October 17, 2026
Scorpius woke up feeling very relaxed. He laid in bed for at least fifteen minutes, recalling his dream from the night before – it might have involved a certain redhead at one point or another, but it was such a good dream and he felt so at peace that he didn't care.
Normally he was up an hour earlier getting ready for the day, but this morning he could just take his time; there was no rush.
After another fifteen minutes he was still in bed. He couldn't summon the will to leave; his thoughts were still on Rose though he couldn't say why. It was amazing how consuming she could be after spending a few weeks with her – he could not get her off his mind.
It was after he opened his bedroom window and a cool breeze bringing fresh air came in that Scorpius realised why his thoughts were so focused of her – her scent was everywhere. Scorpius rolled over and buried his face in his pillow, breathing deeply. It was intoxinating – she smelled faintly like oranges and lavender.
"No. What the hell." Scorpius sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, disgusted with himself. That was creepy.
He didn't care that she was in his bed yesterday. He didn't care that the bed now smelled amazing, he wasn't affected. Not at all.
He went downstairs for breakfast after a very cold shower.
Al was long gone and the house was quiet. Scorpius made himself a cup of tea and ate some biscuits for breakfast.
What did he usually do with his mornings? He hadn't taken a slow day in a few weeks – since about the time he'd started working with Rose. She never took days off and plainly told him that. He wasn't going to just leave her in the field alone so he could play catch up with work. The only problem was that he could not remember what he did with his time before.
If Rose hadn't gone for breakfast with her mum, they'd already be out in London – he'd bring black, hot, coffee, maybe some scones, and his charming grin. They'd be wandering around and talking, or trailing someone else.
Now though, he didn't really have anything to do. At least, that he wanted to do.
Reluctantly after tea he pulled out the bundle of newspapers that were from all from around Europe. He might as well tackle some of it now; the pile would only grow as time went on. He set up a chair on the small balcony so he could enjoy the sun as he read about the gang.
Scorpius was just getting settled in – he had written the date on the page – when he had a horrible thought. What if Rose lied to him?
He threw his papers to the ground as he raced back inside through the glass doors and went to his room. He randomly grabbed some clothes that were lying on the floor before bolting back down the stairs with his wand and his locating map in hand. He quickly cast the spell and saw Rose's blue dot in downtown London. Without really thinking about it, he went outside the building and apparated to the nearest alley – safe apparition zones be damned, he never followed them anyway (but he didn't tell Rose that).
Scorpius didn't plan much farther than that. He checked the map again and it said that Rose was inside the building – some quaint café that was much classier than Coffee for Kooks. He spelled himself mostly invisible and did a walk by, peering into the café. And there sat Rose and her mother. He took a shaky breath. He could breathe easy again; he didn't realize he was so worried.
They both looked a little uncomfortable (Rose was incessantly tapping her foot, her mum was ripping a napkin up into tiny pieces), but Rose had a small smile on her face as she told her mum a story. Her hands were expressive and moving everywhere, miming waves or something.
Her hair was down, for the first time in a few weeks – maybe months – and her red curly locks nicely framed her face. But it also made her face look thinner and more tired. Maybe they were out too much and for much longer than they needed to be? And he could easily pack more food for them both. He didn't have proof, but he knew she was short on funds – she basically wore the same clothes every day. Even now, she had on a black long sleeve shirt that he'd seen dozens of times. Scorpius frowned. That was rather odd that she didn't wear something a bit nicer for seeing her mum.
He stayed watching for another twenty minutes, enraptured for some reason. He completely resisted the temptation to listen in on their conversation with his Extendable Ears. He chuckled quietly under his breath as he imaged Al's reaction to that. "What is wrong with you Scorp? You're getting soft. The old you would be under the table even, listening in and denying it afterwards. You can never resist knowing what you're not supposed to know."
Well, this was private. It was different. And it was her, that was enough reasoning in itself for him now.
He and Rose were meeting at one. Then they would go over plans for the evening. He had a bad feeling in his gut about the night and what it would bring, but he couldn't say no to Rose. She would go by herself, undoubtedly. This meeting had to be at the warehouses. Of course it was.
She would have her wand on her so he could find her if she went by herself. But he didn't quite want Rose to know that he knew how to track her because then she wouldn't trust going out with her wand or she would ask for the spell to make her wand untraceable. Scorpius would give it to her if she asked, but he wouldn't be happy about it. At least this way, he could still find her if an emergency happened.
