Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Hey everyone! Thank you very much to Guest (thank you sooo much for your corrections! I'm honestly so dumb about science, apologies everyone!), catwomannnnn1, Guest (you know, if you consider that a lot of countries don't teach sensitive information in their history until a long time later, I don't think it's that unbelievable that they never taught this kind of thing), and Guest for your reviews! School is ramping up intensely right now, so I really, really appreciate everything you have to say. Keep 'em coming!

Enjoy!

Chapter 15: Stupid

Rose POV

Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.

What an idiot.

All that I could do these days was roll my eyes every twenty seconds when I remembered how stupid he was.

Idiotic, uncultured, poorly-read, stupid eejit.

"He's so stupid. Really." I found myself whining to Isabelle for the fifth time in a week.

"Yeah, we know." She sighed, lounging further down in the old sofa we usually occupied in the Common Room. "I mean, you coulda just taken my advice like I suggested but no, that would be too easy!"

I rolled my eyes. I knew her advice. 'Go and talk to him, you probably just misunderstood!' The same advice I'd given her when she went out with Leo Black, and then Sam Millar, and also with that Aneil guy from Slytherin. But did she listen? Of course not! At least now I know why.

"But it's not that easy! This is something so simple, so fundamental and so completely at odds with who he says he is as a person! I mean, he says he thinks history is so important, but refuses to acknowledge that his own family were involved in some of the worst chapters of modern history!" I made a gross, strangled sound that hurt my throat as I unleashed my anger.

Merlin, he was irritating even when he wasn't being as annoying as he used to be!

"Wow, tell us how you really feel," Lola commented, clearly battling hard to keep her face straight.

I fought to stop from saying something mean about how she wouldn't even know. I could be a bitch, but not that bitchy. I let my head fall back, and closed my eyes. This was not how a Granger-Weasley behaved, and it was certainly not how the daughter of Hermione Granger acted.

"What's this? Ranting about Snakey-boy again?" My eyes snapped open to see the upside-down face of Fred.

I looked up to see Paige and Jasmine's eyes skimming their books far too quickly to be taking anything in.

"Paige? Jas? You told them!?"

"We were talking to Lydia… who said Albus told her…"

"And so we assumed everyone knew." Jasmine finished sheepishly.

"I mean, I'm not shocked," Fred added nonchalantly. "Everyone knew he had a thing for you?"

"What?" I asked. No, they most certainly did not.

"Well," Lola began, putting her divination book 'See Your Way to Through to May' down, "We all thought you hated him too much to say anything."

"For Six years…?"

"You seemed to have six years of hate." Paige shrugged.

"What the… I don't hate him!" I argued back.

Fred sniggered next to me. "You're so dumb. Roxy tells me all the time that I'm going to die alone, but even I'm not as dumb as you."

I opened my mouth to argue back but paused. I tried again. "Roxy tells you you're going to die alone?"

Fred nodded. "Sure. But so's she. You ever seen her?"

I watched him leave with a frown.

"Merlin, he's weird." Jasmine declared. "No offence, Rosie."

"Oh, right." Fred doubled back to face us all again. "Al's outside. He's doing that pacing thing so he must be stressed over a stitch being out of place or whatever."

"Right." I blinked as he walked off again, pausing briefly, and then finally making it back over to where he was sitting with his other fifth-year friends. "No offence taken, Jas. he really is weird."

I stood up and closed my long-abandoned Arithmancy book. Trying to comprehend, never mind retain, anything I read had been disastrous since I fought with Scorpius. Giving the girls a wave, I walked over to the portrait hole.

I mean, it's not like Scorpius and I were anything serious. We just went to the Slugclub together a few times. Had that really lovely afternoon in Hogsmeade. Did the rounds together, and hung out in the library.

No, nothing serious. He's just a stupid boy, and I am the daughter of Hermione Granger-Weasley. Boys were no concern of mine.

"Al? What is it this time?"

True to Fred's word, Albus was pacing in front of the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Rosie, finally!"

"Thank god you're here. I thought he was going to drive me dizzy." The Fat Lady muttered from behind me. I shot her a quick apologetic smile before leading Albus off.

"Sorry, Fred took a while to deliver the message." We stopped in the same alcove as ever. I shivered in the chill outside of the warm, cosy common room. "Merlin, how do any Slytherins survive the winter down in the dungeons?"

