21/01/21
For the Hell of It
I want to see you fight for the hell of it
Pulling out your knife in the streetlight
Shining so dull on the glitter that flickers like lightning
Bouncing off the back of your blade
I want to see some blood on your fingernails
Clawing at the club lines vanity
There's a pretty face in there too smart for her own good
You're bound to put her in her place
And on the short ride home, we'll k-hole in the taxi
I don't want to feel a thing at all
When James Potter dreamed, his dreams were a culmination of all the things he wasted his days dwelling on.
His dreams were full Corrina Peakes and Marigold Bones and Lydia Thomas and other girls he didn't know what he was supposed to do with.
His dreams were full of getting lost in unfamiliar cities, with Finlay at his side and his wand at the ready and a cigarette in his other hand.
His dreams were full of his parents, his mother frowning and his father with blood on his Auror Office robes, and of late Finlay would appear wearing the same robes to tell him that he was leaving.
That morning he was wrenched from his dreaming by a smack to his shoulder, and instead of being irked by being woken, he was grateful, because he had been dreaming of Finlay bleeding and shaking and absent.
He sat up groggily, stretching, squinting through the light. His assailant was standing over him. The real-life Finlay was whole and unhurt and looking unhappy, and he was brandishing a rolled-up copy of that morning's Prophet, which apparently was what had been used to wake James.
'What the fuck happened last night?' demanded Finlay.
James gave a groan and raised a hand to rub the sleep from his eyes. He glanced around the dormitory, ensuring they were alone, before he said, 'You're so cute when you're mad, Fin.'
In response, Finlay threw the copy of the Prophet down onto James's bed, and it fell open on his lap. James picked it up, scanning the headline.
AURORS STORM EDINBURGH INN ON THE HUNT FOR MUNDUNGUS FLETCHER
'Oh, yeah,' said James. 'Did I not mention that?'
Finlay slumped down onto foot of James's bed, his arms folded. He didn't look angry, exactly – more exasperated. He gestured to the newspaper. 'It says Mundungus is still on the run, but apparently they arrested seven wizards for resisting the aurors.'
'Yeah. Fucking idiots. They should have just disapparated.'
'Did anyone see you?'
'Nah, but I saw Ron – he looks good dressed as an auror.'
'James,' snapped Finlay, unamused. 'For fuck's sake, can you please take this more seriously? Did anyone see you?'
'I already said no! Jesus.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yes! I wasn't even in there when they came. I'd gone out for a smoke.'
Finlay was eyeing James, unconvinced, and James gave a relenting sigh.
'Well, okay, Al followed me there but –'
Finlay looked horrified. 'Al followed you there? How the fuck did he do that?'
'He saw me leaving the castle and followed me out through the Shrieking Shack and got the Knight Bus to Edinburgh.'
Finlay gave a groan and slumped down on James's bed, laying on his back over James's legs, pressing his hands over his face. 'This is a total fucking mess.'
'Fin, stop.' James stretched out over the bed, putting his hand around Finlay's arm and giving him a rough shake, jostling him in an attempt to make him laugh. 'Stop, Fin. It's fine. Fin, it's fine! Fin!' Fin, speak to me!'
Finlay pushed him off. 'How is it fine?'
Laughing, James slumped back on the bed. 'Al's not going to tell anyone. We had a chat.'
Finlay turned to look at him, his bright, brown eyes full of disbelief, and James said more certainly, 'Seriously, he's not going to say anything.'
Finlay shook his head in dismay and looked away from James, his eyes coming to rest on the window. He raised a hand in gesture towards it. 'I'm guessing that owl's for you.'
James twisted in his spot to glance across the dormitory. A shabby-looking owl was perched on the windowsill, a letter attached to its leg, and James scrambled out of bed and crossed to the window. He opened it, retrieved the letter, and dropped back onto the bed as the owl took flight.
Finlay turned onto his side to watch James tear open the envelope and unfurl the parchment inside. James recognised Mundungus's messy handwriting immediately.
Jim,
Laying low
Future plans on hold
Best get yourself a day job, might be a few months until we see each other again
Take care of yourself
M. Fletcher
James could feel Finlay watching him, but he didn't think he could meet his gaze in that moment. He reread the letter, hoping he had misunderstood, but on scanning it a second time he knew there was no mistake.
He whipped out his wand and pressed its tip to Mundungus's letter, and the parchment burst into flames. Finlay bolted upright in surprise, flinching away.
'Could I get some warning before you do that?' demanded Finlay.
James ignored him. He got to his feet and scanned the floor for his jeans that he had discarded last night, finding them amongst the mess of clothes and books strewn around his four-poster, and snatched his tin of tobacco out of the pocket.
He paced the room as he rolled his cigarette and then popped it into his mouth and lit it, before continuing to pace.
'What's the matter?' asked Finlay.
In answer, James merely dragged on his cigarette, and so Finlay got to his feet and grabbed his arm, forcing him to a halt.
'James,' said Finlay, more forcefully. 'James, what?'
'He's quitting,' spat James, and he gestured his cigarette accusingly at nothing in particular. 'He's fucking ending it.'
'Mundungus?'
'Yes, of course Mundungus! He's laying low, whatever the fuck that means. We've got three months left. Three months and then we're gone! I just need a few more hundred galleons…'
Something hardened in Finlay's face, and he let go of James's arm. 'There are other ways to get money.'
James considered this, frowning. 'I could do it without Mundungus. If I could get enough people – '
'James,' snapped Finlay. 'Do you hear yourself?'
'It's only three more months!'
'It's just money, James,' Finlay snarled. 'Mundungus could have gotten arrested last night. So could you, for that matter. And much, much worse could have happened since you started this bullshit. Do you fucking get that?'
James fidgeted in his spot, toying with his cigarette. 'I can't spend another summer at home, Fin. I can't do it. I need to get out of that fucking house – '
'We're going to,' Finlay assured him. 'As soon as school's over we're going. And if we don't have the money straight away then you'll stay at mine, and we'll find work, and we'll save up, and we'll go. But you can't keep doing this, okay? You just can't.'
They stood for a moment, side by side, watching each other. Finlay was pleading at him with his large, brown eyes, and James knew that he couldn't say no. He took another drag on his cigarette, before he gave a short nod.
Finlay raised his eyebrows in question. 'Is that a yes?'
James dropped his gaze and muttered into his cigarette. 'Yeah.'
'Pardon?'
'For fuck's sake, yes, Finlay,' he said more clearly. 'Yes, okay?'
'You promise?'
'Yes, I fucking promise.'
Finlay gave a slow sigh, as if he was breathing out all of the anxieties he had been holding since August when James had first started this. 'Thank you.'
The arrival of April seemed to signal for the Hogwarts teachers that it was time to begin instilling a gnawing, deep-rooted fear within the OWLs and NEWTs students. In the last week, Scorpius and his classmates had been treated to some of the most heartfelt and heart-breaking monologues imaginable from their professors in an attempt to bully them into studying.
They evidently had had some degree of success with this tactic, as that evening found Albus and Scorpius in the library. They had accepted Mei's offer to help them both on the mounting Herbology revision they had both been avoiding; however, the Muggle Studies essay that Scorpius had been counting on writing within two hours had now stretched into its sixth hour.
His predicament was exasperated by the state of the copy of Mrs Dalloway he had borrowed from Rose. He had noticed, since beginning to read the book, that Rose had an annoying habit of annotating the pages by circling different lines and passages. He often found himself staring at these lines that Rose had deemed worth noting, trying to discern what it was about them that she had found spectacular and questioning why he hadn't thought of it for himself.
He paused over the page he had opened on, frowning over a line in the top-left corner that Rose had underlined.
What can one know even of the people one lives with every day?
'Scorpius, do you want help with Herbology or not? Surely you can work on Muggle Studies on your own time.'
Scorpius looked up at Mei, who had posed this question. It was only her status as his friend's girlfriend that stopped him giving a more biting retort. Instead he settled on telling her, 'I need to finish this tonight. It's due tomorrow.'
Mei looked, if possible, even more disapproving. She gestured towards the copy of Mrs Dalloway lying open before him. 'And you haven't even finished reading the book yet?'
'I have finished it. I'm just trying to find a quote to use for the conclusion.'
Mei raised her eyebrows. 'Well, I'd choose that really carefully. You know you're not supposed to introduce any new information into a conclusion, right? Just reiterate the points you've already made.'
With Scorpius glaring at Mei, Albus chose this moment to look up from his Herbology essay and reach for Mei's hand, turning it over so he could see the face of the gold watch she had received for her seventeenth birthday.
'Oh, look. It's nearly dinner,' he announced, in what Scorpius knew was a bid to end the hostilities. 'Do you guys want to go eat and come back to it? I think I need a break.'
Mei gave a sigh. 'Albus, Professor Longbottom did say that you need to improve your Herbology grades if you're going to apply for potioneering apprenticeships.'
Albus looked vaguely amused by this – something which Scorpius was admirable of. If Zaina had said this to him he probably wouldn't have spoken to her for a week.
Albus, however, was a far more patient person than he was. 'I know, but I'm nearly done. I'll come back after dinner and work on it, okay?'
Mei gave her reluctant approval and the three of them gathered up their books and parchment and stowed them away in their school bags. Scorpius kept Mrs Dalloway and his half-finished essay in his hand for the walk to the Great Hall with a determination to get a few hundred words done as he ate.
When they stepped inside, the Great Hall was loud and full. Mei bid them both goodbye and headed off towards the Ravenclaw table, and Scorpius watched her go. Mei took a seat a few spaces away from Zaina, who was talking animatedly with Connor.
Looking back at Albus, Scorpius said resolutely, 'Well, I'm eating with you.'
Albus's glanced towards Zaina and, seeing who was with her, gave Scorpius a sympathetic smile. 'You're still fighting?'
'We're not fighting. I just don't want to have to make conversation with her friends. Can we sit down, please?'
They crossed over the Gryffindor table and sat down at the end closest to the teacher's table where they could trust it was quieter. Scorpius poured them each a glass of pumpkin juice, while Albus served them out two pieces of steak pie. They began to eat, and Albus took out his Herbology revision while Scorpius pulled out the weathered copy of Mrs Dalloway.
'Is that Rose's book?'
Albus's question forced Scorpius to glance up. 'It's for Muggle studies.'
'Yes, but that's her copy, isn't it? She writes in the margins.'
'Yeah, so?'
'Well, why do you have her copy?'
'She loaned it to me.'
'Why'd she loan it to you?'
'Because I asked her. What's it to you?'
Albus shrugged and turned back to his steak pie. 'I didn't realise you two were lending each other books.'
This annoyed Scorpius. He snapped the book shut and looked squarely at Albus. 'I don't know what you mean.'
Albus gave a huff of laughter. 'I don't mean anything. I'm just surprised.'
'Well, why? Why does it matter?'
'It doesn't matter. I just – I suppose I thought you two didn't like each other.'
'We don't like each other. We're just trying to be civil. I needed a Muggle book. She reads Muggle books. Why shouldn't I ask her to loan it to me?'
'Look, forget it. I'm – I'm glad you guys are getting along.'
'We're not getting along. She's bloody annoying. Do you know how reluctant she was to lend me the book? And then when she gives it to me it's this ancient copy that's barely legible. She's a pain.'
Albus raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. 'Okay, okay, forget it – I didn't say anything.'
But Scorpius didn't want to relent. As if needing proof, he opened the book and pushed it towards Albus.
'Look what she's done to the pages – I can hardly read it with all her stupid underlining. As if she doesn't think anybody other than her might ever need to read it. I mean, look – look what she's circled here. What can one know even of the people one lives with every day? I mean, what the fuck does that mean? I have no idea what that means. And I bet she doesn't either. She's just circled it to make herself look smart. She's so bloody pretentious. It's like her entire personality is curated just for the sake of making people think she's smarter than them.'
Albus seemed stumped for a response to this. He had his fork frozen halfway to his mouth, staring down at the book before him. 'Er… yeah, I mean… She definitely knows that she's smart.'
'Knows she's smart,' scoffed Scorpius. 'As if that's an irrefutable fact. She's not that smart. If she was that smart she wouldn't feel the need to prove to everyone how smart she was. And if she was that smart she'd be in Ravenclaw, not Gryffindor.'
Albus made a face. 'Thanks.'
'Well, she would! I'm sorry but she would!'
'Okay, drop it, could you?' Albus hissed at him. 'She's coming over here.'
Scorpius fell silent immediately, and twisted in his seat to see Rose and Chandra approaching. Chandra was very much leading the way towards them, and she smiled and waved when she saw them looking at her, while Rose hung back slightly, her familiar frown in place.
Each girl took a seat on either side of Albus, and Chandra smiled broadly at the pair of them. 'Hello, you two. I like your sweater, Scorpius.'
Scorpius glanced down at his plain black sweater and then back to Chandra, trying to gauge if she was making fun of him, but in the short time he had been acquainted with Chandra he had never seen her be anything other than genuine.
'Oh… thanks,' he mumbled, and he scanned her for something to compliment. 'I like your ribbons.'
At this, Chandra beamed and clutched at the pink ribbons she had tied around her plaits. 'Oh, thank you! You know, I love plaiting my hair, but my sister always says I'm terrible at it, so I thought if I put some ribbons in them it wouldn't be so obvious when I do it unevenly. See, look – one side is a lot thicker than the other…'
Scorpius did his best not to roll his eyes as Chandra continued talking about hair accessories. Albus returned to his Herbology revision, looking like he was suppressing laughter, while Rose, who had not said one word since sitting down, turned the pages of her book. Scorpius watched her do so, trying to discern what it was she was reading, but Rose had the face of the book set down on the table and so he was unable to see the title.
When he was halfway through his steak, he was offered some respite from Chandra's talking by sharp rap of steel against china. The four of them, along with most of the student body, twisted in their seats towards the sound of the noise. Professor Sinistra was on her feet at the teacher's table, tapping her knife against her goblet in a call for silence.
She waited for the students' chatter to die away before setting down her goblet and, once satisfied that she had their attention, she cleared her throat and began. 'Alright, everyone, while I've got you all in the one place I have a brief announcement.'
The head mistress was looking more severe than usual, and Scorpius recalled the way she had looked in the prefects' office back in January when she had told them that the Reclamation Army had attempted to breach the school's wards.
'Now, as you all know there have been some changes to school rules recently as a means of improving security,' continued Professor Sinistra. 'Now, the Ministry is continuing to review the school procedures – which is, of course, necessary every few years…'
Scorpius gave a sharp sigh. He knew, as he was sure the majority of the students did, that these changes to school rules were not part of a standard review, but in response to the threat from the Reclamation Army.
'And,' Professor Sinistra continued, 'one of the new changes the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has decided to implement is that, while they are stationed here at the school, the aurors will be checking letters and parcels arriving at the school for any possible signs of tampering or damage.'
