Author's Notes: Thank you to my three reviewers! I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter and are all excited for this fic! I'm honestly excited too. Just a heads up, Tilden Toots and his wife are actual characters from the Harry Potter world, you can Google them if you want to know more. Hope you'll like this chapter! Let me know if you do! Or if you have any constructive criticism for me... Ta ta.

Chapter Two

Merlin, but life sucked!

Scorpius was sure that he was not the only one to think that, that not-so-bright morning. Surely his new Auror partner believed the same exact thing.

It was not the first time that Scorpius and Albus worked together on a case, honestly, they had probably worked together most of the time they had spent as Aurors – which was now almost four years – but still, every time they were paired up, they ended up hexing each other after hours of banter that had turned to quarrels that had turned to actual fights.

Naturally, everybody in the Auror department mocked them as they told them that they were in love, and that it was just unresolved sexual tension which caused them to behave like that and that Lily and Mary (or Janet, Hannah, Lidia, Lucy, Lana, or whoever Albus was dating at that moment), should have been jealous. At least, though, those were the only moments in which they teamed up to hex someone else.

And that morning was no different, since ten minutes after that Albus had walked into Scorpius' office they were already quarrelling.

"I was working on the unicorn case in Scotland, Al," growled Scorpius, "of course it's ten times more compelling than—what are you working on again?"

Albus snorted annoyed. "The Tilden Toots case," he replied haughtily, as if that was interesting.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Yes, and does this look like the Janus Thickey Ward at St Mungo's to you?"

"He was killed, Scorpius," he replied impatiently. "His wife said—"

"He drank an infuse from a poisonous plant that he prepared himself," sighed Scorpius, "and his wife gave up magic for a year to live as a Muggle and write a book about it! I mean, honestly, whatever she says I don't think she's very reliable…"

Albus rolled his eyes. "He was a Herbologist and a Potioneer, I hardly think he could have been as stupid as to drink a poisonous infuse without noticing," he replied, "and his wife said that he was working on something secret that he wouldn't share even with her…"

"St Mungo's said it was an accident, Al," pointed out Scorpius.

Those were the facts: radio personality Tilden Toots had been found dead in his house the week before. The Aurors and the Healers had worked together to learn the cause of death. It turned out to be poisoning. They came to the conclusion that it must have been a mistake from Tilden's part, a distraction during the preparation of his favourite infuse. Naturally, his wife had cried that it had been murder, but there were no trails to follow and a quiet Herbologist such as Toots had no enemies at all.

"And Rose and I think it was murder," replied Albus dryly. He paused for a moment and then a grin split his face into two. "And in addition to that, Rose and James are already working on the unicorn case…"

Scorpius gaped at him. Of course, James surely would take no nonsense. Between a possible unicorn trade case and the death of a half-crazy Herbologist who had surely eaten too many magical mushrooms in his life, he would have definitely taken the unicorn case.

"Look at the bright side," said Albus, leaning back against the wall of Scorpius' office, "he is working with Rose, she is a girl, she is going to be perfect to attract the unicorns."

Scorpius darkened and snorted. "I hardly think she is still a virgin," he huffed.

"Hey!" snapped Albus protectively.

"Oh come on," snorted Scorpius, "she's been with Zabini for four years, I'm sure she has already done the nasty…"

Albus cocked an eyebrow and looked at him as if to say, Look who's talking, but thankfully he didn't actually utter a word. Damn was the day that Scorpius had confessed to him that he had never slept with Lily, or with anybody at all for that matter. Well, he had been drunk and Albus had been too, and his girlfriend's brother had hugged him and told him what a good man he was and that he loved him and that he was happy that he was his sister's boyfriend, and then he had started to cry. Scorpius, instead, had rushed to the loo to throw up, and afterwards Albus had joined him, and they had taken turns to keep each other's hair away from their faces.

For a moment, they had looked like a perfect homosexual couple.

They had agreed the following day not to tell a soul about that episode.

"So the Tilden Toots case is it?" asked Albus after a long moment of silence.

Scorpius crossed his arms over his chest. "Only if we rename it the 'Crazy Herbologist case'," he replied sulkily.

"Deal," grinned Albus, stretching a hand towards him.