"What?"

"It's bloody freezing up here, it must be ice cold down there!"

"Oh. Uh, not really. We have a bunch of fires and stuff."

"Oh. Of course."

Albus shook his head minutely. "Anyway. I came here to say that you have to talk to Scorpius."

"E-Excuse me?" I chocked on the air I inhaled.

"Scorpius is going to either jump off the astronomy tower or drown himself in the Great Lake if you two don't makeup at some point. Please, try and talk to him. It's his birthday this week, and he might wish for death if you don't."

"No."

"What?"

"No. You know, the word. Usually indicates the negative. It means that I won't do what you asked me - especially if it's makeup with Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy." I folded my arms smartly across my chest. No means no, and Albus was not going to change my mind.

Albus sniggered. "You know his full name. You like him more than you'll admit." He giggled like a school-boy who'd just been clued in on a rude joke. Pathetic, really.

"Of course I do." How did I know his name again? "It's stupid and overly avant-garde. How could anyone forget it?" That would do.

Albus, still smirking, capitulated. "Fine."

"Anyway, I won't talk to him because he's irresponsible, stupid, and has an utter disregard for everyone who was a victim of his family - which is basically everyone - including Teddy!"

Albus rolled his eyes, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'I knew this was going to happen'.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing."

"Go on. Clearly, it's important enough for you to use your voice instead of just thinking it."

"No. It's not, actually." Albus snapped. I could feel my temperature rising and myself leaning in as he wound me up further and further. "I was just saying how I knew that you two were going to fight and I was going to get stuck in the middle! And then what am I going to do - not talk to my best friend or my closest cousin? Great! Just like first year, all over again!"

I swallowed the air in my mouth. It slid down my throat uncomfortably.

Albus Potter, for once in his life, was right. "I'm… sorry, Al."

"'S fine." He mumbled, scuffing at the ground.

I pulled him into a hug, squeezing him like I used to when we were younger, and he made a funny sound every time I did it. Nowadays, he just grunted 'gerr off'.

"Alright then. I promise that I'll think about maybe talking to him. Deal?"

Albus nodded, a half-smile enough to satiate me that I hadn't really pissed him off. "Sounds good."

"I'm sorry, Al. I promise I won't be a bitch, even if I can't bring myself to forgive his ignorant, self-centred, archaism-loving—"

"All right!" He held up his hands as I felt another rant coming on. "I get it. You think he's a div. Me too, sometimes. Just give him a chance. He hasn't heard the stories we have, he doesn't know anything! Like, at all. It's like if we found out that secretly my dad was an enemy of the state, or your mum was one of those irritating campaigners she's always complaining about - but one hundred times worse."

"Well," I folded my arms over my chest again, "our parents would never be so stupid to do that. There's the difference."

Albus scoffed. "Whatever. Anyway, I've got to go back downstairs. Just—" He seemed to change his mind halfway through the sentence, "thanks for promising."

"I'll do my best."I waved him off as he retreated down the stairs back to the dungeons, and shivered in the chilly air.

Fine, so maybe I was being a little bit harsh. Scorpius Malfoy was still from a terrible family, though.

Transfiguration was my favourite subject.

Was.

That boy had the ability to make many things happen when he walked into a room. People turned to look at him. The people who recognised him gave him looks so cold the room temperature went down. The average level of attractiveness went up. And the amount of awkwardness he generated made you cringe from second-hand embarrassment for weeks.

Like today, when he spilt ink all over his own book, and then instead of moping it up with a spell, he tried with paper towels, and then he tried to remove them with magic but it didn't work, and finally, after several minutes, the mess was gone. But being angry at him meant I couldn't even get a proper look, or acknowledge his stupid clumsiness with a sly comment. I just had to stare at the pages in front of me, and hope Professor Henrich would do it for me.

And so now, I can't even sit in my favourite lesson in peace.

I picked at the new potatoes on my plate. I'd already eaten the rich, delicious beef but I couldn't bring myself to eat the potatoes. Mum would be gobsmacked. But dad would be proud, at least.

"Hogwarts to Rosie?" I saw Jasmine's hand flash before my face.

"Oh, hi!" My mood immediately picked up as Jasmine, Isabelle and Lola slid into their seats all around me.

