This chapter was AWFUL to write, but I think the worst of the nastiest bout of writer's block I've had in ages is over :) Enjoy chapter 16.

The Plan had to go perfectly, as Rose was keen on reminding them, a single slip and the entire thing would fall apart. It had been three day's since Scorpius had lost control of his broom on the Quidditch pitch, and they had traded there regular seat's in the library for the armchairs of the Gryffindor common room, scrambling for anything that might get them onto the eighth floor without being seen. The result was the plan which, Scorpius admitted, was a bit feeble, but even Rose had been forced to concede it was really there only chance. That didn't stop her from constantly reminding them of how it was supposed to go.

When the third years, including James, gathered in the common room for there first hogsmeade weekend Al would sneak into the boys dorm and snatch his brothers invisibility cloak. "He nicked it from my dad ages ago," Al had told them eagerly, "He uses it all the time and he never get's caught, I'm sure he won't miss it for a day." Meanwhile, Scorpius and Rose would would head to the base of the winding staircase that lead to the eighth floor where Rose would cause a distraction- "If I'm caught I've got a clean record and," she'd said with a smirk, "better marks." Scorpius would run up the staircase were Al would be waiting for him, and they'd make there way to the fifth door on the left.

The next bit was tricky seeing as Rose had pointed out they were bound to run into someone, and as it was very important they didn't give away how much they knew, none of them could be seen. Al and Scorpius would have the cloak, but after several day's they'd figured Roses only way in was-

"Floo powder," She murmured shaking Scorpius out of his thoughts as she took another bite of her toast. Scorpius absentmindedly fingered the tiny green bottled he'd kept stored in his cloak for the past three days. For emergencies, he remembered his mother telling him.

"Your sure you've got it Scorp?" He started and then pulled the little bottle out of his pocket. "Got it," he said, meeting her nervous eyes.

"Third years leave at noon," Al said, finishing off the last of his porridge. "Are you going to eat that?" Scorpius shook his head shoving over his untouched plate of eggs. The plan had seemed rather good a few days ago, but now that it was really time, Scorpius couldn't help thinking of how many things could go wrong. What if Rose couldn't get to the fireplace? Or what if there wasn't a fireplace in the classroom, Scorpius hadn't had a very good look at it from his broom, and he'd been mostly focused on the blue writing.

"Cheer up mate," Al said, nudging him and grinning. "If this goes right, we might finally get some answers." Answers, Scorpius thought, staring down at the table, after the last 2 months answers were exactly what he wanted, but what if they were caught?

The bell rang, they had to sit through defense, and then it was time to put the plan into action.

Professor Yaxley announced they would be continuing with dueling until Christmas, and as she had for the last few classes split them up into pairs and had them practice.

"Scorpius?" Al asked as Scorpius tossed his wand back.

"Yeah?"

"You don't reckon it could've been Zambini?"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Al's Oak wand soared into Scorpius' outstretched hand.

"What?" He asked chucking the wand back at Al, who caught it easily

"The broom, you don't think Zambini could've had something to do with it?"

"FURNUCLOUS! Why would he?" Al hastily blocked the spell.

"Well don't you think it's a bit odd Zambini makes a joke about you falling off a broom, and the next day you're nearly killed on one?"

"EXPELLIARMUS! I don't know, I'd forgotten about it. But how would Zambini know which broom I was going to take?" Scorpius tossed Al his wand again, holding his up to block his friends first spell.

"TARANTALLEGRA! I dunno, maybe his dad taught him some sort of dark spell. Scorpius dodged the spell easily, shaking his head.

"The Zambini's might be mean, cruel even but there not dark. LEVICORPUS!" Al was caught off guard abruptly swung into the air by his ankle. Scorpius quickly disarmed him, and he landed in a rather crumpled heap on the floor. Al stood up rubbing his neck.

"You couldn't have a different signature?" Scorpius grinned, handing Al his wand for the tenth time. "If it wasn't Zambini then who could it have been?"