There was a sudden outbreak of murmuring and conversation amongst the students, but Professor Sinistra ignored them and continued.
'Now, this won't affect how you receive your mail. You're still welcome to send and receive letters just as you always have. We merely want to inform you that if you receive an item in the mail that may look like it had been opened before you received it, that there is no cause for alarm. It is just part of what will become standard procedure. And with that out of the way, I'll let you all return to your meals.'
At the chatter started up again around them, Scorpius watched Professor Sinistra sit down again. She was frowning as she took a sip of her goblet, as were many of the other teachers.
'I don't get it,' said Albus. 'Why does the Ministry need to read our mail? Why would the Reclamation Army try to send anything to the school?'
'They wouldn't,' dismissed Rose, without looking up from her book. 'It's just Rowle trying to get more control.'
Albus gaped at her. 'Are you serious? But they can't do that!'
'Of course they can,' growled Scorpius. 'Rowle can do whatever he likes. The entire Wizengamot is behind him. If Shacklebolt was running a better campaign this wouldn't happen. Or if people within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement did their jobs then Rowle wouldn't be so unopposed.'
Chandra glanced between Rose and Albus. While he hadn't said it, the four of them knew Scorpius had their parents in mind. In a stab at hopefulness, Chandra said gently, 'Oh, I'm sure Kingsley Shacklebolt is doing his best.'
'Well, his best isn't good enough, is it?' Scorpius bit back.
'When you're Minister for Magic I'm sure you'll do a much better job,' said Rose coolly.
'Oh, don't act so serene,' he told her. 'I know you think this is bullshit. You're just pretending to be above caring. You're not impressing anyone at this point, you know?'
'Look, stop it,' said Albus. 'I'm sure this isn't a permanent thing, okay? Maybe it's just a precaution. They'll probably revoke the rule once the Reclamation Army is caught. Also, this might be a good thing.' He lowered his voice before continuing. 'This way the Slytherins won't be able to communicate with August Selwyn, right?'
Scorpius shook his head with dismay and glanced away across the Great Hall. The vast majority had returned to their dinner and conversation unbothered, while only a few of the older students seemed perturbed by the news. He could see James Potter angrily stabbing at a baked potato while Finlay Jordan watched him, looking exasperated. Apparently, James was just as nonplussed by the prospect of having aurors read his mail as Scorpius was.
Having finished with his pie, Albus began gathering up his books. 'I'm going back to the library,' he said. 'Mei's helping me finish my herbology essay. She'd probably look over yours if any of you want to come.'
'Oh, gosh, Mei Zhao herself is going to tell me the uses of gillyweed?' drawled Rose. 'How blessed am I.'
'You could just say "no" next time,' retorted Albus. 'Scorpius, you coming?'
'You go,' said Scorpius. 'I'm still eating.'
Albus eyes glanced towards Scorpius's empty plate. 'But you – '
'I want more pie, okay?'
Albus rolled his eyes. 'Okay, fine. What's up with everyone tonight?'
Chandra gave him a solemn smile. 'Mercury's coming in retrograde.'
'Oh, right,' said Albus, as he gathered up his books. 'Here I was thinking all my friends were prats – not you, Chandra,' he added, at the look of Chandra's wide eyes. 'I'll see you guys later.'
Albus got to his feed and strode away. Chandra watched him go, before giving a sigh.
'Poor Al,' she said. 'Mercury retrograde's are never easy for Libras. You should be careful too, Rosie. You might find it hard to avoid conflict for the next few weeks.'
'Rose Weasley? In conflict? How astronomical,' growled Scorpius.
'Oh, she can't help it,' said Chandra gently, and she raised a hand to give Rose's head an affectionate pat. 'It's her Aries Moon. When's your birthday, Scorpius?'
'Nineteenth of September.'
Chandra's eyes swelled. 'Oooh, a Virgo. You're very Virgo.'
Scorpius seemed unsure if this was an insult or not, and he asked, 'How am I very Virgo?'
'Because you're so virginal, obviously,' snapped Rose. 'Is there a reason you're still here or are you just staying to be annoying?'
'God, am I not allowed to sit with you?' he bit back.
'No, not without a good reason,' she replied.
Scorpius glared at her. 'Well, luckily I have no interest in sitting with you longer than I need to. I've been waiting to talk to you two without Al around because I know he'll freak out when I say this.'
Chandra's wide brown eyes got even wider. 'Oh, no, is it about Mei?'
'What? No, of course not,' grumbled Scorpius. 'I think we should follow the Slytherins to see what they do at the Quidditch game tomorrow.'
Rose and Chandra glanced at each other, before Rose turned back to Scorpius. 'Why do you say that?'
'Oh, gee, I don't know. Maybe because they literally tried to murder Albus last time he played?'
Chandra's eyes swelled. 'Oh, Merlin, you don't think they'd try it again, do you?'
'No,' said Rose firmly, and she shot Scorpius a dangerous look as if to say don't you dare scare Chandra. 'They wouldn't risk hexing a bludger while they've got their own team members up in the air.'
'Okay, but maybe they're not going to hex a bludger,' said Scorpius. 'What if they're going to do something else? Try to knock him off his broom? Or hex Albus's locker in the change rooms?'
'They don't want to hurt Albus,' dismissed Rose. 'They wanted to teach him a lesson and now they have. They're not going to risk getting expelled over this.'
'Well, I'm not going to risk letting them get away with it,' said Scorpius. 'I'm going to see where they go after breakfast tomorrow. You two don't have to come, but I just thought I'd tell you.'
Chandra glanced towards Rose, as if seeking permission, and when Rose did nothing but take a sip of her pumpkin juice, Chandra said, 'I'm supposed to go to the match with Connor, but I'll just have to tell him I'm ill.'
Scorpius looked taken aback, before he gave a curt not. 'Right. Okay. Thank you.'
'We should be careful though,' said Chandra. 'Virgo's ruled by Mercury, Scorpius, so you're going to be very muddled up by the retrograde. And I'm a Cancer so I'm not going to be thinking very clearly until the retrograde's over.'
Scorpius seemed to want to ridicule this but, remembering that Chandra had just agreed to help him, he nodded. 'Right. Noted. Well… well, I'll see you two tomorrow then.'
'Goodnight, Scorpius,' said Chandra brightly.
He looked at Rose to bid her good night, but she wasn't looking at him. Irritated by this, he gathered up his books, got to his feet and crossed to the Ravenclaw table to sit down beside Zaina. She was still need in conversation with Connor, and received no acknowledgement from either of them when he sat down.
He didn't know why he was still surprised by Rose Weasley. Over and over again he was convinced that she wasn't worth the effort, and yet over and over again it surprised him when he was reminded of how difficult she was. Albus was her cousin, supposedly her best friend, and she didn't care at all.
He had thought he has seen through that façade of ambivalence when she stopped the Quidditch match, and in the way she defended Chandra when he had insulted her, and in the way she had talked about her parents. He thought that he had been starting to understand what she cared about, and why it was that she didn't want to care as much as she did. But he had been wrong – she was just as callous and distant and uncaring as he had initially thought.
He glanced towards Zaina, who was laughing with Louisa. For all her faults, Zaina cared and she wasn't afraid to care. Perhaps she didn't care about the same things he cared about, but her friends and her family and her aspirations – that was what she cared about, and she would never pretend she didn't for the sake of seeming smart or superior or whatever the hell it was Rose Weasley was trying to achieve.
'Sweetie, you're staring,' he heard Zaina say, and he realised he was.
Connor laughed and Scorpius's appreciation for Zaina immediately depleted to be replaced by irritation.
Don't do it, he thought to himself, but he wasn't very good at not doing things he shouldn't do.
'Sorry,' he grumbled at Zaina, 'you've got gravy on your chin.'
Zaina's hand jumped immediately to her chin. He saw her eyes narrow venomously at him – she didn't appreciate being humiliated in front of her friends, as she had reminded him countless times. 'If you're not going to participate in the conversation you can leave, Scorpius. We don't need you here staring at us like an idiot.'
He could feel Connor watching them closely, and knew that any retort he had for Zaina he would pay for dearly.
Don't do it, you idiot, he said to himself, and this time he listened. He had no interest in staying and talking to them anyway.
'Alright, see you later,' he said, and he got to his feet.
He could feel Zaina's eyes burning into his back as he strode through the doors into the entrance hall. It was a stupid thing to say, and Zaina probably wouldn't let him forget it for a while. He needed to learn to hold his tongue, as he had been told by his father for as long as he could remember.
'Do you and Zaina get off on hating each other or something, Malfoy?'
He rounded on his heel as he made it to the first step of the Marble Staircase. Rose Weasley had apparently followed him out of the Great Hall, and was coming towards him. He realised he was happy to see her, because now he had something to take his annoyance out on.
'What would you know about getting off, Weasley?'
'I know not to do it in the Great Hall with the whole school watching.'
'It's not the whole school, is it? It's one conceited Gryffindor who has no personal life of her own so she's forced to get her entertainment from eavesdropping on people who actually have something going on in their lives.'
'It's a bit hard to ignore when you get up and storm out of the Great Hall with that mopey look on your face.'
He adjusted his face immediately, straightening out the scowl he didn't know he was wearing. 'I'm not moping. And I didn't storm off. This is just how I walk.'
'I know it is. You storm everywhere. You're perpetually sulking about something.'
'Perhaps it's because I have you constantly popping up behind me wanting to talk to me. A little obsessed, don't you think?'
Rose rolled her eyes. 'Oh, honestly. I wouldn't be talking to you if I didn't need to.'
'Okay, and what do you need to talk to me about? Thought of something else you don't like about me?'
'Yes, many,' she said. 'I wrote you a list actually. Mopey is number three.'
'Oh, excellent. I can't wait to see what's come in at number…'
He stopped. His retort fell away, because to his utmost disbelief she produced a slip of old, yellowed parchment from her pocket and held it out to him. She was looking up at him, her face completely placid.
He narrowed his eyes. 'You didn't seriously…'
'Take it and look.'
He rolled his eyes, trying to pretend he wasn't curious to see if she really had gone to the trouble of committing her distaste for him to paper. He snatched the parchment over and unfolded it.
He looked up at her. 'It's blank.'
'Tap it and cast Revelio.'
He rolled his eyes. 'Okay, as fun as this is – '
'Do it,' she urged, pushing his hand away as he tried to pass her back the parchment.
He considered the blank parchment in his hand before his curiosity got the better of him. Sighing, he took out his wand and did as he was told. 'Revelio.'
As soon as he did so, he saw black ink start to spread out from the tip of his wand on the parchment. Eyes wide, he held the parchment up to read it.
With a nose like that you ought to have a Dark Mark.
He looked back at Rose. She was still watching him, her face passive, the light of the torches overhead dancing across her freckled cheeks. He scrunched up the parchment and pushed the parchment into her chest, forcing her to take it.
'Very funny,' he bit at her. 'Really hilarious. Thank you for that.'
She stared up at him for a second, incredulous and furious, before she opened the scrunched parchment, trying to flatten it out. She stared at the words still visible on it, and then something seemed to shift in her face. She looked back at him.
'I didn't know it was going to say that.'
'Absolutely hysterical,' he told her, and then he turned on his heel and started up the Marble Staircase.
'Scorpius, wait –'
He heard her footsteps start up the stairs, but he didn't look back at her.
'I've had enough for the day, Weasley,' he said without looking over his shoulder.
'Can you wait for one bloody second? I didn't know it was going to say that.'
'Right, of course. The parchment has it out for me, does it?'
He could hear her hurrying up the stairs, trying to keep up with him. 'It's jinxed! It insults anyone who tries to read it! I didn't know what it was going to say to you!'
'Give me a break.'
'No, you give me a break!' He felt her take hold of his arm, forcing him back to face her.
'Rose, seriously –'
'Look!' she barked at him, and she withdrew her wand, pointing it at the old parchment. 'Revelio.'
Just as it had when he had charmed it, black ink began to spread out from the tip of her wand. Without looking down at the words, Rose forced it back into his hand.
'I don't know what it says about me,' she said to him, 'but I'm guessing it's something about being a know-it-all or my bushy hair or my big feet, right?'
Scorpius looked down at the parchment.
Perfect prefect Rosie Weasley
With not a friend in sight
Perhaps is she had better hair
She wouldn't give the boys such a fright
Scorpius looked back at her. 'Something like that.'
'It says something different every time,' she told him. 'It can be quite cutting sometimes, depending on whose reading it.'
Scorpius considered her, standing two steps below him, her chest heaving slightly from her efforts to catch up with him, her dark red ringlets tossed to one side of her face. He gave a sigh and folded up the parchment.
'Seems very convenient for you to have special parchment to remind me that my family's full of Death Eaters.'
'Oh, for God's sake, can you not take everything so fucking personally?'
'Well, what do you expect?' he demanded, immediately furious again. 'I don't appreciate having you throw that in my face.'
'I didn't throw it in your face!' she snapped. 'You've insulted me about five times since we started talking and I'm not weeping about it.'
'I'm not weeping, Rose! I'm telling you that if all you're going to do when you talk to me is call me a Death Eater then I'd prefer we don't talk at all.'
'Believe it or not I do have better things to do than come here and insult you,' she snapped at him, and in one swift movement she had snatched the parchment from him, drawn her wand out again, aimed it at the parchment and said, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'
And for the third time, Scorpius watched the ink spread out from the tip of Rose's wand, but this time it didn't stop at a few words. It continued to leech out into the corners of the parchment, sketching out lines and spirals and tiny, etched text.
'What's…'
'Here,' said Rose, and she unfolded the parchment and held it open for him to see.
'Is that – is that a map of Hogwarts?'
'I really thought Al would have told you about it,' said Rose impatiently. 'I suppose he wouldn't have bothered because James never lets him use it.'
Scorpius stared at the map, unfolding all of its many corners, inspecting the labels. 'Is that…'
He pointed a finger to the square that was labelled Marble Staircase – second landing. Upon were two tiny dots, one labelled Scorpius Malfoy and the other Rose Weasley.
'Yeah, that's us,' said Rose. 'It shows you where everyone is in the castle.'
'I – but – where did you get this?'
'It was Albus's grandfather's,' said Rose. 'He and his friends plotted it and jinxed it to keep out people they didn't want to read it. They would have found it hilarious to – to remind you who your dad is.'
Scorpius decided not to look up at her as she said this, but continued to stare at the map, his fingers tracing over the inked-in lines showing the twists and turns of the castle's passageways. The prospect of it seemed fanciful, and he considered the possibility that Rose was still planning some elaborate way to make him look like an idiot, but if that was the case she had certainly gone to great lengths to do so. From what he could tell the map was exact, all the corridors turning where they ought to, all the secret passageways winding adequately away. And there, on the corridor that led to the library from the Great Hall, were two moving dots labelled Albus Potter and Mei Zhao.
