"Louis, you sly little shit." Rose muttered as she saw Scorpius heading towards her in the Entrance Hall.
When Louis had cornered her earlier in the evening and coerced her into patroling for Skeeter tonight, he had been carefully cryptic about her patroling partner, being highly vague and going all "Oh you will find out soon enough, Rosie."
It made complete sense now, though. The fact that Rose despised Malfoy was a fact commonly known. Rose had a reputation to hold, and thus made a point of keeping the truce she had made with Scorpius a secret. She may be a bit civil to that pointy nosed git now, but that didn't mean that they were chums. It wasn't that she wanted to be openly hostile like she usually did, but it was hard for her to be polite to him.
As Scorpius drew closer she noticed that he wasn't wearing the resigned expression he often held when he was around her; the expression that at times screamed plain avoidance towards whatever Rose would be screaming at him. She thought back to what he had said to her that night when they made the stupid truce: he was right. He didn't retaliate. Ever. Rose couldn't understand why. He had every reason to. Rose Weasley may have been a bit of a shrew (although she would never admit it herself), but she wasn't oblivious to the fact that her behaviour towards a certain Slytherin boy with haunting gray eyes was not exactly just. She felt a pang of guilt seeping into her mind from that annoying subconscious of hers, and pushed it away quickly, trying to school her features into subdued boredom as she looked at a slightly anxious looking Malfoy.
"Scared that you will lose to us tomorrow, Malfoy?" Rose said with a little smirk.
Scorpius looked startled, as if his mind had been elsewhere, as if he expected her to say something entirely else, as he finally made it to where Rose was standing.
"Good evening to you, too, Weasley." He sighed and shook his head.
Rose rolled her eyes, "Fine. Don't answer. I already know you're scared."
"And pray tell, how exactly did you come to that conclusion?" Scorpius asked indignantly.
He was not in the mood for Weasley's bullshit tonight. But the girl had caught him at a really bad time, when Scorpius was itching for a slightest bit of antagonism; a rare happenstance in itself.
"Oh, it was written all over your face when I saw you coming here. You looked awfully pale."
"I'm always pale." Scorpius scoffed.
"That you are."
Weasley was quite fond of this snarky routine of hers when it came to Scorpius, but today she was clearly off her game with dull and repetative comments. It seemed almost as if she was trying to hide something. The fact that she was fiddling with her fingers and staring at somewhere past Scorpius'left shoulder, avoiding his eyes made him confirm his doubts.
"Are you scared?" Scorpius asked suspiciously.
"Of course not, Malfoy." Rose said quickly, then added, "Enough with the dilly dallying. Come now, patrolling to do, sleep to catch, matches to play. I don't have time."
And with that she turned on her heal and headed towards the East wing. Scorpius wasn't sure if he was supposed to follow her. But her odd behaviour had made him curious. Her veiled hostility was something he hadn't expected after that truce. The most he had expected was being ignored, which wasn't much better when you lo- Nope. Don't go there, Scorp.
Rose, on the other end, knew one thing: Scorpius Malfoy at times may be annoying, but stupid, he was not. He knew something was up. It was written on his face that he knew. The fact was, Rose had been stressed out about the stupid match. Replacing Lily had been harder than she had thought. Seekers weren't easy to come by, but after two weeks of searching, she had found a tiny third year girl named Melinda Carlton, who was quick and efficient. It was still hard for the rest of the team to adjust to the newest member, thanks to McFee, who was enjoying the fact that the team was already rattling under Rose's captaincy. He had been increasingly difficult since the term had started. But Rose would rather paint her hair rainbow than admit this to anybody, much less Scorpius Malfoy, the Keepering Git.
She could hear him trailing behind her quietly. She turned towards him, deciding that she would rather talk to him and act normally than be a bitch. She was tired of being a bitch to him. Especially when she didn't want to.
"So? What's up with you?"
Scorpius was surprised to hear such a casual question from her. But as usual, he hid itnwell as he politely answered with, "You know, same old. Internship applications and the whole deal."
Oh yeah. Bloody internship. Rose had applied at a couple of places including Gringotts and Harry's office. Still hadn't heard from anyone.
"It's a real hassle, isn't it." He added after a beat.
"Tell me about it." Rose nodded sagely at him.
