Dun.

Dun. Dun.

Racing smoothly through the corridors on his tiptoes, a Slytherin boy hid behind one of the ancient marbled walls as a group of students passed him.

As that group of giggling witches, all dressed in their Spring best, were in the right spot for him to move unnoticed, the boy continued to proceed with his tip-toeing as he zeroed in on his target turning on one of the halls.

Dun.

Dun. Dun.

Hiding behind another wall as his target stopped for a moment to adjust their clothing, the Slytherin saw two of his thickheaded house-mates shove a little First Year Hufflepuff down a few steps. There was a look of fear and like he was about to wet his wizard-shorts on the young student's  face as Joseph Flint and Thomas Nott roared with laughter at his expense.

Shrugging as he quickly wondered why the brains of the operation, Damien McLaggen, was not among his loyal twats, the Slytherin waved it off and continued on as Professor Slughorn came waddling out one of the classrooms, stuffing something in his pocket with a suspicious glint in his eyes.

Dun.

Dun. Dun.

Taking a giant huff of air, with his eyes wide open, the Slytherin took a dive toward the crook of a wall as the Potions Master was stopped by Peyton Weasley; the redheaded boy started pleading for an extra day to turn in his essay or else his mummy Pansy will tear him a new one.

Crawling a few centimeters to the edge, the Slytherin poked an eye threw the thick legs of Professor Slughorn to make sure his target was still visible to him. 

"Please, Professor, please," Peyton continued to beg, looking tempted to toss himself on his knees due to the professor's hesitation. "The term is almost over, and if I don't get at least an Exceeds Expectations in your subject Mum will send me to visit her family for the summer."

Rolling his eyes as his fellow Slytherin was putting their house to shame, and feeling slightly upset and insulted that Slughorn, as head of Slytherin House, was not willing to pardon a Slytherin, the boy huffed silently to himself as the two distractions kept on their feet.

"I'll polish the cauldrons for the rest of the semester, Professor! Come on!"

Shaking his head with a small exhale, Professor Slughorn looked at Ron Weasley's child blankly. "All right, m'boy, all right. There is one condition, however."

"Anything." Peyton grinned, looking victorious in his eyes. Begging may be underneath the morals his mum taught him, but Peyton couldn't deny that it worked wonders. Kind of like when his dad does it when he asks for seconds at dinner and gets his way.

"You have to get your Uncle Harry to come and visit me before the year ends. I've got a lot to discuss with that boy."

Before frustration could ruin his entire operation and he stood up to shout at Weasley and at the professor for being the ones to blame, the Slytherin snorted as Peyton agreed instantly before walking off and the professor continued on with his own path.

Jumping onto his feet, he managed to catch his target turn to the main entrance of Hogwarts, no doubt heading for the grounds.

Dun.

Dun. Dun.

His assumption was correct, but the Slytherin was stopped behind a group of Ravenclaws as the target stopped once more by Dawn Thomas, daughter of Luna and Dean Thomas.

As he tried focusing on their lips, almost as if he'd get the juicy gossip of their conversation like that, the Slytherin was quickly distracted by the interaction as he spotted a well-known blonde Gryffindor walk hastily toward a girl that almost made her way into the Great Hall.

"Lana!"

Turning in all of her grace, Lana McLaggen's expression appeared to be disappointed as she noticed the boy who called her. Not the one that she had expected for a while now...that one that hasn't shown up for days.

 "Oh, hello," she greeted in a low voice.

Taking a much needed breath, Louis Weasley stopped in front of Lana looking a nervous-wreck. "Um...you do remember me, right?" he asked hesitantly. "Louis. Louis Weasley," he said after the girl remained silent. "I'm Al's cousin?"

Watching the interaction, the hidden Slytherin chuckled to himself. That Weasley had no swagger whatsoever and he was part veela!

"I know who you are," Lana replied after another silent second. "Do you need anything?"

Louis blinked. "Um...Oh, well...I just wanted to — how are you?" He finally settled on something, babbling was heredity and he needed to fight it before she got bored of his nonsense.

The Slytherin smacked a hand to his forehead, that Weasley was an idiot and put the male-race to shame.

"Great," Lana replied politely, but sounding very unsure and confused at the same time. "Why?" she added, raising a dark eyebrow.

"Um, well, rumor around the Gryffindor common room is that Malfoy ditched you." It slipped out fast before Louis could stop it. "I mean...it looks like you and Malfoy broke up, and I...erm...I just wanted to know how you...were."

Lana sulked even more. Being reminded about her break-up with Scorpius Malfoy was the last thing she wanted to hear. "Thanks for the concern, but I'll be all right."

