August 23, 2026

"You added way too much ginger and pepper."

"What are you talking about? I added the perfect amount! This needed more flavour; it was very bland before. Bleeggh."

"You called that bland? That was my masterpiece of a sauce for the stir fry! It doesn't need to be touched up. Honestly! Women!" exclaimed Albus as he retested the sauce for perhaps the fortieth time. While the extra ginger and pepper didn't exactly hurt it, the sauce was still missing something. He just couldn't figure it out. He looked at his partner Avani Singh; they were both co-owners and Head Chefs in their restaurant The Cricket at your Hearth, a name they came up with after much debate. They had met at culinary school in London, later deciding to start a business after they found they had very similar ideas for what they wanted in a restaurant. Albus raised his eyebrows as Avani retested the sauce as well.

"Okay, no it's not the ginger. . . oregano? No. . . I just can't think of what it needs! It's something. . . " she snapped her fingers together. "It needs tabasco sauce! We need some zap in this wok. Get the customer's mouths fired up!"

Albus groaned. "You can't add tabasco sauce to everything! I wish I kept you away from Lucy. . . why oh why would she introduce you to that horrid sauce."

"It's quite tasty and deli-umptious!"

Albus shuddered. "Not at all, it burns! You and everything spicy! It's not natural."

"Ooooh, boo-hoo. It's my culture and I grew up with it, if our places were switched I bet you would love spicy and flavourful food! But trust me on this; I won't add Lucy amounts. . . "

Albus covered his eyes. "I can't watch this, please don't ruin my stir-fry!"

"Our stir-fry," she corrected.

"Sorry. . . "

She smiled at him though he didn't see and she added the tabasco sauce. After retrying it again, she added more garlic.

"Okay, you can look now and try. It tastes magnifico!"

Albus uncovered his eyes and looked doubtful at the wok. He gave it a few stirs before picking up some vegetables and eating them. His eyes widened and he nodded.

"Okay, okay. Perhaps you were right with the tabasco. It isn't overpowering everything else, but it just adds that. . . well zap I guess."

Avani tucked one of her brown curls behind her ear. "Told you! What would you do without me? So we'll have this as the special in two weeks?" She started writing the ingredients for the sauce down on paper in front of her.

After she finished scratching everything down on the paper, Albus double-checked it. He tipped the contents of the wok onto two plates, leaving some food for Scorpius when he was back from work. "I think so. We haven't featured a stir-fry for quite some time. This week is fish and rice, and in three weeks it's something Italian – which we still need to figure out what we're cooking."

"Alrighty-o, Chef Potter. I have oodles and oodles of ideas."

"Of course you do. Just eat up, Chef Singh."

They each grabbed their plate and sat down at the table, talking about their restaurant and business: the menu, pricing, building maintenance, advertising, food sales, employees, and goals for the future. Their business had started out slow, but having a weekly special that varied in flavours each day and a flexible menu with many different foods from around the world helped the restaurant attract attention. It also didn't hurt that the name Potter was leaked to the press.

The two worked well together. Avani was creative and the risk taker with the food while Albus was more by-the-book. They worked off each other and balanced their kitchen out. When they were in the middle of supper or lunchtime, Avani kept Albus grounded so he didn't yell at everyone, and he kept him from getting frustrated and messing up orders during the rush.

They continued talking and eating until Scorpius flooed in. As he walked into the kitchen, Albus noticed that he was clutching his arm and looked to be in pain. The blue sleeve of Scorpius's shirt was all black, burnt, and tattered. What skin could be seen on his arm was bright red.

"You alright?" asked Albus slowly, as he stood from his chair.

Scorpius winced and walked over to the table.

"Yes," he said calmly. "I will be okay in a second. Al can you go to my room and look for the burn cream Dominique made for me a few months ago. It should be in the trunk at the foot of my bed. It's in a blue container with a large B and C on it."

Albus nodded and quickly left to get it. Avani was looking at Scorpius's arm with apprehension. She backed her chair up so she wasn't as close to him and his arm.

"Uh, it looks like you fried your arm right up. . . "

Scorpius sighed and mumbled, "someone else did it for me, actually. Stupid bastard."

"I hope you gave him what he deserved back. Your arm looks. . . freaky."

He shook his head. "Missed him. Would you mind getting me a glass of water?"

"Oh!" Avani jumped up with a nervous giggle. "Right! Yeah it's no problem whatsoever! I can't believe I didn't even think of asking you. You're injured, that should have been the first thing I said. Water, water's important."