"Rosie, we have some news for you!"

"What? What is it?" My heart immediately started racing. And I don't know what exactly I was hoping for, but I knew that there was one piece of news that might set my heart alight.

"Well," Isabelle began, pulling the dish of tomato soup towards herself, "we were in Astrology just now—"

"You know how its just me, Isabelle, Lucy, Mia Clark, Max Flint and that Alfie guy, right?"

"Sounds cosy." I grimaced. I hate being in small classes; it meant gossip was all the rifer.

"So, anyway," Isabelle continued, "it turns out that Mia Clarke and Max Flint are going to the ball together!"

I choked on my pumpkin juice. "S-Sorry?" I gasped, as Lola thumped me on the back. "T-They are?"

"Yeah!" Isabelle nodded enthusiastically.

"The two of them look very cosy together in class. They're all sitting together, he's got his arm around her chair…"

"Well," I heaved a sigh, wincing as the air tickled my raw throat, "I didn't think that Max had the ability to stay with one girl for longer than three days."

"Yeah, but also the fact that she was after Scorpius about two weeks ago." Isabelle raised a dark eyebrow.

"We thought you'd be interested. You know, to know that bit-"

"Language!"

"-ch won't be in your way anymore." Jasmine finished, looking pointedly at Lola. "Come on, she isn't a nice girl, we all know that."

Lola sighed, and before she even opened her mouth, gave up the fight. Mia Clarke was not a well-liked girl in these circles.

"Who isn't nice?" Paige asked, wandering over to them.

"Mia Clarke who - it turns out - is now with Max Flint."

"What a pair of wankers!" Paige snorted, tucking into the same soup Isabelle was eating. 'Oh, this is good, isn't it?"

"I thought you and he had a thing?" I asked Paige, surprised by her lack of response.

"Oh, no. That'd be Joshua. But I told him where he could stick it when I found out he'd been getting with Evie Lee at the same time as me."

"Good for you!" Lola declared loudly. Paige, for as outgoing as she was, was intensely private about her love life. It was only after she came back to the common room one evening with a pretty intense blush that we found out that Rhys Owens had asked her to the ball - and she'd accepted.

"And you're doing the best with getting a date for the ball. Merlin, this is so annoying!" Isabelle whined.

I nodded, restraining myself from launching into a tirade about a certain blonde haired by again. I settled for watching him walk down the Slytherin table with Alfie to join his friends. He looked… happy. Was Albus lying to me….? No, Albus never lied. He was terrible at it, anyway.

"Rosie?" Lola nudged my shoulder.

"Yep?"

"We're saying who our ideal dates would be. Louis Weasley, Max Flint, Theo Russell," she pointed to Jasmine, Isabelle and Paige in order, "how about you?"

"Can I- Wait." I rounded on Isabelle. "Max Flint? Really"

Isabelle flashed me a winning smile "He is very attractive. And good at art."

"He's really nice to me when we're the first ones to Care of Magical Creatures, too." Lola chimed in.

I blinked heavily. "O…kay."

"Don't think you can talk your way out of it that easily, Rose Granger-Weasley. We know you still didn't answer." Jasmine smirked at me, and I felt my heart sink slightly.

"Fine… Scorpius or Jake Andrews…" I mumbled, suddenly filled with the desire to stuff new potatoes in my face. I didn't dare look up to meet anyone's eyes.

Lola cleared her throat. "Well, I guess I'd pick Louis Weasley. Actually, I quite like Alfie. Oh, or James Potter - he's nice to me, too. Even Albus is quite cute."

"Albus? No offence but..." Paige intoned.

I winced as the conversation swiftly diverted into discussing which of my cousins was the most elegable bachelor. Again.

By the time Friday came around, the pressure of my promise to Al was weighing heavily on me. Yeah, I should've said something in Transfiguration. I probably should've said something to him in Potions too when Al was boring holes in my head with the intensity of his stare. But I didn't. Finally, I'd come to realise that I just couldn't handle the disappointment. Because as soon as I'd been excited to discover that the real Scorpius Malfoy was only awkward, a bit of a creeper and actually pretty charming, I also discovered that he was naive, unwilling to have his views challenged, and stupid. And as mum always says, if you find someone isn't up to your standards then don't bother wasting your time on them. Besides, mum would know. She chose Dad as her first boyfriend, and they were meant for each other.

