Oct 10 – 16, 2026

Scorpius took off after Matild, hugging the wall and staying in the shadows. He was only visible to the trained eye. Rose had a bit more freedom with the cloak and wandered out into the sun keeping the blur that Scorpius was in sight so she didn't miss a turn and lose them both. It was only because she knew where to look that she could see him; the unsuspecting muggles didn't bat an eyelash.

They soon discovered that Matild was doing nothing more than dropping into the small businesses along the stretch and then leaving after only about five minutes. After two hours of wandering around, Scorpius dropped back and looked around for Rose, tapping his foot on the ground twice, their agreed signal. She was only a few steps behind him at that point.

"Yes?"

He jumped a little, not expecting her so quickly.

"He usually doesn't do this job. Sneak in behind him when he goes in the stores and watch. I'll stay outside with the Extendable Ears."

Rose felt a little weird being given that much responsibility, but she complied. She was the one with the invisibility cloak and wouldn't give herself away with the telltale blur. Matild's 'job' appeared to be bullying the workers and stealing their money. He made it easy to sneak in since he always swung the door open wide to announce his presence.

They followed him around all day. By the second day, he was done the strip and was walking to some small apothecaries in the vicinity. Rose snuck in the door each time, still invisible, and tailed him while making observations of what he was getting and how everyone was reacting.

"Ashpödel, caterpillar fungus, and dandelion fuzz," Rose said as she relied what he bought to Scorpius.

His face soured.

"The shopkeepers looked terrified to see him, didn't even ask for any money," added Rose.

"Rumours have probably made him much more menacing than he actually is."

Scorpius split his sandwich with her when they broke for lunch. And then nothing else happened the rest of the day.

Or the three days after that.

At first it was rather exciting wandering around, spying, and sneaking into the places. But by the fourth day Rose was itching to do something else. Anything. Matild was so boring; he would start every morning at Coffee for Kooks, yell at Courtney some more because she was still refusing to pay him 'his' money and then he would wander out to visit apothecaries – some he had previously visited.

Patience, stop moving so much. You're wearing a cloak but that doesn't mean people still can't run into you, warned Marta after Rose started paying less attention to the muggles around her.

She didn't know what Matild was waiting for. He seemed to hit all the same places day after day. All that meant for Rose and Scorpius was that he was staying predictable and instead of eating while trailing him, they could now sit in the alley when he ate food at a place called Woo's for exactly 28 minutes.

Scorpius remained just as stoic as ever and never seemed disappointed, or frustrated, or bored. He was intent and serious, always focused.

On the sixth day, Rose slipped up. As she was sneaking into the open door of the apothecary, she tripped and fell flat on her face with a loud thud. The door chimes gradually stopped ringing in the quiet room.

"What was that?" Matild said to the shopkeeper, his slimy voice so dangerous.

"I. . . I don't know. Probably a b – box falling."

Rose hastily and quietly tried to get up, but her cloak was caught in the door. Every little tug she gave made the chimes move. She was stuck and couldn't take off the cloak or it would be visible.

Pull it out, pull it out, Marta said hurriedly. Rose tugged again, trying to be gentle so there would be no noise. It wouldn't loosen.

Get your wand out. You might need it! said Greg. She couldn't even stand up and was huddled on the floor.

Did Scorpius see me? she wondered because then he could open the door from the outside. She doubted it though; the door was a heavy wooden one and the sounds were probably masked. She pulled herself as close to the wall as she could, continually pulling and trying to loosen the cloak, her heart beating faster the longer it remained stuck.

Matild was still suspicious even though there was no more noise after the thud. She saw him peek around the corner, the deep wrinkles in his face scrunched up and his piercing eyes alert. He picked up a glass bottle from the shelf and threw it at the door. Rose ducked at the last second and it just narrowly missed her head. It smashed, green inky liquid getting everywhere. Rose froze.

You need to move. NOW, her instincts were telling her. But she couldn't. The cloak was caught and soon she would be too. She could smell a burning behind her.

Matild frowned and picked up another bottle.