"I dunno," Scorpius answered, bowing quickly. "Maybe the broom was just a bit off-they all seemed a bit old."

"Yeah," Al said, twisting to avoid a well aimed hex, "but none of the others went haywire." Scorpius thought about it, the more he considered it the less sense it made that someone on the ground would have fussed with his broom. The only qualified wizard had been the instructor-Wood-and he had seemed harmless. Could someone inside the castle have interfered? Suddenly there was a tugg in his hand and his thin ash wand went soaring into the air, clattering to the ground at the feet of a bemused Al.

"YES!" Al called doing a very odd dance. Scorpius laughed, deciding not to point out that in an actually duel Al's opponent would probably not be holding there wand limply to their side and looking the other direction.

The bell sounded, Scorpius' face paled, he'd forgotten about the plan. Al looked at him nervously, catching his eye and nodding. He hardly heard professor Yaxley telling them to practice over the weekend, as he made his way to the door, turning away from the huddle of gryffindors headed to the great hall. Suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder. Scorpius turned, startled, but it was only Rose, twirling a piece of hair nervously around her finger.

"Ready?" She asked glancing around the nearly empty corridor. Scorpius gulped.

"Ready."

The stared down the corridor, Scorpius tried to remember the turns they took, left, right, left, left, middle fork, but he gave up quickly and decided to hope Rose knew where she was going. He hoped Al had gotten the cloak without being spotted, especially by James. He fingered the Floo powder in his pocket again, his hands shaking slightly now. Come on Scorpius, your meant to be a Gryffindor, suck it up and act like one. He clenched his jaw and willed stared up at Roses hair. It was very red, and very curly, probably the only thing she couldn't keep tidy. That must annoy her to death, he thought smiling, he rather liked Rose Weasley hair.

"Were here," she whispered breathily staring anxiously at the crowded corridor. Scorpius glanced quickly around, it was roomy with not much to be seen but a large marble staircase winding up, Scorpius knew, to the eighth floor. Several older students were studying on the lower steps, muttering spells and turning pages of rather thick textbooks.

"You'd better give it to me now," Rose muttered, shaking Scorpius from his thoughts, he nodded slowly drawing the green vial from his robes and pressing it into her hand. Rose stared forward, and taking a deep breath ran into the corridor.

"There's something going on with the torches!" She yelled, her face redden as she waved her hands at the seventh years.

"Everyone needs to go to the dormitories NOW! He craned his neck watching for his cue. Rose drew a tiny black stone out of her pocket, keeping it pressed against her back.

"Listen sweetie-" A seventh year started, but Rose interrupted.

"EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO TO THE DORMITORIES NOW!" She screamed, sounding more than a little crazy. As the crowd of Seventh years stood confusedly Scorpius saw Rose drop the stone.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!" She yelled lifting her foot. This was the cue, Scorpius slid into the corridor, drawing himself carefully against the wall and sliding towards the staircase, he just had a few more steps to go.

"I SAID NOW!" Scorpius saw her foot descending, perfectly primed to his the stone, he broke into a run-

Everything happened at once, Roses foot hit the ground, and the room was suddenly pitch black, there were several startled screams and then a great rustling noise as the student rushed to the doors, taking Rose with them. Scorpius reached the stairs, and grabbing the banister started to run up, listening for footsteps behind him. It was still very dark, and he tripped several times but finally after 5 flights of very big steps, found himself on the eighth floor, panting and clutching his stomach. Scorpius quickly rubbed the powder from his eyes and the darkness faded away.

Scorpius leaned against the wall, catching his breath. The first part of the plan had gone perfectly, now there was nothing to do but wait for Al. He glanced around quickly, the eighth floor was brightly lit, with lots of open doors lining the wall, the fifth one on the left he remembered craning his neck, but he could only see past the second, and it was very important they had the invisibility cloak before he went any further.

