Once inside the snug interior of the Anglia, Sariah explained welding to him. "It's for the front of the car, to replace the rust hole, and anywhere else that needs the support. All we have to do is straighten out the cauldron, and heat both the metals to they stick together." She flipped open the textbook. "I figured there might be something in here."

Any hope for progress she'd had melted away grimly after that.

"Here, let me try something," Scorpius said. "Accrio 'metal'" he said. With every flick of his pointed black wand, the book's pages flickered, the word 'metal' tugging towards his wand. They skimmed the entry, then Scorpius would flick his wand again, it would reopen at another page.

Sariah couldn't contain her excitement. "I can't believe there's a searching spell! After all this time."

"It's nothing new," Scorpius said. "After you spent all that time preaching the wonders of the internet to me, I couldn't deny that a 'Controlling F' search would be useful. So I played around with a few combinations of accio that I found in the library." He shrugged. "It works nicely."

"Can I try?" She hesitantly called the spell. A surge of excitement shot through her as it worked. "This is the best thing since the internet, seriously."

He smiled, genuinely. "Don't flick your wand so vigorously," he cautioned, as she searched through for 'weld' and 'join'. "You want it to be the laziest summoning spell you've ever done. It'll summon the words physically off the paper if you put too much effort into it."

"That seems very specific. Is that experience talking?"

"Madame Prince was very unhappy with me, as was her origami swarm. I think I nearly got added to the blacklist."

They looked on without success, flicking through to the back cover of the textbook each time.

"How do they make cauldrons?" Sariah asked Scorpius, when they ran out of words to search by. "Maybe there's a book in the library with some spell we could use. Or goblins? They make armour and stuff, right?"

"That's for goblins to know. They aren't exactly forthcoming in their knowledge. The first wizard to pry that secret out of them would be rewarded by the Order of Merlin. Have you heard of Gerald Gizzada? He came close, but now he's permanently banned from any goblin city in Britain."

Sariah sighed, "I wish it was as easy as making Gizzada."

"Gizzada?"

"It's a dessert. My mum used to make it all the time when I was little," Sariah said. "She'd roll out the pastry like a professional chef. I helped her sometimes."

"I've never heard of Gizzada," Scorpius said.

"They don't make it at Hogwarts," she said. "It's delicious; all coconutty and gingery-" she stopped, remembering the best summer evenings at home, eating so much Gizzada for dessert you could barely walk afterwards. This was back when Jerome would still come over for dinner and cut across the paddocks on his way home. Everything from before an owl had smashed through their kitchen window the morning after the incident. Jerome had been there for the incident too, she remembered. He'd never brought it up with her.

"Are you alright?" Scorpius asked.

"Hm?" Sariah said. She shook her head. "I'm fine. I was hoping this book would be more useful, that's all."

"Well, if the car isn't driveable, we might as well study instead," Scorpius said.

"Study for what?"

Moments later, they were outside in the clearing. Scorpius gathered a few pine-cones that he'd found in the backseat of the Anglia. He seemed strangely nonplussed about going into the back of the Anglia and its terrifying, space-time warping backseat.

"Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts, all in one," he said, throwing a pine-cone up and down in his hand.

"Accio moratus." He charmed it with the same spell he'd put on the skipping stones the week before.

"So you're just going to throw pine-cones at me, until this works?" Sariah asked.

"That's the premise, yes. Depulso is a fourth year spell, so think of it as revision. It'll be useful, I promise." He bowled the first one at her gently.

Sariah stepped curtly out of its path. It hit the ground and rolled in an uneven spiral before careening back into Scorpius' hand.

"Come on, you have to try. Magic is like anything - scoring with a quaffle, push-ups - you have to practise to be any good."

He threw it again, aiming exaggeratedly to her left side.

"Depulso," Sariah said, flicking her wand. She flinched, as the pinecone whistled past her, barely changing course.

Scorpius shook his head. "Your wand movement is off. You should be able to deflect it back to me." He mimed the movement exaggeratedly, and they continued.

Sariah readjusted her grip on her wand. Somehow, if she tried and failed in front of Scorpius, it would be that much worse than just failing in class. Everyone there expected her to screw up anyway. After a few more duds, and Scorpius miming the movement for her again, she finally deflected one - which rolled limply along the damp forest floor - and then another. He began to aim them directly at her. They switched roles a few times, a chorus of "Depulsos" rang loudly into the morning forest air.

"That was a good one," Scorpius said, catching the pinecone she'd deflected.