They went silent again for a while as they climbed the stairs to the third floor. Patrols were boring. They could become excruciatingly boring when your partner was not a friend.
But Rose was determined to make it work. And in a good way. After behaving like a petulant child towards Scorpius, she suddenly had the urge to try and do better. Maybe that horrible guilt-thing was messing with her head. Although it was difficult for her to do that, as one could tell from the way she had acted towards him earlier tonight. But conversations were easier when they were just in your mind. What could she ask him? Maybe something about Albus? But the last three conversations they've had were on Albus. And she didn't want to sound like a hovering relation of Al to Malfoy. Then she remembered something that had been nagging in the back of her mind since the day of Lily's Punching Incident.
"Malfoy?"
"Hmm?" Scorpius hummed absentmidedly as he peeked through a half closed door of a classroom.
"Do you have any siblings?"
***
It had been almost half an hour since Albus and Lola had been sitting by the fire place across from each other in The Room, listening to Coldplay, sharing the companionable silence.
At first Albus had tried to make small talk about books, but it hadn't worked as all Lola gave were clipped answers. As soon as they got inside the room, he gave up on it. Lola looked like someone had kicked her puppy, which was understandable considering the state he found her in, but Albus had a trying day, too. And he was more than happy to comply with Lola's "no-talking-policy". And besides, who needed conversation when you had Coldplay?
Lola was chewing on her lip, trying hard not to cry. Or maybe she was just really interested in the threads of the carpet, since she wouldn't look away from it. Albus couldn't tell. But he suspected it was the former.
He didn't need to sit and wonder for much longer though, because as the opening chords of 'Fix You' started to fill the room, something snapped in Loralei Nott and she started to cry earnestly.
Any other boy would have thought that it was awkward. Not Albus Potter. He had a lot of experience comforting his hysterical female cousins. Although he suspected that Lola's reasons were a lot less juvenile than his cousins.
A really odd thought came to Albus at that moment: She is a pretty crier.
Albus groaned inwardly in frustration, looking away from a now sniffling Lola for a minute. He didn't need that line of thoughts right now. Sure. Lola- Loralei Nott was a pretty- no, a beautiful girl. Her eyes weren't blue like Rose's. Instead of sea coloured eyes, she had cornflower blue eyes. She wore little to no makeup on her fine featured face. Now that Albus had a chance to look at her closely, he could make out some resemblance to the Nott boys. They all had delicate, almost elvian features, which looked comical on the huge Bartholomew Nott and out of place on a very serious Roman Nott, but somehow seemed to work on this five feet two, slip of a girl.
Lola gave another loud sniffle, which brought Albus out of his observation frenzy and made him feel like a dick. Because here was a girl, having a trying time of her life due to Merlin-knew-what, and here he was, sitting on his arse like an insensitive little shite. He needed to say something. And he needed to say it quick.
"Loralei?"
Lola felt Albus Potter's hand on her shoulder before she heard his voice. But she was at a stage of her crying where she couldn't stop, no matter how hard she tried. And she hated herself for it. She hated coming off as a weakling in anybody's eyes. But she was tired. So tired.
"Lola?" Albus said a bit more gently, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Lola looked appalled for a minute for some reason, but after that she recovered rather quickly, because suddenly she burst out a frustrated, "But you don't even know me!"
"Are we still on this?" Albus sighed. He had no idea if the girl's peculiar behaviour was a one time thing or a rather regular old quirk.
"And don't call me Lola!" She said acidly.
Albus conveniently ignored it, as he raaised his eyebrows as if to prompt her, "Well?"
Lola sighed in resignation. She was done crying anyway. And she suspected that Albus knew about her friendless state. Because she had often seen him glancing her way during meals with a sympathetic look on his face, where she chose to sit alone, away from the Hufflepuff crowd. Of course, there was Ashima, but she hadn't been much of a friend to her since the day she had finally figured out that Lola was not going to be the key for her to get to Bart.
She didn't want to open upto anybody, much less Albus Potter, who hadn't even known she existed until a few days ago. But something in his bright green eyes compelled her to tell him. They held compassion, the kind that didn't come with a side of judgement. Not that Lola knew how people usually reacted to listening to other people. She had always been a loner, thanks to her father's warnings, she had never had a normal converastion with anybody, much less any kind of friendship.