All of the sudden there was a tap on his shoulder. Scorpius jumped turning around to see-nothing. He frowned drawing his wand from his pocket.

"Who's there?" There was a suppressed giggle and Scorpius pointed his wand toward it.

"I'm warning you, I'm armed." There was another giggle, it was probably peeves. Scorpius wasn't really sure how to reverse invisibility, or reveal invisible people, but he didn't much like the idea of facing an opponent he couldn't see, still sending a spell at someone who didn't know it was coming seemed a bit underhanded, and very, well, slytherin. Still Scorpius would rather not be unconscious when Al found him...

"FURNUNCULUS!" He screamed making up his mind. There was a startled cry and a great whooshing sound as a piece of shimmery fabric seemed to soar out of thin air revealing-

"OY!" It was Al, his face sporting several unpleasant boils, more of which were sprouting across his shaking hands. Scorpius winced, and then glanced quickly around the corridor, his curse had been very loud in retrospect, and anyone in the corridor was bound to have heard.

"YOU BLOODY ATTACKED-"

"Shh," Scorpius whispered nervously checking the corridor again and covering Al's mouth with one pale hand, his wand clutched in the other.

Several more muffled cries sounded from his best friend as Scorpius scanned the corridor once more, signing in relief when he spotted no one.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!" Al had managed to shove Scorpius hand off his face, which was still dotted with boils.

"Will you shut up," Scorpius said a bit annoyed, helping Al to his feet. "You snuck up on me."

"It was a joke!" Scorpius looked around again, pulling the invisibility cloak off the floor and tossing it over both of there heads. He started a bit to see his legs seemed to have disappeared into thin air, he could still feel them, but all he could see was the marble floor.

"We should get going, I don't know who heard you."

"ME!" Al said angrily, but Scorpius put a finger to his lips.

"Look I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do about the boils, you'll have to ask madame Pomfrey for a potion, but we've got to get going.

"It's alright," Al muttered, and then suddenly he broke into a grin, "You should've seen your face, 'I'm warning you, I'm armed,'" Scorpius laughed and nudged him.

"Shut up." Scorpius turned his wand towards the hall. "Ready?" Al nodded, and they made there way towards the fifth door.

It wasn't difficult to find, the hard part was passing the few fifth years they ran into coming down from divination. Though the cloak made them invisible, it didn't mean they could walk through things, and they came very close to brushing against people several times. At one point Scorpius was slammed rather unceremoniously into a wall and swore loudly, they were very lucky the nearest student took that moment to drop her bookbag.

Finally they made it to the fifth door. The corridor was deserted now, and the door slightly open, it seemed almost too good to be true. Scorpius stared uncertainly at the door, inside might be the answers to all of their questions, but it felt to easy, everything had gone, well perfectly, much better than they'd expected, it was almost like someone else was helping them...

Scorpius was torn from his thoughts by a tugg on his sleeve, Al was staring at him expectantly.

"Scop?"

"Sorry," he said quickly, his face going red. "Let's go." And with that, they pushed open the door.

The room was exactly as it had looked from the outside, with dark stone floors, a dusty brick wall with the order of the phoenix scrawled across it in dark blue paint, and to his relief, a fireplace. He shrugged the cloak off his shoulders, stepping forward to get a closer look at the letters.

"Scorp."

"Yeah," he said turning around, and his jaw dropped. The right wall was covered in hastily scrawled letters just like the ones that mentioned the order of the phoenix. "Down with the carrows." "Dumbledores army" and,

"Long live Harry Potter," Al muttered, touching the yellow letters. He turned towards Scorpius. "Do you think my dad's got something to do with these order people?" Scorpius shrugged glancing back at the the bit about the carrows, his expression darkened.

"The Carrows-they were death eaters, nasty ones, taught at Hogwarts when my dad was 17." He shuddered at the memory of Draco telling him about torturing first years a group of students...Scorpius gasped.

"Dumbledores Army!" He said loudly.

