'Well, that certainly doesn't belong here' I thought to myself as I examined the blond boy in front of me.

Ok if we're being entirely honest here, neither did I. Only Unspeakables and the rare minister were ever allowed such intimate access to the Department of Mysteries. In my defense, my snooping had always felt somewhat justified since accompanying Dad to work was possibly the most BORING way for anyone to spend a summer afternoon.

Harry Potter's job as Head Auror meant every paper or folder he ever carted around bore the words "TOP SECRET" heavily emblazoned all over it. In fact my entire childhood had become an abstract cascade of giant fiery red letters. I had gotten far too familiar with terms like "CLASSIFIED", "EYES ONLY" or "BURN AFTER READING" for a kid who'd not even been issued his first wand. Besides modern art—unoriginally expressed in trite CAPSLOCKED word pairings the color of blood—there was also, hushed conversations, yelling, and being shuffled into panic rooms with Moms hands clasped over my ears as alarms blared in the background.

Fun times all around.

So it followed, as you'd imagine, that I ended up spending much of my younger years with noise canceling headphones on, or simply wandering the halls of the ministry, trying desperately to escape my chaperones and guards.

I say wandering but really, who are we kidding? It was snooping.

How had I managed to make a habit of ditching the highly trained staff that watched over me, you might ask?

Well, the magical inheritance that now hid me from the eyes of the world, had been passed down from the youngest sons of the youngest Peverell's for generations. The moment I turned seven was the moment I had become the owner of the third and last surviving piece of the Deathly Hallows: the cloak of invisibility.

It was this treasure and my eleven year old curiosity that had led me so often to abandon my father's office for the solitude of this ancient place.

'Solitude' I repeated, grumbling irritably to myself. That had been why i'd come.

Now, for the first time in forever, there was another intruder in my secret retreat. An invader—who apparently did not know how to read the Crimson gibberish. Did he not get this place was "TOP SECRET" that he required "CODE WORD CLEARANCE"?

I approached the outline of the boy in question, curiosity outweighing caution as I drew ever nearer. The closer I got, the more my vision adjusted to the odd light that radiated spell like from behind him.

'Close enough Albus' i thought, stopping to observe his silhouette. From my new position I took in the shape of those elegant lines. The way he sat silently leaning over the rim of the fountain. The way one of his slender arms was rested lazily on the fountain's stone edge, while the other was braced to support his tilted head. Blue eyes peered longingly at the liquid within, lost to the artifacts enchanting depths as I had so often found myself.

'He seems much too relaxed for someone intruding on the ministry's deepest secrets' i thought to myself, allowing the tension in my muscles to ease slightly. What was he even doing here if not to spy?

The boy gazed into the bubbling lambent substance with such fixed intensity that to watch him sent shivers running down my spine. It felt like I was the intruder then, like I had been the one uninvited. It was that thought which sent a small flicker of irritation through me. An irritation that pinged deep inside. Something I wanted to feed, to let loose, something hot like fire. That was until his haunting blue captured my attention once again.

Those eyes were so solemn, so questioning and so full of some foreign emotion that I began to itch the longer I watched.

Curiosity pushed me even closer, trying carefully to control my breathing as I closed in from behind.

His face was bathed softly in the pink glow of the potion, giving me a chance to better examine the stranger.

Long eyelashes, hair like pale white gold, ocean blue eyes, strong cheekbones already obvious despite his young age...

The longer I stared the more difficult it became to shake the unearthly feeling that I recognized him from somewhere. What really had me perplexed at the moment wasn't my inability to place where I had met the boy before but rather how he had managed to slip into a room in the department of mysteries that is always heavily locked. Even I have to wait for an unspeakable like aunt Hermione to come or go just to slip inside with my cloak.

"What on earth are you doing?" I blurted out loudly, surprising even myself.

I was standing right behind him when my eleven year old impatience finally got the better of me.

The blond spun dangerously towards my voice and somehow during the motion had managed to catch his foot in the folds of his robes. He stumbled ungracefully backwards towards the rim of the fountain, about to fall head long into—

"—Bollocks!" I cursed, moving quickly.