Scorpius sighed as he shook it. "Deal," he replied. "It's not going to be a long investigation anyway… we are going to prove that that old man was completely out of his mind and took the wrong ingredients for his infuse and then we can maybe join James and Rose with their case…"

"Or we are going to discover that it was a murder and that his wife is not as crazy as you think…"

Scorpius rolled his eyes in reply. "Okay, now fill me in briefly to the point you've reached in the investigations, because I have a lunch date."

Albus brought a hand to his heart and pretended to look outraged. "What? You are not having lunch with your partner?"

"No, I'm going home for lunch, today," he replied curtly.

Albus cocked an eyebrow. "What? Grimmauld Place? Why? Is Lily home?"

"The Manor," Scorpius corrected him, "I don't live at Grimmauld Place…"

"You don't? I was wondering why you weren't there last night…" Albus grinned.

Scorpius swallowed and finally asked, "How did it go with your mother? Did she calm down?"

Albus shrugged a shoulder. "She slept with Lily," he replied. "My mum's a bit… nervous ever since Lily had graduated from Hogwarts and started working."

"Your mother thinks Lily is still a little girl," pointed out Scorpius. "And Lily knows it and she suffers, you know… She would like to be treated like the young woman she is, not like—"

"My mum is just trying to protect her," Albus cut him off, "even if that's probably not the right way to do it."

"It's definitely not the right way to do it," murmured Scorpius.

Albus nodded and sighed. "Try to tell her without making her cry," he replied.

Scorpius shook his head. "Never mind," he muttered, "just fill me in with the details of the case."

Albus grinned as he sat down on Scorpius' desk and started to tell him what exactly he and his former partner had done so far about the Toots case.

oooOOOooo

"… and he said that I am too frigid," sobbed Rose, "too frigid! He said that for being a redhead I should be much wilder, especially in bed…"

James looked at Rose with his mouth open. His cousin hadn't stopped crying since the moment she had walked into his office that morning. They hadn't talked once about the case of the unicorn trade, but he now knew everything about Emeric and what that man thought about his cousin. Not that he did want to hear that, really… Hearing what Auror Zabini thought and said to her about her skills in bed made him alternatively angry and rather uncomfortable.

"Rose, I'm sure he—"

"He said he didn't know why he pursued me for seven years at Hogwarts!" she sobbed. "He said that whoever married me would have had to sleep in another bed because he would freeze to death if he slept with me…"

"Rose, I'm sure—"

"And to think that I didn't want him back at Hogwarts," she sniffled, "I knew that he liked me, but I didn't want to be with him… and he followed me around like a puppy… and I always treated him so coldly… and now…"

"You know what makes me feel better when—"

"And Al and Hugo always said that I was blind, but I wasn't… I swear I wasn't… I just… I told my mother about him once and she said that his mother was Dad's girlfriend back at school and it was weird…"

"It must have been," agreed James with a sigh, "listen, why don't we focus on—"

"And I was scared, you know," she continued, sobbing again, "I was scared to love someone ever since Lily was taken, you know… she was my favourite cousin, my best friend and… she just disappeared and…"

"Well, thank you," muttered James. He knew he couldn't have stood any chances at being Rose's favourite cousin when they had been little. She was always reading to Lily and braiding her hair and talking about princesses and fairy-tales back in the days, and him and Albus and Hugo and Fred and Louis were always fighting off dragons and running and getting dirty in the garden… Now he wouldn't have minded being Rose's favourite cousin, though. She was the closest in age to him and she was fun – when she wasn't crying her heart content about a boy who had just dumped her.

"And now I miss him," she sobbed, "and Stephanie said that she saw him at the Leaky Cauldron with Margaret the other day… he has already found someone else and I will never find anybody at all…"

"Rose, every boy would be lucky to—"

"I'll end up like Aunt Muriel," she howled, blowing her nose in a handkerchief.

James wondered if she would have noticed if he walked out of the office – his office – and went to an early lunch, or to see how his ex-partner was doing with Albus. Why hadn't he kept his mouth shut the night before? Instead of going all big brother on Albus he should have told him that he didn't envy him at all… At least, he had convinced her to quit investigating on the stupid death of the Herbologist…

"Listen," he sighed patiently, kneeling in front of her, "how about you forget about him—no, no, wait, let me talk." He pressed a finger on her parting lips, pushing against her teeth for emphasis. "How about you forget about your ex-boyfriend, who certainly doesn't deserve you, and focus on the unicorn case for the day and then this weekend I – your new favourite cousin – will take you to a very glamorous party? Best party of the year, I swear."

