Chapter Two

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AN: I apologize in advance. EDIT: I just realized that my little scene markers didn't show up. Oops.

Once they'd reached Hogsmeade, Albus had to drag Scorpius along with him to the Three Broomsticks. He complained, naturally. Scorpius was convinced that no good would come from leaving Marc and Rose alone together, but Albus wouldn't listen. After several Butterbeers and a few rounds of Firewhiskey, Scorpius was feeling more and more paranoid. And upset.

"I just don't get it," he said, resting his head in his hands. It was so heavy; filled with silly drunken thoughts. "What's so great about Marc Bint?"

"Well for one, he doesn't whine so much."

"I am not whining. Malfoys don't whine."

Albus snorted. He had heard many times from his family about how the Malfoys were notorious whiners. It came from their need to always get what they want.

"You know I'm better looking than him. And smarter, and more charming, and more... likable. So why does she have to like him?"

"Malfoy, you're a little drunk."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are."

Scorpius slammed his fist down on the table and slid out of the booth. "You take that back, Potter!"

"Or what? You'll throw up on me?"

Scorpius glared at Albus for a good minute or so, before reaching across the table and smacking him in the head. Somehow he was able to dodge retaliation and sprint to the other side of the room. It took Albus twenty minutes to coax him back to their booth. After that, Al wouldn't let him have another drink and ordered a large cup of coffee. He made Scorpius drink it.

"I hate this shit," he said, making a face after having taken too big a sip.

"It'll sober you up."

"It looks and tastes like watery diarrhea."

"That's disgusting."

"You're the one making me drink this."

It was working though. Thankfully, the bar had invested in specially brewed coffee that sobered people up in a hurry.

"Oh, my bloody head."

"Now who's fault is that?"

"Yours. You're the one who told me to get shit-faced."

"My plan didn't work out quite like I'd intended."

"I apologize that I've got a problem with infatuation."

Albus looked across the table at Scorpius for a minute, and thought about how weird it was that he wasn't pissed off about him liking his cousin. "You know, if you weren't my best friend I never would have allowed this."

"Allowed what?"

"For you to like my cousin. I'd probably forbid you from ever speak to her, just because you're a Malfoy."

"I appreciate that, mate."

"Oh you know what I mean."

Scorpius took another drink from his coffee and made a face.

"Why is it that you like her so much, anyway?" Albus asked.

"I don't like her."

Albus gave him a weird look. "Well if you did like her, why would you?"

"It's sounds like you're trying to trick me into telling you something, Al."

"Me? No, of course not."

Scorpius was trying to decide whether or not he should reveal his feelings when Alex, Lorcan, and a few other boys came in. The only people missing were Rose and Marc. He didn't like that. Not at all.

"Aw, well look at our little sweet boys!" Lorcan said, coming up and ruffling Scorpius's hair before sliding next to him in the booth.

"Sorry your date's being cut short, mates." said Alex as he sat next to Albus.

Scorpius frowned and tried to fix his hair while Albus told the two off for calling them "sweet". The rest of the boys were filling into the booth, or pulling up one of the rickety old chairs.

Misreading Scorpius's expression, Albus quickly asked where Marc and Rose were.

"They went off on their own as soon as we got here." Alex said, summoning a waitress over to the table. "Marc told me that he'd meet us here later."

"Where did they go?"

"Who knows." Lorcan said, as Alex was busy flirting with the blonde waitress and ordering drinks. "Probably just to walk around."

"No one just walks around." mumbled Scorpius. He felt like ever since he'd started to... well, he's just been in a dreadful mood lately. He hadn't been his usual self in a while. Actually, he was himself on "good days". He considered good days to be the days when Rose came over and talked to him, sat by him in class, laughed at his jokes, smiled at him, those kinds of things. What ruined his day was when he saw other boys trying to chat her up. Scorpius tried to tell himself that he shouldn't care, that he had no right to claim her.

An hour or two went by, as they talked and Scorpius watched the door. Every time the door opened, his eyes would glance over hopefully. He was let down every time. The whole table was in a deep discussion about Quidditch, but after a while he couldn't pay attention.

"Oi, let me out." he said all of the sudden, hitting Lorcan on the arm.

"What for, mate?"

"I'm going to go to Zonko's and pick up a few things before it gets too late."

The boys happily let Scorpius out, then. Zonko's Joke Shop was their favorite store after Spintwitches, a sporting goods shop.

He and Albus locked gazes, and the dark haired boy shook his head at him. You're hopeless, was what he was thinking. At least, that's what Scorpius got out of it.

Outside, the sun has begun it's descent from the sky. The horizon was filled with color; pink, orange, dark blue, purple. He could just picture Marc and Rose somewhere together, watching and waiting for the sunset. It almost made him sick, and since he wasn't usually such a jealous person it made him even sicker.

"I guess I better get looking." he thought to himself. If he found them, all locked in embrace and whatnot, he doubted he could stop himself from hexing the life out of Marc. And crying. He'd probably cry.

"We'll meet you back at Hogsmeade later."

Rose looked up at Marc as he spoke to the group of boys they were now walking away from. She didn't see Al or Malfoy. Who knows where they went. She could hardly think of anything but the fact that she was so close to Marc. It was like all of her day dreams coming true.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked, looking down at her and smiling.

"How about Honeydukes?" It was a wonder that she could put words together at all.

"Sounds good to me."

Rose hated that she didn't know what to say around him. With her guy friends, take Scorpius for instance, she could talk to him for hours about nothing at all. Not that she'd ever talked to him for that long besides one time. He always made her so nervous, the way his eyes seemed to just see into her soul, her heart.

