Octobre 6

They didn't make it very far before they were separated. Rose was sitting alone on the steps in front of the library while Scorpius was stuck inside. The overhanging roof protected her from the worst of the wind and rain as she gazed out at the grey environment. All of a sudden she started giggling. Again. She couldn't stop herself.

She was sure she had been giggling for the past twenty minutes while she waited for Scorpius to emerge from the library. That thinking prompted more laughs, and even though the weather was bleak and cold, she felt exhilarated and warm. It was just too funny.

Her and Scorpius had been about to walk through the main doors of the library when animated stone owls swooped down on him from their perch above the door, hooting and chasing him away from the entrance. Scorpius was hollering for help and trying to swat the birds away from his head, yelling at Rose to stun the blasted things. She was as helpful as a slice of bologna; she was staring in awe at the bizarre sight. It was rare to see Scorpius so ruffled.

With the commotion, Jacques the librarian came huffing and puffing into view again, making such a short distance seem like a marathon.

"You two again! Which one of you did it! Which one of you is the thief!" he spluttered out, seemingly missing the part where Scorpius was the only one getting attacked. As soon as Jacques finished talking the owls took off and resumed their perch above the doorway. They preened their feathers with their beaks before ducking their heads down back and 'hardening' back into stone to guard the door.

That was the start of Rose's giggles. They came without thought and wouldn't go away even though she tried. The serious look on Jacques face and the stunned on Scorpius' only prompted more giggles.

Scorpius had the newspaper page in his pocket and he was about to get in trouble. He glared at her as his face turned slowly pink in embarrassment. He straightened himself, pushed down his sleeves, adjusted his raincoat and flattened out his hair that had been pulled by the owls – all in an attempt to compose himself.

"I'm from the Ministry, the Auror Department. I'm – extracting evidence and will return it after it has been examined."

Jacques thick eyebrows went upwards to hide under his hair that was falling over his face. "You can't just waltz out. . . ! Iodiota. . . there's a protocol. . . follow me. . . " He stalked off to his office. ". . . have proof. . . " they heard him mutter under his breath.

Rose was still caught up in her giggling; her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath.

"I'll . . . I'll be back," Scorpius murmured, still embarrassed by what just passed. He ran his hands through his hair as he watched Rose struggling to stop laughing.

He took a few steps away and then turned around quickly. "Fat load of help you were!" he accused before he stalked off to Jacques office.

"If you get thrown in jail I'm not coming to bail you out," Rose called after him with a large grin on her face. Maybe they would have some sort of holding cell in the library; Jacques obviously cared a great deal about his books and was an efficient librarian for all he was out of shape.

Chuckling, Rose went outside and sat on the steps, where she currently was situated waiting for Scorpius to finally get out. She thought being outside in the damp environment would stop her laughing, but it didn't help one smidgen.

The whole world was drowning in water. After raining heavy for a few days, the streets were mostly cleared of traffic and people. There were a few brave souls who ventured out with umbrellas but it was a quiet day otherwise. Rose leaned against the steps, resting on her backpack, and felt quite relaxed for the moment beside the odd fits of merriment that overtook her.

Leave while he's occupied, Greg suggested. She didn't want to though.

She eventually heard the door open and close behind her and snickered under her breath. She knew it was Scorpius. She heard him sigh loudly as he walked towards her and sat a few feet away from her on the steps.

"I am now the owner of a Webstrian Wizarding Library Card," Scorpius told her with his hands clasped loosely in front of him. "And I have six weeks to return the newspaper, not just the page. I have the whole bloody thing now. It would have been three weeks, but because I have authorisation that 'priviledge' has been extended."

Rose couldn't keep the grin off her face. "You thief you. Getting a library card in punishment." She shook her head. "You're lucky you walked outside those doors unscathed. I'm sure you were about a few steps away from getting banned from the library."

"Like you?" Scorpius muttered as he looked at the few scratches on his hands from the owls talons. The smile finally fell from Rose's face and she muttered 'mood killer' under her breath at him. She looked away from Scorpius and turned to face the grey streets once more. Her and libraries had never quite got along.

"Well we should be off," he announced with one last look at his hand. "We're on a schedule today." He turned around to sit on his knees and spread a map out on the step landing behind him. Rose scooted a little closer to him so she could see what he was doing.