"What about it?" Al said still staring at the words "Harry Potter".

"My dad, he mentioned a Dumbledores army, they were a bunch of Pott- er-your dads friends who fought against the deatheaters from inside the school, he was always trying to..." Scorpius trailed off. "Anyway, they must have had something to do with this order thing, which means it was going on," he did the math quickly, "19 years ago."

"So they did have something to do with the war," Al said catching on. "They were on my dad's side!" Scorpius nodded starting to pace the room.

"So the order was fighting the death eaters...thats why we can't find them! All that Voldemort stuff is in the restricted section!" Al opened his mouth to reply when suddenly there was a great crashing sound, and Rose came tumbling out of the fireplace, her red hair covered in soot, her clothes wrinkled and unkempt. Scorpius grinned, but his smiled faded when he noticed the fear in her wide eyes.

"Basil. Fireplace. Now." Scorpius rushed to the door, but Rose shook her head. "He knew where I was going, he-he heard me yell it out." Al jumped away from the wall and started towards the window, Scorpius reached out and helped Rose to her feet.

"It's all my fault," she said, her voice a mix of frustration and fear. "I wasn't careful enough, I still-my vision was still a bit blurry from the instant darkness powder, I-I didn't see him coming," A tear trickled down her cheek. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," he said immediately, glancing around the room. "Do you know if there's any other ways out?"

"Scorp?" Scorpius ignored Al scanning the walls for any sign of an exit.

"I don't think so. Trust me, the Weasleys know every passage in this school and I've never heard anyone mention anything about the eighth floor..."

"Rose." She ignored Al backing nervously away from the fireplace.

"How long," Scorpius asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Five minutes," Rose said grimly, "at the most."

"OY YOU LOT!" They both turned to face, Al who was leaning against the window, a broom clutched in his hand. Scorpius' jaw dropped as he looked at the dark handle, the words Nimbus 2001 printed in faded gold letters across it's side, why did that look so familiar? "Bu-How?" Rose said, her eyes wide, staring at Al incredulously, as if she couldn't believe he would dare to pull a broom out of thin air.

"It's mine." Scorpius said, suddenly recognizing the sleek handle, the old words, the bent twigs.

"What?" Rose said, her brow furrowing.

"My broom, from quidditch, when I fell of it must have come in here."

"I couldn't care whose it is, no offense mate, but it's a way out." Al swung his leg over the broom, perching his other on the windowsill. Scorpius was eyeing the broom warily.

"Is it safe?"

Suddenly there was a loud thump from outside the door, and then another.

"Footsteps," Rose cursed, rushing up to the broom behind Albus, and swinging her leg over. Scorpius was still staring apprehensively at the broom.

"Will it hold the three of us?" Thump. Scorpius glanced fearfully at the door and then back at the broom, he really didn't want to fly again, especially so high up, but was it better than a run in with Basi?

"Yes!" Al said rolling his eyes, "COME ON!" Rose was holding out her hand expectantly, the wood really didn't look very strong...thump, thump, the footsteps were getting louder...

"I don't," Scorpius started, but Rose yelled "NO TIME!" and grabbing his wrist, pulled him onto the broom. Al bent his knees as Rose shoved open the window and they burst into the november air.

A cold breeze ruffled Scorpius' untidy blonde hair, and he couldn't help letting out a strangled yelp as he looked down at the graying green grass, it looked very far away. Thump.

"AL NOW!" Rose yelled as there was a sound of hinges creaking open, and Al dipped the nose of the broom forward. They plunged, flying so rapidly towards the ground Scorpius couldn't control his screams. It was 10 times, 20 times worse than when Al had taken him to the ground three days ago, they were out of control, they were going to crash-

He was half right. As they dove towards the dirt Al started to tug up the nose, but the speed from the decent pulled them down.

"JUMP!" Al screamed sliding off the edge of the broom, falling five feet, 10 feet and rolling expertly onto the ground. Rose was gripping helplessly at the handle.