My hand shot out reflexively from beneath the cloak, grabbing his arm just in time to save him from what would have doubtless been an unceremonious bath in the horrendous pink goop.

The violent motion, however, had caused my cloak to slip off of me, giving me a clearer view of the intruder.

Well… ok... I suppose the more accurate description would be that we found ourselves mere inches away from each other's faces, our nose tips ghosting against one another. Our eyes locked together then and a sort of frozen panic held us in place.

I blushed as his features came into focus. Each line of his face looked like it had been drawn carefully by an artist's practiced hands. And decidedly not the one who'd come up with "DO NOT REMOVE FROM SKIF"

No, whoever had come up with this boy had been a master, had taken their time, sculpting and molding with the utmost care. Soft yet aristocratic, maculine but also androgynous.

'Almost... Pretty' i thought to myself absently.

After a few moments, I realized horrified, that I'd been staring for far too long.

Dazed, I immediately helped him back to a standing position, only then checking to see if he was alright.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" I blurted out again. "First rule of snooping in the department of mysteries is not to touch anything you are actually familiar with and to stay ten feet away from everything else" I offered with a grin, trying to hide my embarrassment over the situation.

The boy studied me silently with a quizzical expression, gears turning fast in his mind. Only a moment elapsed before those expressive eyes exploded suddenly into motion. They began darting around my face, not so much examining me as I'm sure assessing how much trouble he was in and how best he could escape it. There was deliberate intensity to those teal orbs that made me wonder, not for the first time, who on earth he was.

"Don't worry about that. I would be in as much trouble as you if they found me in here. Besides, I wouldn't tell on you anyway. I'm more wondering how you got in than i am eager to report you" I finished, still smiling.

'Disarm, charm, don't let him see your fire Albys' I whispered to myself nervously.

The blond seemed to relax a little at that, but I hadn't reassured him enough to keep him from looking calculatingly back towards the door. It was as if this kid were still contemplating the possibility of running away.

'Overly cautious for someone my age' I thought humorously to myself as I watched him.

'He's smart though...' that much I could tell.

"Thank you for saving me… but… um… I think you can let go now"

His cheeks flushed red in the dim light.

My gaze dropped downwards, realizing that I still had hold of his hand. I quickly released his arm and stepped back.

"Um... Sorry..." I mumbled stupidly, cursing to myself. Why was i being so weird? So distracted?

The boy merely stared for a moment before resuming, a skeptical expression clouding his face.

"You actually don't realize who I am do you Potter?"

I struggled to place him, wracking my computer like brain for an answer until the answer finally dawned on me…

"Now I know where i've seen you" I shot seriously. "You were with Mr and Mrs. Malfoy at the last god-awful ministry ball. I saw you talking to a bunch of officials and was just about to save you from the boring old crones when our dads started arguing. My uncle told me to stay as far away from your grandfather as possible..." Oh… well that was really rude.

'Why can't I seem to control myself right now?'

My thoughts began to jumble as a lightheadedness washed over me. My internal dialogue was roaring abuse and criticism.

"I am so sorry… I only meant… my dad and uncle are always talking a lot of nonsense about the war… I don't really pay attention to anything my uncle Ron says unless its about chess" I muttered quickly in excuse for my awkwardness, desperate to repair my mistakes. I was always making mistakes with other kids...

Why couldn't I just collect myself? I was normally so composed.

My eyes drifted back to the pink light of the potion. 'Maybe the spellwork has a radial area of effect' I wondered suddenly to myself as my head swam dizzily with equations about spell drift and wave theory.

There rose another brief moment of intense contemplation before Scorpius issued me a small half hearted smile.

"Don't worry about it, grandfather might be a hate filled lunatic, but really he's as harmless as a pygmy puff. Well for the most part" he added, his smile widening. "Besides my dad says a great deal about your family too… But you don't seem so bad. And you did save me even though i'm just a Malf..." He looked down seeming to falter at his last statement.

