"Why did you say I'm better?" Rose asked.

Scorpius couldn't turn around. Couldn't answer. He was still in shock that he'd allowed anger to override self-preservation. That he'd acted on emotion instead of logic like a Hufflepuff or a Gryffindor. He tensed when Rose put a hand on his arm. Her fingers stroked lightly through black silk.

She's soothing you because you're acting like a child. He could imagine Grandfather Lucius's disgust. Did Potter's orphan hurt your feelings when he disparaged your precious comics? Was having the last word worth triggering his memory? I won't break you out if you get sent to Azkaban. Arranging an accident for Gregory is all I can do. He'll strangle you with his bare hands otherwise.

"I ran into Lupin at a Comic Con." Scorpius looked at Rose. "I was the Green Knight. He was Super Wizard. We argued over who was better, LaVeela or the Enchantress."

"The Enchantress," Rose said.

"Of course, but the issue hadn't come out yet." In LaVeela V The Enchantress, Gwyn the Enchantress put a vision into LaVeela's mind of her family vineyard burning and the dozen orphans she supported trapped in a cellar, gasping for air. LaVeela abandoned the fight with her rival to save the day. Fans had been disappointed that there was no hand to hand combat.

"That doesn't explain what you said."

No, it didn't. "Creevey used the physical traits of his real life heroes for his characters. One of the reasons why I like the Green Knight is because he wasn't based on a hero from the Battle of Hogwarts." Rose gazed at him steadily. Scorpius quit prolonging his confession. "That Comic-Con was where I realised that I fancied the Enchantress because she looked like you."

Rose instantly understood, clever girl. "Oh, Merlin." She peered through the front door viewer. "He's gone. Damn." She raced toward the bedroom, disrobing as she went. "We have to go to Teddy's flat."

Scorpius dragged his eyes away from Rose's backside to say, "And confirm his suspicions?"

She turned on her heel. "You already did that."

"Not necessarily. After I said Rose instead of Gwyn, I immediately covered the slip." He draped her dressing gown over her shoulders. "Lupin and I agreed to disagree. We never spoke again."

"Teddy has a good memory." She gestured to the creamy skin showing between the open edges of her dressing gown. "You might not have covered up as much as you thought."

Scorpius was reluctant to concede the point. "He said he barely remembered the characters."

"He knew Professor Doom's name was Silvanus Smythe."

She was right and he'd been played. Damn. Scorpius strode past her to retrieve his bundle from the linen cupboard. "Anti-Summoning Charm," he said when he saw Rose watching him with raised brows.

"I figured that out when the Doom robes showed up." She planted her hands on her hips. "What are you going to do with the Green Knight costume now?"

"I'm going to put it on. I can't be seen going to Lupin's flat."

"We," Rose said. "We are going to Teddy's flat."

"After we make a stop in Knockturn Alley." Scorpius went into the bedroom and put Felix out on the terrace do his business in a designated planting box. He didn't want any accidents while they were gone. Niffler droppings looked like black pearls, and he didn't want Rose to mistakenly pick them up. He turned to find his lover standing in the doorway, blocking his return to the bedroom. Her dressing gown still hung open.

"I'm your partner," she said, "Your ally. Not your sidekick. I want to make plans with you, not just tag along."

"Agreed."

"Good." Rose backed out of the doorway. "What's in Knockturn Alley?"

"The warlock who cast the spells on my cloak. Every time I see him he reminds me that he has another one available." Scorpius whistled for Felix to stop kicking dirt out of the planter. "Good boy," he said when the Niffler came running. They joined Rose in the bedroom. "The wizard who originally commissioned the cloak for his wife tried to pay for it in instalments," Scorpius said. "Naturally, Zod declined." After hexing the wizard.

"Warlock Zod."

"His real name is Zitomir."

"That isn't what I wanted to know."

Gryffindors were hard to side-track. "Zod owns Warlock Comics. We became pen friends, discussing my orders, and then the comics. I started visiting the shop." On holidays, on the sly, because his parents would have forbidden it, even though Zod was the only person who could match his encyclopaedic knowledge of wizard comics, and he'd taught Scorpius more about duelling than any Defense Against Dark Arts professor.

Rose's tiny smile asked Was that so hard to admit? "I bought a poster of the Green Knight there once," she said. "I used to take it out and imagine your face beneath the hood." If she was trying to make him feel less awkward and juvenile by confessing her own comic-inspired fantasies, it was working.

Scorpius asked, "What else did you imagine?"

"I'll tell you later."