'There's Al and Mei,' muttered Scorpius, following them along the parchment with his finger. 'And Zaina in the Great Hall… So, you just watch everyone's movements on this map? Christ, you really are obsessed with me.'
'Sadly not,' said Rose. 'James stole it from their dad's desk years ago and he's been so bloody smug about it ever since. He hardly ever lets anyone use it, unless it's to see what new insult it has for us. I had to tell him I needed it to meet a boy.'
Scorpius raised his eyebrows. 'Which boy?'
'I'll let him have fun guessing for a bit,' said Rose. 'Anyway, you're welcome. This way you can watch the Slytherins without getting yourself killed and Chandra can still go on her date.'
Scorpius considered this for a moment, before saying, 'Right… Okay. Well – thanks. Actually, no – I retract that thanks. I don't need to thank you. Now we're even.'
Rose rolled her eyes. 'Okay, firstly, we're not even. You still owe me for lending you Mrs Dalloway, which I need back, by the way. And secondly, what exactly do you think me giving you the map makes us even for?'
'Because it was pretty insensitive of you to hand me a parchment that you knew was going to insult me in some humiliating way without considering that it might be something I don't want to be insulted about.'
'Merlin, it's not my fault you're so bloody sensitive,' she retorted. 'And anyway, you set me up. You walked right into it. For a minute you really thought I'd written a list of things I don't like about you, didn't you?'
He glared at her, before he gave a begrudging sigh. 'Look, it's not hard to believe that you have so little else to do with yourself.'
'Yes, as I've been told. You need new material,' she told him. 'Keep the map for the match tomorrow, but if you don't give it back afterwards James will be after my head, and I'm not afraid to send him your way.'
'Yes, yes, yes, your cousin is very big and scary and I don't want him to hit me.'
'That's right, you don't,' said Rose. 'Well, I'm going back to the Great Hall. I cut my dinner short to get you the map, so you're welcome.'
'And you're welcome I'm going to stop your cousin getting murdered tomorrow.'
Rose looked up at him, silent for a moment, before she hissed, 'That's not funny.'
'I'm kidding –'
'How dare you?' she snapped, sounding outraged, and he realised she was mocking his earlier sensitivities. 'How can you be so insensitive?'
'Alright, alright…'
'I've never been so incensed in my life,' she told him as she started down the stairs. 'How dare you joke. How absolutely dare you.'
He gave a loud groan to interrupt her, starting up the stairs. 'Goodnight, Weasley.'
'I don't appreciate having you throw that in my face,' she called back as she turned the corner of the staircase.
'Right, noted,' he called back, turning away from her, making sure he kept his face straight as he said it.
She dawdled for as long as she could in the Great Hall, sipping at her third glass of pumpkin juice as she flicked through her potion's book. If she delayed her departure any longer she would be at serious risk of missing the beginning of the match.
But Albus had gone down to the pitch nearly an hour – would he ever know about her absence?
No. No, she needed to go. It was one stupid match and then she wouldn't have to endure it again until the final.
Sighing, she stowed her book away in her bag and got to her feet. The Great Hall was almost empty now – almost empty except for the three Slytherins sitting huddled together across the Great Hall. Edmund Goyle, Caliber Montague and Clement Rosier were alone at the Slytherin table, laughing at something she couldn't pick up.
She stood and stared at them, cautiously, before she saw Goyle's head turn her way and she quickly looked back towards the doors of the Great Hall and started towards them. Their laughter had stopped and she knew they were watching her as she strode from the Great Hall, but she told herself to keep her pace even as she passed them.
She crossed the entrance hall and stepped out of the doors into the morning sun. She didn't want to feel suspicious. She didn't want to admit Scorpius's worry might have had credence. Admitting that made everything too difficult.
'You're going to be late.'
She looked around at Scorpius's voice, and located the Ravenclaw across the courtyard. He was sitting on the edge of the fountain, a potions textbook open on his lap.
She took a few steps towards him. 'So are you, by the looks of it.'
He got to his feet and crossed to meet her in the centre of the courtyard. He held the book he as reading to her open to show her the Marauder's Map concealed in its centre. 'I'm not leaving until the Slytherins do. They're still in the Great Hall.'
'Yes, I saw,' said Rose.
'So?'
'So what?'
'So… let's see…' He adopted a high-pitched, shrill voice. 'I'm sorry, Malfoy. You were right and I was wrong. You were right to be suspicious of the Slytherins and perhaps it wouldn't hurt me to listen to somebody else's opinion for a change.'
'Is that supposed to be what I sound like?' she asked dryly.
'It's not supposed to be how you sound. It's absolutely indistinguishable from the real thing,' he told her. 'Here, by the way.'
He reached into his bookbag and from it he pulled her mother's frayed copy of Mrs Dalloway. 'Thank your mum for me. She saved me from failing my OWLs.'
'Pity, then you wouldn't be hanging around here next year,' she said, slipping the book into her own book bag. 'What did you think of it?'
Scorpius shrugged. 'She's pretty annoying, I guess. That's the point, right?'
Rose laughed in spite of herself. 'Yes, I suppose so. You're going to say more than that in your essay though, right?'
'Yes, Weasley, obviously. But it's not a very satisfying ending, is it? It's not like she learns from her mistakes at all. Or redeems herself or anything.'
'Not everybody always redeems themselves. It's true to life. That's what Virginia Woolf is trying to accomplish.'
'Wow, thank you, Weasley. You know I can read too? They actually speak English some places outside of London.'
'I just don't think you understand –'
Scorpius gave a sigh. 'Oh god, spare me the Rose Weasley classic.'
Rose raised her eyebrows. 'What's the Rose Weasley classic?'
'It's the "let me explain something to you because I think I'm the only person who understands it but really everyone understands it" classic.'
'Alright, fine, but don't come crying to me when you get a T on your essay,' she said. 'You know, Albus won't be happy if he knows you spent the whole match here waiting for the Slytherins to leave the Great Hall.'
'And he won't like it if he knows you spent the whole match here bothering me.'
'You started talking to me, you know?'
'Yes, and now you're dawdling. Unless you're willing to admit that you think it's suspicious that Goyle, Montague and Rosier all want to miss seeing their team play.'
'I want to miss my team play,' she said. 'Does that mean I'm up to something?'
'No, it just means you're a self-important contrarian.' He gestured to the map. 'This map's amazing. It has all these secret passageways I had no idea existed.
'Sorry to break it to you but I think most of them have been closed up. The Order sealed them after the war to try to make the castle more secure. Teddy made it his life's mission to open up as many as he could, and James and Finlay have carried on the legacy.'
'Wish I'd known about them back when I wanted to sneak out of the castle.'
'Why did you want to sneak out of the castle?'
He gave a shrug, and said, in a voice that seemed somewhere between ironic and embarrassed, 'I don't know. To seem cool. To make girls like me.'
'Who wouldn't think you're cool? Once they've seen your dragon hide shoes?
'Sadly, some girls are immune to dragon hide shoes. Hard to believe, I know.'
'Zaina isn't, clearly.'
'No, Zaina loves shiny things.'
He seemed to have intended this as a joke, but she saw Scorpius's brow crease as he said it. He was silent for a moment, frowning down at the map, his eyes fixed on the dots that marked the Slytherins.
'What were you and Zaina arguing about last night?' she asked.
Scorpius glanced at her. 'That's a personal question. And we weren't arguing, I just – I said something stupid.'
'That's unlike you.'
'Watch it,' he warned her. 'Unless you want me to stop talking to you and then you'll have no choice but to go down to Quidditch.'
'Alright, fine,' said Rose. 'But can I hear the stupid thing?'
Scorpius considered this, before rolling his eyes. 'Look, it's not that interesting. I just – I told her she had gravy on her chin.'
Rose gave a huff of laughter. 'And she got mad about it? Merlin, and you think I'm difficult.'
'I didn't say Zaina wasn't difficult,' he said. 'But unlike you, Zaina has redeeming features. And in her defence, it wasn't that I told her I had gravy on her face – it was because… because I sort of did it to be a dick. I knew it would make her feel stupid.'
'Well, why'd you do that?'
He pretended to be watching the map, but Rose knew he was weighing up how much he could admit to her while maintaining his dignity. He seemed to decide that there was no way to get around the truth, and he blurted quickly, 'Because she made Connor laugh at me. I was sort of – sort of staring at her. And she told me to stop. And Connor laughed. And I hate that, and she knows I hate that, and I know she hates it when I say things like that… things that make her seem undignified. She loves to feel dignified.'
'Well, she's allowed to want to feel dignified.'
'I know she is, Rose,' snapped Scorpius. 'I'm not saying I wasn't being a dick. I just…'
He paused, frowning, and she watched him. He wasn't looking at her, but staring at the map before him. His brow was creased and his grey eyes were narrowed, lips pursed. She realised she'd gotten to know that look – it was the one when he had started to say something he wished he hadn't, and now he realised it was too late to retreat.
'I don't have very good self-control,' he said very quickly. 'Sometimes I… I react to things too quickly. Like… I get annoyed about things I shouldn't. Or it's not that I shouldn't get annoyed, but I shouldn't react the way I do.'
'Yes, I've noticed,' said Rose, and Scorpius met her eyes, scowling. She felt a pang of guilt within her (why couldn't she just be nice?) but decided not to let it get the better of her. 'Why are you and Zaina still together if all you do is irritate each other?'
'That's not all we do,' he grumbled. 'I know you love to think you know everything, but you don't. And I would say you actually know very little about my relationship with my girlfriend.'
'It just sounds like you don't like each other very much.'
Scorpius glared at her. 'You can be really rude sometimes, you know, Weasley?'
She refused to let this get the better of her. She knew she was rude, and she might have found her equal in Scorpius, and she wasn't about to let him get the better of her. 'I'm just saying,' she said with a shrug.
'Yeah, well, it's still rude. Look, I know you don't like Zaina, and I know you don't understand why I'm going out with her –'
'I know why you're going out with her,' said Rose. 'It's because you're superficial and have no moral backbone to speak of.'
'You think I just like her because she's pretty?'
'I think it certainly helps.'
'Well, that's not true,' he snapped. 'I like her for a lot of reasons. She's funny and she's confident and she doesn't take shit from people. And yes, we get annoyed at each other, but it's normal to get annoyed at the person you're in a relationship with. You'll understand that if you ever get a boyfriend.'
Rose was silent for a moment, staring at him. She didn't like it when he did that – when he acted like he knew things she didn't understand, even if he was right. But perhaps that was his point - that she ought not to pretend to understand things she didn't.
But she didn't like admitting she didn't know things, and she especially didn't like admitting it to Scorpius Malfoy.
'How do you know I've never had a boyfriend?' she snapped at him.
He looked taken aback for a moment, before he said. 'Well, have you?'
Rose shrugged. 'Over the summer I was hanging around with this guy who lives on my street.'
'Hanging around isn't a relationship,' he told her. 'Did you ever even kiss him?'
Rose rolled her eyes. 'Yes, Malfoy.'
'Did you do more than kiss?'
Rose hesitated. She was somehow embarrassed to say it out loud. It seemed so stupid, so childish, in hindsight. She hadn't liked Andrew, and here she was pretending that she had in order to impress Scorpius Malfoy.
'That's a personal question,' she told him.
'I'll tell you who I've slept with if you like.'
'I know who you've slept with. The extensive list. Number one: Zaina Faheem. End of list.'
Scorpius scowled at her. 'How do you know that?'
'Chandra knows everything. Connor told her all of the Ravenclaw secrets and then she told me.'
Scorpius looked annoyed. 'I hate Connor.'
'Why? You just said you would tell me anyway. Or were you going to lie and boost up the numbers?'
'No, but I'd like to have some secrets of my own to barter with.'
She gave him a look of disdain. It was pathetic how vain he was, she thought, but then it was pathetic how proud she was.
'Well, you don't need to barter,' she told him. 'I've only slept with one person too. If it even counts. It was one time and it was – dull.'
Scorpius laughed. 'It usually is the first time.'
Rose rolled her eyes. 'Please don't act like you're an authority on sex, Scorpius.'
He glared at her. ''Well, I'm certainly more of an authority on sex than you!'
'Wow, more of an authority on sex that someone who has had sex exactly once. Congratulations.'
Scorpius gave an impatient sigh. 'Alright, moving on. So, what was his name?'
She hesitated again, wondering what objections he could possibly fathom with a name, but knowing he would have something. 'Andrew.'
Scorpius made a face. 'No wonder it was dull. What a boring name.'
She gave a huff of laughter. 'Yes, not quite as inventive as Scorpius Hyperion.'
'You should tell his parents to try better next time.'
'Yes, I shall.
Scorpius turned back to the Marauder's Map, his eyes fixed upon it, before he said quickly, 'So what happened?'
'What do you mean?'
'With Andrew? Will you pick up your love affair when you go home for the summer?'
'God no,' said Rose. 'It was excruciating. We had absolutely nothing to talk about. Like, even you and I can manage a few different topics – '
'Yes, I think we do quite well when you're not trying to belittle my intelligence.'
Rose ignored him and continued. 'Literally the only thing I could talk to Andrew about was school, and even then I had to lie about practically everything. He was a Muggle, so I couldn't really tell him anything about my life. The only reason he liked me was because he knew nothing about me.'
Scorpius frowned at her. 'Why do you think that?'
'Because… I don't know.' She hesitated, unsure of how much to tell him, but he was watching her with his sharp, grey eyes, and he didn't look like he was going to give up. 'I wasn't really myself around him. I had to try really hard not to roll my eyes or make fun of the things he said. Because he was nice. And I did like him but he just… he was quite smug. He'd talk about this music I didn't know because I don't know Muggle music and he'd then act like he was so cool because he knew it and I didn't. And usually I would have made fun of him for that but I didn't because… because I didn't want to stop hanging out with him. I suppose being with him gave me a break from being how I normally am. He didn't know anything about my parents or who I was and… and it was a nice change.'
She could feel Scorpius watching her and she waited for him to tell her how pretentious or condescending she was or something along those lines, but instead he gave a slow nod and said, 'So, what you're saying is you want a boyfriend that you don't have to be nice to?'
'I don't want a boyfriend, Malfoy,' she said coolly. 'I'm not crying out for validation the way you are. Sulking because my girlfriend isn't begging me not to go to Germany in two years just in case I go and just in case we're still together.'
'I wasn't sulking.'
'You seemed quite sulky that night.'
Scorpius gave a harsh sigh, before he met her eye. 'Look, it wasn't – it wasn't about her not caring about me going to Germany. I know we probably won't be together in two years. I'm not an idiot, alright?'
She stared at him, his fair hair falling in his eyes, the knot between his eyebrows. It was fascinating to her how quickly he could go from curious to callous. 'What did she say then?' she asked.