"Oh... again don't worry about it. Even if I had realized you were a Malfoy… I still wouldn't have acted any differently"

He flinched knowingly at my words, even though I had meant to reassure him. I could tell he was hurt somewhat by what i'd said. "and you don't really look like you could ever be evil" I blurted even more awkwardly, thinking to myself that he looked like an angel.

Why can't I control myself damnit?!

The pink of the fountain was glowing so softly. Something about it must have been affecting me. There was no other explanation.

His face began to flush brighter at my statement, before suddenly his expression shifted into something quite diabolical. "Oh really, well then you don't know me very well do you little Potter. I can be quite the demon. Or hadn't you heard the rumors?" he offered fiendishly with a smirk.

The smirk looked almost identical to the one his father had made talking to mine. I smiled widely at that. I'd heard all manner of ridiculous things about Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy... most of which I didn't believe. Seven eyes, a forked tongue, cloven hooves...

As my mind wandered, my thoughts eventually jolted back to my original question. 'How could he possibly have managed to sneak into the DoM?'

"SO demon. How did you get in here anyway?" I asked skeptically.

"What do you mean, how? I rode in on a heard of wild dragons as they crashed onto the roof of Whitehall. How else?" Scorpius's sarcasm wasn't appreciated. "I walked through the front door obviously."

I hadn't been amused.

"That isn't possible. The locks on these doors are the most complex in the wizarding world. Even I have to sneak in behind an unspeakable and I have to use this little trinket to do it too."

Scorpius glanced wide eyed at the object bunched under my arm, its silvery patterns almost iridescent in the odd radiance of the chamber.

"Something you aren't mentioning then, demon?"

"What? No. I promise. I merely wandered away from father who was having a boring conversation with the MM. Something about this room drew me to it and when I touched the handle to the door, it glowed and opened on its own. That's all I know. I was just…"

"Lonely?" I asked carefully.

"Bored" He corrected.

"That is impossibly strange. The chamber of love is dangerous, more so even than the hall of prophecies. That's why the locks are so complex." I offered, confounded by his story. How could this boy have released magic that advanced unless he was meant to do so. 'So then the room wanted him to enter?'

"You seem to know a lot about the inner workings of the Department of Mysteries?" Scor was staring suspiciously at me with a raised eyebrow. Who was he to be suspicious? I almost laughed.

"Erm… well… I sneak in here a lot actually…" It was a sheepish reply. Well slightly more than a lot…

'every chance I get' might have been the more apt description.

"Lonely?" he inquired.

"Bored" I parroted in reply. "Besides, my aunt Hermione says I'm too smart for either a Potter or a Weasley. She's always teaching me stuff I shouldn't know yet for a boy my age. I wish I could just stay home and learn from her. I'm much too scared to actually go to Hogwarts…" the thought of being around so many people really freaked me out. "Anyway, if anyone would know about the DoM it would be my aunt Hermione. She is after all the Spea... the… Sp..." I tried over and over forgetting about my aunts secrecy spell. "Damn fidelus charm, thats already a commonly known fact! You can look that up on Magipedia i'm pretty sure! Why would it try and censure that of all things?"

Scorpius chuckled then. "You talk a lot." he managed between laughs. At least he was amused. "Well… learning directly from the Speaker of Mysteries might be a remarkable opportunity… but why don't you want to go to Hogwarts? Aren't we both supposed to start our first year in September?"

"James says I'm a snake and that I'm going to end up in Slytherin, which would be torture. Can you imagine being surrounded by a group of traitors half of whose parents my father helped jail..." as soon as the words left my mouth Scorpius looked both disappointed and irritated. Mostly he just looked sad. I couldn't imagine what it was like for him to grow up as the son of the most hated man in Wizarding Britain. I felt worse that i'd inadvertently insulted him for the third time now. I normally wouldn't have been so careless.

After a long silence I started speaking again.