Right. Priorities. They had to find Zod, then Lupin. "Wear black."

.

"Knockturn Alley is a lot like Diagon Alley," Rose said as they pushed past a street vendor offering lemon and rosewater samples of fiendishly addictive Turkish delight. "Except that most of the streetlamps aren't working and everything is dodgy."

"Which is why we fit in." Most witches and wizards with business in Knockturn Alley pulled their hoods up to hide their faces. The people who didn't were usually tourists.

"The Guts for Garters!" Rose exclaimed as they passed a sign that displayed ropey intestines tied around a woman's shapely thigh. "Uncle George won a rum drinking contest there after the war. He'd let me wear his pirate hat when I visited the shop. And look, there's the Disturbed Spirit. That's . . . where Uncle George won his crystal ball."

"After the war?" Scorpius didn't wait for the answer. "My father used to drink a lot too."

Rose leaned into him, her side warm against his. "I can't imagine how terrible it must have been."

Neither could he.

"But things are better now," Rose said. "And what you did helped keep it that way." She tugged on his arm when they neared the end of the alley and he didn't veer left to enter Warlock Comics. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Zod's never at the shop in the evenings." Scorpius pointed to the building that resembled a haunted house. "He makes deals at his wife's pub, the Sleazy Kneazle. Don't look at the sign."

She looked. "I preferred the gut garter."

So did he; Kneazles should personify cleverness, not sleaze.

The security troll jerked an enormous thumb toward the back of the queue when they approached.

"We're here to see Zod," Scorpius said. He lowered his voice. "Tell him that the Raven will take flight." He hoped Rose wouldn't catch the last part. Somehow, the voice modulator made the words sound even cheesier.

The troll said, "Stay," to the group of wizards and witches-shop clerks on a pub crawl from their clothes and state of cheerful drunkenness. He lumbered into the pub.

Rose said, "The Raven? Is that some super-secret boy code?"

She'd heard. "Yes." He waited for her to comment, and when she didn't he wondered if she thought he was treating her like a sidekick by not elaborating. He said, "In one of the Multiverse series, Gywn became the crime-fighting Raven instead of the Enchantress. She and the Green Knight were allies."

"And lovers?"

"Always." Creevey was admirably consistent in his romantic pairings.

The troll returned. "Come," he told them. He turned his stony gaze on the hopefuls in the queue. "Wait."

"I'm starting to feel guilty about queue-jumping," Rose said as they followed the troll. "This is the third time in two days." She looked around. "Although maybe we did them a favour."

"You don't fancy the décor?" Everything in the pub, from the walls and floors to the tables and chairs, was stained and gouged and scratched. The roughness was part of the appeal. Scorpius did his own survey of the room and estimated that the current ratio of dangerous to non-dangerous wizards and witches was two to one. Not bad. He'd visited on worse nights. Wet hag contests. Goblin karaoke.

"It's very organic," Rose said. He couldn't see her face, but her tone was cheeky. "All the distressed wood."

"Done by hand."

"Curses and knives?"

"And the occasional magic sword." In several places, the wood panelling was hacked and slashed.

The troll's grunt might have been mistaken for amusement at their banter, but he nodded toward the back corner and then left them to go break up a fight on the dance floor.

Rose reached for Scorpius's hand. "Is Zod as friendly as he appears?"

Long craggy face, fierce eyebrows: his friend did look the part. "He earned the title of warlock during the second war. Creevey was going to make his namesake a hero, but Zod's anti-Ministry, anti-anything law enforcement, actually. He preferred to be a comic book villain."

"So that's a yes."

"You'll see."

Zod sat at a table with his back to the wall, puffing on his pipe. He blew a smoke ring toward them with a snap of his jaw. "It's been a long time since I smelled beautiful."

"The Chronicles of the Green Knight. R—Raven, I'd like you to meet the original Warlock Zod. Zod, this my partner Raven."

"It will be a pleasure, I'm sure." Zod rose to his feet. "We'll talk in my office." He placed a hand on the wall. A door appeared. "Ladies first."

Scorpius said, "Age before beauty."

Zod had a dragon like laugh. "The Chronicles quote making you nervous?" He smirked at Rose. "Zod kidnapped the fair Raven and held her hostage."

"I'm sure she freed herself." Rose pressed Scorpius's fingers reassuringly and then stepped forward.

He trailed close behind her, keeping an eye on Zod, who shook his head. "Don't think she needs your protection, son."

"I'm watching your back. Someone could have reported your compliment to Annis by now."

