"Nothing here," Scorpius called out to Rose and jogged out of yet another hidden passageway. Rose laughed as she saw he was covered in cobwebs, which shimmered a bit in the light, but stepped away from him in case he'd brought any spiders out with him. Though she might not have the severe phobia that her dad and brother shared, Rose wasn't super keen on having any type of arachnid crawling over her - luckily Scorpius wasn't so averse to the creepy things.

"That's the last place on the map," she sighed. "Let's go meet Al - maybe he's found something?" She tried to sound hopeful, but she didn't think that it was very likely that her cousin had found the painting. They walked up to the astronomy tower, which was the place they had chosen to meet as they could talk in secret there.

"So, what do we do next, then, inspector?" Scorpius nudged her playfully. "I guess I'd better write a letter to my mum," she replied, rummaging around in her book bag for a quill and parchment. "You're not seriously going to write while you're walking, Rose," Scorpius asked incredulously. "Last time you did that you walked into the statue of Wilfred the Wistful," he reminded her, but Rose just grinned back at him. "Well, you'll just have to stop me from doing that, won't you?" She replied, and began to write a letter to her mum.

Dear Mum, (she wrote)

How's your bill on the Equality of Magical Creatures going? I hope that guy from the Wizengamot isn't giving you a hard time again. School's going okay - we haven't got too much homework and Gryffindor and Slytherin are neck and neck in House points.

You know how I told you that I'd started solving mysteries - well, at the moment I'm trying to find a portrait of Newt Scamander that was last seen in Hogwarts in 1968. The Scamander twins put me up to it, of course, and I've got some records that I'll copy and send along with this letter. We've searched all of the school (including the hidden areas shown on the marauder's map) and I was hoping that you might be able to see if the Ministry had any records of the painting being removed from the school.

Holidays are coming up soon, so I guess I'll see you then.

Love,

Rose

Rose rolled up the parchment and pulled out the records that the twins had given her. "Gemino," she whispered, and flicked her wand at the records. They shimmered and exact duplicates appeared on top of them. Rose folded the copies up and attached them to her letter. On the front of the package, she wrote,

Hermione Weasley

Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Level Two

Ministry of Magic

London

Stowing her quill away, she looked up and called out, "Felix!" In the few seconds that she waited for the phoenix to appear, she realised two things - that she was already at the top of the astronomy tower, and that Scorpius was no longer beside her, in fact, she couldn't see him at all.

The was a rustling behind her, and Rose turned towards the noise, but before she could see what it was there was a loud bang and the world turned black. Hands grabbed her from behind and wrestled her wand and the letter for her mum out of her grip. Rose tried frantically to turn around and escape her attacker's grasp, but she couldn't see and the hands holding her were too strong.

She was pushed forward roughly until her feet brushed against the battlements at the very edge of the tower. She tried to scream for help but no sound escaped her mouth - the assassin must have cast a silencing charm on her. And the person was an assassin, Rose knew, and any second now she would be pushed off the tower and tumble to her death.

Her heart pounded in her chest and she desperately struggled against her captor, but to no avail. She felt the assassin's breath on her cheek, and then she was falling, her hair whipping against her face. In a last-ditch effort, Rose summoned all her energy and screamed 'Arresto Momentum!' inside her head in the hope that, even though she had no wand, it might work. The last thing Rose thought of was Scorpius and how he'd told her not to write while she was walking, and then she knew no more.

"Rose!" A voice echoed around in her head, bouncing painfully against her skull. "Come on Rose, don't - don't go ..." Sobbing. Light shone above her, and shadows oscillated just out of her reach. Cool hands on her wrist. "She's still alive," a woman's voice said shakily.

Rose struggled to open her eyes. She had to wake up, she knew. She couldn't stand that the boy was crying over her - she had to wake up. She had to open her eyes for him - for Scorpius. Her eyes flew open to see him bent over her, eyes red-rimmed and cheeks pale. Madame Pomphrey stood on the other side of her bed, pouring out some kind of concoction.

"Rose!" Scorpius' eyes widened with relief and his voice cracked. "Scorp," she croaked weakly. "What - what happened? I was at the astronomy tower, and then it all went black, and - and someone pushed me ... " she trailed off, frowning. "How - I thought I was going to die," she shivered. "I fell from the top of the astronomy tower - why didn't I die?" She gripped Scorpius' hand tightly.

"I - I don't know, Rose," Scorpius looked at her worriedly. "One minute I was walking next to you, and the next minute you were - you were gone," he bit his lip. "I ran around, looking for you, and then Felix appeared and he took me outside, and you - you were falling from the tower." He stopped and swallowed deeply, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "But suddenly you slowed down, and you hit the ground before Felix could reach you - and eve though you hadn't hit the ground at full force, it was bad, Rose," he finished.

"It worked," she breathed eventually. "W - what?" Scorpius frowned. "Before I blacked out, I tried casting a spell to stop myself from falling, even though I didn't have a wand and I couldn't speak," she explained. "And it worked." The two of them sat there for a second, just looking at each other.

"Now, Mr Malfoy, you must let Miss Weasley rest," Madame Pomphrey shooed him away, oblivious to Rose's protests. "Now, you just sleep for a while, okay, Miss Weasley?" The matron pushed some medicine into Rose's mouth. "And when you wake up, we'll see how you are."

Rose looked past Madame Pomphrey and saw Scorpius standing in the doorway, a strange expression of pain, worry and anger on his face. And just like that Rose knew that he knew someone was trying to kill her - and that he would do anything to stop them. Before she slipped of to sleep again, she felt fear - not for herself, but for him.