She grabbed a cup, filled it, and brought it over, backing away again after he grabbed it. Scorpius released his arm, revealing a reddish black area where the skin had bubbled and was peeling, and drank the whole glass in one go. His hand was shaking the whole time. Avani gagged a few times before averting her eyes.

Albus entered with the cream and looked in horror at the burn. "Holy hell, I'm not touching that. You should just Floo over to the girls' flat and have them look at that burn. That looks serious. I'm pretty sure this cream is only good for minor to intermediate burns!"

"No this will work. . . It's great stuff. . . very effective. . ."

Albus unscrewed the lid for him and immediately Scorpius reached in and scooped some out, applying it generously to his arm. He sighed in relief; the cream was a coolant with a healing spell infused, soothing his arm and almost instantly getting rid of most of the redness from his wrist to shoulder. The worst part of the burn didn't heal, but it felt way better than it did before as most of it was numbed.

Scorpius leaned back in his chair and rested his head against the back, finally relaxing his shoulders and breathing a little more evenly. Avani and Albus were both still standing and eyeing him like he was about to combust any minute.

"If you still want to be useful, one of you can get the first-aid kit from the bathroom," he stated.

"Okay, I'll do it!" they both yelled at the same time and both immediately ran out of the room.

It was Albus who returned a few seconds later with a sheepish face. "She beat me to the stairs. . . so yeah."

"You two sure keep calm in the face of injuries," Scorpius chuckled.

Albus looked embarassed. "Heh. . . well you know. If you just would go straight to the girls' flat, then we wouldn't be all freaked out here! Your arm looks disgusting mate."

"I have most of the healing stuff I need upstairs, so I don't need to go every time I'm hurt," he said.

"You're hurt bad now! I'd recommend it. Go. Really!"

"I'm not going. I'll be fine."

"Uh, no you won't," insisted Albus. "It could get infected, and they will even feed you. Why don't you just go?"

"I can't go now, to there. It's just weird. . . and, I don't want to face her - I mean go – there. . . now." Scorpius scowled as he finished his sentence, realizing the mess of it.

Albus raised his eyebrows. "You don't want to face Rose? That's why you aren't going over to the trained Healers to get your burn properly healed? You are such a chicken shit. And stupid."

Scorpius glared at Albus and opened the first aid kit that Avani just brought in. He added a bit more of the burn cream before he started wrapping his arm in a white bandage. Albus and Avani watched from a few feet away.

"There is some supper on the stove if you'd like some, after you know, you're done with that," said Avani.

"Yeah I'll grab some in a moment. I hope it's good."

"It is," the two chefs said at the same time.

Albus cooked eighty five percent of all the meals in their flat; the other fifteen percent of meals were leftovers each day from the restaurant. Scorpius figured he had the best deal; he didn't have to cook or wash dishes. The whole kitchen was pretty much off limits for him because Albus had a certain way everything had to go; each dish had a specific place and even a specific way it had to be cleaned. Avani was the only other person allowed to cook and clean in the kitchen, as she was 'qualified.'

The two started washing up as Scorpius began to eat. Albus managed to wait until Scorpius was half-way done his plate before interrogating him. "So what's the deal with the burn? It's not something 'top secret' this time, is it?"

"Nah, not top secret," he sighed. "The stupid bastard likes his hexes. And I wasn't expecting him at all where I was hidden."

"This wasn't Gradford himself then, or was it?"

"No, some random named Canwood. I haven't gotten within spitting distance of Gradford in three weeks. He is being more careful and has hired a few more henchmen to crawl around his base. They know that someone is after him after last week's slip up and so they are out full force, hexing anything that moves."

"And you just got in their way today, didn't you?"

He gave a wry grin. "You know me. Can't resist sticking my nose everywhere. . . Always have to see how far people can go before they react. . . " He trailed off with a frown. Unfortunately that fact was truer than he really liked to admit sometimes, but it was what made him good at tracking and finding people who didn't want to be found.

Stiple Gradford was the man that Scorpius had been tracking for the past two months, checking up on an anonymous tip that he was the man in charge. He was looking for the resident drug lord of East London, a man who infiltrated both the wizarding and muggle worlds distributing the highly addictive wizarding drugs to all takers. And Scorpius was sure it was Gradford with the evidence he had found.