He returned to his apartment when he thought he was bordering on creepy again and read through thirty seven newspapers, writing the relevant information down in his notebook. It was a slow past couple of weeks for the gang. Something big was coming up, he was sure of it. Only the Polish newspapers contained obvious gang information – Canwood had been busy.
Scorpius received an owl after his newspapers and mid-morning tea. He was pacing back and forth. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but he was bored.
The owl was from his boss, Duncan, requesting him to come in and share what he had been up to for the past month.
Scorpius sighed heavily. He didn't like going into the main office, just more reminders that he wasn't an actual Auror. Wouldn't be one for a few more years. He was a lowly information gatherer.
He hated his job. Not that he would tell anyone, least of all Rose. He had to keep a front up and make sure he pretended he knew what he was doing, even when he sometimes didn't know anything. He really wasn't trained for any of this. Wasn't even sure he wanted to be.
"Scorpius m'boy," boomed Duncan. He was a thin, short man with a huge red beard and large bushy eyebrows. "We've missed you. You've been avoiding your paperwork again." Duncan pointed towards Scorpius's abandoned desk, teeming with paper. Scorpius winced. The last time he'd been in he'd vowed to never let it get that bad again. But he just couldn't stomach paperwork; couldn't handle sitting at his desk for hours at a time.
"I have more important things than paperwork," Scorpius declared. "For the moment, at least. There's a few new leads on the gang."
"That's what I like to hear. Come into my office. We'll discuss and then see how much of your paperwork my student assistant will do for you." Duncan winked, and the effect wasn't as pleasant as it would have been with anybody else.
Scorpius spent the next hour discussing his information with Duncan. He mentioned Canwood, and his return and that Scorpius sighted him twice so far in Muggle London; Daphne and her potion trading habits with Matild; three new workers who were patrolling at the warehouses; Courtney the muggle and how she might need some magic protection because she was keeping money from the gang; and the fact that Gradford was remaining amazingly elusive. He didn't mention Rose nor the meeting occurring at midnight tonight.
In all reality, Scorpius should have told Duncan about the meeting so he could dispatch Aurors to be there. But Scorpius didn't have all the information and his informant wasn't comfortable with sharing information with Aurors (at least that was the story he was going with in his head). If they were caught, he would still get in trouble, but it would probably be lessened because of the small technicalities.
"You're doing a good job, Scorpius m'boy. In a few years I can see you moving up the ladder and joining the big leagues."
Two years ago, that sentence would have made Scorpius ecstatic. He still gave a faint smile anyway. Everything he did now, he wasn't supposed to do. He got into duels, engaged with the gang, and wandered into territory he wasn't authorized to go by himself.
He blamed his curious nature. He just couldn't sit in one spot and gather information; he needed to be involved and ferret out more, be involved in the action.
The past few weeks were slowly killing him, but he didn't want to put Rose into his usual danger. He didn't really want her around and doing this job, but she was very insistent on finding Canwood for whatever reason that he didn't know of yet. And he just couldn't let her go by herself, his stomach started flipping as he imagined what would happen if she was all alone and was caught by them.
He'd been keeping an eye on her and her interactions with people. He was sure he could find the person who was blackmailing her. As soon as he did, he could deal with that person and she would be free and safe with no need to ever find Canwood. But nobody ever approached her. Courtney was clean, Daphne was a loon. There was no evidence pointing anywhere.
She's not just doing it for the heck of it, Scorpius thought to himself when he was back in his apartment. What is her aim?
He still had a few hours to kill. The thought of going back out into London to listen in at one of the buildings was almost more than he could bare for the moment. He checked his map again, making sure Rose wasn't heading out early or sneaking off before their meeting. She was still at the café with her mum. That was good.
Scorpius then decided to apparate to his parent's house for a little visit.
He might as well catch up now while he had the time. He hadn't been over in two months, he was sure a letter was coming soon to invite him for supper or something. His pre-emptive thinking was spot on when his mum said, upon arrival. "Scorpius! What a lovely surprise. I was just thinking we haven't seen your face in a while."
They had tea and biscuits outside. Scorpius couldn't get enough biscuits in his daily regime to appease him, but his parents always had an endless supply and indulged him.