'She basically told me that my going to Germany is me running away from my life here,' Scorpius grumbled. 'And I… I mean, I'm not going to pretend that's not true, but what made me angry was then she said that moving to Germany won't make any difference, because wherever I go I'm still going to be me. You know, that… that the things I don't like about my life are things I'm going to take with me wherever I go. And the thing that made me angry is that – is that she's completely right.'
Rose continued to stare at Scorpius as she considered this. She turned this over in her head. A whole lifetime – a whole eternity – of being herself. Being cold and hostile and contrarian – all the things she knew Scorpius thought she was, and all the things he was right about.
'That's the same for everyone, though,' she said to him. 'As far as people go, you're probably not the worst person you could be stuck being.'
She saw a flicker of a grin on Scorpius's face. 'Wow, so I'm not the worst person in the world? What a compliment.'
'You're welcome.
They sat in silence more a moment, Rose staring out across the courtyard and Scorpius staring at the map, the branches of the trees scraping together overhead, and then Scorpius caught her arm, pulling her towards him.
Her heart leapt in her chest. 'Malfoy – '
'Look,' he said, jabbing a finger at the map. 'The Slytherin's are going upstairs.'
X
The sun was blinding overhead as the strode out onto the pitch. He could hear the roar and jeers of Gryffindors and Sytherins in the stadium, and he turned his head into the light to stare at the crowd. Mei had told him she would be sitting at the end of the second row, and he recognised her only be her dark hair and the red scarf she had donned in support of him. His chest seemed to swell with adrenaline. He smiled at her even though he knew she wouldn't be able to see it.
He could hear James muttering ahead of him as they strode to the centre of the pitch. He wasn't sure if James thought they could hear him or not, or if he was merely muttering a mantra to himself, but he was repeating very rapidly, 'Aim for the head. Easterly wind. Last fucking game before the final.'
They reached the centre of the pitch at the same time the Sytherins did. Albus eyed them, noting how much taller and burlier they all were than him.
'Captains, shake hands,' Madam Robbins instructed.
James and Laertus Zabini stepped forward and gave each other a handshake that lasted less than a second.
'I'd watch your back up there if I were you, Potter,' Zabini muttered to James.
'I'd watch your girlfriend if I were you, Zabini,' retorted James, but there was none of James's usually teasing: he said this with complete contempt. 'She and I have been getting on pretty well lately.'
It was lucky that their handshake had been so brief, because by the look on Zabini's face, Albus thought that he might have broken James's hand if he had still had it in his grip. Instead, the Slytherin watched James step away with venomous eyes.
'Mount your brooms,' instructed Madam Robbins, and Albus did so, his heart pounding in his chest.
Madam Robbins blew heavily on the whistle, and they were off.
The map allowed them to follow at a distance. Up the Marble Staircase, down the fourth-floor passageway, up into the north wing, up through the winding tower towards the owlery.
'Where the hell are they going?' wondered Scorpius aloud for what Rose was sure was the sixth time. 'What the hell is even up this tower?'
'Ask me again, I'm sure you'll find out,' said Rose, and Scorpius glared at her.
'There,' said Rose, pointing to a tiny, unused classroom below the owlery. 'They've gone in there.'
Scorpius came to a halt, narrowing his eyes to peer at the tiny dots on the map. 'They're all standing around the fireplace. What the hell are they doing that for?'
'Well don't stop now,' snapped Rose, and she grabbed hold of his arm to keep him moving.
They reached the top of the stairs and started down the passageway, walking softly as they approached the classroom. As they drew nearer, they could hear hushed male voices from behind the door. Through the glass panes in the doors, they could see a bright, green light flickering from within the room.
Rose glanced back at Scorpius before she took hold of his hand, pulling him down into a crouch to edge towards the door beneath the glass panes that looked into the passageway.
'… but that could be anywhere,' came the voice of Edmund Goyle.
'We don't even know what it looks like,' said Caliber Mulciber, sounding just as exasperated as Goyle did.
'So, what is it?' said Goyle, still sounding irritated. 'A halo? Like a tiara?'
'Not a halo, you prat,' snapped Mulciber. 'A hallow. As in the fairy tale, right? The Tale of the Three Brothers?'
Scorpius heard Rose give an almost inaudible gasp. He raised his eyebrows at her questioningly, but she ignored him.
'Yes, exactly,' said a fourth voice, and Scorpius felt his heart leap into his chest. 'All our master is asking is that you look for it. He believes it may be within the school.'
Scorpius's clutched at Rose's shoulder, leaning towards her ear to whisper frantically, 'That's August Selwyn!'
Rose cast him a furious look, and pressed a finger to her lips, urging him to be quiet.
'So it's somewhere in the school,' said Mulciber. 'Where could it be?'
'Well, that's the thing,' chortled Selwyn. 'We don't know. Could be in one of the house common rooms, could be with one of the teachers. The last time it was seen – what's that?'
Scorpius heard it too: footsteps approaching. Knowing that the Slytherins would come to investigate the sound, he took hold of Rose's hand and pulled her upwards. She didn't need any convincing: clutching his hand, they both dashed to the end of the corridor, just as Mulciber threw the door of the classroom opened.
Scorpius glanced back just in time to see the green light extinguished from behind the pane of glass, before he and Rose ducked into the next classroom.
'And then I said to her…' came the faint voice of a girl, growing louder as her footsteps drew nearer, "Well, why are you dating him if you find him so annoying?"'
'Oi!' they heard Mulciber bellow down the corridor, and the footsteps came to a dead halt. 'What the hell are you two doing up here?'
There was a brief silence before the girl answered. 'We came up to send a letter.'
'Well, you can't,' growled Mulciber. 'This floor's out of bounds.'
'But…' came the voice of a second girl, 'it's the owlery…'
'Bugger off,' snarled Mulciber. 'Go down to the Quidditch pitch.'
The girls apparently didn't need any further convincing, and Scorpius heard their footsteps fade away as they started back down the staircase, muttering to themselves. Mulciber slammed the door shut to the classroom, and a second later Scorpius and Rose heard the Slytherin's voices start again.
'What the hell was that?' demanded Goyle.
'First-years sending letters,' said Mulciber. 'I told them to piss off.'
'Well, it doesn't matter now, does it?' growled Rosier. 'He's gone!'
'And we can't write to him to arrange a new time,' snarled Goyle. 'Our letters are being checked by the Aurors.'
'Don't you think I know that?' bellowed Mulciber, and they heard the door of the classroom bang open and the Skytherins step out into the corridor. 'We can still look for whatever the hell it is though. He said it's a Hallow…'
Their voices faded as the Slytherins too started down the stairs away from the owlery. Scorpius looked at Rose, slumped against the wall, the tapestry resting against her freckled cheek, her arm squashed up against his. They waited until the sound of their footsteps had completely disappeared before Scorpius stepped out from behind the tapestry.
X
'FOWL! Penalty to Slytherin!'
'I didn't touch him!' James bellowed at the Quidditch coach. 'I didn't fucking touch him!'
'Language, Potter! This is your last warning!'
Muttering mutinously, James whizzed across the pitch to allow for Slytherin to take the penalty. Albus came to a halt, trying not to watch as Laertus Zabini took his position in front of the hoops. Watching Slytherin score was of no use to anyone: he needed to keep scanning for the snitch.
It was one of tensest and most gruelling games of Quidditch he had ever played. They had only been in the air for a little more than half an hour and Slytherin had already scored fifteen goals. This put them on a score of one-hundred and fifty points to Gryffindor's zero.
He couldn't exactly say what is was that had allowed Slytherin to get such a great lead. None of the Gryffindors were playing badly: Kim Nguyen had managed to save at least ten very difficult goals aimed at her; Louis and Adam Farouk had made every pass they had attempted to each other; Finlay and Xan had made thirty-four bludger contacts between them. They had trained so hard and yet they were losing so badly – how did this happen?
There was only one issue Albus could see: Slytherin was better. Albus has realised that quickly, and he knew James had realised it too. He could tell with how hastily James was making his passes and his aggression not only towards the Slytherins but too his own teammates. He had sworn at everyone on the pitch multiple times and had nearly knocked Laertus Zabini off of his broom twice.
Albus knew, as he knew all of his teammates knew, that the only chance for them to win the match was for him to catch the snitch. His heart pounded against his chest at the thought of how he would face him teammates if Mason Gore, the Slytherin seeker, were to see it before he did.
There was a rumble of tension from the grandstand – Gryffindors jeering and Slytherins chanting – as Laertus Zabini lined up his shot. He threw the Quaffle and there seemed to be a collective intake of breath from around the pitch and Kim Nguyen threw herself forward and her fingers grazed the edge of the Quaffle and Gryffindor bellow and the Slytherin cheered, because the ball has slipped past her fingers and through the hoop.
Albus winced as he heard the Slytherins erupt into cheers. Even if he caught the snitch now they wouldn't win – the game would end on an even score, and when that occurred the team that had scored the most goals was awarded the victory. He would now need to wait until Gryffindor scored again before he could even bother trying to catch it, and if Sytherin were to score again he was sure they would have no chance to catch up.
He glanced back towards the grandstands as Madam Robins went to retrieve the Quaffle. His eyes were trained on Mei – her dark hair and flaming scarf – and thinking of her somehow settled his anxiety.
It's just a game, Albus, she would tell him, and the thought of it soothed him.
He gazed at her some time as the chasers returned to the centre of the pitch for play to start again. From up above, he watched her catch her hair in the breeze and push it behind her ear, tighten her scarf around her neck, and then –
There. Hovering half-way across the pitch, a few inches above Mei's head from where he was looking: the snitch.
Madam Robins held up her hand to signal for the players to take their position. The seekers didn't have a position they needed to return to, and so he was able to start moving across the pitch, slowly so as not to draw attention to what he had seen. Mason Gore was closer to the snitch, but he seemed preoccupied watching Madam Robins with the quaffle, and Albus didn't want to change that.
Madam Robins blew hard on her whistle and then they were in play again. He heard the thud below as somebody caught the quaffle, and he looked around to see that James had taken possession of it. The chaser zoomed across the pitch, passing to Louis, then to Adam, then back to James, but it was intercepted by Zabini.
Zabini sped off across the pitch, passing to Natalia Hook, who was then hit by a well-aimed bludger from Xan. The quaffle slipped from her arms and Zabini lunged for it, but James took it back. He turned his broom back around towards the Gryffindor hoops, passing to Louis, to Adam, back to James, to Louis, to Adam – and Adam scored.
He edged nearer towards the grandstands as Madam Robins retrieved the quaffle and the chasers and beaters resumed their positions once more. He didn't look back this time but kept his eyes on the snitch. It had hovered higher, close to the roof of the grandstand, and he was too scared to look away for fear of losing it.
Madam Robins blew her whistle again and play resumed. There was the thud of bodies against bodies as the chasers scrambled for possession of the quaffle.
'And Zabini gets his hands on it – oh, but Potter knocks it off him – it's falling – to be caught by Weasley, who loses it to Hook –'
He tried not to listen, focusing his eyes on the snitch, focusing his attention on not moving too quickly, not drawing Gore's eyes towards him.
'Hook's in possession, passes to Zabini, Zabini's getting towards the hoops – Potter blocks him, takes possession –'
Don't look, he said to himself. You're nearly there…
'Potter's moving with the quaffle – wait, I think Gore's seen the snitch!'
At this Albus finally whipped around. Gore was flying upwards, speeding towards the snitch, and Albus took off after him. They were neck in neck, speeding towards the grandstands, their fingers outstretched, but the snitch darted downwards.
'Oh, and Potter passes it to Weasley – who passes back – and Potter scores!'
The sound of Gryffindors' cheers erupted around as the snitch launch itself towards the earth, and Albus and Gore were falling after it. They were on twenty points – catching the snitch would put them ahead…
He could feel Gore trying to ram into him, hoping to knock him off of his broom as he outstretched his hand towards the snitch.
His hands closed around it and he pulled himself out of the dive, just in time to avoid the earth. Mason Gore landed with a rolling thud on the lawn.
'And – and – oh my god, I don't believe this,' the commentator's voice echoed around the pitch. 'It's all over! Potter's caught the snitch!'
Albus landed heavily on the ground, clutching the snitch aloft, its wings fluttering futilely in his hands. His heart was pounding in his chest, the sound of the Gryffindors screaming in the distance, and then he heard his teammates landing around him, screaming with excitement.
Madam Robins landed on the earth and blew heavily on her whistle, signalling the end of the game. Zabini landed seconds after her, tripping over his broom in his haste to reach Madam Robins.
'It's not over!' Albus could hear Zabini bellowing at the Quidditch coach. 'Gore crashed! He's injured! He didn't get the chance!'
'Gore is perfectly fine, and he crashed after the snitch had already been caught,' said Madam Robins.
'No, no, no,' Zabini bellowed, and Albus could see him swelling with desperation, his face twisted in anger. 'It's not over! Their captain hit me about ten times! He's a fucking lunatic.'
At this, Albus heard James let out a laugh. While their other teammates had surrounded Albus, throwing their arms around each other, James had landed closer to Zabini and Madam, and was watching their exchange with some kind of venomous glee in his eyes.
'Not my fault your team can't fly for shit, Zabini,' James drawled.
'Shut the fuck up,' Zabini snarled at him, before he rounded on Madam Robins. 'Look, Madam Robins – '
'Language, Zabini!' snapped Madam Robins. 'The game's over, and you'd do yourself a favour to maintain a little dignity –'
'But Potter rammed me right when I was about to take a penalty shot and it made me miss –'
'Enough, Zabini, I don't want to hear anymore. It's Gryffindor's victory,' said Madam Robins, and to put the argument to rest she withdrew her wand and made her way across the pitch, summoning the abandoned bludgers towards her.
Zabini watched her go. From a distance, Albus could see him shaking with anger. It seemed James was also watching Zabini, rellishing his anger, his dark eyes alight with excitement. Albus saw James take a step further towards Zabini, a smile playing at his lips - the kind of dangerous smile that Albus knew meant that James was alight with adrenaline, and when James was alive with adrenaline there was usually trouble.
'Look on the bright side, Zabini,' James said to the Slytherin captain. 'Without the final to think about, your girlfriend might not need to look elsewhere for her kicks, hey?'
Zabini turned slowly towards James. His face was absent of colour, his eyes fixed on James, seeming to bristle. 'What was that, Potter?'
Albus's stomach gave an unpleasant turn. He looked around at his team mates, hoping that one of them was seeing what he was seeing, but it seemed they were too enraptured in their victory to pay much attention to what James was doing. Louis had lifted Adam in his arms and was spinning him around, while Kim and Xan hugged each other, hysterical with laughter at the sight of the two boys. It was only Finlay that seemed to be paying James any mind and Albus saw, without a word, that he had set down his broom and was moving closer to James.
'Oh, don't worry,' James was saying, undeterred by Zabini's venomous eyes. 'She's been in good hands. We get along well, Clarice and me. Has she told you where she got that bruise on her hip?'