Clever, ruthless and terrified of the outside world where someone could apprehend him and lock him away from his millions, he hired men specifically to guard him and his different hide-outs. He was known to many as eccentric and scared of his own shadow, always getting his henchmen to do his dirty work. Nonetheless, he was intimidating when face on, and few people ever made it out of his hide-outs in one piece. He was a tricky man to find, but Scorpius managed to do it, though he had never met the man.

Scorpius was by himself on the case for the moment because the Aurors were stretched very thin. Over half of them were in the northern regions of England, trying to find an incredibly dangerous and psychotic wizarding couple who were killing Muggles. The other half were working on an international case with the Ministry of Finland, though Scorpius wasn't qualified to know anything about that. As Scorpius was still a young Auror and only been working for two years, he was assigned to stay in London on a less important case. Less important being he was just supposed to collect information for the full Auror's so when they were free, they could nab the guy. Gradford didn't have control over the whole city, just the east end, but his reign was expanding quickly and it needed to be shut down within the year.

As soon as Scorpius finished eating, he levitated his plate to Avani. She yawned as she finished washing it and handed it to Albus for drying. "Well, I hope your arm heals up well. That was not a pretty sight."

"I'm sure it will, I've had worse," replied Scorpius.

Avani nodded and yawned again. Albus grinned at her. "Tired?"

She scowled. "Yes! We honestly work over twelve hours a day, it does get exhausting sometimes – so much to do, all the time. . . but yes, I'm going to header home now and call it a night. I'm beat."

"Okay, see you tomorrow then."

"You betcha, eight again I take it?"

"Yes ma'am," said Albus and Avani grinned at him before she left the room to go to the fireplace.

"Do you ever take a break from work?" Scorpius asked, but Albus didn't answer for he was distracted by a thought. He turned away from the sink and looked at the doorway before quickly walking to it and looking out.

"Yeah. . . this weekend I went did on. . . Wednesda – I mean Saturday. . . Avani!" he called. "Hold up one second."

She paused in front of the fireplace, the Floo powder in her hand, and looked up. "Yes?"

"I forget if I asked you already, but next Sunday, August the 30th – what are you doing?"

"You didn't," Avani said, "and nothing that I can think of right now?"

Albus nodded. "Alright, okay. Well my family is having their annual end of summer get together that day and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me in the morning and help my Nana Molly cook. I mean you don't have to if you don't want, or you can come around lunchtime when almost everyone else shows up, instead of cooking and setting up in the morning, but you're invited. That's kinda what I meant to get at."

Avani's smile got wider. "I would love to come help out Al, but I thought that your get together was only for. . . well, family? I don't want to barge in with you all."

"Well, the past few years, because there was so many of us, it was family. But this year it seems like half of them can't make it. We still want a decent crowd so it's open to close friends now. And so I'm inviting you," assured Albus.

"Yeah, I'll come help cook, no problemo. My social calendar isn't really booming nowadays anyway."

"Alright, thanks! You can Floo over here in the morning around nine and we can head out together."

"Sounds great, later you two!" She then stepped in the fireplace, flooing to her flat.

Albus watched the fireplace until the flames died down to faintly smouldering embers. He turned around and jumped, seeing Scorpius leaning in the doorway. Scorpius raised his eyebrows at Albus. "You fancy her," he stated.

Albus stared at Scorpius for a full minute before he comprehended what was just said. "Oh, I don't fancy her, we are just colleagues."

Scorpius's eyebrows went up. "You spend practically every day with her. It was bound to happen."

"Scorp, I don't. We're just really good friends. I like spending time with her, but I don't like, like her."

"Yes, you do."

Albus ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. "Look, mate, if you fancy a girl you are supposed to be nervous around her and get butterflies in your stomach. . . All that nancy stuff. I don't get butterflies nor am I nervous around her, therefore I don't fancy her!"

"You're comfortable around her, that's why you're not nervous around her anymore. I bet when you first met her you were nervous."

Albus sat down on the couch in exasperation. "Of course I was. Avani is so loud, how could I not be nervous? But I'm nervous around everyone I meet the first time. That doesn't prove anything."

Scorpius scoffed and grinned at his clueless friend. "More than you know! You're rarely nervous around people you meet for the first time you git, you are bloody over-friendly, giving handshakes, and offering drinks and food. You like her. Just admit it!"

"Woah, woah, woah. . . well you must like. . . Rose then, for isn't another sign of liking people calling them names? You had bloody well ten stupid nicknames for her at Hogwarts, none of which she liked!