She darkened and brushed away the tears from her auburn eyelashes. "I don't need your pity," she grunted. "I know I'm pathetic and—"

"I'm not pitying you, Rose," he cut her off somewhat a bit too brusquely. I just can't take your wailing any longer. "I just thought that we haven't had a good nice chat in ages, you know… you were always with Emeric and I think we have a lot of catching up to do…" He grinned as she smiled gratefully at him. "And it's a bloody awesome party, I swear! There's going to be food and music and dancing and—"

She frowned slightly. "It's Roxanne's housewarming party," she pointed out.

"And don't you think it's going to be dashing? Wait, pay attention to what you say, I'm going to tell Roxy…"

She took a deep breath and finally nodded. "Okay," she replied, before smiling, "thank you."

He kissed her forehead and nodded back, finally standing up from the floor. "Okay, let me fill you in about the unicorn case, then. Scorpius and I were investigating on the killings in the Forbidden Forest. Three killings in total, the blood and the horns were taken in all three cases."

"For some Dark Magic ritual or potion," she replied promptly.

He smiled and nodded at her. "Very well," he told her, trying not to sound too patronising. "Now, to be quite honest I'm happy you are working with me, unicorns do prefer a woman's touch and if we need to get close to some alive ones, you might come handy."

She nodded. "Even though, well… I'm not a pure virginal lassie anymore," she told him, her cheeks flushing slightly.

James nodded as he sighed. "Even though you are not a virgin anymore."

oooOOOooo

Astoria had supervised the setting of the table personally. It was not every day that Scorpius came home for a meal, not since Lily had finished Hogwarts at least. He still lived at the Manor – well, that was where his post was delivered, and where most of his clothes still were washed – but he spent most of his time at Grimmauld Place.

He had all his dinners there, he slept there most nights and he spent his free time there. Of course, Lily came to the Manor every now and then, but between her overbearing mother and Scorpius' unwillingness to let her spend too much time in Draco's company, it was almost always Scorpius the one to go and visit her and not vice versa.

But Astoria loved Lily. And in Draco's defence, her husband did too. Well, it was quite hard to know her story and not to love her – or at least take pity on her, which was probably what Draco felt. And every time she came to the Manor she was the most polite and cheerful of their guests and she always seemed to be so interested in everything she saw, whether it was Astoria's collection of enchanted tea cups, or Draco's latest passion for breeding Crups – of course, those Crups were adorable, even though Astoria suspected that he had starting taking an interest in them because they were particularly ferocious towards Muggles. Nonetheless, they were extremely loyal creatures and Lily loved them to bits. Draco had even given her one pup and let her name him. Sparky she called him, and despite she only rarely saw him, the Crup seemed to consider Lily his owner.

But Scorpius was ashamed of the fact that his father had been a close friend to Theodore Nott and Gregory Goyle back in the days – and even during the years of Lily's captivity – and even though both Lily and her family had assured him that they knew that Draco was not that kind of person – anymore at least – he still didn't want Lily to get too close to him, feeling probably ashamed of the fact that Draco had been the one to purchase Lily for him the first time he had been to the brothel.

And Draco could sense his son's reluctance to let him get too close to his girlfriend, and Astoria knew that he suffered for that, because somehow, Azkaban had changed his husband. Where he once was a hard man, he was now much more family-driven and seemed to want more than anything to spend time with his wife and his son in the quiet of the Manor.

Furthermore, in the past few years, things had slowly evolved between Draco and Astoria, and now they started to sit together on the couch after dinner and maybe hold each other near the fire from time to time. Just like they used to do when Scorpius was still a baby or when they were still engaged. And Astoria felt her heart flutter in her chest during those moments.

"Do we have guests?" asked Draco as he walked into the dining room with the Daily Prophet tucked under his arm.

Astoria took a deep breath and turned to look at him. "Scorpius is having lunch with us," she replied evenly. "He will be here any minute now."

Draco sat at his place at the head of the table and looked at her. Despite his face being void of emotions, his eyes seemed two stormy grey seas. "Is he?" he asked softly.

She nodded. "He asked me to find my engagement ring," she told him quietly. "The one you gave me when you asked me to marry you."

Draco's lips parted slightly in surprise at the news, but he closed them rather quickly. "Yes, that would be your engagement ring," he told her in a murmur.

Astoria swallowed. "He wants to ask Lily to marry him," she blurted out. She was quite sure that it was not her place to tell him, Scorpius wouldn't have been so secretive about it, if she could have told her husband freely – but he was his father, he had the right to know.