"Our first stop is at this bank." Scorpius traced his long finger from the library to the other side of the map: the Luminess Bank. "Because we're apparating the nearest we can get is about. . . right here. . . the closest safe apparation zone."

Rose's eyebrows rose at his finger that was a good five blocks away from the bank. "There are safe apparation zones in London?" She had been apparating blind the past few months. How did she not think there would be some sort of regulation on it!

"But of course."

Rose nodded but didn't say anything. She was lucky she didn't get caught – by Ministry officials or muggles. She probably should have known that considering her parents both worked at the Ministry, but then again she had avoided magic for the past few years and it was something not really mentioned at Hogwarts.

"You can request somewhere to have muggle repelling charms, say, if you had travelled to a specific area lots. And the Ministry is reasonable with requests, but they do limit the amount of zones in an area. Our closest spot is about five blocks from the bank."

"Who would know if you apparated closer?" asked Rose.

"I would."

"So there's no record of it anywhere. . . ?"

"No Weasley. All your illegal apparating the past few weeks has not been recorded and you aren't about to lose your wand."

She felt her cheeks heat up slightly. "At least I passed my apparation test the first time I took it." Scorpius shot her a dirty look; he failed three times. "What's the street name we're apparating too – uh, what are you - ?"

She fell silent as she watched Scorpius mutter a spell that made colour appear in the map in certain areas and then duplicated the map with a 'Gemino'. He muttered a few other spells that Rose didn't recognise before he rolled up the duplicate and handed it to her.

"Here's the safe apparation spots in London, they're coloured red. This is now your personal map. Areas in orange are places the gang inhabits and you should stay away from. If anything else becomes relevant add it to your map. Spots of interest and whatnot, it helps you keep track of things easier. We should be off now."

He held out his arm for her and she just stared at it after zipping the map up in her bag. Not surprisingly the warehouses were in orange.

"Errr – what? What's the street? I'll meet you there."

"Just grab hold. This is faster than discussing the location every time we go someplace."

Rose slowly stood up and studied him for a moment. She felt he had an ulterior reason – for everything he did. She trusted him, but then didn't trust him. Not his words all the time. She always felt he was leaving something out. . . like he was telling part of the truth or part of what was relevant, but there was something deliberately not said.

She knew how to apparate. Realistically she just probably couldn't do it quite so quickly as him. Less practice tends to do that. Rather than argue, she slowly walked to him and took hold of his arm. A horrible squeezing motion later and they were in the alley.

Rose quickly released his arm and walked a few steps away, pulling up her hood to ward from the rain. There was no cover in the alley.

Scorpius put up his own hood also. "We're going to this bank first because it is a building you should only ever watch from afar. It's a muggle bank but wizards and witches have infiltrated it. Any newcomers who go in are taken to a back room and given veritaserum and then a memory charm because the bank never accepts new customers. They treat everyone with distrust."

Luminess bank was one of the places on Canwood's bio. She had passed it by a few times but never went in. . . unless she did and has no recollection. . . but she WAS NOT even going to think that.

Scorpius led her the five blocks to the bank in silence. When it came into view, he stayed on the far side of the street and turned into an old department store instead. Her eyes blinked at the sudden light change; it was grey outside with minimal sunlight and the bright fluoresent lights in the store hurt her eyes. They walked through the aisles, passing the odd customer who was shopping, and she followed him up the few flights of stairs at the back of the store.

There was an older man seated in the room by himself. He wore a pair of jean overalls with a flannel shirt underneath. She could smell coffee in the room.

"Evening Scorpius," he said. He had a bushy white beard and large kind brown eyes under thick eyebrows. His hands rested on a cane.

"Evening Matthias," replied Scorpius. "This is Rose."

"Evening Rose," Matthias said.

Scorpius gently elbowed her side and nodded his head towards Matthias.

"Evening Matthias," Rose said a bit uncertainly. Matthias nodded at her and then lifted his cane and brought it down with a smack. A door opened behind him.

Scorpius and Rose walked by without saying anything else. There was a narrow set of stairs and then they were in an attic. The ceiling was low and so both Rose and Scorpius were hunched over. He led her to a window. The attic was a small wooden room with a dirty window at each end. It was about a quarter the size of the department store on the previous floors. There were a few chairs and bookshelves that were against the walls, but otherwise it was empty. The only light coming in was through the windows.