"S –stop," exclaimed the terrified voice of the shopkeeper, without much authority. "Th – this is my merchandise."

"You forfeited those rights when we took over the street. Come out come out wherever you are. . . " he cooed, steps advancing on the old, creaky wooden floor.

Just as Matild was about to throw another bottle, undoubtedly right at Rose this time, the door opened – Rose yanked her cloak with a huge pull and scooted herself into the corner – as a hulking, wide figure came through. The figure was dressed in oodles and oodles of rags upon her squat form.

Rose didn't know whether she should be suspicious or grateful. It was Rose Daphne, the crazy lady from the apartment.

Matild straightened. "Oh, it's you."

Daphne cackled. "Oh it's you. Oh it's you. YOU'RE SO PRECIOUS."

"Shut up with your deranged banter woman. Do you have what I need?"

"Do you have what I need?"

"The boss won't like that you're delaying. Neither will Pam. . ."

The name Pam seemed to make Daphne straighten and smarten up, if that was possible. She reached under some of the rags and pulled out a brown wrapped package and threw it at him. "This is the last of the bunch. Nothing else has been grown; nothing else will be."

Matild peeked in the package and was apparently satisfied. "Here you go." He pulled some coins from his pocket and handed them to her.

"RID them of the SPELLS," she said, crossing her arms and refusing to take them.

"Like I would – "

"Do you take me for crazy?" She started growling at Matild. He shuddered and then did some wand work over the coins.

"Better dearie. I can smell the magic, you know. Just like I can smell the spattergroit and lilacs you have hidden in here." Rose felt the hairs on her arms rise. There was no way for Daphne to know she was here. . . right? And why on Earth would Daphne be here and conversing with Matild! How did they know one another?

Daphne clucked twice and turned around, leaving the shop quickly. Her pinprick eyes didn't dart to the corner or anything, but a smug smile did appear on her face as she passed by. She stepped in the green liquid that was still resting on the surface of the wooden floor with a smack and it splashed over Rose.

Rose held still, hugging her knees and waiting for the chance to get out of the store. Luckily the liquid only seemed to burn wood, there were black marks all over the door and floor.

Matild didn't take much longer in the store. He picked up a few more ingredients, caused some more chaos by dumping ingredients on the floor, and then left, being very careful to not open the door more than necessary to slip out. Rose cursed her luck and had to wait for the next person to enter so she could sneak out.

"Very suspicious," Scorpius said, agreeing with her thoughts on the exchange. He didn't recognise the name Pam though. "And Daphne regularly converses with your cousins?"

"Well, I don't know how regular it is. But she's forbidden from having a wand and making potions. And they sort of keep watch on her."

Scorpius shook his head. "Just someone else we'll have to keep an eye on."

After a week of following Matild, they had a list of ingredients he had stolen, an idea of which shopkeepers could be bullied, and had an idea of how large Snake Bitten really was on the streets of London.

"What is he making with the ingredients?" asked Rose. She could only identify a few of them.

"Didn't you pay attention in Potions? Most of these were on our seventh year NEWTS final," Scorpius said lightly with a small grin.

She barely scraped an A in potions (she should have received a P) so of course she couldn't say anything. It wasn't her fault she hated working in the dungeons and couldn't sit still in classes. She glared at him for bringing it up.

"Some of them are stock ingredients for his potion stores, others are basic healing and charming potions for other members of Snake Bitten." Scorpius relented the information without much effort.

"That seems like a lot of effort for him to come out himself for those basic potions," Rose speculated as she fiddled with the covered bracelet on her wrist that was much too tight and itching like mad. Her hand seemed to be getting slightly purple and she was doing her best to ignore it. She would find Canwood. He was almost back in the country and as soon as he was Rose would be hot on his tail.

It was lunchtime and Rose and Scorpius were taking a break eating in an alley while Matild was at Woo's. He would be in there for another eleven minutes. The alley was rather grungy and dirty, but they brought their own food: Scorpius the sandwiches and Rose the water and apples. It was a ritual now and Rose had stopped complaining about him bringing food all the time. The sandwiches were very good and she knew it was with leftover food from Al's restaurant.