"I imagine that's why he would want it," whispered Draco tonelessly. Was he too shocked or not shocked enough? Astoria couldn't say.

"Don't… don't you want to say anything?" she asked him apprehensively.

Draco looked at her. "I think she is a suitable choice," he replied gently.

Astoria gave the hint of a smile, but before she could agree with her husband, the fireplace became alive with green flames and Scorpius, in his Auror uniform which made him look extremely handsome in his mother's eye, stepped out of the hearth and shook the Floo Powder from his hair.

"Sorry, I'm late, Mother, I…" Scorpius' voice died in his throat as he spotted his father. "Father," he said rather coolly.

"Scorpius," he replied quietly, nodding at him. "It's good to see you at home."

"I slept here last night," he told him rather curtly.

Draco nodded. "I know, the house-elves informed me."

Scorpius looked at his mother and bit his bottom lip. "Can I talk to you in private?"

Astoria gave him a worried smile. "I told your father about the ring, Scorpius," she confessed, "I—"

"Mother!" he protested, darkening suddenly.

"He's your father, Scorpius," she scolded.

"Can I offer you my congratulations?" asked Draco, standing up.

Scorpius darkened even more. "I need to ask her parents first," he replied, without looking at him. "And that's weird, you want to congratulate me for marrying the girl you didn't want me to fall in love with in the first place."

"Scorpius!" exclaimed Astoria.

"That was when we thought she was a prostitute," replied Draco, his voice calm but distant.

"She was a prostitute."

"Scorpius!" screeched Astoria for the second time. "Let's not talk about that." She grasped her son's wrist and guided him towards the table. Draco sat down again on the other side. Astoria gestured for Scorpius to sit as well and pushed the little velvety box towards him. "Here," she said soothingly, "I ordered the house-elves to polish it."

Scorpius stared at the box for a long moment before he finally found the courage to open it. He took a deep breath and looked the at the ring.

It was beautiful. Every girl would have swooned if presented with such a token of love. It was of fine gold, with a round-shaped emerald surrounded by little diamonds and a barely visible 'M' engraved on the inside.

It was a ring worth of a queen. And Astoria had definitely felt like a queen when Draco had asked her to marry him.

Scorpius closed the box again. "Thank you," he said nervously.

Astoria wrapped her fingers around his son's hand. "She would say yes to you even without the ring, Scorpius," she assured him.

He shook his head and sighed. "It's not Lily who I'm worried about," he replied dejectedly.

Astoria smiled sympathetically at him. "I'm sure her parents could not hope in anybody better than you for their daughter," she told him gently.

Scorpius took a deep breath. "I don't think her mother would want anybody at all to marry her daughter," he murmured, "I think she just wants her to stay at home with her all her life."

Astoria smiled sadly at the pieces of news which were not news at all. She could only imagine what Ginny Potter had gone through in the almost seven years that her daughter had spent away from her. She could understand all too well that she would have been reticent to see her daughter depart from her house to become the wife of someone. But Scorpius surely deserved to fulfil his dream and marry her, if it hadn't been for him, Lily would still be kept segregated in the brothel.

Astoria patted Scorpius' forearm. "I'm sure she'll understand," she murmured back, "let's have lunch, shall we?" She clapped her hands and two house-elves appeared at the door, big serving plates on their heads.

Lunch went on in an uncomfortable silence, despite Astoria's attempts to start various topics of conversation and Draco's effort to enquire about Scorpius' life. But their son's head was some other place, surely rehearsing the conversation he would have had with Lily's parents over and over again.

oooOOOooo

Miss Mitzy was old. And she most definitely wasn't the most beautiful woman to have ever walked the earth. She had a crown of dyed brown curls on her small head and always too much makeup that was all smeared at the corners of her eyes and of her mouth. She had a reticulate of wrinkles on her smiling face and she always wore pastel colour robes and had a cane that she never really used.

She was also the sweetest lady Harry had ever met in all his life. Ginny would confirm that, and so would all of her brothers who had attended her school at some point before Hogwarts. And Lily would remind him every day, when she came home, what a lovely lady she was.

Well, she had to be lovely to let Lily work in such an environment despite her past. Some of the parents – he knew – had opposed Miss Mitzy's choice to hire an ex-prostitute to work with their children. But now, even though some of the mothers and fathers from the other classes were still reluctant to have her at the school – not that Lily was aware of that –, the parents of the students she looked after were all happy to have her as their children's teacher.

