Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Hello everyone! Sorry that I'm a bit later today, I'm back at university and oh my god why is there so much work? Final year is no joke! Complaints aside, let's get on with this.

Thank you to Guest, catwomannnnnn1 (I'm glad my cliff-hanger had the intended effect on you! Sorry!), BellaStoria, MLMarint (Good luck with your exams! It's the final push now, you can do this!), Guest (Wow, that was such a kind review, thank you so much!), LuciousNesa (I'm so sorry to hear that you were sick, but welcome back! I'm very glad you're still enjoying this, and I hope you feel better soon!), and Guest for your reviews. It's crazy - we broke 4,000 views this week and I can't believe that I'm so lucky to be receiving so much love for this story! Thank you all so, so much! Your reviews give me the will to edit at 1 am.

Enjoy!

Chapter 12: The Photograph

Scorpius could've sworn he'd heard a Giant roar.

Or if not that, he definitely heard the chamber of secrets groan.

Perhaps it was the pipes shifting behind the walls.

Either way, the sound crashed around the hall and echoed in his skull. His heart was beating out of his chest. He realised, without having quite noticed what he'd done, that he was standing in front of Rose, arms outstretched, protecting her from whatever was coming. Scorpius blinked, mouth slightly agape.

For a Slytherin, that was a new one.

"Oh, calm down. It's probably just excited and severly lost first years." Rose extracted herself from Scorpius' shielding arms and stepped around him. From the look she was giving him, she didn't appreciate his 'gentelmanly manners'. It's not like he meant to do it.

Nervously he took a few tiny steps forwards. He looked around for anything scary, wand out and pulled close around him. "Who is it?"

Rose disappeared down a few stairs, wand casting an eerie blue-white glow over the dark corridor. "Oh. Oh." She sniggered to herself. "Come on."

He followed the sound of her voice, lighting his wand and holding it steadily in front of himself. Before he got to the bottom of the staircase, or even got a proper look at them, he heard them.

Giggling and stumbling, he saw Albus Potter and Lydia Griffiths clambering to their feet with the wall and each other as unsteady guides. Beside them, a suit of armour stood crumbled slowly to the ground, one gauntlet on the other side of the room inching around the floor in search of his body.

"Al— what the fuck?"

"Oh! Hey! Scorpius! And it's Roooosiie!" He almost sang it, throwing his arms wide. "Did you two—?" He asked Scorpius when he got near Albus. shoving an arm around his shoulders and pulling him upright.

Whispering quietly into his ear, Scorpius said, "You bloody dare say anything and I'll cut your balls off." Instead of a gentle arm around his shoulders, Scorpius pulled him roughly to his feet again.

Pulling a 'serious' face, Albus sniggered to himself, drawing an imaginary zip across his mouth. "Nothing from me."

"How much did you two drink?" Scorpius asked Lydia, who had linked arms with Rose and looked significantly soberer than Albus.

"Oh, not that much! Slughorn was a bit lax about leaving his whiskey bottle open and, well..." she giggled at Albus. "I didn't even have that much more than you! I'm not- I'm not even drunk!"

Rose, fighting her laughter, pulled a wandering Lydia back to her side again. "Oh, well now that is a good point, you are absolutely not drunk. But I'm going to take you back up to Ravenclaw Tower anyway."

"Aw, Rosie, you would?" Lydia cooed. "You are just the sweetest! No wonder half the boys in the school are desperate to take you to the Ball!"

"I'm only desperate to take one girl to the Ball!" Albus mumbled, thankfully mostly to himself. Unfortunatly for almost all standing there, drunk people really do have a way of catching anything they want to hear, and Lydia turned to face him with a gasp.

"You do?"

"You're the prettiest girl there is. And... I like you." Scorpius could only watch in mild horror as Albus reverted to a younger version of himself. Suddenly, he had great sympathy for Max and Joshua watching Scorpius and Albus' bumbling selves. However, judging from Lydia's enthusiastic nod, it was somehow working.

And then, they started snogging.

"Oh my-"

"Merlin."