"We're not going to be here long," Scorpius said as he checked his watch. "That was Matthias downstairs. He's part of the Auror Department."

Scorpius dragged two wooden chairs from the side to sit before the window facing the bank. Rose deposited her backpack on the ground and sat on the edge of her chair beside him, crossing her knees. The Luminess bank was directly across the street from them. It looked out of place next to all the old stores around it as it was a newer building with large glass sides and clean brick.

Scorpius pulled a pair of omnioculars from the shelf and started fiddling with the dials. Rose watched his long fingers move around and noticed the concentration on his face. He lifted the omnioculars up to the window and started looking into the bank.

"Why don't you clean the window?" Rose asked. She didn't think he could actually get a good view out of it.

"So nobody can see in. We can see out but it's next to impossible to see in," said Scorpius. He passed her the omnioculars. "Here, rewind and memorise the face."

It took her a moment to remember how to use omnioculars, but she put them up to her face and looked through, pressing the rewind button.

"This is Rebecca Box; she is married to an idiot named Flamesy. If you ever see her, run. Don't second guess yourself, just get out as quick as you can. . and don't let her see your face. She's. . . insane. To put it bluntly."

"I think I recognise her," Rose muttered. The woman had medium length blonde hair and was walking around her office while talking on a phone and looking through papers. Rose had the fleeting image of a woman with blonde hair in a ponytail high tailing it out of Coffee for Kooks a month ago.

"Tell me she didn't see your face," Scorpius said. Rose could feel his eyes on her face. He was tuned wholly on her.

Rose set the binoculars on her lap and nervously ran a hand through her hair. She didn't like the attention. Unfortunately her hand got caught by knots and she ended up pulling some of the hair from her head before her fingers got out.

"I. . . well I was turned the other way, so I don't think. . . probably not. . . " Rose said, avoiding the piercing gaze of his eyes. Scorpius sighed deeply but didn't say anything else. He rubbed his eyes with his fingers and turned to look at Rebecca through the window.

You can't lie about important things like this to him, exclaimed Marta. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But the alternative, telling, was harder.

"Well, you'll just have to kill her before she kills you then."

Rose looked sharply at him. "You're not serious?"

His brown eyes were sombre as he stared across the street. When his attention turned to her she realised how close they were seated. Too close. She scooted her chair sideways and it made a loud squealing noise across the floor. Rose winced and Scorpius smirked at her.

"She can shoot jinxes out of her wand faster than Canwood can. She acts first and acts questions later. She's utterly devoted to Snakebitten and only cares about money. She's a horrible person."

That worried Rose. She had been inquiring about Canwood that day in the store. Perhaps she wasn't recognised and Rebecca left the store for her own reasons, not because of Rose's loud mouth.

She could perhaps all she wanted, but she didn't quite believe them.

She didn't tell Scorpius her thoughts.

The next place they went were the warehouses. This was her first time back since the disastrous sinkhole injury.

Not surprisingly they had to be disillusioned. Since they were moving they could vaguely see each other's outlines. Scorpius threatened that if she wandered off or got too far away they would have to move forwards by holding hands so as to not lose each other.

"Would you hold hands with a male Auror buddy if you were both disillusioned?" she asked stingingly.

"Yes."

She grudgingly stayed close as they carefully made their way closer and closer to the large buildings. They were skirting the large puddles of water on the ground because walking in water gave way to noise, ripples, and mud tracks.

It was bordering on late afternoon as they tramped closer and closer to their destination.

He slowed down and pulled up beside her, his wavery outline just visible. Rose could feel his breath near her ear. There were times she could appreciate his tall height. "The weather is deterring the people that patrol. Normally this place is covered with gang members. Four o' clock is also change of shift, so we have one hour here before we have to leave."

"Why only one hour?" Rose asked quietly.

"Because where we're going here there is only a one hour gap before the spells are renewed."

"What spells? I didn't know they had spells here?"

"They have more than spells." That was all he said.

"Are you not going to elaborate more?" Rose asked, frustrated. "You can't just say 'they have more than spells' and not say what else they have here! What if I wanted to come here sometime? Shouldn't you just say what there all is here?"