Harry was proud of his daughter, and that was all that mattered to him.

"Mister Potter," said Miss Mitzy as she walked into her office with her cane in her hand. "I'm glad to see you here."

Harry stood up to help her walk to her desk and she offered him a grateful smile in return. "Miss Mitzy," he greeted her, "you look younger every day that passes."

She smiled again as she sat down. "Oh, Mister Potter," she grinned, "I thought that Aurors didn't lie."

"That's true, and I never lie, Miss Mitzy," he assured her.

"Well, aren't you a charmer?" she grinned, gloating slightly. "I'm glad to see you here, I have, in fact, something to ask you."

Harry smiled as he sat opposite to her. "I might know what you are referring to, Miss Mitzy, and in fact that's exactly why I'm here," he replied. "Lily told me that you'd like to take your students to an outing to the Ministry."

Miss Mitzy smiled warmly back at him. "Oh, Lily is such a dedicated young lady," she replied, "I'm glad she has already told you about it." She wetted her dry lips a little and smiled again. "Would that be possible?" she asked.

Harry smiled back at her. "Well, you and my daughter overestimate my power at the Ministry," he replied calmly, "it's our Minister the one that you have to ask permission to." He smiled again as he took out a pile of papers from his cloak. "Luckily, I had a meeting with him and the Heads of the other Departments this morning and I managed to mention the matter."

"Did you?" she asked delighted. "Thank you, Mister Potter."

"My pleasure, Miss Mitzy," he replied, "Minister Shacklebolt was absolutely enthusiastic about it. He told me to let you know that all you have to do is Floo Call his office to arrange a date and get the parents to sign a consent form." He pushed the pile of papers in front of her and smiled again. "He is looking forward to seeing you there."

Miss Mitzy looked incredibly pleased at the news. "That's marvellous," she replied, "I will try to organise the outing for next week then. Is February a busy month for the Ministry?"

"Every month is busy," replied Harry truthfully, "but you don't worry about it, Miss Mitzy, we will find the time for your students."

"Thank you, Mister Potter," she replied. "You are always such a great help to the school."

"I'm glad I can help," he replied, before leaning back against the chair. "How's Lily doing?" he finally asked. He knew she was doing well, but somehow he just liked to hear Miss Mitzy praise her.

She smiled at him. "Oh, she's an angel," she replied, "so patient, and loving, and the children… Yes, and the children love her back. And the parents as well, they adore her, all of them…"

"All?" asked Harry quietly.

Miss Mitzy's smile became slightly awkward. "Well, you don't mind some old hags, Mister Potter," she said sweetly, "she is a valid member of our staff and I'd rather see some parents remove their children and continue their education at home than have to fire her."

Harry took a deep breath. He hoped it didn't came to that. He hoped those parents who were still unwilling to accept that his daughter was a perfectly normal young lady would come to know her at some point and recognise what a wonderful person she was.

"I'm sure you'd like to see your daughter now, Mister Potter," asked Miss Mitzy as she pushed her wrinkly hands on the desk and stood up.

Harry stood up as well to help her to her feet. "I'd like that very much, Miss Mitzy, but you don't have to worry, I know the way," he replied.

The woman grabbed her cane and linked her arm to Harry's. "Oh, I don't worry," she told him, "I have to tell my dear girls that we are going to have a meeting after school finish today. To decide whose classes will go to the Ministry and when exactly that will be." As Harry pushed the door of Miss Mitzy's office open, she added, "You might want to tell that to Scorpius, Mister Potter. To come to pick Lily up a bit later."

"I will," he told her.

"He is such a good boy," said Miss Mitzy, "always coming to pick her up and helping her tidy up the classroom. Such a good boy."

Harry took a deep breath. "He is," he agreed. Yes, sometimes – when Harry was distracted – it still felt incredibly weird to refer to Draco Malfoy's son as a 'good boy' or to remind himself that he came to Grimmauld Place for dinner every single night. Or that fairly often he spent the night with his daughter. But Scorpius was a good boy, nobody could have denied that.

Miss Mitzy pushed the Ladybird Room door ajar and Harry's ears filled with screams and laughter. He peeked inside and couldn't help smiling at the scene. Lily had Transfigured a pair of white rabbit ears on her head and had whiskers sprouting from below her nose, and, from what he caught of what she was saying, he imagined that she was telling the children the tale of Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump.