"I'm just going to-"

"- yeah let's take them back."

They managed to seperate the two sucker fish-like teens, which Scorpius would absoltely never get out of his brain ever again, and they were almost up the stairs to the third floor large landing when Rose spoke again.

"At least she's not as drunk as Al. Ravenclaw Tower's a long way from here."

"But will you even be able to get in?"

Her face fell like thunder. The pit of Scorpius' stomach dropped like a heavy cannonball and he thought that maybe everything could be lost. Hot blood crept up the back of his neck like a spider.

"Don't be so smug, Malfoy." She spat out his name, and he was taken back several years. "Of course I can get in, what do you think I am - stupid? Honestly." She frogmarched Lydia away, leaving Albus and a Scorpius silent in her wake.

"What— where'd— Rosie?!" He called.

"She's gone, mate." Scorpius put his arm around Albus again and started the torturously slow walk back to the dungeons. "Again."

"You know, it's almost like you're trying really hard to fuck it up at the last second every time."

"Oh go on then, you expert."

"So like, sure it's better now that she's decided to take the high-road or whatever the fuck she called it. But before, you know, like she literally only thought of you as the slick smug guy who beats her in class. You should've seen her rant three Christmases ago." He cackled to himself, seemingly forgetting that Scorpius was even there.

Swallowing hard, Scorpius listened in stony silence. And then he thought, how much was Albus drunk-bullshitting and how much was actually true? No matter how much it may hurt his ego, he had to know. So he asked. "And?"

"Just stop saying things that make her angry."

"Easier said than done, there."

Albus stopped suddenly, taking an exaggerated sigh. "Oh- I forgot."

"Helpful drunk, aren't you?"

"Number one."

He hummed out loud in the middle of the corridor to the main dungeons, the dim light of the little torches barely casting any light over the two.

"Any progress."

Albus simply shrugged. "Don't be a smug git, mate. It's as easy as that!"

Scorpius rolled his eyes, urging Albus on with a slight shove. "Alright then. How am I smug?"

"Don't ask bloody Rose Granger-Weasley if she can get into Ravenclaw Tower. Of course she can! And stop," he gestured vaguely at Scorpius' face.

"Talking? Breathing?"

"Smiling! Smiling. What was I-? Oh yeah." He took a heavy step. "Don't smile at her all the time even when she's offending you to your face. You just look like a psycho."

"Oh." It wasn't every day your best mate said you look like a psycho to your face. "Well, I'll keep that in mind."

He did keep it in his mind. It nestled in his mind like a parasite and didn't fade for what felt like an eternity. Not for the day after, when Albus nursed a wonderful hungover and started to piece together the moments when he asked Lydia to both be his girlfriend and go to the ball. I didn't fade when he went to Slughorn's office the following evening and got some of the most exciting news of his life. It didn't fade at all for the next week or so. It haunted him every day. He even asked Alfie - who said he would make no comment - and contemplated asking Max and Joshua. The only thing that stopped him was the thought that they would never have shut up about it.

"So, do I really look all that smug?"

He decided it was best to just ask Albus.

"What now?" Albus gave him a confused look over the flutterby bush they were pruning in Herbology on a chilly Wednesday afternoon. "Oh. Oh, balls. Yeah, I'm sorry about that."

"Yeah, sure. Fine." It was not fine. "But just, was there any truth to it?"

Scorpius had only seen Albus look that awkward when he was reconfirming both his relationship status and Ball invitation with Lydia. It had been an awkward negative on the former but an enthusiastic positive for the latter. You win some, you lose some.

"I don't mean it so negatively. I just mean, she doesn't like it when you smile so much. So, maybe don't? If she says something rude to you, fight back. Y'know, that sort of thing."

Scorpius tossed a handful of limply flapping leaves to the side. "No. You're probably right. Besides, she's almost impossible. If that doesn't work, I'll just... I'll give up I guess."

The whole class turned to stare as Albus slammed his scissors onto the table with and unexpectedly loud, "No!"

"Um— Al?"