There's more to life than men.

I sighed and looked down at the towel clutched in my hands. I felt achy and stiff from Quidditch practice this evening. It's not long now until the next game... Ravenclaw could be tough to beat, but we might be able to pull it off, if Fred can just get his act together in time.

"Ahh!" I screamed shrilly as the stone step below me came flying towards my face.

"You Alright there? You want to be a bit more careful." A young looking ghost floated over to me. She can't have been more than thirteen years old, and her heavy Welsh accent hung over every word she said. "Careful, don't watch where you're goin' and you might end up like me."

I nodded. There was a kind of mournful undertone when she spoke that made me have no doubt that she meant exactly what she said.

"Right. Thanks." I brushed off my knees, wincing at the slightly stuffed skin of my knees. I turned to go, but frowned and looked back to the girl still hovering where I'd fallen. "Sorry— Who are you?"

"Oh, yes. I'm Alys, but my tower is occupied right now. A boy I'm friends with is there right now."

I frowned deeper. As she spoke, something Scorpius said came back to me.

"You don't mean the Owlery, do you?"

"Yes, that's my 'ouse."

"Then... you know Scorpius Malfoy, don't you?"

She nodded, shimmering almost transparent in the candlelight.

"I do, in fact." She took an uninterested look down the six floors below her. It made my stomach turn just thinking about it. "He's the one in there right now. He didn't look very 'appy."

I walked down a few steps to get closer to the young girl. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I didn't stop 'im, but he was carrying a lot o' papers in 'is arms."

My heart seemed to burst and shrivel at the same time. I didn't have a choice. "You said that he's in the Owlery tower, right?"

"That's the one."

"Thank you, Alys."

"No problem. Don't really know what I've done, though."

I was gone before I had time to explain it to her. Down the staircases and across the corridors; down even more stairs until my muscles felt like they were crying and out into the cold night air and the long wooden bridge that led to the Owlery. The air misted before my face and bit at my lungs.

There was no one else on the bridge. My thoughts echoed in my head along with each noisy step I took.

This was the right thing to do. Dad always said it. Don't turn your back on a friend in need. And even if it was Scorpius Malfoy, he was Al's best friend, and it seemed like he was in need. If Alys was to believed, anyway.

The Owlery tower is tall, and remarkably luminescent. Now more than ever it seemed to shine in the moonlight as though even if I did turn my back, I'd still be haunted by the eerie glow of the tower. It's moments like this when I wonder if destiny really does exist - or, if I've finally gone crazy. As I walked around the tower to the door that opens to the cavernous room that sits below the owl's home, I took deep breaths to still my heart. That's what mum always says to do when you're nervous, and I can't imagine a time in her life when she wasn't put together.

My hand found the cool metal of the door handle easily in the dim light of the moon. It opened with a quiet click.

There was Scorpius Malfoy, sitting amongst wooden crates and newspaper clippings and candlelight, eyes rimmed slightly red and hands trembling with a newspaper in it.

'Sirius Black Announced Dead. Guilt Cleared' July, 1996.

"Scorpius?" I didn't dare call his name in more than a whisper. It was the first time I'd ever noticed his eyes not follow me when I entered a room. He didn't even notice me until I was crouching before him, hand hovering above his knee.

"R-Rose? What're you doing here?"

Really, why was I there? "Alys told me you were here. And uh..." It suddenly hit me. I had a thousand reasons to plausibly be there, but only one mattered. "She said you looked upset." It didn't even sound like my voice when I said it.

"Oh. Right." He sat upright and immediately tried to cover up the papers he had. Stacks of them sat to his left and right-hand side, all to do with the war and his family and that bloody, deadly past...

"You don't have to put them away for me, you know."

As ever, he smiled. Well, he tried. And it didn't reach anywhere near his eyes. "Thanks. I was just... y'know. Light reading."

I laughed lightly. "Okay."

I tried to tear my eyes away from the picture of my parents when they were young, smiling brightly. "If you want, we can go through them together?"

I couldn't say why I offered it. Even as I said the words, I was hoping that he might say no. But as his grey eyes widened slightly and he rubbed his fair cheeks from the light tear tracks that had fallen down them. Oh, he really was very handsome. Even now.

