eyes and pale skin. He looked just as he had the day it had all fallen apart.

She could remember it so clearly, it was almost painful. It had been painful, actually-but that was a while back. She'd gotten over it, moved on. And he clearly had as well. He didn't look particularly happy or sad at having to see her again- just a little disgusted.

Rose cast her mind back, pulling up the old memories she'd tried so hard to suppress.

"I'll see you at dinner then. Later, Dom!" Rose grinned and waved away her best friend, heading to the library. She had a whole lot of potions work left over and if she didn't finish it soon, she was royally screwed. Also, she had to meet Scorpius at ten and there was no way she was missing that.

The strap of her satchel gave way and it fell to the ground, its contents spilling out in every direction. With a groan of frustration, she dropped to her knees, gathering up her belongings. Around the corner, she could hear a male voice, growing louder as its owner drew nearer.

"He's meeting her later tonight. I bet he's going to screw her. Lucky bastard."

Rose's ears perked up at this. Ooh, Hogwarts gossip!

There was the sound of someone else laughing. "True. I'd love to get into Weasley's pants." Rose accidently let go of the book she was holding. Were they talking about her? Or Dom?

"Yeah, but that's just a bonus for him isn't it? I mean, it's not as if he actually even likes her. I heard he hates her, as a matter of fact. She is pretty insufferable, I suppose. With her annoying know-it-all attitude."

"Ugh, yeah. So unattractive in a girl. I like mine dumb and quiet- except for when she's in my bed, of course."

The two laughed again and Rose realized they'd stopped walking. Her heart was thumping painfully. It sounded like they were talking about her but they couldn't be, surely? She and Scorpius loved each other. He'd even told her that he did, just last week.

"So why is he bothering with her again?" The second voice asked.

"Apparently his old man put him up to it. That's what I heard anyway. They think associating with her is going to be good for them later, you know- help them build up their reputation again or whatever. Get them in the good with the ministry. I mean, considering her dad helped defeat the dark lord and is best mates with Harry Potter."

It registered somewhere in her mind that the voice was Alec Zabini's, but her brain felt frozen. She let the thought drift away, unheeded.

"That's a pretty good idea," said voice number two. "Wish I'd thought of it myself- I think all our reputations could do with a boost."

"Yeah," Zabini agreed. "Not to mention, the bonus in there is really quite attractive. I'd tap that for free, without any ulterior motives at all."

One of them wolf whistled and they laughed again. She heard footsteps and realizing that they had begun walking again, she picked up her stuff blindly and started running, ears still ringing from what she'd heard.

Rose pulled her mind back to the present, realizing that she'd been staring at Malfoy for longer than was healthy. He seemed pretty out of it himself, though, as if he was remembering some unpleasant stuff himself. Rose had confronted him about what she'd heard later, and he hadn't denied it. She broke up with him, plain and simple. And then he'd found some absurd way to pin it all on her.

Rose glowered at him one final time and tuned back into her dad and Uncle's ridiculous argument.

"She's not seventeen anymore, Ron…..-"

"Ruddy bastard messed with my daughter! I'll kill him…..-"

"-Complete nutter! Will you shut…..-"

"-MY daughter! I'll cut his balls off-"

Rose shook her head and decided to break up the fight.

XXXXXX

Scorpius had obviously known he would be seeing her as soon as he flooed over, but it was still a shock seeing Rose again. The first thing he noticed was that she'd somehow managed to become even more beautiful- her hair had lost its slight frizz and her face had matured and developed. Not to mention certain other areas that had undergone some development. The second thing he noticed was that she looked positively horrified to see him, as if all her worst nightmares had just flooed into her living room and were now doing the Conga in front of her appalled eyes.

She was yelling some absolute tosh at Mr. Potter but he wasn't really bothered. He just concentrated on masking his emotions, something he'd become an expert at, and looking disdainful instead. He managed that part pretty well- he didn't exactly have to act.

Seeing her again was something he had been looking forward to but in a twisted way- he'd wanted to see if anything between them had changed at all over time but judging by her less than warm greeting, he was about as welcome in her presence as a flobberworm.

Seventh year had been terrible. Well, not terrible. It had definitely had its moments, most of them Rose-related. But then she'd broken up with him. He grimaced inwardly as he remembered how that particular conversation had gone.

"You're using me!" Rose had declared without preamble. Scorpius had been waiting for her by the lake for twenty minutes, his unease growing steadily as the minutes dragged by. Now Rose had finally decided to show up and was hurling all sorts of accusations at him.

"What are you talking about?" he'd said.

Her eyes were rimmed with red as if she had been crying and Scorpius felt a pang of concern. He wanted to comfort her and pull her close but he figured she would probably push him into the lake if he attempted anything right then.

"I know what you're doing. I know why you suddenly started showing so much interest in me after years of just ignoring me! You're doing this because of your stupid family name aren't you? Because you think the world will like you again if you get into Uncle Harry's good graces. That is so- so bloody Slytherin of you!"

Scorpius had just gaped at her, completely taken aback. Then realizing that gaping was highly unbecoming, even on Malfoy's, he shook himself out of his stupor and settled for a dignified "Huh?"

What she was saying was completely absurd- and yet it wasn't untrue, was it? It was the only reason his family had accepted his relationship with her so readily and he had pounced upon it as an excuse.

"Rose, you know that's not why I-"

"Oh but you won't deny it will you?" She'd fired at him."Can you stand there and honestly tell me that you never thought about it that way? That it never crossed your mind that I'm just a way for you to score a cushy ministry job?"

Scorpius remained silent.

Rose gave a dry sob. "I thought so."

And then before he could say another word, justify himself, she had turned on her heel and stomped away.

Scorpius narrowed his eyes at real-time Rose as she marched towards her psychotic relatives, clearly intending to do something foolish.

He sighed and cracked his knuckles. Time to get to work.

A/N: There! Scorpius at last. (It's only the second chapter so maybe not at last, but i love the bloke. So, yeah.) Any questions? Ask away. Review because it makes me happy and when i'm happy i put Scorp and Rose in compromising positions. ;)

Ehh, chapter 3 will be up in a few days!