His voice dropped back to a low murmur. "Don't do it, mate." The class looked away again and the ripple of chatter grew back to normal levels. Albus opened his mouth to continue when the leaves next to him fluttered hard and slapped his hand.

"Petrificus Totalus! Take that you bastards."

"Don't take it out on the leaves, man. They're already dead."

Albus sighed, giving his head a good rub. "Okay so look, I know her better than pretty much anyone else. And I think you're so close to getting her to actually like you! Besides, I've been thinking about it," he shuffled awkwardly. "If my cousin is going to date anyone, I'd want it to be you."

His voice sounded like it had done six years ago on the Hogwarts Express. Shy, youthful vulnerability.

Scorpius grinned. "Thank you, Al."

There was a reason why they were best friends for so many years, after all.

Scorpius sighed. He and Albus were lying on their beds during a mutually free period, resting their weary brains. he shifted, crossing his legs. Then he uncrossed them. Then he shifted to his right side; then his left.

"The guilt's catching up with me."

"I know." Albus propped himself up on his elbows. "I just want to lie down and stare at the ceiling for and hour and forget that homework exists, but..."

"The guilt eats you, right?"

"I feel like a knob."

"Yeah." Scorpius sighed, reaching over to his stack of school books and picking his batter potions one off the top. "Me too, mate. Every time I try and think about Quidditch or remember one of those muggle stories Joshua told us my mind just wanders back to Heinrich's transfiguration essay."

Albus snorted. "Me too. Even Professor Bors is setting us essays now."

Scorpius clucked his tongue. "'shoulda done Defence."

Professor Bors was notoriously lax when it came to setting homework. She believed that it was better for the students to learn things in class, and practice outside.

"No mate. No way. Rhys Owens is in that class."

Scorpius chuckled. He and Rhys had never got along, not since they quite litterally bumped into each other on the Hogwarts Express, six years ago. Rhys was already wearing his older brother's Gryffendor scarf, Scorpius just oozed Slytherin - as much as he may hate it, even he knew that. Despite all that, they still wouldn't have been able to get on at all; he just really pissed Scorpius off. Everyone had that one person they hated for absoltely no reason.

He pulled his potions book open to a random page and a small rectangular sheet fell onto his face.

"Ow!" He yelped, shooting upright. "Little bugger!"

"What? What's wrong?" Albus called, jumping up with almost cat like speed and pulling his wand out.

"This picture fell out of my book!" He pulled it off his face, running a finger over where the corner had impaled itself on his cheek.

Albus gave him a blank look. "A fucking picture? You're joking. I thought some monster from the Lake had ended up in here."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Hey- Wait. That's me!" Albus pointed to a younger version of himself, messy haired, small but with a grin large enough for his adult-sized face. "Why've you got this?"

Scorpius had forgotten about this, What with all the excitement of recent weeks. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about this." He looked up to see Albus' raised eyebrows. "Rose left it behind on the library table, I've just forgotten to give it back yet."

Albus shrugged. "Yeah, fine. That seems legitimate."

"What kind of gross weirdo stalker do you think I am?"

"You'd be surprised the amount of people who have photos of us all." Scorpius was reminded of Albus' fame in startling ways like this occasionally. It never got any less weird.

Albus continued to peer over his shoulder. "Oh yeah. That's got to be dad's thirty-seventh - yep, there's Roxanne and Fred with the gnomes."

"Gnomes?"

Albus laughed darkly, "You don't even want to know."

Scorpius tried not to think too deeply into that one. From what he knew of Harry Potter, he wasn't sure he would have appreciated whatever it was, anyway.

"Oh yeah. I forgot Teddy used to have red hair!"

"Teddy? Who's Teddy?"

Albus pointed to a tall boy standing next to Victoire with flame red hair. He could've been just another Weasley if you didn't notice his conspicuous lack of freckles and his shade just being a touch more ferociously red than the rest.

"He's Dad's godson. Does that make him my god cousin...? God-..."

"No," Scorpius answered. "How'd he end up in the picture then?"