"That sounds great. Thanks."

He shuffled along on his spot on a cushion that he'd quiet obviously enlarged. I sat next to him in the snug inlet, and in a show of goodwill, spread my towel over our legs.

"What is that?" He sniggered, a hiccough still in his voice.

"I'm trying to make a blanket." I rolled my eyes, but cast a quick enlargement charm on it to make it a better attempt.

"That's better."

I tried not to blush at our proximity. Not because I'm a silly schoolgirl with raging hormones, but because anyone would feel the effects of being jammed next to someone so handsome who also happened to smell really nice. Like warm caramel, and... polish?

I closed my eyes to stop the rapidly descending train of thoughts.

"So, where are we?"

Scorpius cleared his throat, but he couldn't rid his voice of that distinct thickness. "Right. I was reading this one. July 5th, 1996."

He took the top paper off the pile, the one he'd been holding with trembling hands when I came in.

There was Sirius Black's face, the man for whom James had been given a name. My uncle's godfather.

"I knew that Bellatrix killed him. I knew she killed a lot of people. I just didn't know... so many..."

It was almost as though the person sitting next to me wasn't the boy I'd despised for five years. This wasn't a robotic, smug, smarmy, test-acing machine. He was real. He was human. He could cry, he could be sad, and his voice could be reduced to barely above a whisper with emotion. It unnerved me.

I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing.

He handed the paper over to me, and nodded to the pile to my left. I put the picture of the raging, chained up Sirius on top of a paper detailing the Lestrange's breakout from prison. I almost didn't want to know the details. But my eyes lingered on the photo of Sirius. That wasn't the man I knew. The man that Uncle Harry had photos of in his house who looked charming, charismatic and always smiling. Uncle Harry told stories of a man who was brave in the face of repression, who diligently served his time. No mention of the fury in this Sirius' eyes, or how he fought so violently against his bonds...

"What's this one?"

"It's... the first time my grandfather went to Azkaban."

I scanned my eyes over the page. July, 1996 again. Lucius Malfoy went to Azkaban. The photograph of him was nothing if not opposite to Sirius' this man was broken, dead on the inside. He wasn't fighting or trying to escape. His soul maybe already been sucked away by the dementors. It made me shiver.

Malfoy looked at me, and I shook my head quickly, improvising. "Oh, I was just shocked by how similar you look."

Scorpius frowned. "And now more than ever, I wish I didn't look like them all."

I sighed. "It's okay. I often wish I didn't look so much like mum. It's not the same, I know, and I probably don't understand it. But the pressure..."

"It's so much sometimes, right?"

I nodded, and took the paper from him. "Come on. Let's move on."

'Hogwarts Attack Leaves Student Comatose.' December, 1996.

I looked sideways at Scorpius. He frowned at the paper. "What's this got to do with the Malfoys?"

"Who gave you this pile?"

He shrugged. "It was in the library under the list of relevant Malfoy papers... It wasn't a mistake, D'you think?" He rounded his grey eyes on me; so wide and so pleading.

No. I knew it wasn't. "I... let's go to the next one, shall we?"

If I knew what was coming next, I knew where he'd find his answer.

"Alright."

He passed me the paper, showing a twirling, shivering necklace hovering in midair. I knew this story: Draco Malfoy made multiple murder attempts over that year, one of which included my father. It's hard to forgive someone who tried to kill your dad.

'Albus Dumbledore Dead'. May, 1997.

It always hurt to read it, every time. Albus Dumbledore was a sacred figure in my family - both extended, and amongst my parents. He shaped who both they and Uncle Harry were. He's the namesake of Al. And, if I remember correctly, Draco Malfoy was the reason he was dead...

"What's with this one, too? I don't get it."

Mum and dad had this article clipped out and in a folder I found when I was younger at home. I knew where he was looking.

"How about down here?"

I pointed to the second to last paragraph of the article.

'Unconfirmed sources from inside Hogwarts point to a particular student, namely, Draco Malfoy, who has also been accused of other attacks on students throughout the years. He and the rest of the Malfoy Family have recently disappeared but leave a long list of alleged crimes behind them. However, Hogwarts has yet to release any official statement on the topic."