Before the Slytherin spying on the conversation could turn to his target as Lana turned on her heels, he was stopped from continuing on with his mission as Louis Weasley shouted the unthinkable— what nobody thought he would ever have the quaffles to do.

"I'm sorry, what?" Lana asked, looking shocked herself.

Red in the face, Louis took a shaky step forward. "Would...Would you like to go out with me?" He inhaled. "On a date?"

"Um—"

"Look, I've fancied you for a while," Louis confessed when Lana looked ready to reject him. "I know I'm not in Slytherin, I'm a menace, I do idiotic things, I can be a prat, and I hate your brother, but beside all of that I really am a good bloke," he continued, not knowing that the hidden Slytherin was chuckling quietly behind the group of Ravenclaws. "And...well, I know I can make you happy if you'd just give me a chance, just one. That's all I ask for."

Say no. Say no. Say no, the Slytherin chanted mentally at Lana.

In another few seconds of quiet, Lana smiled. "One date, Louis," and at the response that nobody expected, she pulled on a smile as the Gryffindor gasped. "I'll be glad to go out with you."

Boo! the Slytherin scoffed, turning away from Lana and Louis as he grew disappointed.

At that exact moment, Dawn Thomas waved goodbye to his target, leaving the target's path clear to head to their destination without the Second Year. And so, he began tip-toeing again.

Dun.

Dun. Dun.

Dodging Professor Longbottom, the Slytherin felt the fresh air of the grounds collide with his face as he exited the confinement of the castle; the laughter of students and chirping of the birds invaded his hearing as his target took the direct path to the Black Lake.

"Well, you're looking grim, Longbottom—" Tossing himself on the grass, rolling behind a bench occupied by Savanna Zabini and Fred Weasley, the Slytherin breathed to himself before he collided with James Potter. "Something got your knickers in a twist?" The eldest of the Potter children asked the girl he stopped in her path.

From the place where he was hiding, undetected by Savanna and Fred, the Slytherin saw Alice Longbottom scoff at the Gryffindor. "Shove off, Potter," she replied nastily, so uncharacteristically for someone with Neville Longbottom's blood.

"Oi, don't snap at me," James retorted back, knitting his eyebrows at the Hufflepuff girl. "Let me guess, someone told you that Frankie displayed your undergarments in the Gryffindor common room yesterday night?"

"My brother did what?" Alice gasped, turning a bright pink.

James got a glitter of satisfaction in his brown eyes as he reached over and patted the girl on her bare shoulder. "Nothing, little Alice, nothing," he said carelessly, subduing a chuckle (oh, she was going to get a surprise on the last day of school). "But, honestly, you've been sulking around for a few days. I'm starting to get worried."

Alice narrowed her eyes.

"So Hufflepuff and Gryffindor are competing for the Quidditch cup, but I'm still very worried. I don't want the opposing team's Seeker to die out there if she can't get her head in the game."

The Slytherin hiding behind the bench scoffed, you'd gladly throw her off the broom.

"Well," huffing to herself, Alice dropped her guard as Potter kept rubbing her shoulder, "I got a letter from Dash a week ago. Apparently he said we couldn't be friends anymore. Coincidentally, Lysander thinks the same thing."

"They both ditched you?" James asked, trying hard not to laugh. "Why?"

Alice crossed her arms in an indignant way. "I fancy Dash, but Lysander fancies me. And according to the bloody letter, Dash will not ruin his friendship with the Twins for me. Especially since he already likes another witch and Lysander needs time to get 'over' me."

"Ha, it's one of those," James mumbled as his eyes left Alice for a few seconds to glance at the bench.

The Slytherin behind it froze. He was surely caught and the entire operation gone down the loo. But right as he expected a shout to reveal his location by Potter, the Slytherin noticed he wasn't looking down at him but at the two people on that bench that were too enchanted with each other to notice him.

"So it's true?" Alice broke the silence, smirking to herself as James turned to her again. "You do like Savanna Zabini."

Potter frowned. "I do not," he defended for himself, dropping the hand he had on her shoulder. "She's Fred's girlfriend. I wouldn't do that to a cousin."

"Yeah, but you fancied her before and she chose Weasley over you," Alice corrected. "Pity, Potter. How will you ever get over that, your first heartbreak?"

Savanna and Weasley, a couple? The Slytherin questioned himself, looking up at the bench and finding the two with fingers intertwined.

"Dumped by two blokes at the same time, how will you ever get over that?" James snapped back.

Instead of reacting in a way that any sane girl would, Alice Longbottom only lessened her smirk in a small fraction. Her eyes glittered the same way James' were. "I have an idea," she whispered to the Gryffindor.

Raising his eyebrow for a second, James glanced back at Savanna and Fred. He felt something sink in his chest, pretty damn sure it was his heart, but he wasn't willing to admit that his relationship with Ariana Malfoy had been a sham to make Savanna jealous.