Sariah allowed herself a smile. "Thank- Depuslo!" she shouted, as the pinecone sped towards her. "Hey! That wasn't fair!"

Scorpius winced as he caught it, shaking his hand out. "Neither was that. You want to go again? It'll be faster this time."

"Just try me," Sariah said. She shuffled her leg backwards into a defensive stance. With her free hand, she beckoned him on.

Scorpius smiled, and bowled a speeding overarm. As the pinecone careened towards her, she shifted her weight to her back foot. The forest litter slipped beneath her shoe. "Depulso!" she yelped - but her wand arm was windmilling for balance, the world was tilting upwards, and the pinecone was getting nearer and nearer to her face. Shit. She thought preemptively. She looked away, and braced for impact.

"Sariah!"

Sariah groaned at the pain radiating from her right cheek. She probed it gingerly with her gloved fingers. Her eyes watered at the force of the impact.

A blurry Scorpius-shaped silhouette called out to her: "I'm really sorry - are you alright?"

"Geez," she joked, blinking back tears. "You should be on the Quidditch team with a throw like that."

Scorpius pulled her up to a standing position. He took a close look at her cheek, Sariah noted the way streaks of blue danced around with the grey in his eyes, almost invisible unless you looked carefully.

"We need to get you to the hospital wing," he said. "Your cheek's a bit of a mess."

Sariah pulled her phone from her pocket, and sized the injury with the front camera. Pinpricks of blood dotted her cheekbone, from the sharpest spines of the pinecone.

"Is that a mirror charm?" Scorpius asked, moving to stand over her shoulder.

"Just a regular camera," she said. "Here, smile."

She showed him the photo afterwards, where his apologetic grimace hovered her right shoulder. "And no, before you ask, my phone isn't expensive enough for moving photos."

Sariah moved to farewell the Anglia, when there was a cracking sound high above them. They turned abruptly, to see a tree branch crash to the ground.

"I think that's where your misfired Depulso ended up," Scorpius said, examining the end of the broken limb.

As they walked back to the castle, Scorpius spoke: "You know, you're not half as bad as I thought you were."

"Are you kidding? Look what happened. I'm useless." Her cheek burned more than she was willing to let on.

"You take a while to pick things up, but you work them out eventually.  If an arachnomantula ambushed you, you could hold your own with Depulso."

She scoffed. "As long as I didn't slip, you mean."

"Well, there's that too," Scorpius said. "Have you considered buying bug spray? I read that muggles find it very effective."

"I think bear mace would be more effective, given the size of those freak spiders. Here-" she brought out the crunchy Kit-Kat she'd bought from Honeydukes. "Try some of this, it's delicious."

Scorpius walked slowly with her. When they reached the forest edge, a group of students were milling down by the lake, throwing things into the water. The water bubbled voraciously. She figured they were feeding the giant squid.

Scorpius stopped as soon as he saw them, a few meters from the forest edge.

"You're not coming?" Sariah asked, turning around to face him.

"Are you kidding? Do you know what they'll think if they see us together with your cheek like that? It'll be Archie Pewter all over again."

Her stomach churned at the mention what Scorpius had done to Archie during First year. "How is this anything like that? He got emergency Floo Powdered to St Mungoes and transferred to Durmstrang straight afterwards. This was an accident."

"They'll see what they want to see." Scorpius said, with an intensity that surprised her. "Do you actually know what happened to Archie Pewter?"

Her stomach churned, she didn't like thinking of this side of Scorpius. The one whose actions were so opposite from how he acted around her. "He was your room mate, and you-"

"-Go on, say it."

"They say you pushed him down the Grand Staircase," Sariah said quietly. "He fell seven floors."

"And that's what you believe?" he asked venomously. "That I pushed my muggle-born roommate down the stairs to get rid of him?"

"You've never denied it. You scared those boys on the train half to death just by mentioning it."

"That's not how it happened," Scorpius said. "We were walking back from Astronomy and I offered him some Peanut Brittle. Turns out, Archie Pewter was allergic to peanuts. He collapsed on the stairs and fell. It happened so ridiculously fast. Peeves saw the whole thing and spread the rumour. Do you remember the song?"

Sariah nodded. Peeves had bellowed how Scorpius was following his father's footsteps, a reference to how the previous Headmaster of Hogwarts had been murdered at the Astronomy tower. It was a very unpopular song. Naturally, Peeves sang it for weeks. 

"It didn't matter what I said after that." Scorpius said. "The School Board heard Archie's story, so I wasn't expelled. But no one else believed me. Eventually, I stopped trying to convince them." He bit into his lip, as if wrestling more words to come out. None did. 