Scorpius faltered, not prepared for Albus's new attack. "I. . . no. . . we -"

"See, exactly! You-"

"I don't even know her," Scorpius blurted out, cutting off Albus. "How can I possibly like someone who I don't know. She isn't the same girl she was in Hogwarts. Hell, I don't think I'm the same either. Everything has changed. Everything is different."

Albus rolled his eyes. "Good excuse birdbrain. She hasn't changed as much as you think. You have to spend more time with her to figure it out. If you didn't run every time you saw red hair. . . ! But you do like her, and you did back at Hogwarts too. The signs are all there!"

"Your signs are all there. You like Avani. I don't like Rose. Simple as that. It's not rocket magic."

"You're wrong. You haven't gone out with any girls since Hermione Smeaton and you dated that psycho for two years. You haven't gone near a girl since except Lucy, Molly, and Dom. . . " There was a pregnant pause and then Albus gasped. "No!"

"NO!" yelled Scorpius in horror, waving his hands. "Stop drawing conclusions! I don't fancy anybody. Especially not Lucy, Molly or Dom! Stop changing the subject from Avani and how you fancy her! This isn't about Weasley at all! I'm the one who's right! Remember when Avani cut her finger on your new kitchen knives? You wanted to take her to St. Mungo's. Just for a little cut!"

"Those knives hadn't been washed yet! That cut could have been infected! And it has to be Rose you fancy, there has been no other girl who you've had 'the signs' with! You just spilt your tea last week when she fainted; obviously something is there!"

"Al, you're wrong! Get that silly notion out of your head!"

"Seriously, just admit it," growled Albus.

"You admit it! I don't fancy Rose, she's your bloody cousin for crying out loud! I'm going to bloody well hex you if you don't shut up!"

Al took a deep breath and paused for a moment. "Alright, diplomacy. . . I'll stop harping on you about Rose if you stop harping on me about Avani. We're both being stupid. We don't fancy them, simple as that. We're 'drawing conclusions,' as you said, stupid conclusions."

Scorpius eyed him warily as if the statement was a trick but nodded his assent. "We're just being stupid, okay. Making all this stuff up. . . stupid, stupid."

"Brilliant. Anyway on the subject of Rose, I'm not saying anything like that; I got some interesting letters today I want to run by you."

"You want to run them by me?" he replied, confused.

"Yes, let's go to the kitchen. It has better light."

Scorpius sat back down in his spot from a few minutes ago, tapping his hand while Albus went to get the letters. He was utterly confused as to why Albus wanted him to read his private letters. He was also a little miffed that Rose was still going to be in the conversation. He really didn't want to talk or think about her.

"The first one is from James. He sent this to me because Rose sent him a letter asking for the cloak. Quite curious, he thought. Apparently also bored out of his mind. I see Rose more than he does, and you're an Auror, and he just found everything. . . very odd." He passed the letter to Scorpius.

Albussss Severuuuuussss,

Rose just sent me a letter. And I stuck it behind this one for you to read. What's up with her? She used Code TwinkleRhinoGriff. That means serious stuff. I actually have to go dig for the cloak and find it! And then I HAVE to send it to her. . . Honestly, what does she need it for? Go take your roomie and snoop out the situation. Something is up. Then when you figure it out let me know ASAP. I need something to do! Ryley is making me sleep on the couch tonight and so I am already bored as hell.

The better looking Potter brother,

James

P.S – don't forget to read the letter she sent me

P.P.S – send a letter back quick with answers

Albus set Rose's letter beside the one from James.

James –

Code TwinkleRhinoGriff. Need the cloak ASAP. So get off your arse and send it right now. I know you have it.

Rose

"Code TwinkleRhinoGriff?" Scorpius asked a little disbelievingly.

"Yeah, we made that up when we were all little because there was about eight of us in the family at Hogwarts at one point. The cloak and map are very cool and so everyone wanted to use them. Since we only had one of each we made codes for how urgent the situation was and who could use the cloak and map that night. Code TwinkleRhinoGriff basically trumped everything else and it's essentially 'don't ask questions, don't stall, worry about consequences later and whoever has the cloak or map must give it immediately.' This is the third time I've seen it used."

"So it's a big deal?"

"Yes."

Scorpius scanned the paper carefully, looking at Rose's messy and quick scrawl. Her name was barely legible, same with the text. If he had to guess, he would say she was worried, in a hurry, or scared when she wrote it. But he had never really inspected her handwriting before. Perhaps she wrote like that all the time?