Then Rose saw Scorpius look away from her and run a hand through his hair.

Got him. What's he lying about now? Greg exclaimed. If he were a person Rose could envision him pointing a finger accusingly at Scorpius.

"What else," Rose said suddenly as she sat up straight and looked at Scorpius. "What else is he using the ingredients for? I know your keeping something from me."

"I'm not." His voice was hesitant.

"Malfoy. Say it. If it has to do with the gang I need to know."

He sighed loudly and stretched out his long legs across the alley, tapping his foot to some unheard beat. "I don't exactly know. Nobody knows. It's speculation."

"I don't care."

"I could be wrong. . . "

"That's ok."

It must have been the effect of Rose that was wearing him down, because she knew that a month ago Scorpius would never share anything with her, even when prompted. Now though, it was almost as if he wanted her to dig the information out of him, wanted to share information with her. It was more bearable to be around him now than it was at the beginning.

"The ingredients he buys are for veritaserum. We are pretty positive he's been out of stock for a few weeks and that's why he's been out all week bullying people for ingredients and money."

Rose frowned and ignored the 'pretty positive'. Obviously it was more than speculation then.

"Why does a gang need veritaserum?" she mused. "It seems like that's an extreme way to check if people are lying. Takes forever to brew."

So she did remember something from Potions! Scorpius averted his eyes briefly and Rose shot upright again and pointed a finger at him. That was his tell – to her at least. Scorpius was a good enough Auror that he could withhold information, but he was giving away the fact to her – so she could find out.

She just didn't understand him.

"Say it," she demanded, "What do they use it for?"

"It's nothing."

"No. Dammit Scorpius. Why is veritaserum important? What do they use it for?"

Scorpius sucked in his breath and looked at Rose. "You're rather demanding, you know that?"

"And you're rather frustrating!"

He rolled his eyes. "I think it's what they use to make their drugs. It seems like they somehow warp veritaserum – I'm not sure with what – and it changes the qualities from truth-telling to a sort of twisted reality. It's highly addictive and it's in high demand at the moment. Nobody has ever seen it being made before. We just have samples of the drug and it has many similar properties with veritaserum."

Her mind started wandering to the past few weeks, recalling bizarre behavior. If it was like a 'twisted reality. . .' Rose rested the last bite of her sandwich on her leg. "Does being spiffed have anything to do with it?" she asked softly.

"Where did you hear that?"

"A few times. . . a few different places." She didn't elaborate.

"It's called being spiffed, when you're on the drugs. People act crazy. Now, we better get back out there." They quickly packed up their food and cleaned up their area so no evidence of them remained. Right before they were to head out, Rose stopped him with an arm on his hand.

"What are we looking for? I mean I understand Matild's never usually around, but the most he does is steal from apothecaries."

"I know. It's frustrating. We're waiting for anything really – a run-in, a conversation. Someone he knows is bound to come along sooner rather than later and then we'll get more information. If he accidentally leads us to his own potions lab, all the better."

Rose was a bit dubious about that. She kind of thought it was a waste of time to spend this much time on one person when he did the exact same thing every day.

But it turns out she spoke too soon.

They were trailing Matild in the street a few hours after lunch when Scorpius stopped and tapped his foot. Rose could just make out his wavering form standing on the edge and she walked to him, touching his arm to let her know she was there.

What happened next was unexpected: he grabbed her arm in an iron vice so quick she didn't have time to move and then proceeded to drag her down the street at a quick pace towards Matild.

"Malfoy! What. The. Hell." He gave a squeeze on her arm and didn't say anything. Rose was sure it was him dragging her – it had to be him – but why was he dragging her? She struggled to keep her footing and not fall.

"Scorpius. Words, use them!"

"Wait. Quiet," the words came floating through the air towards her. Rose changed her mind's thoughts about how he maybe wasn't too bad and was getting more bearable. This was infuriating.