I felt him take in a sharp breath.

"So... you mean to say that someone accused my dad of all this and just printed it?"

I almost lost my shit completely. "I'm sorry... what?"

"'Unconfirmed sources'. My dad wasn't even seventeen yet!"

"But my dad was a victim of one of those attacks. He knows what happened to him, and to the other girl, and then what happened with Dumbledore..."

"What happened, then?"

"Well... dad drank a spiked love potion. That necklace was cursed. And Severus Snape killed Dumbledore, but your dad let in the people who attacked Hogwarts that day."

His eyes bored into mine for a long time. Almost as though he was trying to decide what reality was and if it even existed anymore.

"Seriously? You mean, that's really true?"

I shrugged. My mind wandered back to that picture of Sirius and the picture of Scorpius' granddad. "Well, it's what I've been told. But I do know for sure that your dad didn't actually kill Dumbledore. Uncle Harry's firm on that one."

"Okay. Alright."

He passed me the paper without another look at the front-page article.

"It's going to be okay, Scorpius."

He looked at me with another one of those heartbreaking smiles that didn't even reach the tips of his mouth. "That's easy for you to say. You don't have to go through papers and learn about tragedies that kind of feel like your fault. You get to see how much of a hero your parents are."

Time skipped quickly to 1998. And there was the event that made me hate the Malfoy family so much when I was younger. The massacre at Malfoy Manner.

'Confirmed Deaths at Wiltshire Residence.' April, 1998.

"This isn't..." his eyes deadened as he scanned further down the article. "This is my house, isn't it?"

I scanned it too. And my eyes grew in surprise. Two dead? One goblin, one snatcher? Evidence of the Dark Lord and snake bites on the victims..?

This wasn't tens of people slaughtered. This wasn't organised killing. That was an attack that happened to be in the Malfoy Manner. So where did the story come from? Why did Dad tell me about it?

"I don't believe it. People died /in my house?" He mumbled, the repulsion evident on his face.

I slid the paper across from his knees to mine. "Yes, but it looks like it was just a one-off attack. Only two deaths."

"'Only'?" He dragged a hand down his face.

"Sorry— I just mean that it wasn't anything your family did. Here— 'muggle neighbours reported sightings of thick, black smoke issuing from the house late at night, before more reports from nearby wizards confirmed sightings of the Death Eaters.' That means that your family probably didn't kill anyone—

"—have you heard about great-auntie Bellatrix?"

I gave him a stern look. "I mean your grandparents and your dad. Anyone other than that barely matters. And you're certainly nothing like your great-aunt."

He blinked at me like a confounded child. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. That's definitely one of the best compliments I've ever given."

He chuckled - not a laugh, but at least it wasn't hollow.

More newspapers passed. Of the battle of Hogwarts and the Malfoy's famous 'disappearance'. Of their reemergence months later and subsequent imprisonment.

"Father never told me he went to prison..."

"Only incarceration. He was never sentenced."

"I don't know how, at this rate."

I didn't mention that I silently agreed. But by the time of the sentencing, Draco Malfoy was newly engaged and had fully rejected his past beliefs and way. He indebted himself to the Ministry of Magic and tied himself to their work. His parents took the sentences, and Draco Malfoy walked free. Honestly, I could see why. He didn't look like the monster he'd been almost created to become. He was a kid in a dark, dangerous world - just like Uncle Harry, and mum and dad. All the stories I'd heard him about him being utterly vile didn't end up with this...

"I feel pretty educated, now. And I still hate myself and this world."

I cocked a vague grin. Not because I enjoyed his suffering, but because I was happy to see his change.

"Yeah, the world sucks. But you don't. That's where the difference is." I said to him.

He sighed, and handed the paper to me. So, that kid was Draco Malfoy?

Maybe I had been wrong, too.

"Oh, look." I looked over to see him smiling down at a few tiny lines of writing on the back pages of a paper. November, 1999.

'Draco Lucius Malfoy and Astoria Latona Greengrass announced their marriage yesterday evening in Wiltshire.'

"There's not much there."

"No, but it's still nice to see something about mum, at least." He couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the two tiny lines.

"Yeah..." But I had nothing to say. What could I say? Was I really an awful person?

I was looking out the windows when I finally heard the papers rustling and saw him reach for the final paper in the pile.