"He's always round at ours. Dad helped raise him."

"What happened to his parents?"

"D'you hear of Lupin and Tonks? You know, the couple that died in the Battle of Hogwarts. Remus Lupin, the werewolf? Taught here once?"

Scorpius pulled a face. "Dumbledore hired a werewolf? No wonder numbers were down."

Albus rolled his eyes. "And we all thought you were the clever one. He was a good werewolf."

"Alright."

"And- oh, forget it. It'd take too long to explain. Anyway, Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin were Teddy's parents. Teddy's parents died so his gran and my dad raised him. There."

"Alright."

"Have you forgetten how to say any other words?"

"I just have nothing to add. I have no idea who any of these people are."

"Wait," Albus rubbed a hand over his forehead, "Andromeda Tonks? Know that name?"

"Oh." Scorpius nodded. The name rang an uncomfortable bell at the back of Scorpius' mind. He felt like he knew it somehow, it just wouldn't come to the forefront of his mind. And the feeling dripped in an uncomfortable chill down his spine.

"She was a Black or a something once. Apparently?" Albus winced in memory. "Something like that. Aunt of Sirius Black — Dad's godfather. She's on the family tree at home." He shrugged. "It's a proper weird place sometimes, I swear."

Scorpius snickered. He'd never been there, but it sounded odd from the stories he'd heard.

"Like I said, it was his Granny Andromeda who raised Teddy, so he didn't live with us until he was-"

"Hold on. Hold on a second. If that Andromela-"

"Andromeda"

"Yeah sure; that lady. And She was a Black, right? That'd make her my relative."

Albus' eyebrows raised slowly. "Yeah. I guess it does."

"Sirius Black was dad's cousin. First cousin or something. She could be... Gran had two sisters - one she never talked about and the one who died. Bellatrix was one, is Andromeda the other?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think she is. She said she got disinherited when she married a muggle-born. Said she had one nephew but they'd never met."

Scorpius felt as though he'd swallowed a wriggling, writhing tentacle of the Giant Squid's. Faintly nauseus, as though he might puke at any second.

Real, living, breathing family. "Then... that Teddy's family. I've got some family." It was almost a whisper. The picture fell from between his clammy fingers and lay on the bed, faces all looking blankly at the ceiling. A choked bark of laughter pressed its way out of his leadden lungs. And another. "Al— I can't believe it! I've actually got someone!"

Albus grinned at him. "I know. I'm happy for you."

"I can't—!" Scorpius laughed, almost deliriously. "What does that even make him? Come on, you're the one who's good at working this stuff out." Scorpius gave Albus a light punch on the shoulder, his grin so wide it was straining his face.

Albus opened his mouth but didn't say anything. Instead, he thought in silence, the crease between his eyebrows deepening. "I'm actually pretty shit at this; it's Hugo who can work this stuff out, I guess I'll ask him later. But I think he's your second cousin...?"

Scorpius smiled again. "You know, I don't often spend a free period working out I have family."

Albus snorted. "We've got shared family, too. That's weird."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

The boys sat in a shared silence.

"D'you want me to give you his address?"

Scorpius thought about it. The thought wriggled unpleasently in his stomach. He knew nothing about his family - just a few names here, a few relatives he was banned from visiting in Azkaban there. To have someone to actually talk to aside from his father... What if there was something he didn't know? And what if it was all ruined before it even began? But at least if he had the address, he'd always have the possibility. "I guess so, yeah. That'd be nice." He turned to his friend and the grin returned. "Thanks, mate."

Albus brushed it off with a wave. "You have such a fucked up family."

Scorpius scoffed. "You absolutely know how to ruin a moment. Almost like it's magic."

"I am magic. Magically awkward."

Scorpius raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Really?" He rolled his eyes. Albus had been in a far more humorous mood since drunkenly confessing his love for Lydia, but it didn't mean that the jokes were good.

"Yeah. That was fair." Albus admitted sheepishly.

Scorpius picked up the photograph from the bed again. He couldn't help the emotional furore inside him. There was the face of an actual, living blood relative of his. One of the few he had left...