I don't really know what possessed me to tell one of my biggest secrets to a complete stranger, but something about the pink glow on his face was so inviting. That and he seemed genuinely upset by my comment. Even though he was so controlled and reserved at those parties he still always seemed sad and somehow lonely too. Bored he'd protested, but I knew loneliness when I saw it.

"You have the same eyes as I do… piercing and deliberate. i'd reckon we are more alike than you realize. For one I... I'm not the golden child everybody writes about in the papers… They're afraid of me… which makes them hate me. Not everyone obviously… but my family and the people who matter."

He looked at me strangely then, confused by my confession.

"Not that I doubt your claim… or the reason you decided to tell me that little story... but why would they be afraid? You know how the world feels about me right… why on earth would they hate you."

I broke into an incomprehensible explanation, ashamed and horrified both by my actions then and by my inability to stop myself from sharing the story.

"There was this kid once… Lils… that is my sister… came crying to me that he had twisted her arm. I… got so mad… I mean … she was all bruised and … my magic went seriously out of control. I accidentally conjured some fiendfyre… wandlessly that is." I stumbled belligerently through the story, trying with difficulty to get it over with. "I don't know if wasn't trying to kill him..." I added darkly. "His parents took him to St. Mungo's and mine had to pull so many strings just to keep the affair out of the Daily Prophet… That's why I really don't want to go to Hogwarts… that's why I'm so afraid of Slytherin. I'm a wandless adept… I have a tendency to lose control of my magic. At least while I'm at home nobody will get hurt… and nobody else will learn to fear me."

I paused then for a moment to gauge his reaction. I was shocked at myself for having brought it up to a Malfoy of all people. Despite his earlier assertion, he seemed just as lonely as I was. That's what did it.

"Scorpius... I've never told anyone that story before… so please don't repeat it" I added cautiously, looking at the strange boy whose eyes seemed to see like nobody I had ever met. He was awake somehow when all the other children our age always felt… asleep.

A choked and heavy silence filled the air as we both merely stood there observing each other. I searched his eyes for some sign of fear or disapproval, but it never came. A long time passed beneath the glow of the fountain before Scorpius finally spoke.

"I… I think that you did exactly what I would have, that is if anyone had thought to hurt my—"

Before he could finish his sentence we heard loud voices from outside, followed by the sound of expensive shoes clacking on stone.

"—Shit" I cursed eyeing the door, turning back when I heard the fear in the boy's voice.

"I… they can't find me in here! Father… they'll... I don't know what they'll do!" Scorpius sputtered with wide-eyed panic. His fear resonated and I knew I had no choice but to hide him. They would jail the Malfoys if they thought they were spying or tampering with ministry affaires. I doubt Scorpius would have even come in here if he'd known what this place was. "Please, you have to help me"

I nodded, jumping into action as quickly as I could.

However, as I tried to throw the cloak over both of us, we somehow managed to stumble over the edge of the fountain.

In that brief moment, time seemed to slow itself to a standstill. I watched in horror as the realization hit me along one extended stream of images, stretched out over the horizon of time, that nothing would ever be the same again. Just like that my life had changed forever.

Scorpius and I hit the goop like a drop of water hits a boiling stovetop. My skin felt suddenly like fire and warmth and chaos. The sun itself was coursing through my veins as the magic exploded through our muscles and sinew. It was the strangest sensation i'd ever felt. It traveled deeper then, into my heart and then my soul. Whispers echoed into the air of things i couldn't comprehend. Stories about partners and compromise and friendship and trust. Poems of sacrifice and loyalty. Songs of trials to be faced alone and not.

After we both half drowned ourselves in the pink ooze I was finally able to find my footing. I pulled Scorpius up by the hand, intending to drag him to safety when suddenly we both began to glow at the point contact. It lasted only a few seconds but every second brought a thousand new and alien sensations to my brain.

We were oddly close beneath the cloak, merely staring at each other in fearful silence as spellwork took root. Neither of us could seem to release the other's hand. I realized suddenly that the shrill screaming was aunt Hermione getting closer by the second.