The front page only talked about the Wizarding Prizes that year, nothing special, but as soon as he saw the date I watched his face drop and he immediately skimmed to the obituaries section. August, 2019.

'Astoria Letona Greengrass died, aged 38, on August 31st, 2019. Her husband and young son survived her.'

I remembered that. It was hard not to remember. Scorpius has almost been expelled for duelling - with Al, of all people. I remember thinking that he was so stupid. Duelling in Hogwarts was dumb; hexing your friend in the Main Hall was even dumber. But then we all found out about his mum...

I was so cruel. Even when I heard about his fights with his roommates, the cruel things his other housemates said to him and how he was barely allowed time to go to the funeral... I never said a thing. I didn't act like a reasonable human being back to him, when he'd never done a thing to me but irrationally get on my bad side.

"You know," his voice was quiet and thin, "I don't even remember reading this before."

I stayed quiet again. What could I say?

"She deserved more than just two lines. Anyone does, but mum especially did."

"I'm sure she was a wonderful woman." I muttered, unsure of myself. Suddenly the cold air felt suffocating.

"Of course she was. She was my mum."

I felt a shiver down my spine as the thought occurred to me - my mum would've had a whole newspaper dedicated to her memory. Scorpius' mum only got one single line in the back of some issue about insignificant prizes only given out to make a few old wizards feel clever.

But I had nothing to say again. What could I say? I wracked my brain for any mention of ever heard of his mum. She was a Greengrass; they weren't an insignificant family.

Wait... hadn't mum once mentioned how Daphne Greengrass was one of the few Slytherins to fight in the war?

"I heard that her sister fought on our side in the war. I'm sure your mum could've done if she was there."

"Oh, aunt Daphne?" He shook his head. "I wouldn't know. We haven't spoken since the funeral."

I was frozen in shock, and a burning shame crept up my cheeks. I wanted to make him feel better. But this... this was akin to torture. Watching my cousin's best friend be reminded how little he had in this world.

"I mean, I've still got dad..." he mumbled, looking up. But by the bitter undertone in his voice and the way he swallowed hard, I could tell he wasn't even secure in that anymore.

I was torn. This was my fault. But he also needed to know.

"I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't know this would be so hard..."

He looked at me with slightly red eyes and a bemused expression. "Really? You didn't know? You thought my family were mass murderers. What did you think this would be, a walk in the park?"

"No, no I—"

"Rose, I get it. You think I'm stupid for not understanding about the role my family played in the past. That's fine. But now what have I got? My father was the only one I had left, and I'm not even sure I can look at him now, either."

"But, you don't—"

"I don't what?" He asked, standing and pacing in the dim candlelight. His lithe body cast ugly shadows on the grey brick walls, stretching up and up to the high ceiling and engulfing the whole tower in his misery. I knew better than to answer. "You know, he was just getting over mum's death, and now he's going to have to deal with a son who's never quite sure if he tried to kill the father of the girl he—" He stopped abruptly, panting heavily. The firelight cast dancing shows on his back. "Forget it. Just go back to your perfect life, Rose. And Merlin forbid you ever find out the dark past of your family." He turned to her, and his face was almost hidden in the dark, expression hard and set, and his order absolute. His eyes alone, pale and silvery, glowed ominously.

In that moment, I could understand how his father, looking oh-so-similar, had once been in the clutches of evil.

I swallowed difficultly. My mouth had never been drier. "Scorpius, please, I—"

"Just leave."

Sheer waves of fury and despair mingled in a toxic perfume rolled off him. I felt tears welling in my eyes. And they started falling before I could stop it. I'd never seen him so angry before, and this was my fault. I wanted to do anything to make him happy again but as I looked at his angry face, mouth set and grey eyes alight with fury, there was nothing I could do. I'd caused all of this, and as the tears dropped down from my eyes, I realised that it had to be my job to fix it. I had to.

The tears almost froze on my face as I ran across the wooden bridge. The forest below it cast ugly shadows up the cliff face and I found myself running faster than usual, my muffled sobs lost to the wind.