"Well I don't know what you want me to do, do you have other writing I can compare this to?"

"Ah, I don't think so. And well I suppose there is nothing that you can do, but the question is why does she need the cloak? It most likely isn't for some prank."

Scorpius shrugged, he had no clue.

Albus pulled a second letter out. "I also have this letter from her. Because I sent one to her after I got James' and told her that she had to come houseclean here, because of our whole contract about her wand. I was going to ask her questions about the cloak if she came, but she didn't. Basically she told me off, quite rudely too."

Scorpius read with amusement:

Al

I don't give a shit that your kitchen needs cleaning. Do it your bloody self. I'm not in the fucking mood. And tell James to stop prying.

R

"So what am I supposed to take from this one?" Scorpius asked.

"Rose never swears when she writes. Never ever."

"Well she has a bad swearing habit, you said, so why would it not transfer to her writing?"

"'Cause she thinks before she writes, and she finds it too vulgar to write swear words. It's always more controllable to her by writing. She only swears because she doesn't take the time to filter her words; she's that impulsive. But obviously something is up with her. This is weird, even for her."

"What are you going to do then?"

"You are going to find her, bring her back here, and then interrogate her," Albus stated.

"Ha!" Scorpius stood up. "Fat chance. She's not a criminal and if she wants to talk, she'll come find you. I'm not kidnapping her."

"Lame. Way to be a party pooper Scorp. What am I going to tell James?"

"Tell him that he can do his own dirty work, or just leave her alone. Whatever she is doing is her own business and even though we are curious, we can't just barge in."

"Perhaps," Albus said thoughtfully. He was very surprised by that statement. It was very out of character for Scorpius - not wanted to know what was going on with Rose. Normally he wanted to know the answers to everything and had to find out little secrets. The fact that he barely seemed curious made Albus wonder what was up with him.

Albus noticed Scorpius walking away and then stopped him with a question.

"You're going to bed?"

"Yes. It was a long day, and I want my burn to heal better."

"You're coming to the end of summer get-together we're having in a week, right?"

Scorpius looked pointedly at Albus, "I wasn't aware I was invited. . . "

"That's ridiculous. Of course you are, and make yourself free that day because you need a day off once in awhile. I'll write Duncan if I have too. But you can come in the morning or early afternoon. We eat at four."

Scorpius nodded and then stayed on the stairs, tapping his foot and looking at Albus with an eyebrow raised.

Albus chucked a pencil at him. "Oh go to bed already. Of course Rose is going to be there, learn to live with it, and man up already."

"You're ridiculous."

"No you are."

"We're not starting this again! Goodnight."

Scorpius swore silently to himself. He always spoke freely to Albus. He had to do it on his job so he didn't want to do it at his home. However, Albus was fairly perceptive about his nature. Even though Scorpius wouldn't admit it, he was insanely curious about the whole matter. He was tempted to pretend to go to sleep and then sneak out later and see if Rose was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. He could easily tail her. But no. He wouldn't go after Rose, couldn't; it wasn't morally right to him, and other than going to Hogwarts with her and making a mess of their. . . whatever it was, he had no other connection to her besides living with Al. She didn't need people prying into her life. He was going to stay away.

That night while Scorpius and Albus were snoring in their sleep, a certain talked about member of the Weasley family stood outside in almost complete darkness. She had the invisibility cloak on and was staring through the living room window at a man sitting on the couch.

Nothing had changed.

The wrench from a few weeks ago was still on the floor and the broken TV had been pushed behind a new one. There were beer bottles around him and dirty dishes stacked beside him. He looked like a wreck, worse off than before.

Rose stared without moving until her legs grew numb. She didn't go inside even though that had been the plan. Well, she actually didn't have a plan about how she was going to get her things back. She had hoped inspiration would strike as she stood outside, but instead she just felt disgust and a need to get away from the small house. She also felt a tinge of guilt, sadness, and regret. Regret that she couldn't help him in the place he was now, sadness for the choices he made after his accident, and guilt she wasn't still trying something. It all could have been so different.

Her things could wait, even though she desperately wanted to retrieve her pictures. They were the most important items in the house and the window was too squeaky to open in the bedroom in the dead silence of night.

Rose lost her nerve. Her need to leave overgrew her want of thinking and she backed a few metres away from the window and closed her eyes as she held out her wand in her left hand. She concentrated on her destination: visualizing and imagining it. She was there, in every way except bodily and then she flicked her wrist. She disappeared with a crack.

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