"But I'll never feel this way about Malfoy," she told herself, "So it's different."

"I'm surprised you're cousin left us alone." Marc said after a minute.

Rose laughed a little, nervously. "I know, me too. He's usually so protective over me."

"He just wants to keep you away from the bad boys. Like Lorcan, and Alex, and Scorpius."

"Oh, they aren't that bad."

"You'd be surprised. They may seem alright at first, but once you start to trust them, they'll break your heart."

"You've seen them do that before?"

"Lots of times. The worst thing is that they brag about it. 'Hit it and quit it', that's what they say."

"That's terrible." Rose commented, furrowing her eyes together. Alex and Lorcan, well that made some sense. But Malfoy? He didn't seem like that at all...

Rose doesn't catch onto lying. It flies right over her head when something doesn't seem right.

"I would never do that," Marc eased his hand into hers, and she her heart jumped, "Especially not to you."

She could feel her face flooding with color. What could she say to that? "Oh, um, thanks."

They made it to Honeydukes then, and Rose immediately smiled. Candy was probably her favorite thing in the world. She walked around, picking out all of her favorite things and new things to try. They had been in the store for half an hour before she noticed Marc hadn't gotten anything.

"What's the matter?" she asked. Hopefully she hadn't done anything wrong.

"Nothing, love. I'm just not much of a candy eater, myself."

"Oh... did you want to leave?"

"No, no, take your time."

Despite his words, Rose hurried up and went in line. After the excitement had worn off a bit, she realized that they were still holding hands. She smiled up at him sheepishly.

"Next."

Rose jumped, coming out of her thoughts and going up the the cashier. She reluctantly let go of Marc's hand while she dug around for money to pay with.

"Have a nice day."

Grabbing the bag her sweets were in, Rose started moving away from the cashier. Just as she turned around to make sure Marc was behind her, she felt something run over her ass. "Oh!" she exclaimed, and turned red again.

"I'm so sorry, Rose." Marc said, reaching out for her hand again.

"Don't be," she said silently.

They left, and began walking around the village. Still a little flustered, Rose was more or less quiet. She listened to Marc talk about his day, and his opinions about things. She didn't agree with him on a lot, but that wasn't important. Was it? She also noticed that he kept speaking ill of his friends, especially Scorpius. It was just beginning to get dark when they stopped in front of Zonko's. People were walking in and out of shops; it was really busy for it to be so late.

"Rose?"

"Yes?"

"I need to talk to you about something, but I'd like it to be in private."

Rose's stomach flipped. "I, uh, alright."

She let him pull her through the alley and behind Zonko's. There was a line of trees, and they slipped into the small patch of woods.

"What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked, leaning back against a tree. Trees were another thing Rose liked. They were so old, so wise. She wished they could speak, so they could tell people of all they'd witnessed.

Marc started walking towards her and put a hand next to her on the tree. Without any warning, her came close and kissed her. It was nothing like she'd imagined it would be, and she had definitely thought about it a lot. Rose had imagined it to be really soft, and gentle. He's put his fingers in her hair and whisper things to her when he pulled away. This was nothing like that.

His hand that wasn't against the tree was on her leg, and it slowly made its way up her leg. His mouth was rough against hers, and when he pulled away it was just so that he could bit her neck. It didn't make her feel nice, that's for sure.

"M-marc. Stop it."

Her bag of candy had fallen; Sugar Quills, Chocoballs, and Ice Mice hit the ground.

"Shut up."

Uh oh.

"Marc, get off of me." Rose said, more firmly this time. His hand had found her underwear and was pulling them down over her thighs. She fought to stop him, and when he didn't, she hit him.

He shook his head slowly, backing up and pulling his wand from his pocket. "It didn't have to be this way, Rose."

Just as she was about to run, he pushed her against the tree, knocking the breath out of her. "Accio rope." His hands were hard on her wrists as he waited for his rope. When it came, Rose frantically tried to get out of his grasp.

"Stop moving, damn it."

When she wouldn't stop, he hit her across the face. She was so busy crying that he could easily tie her hands together. He pulled his tie from around his neck and tied it around her head and stuck it in her mouth so she couldn't yell.

"Try to yell." he commanded, amused. Rose did, and she found it was muffled so that she could barely hear it herself. It made her cry more.

After pulling off her underwear, he grabbed her by the hair and made her turn around. "Bend over." He had her hair, or else she would have ran. Tears streamed down her face as she did what he told her to, and she was wondering why no one had come looking for her yet. As he got himself ready, Rose tried as hard as she could to get the tie from around her mouth. With the help of her shoulder, she was able to get it a little loose. That's how Scorpius heard her scream when Marc entered her. Rose had been a virgin, but not anymore.

Scorpius heard the scream, but he wasn't sure where he'd heard it come from. He didn't know who it was, but something in him hurt when he heard it. So he started looking in that direction. Fifteen minutes later, he reached Zonko's. He almost walked right by it, but then he saw movement from the alley. He turned around, drawing his wand, and walked through it. It was just about dark, now, but Scorpius could make out the figure in the alley. "Where's Rose?"

Marc emerged from the darkness to come closer. "She's making herself look suitable."

Scorpius didn't like the smugness in his voice. "What did you do to her?" he asked, coming closer to Marc. Flint was strong, but Scorpius was stronger, and they both knew it.

"Nothing."

Scorpius grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed him against the side of the building. He held his wand against Marc's throat. "What the fuck did you do to her?"

"Nothing she didn't want."

Scorpius's wand fell to his side and Marc slipped from between him and the wall. "That's mine now, Malfoy. I suggest you get over it."

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AN: I really hope I don't loose any of my readers! Things will get better, I promise.