"God, that's awful," she said somberly. She felt an overwhelming urge to hug the pale boy. She moved forward, but he flinched and stepped away. "For what it's worth, I believe you."

He shrugged, "Thank you. You can't tell anyone about this, naturally."

"But if they knew-"

"I'll keep your Wi-Fi secret, you keep this one. If you spill mine, the internet at Hogwarts might go out, for good."

She scowled. "Fine."

Sariah stormed up the hill to Hogwarts alone. The news about Archie Pewter had shaken her. She stumbled on a patch of tussock grass. Inside, several portraits tutted as she passed them by. "You'll want to get that checked out, dearie," said a witch with less fashion sense than a rotting potato. "I hope the other witch looks worse!" She cackled.

She caught sight of Britta at the landing of the grand staircase,  Britta gasped, then latched onto her arm like a leech and guided her up to the hospital wing.

"What happened, Sariah?"

"I- uh- my cheek hurts," Sariah said lamely.

"Did you fall? Are you concussed? How many fingers am I holding up?" She waved them faster than even a seeker could follow.

"Uh, three?" Sariah guessed, nearly putting her foot through a trick stair. 

Britta pushed open the doors to the hospital wing. They swung open like a western saloon. Inside, the hospital wing smelt of disinfectant, lemon juice, and something bitter and indistinguishable.

 Asami rose from behind the front desk. She ushered Sariah to sit on one of the available beds, and sent Britta away with a sherbert lemon from the glass jar on her desk. Sariah fidgeted with the bedspread, and glanced up at the ornate ceiling.

"Let's take a look at that cheek of yours, Say-rye-ah. Does anything else hurt? What happened?"

"It's Sariah, and just my cheek," Sariah said. "I fell onto a pinecone."

"Sorry, Sariah." Asami tutted sympathetically. "It looks pretty painful. I'll need to check a few things, okay?"

Sariah nodded, as Asami ran her wand past her cheek and haloed it around her head. "Hmm... Alright, you're lucky; there's no more damage than what's on the surface. How are your knees and palms? Any scrapes?"

"They're fine," Sariah said, waving her hands for Asami's inspection.

"Let's get your cheek cleaned up then." She produced a clear vial. "Take this please, it'll stop the pain."

Sariah took the vial in her hand. "Does it contain animal products?"

Asami frowned, "This one does have newt eye. One tick-" she disappeared into the back room, before returning with a large bottle, virtually radioactively green. She summoned a measure of the vile smelling liquid into a small glass. "We normally use it for people with allergies. It's animal product-free. I'll warn you though, it makes some people pretty spacey."

"It'll have to do," Sariah said. Her nose wrinkled at the smell, and the way the green substance oozed up the sides of glass, as if it were trying to escape.

She slugged it down, and felt the change almost immediately. Sariah sighed. Her cheek numb, Asami eased small chips of pine cone from her cheek. Sariah barely registered the clinks in the metallic bowl on the tray next to the bed. Asami smoothed the wound over with a golden gel, and summoned an ice pack.

"Now, you just rest up here for a bit. Sing out if you need anything, hun."

Sariah yawned. The ceiling seemed to be swaying.. "Can I go to my dormitory?" She felt like she was sinking into the bed. 

"If you're feeling up to it in fifteen minutes, certainly. We've got to wait for that potion to wear off first. It's been a bad time of year for falls, seems everyone's been a little uncoordinated lately."

"Mm, like Scorpius?" His name slipped out before she could stop it.

"Scorpius Malfoy? No, he hasn't stopped in." Asami said. "Did he fall too?"

It felt like she'd been doused in icy lake water from head to toe. Scorpius hadn't been to the Hospital wing? His bruised face shot through her memory. She couldn't believe she'd even offered up his name. "No," she said, running a stream of possible deflections up in her head. "His boots are dragon skin, they have much better grip. Asami, if there are dragon sanctuaries, why you can buy dragonskin gloves and boots?"

The nurse looked at her oddly. "I don't have the answer for that one, Sariah. You'd have to ask the Care of Magical Creatures Professor. You'd better stay for half an hour, I'll check up on you then."

"Thanks Asami." Sariah pretended to be satisfied by that answer, and leant back into the pillow.

She remembered back to last week, when the Anglia had nearly crushed Scorpius. The angry purple and black splotches that stained his face, his eye practically swollen shut. Why hadn't he been to the hospital wing? She hoped she hadn't got him in trouble.