And one he knew that his father must've known about. Yet Scorpius had never known that this Teddy Lupin even existed. He would never have, had Rose not left this photograph behind. He loved his father. He loved his father, but as he looked at the crowded photograph on the faded sheet of once-glossy paper, he felt betrayed. Most of the time, he could understand why his father did things. Usually, he could come up with a rationale for almost anything. But this; this he didn't understand. For the first time in his life, Scorpius Malfoy did not have the answer.

"You all looked happy, though."

Albus took the photograph from Scorpius and held it in front of his face again, squinting down at everyone. "Yeah. Yeah, we did." He sighed. "Fred taught the gnomes a rude version of Happy Birthday, and then Roxanne trained a bunch of them to jump out just as Dad was about to cut the cake."

Scorpius laughed at the very thought of what mayhem the two had caused - especially when they were younger. And there he was, with dumb peacocks for friends back home. A pang of jealousy clenched his stomach.

Albus tapped the picture as he put it back in Scorpius' hands. "You give it back to her, tomorrow, in class. She'll be grateful, I bet."

"Sure. My chivalrous act will stun her into silence, and she'll be suddenly clamouring to go out with me."

"No, you stupid git. She'll be happy to see you be so nice. People like nice people. As an added bonus, she'll see that she can talk to you without becoming a social pariah."

"Oh. Right."

"I told you Scor, I'm actually on your side now."

Scorpius grinned at him. It was a testament to their friendship that Albus had finally come round to the idea of Scorpius doing his cousin.

—-

But the whirlwind of confusing emotions didn't go away for a long time. It didn't abate when he sat in the library the next morning, trying to drown out the thoughts that swirlled in his head like one of those muggle fairground rides in the picture books. It didn't go away even when he was receiving a 97 on his alchemy essay, or when he laughed with Jasmine in History of Magic over her muggle friend's fear of ghosts.

"Hey, Scorpius." Scorpius looked up from his History of Magic textbook one lunchtime later that week to see James Potter clambering over the bench across from him. Albus wasn't anywhere in sight. This was a first. And- and there was Hugo Granger-Weasley, too. Scorpius looked between the two in such confusion, he forgot to mark the page when he put down his book.

"Hello. Hi, Hugo." The two had never actually met formally before. This was weird. "What's up, James?"

"Well, we heard about Teddy." James slipped a bit of parchment across the table.

"It was a nice challenege for me. Usually it only takes me a moment to work out relations, but this one took me a nice, long time. Here."

Hugo pushed a scrappy bit of parchement littered with lines and names and symbols across the table.

At the top were two names Scorpius had never heard of - Druella and Cygnus Black. It was always nice to know you weren't the only weirdly named one in your family.

And from them came three names: Narcissa, who he knew, Bellatrix, who he'd heard of and then - there. Andromeda. Who was the mother of Tonks, and she was the mother of Teddy Lupin.

In a line almost parellel to that was his father and mother's names, joined by a tiny set of parallel dashes, and down a tiny, narrow line, was his name. Scrawled in hasty, loopy letters. He and Teddy sat on an equal line.

Teddy Lupin (b.1998). Scorpius Malfoy (b.2005)

There is was. His whole bloodline; the thing that cursed him from the day he was born, laid out in sloppy writing on a crumpled piece of parchment.

"You should see the one Hugo did at his house. Bloody massive. Anyway, we're always happy to accomadate one more on the mailing list."

"Teddy's the mail-order coordinator at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. This is his address. If you write to him with your address, he'll add you to the family list. He picks names out of a hat and sends out new samples to whoever he choses." Hugo explained with a half-smile that made his eyes crinkle the same way Rose's did. His were blue, though.

Scorpius looked between the two of them in even more confusion than ever. "I— I uh..."

"Yeah, Al said you might be a bit like this. Just close your mouth, and write to him. He doesn't have any family left anymore, so I bet he'd be glad to hear from you. Besides, he's old now. Old people are nicer."