"Look, it's alright if you don't want to talk about it. But I'd suggest you do. I-" Albus took a deep breath, "I heard you. I heard you and Rome fighting." Then added quickly, "Sorry."
Lola's eyes were wide with shock. "How much." She said in a hushed voice, "have you heard exactly?"
"Who wants to kill you, Loralei?"
***
Lily arched her stiff back to drain some of the tension out of her spine, and cursed the persin who had decided to chosen these blasted chairs for the library, a place where students often pulled all nighters. That was one of the newer developments in Hogwarts. The curfew didn't apply to Fifth years and higher if they were in the library with a permission slip from their house heads.
On this particularly dull evening it was just Lily and a couple of Seventh years there. And of course, Lorcan. Lorcan, who had blatantly ignored Lily as she had placed his precious little book in front of him, by merely nodding in her direction without looking up. Lorcan, who was eating a pumpkin pasty as he read through one of the textbooks. Lorcan, who would never be reprimanded by Leroy for eating in the Library. Lorcan, who had a reputation of a brilliant Seventh Year student in all the subjects he took, including Potions.
Lily decided that her need for help was bigger than her pride, which would be deeply wounded when she'll ask Lorcan Scamander for help. Sure. She could always just ditch Potions, the bane of her existence at Hogwarts and forget about her father's little "punishment". But OWLs were looming over her head, and it wouldn't hurt to know as muh of Potions as she could before it was too late.
"Scamander." Lily murmured as she went to Lorcan's table, who looked at her.
"Lily." Lorcan said, startled. Then he recovered quickly and added with a skeptical brow, "Are you lost?"
"What? No!" Lily exclaimed, "Why would you think so?"
Lorcan made a point of checking his wrist watch as he frowned, "It's 10 o'clock on a Friday night. A pre-game night. This is the Library. You are Lily. Take your pick."
"Ha ha. You're hilarious, Scamander." Lily snorted.
Lorcan flashed her a grin so sudden that Lily almost felt as if she blinded by it, but he decided not to tease her anymore and waited for Lily to say something.
"Sooo..." Lily trailed, "Here's the-here's the thing." Followed by a delicate cough, "Lorcan. As you know, I am a fifth year, which means that I will sit my OWLs at the end of the year just as you will sit your NEWTs. NEWTs! Newt! Ha ha! Wasn't that your great-great grandfather's name? I've read his book. Although animals and I haven't really got along well before. James said I killed a fish of his when I was two. But that was totally not my fault! I am not a psychotic killer who goes around killing people's pets, you know! But that is James for you and-"
"Lily. You said something about OWLs."
"Right! So I sit my OWLs. And you know how Hamilton is! She is a slave driver, that woman. Takes tests every other Friday. I have one major one coming in a fortnight on The Living Draught. Pfft. As if I would know whit about any Potion. I try, you know. But its just not my cup of tea. Albus does alright with Potions. I mean I could ask him for help if I wanted to, and he wouldn't say no to me, since he's my brother and all. But he has enough issues of his own. Then there's Rosie. But well, you know. She is not a good teacher. She is too fast for me. Scorpius and I aren't that good friends. So he is not an option either. I kniw that you have studying to do. But you are in Ravenclaw right? Which means that you're brilliant. And your mum's name is my middle name and my mum is-"
Lily didn't finish her verbal diarrhoea because she suddenly realised that Lorcan wasn't giving her his signature look of dismissal or even anything remotely related to that. No sirree. Lorcan Scamander was laughing. In fact, he was laughing so hard that he was struggling to sit straight in his chair, which already looked a bit too small for his tall frame.
"Are you-" Lorcan started, but didn't finish his sentence because Leroy chose that exact moment to make her rounds. So Lily quickly took the chair across from Lorcan and pretended to read one of his books, while Lorcan was still struggling to suppress his mirth. Lily rolled her eyes at him. She had never seen Lorcan showing any signs of humour before.
Aftrr giving their table a suspicious glance, Leroy went on her way.
At last Lorcan took a deep breath, and with a small smile on his face he said, "Was that your way of asking me for help earlier, Lily?"
"Maybe?" Lily whispered.
"Come again?"
"Yes. I would like that very much. Thank you, Scamander."
