Disclaimer: harry potter isn't mine… :)

He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to touch it. The hand seemed to be nearing him, looming over him like a menacing monster. Scorpius could feel the blood roaring in his ears, his heart pounding wildly from adrenaline. He was panicked and couldn't comprehend his jumbled thoughts. Should he grab the hand? His fingers twitched and he felt his hand starting to lift off the ground before it faltered abruptly and was forced down by gravity.

"Eep!" he squeaked. Her hand was a little rough and very large— larger than his own— and it grasped his firmly before hauling him up. When she let go, he was still a little stunned and his mind felt as blank as a slate. What just… She…

"Hey! Are you all right?" She smiled at him, probably an attempt to make up for her awkwardly wrong assumption that morning.

"Eh…" Scorpius said in a voice that was barely audible. Today, too many people had touched him, talked to him… His dance teacher had even seen his face! He wanted to run away from Hogwarts right then.

"What?" Rose Weasley inquired, tilting her head and looking down at his smaller form, which was stiff with the shock of being grabbed without warning. She smiled a little crooked smile, hands resting on the straps of her dark blue designer backpack.

"Thanks," Scorpius whispered. Then, he sprinted past her as fast as he could, feeling more exposed than ever in his oversized uniform. He felt like he was flapping and flailing as he stumbled through the corridors, tightly holding onto his messenger bag; he felt like the spells holding it together were failing, which made him run even faster, leaving behind a stunned Dan and a curious Rose.

Scorpius slunk into Ancient Muggle History, his heart rate calm and his mind cleared. He had panicked because he had almost shown his lone wolf face to a hostile pack. Then, he had run away from Rose Weasley because… he had been in the middle of running away anyway and he was surprised by the way she had grabbed him— he hadn't even been touched by another student in all of years at Hogwarts before today…

Scorpius knew that if he let his guard down, he'd be ripped apart by everyone around him because they hated him and would never trust him. For this reason, he hoped that Rose Weasley would not tell other students that he had crashed into her, for he didn't want to be a target for the hatred of the entire school.

Breathe, he thought. He looked over to his right to see if TJ's spell had arrived yet and did a double-take. There, reclining in the next seat (which had always been either (a) empty or (b) as of late, occupied by a grumpy rule-breaker), dressed in neatly pressed, tailored khaki pants, a spotless, fitting blouse, and a stylishly (but not rebelliously) loose ravenclaw tie… was Rose herself. She looked over at him and smiled, flashing perfect white teeth. Her red hair was up in a loose, messy bun, which showed off her whole face. Scorpius became acutely aware of their differences and he felt like shrinking. He wanted to shrivel up and disappear. Now, everybody was looking at them.

"Rosie, I didn't know you were friends with Malfoy?" a girl in front of them turned around with a surprised look on her face. Rose just smiled at her. Then, she looked over at Scorpius.

"Hey."

Scorpius said nothing. He was absolutely frozen. What was she doing?

Throughout the class, Rose took diligent notes while Scorpius fiddled with his hands under the desk (he was prone to doing this) and tried to understand what was going on. From time to time, she would nudge him and smile when somebody said something funny and she constantly called attention to their area by commenting and participating actively with the discussion, which was about Mesopotamia.

When the class was over, Rose got up, flashing a friendly smile at him before turning to go. The class filed out of the room, but Scorpius stayed where he was. He slumped against his desk. What had that been? How was he supposed to take that?

Scorpius banged his head against his desk, then got up to leave. He saw that the TJ hologram was a few seats behind him, sitting there idly. It was incredible spell work, mused Scorpius, as he shoved a notebook into his messenger bag. He then grabbed his pencils and pens (A/N: WestWing doesn't use quills or parchment for obvious reasons) and made his way to the door, shuffling awkwardly.

"Hey!"

Scorpius stumbled backwards in surprise, terror seizing his mind. He could barely see thanks to his hairdo, so the outburst had been a complete shock. He could make out something tall in front of him… and the voice was familiar… He peered through his hair.

HER AGAIN?! Scorpius' brain went reeling. Was she talking to him?

"I notice we haven't spoken a lot before, but I'd like to apologize for this morning. It was totally wrong and I'm sorry. Anyway, why'd you run off this afternoon?" Rose Weasley's hands were on her hips and she fixed him with a stare he could feel through his shield of hair. He couldn't tell if it was a challenging, belligerent stare or not and he didn't want to find out, but he could tell that she was expecting an answer.

He fumbled around in his brain and no words came out of his slightly open mouth, although she of course couldn't see that he was struggling. She waited patiently. Scorpius didn't want to speak anymore. He had been terrified multiple times that day and was very confused… so he just nodded his head.

"What kind of answer is that? I know you can talk," Rose Weasley sounded a little irritated, but Scorpius' eyes were squeezed shut so he couldn't take a peek to confirm anything. He nodded again and tried to go around her, but she slid over to block his way.

"It's sort of rude to ignore people… Also, Taejin, what are you doing still here?" Scorpius turned around. The TJ-illusion was staring at them, looking bored with his arms crossed.

Scorpius panicked. He knew the projection wouldn't be able to speak and he didn't want TJ's secret to be blown; he was afraid of sitting next to the real thing in class! He whirled to face Rose.

"W-w-wait! He.. He has a s-sore throat and l-lost his v-voice. S-so he c-can't t-t-talk right n-now," he stuttered, voice barely audible in the large classroom.

"So now you decide to talk?!" Rose Weasley exclaimed indignantly. "Why'd you ignore me?"

"Hey Malfoy, I can talk just fine… And I want to talk to you right now."

Scorpius jumped, alarmed. Then he froze and turned around slowly, like a creaky robot that hadn't been oiled in 10 years. TJ was glaring at him. In that moment, Scorpius didn't see a Hogwarts student. He saw a gangster with a mean glint in his eye and he felt like pissing his pants.

TJ marched over to him and gripped his shoulder with a very real hand. He started steering him out of the room, but Rose Weasley followed them, affronted.

"Hey! I was talking to him!" She grabbed TJ and yanked him backwards, using her superior size and strength to stop him. He turned around, fixing her with a murderous scowl.

"You're not the only one in this school who knows martial arts, Weasley" he growled.

"Yeah. But I know you don't know martial arts because your stance is all wrong!" she gestured to the aggressive pose he had taken.

"Why you-!" They both faced each other, then simultaneously looked over to where Scorpius was cowering near the wall of the hallway.

"Stay put!" they shouted together.

"Did he just…" Rose stared.

"Yeah I think…" TJ drifted off.

"Uh, we should probably take him to the Hospital Wing," Rose scooped Scorpius up bridal style.

"What makes you think I— Okay wait!" TJ ran after the now fainted Malfoy and the briskly walking redhead.

Bloody Hell, he groaned internally.