She could see him shake his head. "It's too dangerous to be around here. It's orange on your map for a reason. This place is crawling all the time with people."

Don't let him control you're movements, said Greg.

He's doing it for a good reason! Marta shot back.

He doesn't get to dictate her life, was all Greg said.

She rubbed her temple from the few sharp pains that randomly just showed up. Rose wasn't going to keep away just by Scorpius's sayso. "You know what Malfoy, everything is fucking dangerous around here. What would make it less dangerous is to know what makes it so fucking dangerous in the first place! Then I can be wary. . . take precautions."

They had reached the first warehouse and were at its backside, the river Thames on the left and the warehouse on the right. The ground was rocky, uneven, and soaked. Scorpius covered their footprints behind them with a spell but luckily nobody was out back for their shoes made loud squelching noises. Rose was going to have to give her shoes a big scrub when she got back to her flat.

"You shouldn't come out here alone. . . especially for someone's who's. . . green."

Rose rolled her eyes though he couldn't see them. "For your information, I've already been out here. And I was in one of the warehouses."

You probably should have kept that a secret, Marta said.

"When? You're not serious are you?" Rose could just imagine the look on his face; incredulous, and disbelieving.

"Yes, and it all turned out. . . fine," Rose said, perhaps stretching the truth quite a bit. "Nobody saw me and I managed to sneak into one of the warehouses."

Lies. . .

"Without being seen?"

"I had the invisibility cloak, movement doesn't register with it, nor spells."

"Hmmm. . . There are guards posted on all the doors at all times. This place is watched constantly. Nobody goes in or out." Scorpius said. Rose could hear the doubt in his voice. He continued, "regardless of the rain, someone is at the doors at all times. It's just the patrols that get deterred. Only. . . an explosion would draw people away. Do remember noticing any fires or anything?"

"Actually, I recall smelling smoke that day," recalled Rose.

"Well, Ok. . . that explains more than it doesn't."

"Oh? How so?" she said with eyebrows raised. "Wait, let me guess, it's something I can't know."

"You can, but it doesn't matter right now."

Rose growled under her breath.

Scorpius pointed at the wall in front of them. They were at the back of the fourth warehouse. "So what we want to do is climb up to the roof," Scorpius said. "We have to be quiet, but the nice thing about old buildings is there are lots of handholds."

He put his hands on the brick and hoisted himself up. When he realised she wasn't following him he turned around. All she could see was a blurry spot on the wall where he was. "What, are you scared? From what I heard you've climbed loads of mountains and the like. What's one simple wall?"

Insolent bugger, jinx him, Greg said.

"You're trying to get a rise out of me. It's not working. . . I'm not scared. . . " muttered Rose. She put her hands on the wall and took some deep breaths. It was mind over matter. She could climb, and had done previously. She just needed to focus her mind and place hand over hand, foot over foot. She couldn't let her mind drift or let Scorpius irritate her.

In the end, it turned out Scorpius's jabs were for naught, for she beat him to the top.

"I usually fly a broom," was all Scorpius said as he peered back over the edge. "Our leaving might be a tad unconventional."

She was about to ask why it would be unconventional when she realised he was no longer there; he was already walking across the roof to the 'front' side. She squinted her eyes to see his form and followed.

The wind was gustier up higher and her face was getting soaked regardless of her hood, she didn't want to think of her poor backpack, Rose hoped the insides were dry.

Scorpius crouched near the edge to look down at the land below. Rose hesitated behind him. She was watching with much trepidation, but she wasn't about to let Scorpius see it. She sat down on her arse and scooted closer to him, to the edge. As long as she was seated and not close to the edge, she would be fine. . .

Scorpius eventually pulled back and sat closer to where she was. Then he started talking.

The warehouses, called 'the Hatch' by the gangmembers, were where half of them slept and it was where they did business and discussed territory. The main floors weren't habitable for humans because of years of water getting into the floorboards. Rose could have kicked herself when he told her that like it was completely obvious.

Snakebitten dealed primarily in drugs and it was also a place where people came to get 'spiffed' as it was called. Occasionally, Scorpius pointed out a few of the people that came into view walking across the grounds. She couldn't see their faces perfectly but she had a better idea of their walk and their build. Jims and Rata were patrols, the former a muggle. Jean, Frogspawn, and Heather were all door guards but lived out in London. Anderson was a foreigner and very superstitious. He just wandered around from patrols to guards to management. All the patrols were pairs of magical folk with a muggle because they interacted with both the magic and muggle London together. Flamesy, Rebecca's husband, was third in command to Gradford, the leader of Snakebitten. He was a recruiter and was constantly out in London.

