Rose was awoken from slumber by a noise coming from outside the sleeping chambers. She covered her ears with the pillow and tried to go back to sleep. Someone had probably just gone to the bathroom. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to soothe herself back to sleep, but then another noise followed. She thought she heard footsteps and then a screech of a portrait swinging open. She was so exhausted, and yet – she is the prefect after all. Is it not her duty to check what is going on?

Trying to be as quiet as possible, she got up from her bed. Looking around, she discerned through the dark of the night that the other girls were fast asleep in their beds. She left the dormitory on tiptoes and stopped to listen. For a moment, all was quiet, and she suspected she had imagined it all. She turned to return to the sleeping chamber when suddenly, she heard rustling and what must have been a whisper. She tried following the sound but had no idea where she ought to go; not that the moving staircases made the search any easier. Once she reached the bottom of the staircase, she listened again but was met with complete silence and so tried to return; only the staircase had already switched direction. She ran upwards anyway, in hopes that the staircase would turn back to the Gryffindor dormitories; and it did. Yet the second she came near the top of the stairs, she could swear she heard whispers. Maybe it was Peeves, she thought, trying to prank her. He certainly was doing a good job at keeping her awake and away from her warm and cozy bed. And so, while she still had the chance before the staircase moved again, she decided to return and forget all about the noise, which surely, must have been Peeves. She was at the highest step, preparing to take a leap to the landing, intentionally ignoring the whispers. It was in that moment, however, that a new sound made its way to her ears, a sound she couldn't dismiss. It stunned her, gluing her to the top step.

"Rose?"

"Why aren't you in your dormitory?" she asked none other than Scorpius Malfoy, who was pointing his illuminated wand at her from the bottom of the staircase.

"Why aren't you?"

"I – I thought I heard something. Must have just been you then. What are you doing here?"

"I'm sure I heard footsteps leaving the dungeon and went out to check."

"Do you think someone broke into the castle?"

"There's no way. It's probably some student sneaking around."

"What about Peeves?"

"Can't be him. I ran into him downstairs." As the staircase moved again, Scorpius made a few steps up, closer to Rose. "We could patrol the castle together, if you're up for it. Someone should check what's going on."

Rose nodded. They were prefects, it was their responsibility.

One after the other, they descended the stairs. Just when Scorpius was about to step on the bottom landing, the staircase shifted, and he tripped. A laugh escaped Rose's lips. He rolled his eyes. "Like you wouldn't have fallen."

"Please," she retorted. She elegantly jumped from the still-moving staircase and landed with grace. Scorpius smirked sideways watching her. "Well, it's fair that you at least have sports going for you, since I already one up you in everything else."

"You do not!" she snapped. Scorpius put a finger to his mouth and didn't try to hide the smug look in his grey eyes. "Psst. Wouldn't want to wake the entire school now," he said as he walked down the corridor.

Rose clenched her fists and came rushing after him. "You do not one up me in everything else," she whispered sharply.

"Okay. In most things then." Scorpius' grin was spreading wider and wider, while Rose on the other hand looked angrier by the second.

"Do you seriously want me to list every subject where I did better than you?"

"We both know magic isn't just about school grades though, don't we?"

"Can you stop being so condescending? You're not better than me just because – because –"

"Hey," Scorpius jumped in, "I didn't mean it like that."

"You did though."

"No, really I –"

"You know what. I don't care anymore. I'm jus– I'm too tired to argue today, okay?" grunted Rose, halting in her step and collapsing on the nearest bench.

"Sorry. I really didn't mean to upset you." He sat down on the other end of the bench, leaving enough space between them.

After a few moments of complete silence passed between them, Scorpius admitted, "I guess I enjoy teasing you a bit too much. I let it escalate too far, I'm sorry." He looked at her, but she was holding unbreaking eye contact with the wooden floor. "For the record: I never thought I'm better than you. Hell, I'd be glad if I could hold a candle to you in one thing, at least."

"You don't seriously mean that," she finally responded. "You're way better with potions and I have nothing on you in Transfiguration."

All was quiet for a moment, before Scorpius, who was now looking at the same exact spot on the floor that Rose was focusing on, whispered, "I do mean it." Louder enough for her to hear, he asked, "Why do we argue anyway?"

"I don't know." She finally broke eye contact with the floor and her brown eyes met his swirling grey ones. She was looking for an answer inside her head. She knew it was in there somewhere, surely there must have been a reason for their infamous arguments. Yet as she was staring into the grey abyss of his eyes, she couldn't quite remember it. In fact, after a few seconds passed, she forgot the question altogether. For a second or two, she even forgot where she was and why, all she knew was that she wanted the silence to last an eternity.

Achoo!

"What was that?" asked Scorpius, abruptly standing up and looking around. Rose too could swear she heard someone sneezing, but there was no one to be seen. They made rounds around the hallway and inspected it thoroughly, but neither saw anything and the only noise they could discern were floorboards creaking and some other rustling sound.

By the time they more or less investigated the entire castle, Rose could hardly keep her eyes open. Both of them were yawning as if their newest form of competition was who could yawn more, and so it was only sensible to call it quits and return to their respective chambers.

"Goodnight, Malfoy."

"Goodnight, Weasley." She thought she saw Scorpius standing still behind her in the corner of her eye when she ascended the stairs to the Gryffindor tower, but he was already gone when she glanced back. When she finally climbed into her bed, her eyelids were so heavy that it took mere seconds for her to be engulfed by the grey void rippling around her and succumb to sleep.