Lorcan suppressed a smile at that. There wasn't much that made Lorcan Scamander smile. Not really. Especially not another person, another human. Lily Potter's little word vomit had changed that. It was refreshing.
Lorcan was quiet. Lonely. Angry. Angry at the world and at himself. He wasn't like his brother, his dynamic twin brother who was so good with people their own age, who had friends, who was so perfectly normal. So perfectly ordinary.
No, Lorcan thought. I won't blame Lysander for who I am.
Lorcan Scamander wasn't good with people. And it wasn't a secret. His formidable demeanour made people edgy. Scared of what will come out of this dark eyed boy's mouth. Although it was a hasty presumption on their part, because Lorcan wasn't as bad as they thought. He didn't hate them or thought that he was better than them. No. He wasn't. He was just better with animals. And that was his secret talent.
Not many magical children were born with the ability to communicate with animals. Lorcan wasn't even sure there was anybody else besides him. His mother had a way with them. So did his father, Rolf the Adventurer. But neither of them could actually speak to them. Or control them.
Lily and her everlasting suspicion towards him were a problem in Lorcan's book. But at the same time, her being among the few people who had caught on to the fact that there was perhaps more to Lysander Scamander's quiet brother than being a bit odd, spoke volumes about her. While other girls unsuccessfully tried to fawn over, Lily was weary of him. And that intrigued him.
"Very well." Lorcan folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. Seven thirty sharp. Right at this table. Don't be late. Bring all your textbooks. Don't lie to me about how much you know. Do everything exactly as I say, and you just might get there."
Lily glared at his bluntness. But decided to keep her mouth shut.
"Fine." She said with an overly bright smile. "I will see you on Monday then. Wouldn't want to waste anymore of your precious time now, would we?" And with that, she gathered her stuff and left the table. But she was quite sure that she heard a low chuckle behind her.
***
Scorpius blinked owlishly at Rose. Out of all the possible questions in the History of questions from Rose Weasley to Scorpius Malfoy in all the possible dimensions of the universe, this would be on the top of the list of oddest questions.
"Well?" Rose tapped her foot impatiently. "Are you going to keep staring at me all night or are you going to answer my question? It's quite simple, really. You see," She started cheekily. "Albus has two siblings: James and Lily. I have a brother, Hugo. It basically means that you share the-"
"I know what a sibling is, Weasley." Scorpius scowled at her. "Why are you asking me this anyway?"
"Well, well. Secretive much, Malfoy?" Rose smirked. "Why don't you just tell me, hmm? It's not the end of the world, you know. And if you are this afraid of telling me, then you shouldn't have said something about it to Albus in front of me."
That jogged Scorpius' memory and at the same time made him want to punch himself for being so reckless. There was a very good reason why the Malfoy didn't talk about this.
Weasley was stubborn as a mule, though. And if he didn't tell her, she would assume the worst.
"I have a little sister."
Scorpius waited for Rose to bubble with more questions about why nobody knew about his sister's existence and other annoying form of interrogation from her.
Instead, she waited calmly for him to say more on the subject.
"Her name is Ireland. She is four. She likes to ride around the manor on her pink bicycle all day, loves pecan pie, talks a mile a minute and is always on my case about 'showing her my magic'." Scorpius finished hastily.
"No constellations this time, huh?"
"What? No." Scorpius narrowed his eyes at her. "How do you know that?"
"I read." She rolled her eyes. "Your family traces back to early 1100s. It's quite fascinating ,really. But tell me. Why Ireland? You know that's an unusual name for a girl right?"
"And Scorpius is as common as John for a boy, huh?" He said with a lopsided grin. "My mom chose Ira's name. She and my grandmother had a huge row about it. Her exact words were 'we are fresh out of constellation names, Narcissa. It's time this family came back to Earth'."
Rose smiled at that. But didn't say anything for a while. Scorpius could feel her eyes on him. She was still not done with this topic. And he knew what was coming next.
"What."
"What what?"
"What are you itching to ask, Weasley? Your hand wringing is making me really anxious." He said dryly.
"Why does nobody know about her?" She blurted out.
A cynical look came upon Scorpius' face at that moment, which he hastily turned into a stony expression, and said through clenched teeth, "Because my father hates her."