Scorpius broke from his dumbstruck silence to snort, "You clearly haven't met any of the portraits in my house."

James rubbed his chin ruefully, "that's true. Phinneas Nigellus is a right bastard. Always says tittish things about your mum."

"He's just jealous he only made it to Headmaster."

Scorpius spaced out again as the two discussed the apparently foul-tempered old man. He had a 22-year-old cousin of some description. There was someone out there in the world with some of the same blood as him. And he couldn't help but wondering, what was his life like? Did that same blood curse him? Did he have to live with a haunting reminder of a past he didn't know dogging him every day until he blocked it out entirely?

"Scorpius? Malfoy?"

"Hasn't he got a weird middle name?"

"Hyperion. They're stars, James. No wonder you flopped astronomy."

Scorpius closed his mouth, unaware it'd even been hanging open in the first place. "Yeah. I guess mum liked stars, or something."

Hugo raised his eyebrows. "Merlin, Rose was right."

Scorpius brushed it off, ignoring the soul-searching look Hugo was fixing him with and instead looking to James. "Thanks, I'll write to him soon."

"Do it. Oh, but don't mention your great-aunt. He's not a fan of any of that talk."

"What-?" Scorpous picked up the little diagram again and traced it back up to his great0aunts. Andromeda and Bellatrix. One of these two was dead - apparently Bellatrix. Sure, he knew she was said to be foul tempered, but what was so disasterously wrong with her?

"Anyway, we're off." James nodded and Hugo stopped his soul-searching look for a surprisingly warm smile. He looked alarmingly like his dad in that moment.

And then that winded feeling of his lungs being crushed came back. "I— thanks. Really." Scorpius couldn't get many words out.

James gave him that cocky grin, messing up his hair. "No problem. Oh, and prefects rounds are changing from next week. You're on with Rosie." He winked at Scorpius as he got up to leave.

"Just be nice to her. That's literally all you have to do." Hugo added as he followed James back over to the other side of the hall.

"What- but— how?"

"I'm a Ravenclaw," he pointed to the blue crest on his robes, "it's kind of my thing to be observant."

Scorpius was left stunned in their wake. It did not abate all day. And by Transfiguration, he was finally coming back down to earth.

He had his (second) cousin's address!

So maybe he wasn't completely back to Earth. Rose seemed to notice it.

"I heard about you and Teddy. Hugo told me."

"Oh." Scorpius beamed without meaning to. "Yeah, I still can't believe it." He turned Theia's tail into feathers by accident. They were supposed to be vanishing tails today - although Scorpius still didn't really understand the practical application of this particular spell. Or who came up with it. Or why.

"No. Me neither." She muttered under her breath.

Scorpius ignored it. "I'll write to him."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I guess I'll just explain who the hell I am."

"Existential questions on the first letter? Remind me to never be your pen-pal."

He could only tell by the corners of her mouth tugging upwards that she was really joking.

"Well, you know. Existential questions in the first letter, philosophical thoughts on the second and then deep psychological issues on the third. I wonder why no one's ever written back after that?"

Rose muffled a giggle, which she morphed into a cough. Professor Henrich gave Scorpius a stern glare with eagle eyes. "What's the fourth?"

Scorpius thought quickly. He didn't know where these thoughts were coming from. He had no control; like falling feet first down an icy mountainside. But something seemed to be going right, and whatever in Merlin's name that was he'd try to keep it up. "Oh well, that's when I get deep into daddy-issue territory."

She laughed. And it didn't turn into a cough this time. It was hidden by the bubbling chatter from Paige and Isabelle on the desk next to them, but Scorpius still watched in wonder as he finally, after years of trying, made Rose Weasley laugh in the presence of others. And not by accident this time, either. When she laughed, he noticed, her eyes almost closed, like a little half-moon.

"Wow, Malfoy. Sounds intense."

"That's me."

They settled back into quiet but this time, it wasn't awkward. It actually felt amicable. Silence out of choice; not something shoved over them like a thick layer of coagulating dust.