"WERE GOING TO-" Boom. Rose plowed into the dirt, the broom tipped upwards and Scorpius was catapulted into the air, he let out an earsplitting scream as his head was whipped towards the clouds and he started to plummet, covering his face with his arm, preparing for the impact.

All of the sudden everything was white, and very soft.'

"Am I dead," Scorpius moaned, sinking further into what felt like clouds.

"Sorry mate," Al' voice was cheerful as a hand gripped his shoulder, "only pillows." The hand tugged Scorpius up and the soft whiteness was replaced by a familiar view of the castle.

"Thanks," Scorpius muttered, staring up at the eighth floor for a sign of Basil.

"It's Rose you should be thanking," Al said, "I just sort of panicked." He grinned sheepishly and Rose who was attempting to get the grass out of her hair. Scorpius glared at the broom, still stuck fast in the dirt, he really wasn't fond of flying. Suddenly he saw it, a familiar face peering out of the nearest window. Professor Yaxley, her eyes narrowed was staring straight at them, her hands pressed against the glass.

"Come on," Scorpius muttered. "We can talk about this inside." Al looked confused, but Rose nodded.

"Come on Al," She said tugging her cousin towards the door, Scorpius followed glancing one more time at Yaxley who had disappeared into what must be her office. Rose lead them towards a small abandoned classroom, tugging the door closed and plopping down one of the desks, Al followed suit, but Scorpius stayed standing.

"Did he see us?" He asked, looking cautiously at the window for signs of the transfiguration professor, but Rose shook her head.

"I don't think so. Basil's smart, he would've checked the room first-wondered why what we were doing on the eighth floor. By the time he bothered with the window, we were out of sight. Scorpius let out a sigh he didn't know he'd been holding in, slumping against the wall, until now he hadn't noticed how tired he was, but Al groaned.

"Then he'll know what were looking for. There were loads of words all over the wall-" Scorpius' smile faded. If basil knew what they were up to-

Rose shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about that," and then starting as though she'd just realized she'd forgotten something important, added "Did you two find anything."

"Yeah," Scorpius said grimly. "But it doesn't help us much, the Order of the Phoenix was some sort of organization fighting voldemort 19 years ago-"

"-They were with dad," Al interrupted.

"Yeah. But anything to do with them is going to be in the restricted section, their too tied into with the deatheaters not to be," Scorpius said glumly, but Rose brightened.

"But if they have something to do with uncle Harry, then we'll just have to do some snooping at Christmas!" Scorpius slumped further. Christmas, he'd forgotten about Christmas. Of course Al and Rose would be going back to whatever home the Potters and Weasley's shared, but would he be welcome at Malfoy Manor? Did he even want to go? He felt his stomach sink at the thought. Still, it was a good idea...Scorpius realized they were both looking at him to say something.

"Yeah, you two will have to take notes on what you hear so you don't forget anything when you tell me." Rose frowned, Al looked genuinely confused. "I mean, I could try to sneak into the restricted section, there aren't loads of people who stay here for Christmas-"

"What'd you mean? Al said, his brow furrowing.

"Well I'm not going back to the manor," Scorpius said, sure of it the second after the words left his lips.

"No," Al said, "You're coming with us mate! Didn't I invite you?" He looked at Rose incredulously, but she was nodding like this had been the plan all along.

"Seriously?" Scorpius said, dumbstruck.

"'Course," Al said. "You do want to come don't you?"

"Yeah," Scorpius said, suddenly grinning. He felt as though a giant weight had been taken off his shoulders. "'Coarse."

"Well I'm hungry," Rose announced, startling the two boys. They grinned and laughing, followed Rose into the great hall. Scorpius was happier even than the day he'd been sorted into Gryffindor. He was spending Christmas with his two best friends, and he wouldn't miss is for the world.

I hope you guys liked it :) Little fluffy at the end but oh well, please leave a review, tell me how I did, next update will be SOON!