At one point Scorpius was poking her and pointing out through the rain. "That's Matild. Potioneer. He rarely comes here, prefering to work at his house." He just looked like a black blob in the distance, Rose didn't know how Scorpius distinguished him.

The rain put an absolute damper on things. Moreso because they weren't under shelter; they were just sitting in the open. Rose wasn't going to complain if Scorpius didn't say anything.

There was really no conversation going on. Scorpius talked, she listened. There were many empty silences. He didn't share anything and neither did she. They didn't joke, didn't share anything personal, didn't discuss friends and family. It was strictly information, but it was strangely peaceful.

They sat until their spells wore off. Rose could make out Scorpius much better. He was no longer a wavery form beside her. At the very least he was as wet as her.

Perhaps it was the illusion of nobody around in the bad weather or the fact that nobody had been on the roof yet, but they forgot they were in enemy territory and weren't alone.

Eventually they heard a shout from behind them long after the spells were off. Scorpius quickly jumped up in surprise and swore.

There was a head poking up from a roof hole that was shouting at them to get back inside the Hatch.

Scorpius was looking at his watch, half in disbelief. "I swear we had twenty more minutes. They've changed times again. Fuck. I guess we are leaving unconventionally."

"Climb back down?" Rose asked. The easiest would be to apparate away, but if he meant unconventional -

She stood up and nervously brushed her raincoat down. If this turned into a duel she didn't know how she would fare.

Scorpius noticed her nervousness. "We're not staying. We've got to leave before they reach us." He sent up a shield charm and walked to the edge of the roof to look down at the ground. "Looks like they haven't raised the alarm to the other warehouses yet. They probably think we're spiffed and snuck up. You ready?"

Rose sat back down to scoot herself closer to the edge. Scorpius took one giant step to her side and hauled her right back up. "What are you doing?" he hissed. He pulled her a few steps forward but Rose pulled back as much as she could.

"I'm not just going to walk right up to the edge!"

"We're not climbing! We don't have time to climb down! We're jumping and then running to the edge of the apparation boundary and getting the hell away from here. As soon as the alarm is set, this place gets swarmed with gang members. It would almost be suicide to be caught here."

Rose felt really cold all of a sudden and her knees felt week; they almost gave out on her. "I can't jump."

"Of course you can." He tugged her arm which she ripped out of his grasp and took a few steps away, putting her hands up to stop him.

"No. . . I'm serious. I – No. I would rather face whoever came through that roof than jump. I can't. Physically – mentally, I - I just can't." Her legs were like iron, she couldn't move them. They were a few stories up, jumping would mean death. The image of Rick and Danny falling flashed over and over in her head. She couldn't jump.

It seemed like the woman was tired of yelling at them to hurry up. She emerged to the roof with someone and started walking towards them.

"We're not jumping to our deaths," Scorpius said quickly. Rose cringed. "I'll do a cushioning charm. And then we'll run like hell. Thankfully with the weather they have poor visibility. And they haven't seen our hair colour because our hoods are up."

She had to make him understand. Her legs wouldn't move at all. If it was fight or flight, she would be a stature, subject to whatever was thrown at her, unable to move one iota. Luckily her mouth was moving.

"I – there was an accident back – I saw. . ." her voice got squeaky high. She didn't want to tell him anything. But she didn't know how else to convey her fear. She could climb down if she went slow – but jump, that was asking too much too soon.

"Rose we have to leave now!"

Again he pulled her arm abruptly and she was thrown off balance. Her heavy legs reluctantly took a step forward. But she kept stalling, pulling back. He was only a few inches taller than her so her height helped her hold her ground. It was the weight factor where she didn't hold a candle, and he was stronger than her. Nonetheless, she still resisted. Her instincts went against everything Scorpius was saying. She could see annoyance on his face.

She looked back at the two people with wands out that were getting closer by the second.

"There's only two of them!"