Zabini dropped his broom. He took a step towards James, wordlessly, and James took a step towards him, sidling up to James, their faces inches apart.
'Don't you fucking say her name,' Zabini warned.
Even with Zabini in his face, his teeth bared, James looked gleeful. Albus hated seeing him like this - hated how much he loved the vitriol.
'Oh, but I love saying her name,' said James. 'And she loves mine. Oh, James...'
At the breathy voice James put on, imitating Zabini's girlfriend, Albus saw a fist fly. Zabini made to hit James, but James caught his fist, smiling sickeningly, and then Finlay reached them. He lunged forward, taking hold of James's shoulder, pulling him back so he was out of Zabini's reach.
'James, stop it,' Finlay warned. 'It's over, we won. Just walk away.'
'Yeah, listen to your boyfriend,' snarled Zabini. 'Tell me, Jordan, are Potter's hands any better off the pitch?'
James's smile disappeared in half a second. Gleeful to murderous in a second. It was as if James had been waiting for this, longing to be goaded, because the rapidness of his movement seemed so orchestrated. James swung his fist at Zabini with such urgency, such fury, such power, that it made even Albus, who was still several metres away, flinch. James's fist slammed into Zabini's lip with enough force to send the Slytherin's front teeth flying and knock him down onto the earth. Zabini fell back and lay sprawled on the ground his hand over his mouth, staring up at James in apparent shock.
'For fuck's sake, James, no!' bellowed Finlay.
Zabini was struggling uneasily back to his feet. His teammates rushed forward, helping him up, craning over him to ask if he was okay. But he ignored them – his eyes remained fixed on James, and he flew at the Gryffindor, seizing him by the neck.
'No!'
Albus said this without realising he was doing so, and in the same second he threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around the Slytherin's waist and pulling him off of James. He felt the snitch escape from his hands a flutter away.
'Get the fuck off me!' snarled Zabini, and threw out a fist to clap Albus in the face. Albus gasped with pain, but he didn't let go.
'Don't you fucking touch him!' James roared at Zabini, struggling against Finlay and Madam Robins who had tried to restrain him.
Zabini twisted to try to hit Albus in the face, but before he could do so Xan and Louis had leapt forward and seized each of his arms, pulling him off of their cousin. Zabini fought against the two of them, just as James fought against Finlay and Madam Robins, swearing at each other.
'ENOUGH!' snarled a furious voice from behind them, and Albus rounded to see Professor Sinistra marching towards them from across the pitch, followed by Neville, Professor Smith, Professor Fancourt and Professor Karim.
At the foreboding sight of the head mistress and the four heads of school, James and Zabini both seemed to remember himself. They slackened against the grip of their restraints.
'Pathetic,' hissed Professor Sinistra once she was in a few feet of them. 'Absolutely pathetic. Do you call yourself seventh years?'
'Potter started it!' bellowed Zabini.
'Yes, and then you hit him back,' Professor Fancourt snapped at her student. 'I didn't make you captain for you to behave like that.'
'I don't know what we need to do to make it clear for the lot of you that we will not tolerate this kind of behaviour on the Quidditch pitch,' said Professor Sinistra. 'Catarina, Neville, they're your students. How do you plan to discipline them?'
Before either Neville or Professor Fancourt could answer, Professor Smith had stepped forward. While all the other heads of house were looking furious, there was something about Smith's face that made Albus think he was pleased.
'If I may, Professor Sinistra,' said Smith, and he seemed undeterred by the sharp look the headmistress gave him. 'But as I'm sure you're aware, I have made it policy in Hufflepuff House to remove students from the Quidditch team for such unruly behaviour. I've found it to be very effective as a disincentive to others.'
Sinistra seemed to hesitate for a second, before saying coolly, 'Thank you, Zacharias, but as Potter and Zabini are not our students it's up to Neville and Catarina to decide what's best for their houses.'
Smiling, Zacharias turned towards Neville and Professor Fancourt. 'Well, I believe we've spoken about this before, but I can assure you it's worked very well in my house. My Quidditch players have become some of the best-behaved students I have.'
'I must admit I've found the same in Ravenclaw,' admitted Professor Karim.
Professor Fancourt surveyed Smith and Karim, her brow furrowed, before she gave a sigh. She turned to Neville and said, 'I can't allow this behaviour to continue in my house.' And she turned back to Zabini and said briskly, 'Zabini, you're out. Give me your captain's badge.'
Zabini and the onlooking Sytherins erupted in protests.
'Professor, you can't!' growled Zabini.
'I can and I will, Zabini,' Fancourt said icily, and she held out her hand. 'Your badge. Now.'
Zabini gazed back at his head of house, his face flushed with anger and his fists shaking, before he tore the green badge from the front of his robes and tossed it onto the muddy earth. He snatched up his broom and glanced around at the onlooking students and professors, before his eyes settled on James. 'Bet you're loving having Finlay's hands all over you, Potter.'
And once again the air seemed to snap around James as he lunged forward, this time with much less success, for Finlay and Madam Robbns were still clutching onto him, apparently having anticipated another outburst.
'James, enough!' Neville snarled, stepping in front of James, but James seemed undeterred.
'I'd watch your back, Zabini!' James snarled after him, but Zabini was striding away, followed by the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team, who were muttering furiously between themselves.
'Do you see what we're dealing with, Neville?' Professor Smith demanded. 'Are you going to allow him to play in the final?'
James's eyes flickered away from Zabini to Professor Smith, the venom in his eyes apparently now redirected at the Hufflepuff head of house. Albus could see his brother shaking with rage within Finlay's grip, but Neville raised a hand and placed it on James's shoulder, as if hoping to calm him.
'I will decide how I discipline my students, Zacharias,' said Neville evenly. 'Thank you for your concern.'
'Well, it is of my concern, actually,' said Zacharias. 'My own students will be competing in the final against Gryffindor and with Potter on the pitch I'm concerned for their safety.'
'Of course I understand wanting to keep your students safe,' said Neville calmly, 'but I think we can agree that what happened today was out of the ordinary.'
'You would say that, wouldn't you? The Potter and the Weasley children are given the rule of the roost in Gryffindor House,' snapped Zabini, and he turned towards Professor Sinistra. 'Professor, didn't I say that having Longbottom as the head of Gryffindor house was a conflict of interest?'
'Yes, you did, Zacharias, and I disagreed, as I still do,' replied Professor Sinistra coolly, and she turned briskly towards Neville. 'Neville, of course it is up to you how to discipline your students, but we also need to ensure our other students can play without fearing for their safety.'
'And the only way we can do that is by removing Potter from the team,' insisted Zabini.
'It does only seem fair, Neville,' said Professor Fancourt gently. 'We need to set a precedence for no tolerance of violence.'
'Yes, thank you,' said Neville curtly.
Albus knew, somehow, in the way Neville said this that the debate was over. Something shifted in his face: his sternness changed into regret. It seemed he was happy to argue with Smith, but not Sinistra and Fancourt. He looked towards James, and as he did so Albus could see a definite look of guilt in his eyes.
'James,' said Neville slowly, 'this is a difficult decision…'
'No,' James breathed. 'No, Neville, you can't –'
'I've given you a lot of chances, James…'
'This is bullshit,' snarled James, and Albus saw Finlay tighten his grip around James, as if scared he would now lunge at Neville. 'This is absolute bullshit – '
'We can discuss this between the two of us if you like,' said Neville gently. 'If you'll come to my office –'
'No, fuck that,' said James. 'Fuck it.'
Albus had never heard James's voice like that – defeated. He had seen James be many different things, but he had never seen him defeated. He watched James throw Finlay's arm off him, brushing off the beater's attempts to call him back, and he started away.
'James, wait,' Finlay called after him, striding forward to follow James off the pitch. 'James, please…'
But James didn't look around, and Albus watched him march away, his fists clenched and Finlay trying to catch him.
'God, how bloody thick can you be?' said Scorpius. 'A whole castle to choose from and they choose the classroom below the owlery. The owlery might be the only bloody place students are going to be coming today.'
'You want to talk about bloody thick?' said Rose. 'How can the teachers be monitoring our mail but not realise that somebody's connected the school fireplaces to the national network? I mean, God, that's like the biggest security threat you could think of.'
'How could they even do that?' thundered Scorpius. 'How could those idiots manage to connect the Floo network –'
'Oh, honestly, Scorpius,' sighed Rose. 'It's not them. You know what this means, don't you?'
'Yes! It means August Selwyn wants these – these Halo things – '
'Hallows,' Rose bit back. 'And yes, obviously, but that's not what I meant. It means somebody within the Ministry is helping them. Somebody who can access the Floo network without anyone knowing –'
'Rowle!' said Scorpius immediately. 'I bet those idiots would love to help Rowle out.'
'Maybe,' said Rose. 'Look, I wouldn't be surprised if there were people all throughout the Ministry still wanting to see the Death Eaters come back into power.'
'And obviously this Halo thing can help them do it – '
'It's pronounced Hallow,' said Rose, less patiently this time.
'Hallow – Halo – whatever! Who cares! Whatever this thing is – '
'I know what it is,' snapped Rose. 'That's why I'm correcting you, you idiot.'
Scorpius looked at her. He was torn between snapping at her for calling him an idiot and asking her what she was talking about. He decided on the former. 'Oh, I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. I forgot who I was talking to. Rose Virginia Weasley, renowned prefect from Gryffindor, obviously knows what a Halo is – '
'Hallow!' Rose said through gritted teeth. 'And so would you if you took interest in something other than undermining your father.'
'Oh, please, Rose, please, grace us with your knowledge. Tell the huddled masses what a Hallow is. Educate us weary, downtrodden urchins, share your wisdom –'
'I will if you would shut up for one bloody second!'
'Fine!'
'Thank you,' she sighed. 'Have you ever heard the Tale of the Three Brothers?'
'The children's book? Funny you should ask,' he drawled impatiently, 'it's one of the two book's I've read.'
'I wouldn't be surprised,' she sighed. 'So, in the book there's the unbeatable wand, the stone that can raise the dead, and the invisibility cloak, right?'
Scorpius narrowed his eyes at her. 'Yeah, right…'
'I'm sorry, am I going to fast for you?' she asked, faux sweetly.
'No, I'm just… trying to discern… if you're serious right now…'
She gave a long, tired sigh. 'Fine, I'll just go by myself–'
'No!' and he caught her wrist. 'Okay, fine. Fine. I'm listening. The wand, the stone and the cloak. What about them?'
She pulled her wrist out of his grip. 'Those are the three Hallows.'
Scorpius frowned at her. 'You're telling me the August Selwyn is after a wand, a stone and a cloak from an old fairy tale?'
'The stone and the cloak, no, but the wand, yes,' she told him. 'An unbeatable wand that somebody would kill to get their hands on – sound familiar?'
Scorpius considered this, before he said slowly, 'Albus Dumbledore's wand – the one Voldemort wanted - but that was destroyed during the war. Everyone knows that.'
'Everyone knows that because that's what the Order of the Phoenix has told everyone.'
'And you're saying – you're saying that's not true? Have your parents told you it stills exists?'
'Of course not,' said Rose. 'Haven't I told you? My parents tell me nothing. If it was up to them I would never have even heard the name Voldemort, but when I came to school I wanted to know the truth, and I read about it, and there are a lot of historians who don't believe the wand was destroyed.'
'It must have been, though,' said Scorpius. 'Your parents wouldn't have let something that powerful continue to exist, would they?'
'No, but maybe August Selwyn doesn't know my parents that well. Some people think Harry has it. Some people think he gave it to Dumbledore's brother Aberforth. Some people think it's here at the school.'
'And what do you think?'
'I think destroying it would have been the first thing they did after Voldemort was dead,' said Rose, 'but if August Selwyn is looking for it, who knows what he's going to do to try to find it.'
They reached the bottom of the stairs and bolted off in opposite directions of the corridor, Rose to the left and Scorpius to the right. It took them a second to notice the other was no longer in their stride, and at the same time they rounded on each other.
'Where are you going?' demanded Scorpius.
'Where are you going?' she retorted.
'Where do you think I'm going? To Professor Sinistra! We need to go wait at her office and tell her what's happened!'
Rose gave a huff. 'You know what? There's no need to wait. Why don't you just write a letter directly to the Ministry and tell whoever it is that's connected the school to the Floo network that we know about it.'
Scorpius shook his head at her. 'What are you on about?'
Rose gave an impatient sigh, folded her arms, and crossed back to Scorpius. 'Think about it. Clearly somebody within the Ministry is helping Selwyn. If we tell Sinistra, she's going to need to tell the Ministry to get them to cut off the connection to the Floo network, and then Selwyn will know we're onto him.'
'Well, we can't exactly let the school stay connected to the Floo network. You said it yourself – it's a massive security risk!'
'Well, obviously,' she sighed. 'We need to tell my parents.'
'And how exactly do you propose we do that? We can't write to them, the Ministry is reading all of our mail – '
'Neville.'
'Neville?'
'Yes, Scorpius, you know Neville? He's been teaching us herbology for five years.'
'What's he going to be able to do about it? The Ministry will be monitoring his mail just the same as they monitor ours –'
'The Order and Dumbledore's Army have ways of contacting each other,' Rose told him, in her brisk manner he was becoming familiar with which meant she thought he should already know this.
Choosing to ignore her snippiness, he grabbed the sleeves of her robes and gave them a tug.
'Well, come on then, we need to wait at his office to speak to him as soon as the match is over.'
When James Potter was angry, it obliterated everything else. There was no stifling his temper, there was no feigning calm, there was no deep breaths, no retreating away to collapse in on himself. There was only white-hot anger, which came with a hunger to hit someone and to drink.
The Whomping Willow waved at him from the hill on the horizon, swaying in the wind, beckoning him closer. On the other side of the tunnel was firewhiskey and girls and anything but here.
He felt a hand close on his arm – pleading, gentle. Finlay had been trying this since they left the Quidditch pitch, following closely behind him as he marched across the school's green lawns, but every time he felt his fingers graze his arm, James would throw him off. His anger pulsed through him as if his heart was beating out rage instead of blood, and he felt as if it was electrifying his limb, readying his fists for a fight, and he didn't want that fight to be with Finlay.
'James…' said Finlay, and it was the first time he had heard his voice in a while, and it panged at his chest, and his heart beat faster. The softness oh his voice was making everything worse. 'James, please.'
'Go away,' was all he could manage to choke out.
'Look – look, I know this is shit. I know it's really, really shit. But look how well we did! You got us to the finals, and we only had one game left anyway–'
James rounded on Finlay, his anger mingling with the horror inside him at what he was doing. No, no, no, he bellowed at himself, don't do this to him, but he knew he couldn't stop himself, and that knowledge only made it worse.
'What do you mean we?' he demanded. 'You can still play! You're not off the team!'