Then Rose saw what Scorpius apparently noticed but couldn't tell her – a woman directing her path to intercept with Matild's. The woman had brown curly hair and a buxom figure. And Scorpius was still struggling to catch up so they could be there when it happened. Now that she thought she figured out what was happening, she righted herself and walked with Scorpius instead of resisting.

They were very lucky no muggles noticed them and the disillusionment spells. Scorpius wasn't keeping to the shadows at all.

He slowed down when they were a few metres away from Matild.

"Go to the front and watch the exchange. I'll stay here. We meet after at that shoe store there." His breath tickled her ear, his touch now soft on her arm, but she did as he asked instead of voicing her frustrations. She was in front of Matild as soon as Scorpius let go.

The woman had her eyes trained on him, much like an amateur, and then Rose saw a slip of paper in her hand, just the barest piece of white against her black skin. She was drawing closer and closer by the second. Rose was keeping one eye behind her so she didn't run into anyone and the other on Matild so he didn't get too far away.

The woman tripped at the last moment, just inches from her target. She was not expecting it at all for her eyes were wide and she let go of the paper for the briefest of moments – before she crashed into Matild. The paper landed in front of Rose and she managed to read it before the woman rolled off Matild to snag it.

"Gertrum that was uncalled for!" Matild roared. A few muggles came to help them up and the woman – Gertrum – winced and looked frightened. Matild pushed all the people away and refused help.

"Leave me alone," he shouted. "I don't want any help." He got a few weird looks from the people before they retreated. Gertrum grabbed Matild's hand and swiftly transferred the paper over without anyone seeing.

She vanished soon after that and apparently Matild was in a bad mood for he went to the nearest alley to apparate away – a few hours before he usually did.

Rose watched Gertrum till she was gone from sight before she went to the front of the shoe store. As soon as she let Scorpius know she was there, her arm was once again grabbed. This time she was pulled to the alley, not as roughly as before, but enough to make her frustrations really grow and think of a small payback for him.

"Apparating," said Scorpius quickly and Rose couldn't even blink before they were gone.

They were outside his and Al's place.

Rose wrenched her hand out of his. What the hell? "That's not what I meant about telling me," she practically yelled. "You gave me one fucking second of warning before apparating."

Rose took the invisibility cloak off and stuffed it in her bag as she followed him up the stairs. He unlocked the door and Rose stormed in, kicking off her shoes.

"Malfoy we need to talk."

He ignored her anger and went up the stairs.

"Yes of course. I'll continue to blindly follow you like I'm a sheep. Don't tell me what you're doing. Baa baa," Rose said scornfully to herself as Scorpius was long gone. She hissed loudly before making her way up. Scorpius was at the room at the end of the hall, which turned out to be his bedroom. Rose found him on the floor and rooting through the drawers for something.

Rose stormed into the room, not waiting for an invite. The walls were a light grey-blue colour with a small Gryffindor banner on one side and a few photographs tacked by the large window. The room was mostly clean, the bed was more or less made and only a few shirts were on the floor. She sat on the black down bedspread and stared at him with a glower on her face. Scorpius didn't seem to care.

"We do need to talk," Scorpius suddenly said. Rose raised her hands to the roof. He was unbelievable. The drawer Scorpius was looking in was full of mismatched socks of all colour. Scorpius was picking up all the white ones and sticking a hand inside to feel around. Rose didn't question it.

"Did you duplicate the paper?"

Despite her anger, her mouth dropped. How could he have seen that from his angle?

"I didn't duplicate it," she said plainly.

Scorpius's skin turned white instantly beneath his summer tan. "What do you mean?" He stopped digging and looked intently at her.

"Well you didn't say to duplicate the paper with a spell, how was I supposed to know?" She felt very vindictive at the moment. He just didn't get it.

He groaned loudly. And put his head in his hands, pulling at his hair. "It was implied! What else would you do when an exchange happens and the paper falls to the ground after the target was incapacitated?"

Read it, Rose wanted to say, obviously, but she held that information back for the moment.

Don't tell him, said Greg. Well, she wouldn't right now.

