Resisting the urge to sigh deeply, Sariah pulled her scrolls from her bag. Coloured string encircled each one, with decorative tags denoting what was written within. Her ink-blotched attempt at the potions assignment didn't need its emerald tag; the angry black blots and crossing outs were visible even from the outside. Hers was still a few inches too short even though she'd answered all of the questions. She eventually found an unused one.

"I'll give you the answers, you write them down," she said, passing him a self-inking quill and the parchment.

Scorpius leant forward to accept them. Without warning, their compartment door swung open, and a pair of younger Gryffindors burst into the compartment.

"Don't sign anything! It's a trap!" a red-haired boy shouted boisterously.

"Yeah! Let him fail his O.W.Ls, and take the rap!" the smaller one followed, his black hair shaking around his face. 

Apparently, this was the extent of their prank because the two set off down the corridor laughing. Scorpius cursed and shot out of the compartment with his wand raised.

Sariah heard two resounding thuds, and the laughter halted abruptly. Shocked, she followed Scorpius into the corridor. He appeared to have tripped them over.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked them, towering over the pair. The boys, no older than second-years, seemed petrified by Scorpius.

"You're a Malfoy," one of them muttered.

"And do you know what Malfoys do to brats who interrupt their business?" He didn't raise his voice, but it chilled her. The black-haired boy shook his head slowly. "You don't? Of course, you don't; because those brats go missing. They disappear. They get themselves involved in accidents, like Archie Pewter. " He paused as if to savour view outside, as green fields rushed past. "What an awful accident it would be, if two students leant too far out that window."

Sariah watched them tremble on the ground, vowing not to tell anyone what they'd overheard or seen. Scorpius made her sick. Who would brag about what happened to Archie Pewter? A blood purist, maybe. When he finally let the boys stumble off down the corridor, he turned back to her, ignoring her icy scowl.

"You didn't have to do that," Sariah said defensively. "They'll probably have nightmares for weeks."

"I could have done worse." He shrugged dismissively, "Now, where were we?"

For one awful moment, she wished she had a name that commanded that kind of authority, before shaking the thought off like it was a bad dream. They worked through the assignment, covering the first few questions in a clinical, detached manner. It quickly deteriorated after that; the next questions required Scorpius' opinion, something Sariah was beginning to dislike immensely.

"You can't just say the internet is useless!" she protested. "The textbook practically vomits its praises on you."

He scoffed. "I haven't read the textbook. One look at the muggles at Kings Cross is enough. They're practically Inferi. Besides, if I wanted to use the Facebook or e-message someone, I'd send an owl."

"But what owl fly across a country in seconds? Isn't that useful?"

"If there's a power outage, it wouldn't work."

"Owls can get sick, blown off-course, injured, eaten, or discovered by muggles," she retorted. "Online messages don't get get sick."

"It's an owl. You don't need a qualified owl technician to fix an owl."

She groaned. "Why don't you just imagine what Professor Hardings wants to read, and write that?"

"Because I've delegated my homework to you, indefinitely."

"Can't you just try?"

"Praise and worship to the muggle ones," Scorpius said mockingly. "Even though they're obviously beneath us, we should submit to their subordinate motives and poison all the owls."

"Obviously beneath us? Name one wizard that's been to the moon!" She stood up with the intention of storming out of the room.

Scorpius smiled coyly, obviously enjoying her reaction. "Are you sure you want to leave? I'd hate to have to tip off the MMA office about your car."

Sariah glared at scenery outside, the Express was travelling across a bridge so thin that it had to be magical. Clouds and mountains loomed, grey in the distance. "Can you admit, even in some small way, that muggles have coped with not having magic?"

He paused. "Considering the massive disability of not having magic, Muggles... have done sufficiently."

"Let's go from there then."

***

She was so glad to be free of Scorpius' company that she practically skipped towards the carriages that would take her up to the castle. She glared daggers at his back, as he skirted cautiously around the carriage front. It was almost as if he thought it might bite him. Maybe I'll be able to blackmail him back about his absurd fear of carriages, Sariah thought. Could his fear of muggle transportation be the key to her salvation? The thought of doing double the amount of homework in her favourite subject did nothing to lighten her mood. She was so engrossed in her plotting that she didn't take notice who she was sitting with until the carriage jolted up the hill toward the castle a moment later.

It was the two small Gryffindor boys. They huddled at the opposite end of their seats, too terrified to even look in her direction. Judging by their glances out their side of the carriage, they looked in danger of flinging themselves off the carriage just to get away from her. She apologised with no success.

"What do you mean?" one of them squeaked. "We haven't met you before. N-never."

Some older students, presumably siblings, tried to coax an answer out of them. Sariah sighed and stared down at the lake. She tried her best to ignore the murmured whispers of the carriage. The last of the sunset set its waters alight, like a giant panel of steel pulled from a furnace. Their undecipherable words made her feel awful. When the carriage pulled up by the castle, she fled it like a crime scene, scowling as she stalked into the Entrance hall. Scorpius Malfoy's mood had rubbed off on her. She hoped that food might improve it.