'I know, James, I know,' said Finlay pleadingly. 'I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry.'
'Oh, you're sorry,' said James with a venomous, shaky laugh. 'Finlay's sorry. Well, isn't that fucking lovely.'
Finlay stood gazing at him, mud across his Quidditch robes and sweat on his brow, his dark eyes fixed upon James. James wished the blaring rage within him was enough to stop him seeing the hurt in Finlay's eyes, but it wasn't, and James found himself longing for Finlay to match his anger, to sink to his level, to abandon the gentleness he was so good at maintaining.
'You didn't seem fucking sorry when you stood and watched while Zabini went after me,' James spat him. 'Where were you when he hit Al in the face, Fin?'
Finlay's eyes hardened ever so slightly, and he said, 'I was holding you back from doing something really stupid.'
'Oh, you think I'm stupid now?'
'I don't think you're stupid, James, I think you do stupid things when Quidditch and Slytherins are involved.
James moved forward, relishing the opportunity Finlay had given him for a fight, drinking in the hard look Finlay was giving him. He got close enough to Finlay that he could reach him with his fist if he tried. 'He fucking hit me, Fin! And what did you do?'
'You hit him first,' protested Finlay, keeping his voice level, but James wanted more, and he jabbed his finger into Finlay's chest.
'You're saying this is my fault?'
Finlay brushed away his hand. 'James, come on, I don't want to do this–'
James seized hold of the hand Finlay had used to brush him off. 'Say it, Fin! Fucking say it! You think this is my fault!'
'Well, fuck, James,' Finlay bit back, and he raised his other hand to shove James off of him, and finally there was the anger that James longed for. 'Whose fault is it if not yours?'
His heart pounded against his chest, his face inches from Finlay's, and he seized hold of the beater's Quidditch robes. 'You heard Zabini! You heard the shit he said! He wanted me to hit him!'
'Of course he did, because he wanted you to do exactly what you did! He wanted you to get into shit with the teachers just like you did!'
'I'm not going to sit there and let him say shit about us!'
'Oh, what did he say?' demanded Finlay. 'That I'm you boyfriend? That you're shit at Quidditch? Who gives a fuck, James! You told him you were shagging his girlfriend – what did you expect him to do!'
'Oh, fuck you!' bellowed James, grabbing another handful of Finlay's shirt.
'No, fuck you!' retorted Finlay.
And Finlay too grabbed a fistful of James's robes, and their chests were against each other, and his anger pulsed through him, and he wanted so badly for Finlay to hit him, and then suddenly he knew he needed to let go, because in that moment he wanted so much more.
He gave Finlay a rough push and let go of him, and Finlay stumbled back, his eyes fixed on James. They stood in the lawn, their eyes fixed upon each other, the mud on the Quidditch robes caked across his chest.
'Alright,' said Finlay breathlessly. 'I'm going back to the castle. We won the match and I've earnt a fucking drink.'
'Well, good on you, Fin. Well fucking done.'
Finlay had lost patience and he bit at James, 'Are you coming with me or not?'
'No.'
'Fine,' retorted Finlay. 'I hope whoever you fuck tonight brings some modicum of solace to your ego.'
'I'd say the same to you but I know you'll be passing out drunk alone,' James bit back.
Finlay let out a heavy sigh – of anger, of hurt, of everything – and then he turned to go. James watched him go, his dreadlocks bouncing on his shoulders as he strode, head held high, back to the castle, and then James turned away and started again towards the Whomping Willow.
The Quidditch match had evidently ended in a decisive victory, as they weren't waiting long before they saw Neville round the corner of the hospital wing and start towards his office.
Rose could see him frowning, pondering something, and it wasn't until he was a few feet from them that he seemed to register that there were two students waiting for him at the door to his office.'
'Rose,' said Neville when he reached them. 'Scorpius. Look, I'm happy to talk about the match–'
'It's not about the match,' said Rose briskly.
'Oh, it's not?' said Neville, sounding relieved. 'What is it?'
'Can we talk in your office?' she asked.
Neville raised his eyebrows, concerned. 'Well, of course, Rose. Are you two alright?'
'We're fine,' said Rose, 'but we need to talk to my mum and dad and I don't want the ministry reading my letters.'
'I see,' said Neville, and the way he said it told Rose he was prepared to hear something severe. He aimed his wand at the door to his office and it clicked open. 'Come in then.'
Once inside, the explanation was quick. Rose allowed Scorpius to launch into a replay of the events, interrupting only when he again fumbled over the explanation of the Hallows.
Neville remained quiet as they explained, watching them both intently, and once they had finished he gave a short nod. Without a word, he crossed to the window behind his desk, opened the latch and drew out his wand.
'Expecto Patronum!'
Scorpius jumped at the sight of a silver owl bursting for the tip of the wand. It flew out of the window, leaving the air shimmering behind it. It soared into the air and was gone an instant, and Neville shut the window behind it. As he did so, Scorpius twisted in his chair to look at Rose with a face that said, 'What the hell?'
She ignored him, keeping her eyes on Neville as he took his seat back at his desk.
'I've sent a message to your parents and Harry,' Neville said to Rose. 'I can't explain all of this with a patronus, and I need to discuss our next movements, so I'll be leaving the castle tonight to meet with them.'
'And you'll tell us what they say?' asked Scorpius.
Neville glanced at him. He seemed surprised by this, and didn't appear to have an answer immediately. 'I imagine this will be confidential, Scorpius. It's not something that should become common knowledge.'
'But we already know about it!' protested Scorpius. 'We're the ones who followed the Slytherins. You wouldn't even know about it if it wasn't for us.'
'I know, and I appreciate you coming to me,' said Neville. 'But I don't expect to be kept updated myself. Rose's parents work for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement – they'll know what to do.'
'Well, what if you ask them if they can tell us?' said Scorpius. 'We could help. I mean, we see the Slytherins between classes and stuff. We could tell you what we see.'
Rose held in the murmur of annoyance. She felt that they needed to show a united front against Neville, partly to be taken seriously but also because she was already anticipating her parents' suspicion of Scorpius's motivation. In spite of this, she still wanted nothing more than to tell Scorpius to shut up.
'Scorpius,' said Neville slowly, and Rose knew that voice: it was the one he used to reprimand students, albeit reluctantly. 'Like I said, I appreciate you coming to me, but I suspect the reason you came to me is because you both understand that this matter goes beyond the both of you. It goes beyond me – it goes beyond the school. If what you believe is true, that somebody within the Ministry has connected the school to the Floo network, this is a very serious matter. And I need both of you to behave sensibly – to look after yourselves first and not go looking for trouble when this matter needs to be dealt with by people who are equipped to do so. Do you understand me?'
Rose could feel Scorpius shift in the seat beside her. She knew him well enough to know he would object to being treated like a child, but she had known this was coming: Neville's warning was the kind of thing she was far too used to having grown up with the parents she had.
It took a moment for Scorpius to answer, and when he did he grumbled back, 'Alright.'
'Thank you,' said Neville calmly. 'And I need both of you to promise me that this information doesn't leave the three of us, okay?'
Both Rose and Scorpius nodded, but the herbology teacher seemed unconvinced. He fixed his eyes on Rose.
'And that includes Albus and Chandra, okay, Rose? I know they're your friends and you trust them, but telling them about this does nothing but share knowledge with them that could get them in trouble.'
Choosing to ignore the condescension, Rose nodded. 'Okay.'
Neville then turned to Scorpius. 'And the same goes for Zaina, alright?'
'Yeah, I know,' muttered Scorpius.
'And,' said Neville, seeming to choose his next words carefully, 'your families. You know the mail is being monitored, and if you were to write about this to your parents–'
Neville said this while looking between the both of them, but both Rose and Scorpius knew this was addressed to only one of them.
'I wouldn't tell my parents about this,' bit back Scorpius defiantly, just as Rose had expected. 'I would never talk to them about – about something like this.'
Neville raised a placating hand. 'Of course, of course. I just – just needed to let you both know that. For certainty, obviously.'
At that moment, another ball of silver light appeared, bursting through Neville's window. The silver Patronus materialised over their desks in the shape of a stag, hovering in their air. It opened its mouth and her uncle's voice echoed around the room.
'Come to Godric's Hollow as soon as you can. Ron and Hermione are on their way.'
And with that the stag evaporated. Neville didn't hesitate, but got briskly to his feet. 'I suppose I must be going,' he said to them with a wry smile.
He crossed to the door of his office and opened the door for them. Both students got to their feet and crossed to the doorway, neither of them looking at Neville.
'Look after yourselves,' Neville said to them quietly as they left his office. 'Everything will be fine.'
With a worn smile, he shut the door of his office, leaving Rose and Scorpius alone in the corridor of the hospital wing. Rose looked around at Scorpius to find that he was already looking at her.
'What were those silver things?'
'Patronuses.'
'What?'
'The Patronus charm,' she said impatiently.
'But Patroni-'
'Patronuses.'
'Whatever,' snapped Scorpius. 'I thought they were for Dementors?'
'They are, but the Order have a way of using them for communication,' said Rose. 'Come on, we should go find Albus.'
They walked in silence along the corridors, and as they drew closer to the entry hall they were met by students trailing in from the Quidditch pitch, talking excitedly amongst themselves. As the crowd grew denser, they were able to spot Gryffndors talking excitedly amongst themselves, while forlorn-looking Slytherins trudged back to their common room.
'I suppose we won,' sighed Rose. 'Al won't be happy we missed the match.'
'Rose, just say it.'
She cocked her head to the side. 'Say what?'
'That I'm an idiot for speaking to Longbottom like that. I could see you trying as har as you could to contain your annoyance. I'm allowed to be annoyed, alright?'
'Haven't you listened to anything I've said?' she retorted, 'My parents don't share things like that with me.'
'This doesn't have anything to do with your parents,' he snapped.
'Of course it does,' she bit back. 'It has everything to do with them. And they're going to hate that I'm involved. And they're going to hate even more that you're involved, seeming who your dad is.
'Again, Rose? Seriously?'
'I didn't say anything about your bloody dad!' she bit back. 'I'm saying that's just how my parents see things. Do you think I like it? Of course I don't. But throwing a tantrum in Neville's office isn't going to make them trust us.'
'I didn't throw a tantrum!'
'It was verging on it,' she snapped back, allowing her annoyance to get the better of her. 'How hard is it to just keep your mouth shut? But no, not Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy demands to be kept informed.'
'Oh, shut up, Rose,' he snapped. 'If it wasn't for me we wouldn't even know that the school was connected to the Floo network. If it was up to you, you'd ignore this whole thing. You don't actually give a shit if anyone gets hurt.'
This surprised Rose, even though she had as good as told him that herself. She didn't like hearing it from him, though; she didn't like to think that that was how Scorpius saw her, but nor did she want him to know that his words had cut her,
'I came with you, didn't I?' she replied coolly. 'Not that I should have bothered. Anyway, I should go. I'm sure Al's looking for me.'
And she turned away, starting towards the Marble Staircase, before she heard him give an angry sigh and grab her arm.
'Rose, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I'm – I'm glad you came with me, okay?'
She forced a laugh and kept walking. 'I couldn't care less whether you're glad or not, Malfoy.'
'Well, obviously you do or you wouldn't be storming off like this,' he snapped, and he managed to step in front of her and block her path. 'Look, we said we'd – we'd try to get along, didn't we? And we've been doing alright at it. Let's not call off the armistice yet, okay? I think we actually get things done when we're not squabbling.'
'And when we're not yelling at Herbology professors,' she retorted.
He grimaced, annoyed, but managed to keep his voice even. 'Exactly. And you're telling me you don't think we'd make excellent chums?'
'Chums?' scoffed Rose. 'You speak like a ninety-year-old man, you know?'
'And you dress like a five-year-old girl,' he said snidely. 'What is that you're wearing?'
Rose shoved her hands into the pockets, casting her eyes over her overalls. 'I'll have you know this is all the rage in Muggle stores.'
He rolled his eyes. 'You're so unique, Weasley. Wouldn't be caught dead in witchy clothes, would you?'
'No dragonhide shoes for me, no,' she agreed.
They both stood in silence, staring at her overalls. Rose's head was full of the hostility from a moment ago, and she was sure Scorpius's was too, for she could feel him avoiding her eyes. But he was right, she reasoned – wasn't it better for everyone if they just got along?
'Well,' she said, still avoiding his eyes, 'I better go find Al and tell him why we weren't at the match.'
'Right,' said Scorpius. 'I'll walk with you.'
'No, don't worry.'
'It's not for you, Rose. I want to talk to Al too.'
Rose hesitated: she thought she had had enough of him for the day, and the prospect of walking with him seemed like it would only lead to more arguments.
Scorpius was apparently thinking the same thing, and so he said, 'We don't have to talk if you don't want to.'
Rose considered this, wanting to ridicule it, but she realised there was nothing to take issue with. In fact, she found herself appreciating the offer. 'Okay.'
The sound of music and laughter drifted down the corridors of Gryffindor tower. It was as if, once they had left the pitch, all memory of the altercation on the had dissipated. Xan, Louis, Adam and Kim had dissolved into the crowd, laughing and cheering with theirs friends, accepting the offered bottles of ale that had been shoved into the hand. None of them had said a word to Albus since the post-match celebration had begun in Gryffindor tower, perhaps knowing that he would be dwelling on James and not wanting to have to dwell on it themselves. It also seemed that none of them had noticed, or perhaps they hadn't cared, when he had slipped away.
'You don't have to wait here.'
He looked up at Mei when she said this. They had been sitting in silence for most of the last hour, slumped on the floor near the portrait hole, content with listening to the faint sound of music from the radio from within the Gryffindor common room. There hadn't seemed to be much to say about any of it.
'I want to,' he told her.
'Albus, you deserve to celebrate.'
'I don't feel like drinking.'
'You don't have to get drunk to celebrate,' said Mei impatiently. 'Look, he's probably furious right now. You're not going to be able to help him – '
'Mei, I have to try.'
Mei gave a long low sigh, and Albus looked at her. Her eyebrows were twisted together, her pink lips pursed. He felt a pang of guilt at keeping her here when she could be back in her common room with her friends.
'I'm sorry,' he told her. 'You don't have to wait. You can go. I'll come to your dorm later – '
'No, I want to stay,' she told him. 'You're really good to look out for your brother, you know?'
'I don't feel good,' he told her. 'I should have stopped him from getting in the fight. I should have stepped in earlier.'
'You're not responsible for James acting like a childish brat,' said Mei. 'I mean, how on earth can he expect to get away with behaving like that? You can't physically attack someone and not expect any consequences.'
'He's… he's struggling,' said Albus. 'He really wants to save enough money to go travelling after school –'
'Oh, and attacking Zabini will help him do that, will it?'