He filled in his parents on the job and what he was up to, making small hints here and there that he wasn't as happy with it as he usually was. He didn't know why he was making the hints, maybe because he just wanted their approval and acceptance. He felt like a little boy again for doing it, but at the same time they were his parents, and he cared what they thought. But either his parents didn't catch on or didn't choose to acknowledge it. When he was first accepted into this mini-Auror program, they were so proud. And so was he. He wanted to fight bad guys and make a better name for their family. Everything just turned out very different. It wasn't what he thought it would be.
By the time he left their house, he was running late. With regret he thought of Victoire and Teddy. He knew Teddy was at home with all his kids and Scorpius was due for a visit to them, but Rose was probably waiting for him. Unless she was running late at well, which would help him out.
Unfortunately she wasn't.
Rose was already at the apartment when he got there. She had apparently flooed over – very unwillingly. And she was cross (it seemed to be her constant mood when he was around). She was also half covered in soot still.
"Malfoy, when you say one o'clock. That means one o'clock. And unless you specify a meeting place, other than your locked apartment, you'll make sure you're on time."
Her demeanor had changed; she didn't look anything like she did when she was out with her mother. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail again, dirt smudged on her face from the fireplace. She had changed her trousers into an older more rugged pair.
"You have dirt on your nose, by the way. Did you know?" Scorpius said. "Just there. . ." He indicated to her where it was and she scowled and rubbed at her face. It was still there. Scorpius held in a smirk and resisted the urge to help her wipe it off himself.
Obviously she decided to floo over since there was unrestricted access between the two flat's fireplaces. And she really, really hated to floo so that was saying something that she actually did it. Scorpius pulled his key out of his pocket and duplicated it.
"Here. Now you can just get in the front door."
Rose blinked up at him, apparently shocked. What? He could do nice things once in a while. He gestured to her to put her hand out and then placed the key in it.
She was still unresponsive. He rolled his eyes. Women.
"How was the visit with your mom? Let's pack our gear and make a plan for the evening when we may or may not be at the warehouses."
It was two hours to midnight when Rose finally confirmed to him that the location was indeed the warehouses.
Her brown eyes were narrowed at him as she told, and he couldn't help but have a smug grin.
"Well of course."
She ignored him and went back to concentrating on apparating, a particularly tiresome activity that Scorpius didn't have the patience for since he could do it a lot faster.
"You've just told me, I can do it now," he said. He received another glare.
"Don't talk. I can't always depend on you for this."
While that comment stung, he did understand what she was getting at.
His hand was getting rather sweaty, holding hers. It was a cold night tonight and a chilly October wind blew by. It only made his hand colder. Scorpius started counting in his head. He got to 254 when finally he felt her squeeze his hand briefly before a loud crack sounded and they were gone.
She let go of his hand right before impact and couldn't stabilise herself when she landed.
"Graceful," commented Scorpius. "Am I missing an eyebrow?" He waggled his eyes at her. She picked herself off the ground, brushing dirt off, and ignored him.
Scorpius finished checking himself for missing body parts, but all appeared sound. He joined Rose at the mouth of the alley, staring out into the empty street lit by a crescent moon.
"Are you ready?" he asked quietly. "We just have to stick to the plan. We still have lots of time to get set up in our positions."
Her eyes were unreadable as they beheld his. He yearned to know what she was thinking behind them, wanted to hear her voice her thoughts, but she was silent.
"I'm ready."
Scorpius had a feeling she wasn't, but there was no backing out now. They cast spells on themselves to render them invisible and stalked out into the night. Scorpius kept an eye on his watch, waiting for the shift of guards. The warehouse they were going into was the furthest one from the Thames; it was the most inhabited one and one of the most treacherous, it hadn't been cleared out of all the junk. There were staircases leading to locked doors, rooms without floors, and a horrible, leaching feeling as if the whole world was turning bleak.
Scorpius was sure there was a Dementor stashed somewhere in the building, but he had yet to discover a trace of it.
There were footsteps ahead of them and Scorpius grabbed Rose and pulled her to the wall with him, not moving. He could hear her frustrated breath and was going to ignore it when he remembered the fact that she told him to communicate more.
"Unknown visitors coming up ahead," he whispered into her ear. It was still a bit too dark to see them. She gave a nod (actually he might have just imagined that), and they waited.
Three teenagers turned the corner and came into view, clearly spiffed.
"Oi! Oi! Don't steppy on the cracksies or the lava will eat our backsies," one of the women with very long black hair sang. She was jumping from brick to brick and had her dress hitched up to her waist as she tried to avoid the cracks.