"You incompetent fools!" My aunt scolded wildly. "The doors are self locking! They however don't open themselves, they don't offer you tea and crumpets in the morning and they are most definitely not, self-closing! The spell work is quite complex enough as it is. MERLIN PRESERVE ME! This is basic protocol! You don't ever, under any circumstances leave doors open in the DoM. This is a more secure location than Gringotts for christ's sake! Is it too much to ask for my Unspeakables to close the damned doors?"

"M'am I'm certain I shut that entrance…"

—Well apparently not. Don't let me catch you within one-hundred feet of me again or I'll have your wand snapped and your memory wiped.

—Yes M'am… but I could have sworn…

—Well see to it that it doesn't happen again you miserable oaf or so help me by the goddess i'll...

The door slammed at that and my aunt's reprimands grew fainter, as did the clicking of her heels on the marble. When my fear at being discovered subsided, I became acutely aware that we were still both glowing. Several minutes passed as we both abandoned any attempt at dislodging ourselves from one another. There was nothing but the sound of our synchronized breathing, the ocean teal blue of his eyes and the strange pink glow of our bodies.

When the glowing subsided we slowly pulled away from each other, daring finally to speak.

"That was weird…" I offered, not quite sure what horrible fate our clumsiness would repay us with down the line. "If I were sure that our parents wouldn't murder us for our stupidity I might risk a trip to St. Mungo's Hospital to make sure we weren't going to develop eyes all over our bodies—Scor you are ok right?" I added worriedly examining his bewildered expression.

"I'm… fine… I think…" He offered panting and a little flushed. "What did you call me?"

"Oh… um... sorry. I guess I just… the nickname sort of fits better than Scorpius" I added nervously. "I could keep calling you demon instead if you preferred that?"

"Oh like Albus Severus is such a gift." The blond shot back with a tepid grin.

"I know, I know, which is why you can call me Al" I countered. "But bugger that, I'm still more curious about what just happened to us, and how you managed to get in here. Its a commonly held misconception that that is a fountain of Amortentia, however, my aunt mentioned once that the liquid is actually more peculiar and much more extraordinary. They don't even know what to call it. I would love to talk to my cousin Rose about this…" I added contemplatively. Scorpius simply smiled.

"What?" I asked confused.

"I was thinking there is no way you wouldn't be placed into Ravenclaw with curiosity and intelligence like that. Well you do also talk incessantly. If you went to Hogwarts, then I would at least have one friend at school" The blond added solemnly. "Even though the Malfoys retained much of their wealth and political connections, the war is still a sore topic for most and Father told me to expect backlash at school from everyone, no matter which house I end up in. In truth I'm as nervous as you and I have just as much reason to fear being hated" Scorpius finished staring off into space. He looked too full of understanding for somebody our age. He's like me.

"You know… you're hardly as proper or guarded as most of the wealthy purebloods I know. I would have expected your father never to allow any weakness to slip by that flawless mask." I added smugly. He looked at me with eyes that bore right through my skin and into my thoughts themselves.

"And YOU are too perceptive for an eleven year old Potter-Weasley. That and maybe you are just not important enough for me to have to hide my true thoughts from." countered the blond with a snarky smirk. "Its only that... well you mentioned something personal to me… so I thought… I would do the same" the blond stammered slightly in the way of explanation.

"You should get out of here. I'm sure your father will be looking for you. And I don't care what my aunt said, she's reporting this to DoM security. They'll be back any minute."

I had just realized for the second time how much trouble we would both be in if anyone found us here.

Scor and I listened at the edge of the door before deciding it was ok to open again. Only after we had safely dashed through the opening and out into the next hall did we stop to catch our breath, smiling like idiots and grateful for having evaded detection. I turned to examine him once more, not knowing or comprehending in that moment that this boy I'd just met, had barely even known, would someday become the most important person in my life.

"Thanks for saving me… twice. It was nice meeting you Al. I… I really do hope I'll get to see you again at Hogwarts." Scor offered finally, before running down the corridor towards the MM's office. Something frightening about the way my hand tingled told me he most definitely would be seeing me again.