"So, you sent a trip jinx?"

Scorpius nodded into his hands.

"Just for her to let go of the paper?"

Scorpius exhaled loudly and leaned back on the floor, keeping his legs bent because the dresser was in the way. He ignored the opened drawer and whatever he was looking for. "Yes. I did."

"See, now you string that all together and that's how you communicate when we're out in the field. For example: 'Rose, there's a woman around three o' clock who is headed straight for Matild. I think she carries a note and she'll try to hand it off to him. I will send a trip jinx at her when she's close and if she lets go of the paper, discretely duplicate it if you can get near it.'"

Scorpius dropped his hands from his face and looked at her in an expression that was half annoyance, half disbelief. Rose held her smug look in, trying to keep a straight face.

"It's that simple. Communication," she said.

He did not seem amused.

"I know it's longer to say, but then I won't misinterpret your meaning and mess up."

Scorpius didn't say anything.

Rose leaned back on his bed, kicking her feet up so she was lying down also. He really did have quite a comfy bed, she seemed to sink in. "What do you think the paper said anyway?"

Scorpius didn't answer for a few minutes, and when he did, he threw his hands up in the air and said bitterly, "probably something about what the new shipments were going to be and who was in charge."

Rose put her hands behind her head and oh-so innocently said, "nope. Not quite."

There was a pause.

"What?"

"I said not quite. You're wrong."

Another pause.

". . . How do you know I was wrong?"

Rose gave a little hum. "Well, I don't know. Maybe because when a piece of paper falls in front of me I read it."

There was a loud shuffling as Scorpius scrambled upwards. He leaned over Rose and put his hands on her shoulder, pushing her into the bed slightly. His eyes were wild and hair mussed up.

"You – you managed to read the piece of paper?"

"I'm not a complete imbecile."

He grinned and looked so relieved Rose almost felt bad about not telling him. Then she remembered she was still mad at him. He squeezed her shoulders gently and Rose had enough time to inhale before he was gone rooting through his sock drawer again.

He was triumphant a few moments later when he pulled out a tiny book from the toe of the sock and enlarged it with his wand. It was a plain black notebook. He left the room. She heard his footsteps thud down the stairs.

"I'm not following," Rose whispered. "Nope." She curled up on her side and half pulled the black blanket over her. It was soft. And warm.

Five minutes later a sheepish looking Scorpius came back to the room. "Hey – Rose. I see what you were getting at, before. I'm going to the kitchen table to write today's events. Can you come and contribute your information? I have samples of the gang's handwriting so we'll be able to narrow it down about who sent it if you can remember what it looks like."

Rose raised her eyebrow and grinned, flipping off the blankets with a pang. She could have used a nap. "Certainly Scorpius, I would love to. So kind of you for asking."

"Don't push it."

She got off his bed and followed him to the table; Scorpius was already warming up some food in the oven.

"We just ate lunch a few hours ago!" Rose exclaimed.

"That was more of a snack. I'm hungry and I know you are too. This is more of Al's food from the restaurant. It's good."

She rolled her eyes. She wasn't actually that hungry but she wouldn't turn down more food.

"I'm getting so much free food from that restaurant that I should start paying a monthly amount to him."

"Nah, you're okay. Al doesn't like waste and this would be thrown out if we didn't eat it.

Scorpius readied himself at the table and started writing. As soon as he started questioning her, he realised Rose wasn't going to give up the information that easily.

"You need to promise me something first."

He was exasperated. "What? What more do you want?"

"Communicate more. Don't just assume I know. It'll make it easier for both of us. Ok?"

That's rather hypocritical of you. . . Marta said. Have you told him about Canwood yet?

Shush.

He hesitated.

"It's not like I'm asking for you to give your first child to me!"

"Ok."

"Is that an ok to the first child? Or communication."

He rolled his eyes and turned back to his paper.

"Well?" Rose persisted. She would not back down.

"Communication."

"And. . . "

He muttered incomprehensibles under his breath. "What else," he finally said.