"Cracksies, cracksies. Let's break my backsies. Blue. Pumpkin. TURTLE!" the boy fell suddenly in a faint like swoon. Scorpius could feel Rose freeze up beside him and he cautiously felt for her hand and held tight. It was so she didn't run, he told himself. But she held on tight as the boy started thrashing on the ground and screaming. There was a cut on the back of his head from the fall that made a dark mark on his shirt; he didn't notice however and continued with the seizures.
"LAVA! LAVA! IT BURNS!"
The three weren't even twenty feet from them. Rose held on tighter and turned her face from the scene, hiding behind his shoulder. It was horrible to watch normal people act completely psychotic, lost in their minds and not in the present.
Eventually the screams turned to high pitched laughter and the boy started singing a convoluted rhyme. "Jack and Jill climbed to the sky, to fetch the Sun God's kid. Jack killed him and stole his swim and Jill ate his body with pie."
The two women started laughing as well and when the boy eventually got up off the ground they continued on their way, sprouting nonsensicals in a mostly happy nature.
When it was safe to leave, Scorpius didn't let go of Rose's hand.
They made it around to the back of the warehouse. By the door was a man with a blue face. He was lying on the ground and looked to be knocked out, or dead. Scorpius didn't care to check and they stole past him into the opened door. When Rose hesistated, Scorpius gave her a tug. They couldn't focus on the body, they needed to get into position on the third floor. The meeting would take place on the second.
They were inside and could hear voices.
"Maybe the dogs will jus' eat 'im," said a voice. "I 'ate dealin' wit dead bodies." There was laughter and the clinking of glass.
"You can just transfigure it to a bone – throw it to the river."
"What's transfigure?" said a strong feminine voice. More laughter.
"Look at 'im. Look at Jack. He's so spiffed he thinks his hair is food!"
"We shoulda sent 'im off with the others. He's gonna crash soon, probably during the meetin'."
Scorpius and Rose passed through the main floor slowly and silently. Nobody noticed them, too involved in their drink, food, and hair. They didn't stay long to watch the revelry. There were chairs and broken tables illuminated by the two lanterns strung up. Garbage laying all over the floor – it was enough to watch their step in the poorly lit room to ensure no noises came from them. As soon as they reached the stairs, it was up, up, up through the darkness.
Scorpius could barely see anything. The few small windows were so grimy that the fickle moonlight couldn't trickle through. Luckily the wooden stairs weren't so old that they creaked with every step they took. They passed by the second floor, not stopping to look around. There were a few voices coming from the end of the hall that Scorpius ignored. They could listen in later once they were positioned.
As soon as they passed by the second floor, it was obvious the 'uptake' of the place had fallen. There was a dark spot on the stairs and Scorpius paused.
"Just one moment," he murmured to Rose. He could feel her at his back, restless and impatient. He looked closer at the stair and was shocked to find that it was rotted the whole way through. Obviously the place had worsened in the past six months. Duncan wasn't going to be impressed that Scorpius hadn't been coming in as regular as he usually was. The last time he had been at the warehouses, he had started a fire a few houses down to watch the guard and gang struggle around. Almost every one left their post and the place was abandoned.
"Rotted step," he told Rose.
He stepped over it and Rose did the same. By the time they made it to the third floor, they had to skip over four more steps.
The third floor was disastrous. The floor was rotted all over in dark spots, doors hung off the hinges – or were blasted off – and windows were broken.
But it was empty. And silent. Scorpius lit his wand as they walked forwards.
"This place is a mess," said Rose. "Like someone deliberately trashed it."
"Someone most certainly did." Scorpius pointed at some marks on the wall as they skirted by more rotted wood. "Dueling. These are the marks from stupefy and bombardia. . . among various others."
They were still holding hands, Scorpius leading Rose. He didn't question it, tried not to draw attention to it so she would let go. It was the first time he had someone to be with while creeping around these dank buildings. It was slightly comforting.
The floor gave a few loud creaks as they made their way to the back side. It wasn't enough noise out of the ordinary to warrant attention; every floor in the building was a creaking mess.
The door in the room they were going to had a gaping burn hole, large enough that he and Rose could both climb through.
"Ouch! Fuck!" she exclaimed, as she passed through behind him. She let go of his hand. Scorpius lit his wand and looked at her, just seeing the shimmery outline of her rubbing her head.
". . . duck down?" he said rather sheepishly. Oops.
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Sorry."