The castle was almost empty. But the warm air didn't give me any comfort. The empty silence of the wide corridors echoes with the sounds of my cries. I felt humiliated and ashamed. Granger-Weasley women didn't cry. They fixed their problems. I stopped my limping hurry through the corridors to steal myself, using the wall to lean on. This was what pain was; this was how it felt. My chest - like my very heart had inexplicably just vanished. I couldn't even understand why it hurt so much. I forced my hands over my eyes to stem the flow of tears by force if nothing else. And the clamouring, hiccoughing ache in my chest quietened, and then I forced harried breaths over the top. I slid to the ground, and looked up to the ceiling.

In my wildest dreams, I had never expected that Scorpius Malfoy would ever make me cry about anything other than the sheer frustration he caused me.

I don't know how long I sat there. Finally, I managed to drag myself up along the cool sandstone of the wall, and stretched out some shaky legs. Rubbing the sticky skin of my face into what would hopefully be normality, I carried on back on my way to where I knew I had to go. I just hoped that by the time I reached the dungeons, my eyes wouldn't be so red anymore.

I waited at the strange emerald door for a Slytherin student to come or go. I'd never done this before. I'd always been the one to wait for Al to come and fix my problems. The pit of my stomach filled with shame again. The door flickered bright green in the torchlight, a mother of pearl sheen on the surface making it look almost silver at times.

I could've lost myself for hours in my thoughts. Of how wrong I had been, how stupidly I'd acted.

Giggling echoed down the corridor. I frowned. Their voices sounded far too deep for that kind of giggling.

I looked up to see Alfie Campbell and some boy from Ravenclaw. Their faces dropped immediately back to neutral when they saw me. Oh course, a Gryffindor in Slytherin territory wasn't welcome even to this day.

"Hello, Rose. What's wrong?"

"I Uh... could you get Al for me, please?"

"Yeah, yeah of course." He eyed me suspiciously. "Not Scorpius?"

I shook my head and bit my lip to stop myself from crying again. Rose Granger-Weasley does not cry.

"Alright. I'll get him now. Um, bye, Oliver."

The Ravenclaw waved back and promptly left the dungeons without another word.

"I'll get him now."

I nodded and just about managed a quick smile.

"Rosie?" Al stepped back through the door with a confused look on his face, a Defensive Spells book under his arm and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Same Al as always. "Dumbledore's beard, you look dreadful. Your face is all red and blotchy an-"

"Al, I did a terrible thing." I just about managed to get out before I couldn't keep back the tears anymore.

I flung my arms around him and felt him stiffen in surprise.

"Uh... you didn't kill someone, did you...?"

"N-No, you idiot."

"Then what did you do?"

"I-I talked to S-Scorpius. B-but I just made him r-really angry and, and now I don't know what to do!"

I felt so powerless. Crying on my cousin's shoulder, not even being able to get a coherent sentence out.

"Why? What happened?"

"He— he went to the l-library and got — got a load of articles about his family. And— and now he's furious and it's all my-my fault!"

I hugged tighter to Al, for fear that if I let go, he might leave me, too.

"Okay. I knew this was going to happen... just, you go back to Gryffindor Tower and find James. He'll know what to do. We'll sort out Scorpius, don't worry."

"W-We?"

"Yeah. Well I have to take Max because he's dealt with this before. Oh, and Alfie. Alfie's nice. Wait but then Joshua has the best foresight... So I guess we're all going."

I chuckled despite my tears into his shoulder.

"Come on, Rosie. It's not the end of the world. You might've just been a bit... misguided in what you did, that's all."

"Shut up, Al. I know I was stupid."

He paused. "Yeah. I love you Rosie but yeah. A little bit."

He hugged me back awkwardly until the tears finally stopped.

"Sorry, your shoulder's all wet."

Al gave me a half-smile and shrugged. "Now, go back and find James."

"Our James? Really?" James was known in the family for being roguish, overly-confident and always smiling - particularly in the wrong situations. I failed to see how he could help.

"Yeah, well, he's surprisingly good at cheering people up. When Roxanne's not around, he's a good second-best."

I nodded, happy for any advice at this point. From all the tangled mess of emotions, I could tell that shame was one of them.

"And we'll go and deal with Scor. Hold on." He disappeared back through the emerald door again and I was left alone, wondering where exactly it'd all gone wrong.

From the moment I started liking Scorpius Malfoy, I suppose.

Ahhhhhhh

Anyway

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