Albus POV

I yawn and stumble down to the common room. Rose and Alice are already up, talking about tomorrow night: the Christmas dance. Frank and Scorp follow me, none of us are excited. The chance to make fools of ourselves with our limited dances skills in front of the whole school? Not gonna be fun. But Rose and Alice are making us go, and seeing as Neville-I mean, Professor Longbottom-works here, and he's encouraging us to go, well, we can't really say no.

Christmas Eve buzzes by, couple of snowball fights, mostly homework. Then Christmas itself comes.

"Presents!" Frank grins. "Oi, mate, wake up! You got food!"

The word 'food' perks me up instantly. My presents are all excellent this year, a little of this, a little of that. Rose and Alice barge in halfway through, Rose already wearing her Weasley sweater.

"Put in on," she says, forcing me into my sweater while the three others laugh. I wonder what the rest of the castle thinks when half of Gryffindor shows up to the Great Hall wearing pretty much the same sweater. I guess I've never really thought about it.

Lunch breezes through, leaving what we've all been dreading(well, what us boys have been dreading): the dance.

Alice insisted that we go as a group of friends and all do the same color scheme. Frank, Malfoy and I all have the same exact dress robes: bright gold with red stripes, the best we could come up with. Turns out Rose and Alice have the same outfits as well, gorgeous dresses with alternating gold and scarlet layers. Both of them are grinning and laughing about something.

The three of us stare speechless as the come down the stairs, followed by their friend Alison Finnigan.

"My lady," I say jokingly, making a big deal out of bowing and offering my arm to Alice, who giggles. Rose stifles a laugh as well, and we all head down to the Great Hall together.

It's been transformed since lunch. Only one table is out, set up with snacks and drinks. Where the professors usually sit is a giant stage, and on it performs-

"Teddy!" Rose laughs. "Teddy Lupin!"

That's right, Teddy and his band from a few years ago have gotten back together to perform. The rest of the space is set up with elaborate ice sculptures and a massive dance floor.

The rest of the night goes by in a buzz; all I remember afterwards is dancing once with Alice and once with a very pretty Ravenclaw girl. At the end of the night, Scorp, Frank, Rose, Alice, and I are sitting down at a small table together.

"I'm exhausted," Alice says, yawning. "And I want to check on Dad before bed."

"I'll come with you," says Frank, getting up to join her.

"Um," Scorp says once they leave, clearing his throat. "Weasley, can I talk to you?"

"Sure," Rose says, shrugging and getting up as well. Since all four of them are leaving now, there's not much point in me staying.

"I'll see you up in the common room," I say to Rose. She nods once before following Scorp.

"Don't try anything funny with my cousin!" I call after them.

"I wouldn't dare!" Scorp calls back.

I head up to Gryffindor tower, ignoring the drunken Fat Lady and her friend Violet. I choose my favorite armchair by the fireplace and must doze off, because it's maybe thirty minutes later when I wake up. I know if Rose had come back, she would've woken me, or Scorp would've. Just then, Alison Finnigan climbs in through the portrait hole.

"Alison," I say, getting up. "Can you check to see if Rose is up there?" She nods as she climbs up the stairs. Alison reappears a few moments later on the landing, shaking her head. I nod once in thanks. I quickly go to the boy's dorms. No Scorp. Maybe they went back to the dance?

Yes, that must be it. I climb back through the portrait hole to go check, and boy am I glad I did.

Rose is stumbling down the hallway, clutching her throat, which is bright red. She looks like she was crying-and Rose never cries, and I mean never.

"Rose!" I yell running right to her. She collapses into my arms, sobbing, shaking, one hand massaging her throat, the other hanging limply at her side.

Now that she's up close, I can see the mark of a hand on her neck. Someone has been hurting my cousin-isn't that what I was trying to protect her from? I would never admit that I was, but boys are extreme idiots sometimes.

"Rose," I say quietly. "Who did this to you?"

She chokes out a few unintelligible words.

"Who did this to you?" I repeat, my voice rising.

"M-Mal-Malfoy," she finally chokes out hoarsely.

"Scorpius?" I ask in disbelief. She nods, still sobbing.

I help her back into the common room-I'll deal with Scorp later. Rose is still leaning on me, and I yell at the bottom of the girls' stairs.

"Alice! ALICE!"

"What?" she asks sleepily. She spots Rose and gasps, running down the stairs.

"Rose, what happened?" she cries.

"Shh," I hush her. "Don't wake up all of Gryffindor. Just-try to make her better."

Alice nods and presses her finger to her lips. I transfer Rose's weight to Alice, and Rose's hand catches on my wrist.

"Al," she says hoarsely. "Thank you."

I nod and try for a smile as they go back up the stairs, Alice speaking softly to Rose under her breath. I still can't believe it was actually Scorp-but then again, maybe I can.

Turns out, I don't even need to leave the common room. Scorpius bursts in, breathless, his blond-silvery hair swooped to one side.

He sees the expression on my face. "What?" he asks. "What's wrong?"

"You know very well what's wrong, Malfoy," I hiss. My use of his surname stings, I can see it. I don't use it playfully, either, like Rose used to; when I say it, I mean business.

"You stay away from cousin," I say. "You come near her ever again, I'll personally make sure it's the last thing you ever do."

With that, I turn around and march straight up to our dorm. I know he follows me, trying to explain, but it's been explained enough: Rose doesn't lie, at least not to me, and she has the marks on her neck to prove it.

Scorpius POV

I swear, I didn't mean to do it. I would never do it on purpose.

I wanted to talk to her, to tell her how I've felt for the last six years. And then the moment came, and I froze.

"Cat got your tongue, Malfoy?" Rose had joked, but she looked nervous, though not as nervous as I had felt.

"Do you remember the train?" I blurted out.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"The train." I took a step closer, and another, and she backed away seeing the hungry look in my eye. Her back was pressed against the wall. I'm a good head taller than her, and stronger, too.

"Malfoy," she said. "What are you doing?" I took another step closer, but this time there was nowhere for her to go. "Malfoy," she said, her voice shaking. She looked each way, but there was no one in the hallway.

"I'm just gonna go now," she said cautiously, trying to move past me. I don't know what happened, it was like I was watching through someone else's body. I had reached out and grabbed Rose by the neck, her toes skimming the ground, until her eyes were bulging...until I realized what I was doing and let go. She fell to the ground, staring at me in disbelief and maybe a little bit of fear. And then I turned and ran, much more afraid of myself than she was. I ran to the Room of Requirement, where it became the room hiding the Mirror of Erised. I stared into the Mirror as long as I dared, as I have been doing for years now. It showed several things, things I'd grown used to: my brother, alive again, my grandfather proud of me for once, my friends beaming, Rose's face the brightest…

Then I realized what had happened. The feeling of being in someone else's body...like someone was telling me what to do...I had been under the Imperius Curse.

I stumbled back to Gryffindor tower, expecting to apologize and explain to Rose, only to be screamed at by Albus. In one night, I ruined everything. In one night, I sealed my fate.