"I'm going to that meeting tomorrow. You can join if you like."

"It's too dangerous for you," he instantly said back.

"No it's not. I can just go by myself too. . . if that works."

Scorpius pressed rather hard on the paper with his pen and poked a hole through. "I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

"Nope," Rose said cheerfully.

"Ok. Let's hear it."

"It's at midnight."

Scorpius was writing and then stopped. "And?"

"I'll show you where it is tomorrow night."

The meeting was at the warehouses. Rose didn't know which one was referenced in the note, but she was sure Scorpius did. She couldn't risk him going without her – or worse, other Aurors, like her Dad and Uncle Harry, being there.

Scorpius frowned at her. "I agreed to your terms."

"And I told you half of it. The rest you'll find out tomorrow."

He was still frowning. He twirled the pen between his fingers.

"It's at the warehouses, isn't it."

Try as she might, Rose couldn't help blushing a little bit. "I will tell you tomorrow," she insisted. Scorpius raised his brows but didn't press the matter. After he finished writing and Rose had a chance to look at other notes that Scorpius had previously picked up to compare handwriting, they ate food and planned what the next day was going to look like.

Rose told Scorpius, "this all sounds good, but I won't be around tomorrow morning."

"Canwood's not here yet," Scorpius quickly said. "You can't go out by yourself. It's too dangerous."

"Errr. I'm not." Scorpius's line was too close to her thinking for the next night. "My mum wants to go for breakfast with me. And catch up."

"Ooh. Does she know you're doing. . . this. With me?"

"Yeah, not exactly."

Scorpius gritted his teeth. "Well good luck with that."

"I'm going to need it."

Al came home soon after they had everything planned and brought in a pile of groceries and a few bottles of alcohol. He was already tipsy and was struggling with unpacking. Rose and Scorpius helped put the groceries away as Al poured them glasses of rum.

"Hey Ro. Louis my best Frenchman told me to leave you alone, but see this?" he pointed at the walls and rubbed his hands over them. "This is sad. This needs some colour and life. My kitchen needs some help. And my living room. You owe me still. Remember?"

Rose winced. Al was referring to the stupid wand contract. Louis knew she wasn't and couldn't do any cleaning and didn't hold her to it. She knew Louis talked to Al, but apparently he was ignoring the suggestion.

"I can't Al. Not now."

"Hey. You promised. You wrote it down on the paper and we signed! Please Ro. Please."

He was looking at her with puppy dog eyes.

"Al. . . "

"Please Ro. I'm trying to run this business that I own and I have no time at all and Avani's sister in law just died, and James keeps bugging me to go play Quidditch and Lily keeps showing me all these wedding magazines and is asking for advice and I just want a nicer house with nicer colours."

He was very stubborn and stuck on it.

Even Scorpius intervened when Al kept going on and on. "Al she's too busy for that. She's out in London every day."

"Please Rose. If Scorp helps you it'll be done real quick –"

"I'm not volunteering myself!" he exclaimed.

" – and it doesn't have to be done right now or anything. But I really need the help for all this and I'll pay for the paint and then I'll never ask you for anything ever again and you don't have to clean for four months for me, like the deal said. Please Rose. Please. I'll even move the furniture off of the wall for you. Please Ro."

She was so done with the day. And Al was not making it better.

"OK. Fine! Malfoy and I will paint this place in a few weeks, if we find time. Just stop talking!" If she had to paint, Scorpius had to as well. He would probably collect a lot of information in one day that it would take a week for her to weasel it out of him. And if they both painted it would be so much faster.

Al grinned and palmed his drink.

Rose glowered into her cup. Some cousins were insufferable.

A/N: I have crazy news - I've written four chapters for this story. They will be uploaded somewhat consistently over the rest of the summer and then a small hiatus will happen while I focus on other things. I've been staring at this computer screen for such a long time I think I'm going cross-eyed, but it was fruitful and this story is chugging along. So, enjoy. These next chapters are incredibly drama filled and are hopefully entertaining and enlightening (in some respects)! Cheerio folks!