"Goddammit Rose. They have a system. We. Can't. Stay." And with that he practically swooped her up in his arms, her long legs flailing in the air and her hands grasping desperately at his shoulders - to push away, but he took the few steps to the edge, and leaped.

Her eyes stared down towards the ground they were approaching as wind blew her hood back from her face. She felt empty and the images of Danny and Rick falling kept replaying in her head, that warm sunny day, so different from today. . . She closed her eyes and accepted the pain and inevitable death that would come when she hit the ground. Scorpius then squeezed her tighter while he waved the arm underneath her legs and Danny and Rick went flying from her mind and she focused on the realness of Scorpius to keep the memories away. . .

But then they landed and he dropped her legs - there was a moment of clarity where she had her strength back - she pulled her fist back and punched him in the face. Hard.

He was pulling and tugging her forwards at a fast pace. They were running and there was shouting from the roof and then behind them; a few spells were shot from a few different directions - Rose noted the red and yellow flying by. Scorpius shot a few back over his shoulder. Rose just concentrated on her feet moving. The pace was dictated by Scorpius who was constantly pulling her hand.

She felt horrible for reasons she couldn't quite put to words.

Then they reached the spot and in an instant they were gone; apparated away by Scorpius's quick wand work.

By the time they reached the muggle coffeeshop, Rose was shaking. Her hands wouldn't stop, her arms. Her legs wouldn't support her. As soon as they sat down her head was on the table covered by her arms. She welcomed the darkness and warmth of that brief shelter.

They both were absolutely drenched. Having spent the better part of the day outside in the rain, raincoats only stopped so much. Running in the rain didn't help either.

Scorpius bought her a black coffee and sat across from her in the booth.

Rose kept her face to the table but unwrapped one arm to hold the coffee. It felt wonderfully warm in her hand.

"I don't know why you're the one with your face down, I'm the one who just got punched. And hard. You could have used less force, my face is going to be purple tomorrow."

She was not impressed. "You deserved it." The hand she punched with felt a bit swollen. She peeked through her arm at him. He was looking at her with concern. His face was already puffy from where the punch landed. He kept opening and closing his jaw and massaging the skin with his fingers. It was one small victory to her. He also got attacked by the owls a few hours ago and the scratch marks were still visible on her hands.

Her coffee was well on its way to being warm when Scorpius finally asked, "why couldn't you jump?"

Rose exhaled loudly for his benefit.

"We need to have this discussion. Why couldn't you jump today? I understand it's – undesirable, but the way you were acting – dangerous things will happen when we're out looking for Canwood. Jumping should be the least of your worries."

She lifted her head from the table and gave him a look of 'I don't want to talk about it.'

He didn't accept that. "Bloody hell Weasley! Where's the adventurous girl I kept hearing about from your bloody family who went off into the world? Where's the Rose who doesn't shut up and insists on arguing all the time. I thought you were impulsive and took risks? Jumping off a roof is nothing – "

"Shut up." She said that colder than she meant. Scorpius stopped. Waiting. Watching. "You don't know anything. There are reasons why . . . I'm not discussing them with you. It's none of your business."

"It is now," Scorpius said softly. He scratched his head and put his head in his hands, rubbing his face roughly. "Today was a rather - eventful start. We're going to be spending the next weeks together, we need to learn more about our limitations and. . . get some things out in the open. Things that should have been said a few years ago. . . We need to move forwards and be open for this to be an effective partnership. I'm your best bet for finding Canwood, but if we're lacking communication. . . that just invites the possibility of mistakes and injuries."

Rose half-heartedly shrugged her shoulders. It sounded personal. She didn't want to get personal with Scorpius, or open up because she couldn't say anything about the bracelet or the contract. . . but it honestly wouldn't be that bad of an idea.

You'll need to do this if you're working together, Marta said. It would do some good, for you both.

Don't let him in, Greg said. He'll only hurt you again.

I know, but the alternative is worse. . . Rose thought back. It wasn't a very confident thought. She was tired of running from everything in her life.

"Friday." Scorpius decided. "We're taking the night off. I'll be over with some firewhisky."

"Firewhisky. . . ?"

"Well, something's got to loosen our tongues. Our sheer obstinate personalites won't work. If you have a better idea, by all means let me know."

She took a sip of her cold coffee. She didn't have any other ideas.

It was sure to be a lovely time.

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