She even helped him to check his wand technique when he turned Theia's tail bright blue and the cat looked over her shoulder moodily, fixing the pair with a grumpy stare.

"It's the Hogsmede trip on Saturday. Are you coming?"

Like he'd forget. The boys were still fully committed to 'The Rose Plan' (even if they insisted on still calling it that), and everything looked to be in place for that weekend. Hopefully.

Step one: play it cool. Something Scorpius didn't know how to do.

"Uh -oh- me? Well," and he paused for dramatic effect, as though he were thinking of his plans then and there. He was certain it was very unconvincing. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, I haven't put much thought into it. Naoki's pretty strict with training, and I've got quite a lot of homework to do..." Rose raised her eyebrows as he went on and on. "But yeah I mean I guess I'm going." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking anywhere but Rose. Joshua had assured him it was cool to look noncommittal. He'd said it'd make him look less desperate than he actually was. "What about you?"

"Oh, me? Yeah, of course. The girls and I are going to The Three Broomsticks, maybe meet up with some Gryffindor and Ravenclaws, go to Honeydukes and see if Marple Maddness has any new clothes in. You know. The usual."

"I do know. All the usual." Scorpius had never felt so awkward in his life.

"So if, on that chance, you do end up going, will you be heading to The Three Broomsticks?"

"Oh. Yeah. I suppose so."

Rose nodded her head, watching him. "Right." She turned her body back to face Professor Henrich. He wondered when she'd started sitting almost completely facing him.

"Cool."

He wasn't even listening to what happened around him. Frankly, he didn't care. He was just watching her and lost in wondering when his life started going so right. Whether it was magic, that 'karma' thing, or just plain luck, he didn't care. Things were going awesomely and that's all he needed to know.

"Malfoy, get up." Rose hissed at him suddenly. He pulled himself to his feet hastily as the students began to clear out for lunch, and the pair gathered their things.

They were almost out the door when Scorpius remembered - the photograph! It was still wedged in his potion book. He wondered if she even realised she'd lost it, or if he had it at all by now.

"Rose - wait!" She and a bunch of other students she was going over to turned to face him. He slid the photograph from between the pages of his potions book. "Here, I found it on a library table the other day," he knew she wouldn't thank him for telling all the people listening that they'd actually talked of their own, free will before now, "Al reckons it's yours." Alfie winked at him from the back of the pack of sixth years who were all way too interested in watching what was about to go down and gave him a thumbs up before heading off to lunch. Probably to catch up with Max or Joshua; who knew with that boy. He seemed to be stressed or something recently, but he could tell Scorpius it was due to a distressing convergence of Mars with Venus and he'd believe him.

Rose stepped forward, with a delicate frown on her brow. Maybe it was just the moment; perhaps it was that the light had just come through the clouds outside and it was hitting her in all the best ways, he didn't know. But he seemed to hold his breath for a moment as she came over to him and took the photo from his hand.

"Yes. I thought I lost this week's ago." She said in not much louder than a breath, and Scorpius let out the all the breath he'd unconciously been holding as she looked up at him and the light faded. But there was a warmth in her eyes as she smiled at him that he couldn't pin on the sunlight or the library candles this time. Shining in her beautiful brown eyes, there was an actual, real warmth that came from within. "Thank you," she said, just low enough for only the two of them to hear, "Scorpius."

—-

"She used my name!" He declared to the empty room.

"She did?" Well, he thought it was empty. Albus popped up from the pile of sheets stuffed over him, his voice very slightly stuffy. Scorpius took three steps backwards; he was not going to get ill, not now.

"Yeah." The grin that had slid off his face came back with a vengeance. "She smiled at me, and not because she'd just beaten me in a test of tricked me or beaten us at quidditch or anything!"

"Bloody hell Scor, you made it sound like you got past multiple bases with her. Ow!"

He rubbed his head as he threw the pillow back to Scorpius.

"You done, anyway? I was studying."

"You sound ill."

"Studying."

"Studying how ill you are?"

Albus sighed heavily. "I'm going to train Theia to murder you in your sleep."