"…and so, the crowd decides to cut down the tree because they think that an evil witch lives there, but we all know that Babbitty turned herself into a…"

"Rabbit!" replied a chorus of little voices.

Lily giggled. "Exactly! But after they cut the tree there's a voice coming from the stump, and it says that witches can't be cut in half! That they should cut the Muggle in half to prove it. The Muggle then confesses that he was lying and Babbitty says that the King is cursed and that every time a witch or a wizard will be harmed in his kingdom he will feel an axe stroke. So the King makes a proclamation that says that witches and wizards are not to be harmed and makes a…"

"A statue," said a child.

"A gold statue," said another one.

"Yes," grinned Lily, "a gold statue of Babbitty! And afterwards Babbitty appears in the form of a rabbit and with her wand in her mouth she hops away, leaving the kingdom forever." Lily started to hop for the classroom and the children just hopped behind her, laughing and bumping into the toys and each others.

"She's good," whispered Miss Mitzy as Harry stared at her and smiled.

"I don't know if I want to disturb her," he replied.

"Nonsense, Mister Potter," said the woman gingerly, "it's almost naptime anyway for the children, they have to get ready to sleep." She pushed the door wide open and Lily finally looked up at them.

"Dad!" she exclaimed, hopping towards him with the horde of children hopping right behind her. When she reached him, she stood up and hugged him. "What are you doing here?" she asked, her eyes shining as if she hadn't seen him in ages and not just that morning at breakfast.

"I came to talk to Miss Mitzy about the outing at the Ministry that you told me about, Lily," he replied, giving her a one arm hug.

"Yes, Lily, dear," said the woman, "would you mind staying a bit after classes for a quick meeting to decide what to do about the outing?"

"Oh," she replied, "I'd be happy to, Miss Mitzy." She looked at Harry and smiled softly. "Maybe I could come home alone tonight, Dad, so not to disturb Scorpius too late in the evening…"

Harry forced out a smile. He knew what she was trying to do, but Ginny would have had a heart attack if Lily was to come home by herself late in the evening. And Harry himself had to admit that he felt much better when she was with Scorpius or someone else.

"I'm sure Scorpius won't mind," he said coaxingly, "but if he is too tired I'll come myself. Or Albus or James. Or maybe even Rosie might come. Wouldn't you like that?"

Lily smiled softly at him and nodded. "Yes, Dad," she replied a bit dejectedly for having missed her chance to act all grown up.

He kissed the top of her head and her bunny ears twitched in appreciation. "Miss Mitzy said that it's almost naptime for your students, isn't it?" he asked her sweetly.

Lily nodded as she stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek, her whiskers tickling is nose. "I'll see you tonight," she told him.

"Yes my little, fluffy bunny," he replied, scratching her between her ears.

She smiled contently and finally turned to march her students towards the little beds on the other side of the room. The lights dimmed with a flicker of her wand and soon she was helping the yawning toddlers into the little beds.

"Let's go," whispered Miss Mitzy, "they'd found any excuse to wake up those little midgets…"

oooOOOooo

Albus could sense that something was not quite right with Scorpius. The blond man had been incredibly quiet ever since he had come back from the Manor. Not that he usually wasn't quiet, but he hadn't replied once to Albus' banter nor had he commented when Albus had tripped over a flying root in Tilden Toots' garden. Usually he would sneer at his partner's inability to walk without falling. Instead he had stretched a hand towards him to help him up and that was it.

"What's wrong?" asked Albus as they stood in front of the Toots' residence door.

Scorpius shook his head. "Nothing," he replied quietly.

Albus looked at him without believing him. "Yeah, right," he said, "is it because my father told you that Lily has to stay at work overtime tonight? Are you going to miss her?" He grinned and puckered his lips in a kiss-like gesture, but all Scorpius did was to glare at him before the door opened and a rather dishevelled-looking old woman looked wildly at them.

"Mrs Toots?" asked Albus, eyeing the woman warily. She had her wand in her hand and seemed rather distressed to find two foreigners at her door.

"Maybe," she replied, her wide eyes going from Albus to Scorpius.

"Auror Malfoy and Auror Potter," said Scorpius firmly, "we would like to ask you a few questions about your husband's death."

She narrowed her eyes behind her lunettes and pressed her lips together. "How do I know you are Aurors?"