"It's fine."
She was still rubbing her head when Scorpius surveyed the room around him. The light bounced off the corners of the broken desk at the far end, a chair with the paint chipping, broken glass covering the floor, and ripped paper all over.
"Don't walk in the middle, just stay to the edges. I think the floor will collapse if we step anywhere near there."
Rose settled in against the wall. "So we set up and we wait then?"
Midnight was approaching in forty minutes. The meeting would be happening right below.
"We set up and we wait," Scorpius agreed. There was a loud raucous of laughter below and smashing of glass. He took a deep breath. "And we do not, under any circumstances, leave this room, attract attention, make noise, or any – "
"Yes, I know," Rose said. She started digging though her backpack. "We're just here to listen and collect information. Then track down these people later in a less hostile environment."
Or not at all, Scorpius wanted to say. What's your secret Rose?
But she didn't reply to his thought.
The laughter died down the closer to midnight it got. At midnight, a sudden silence took over the room below Rose and Scorpius. Feet shuffled around, but there was no more laughter.
The door creaked open and heavy footsteps entered. Scorpius clutched the Extendable Ear closer to him and got his paper and pen ready as the meeting started below.
"Gentlemen," said a voice with an accent. "We meet again after a long parting. Welcome to our new members all the way from Poland and from here in our hometown."
Scorpius could feel Rose stiffen when 'Poland' was mentioned. But she didn't move from her spot. It was Gradford speaking – the elusive leader of the gang.
He continued talking to everyone who was in the room, informing them about progress, what new stores were under their influence, and the demand their drugs were in. He gave payouts to certain members. Scorpius was frantically writing. This was pure gold for him.
More members of the gang spoke up now, contributing their reports from the past few weeks. Scorpius could recognise the voices of over half the members who spoke.
Cheering suddenly went up below. "Oi! It's Canwood. Look a' the big lump o' flesh. Finally decides to grace us with his presence!" said one of the guards.
Oh? Canwood wasn't there from the beginning, it made him wonder what he had been up to before the meeting. It was uncharacteristic for him to be late, and also for Gradford to let it go unpunished.
Rebecca Box spoke up next. "If he's late, there's obviously a grand reason for it. Let's hear some news."
Canwood started speaking, telling the story of his weeks in Poland, travelling around collecting people and supplies.
Scorpius was engrossed in his writing. He was trying to get everything down verbatim, but his hand honestly couldn't keep up; he was using shorthand he hadn't used since Hogwarts.
A flick that hit his cheek wrenched him out of his concentration and he rubbed his cheek. "Rose? Why did – ?" The flick came from the opposite side that Rose was seated on. There was no way Rose could have flicked his cheek.
"Rose!" he gasped out and dropped his paper and pen to the floor. There was no reply and Scorpius got to his knees and started feeling around for her. "Rose. No. Where are you? Rose!"
She wasn't there. Her spot was empty.
Scorpius swore heavily and relit his wand, standing on his feet and scanning the area around him – in search of any little movement, any distinguishable feature from the disillusionment spell that Rose was under that would give away her position. He picked up his papers and pen.
Please still be in the room, please still be in the room, he chanted to himself. He didn't have enough time to check his map or cast some sort of spell. His hands were sweating already. His heart beat picked up. A panic started to creep up into him, one he had never felt before. It was a nervous, sickly panic and he couldn't even think straight.
Rose. Rose. Where was she?
He quickly walked to the door, his eyes peeled for any movement. Anything. Rose!
When he turned back around there was movement by the window. He lunged across the middle of the floor, leaping to grab Rose and avoiding the dangerous middle by stretching his legs to the max before she did anything rash – leave, jump, whatever.
When he grabbed her shoulder, he realised that her shoulder was a lot lower than it normally was. Rose wasn't that short. It was a disillusionment spell and through the wavery form, there was short hair, and a face that wasn't Rose's. It was a girl. Someone he didn't know.
Before he could react, ask who it was or anything, he was punched in the stomach by the unknown girl. He stumbled backwards, horrified. It wasn't that the punch hurt, but what – ! or better, who!
He couldn't say anything, or tell his body to move because before he could, the floor gave out beneath him and he suddenly fell through the rotted middle into the meeting happening below.
A/N: The 'you have dirt on your nose' line was taken from the movie (HP & the Philosophers Stone) - (and maybe it's in the book?) - I don't have it near me to check. It's a couple hours away!