'No, I didn't… I don't know,' sighed Albus. 'He hasn't been right the last few weeks. He's…'
He stopped himself, and cast a bashful look at Mei. He had never told her about following James to Edinburgh and he couldn't exactly justify his secrecy. Something told him Mei would disapprove. He wasn't sure of what part, but she had plenty parts to choose from, and any combination of James confunding an auror, Albus sneaking out of the castle, James being part of an illegal duelling club, and the pair of them narrowly escaping arrest all seemed like a satisfactory reason for her to be angry with him.
He felt Mei place her hand on his shoulder. 'Albus, tell me what's wrong.'
He looked up at her, gazing at her dark eyes caught in the light from the flickering torches that lined the staircase. His eyes trailed over the dotted freckles on her face and he decided he didn't want to lie to her. He opened his mouth and said: 'Nothing. He's just worried about whether he'll pass his NEWTs.'
He surprised himself with this: he hadn't intended to lie to her. He opened his mouth, as if to correct himself, but the searching look she was giving him stopped him. He knew what she would say if he was to admit he was lying to her, and he realised he was afraid of that.
'Right,' said Mei slowly, and by the way he said it he knew she wasn't convinced. 'Well, that doesn't justify his behaviour today.'
'I know that, I just… I just want to make sure he's okay.'
Mei's look softened and she reached for him. He felt her hands graze over the side of his face where Zabini had hit him, the skin tender beneath her touch. 'You're too nice sometimes, Albus,' she said.
Another unpleasant pang of guilt stabbed at his chest. Would she be saying this if she knew the things he was keeping from her?
'I'm really not,' he told her.
'Well, I think you are.'
And suddenly he felt a pain in his chest as if he could cry. It was too much to think about. His lies to Mei, the only person who cared enough to come and sit with him. James and his temper and all the things that came with that. The certain absence of his brother from the final match and the knowledge that, as much as he hated to admit it, that James's tutelage was probably the only thing that given him any chance of catching the snitch. How was he supposed to win the final match for Gryffindor without him?
'Albus,' said Mei, picking her head up off of his shoulder. 'There's Finlay.'
Albus turned his head to see Finlay coming up the corridor, his face set in a scowl. Albus jumped up immediately, and he saw Finlay catch sight of him, and Finlay's shoulders seemed to drop.
'Where is he?' Albus asked once Finlay reached him.
'I don't know,' replied Finlay, but Albus saw Finlay's eyes dart towards Mei, and from this Albus knew that James was no longer on the school grounds. 'Probably getting drunk somewhere.'
'We should go find him,' said Albus quickly. 'He might do something stupid.'
'Forget it, Al,' said Finlay. 'He needs to drink himself to sleep. There's no point trying with him right now.'
Something sunk in Albus's chest. As frustrating as James was, Albus knew that for Finlay to have given up his attempts to calm him that his brother must have reached new levels of hostile.
'What happened?' asked Albus.
'He told me to fuck off, so I did.'
But Albus knew that couldn't be all of it. 'Are you mad at him?'
Finlay hesitated, before giving a shrug. 'It's nothing new. I'll forget about it in the morning. I always do.'
'Fin…'
'Look, Al, there's no point us sitting out here moping about your bloody brother when we should be in there celebrating,' Finlay told him. 'We aren't the ones he got kicked off the team. I'm going to go get a drink – you coming?'
'I…' Albus stopped. He looked towards Mei, who raised her eyebrows, as if to tell him to go with Finlay. Albus looked back at the beater. 'I think I'll wait a bit longer. Just in case he comes back and wants to talk.'
Finlay seemed to want to protest this. He stared at Albus for several seconds, before he ran a hand through his dreadlocks and gave an exasperated sigh. 'Suit yourself. You might be waiting a while.'
Albus watched as the beater stepped past him, gave the password to the Fat Lady, and disappeared into the portrait hole.
'He's right, you know,' said Mei. 'None of the rest of you lost your tempers and it's not your fault that James did.'
'I know,' said Albus, and he slipped back down to sit on the floor of the corridor. 'I'm still going to wait though.'
He heard Mei sigh, but she sat down beside him, taking hold of his arm. He felt her rest her head against his shoulder, and he inclined to rest his cheek against her hair. He shut his eyes, feeling her warmth beside him.
They sat like that for a moment until he heard more footsteps approaching. His heart leapt with the hope that it was James, and he let go of Mei, bolting up. But it wasn't James who rounded the corner – it was Rose and Scorpius. Albus watched them draw nearer, frowning: the sight of them together was strange to look at.
'Good game, Al,' said Scorpius when he reached them, but there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm in his voice.
'Where have you two been?' he asked as they reached him.
'Prefect stuff,' said Rose. 'The teachers wanted help getting the first years back to the castle after the match.'
'I didn't hear anything about that,' said Mei coolly, and Albus could tell she didn't believe Rose, and he found that he didn't quite believe it either.
'Sometimes the teachers do things without running them by you, Mei,' replied Rose.
Albus felt Mei bristle beside him, and he intervened before she could snap back. He wasn't in the mood to hear them squabble. 'Have you two seen James anywhere?'
'No,' said Scorpius. Albus's disappointment must have been evident on his face, because Scorpius continued, 'Won't he be with Finlay getting drunk?'
'Finlay's in the common room. James told him to leave him alone.'
Rose and Scorpius said nothing to this, and Albus frowned at them. He had the distinct feeling he was missing something. 'Did you two even watch the match?' he asked.
They both hesitated, before Rose said. 'We missed some of it – prefect stuff. Come on, let's go find Chandra and get a drink.'
'If you're trying to get rid of me you can just say so,' snapped Mei.
'They're not trying to get rid of you, Mei,' said Albus soothingly before Rose could retort. 'Whatever it is you two want to tell me you can say it in front of Mei.'
'There's nothing we want to say to you,' retorted Rose. 'I just want a bloody drink.'
Scorpius gave an impatient sigh, and grumbled at the redhead, 'Come on, Rose, drop it.' He turned back to Albus. 'Come on, we should find somewhere quiet.'
Albus looked between Rose – who looked sullen – and Scorpius – who looked contemptuous – before he gave a quick nod. 'Alright, let me get Chandra and then we can go.'
The moon was high in the sky by the time they finished talking. They had found an unused classroom at the bottom of Gryffindor tower, empty of desks and chairs, and so they sat on the floor, their faces illuminated by the moonlight. They sat in silence for some time after Rose and Scorpius finished explaining what had happened, each of them turning it over in their heads.
Chandra was the first to speak since they finished their explanation. 'This seems really bad,' she squeaked. 'They said – they said their master wants the Hallow? Who could that be?'
'Could be anyone,' said Scorpius. 'Most likely someone with connections to the ministry, seeming they've gotten the Floo network connected to the school.'
Chandra gave an uneasy murmur, and Scorpius saw her shift closer to Rose, taking hold of her arm. 'Oh, thank goodness you two followed them. Imagine if nobody had found out and August Selwyn was able to get into the castle.'
'For all we know he might have been coming and going from the castle for months, looking for this Elder Wand thing,' said Scorpius.
'I don't think so,' said Albus slowly. 'He probably can't risk being seen around the school of otherwise he could be caught. Otherwise he probably wouldn't have enlisted the Slytherins. He must be getting desperate.'
'But what would he even want with the Older Wand?' asked Chandra.
'Elder Wand,' corrected Scorpius.
'Oh, shut up, Scorpius. You keep calling them halos,' snapped Rose, and she continued before Scorpius could retort. 'I assume he wants it for the same reason Voldemort did. With an unbeatable wand he could take down the Ministry. Aurors wouldn't be any match against that.'
Scorpius glanced up at Rose as she said this, and then to Albus. The cousins were looking at each other, both with the same pale, solemn look.
It was only then Scorpius realised that he had never quite understood their closeness, but now he thought he might understand some of it: they had both lived their lives with the same anxiety, knowing that their parents were at the forefront of fighting dark magic. It wasn't some distant threat for them, some whisper of war: it was a real, tangible thing, with their parents on the frontline of every battle.
'We should be getting back,' said Mei after a short silence. 'We don't want to have to explain what we're all doing out after curfew.'
'It's a Quidditch game night,' said Scorpius. 'The teachers expect people to be out of bed.'
'But not locked in a classroom trying to hide from everyone,' replied Mei.
'Neville will expect us to be telling Al what happened,' Rose said curtly.
'Yes, well, not all of us are Professor Longbottom's students,' said Mei coolly. 'I'm sure Scorpius understands that Professor Karim expects more from Ravenclaws.'
'I don't particularly care what Professor Karim expects from us,' grumbled Scorpius, 'but you can leave if you want.'
Although Rose was sitting opposite him, seemingly putting as much distance as she could between them, he heard her give a small huff of laughter. Albus, however, fixed Scorpius with a warning look, before he looked at Mei, taking her hand.
'It's okay, Mei, we can go back soon,' said Albus, before he turned back to Rose. 'What do you think our parents are going to do about it?'
Rose gave a shrug. 'I don't know. Whatever it is I'm sure they won't tell us about it.'
'Can't you ask them?' asked Scorpius.
'Not now that the aurors are reading all the mail in and out of the school,' said Albus.
'But they'll be visiting the school for the memorial in a few weeks, right?' said Scorpius. 'You could ask them then.'
Every year on the second of May, a memorial was held on the school grounds to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, and every year the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbeldore's army would arrive. Scorpius usually avoided the memorial, choosing to skulk in the Ravenclaw common room, choking back the guilty feeling that enveloped him whenever he thought of the war.
'For the last time, Scorpius, our parents aren't going to tell us anything,' said Rose. 'You'd do better to try to slip some Veritaserum into Neville's coffee.'
'But you could at least ask –'
'It won't do any good,' said Albus solemnly. 'Rose is right. Out parents don't tell us these things.'
'And can you blame them?' said Mei. 'It's a matter of national security. The fewer people who know about these Hallows the better. I don't think we should even be discussing it.
'Excellent,' said Rose. 'We won't tell you about it next time.'
'Rosie…' warned Albus.
'You don't need to be rude to me, Rose,' snapped Mei. 'I'm only saying that I don't think this is any of our business–'
'Of course it's their business,' grumbled Scorpius. 'If there's going to be another war, then it affects their family. In fact, it affects all of our families.'
'It's the Ministry's business,' retorted Mei. 'You two didn't have any right getting involved –'
'Well, it's a good thing we did or otherwise nobody would even know the school was connected to the Floo network,' snapped Rose.
Scorpius glanced at her. She wasn't looking at him, but had her dark eyes fixed upon Mei. He had said very nearly the same thing to her not an hour earlier, and he would have liked to remind her of this, but decided against it in favour of keeping her on his side against Mei.
'Fine,' said Mei tersely. 'Well, I don't want any part of this.'
'Good, we don't want you part of it either,' replied Rose.
'Can you all stop?' demanded Albus, and the uncharacteristic anger in his voice seemed to reign them all back in. 'Would you listen to yourselves? You're arguing like children.'
He said this to the group, and Scorpius knew it was aimed at all three of them, though Mei looked at him with utter shock. It was clear she wasn't used to having Albus reprimand her.
'Albus,' began Mei, 'I only meant –'
'No, no, I know, I know,' said Albus, his voice softening immediately, and he took hold of her hand. 'I know what you meant. It's okay.'
Rose gave a dramatic roll of her eyes, and as she did she caught Scorpius's gaze, and he quickly looked away to avoid smirking.
'We should be getting back anyway,' said Albus. 'I'll walk you back to Ravenclaw tower before I go.'
'You're not going to stay?' Mei asked.
'I want to wait for James,' said Albus.
Mei looked as if she was going to protest, but before she got the chance Chandra spoke. 'I'll come with you. I told Connor I'd drop in after the Quidditch party.'
They got to their feet and trailed out of the classroom, Mei and Albus first, followed by Rose and Chandra, both pairs going hand in hand, and Scorpius trailed behind them.
'Night, Rosie,' said Chandra, giving her friend a hug.
Chandra then started after Albus and Mei towards Ravenclaw tower. They had gone a few paces, before Albus realised Scorpius wasn't following them. He stopped and turned, seeing Scorpius lingering near the door of the classroom with Rose. 'Scorpius, are you coming?'
'You go,' said Scorpius. 'I'll walk with her.' And he gestured roughly at Rose.
'I have a name,' said Rose, 'and I don't need you to walk with me.'
'Don't flatter yourself,' he grumbled at her. 'I want to grab a bottle of ale from the Quidditch party to take back to my dorm. I feel like a drink.'
Rose rolled her eye, and he was sure she knew he was lying. She turned on her heel and started away. Scorpius looked back at Albus, raising a hand in farewell, and Albus returned it, giving Scorpius a quizzical look which the Ravenclaw ignored.
He turned away and to find Rose already at the end of the corridor, hurrying away. He had noticed this about her – she walked briskly, as if she always had somewhere better to be, and he had to jog a few paces to catch up to her.
'Well,' he said to her heavily as they started up the spiral staircase of Gryffindor tower.
'Well, what?' she bit back.
'Well, apology accepted,' he said.
'I don't recall apologising.'
'No, that does sound unlike you, doesn't it?' he said. 'I suppose I've extrapolated from what you said to Mei.'
She glanced at him, her dark eyes narrowed, the familiar knot appearing between her eyebrows. 'What are you on about, Malfoy?'
'Oh, nothing,' said Scorpius. 'Only that you changed your tune pretty quickly about staying out of things.'
Rose gave an angry sigh. 'Oh, what? Because I took your side when she said that nonsense, telling us we shouldn't have followed them?'
'Well, she was pretty much saying exactly what you've been saying this whole time, about wanting to stay out of things.'
'No, she wasn't,' bit back Rose, and she came to a stop on the staircase.
He turned to face her, seeing that her dark cheeks were flushed with anger, making her freckles all the more prominent. He realised now how irritated she was.
'Mei was talking about something she knows nothing about,' Rose said, in a low, furious voice. 'She's the most self-righteous, judgemental narcissist I've ever met. Telling us what we should and shouldn't be doing, acting as if she has some kind of authority over us.'
She paused to draw a deep breath, and he tried to speak, but she continued before he had the chance.
'Never have I ever tried to tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing,' she bit at him. 'All I said was that I didn't want to be part of it, even though it looks like I don't have much of a choice. And I've told you why I don't. Because I've seen how my parents are, and I've seen how this shit takes over their lives, and if you don't understand that then I don't really give a fuck, Malfoy, because I know you're not going to understand it, and neither is Mei Zhao, and I'm not going to let her tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing when it's my parents who are going to be in the middle of it when there's a war.'
She stopped talking and a silence fell over. He was startled by how quickly her anger had flared, and he suddenly felt guilty: he hadn't intended to strike a nerve, not after such a long night.
'Okay,' he said, for it was all he could manage. He took a step towards her, raising a hand towards her, saying as he did. 'Look, Rose, I'm sorry…'
She took a step away from him, drawing away from his hand. 'What are you doing?'