Another rumble of dragon laughter. "What does my wife care about beauty? Annis is a hag amongst hags."

Scorpius heard a breathy "Oh my." Rose had stepped inside Zod's office. It was a jolting contrast to the starkness of the pub. Red velvet panels hung from the ceiling and draped the walls. Settees and chairs were upholstered in a velvet pattern of red and gold. A gold framed Creevey painting of Warlock Zod hung on the wall behind the gilded desk, beneath the light of a crystal chandelier.

"It's like a Gryffindor bordello," Rose murmured.

Zod gave a snort of amusement as he shut the door behind them. "There are four hidden rooms, each with different House colours. None of them used for their original purpose in a hundred years. Available for parties. My wife caters." He settled himself behind the desk. "Have a seat. We're all friends here, Miss Weasley."

Scorpius pushed his hood back. Rose did the same. They both remained standing.

Zod extinguished his pipe. "No time for pleasantries?"

"Afraid not," Scorpius said, "We need the cloak for—" He decided to match the room and be blunt. "A secret mission."

"The Raven will take flight." Zod chuckled. "I never thought this day would come."

"More boy code?" Rose asked Scorpius.

"Indeed," Zod said. He waved his wand at the painting behind the desk. It wavered and transformed into the door of a safe. "Turn around. I require privacy."

They turned. Scorpius said, "I told you Zod offered to let me buy the cloak. I left out that I said it wouldn't be worth the Galleons unless there was a Raven to take flight." He shrugged. "That sounded less cheesy when I was fifteen."

"I think it's romantic."

Zod cleared his throat. "Before I pronounce you Green Knight and Raven, there is the small matter of payment."

.

"Now I'm feeling guilty that you spent all those Galleons on my cloak," Rose said as they approached Lupin's block of flats on Great Dover Street.

"I wouldn't have given the money to charity." He donated more than enough to Wizards for the Ethical Treatment of Magical Creatures and the Creevey Foundation. "And you heard what Zod said. All sales are final."

"It is lovely. The fabric printed with feathers."

Real feathers would have been impractical. He'd asked. Scorpius broke into a jog to catch up to one of Lupin's neighbours as he entered the building. "Confundo!"

The wizard tried to peer beneath Scorpius's hood. "Do I know you?"

"Yes, I'm one of Lupin's friends."

"He has loads of those," the wizard said enviously.

"Yes, he's Mr. Popular." Scorpius said. "Have a nice evening." He and Rose went past the man into the lobby and up the stairs. Rose took off her cloak and handed it to Scorpius, who cast a Disillusionment Charm.

"I act distressed, he opens the door, you cast a Memory Charm," Rose said. She halted before they reached the landing to the top floor. "But what if he's wearing Shield Charm pyjamas?"

"Punch him," Scorpius replied.

"I can do that."

He was sure she could. Hugo was the kind of brother who provoked physical violence.

Rose did an excellent job at projecting distress as she knocked frantically on Lupin's door. "Teddy, it's me. Open up."

Harry Potter opened the door.

"Uh—what are you doing here?" Rose asked.

Harry Potter frowned. "I'm clearing up your mess."

.

.

A/N: Oh, the trouble Teddy Lupin has caused me! I originally intended for Rose and Scorpius to cast the Memory Charm, but Teddy was too self-confident and I couldn't imagine him taken down without a fight that would wake the neighbours. In the Batman Multiverse Earth 2 series, Bruce Wayne married Selena Kyle. I made up Raven because it seemed like a wizarding counterpart to Robin, and more kick ass. When I started writing about Zod, I intended for Scorpius to only be a valued customer, but then I realised that it would have started that way and become a friendship, not just because of their mutual interests, but because Scorpius is an only child who grew up surrounded by adults, so he never felt any awkwardness around them. Combined with Scorpius's Mr. Darcy quality penmanship, and if he used Stevens's name in initial correspondence, I'm sure Zod thought his pen friend was much older. Imagine his surprise when Scorpius walked into his shop and introduced himself! :D

Special thanks to everyone who read and reviewed my Rose pov one shot Peeping Rose. It was fun giving her a reason to be attracted to Scorpius on more levels than the physical. If anyone noticed the new story image, it's the art of the talented Glaciens on DeviantArt. There's a link on my profile. :)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. adiiDelly, alleaf, alix33, alleaf, fynnsmom, glassycry, NaginiFay, Needle In A Haystack, Raylis, Rose of the West, SGed, Siriusmunchkin, The Chirpy Bitch, trinityblue76, VandyFNP and yiota146!