Scorpius grinned, swapped out the books he'd been carrying for lessons for the ones he planned to study from this evening before heading down for food. "But more importantly, she used my name. Actual first name. Scorpius as in Scorpions. Scorpius as in what the hell were my parents thinking."

"Yeah, I wonder that a lot - what were they thinking?"

"And there were people there too!"

Albus coughed. "So," another cough, "you're making progress?"

"Yeah!" Scorpius was smiling so widely you could've fit a wand in his mouth. "I mean, she's been pretty nice to me recently, and we're on rounds together now."

Albus finally finished dragging himself out of bed. "I'm glad. It's been a long time coming. Rosie's lovely when she's not being a total bitch, too."

Scorpius laughed. "And to answer your earlier question - my parents were thinking of stars or something. Or they just looked in a Latin then a Greek dictionary."

Albus shrugged. "Who am I to argue? 'm named after two headmasters, aren't I?" He finished tying up his shoelaces, sniffing as he did. Scorpius levitated a tissue in front of his friend's face, cringing a little bit. He had a tendency towards hypochondria.

"Are you coming for food?"

Albus finally stood before Scorpius and nodded. Now that was one very ill looking Potter - and he'd seen James after he and his friends had got into the house Elves' Fire Whiskey supply. "Why not? I'm starving."

As was almost inevitable, the conversation was again about the ball. This time, it was Joshua dragging out the conversation.

"I really don't know who's invitation to accept."

"Stop making it sound like they hand wrote you poncey invitations."

"Or that they don't have feelings."

Albus and Scorpius took their places on either side of the Slytherin bench, and Albus went immediately to the jug of Pumpkin Juice, eschewing the food with a tremulous look.

"What's Joshua deciding this time?"

"Only which of the tens of invitations he's going to accept."

Albus made a snort, which turned into a choke, and then a pitiful coughing fit. A few Ravenclaws from their table even looked over.

"I swear Al, if you make me all ill and horrible to look at, I'll make sure you stay as far away from the girls you always have done."

Max smiled sweetly - well, as sweetly as he could - while thumping Albus on the back. Albus did not look pleased.

"A-Anyway," Joshua continued, looking ever so slightly disgusted at the phlegmmy pile that was Albus, and shuffling slightly further away from him. "I was thinking about all the girls-"

"Who are they, exactly?" Scorpius asked, shovelling a helping of mashed potato onto his fork.

"Let's see, there was Lavender Patil, Matilda Parker, that other girl from Ravenclaw, Ruby Taylor, even that first year - what was her name?"

"Carmel Jones."

"Oh yeah." Joshua rubbed his chin ruefully. "There was Ava Smith-"

"Absolutely could not care less, Joshua. Thought you had a girl in mind, anyway." Albus interrupted him.

Joshua scowled, and carried on eating.

"Yeah, And it seems like she was the only girl who hasn't asked him so far." Max prodded further, and Joshua simply stuck two fingers up as a reply.

Max now turned to face Alfie. "Dear Alfie, according to reports you are going with Sabrina Gregg."

"Why as a matter of fact, I am."

He replied so coolly that it didn't even click with Scorpius for a while.

"Wait a minute... you're going with your ex— why?"

Alfie shrugged. "I still like her." He was trying hard not to make eye contact, staring down at the potatoes on his plate.

Joshua rose from his fury just long enough to giggle at Alfie. "Someone wants to get lucky."

Alfie rolled his eyes. "We aren't all like you."

Joshua went back to his fury.

The rest of the meal passed in near silence after that, accompanied harmoniously by the disgusting sounds of Albus' illness.

Scorpius left the four of them quickly to go and study in the library. Alfie had informed him that he really did miss out on being set an essay at the end of Transfiguration, and he should probably get started on that.

Who said sixth year wasn't fun?

So, how do you think it's all going to go down in Hogsmeade? Do you think it'll all go to plan, or is a spanner going to get flung into Scorpius' life again? Let me know what you think!

Please review if you've got time and follow for more. Thanks!