'Er… I…'
'Were you going to try to hug me, Malfoy?' she asked, and he saw her lips curl mockingly.
'No,' he said quickly. 'I was just…'
But he stopped talking, because he wasn't sure what he was trying to do. Perhaps he had been trying to hug her, or squeeze her shoulder, or comfort her in some way, but the thought of it seemed ridiculous now.
'I don't need a hug, Malfoy,' she retorted. 'I need you to not invite Mei Zhao along to conversations like that, because she behaved exactly how I thought she would.'
'Well, sorry,' he grumbled. 'What do you want from me? She's Albus's girlfriend. I couldn't exactly tell her to leave.'
'Well, next time when you want to talk about this stuff wait until she's not around, because if I have to listen to her tell us again that we would have been better off letting August Sewlyn continue to use the Floo network, I will murder her, and then I'll murder you, and then I'll make it look like a murder suicide and go on enjoying my life without the both of you.'
Scorpius couldn't help but laugh at this, and he could see Rose's lips start to twitch into a smile, before she looked away from him and started back up the stairs, pushing past him.
'She is a pain, though, isn't she?' said Scorpius as they climbed the stairs. 'She's been helping Albus and I with our herbology essays – well, Albus more than me...'
'Thanks for clarifying,' said Rose. 'Couldn't let me think Scorpius Malfoy might need help with an essay, could you?'
'Of course not,' he said. 'But anyway – Merlin, she's fond of herself. She's nearly as bad as you. Worse, even.'
'Worse than me? How can that be?'
'I know, it surprised me too,' said Scorpius. 'Ugh, and the way Albus is around her…'
'Sickening, isn't it?'
'Horrifying,' agreed Scorpius. 'I mean, I know it's like, the honeymoon phase of whatever, but Jesus Christ.'
'I didn't think it was possible for Albus to have less of a backbone than I already thought he did.'
'Look, to his credit, he did tell her to drop it tonight,' said Scorpius.
'Oh, please, barely. Only because what she said was ridiculous. And then the second she took offence he went back to being her lapdog.' She adopted a soft, high voice, imitating Albus. 'Oh, no, Mei. It's okay. I'm sorry, Mei. Forgive me, Mei.'
Scorpius laughed. 'As long as he's happy, I guess. He'll grow out of it once they've been together longer. It makes me worry that I was that pathetic when I first started dating Zaina.'
'I doubt it,' said Rose. 'I don't think I've ever heard you say anything nice to each other.'
'Yes, we do,' said Scorpius. 'It's just like… I don't know. I suppose once you've been together a while you kind of… put in a bit less effort.'
'Will you tell her what happened tonight?'
'Nah, I don't tell her any of this stuff,' said Scorpius. 'She wouldn't understand why I want to get involved.'
'Well, you can't blame her for that,' said Rose. 'I don't really understand why you want to be involved. I mean, for Albus and I it's our family, but for you… I mean, it can't just be altruism.'
Scorpius gave a shrug. 'It was for your parents, wasn't it?'
'I suppose,' said Rose. 'But it didn't start off that way. I mean, Harry had to be involved. He was the Chosen One. And then my parents were helping their friends, and then they were in too deep and then – then it was their whole lives.'
They had reached the portrait hole now, and he knew there was no reason to stay with her any longer, and yet he had no desire to return to his dormitory. He expected her to bid him goodnight and slip away, but instead she stopped and leant against the wall of the corridor, turning her head to look at him.
'Well, we did it, I suppose,' sighed Rose. 'We know what they're after.'
'Yeah,' said Scorpius slowly. He dropped his eyes to stare at his shoes in order to avoid her gaze. 'Look, Rose…'
He saw her eyes narrow at him, but he continued briskly, knowing that if he stopped he'd lose his momentum, 'I'm sorry if I made you feel like… Like you needed to do something you didn't want to. If I made you feel guilty or something or… You didn't need to come with me today.'
He could feel her watching him closely as he was speaking but was careful not to meet her eyes.
'Malfoy,' she said slowly, 'It wasn't really for you, you know?'
'Yeah, I know,' he said. 'But you could walk away if you wanted to, I mean… you could have.'
Rose gazed up at him for a second, her brow slightly knotted, and he wondered for a second if he again said something to irk her, before she gave a slow sigh.
'I suppose it's like what Zaina said to you,' she said to him, 'about being stuck with yourself for your whole life.'
He frowned at her, cautious of whether she was baiting him, but when she continued her voice was softer than usual.
'I'm not just stuck with myself, you know?' she told him. I'm stuck with… with being a Weasley, and everything that comes with that, and I can't… I can't really walk away from that. Even if I wanted to, and sometimes I do, but I don't think I can. Because my parents and my brother… I can't just pretend that they aren't in the middle of this. And I can't walk away from it without walking away from them too.''
He gazed at Rose as she stood crookedly under the torchlight, and he suddenly realised that there was a lot to look at when looking at Rose. She had brown eyes and dark skin and even darker freckles. Her crinkly hair was cropped to her shoulders. It was a brassy kind of red, darker than her father's but not quite brown. She was tall and lanky and she was holding herself in a way with her shoulders back and her hips lopsided that was somehow graceful in its lack of grace.
Rosie. Rosie. Rosie.
That's what he heard everyone called her. The very sound of it seemed to be the antithesis of herself. Rosie: sweet and blossoming and gentle, but Rose Weasley wasn't any of those things. He could see her only as Rose; thorny and strong and wise. He thought he quite liked it better that way.
Scorpius realised he ought to say something in response. 'Yeah, I know. Well – well, I don't.' He paused, considering how to continue – he wanted to tell her something real, just as she had done. 'But I know what it's like to be stuck with a family you don't necessarily want to be stuck with. And to – to worry about your family.'
Rose cocked her head towards him, and he watched the torch light dancing over her freckles. 'How is she?' she asked him.
'Who?'
'Your mum?'
'Oh,' he said, taken aback. It had been a long time since he had spoken about her with anyone: he usually avoided it. 'She's fine… The healers tell her everything looks good, so…'
'That's good,' she replied, not looking at his eyes. He could sense her discomfort; sensitivity wasn't her area of expertise, but he knew that she was trying.
'Yeah,' he said.
They lapsed into silence. with her still avoiding his eyes, staring instead at his chest, but he kept her eyes on her face. After a moment she looked up at him, and he intended to glance away before she caught him looking at her, but he missed his chance and she caught his eye.
'So,' she said.
He cocked his eyebrow at her. 'So what?'
'Are you coming into get that ale?' she asked.
'What?' And then he remembered his lie from earlier. 'Oh…'
He realised now this strange habit they both had. They would create excuses to see each other. It wasn't enough that they wanted to be in each other's presence; some other necessity had to pre-empt it. They needed to patrol the corridors, or he needed to borrow her book, or she needed to speak to him about the war. There had to be some pretence, and he realised now there was no reason to do that. They should be able to see each other when they wanted to.
'That was a lie,' he told her. 'I just wanted to talk to you. About Mei and… and everything.'
She raised her eyebrows at him. 'Oh, you don't say.'
'Yeah… Subtle, right?'
'Very,' she replied with a grin. 'Well, I suppose that's enough for the night.'
'Enough of me?'
'Well, I meant everything, but you too, I suppose.'
'Right,' he said. 'I guess I'll see you at breakfast then.'
He had planned to say this – to put an end to the need to make excuses to see her – and she seemed to realise this. She hesitated, brow creased, before she replied.
'Yes, I suppose.'
'Alright. Night, Weasley.'
'Night, Malfoy.' And she turned back to the portrait hole, muttering the password,
She climbed through, not looking back at him, but he stood in his place, watching her go, her curly hair bouncing around her shoulders. The portrait hole swung shut after her, and finally he turned to go.
He was woken by the light streaming through the window, far too bright than it ought to be this early in the morning. He stirred, raising a hand over his eyes, squinting at the tall windows. It appeared someone, for some reason, had chosen to wrench open the blinds of the dormitory window.
But then he realised he wasn't in his dormitory. He had fallen asleep on one of the sofas in the common room, surrounded by the debris from the Quidditch party the previous evening and other students who had passed out on armchairs, too drunk to find their way back to their dormitories.
He sat up, rubbing his tired eyes, and he slowly became aware of the persistent sound of uneven footsteps, and he thought it might not have been the sun that had woken him. He turned around on the couch to look for the source of the noise and caught sight of a dishevelled figure in muddy Quidditch robes trying to find a pathway through the mess of empty ale bottles scattered across the common room floor.
He suddenly wished he hadn't seen who it was, even though the source of the noise was the reason he had fallen asleep in the common room. He had perched himself on the sofa in the midst of the party after saying goodnight to Mei, with the intention of waiting up until he saw him, only to fall asleep from the exhaustion of the day.
He choked down the urge to let his brother walk away, and said softly, 'James.'
It seemed to take a moment for James to register his name, and then it took him even longer to scan the common room and locate the source of the voice. He squinted across the room at his brother, and Albus knew immediately by his sullen face and bloodshot eyes that he had been drinking all night.
He half expected James to ignore him, to retreat up to his dormitory, but instead James changed course and stumbled towards Albus, collapsing onto the couch. Albus quickly shuffled down to stop James from landing on him.
'Good morning,' croaked James, in a voice raspy from alcohol and cigarettes.
'Hi,' said Albus, and he lowered his voice. 'Where were you?'
James didn't answer immediately, for he had become preoccupied with searching his pockets. Albus watched, his impatience growing, as James rummaged through every pocket in his Quidditch robes, his hands shaking and his movements clumsy. Albus wouldn't have been surprised if he had passed out right there.
Finally, James unearthed a beaten-up pouch of tobacco. He opened it up and stuck a filter between his lips, before setting about rolling a cigarette.
'James,' hissed Albus.
James glanced at him, apparently surprised to find him there. 'Huh?'
'Where were you?' Albus asked again.
'Drinking.'
'Where?'
'London.'
'With who?'
'Hang on,' said James, peering down at the cigarette between his fingers. 'Fuckin' thing's not rolling.'
'I don't think you should smoke in the common room.'
'Fuck off,' slurred James, not with anger but in a way that definitively told Albus that he didn't care. 'Can you roll me one?'
And he dropped the tin of tobacco into Albus's lap.
'Um… I don't know how.'
'Sure you do,' said James, slumping back in the sofa and shutting his eyes. 'You just do the thing.'
Albus watched his brother, his face pinched together and his chest rising and falling. He wondered if this was the drunkest he had ever seen James, but then he remembered that he had thought that to himself many times.
'James, who were you with?' Albus tried again.
'Cigarette, please,' was James's only responses.
Sighing dejectedly, Albus picked up the tin and attempted to roll the cigarette. He struggled with it for a minute, trying to replicate what he had seen James do a million times, before he produced a wonky smoke.
He nudged James's shoulder. 'Here.'
James's eyes fluttered open. 'Huh?'
'I rolled you a cigarette,' said Albus impatiently.
'Oh, right. Cheers.'
James held out his hand, gesturing for Albus to pass the cigarette to him, which he did, and James plopped it in his mouth. 'Light, please.'
'What?'
'Light!'
Albus took out his wand and lit the tip of the cigarette. James inhaled deeply, giving a sigh of relief, and smoke streamed from his nose down the front of his Quidditch robes.
'Who were you with?' asked Albus for a third time.
James took another drag, and breathed softly, 'A girl.'
'Which girl?'
'Evelyn Burbage,' mumbled James. 'Remember her?'
'From Fred's year? The one who played chaser for Hufflepuff?'
James face twisted into a closed-eyed smile. 'Yeah. We fucked. We fucked like… like twice.'
Albus didn't care much for the way the conversation was going, but he was at least relieved to know that James hadn't been with Mundungus Fletcher. He watched James smoke his cigarette for a moment before asking, 'So you're okay?'
His eyes still closed, James made a face. 'You're like Dad.'
'I'm just asking.'
James opened his eyes, looking up at Albus, and he raised a hand. For a second Albus thought James was making a poor attempt at hitting him, but to his surprise James's hand came to rest gently on Albus's head, and he proceeded to give his brother three soft pats on his fringe.
'Don't be like Dad, Al. Dad's sad.'
Albus didn't know what to say to this, and so he remained silent. There seemed to be no use trying to talk to James in this state, and Albus began to consider how he was going to try to carry his brother, who was much taller than him, up the stairs to his dormitory, but then James spoke again.
'Fin's mad at me.'
This surprised Albus. He didn't think James capable of such an astute observation at the present time, and nor had he expected James to care much about what Finlay was right now.
'Yeah,' said Albus. 'What did you say to him?'
'Stupid stuff,' said James. 'Fucking stupid.'
Albus was taken aback at this display of humanity. Albus was unfamiliar with James ever displaying guilt, but he decided to capitalise on it. 'I'm sure if you apologise it will be fine.'
There was a silence, before James said slowly. 'Yeah.'
'Yeah,' replied Albus.
'Yeah,' said James again. He placed his cigarette in his mouth and his arm dropped away. The cigarette hung limply from James's mouth, stuck to his open lip, it's burning tip dangerously close to his chin. 'Fin's good,' he murmured.
'Yeah,' said Albus, even more surprised at James's lack of humility. 'He is.'
'Hey, Al?'
'Yeah?'
'What would you say if…' And then James stopped, clearing his throat, shutting his eyes.
'What would I say if what?'
'What?'
'You asked me "What would you say if" and then you stopped talking.'
James gave a small groan of protest. 'Nah, I didn't.'
'Yes, you did.'
'Nah.' And he raised a feeble hand to wave Albus away. 'Nah, I didn't.'
Albus watched James, his tall, lean figure slumped crookedly on the sofa. His tanned, handsome face clammy and pinched. His dark hair falling every which way across like their father's did. He felt suddenly protective of his brother; as if the person on the Quidditch pitch who had hit Zabini was a different person, some looming stranger that Albus wanted to protect James from as much as he wanted to protect everyone else.
There was something about James's incomplete question that made him seem in need of help, like a child scared to admit wrongdoing. There was something about the uncertainty that made Albus feel that James had been teetering on confiding something important in him, and if Albus could only have known what it was then he could have promised to help.
'James, you can tell me,' said Albus, 'I'm not going to tell anyone.'
But even as he said this, he heard James give a loud snore.
'James?' murmured Albus, leaning towards him.
But he was out cold. Albus prodded his brother, and said his name again, but received no response, and he reasoned there wasn't much else he could do.
He got gingerly to his feet, careful not to disturb his brother, and leant forward to ease the cigarette out of his mouth. He dropped the lit cigarette into a half-drunk glass of mead and it extinguished with a hiss, before Albus crossed the room to start the ascent to his dormitory.
Song credit: Madeleine by Alexander Biggs.
Hello! Long time no see. I'm so sorry for my long absence, but I still think about this story often! If anyone is still out there reading I would love a review xx