Albus furrowed his brow as he pointed at his chest. "We have the uniform," he pointed out.

"As if they didn't give those out to everybody," she hissed.

"They don't," assured Scorpius, "but you can Floo Call the Ministry while we wait here to ask for confirmation of our identities."

She darkened slightly, but seemed to find that suggestion superfluous after all, because she moved from the door and nodded for them to come in. "I've already talked to the Aurors," she told them as they walked inside, "and with the Healers. They sent me to St Mungo's for a check up on my conditions."

"We won't do any of that," assured Albus, as she guided them into her living room, "we just want to know what happened the day your husband died."

"You are going to think that I'm crazy, aren't you? Just like your colleagues," she accused them. "And all because I wrote that book and lived like a Muggle for a year! And people think I'm crazy!"

Scorpius looked at her as if to say that he was one of those people and that he did believe that she was crazy. Nutty as a fruitcake, really.

Albus tried to glare at him, but Scorpius didn't notice. "We don't," Albus told her, fishing out a quill and a parchment from his pocket. "We are truly interested in what happened that day."

The woman lowered her eyes to her hands and took a deep breath. "My husband was a good man," she told them, "a respectable man. He was famous, you know, he had his own program on the WWN. People liked him."

"So what you're saying is that he didn't have any enemies," pointed out Scorpius as Albus scribbled down her words. "That it's unlikely that someone killed him."

She twisted her wand in her hands. "I'm saying that he was a good man," she replied forcefully, "whatever he did he only did it in the name of those plants that he loved so much."

"What did he do?" asked Albus, looking up at her. He knew that man had a shady secret, he could feel that.

"I don't know," she replied, "but he did something."

Albus' lips parted slightly as he willed himself to avoid looking at Scorpius. Surely his partner was gloating.

"So, your husband did something, but you don't know what it was," said Scorpius slowly. "How do you know he did something then?"

She tossed her reddish curls behind her shoulder. "He was nervous," she told them, "lately he was very nervous… and usually he was never nervous. He was a gardener for crying out loud!"

"Exactly," muttered Scorpius, glancing at Albus.

Albus rolled his eyes. There was something about that case… he just knew that there was something about that case that didn't convince him… "Did your husband find something? Did he meet someone new different your usual circle of friends?"

She shook her head slightly. "He met new people every day," she pointed out, nodding towards the window, "he sold flowers and gave gardening lessons in our garden. There were always new people coming to meet him… he was a celebrity, you know."

Albus nodded. "And none of those people looked suspicious to you?"

She shook her head. "They were interested in flowers, how suspicious could someone interested in a plant be?" she asked.

"Not very," replied Scorpius emphatically.

"Exactly!" she told him. "The week before he died, there was an old lady who came to talk about roses, just talk, she would do that every Monday, they would sit and have tea and talk about roses, and that's all."

"And the other people who came? Did anybody new come? Did someone come more than once?" asked Scorpius, looking intently at her.

"Lots of people," she replied, "there was a young lad who came to ask what flowers to gift his girlfriend for her birthday… then this couple who came to enquire about poisonous ivy… then a middle-aged, handsome man who bought a Dirigible Plum… then—"

"Great, thank you, Mrs Toots," Albus cut her off, "you said that your husband looked rather nervous lately…"

"Very nervous," Mrs Toots replied forcefully.

"Very nervous," repeated Albus, "but you don't know why?"

She shook her head. "No," she replied, "I… he was always shaking, always and he never shook… and… and—ah! Yes! A book is missing from his study!"

Albus finally glanced at Scorpius, his lips curved in a gloating smile. "A book? Please, Mrs Toots, continue."

"What book?" asked Scorpius rather grumpily. Yes, Albus knew that there was something there, he just knew it. He could feel it.

"I don't know," replied the woman.

Albus had to do his best not to roll his eyes. "How do you know that it's missing then?" he asked a bit too curtly. He was still sure that there was something not quite alright about the death of that man, but this woman here wasn't helping one bit.

"Come with me," she told them, standing up, "I'll show you."

They stood as well, following her out of the living room and down the hall. For being two best-selling authors, they lived in a remarkably small house. She pushed a door open and, with a wave of her wand, she turned on the light.

The room was small and the heat suffocating in there. There were plants everywhere and it looked more like a greenhouse rather than a study, if one had to be honest.

"Stay away from the Fanged Geranium," she said distractedly, "this one is vicious."

Scorpius walked closer to Albus. "Which one is the Fanged Geranium?" he whispered.

Albus shrugged a shoulder. "The one that bites?" he asked back, looking around himself at the weird plants that seemed to be moving and slither about now that the light had been turned on.

"Here," sentenced the woman as they approached a desk almost completely covered in vases. "See?" She pointed to a space on the desk. There most definitely was the shape of an open book that had been imprinted in the dust and spores covering the table, as if the volume had been lying there for ages.

"What book was it?" asked Albus, as he stepped out of reach from the wayward tentacles of a Devil Snare.

"I don't know," replied the woman. "I never came in here, those plants give me the heebie-jeebies."

Scorpius closed his eyes and seemed to curse under his breath. "How do you know it's missing then?" he asked.

"I… well, I'm not sure, but I know…" she replied quietly. "I just know. I feel it."

Scorpius nodded. "You feel it," he repeated, before looking at Albus meaningfully and back at Mrs Toots. "Thank you Mrs Toots," he told her. "We will let you know how our investigations proceed."

She nodded, evidently not noticing that from Scorpius' tone of voice that there were not going to be any further investigations. Well, that was what Scorpius thought, of course they were going to investigate. Albus still didn't feel quite alright about the whole situation.

They followed the woman through the house and back into the garden. "My husband was a good man," she told them once again, "he did something…"

"But you don't know what," finished Scorpius with a sigh as they finally stepped outside.

"Exactly!" she said again. "You need to find out what he did."

"We will, Mrs Toots," replied Albus, smiling warmly at her. "We will contact you again if we need your help."

She nodded. "Yes, yes," she agreed. "I am always here."

Albus smiled again. "Thank you, Mrs Toots," he said. "Have a lovely day."

Scorpius nodded seriously at her and she wished them a very lovely day indeed, before she looked around herself and walked hastily back inside.

Scorpius looked at Albus and opened his mouth to surely tell him something about the case, but Albus beat him to it. "We need to go to St Mungo's," he said quickly.

Scorpius' jaw dropped. "Excuse me?" he exclaimed as he stopped and started brushing his feet on the grass. "Are you completely out of your mind? Were you sitting there with me having that surreal conversation with that crazy old—damn!" He leaned against a tree and raised a shoe to look underneath it.

"What?" asked Albus, peering over the ridge of his shoe.

"Something… something sticky," he said, grabbing a little stick and trying to get rid of the dark, slimy substance on the sole of his shoe. It was a dark violet colour and smelled rather plumy.

"Must be those Dirigible Plums," pointed out Albus, nodding towards the tree. "You better take that off before you start floating away…"

Scorpius glared at him. "See where this sodding case of yours brought us, Albus?" he snapped. "To the house of a crazy widow with disgusting plants in her garden."

Albus grinned. "Well, good thing that it's going to bring us to St Mungo's next," he told him, "in fact, we better go quickly, before it closes the archives for the day and—what?"

Scorpius was brushing his shoe against the trunk of the tree and still he managed to glare at him. "You are just as crazy as that woman," he grunted. "This case is closed."

"No, it's not," protested Albus, "we still need to check Tilden Toots' medical report. We need to go now because—"

"I am not going anywhere, tonight," grunted Scorpius, "I have… something to do." He let out a frustrated sigh and put down his foot again, walking towards the entrance of the garden.

"I'd like to remind you that my sister is staying overtime at the school tonight," Albus told him.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "I know," he muttered, "it's something else."

"Something like… what?"

"Something like something!" snapped Scorpius. "Bloody hell, Albus, stop being so nosy."

Albus crossed his arms. "Well, you are on duty until seven and we still have some time to go to St Mungo's and—"

"I am not going anywhere," growled Scorpius. "I need to do something." He finally looked at Albus and sighed. "If you cover for me tonight with Teddy, we'll go to St Mungo's tomorrow, how does that sound?"

Albus cocked an eyebrow. "What is it that you have to do?"

"It's personal," replied Scorpius. "So, do we have a deal?"

Albus rolled his eyes. "Alright," he told him, "but you better be a bit more open-minded tomorrow at the hospital. I'm sure that Tilden Toots had some kind of—"

"Yes, yes, marvellous," Scorpius cut him off distractedly. "I'll see you at Grimmauld Place." And with that, he Disapparated with a subtle 'pop', leaving Albus alone to contemplate the spot where his Auror partner had just vanished.