"Alice, my love, have you seen the broomstick closet on the seventh floor?" James asked, trying to wave off his heartache as he took Alice Longbottom's hand. "It's quite fascinating."

Grimacing at the thought of what exactly was going to go down in that broomstick closet, the Slytherin rolled himself away from the bench as the couple sitting on it started making googly-eyes at each other.

Dun.

Dun. Dun.

Aha, at last!

After a few minutes of scavenging for his target, the Slytherin spotted them sitting on the hill by the Black Lake.

With an arrogant smile on his face, the grace he had on his tip-toes, he descended forward from behind a tree to get to his target.

"Jump on me and I'll hex your manly-bits off."

Bloody hell.

Standing in an awkward position as he was about to launch himself forward, the target turned on her seat to glare at him. "Better yet, I should just do it since you've been following me for the past hour, Zabini."

"It was only forty-five minutes," Angelo Zabini replied to his victim, sulking to himself as he took a seat next to her. "Don't feel so special, you're not all that."

Dominique Weasley scoffed. "What are you on about? I'm the most popular person in this castle since my Uncle Harry roamed the halls."

"Yeah, but he had fame, you have nothing."

"I have legacy!" Dominique retorted, scoffing again as she crossed her long and exposed legs before the Slytherin tried to take a peek underneath her dress. As usual.

Zabini shrugged, looking down at the grass as he tried to enjoy the little moment of silence he got with Dominique (because there never was many seeing as she was always threatening to kill him a few seconds in).

He knew if he made it seem like she wasn't the greatest witch out there, he would get a rise out of her and he enjoyed her rants about how absolutely brilliant she was, and Zabini knew better than anyone how awesome she actually was, but sometimes it secretly hurt how she rejected every complement he sent her way.

"So," the Seventh Year witch spoke up, shrugging her shoulders too at the silence in the air. "Why were you following me today? I expected you'd be after your little sister and Fred, because, you know, they're an item."

Angelo made a sour expression. "I'd be more worried if she would've ended up with Potter, but Weasley is a good bloke," he replied truthfully, still looking at the grass. "I heard something today."

"That mental Hufflepuff that ran naked through the Forbidden Forest?" She nodded her head. "They're behaving out of order lately, McGonagall needs to get a handle on the situation."

"What — no." Zabini shook his head, looking up at her. "I mean, when I was following you," he corrected. "Some of your mates were gossiping about how happy you were...and how you're finally settling down."

"Oh, that," Dominique said after a second. "Well, yeah." She shrugged. "I'm off the Hogwarts market."

Silence again and Dominique sighed.

"It's quite a funny story of how it happened, actually," she offered a little awkwardly. "You're welcomed to congratulate me, as well, you know." She pulled on an off smile and elbowed the Slytherin in the ribs jokingly.

Angelo cringed away from her.

"Oh, come on, Zabini. You can't expect me to apologize, right? Mind you, you're the last person that I was thinking about when I finally...'settled' down."

Nothing was said again and this time Dominique felt slightly bad.

It's not like she didn't know Zabini was completely smitten with her, but that wasn't her problem, was it? She has broken many hearts in her seven years at Hogwarts, and she was not responsible for the consequences on others' feelings. She was just who she was, and she fell for someone who wasn't ideal to Zabini's liking (or his dreams). Despite that, she had to admit it was kind of endearing that he followed her like a faithful puppy and always looked out for her, even if she was three years older than him and she mistreated him time and time again.

"All right, Zabini, get up." After guilt seeped into her system, Dominique rose up to her feet, dusting her dress from the grass of the hill and stared at the Slytherin impatiently. "Hurry up, boy, I haven't your time. I said up, now."

Instantly, because even though he was upset with her, Zabini knew she was not to be defied. Just as he was staring into those emerald eyes, the ones that sort of matched his, except hers were definitely more brilliant and alluring, he watched as she placed her palms on either side of his shoulders. She kept the eye contact.

He was trying to enjoy the tingly sensation on his skin, but  he was taken aback by her giant, frustrated sigh before her lips met his.

He was sure somewhere in the heavens above Merlin was shooting fireworks in the sky for his victory, for his dream that he's been dreaming since he was twelve and he caught a fifteen year-old Dominique changing into her dress. It was magical. 

He was kissing her — no, wait, she kissed him!

Just as he went in to pull her close, she smacked a hand to his chest and separated her mouth from his.

"Wow."

Fixing her dress once again, Dominique nodded. "Yeah, I know. I give people that reaction," she said nonchalantly. "Now, you feel better, right?"

Zabini grinned like he was hit on the head by a bludger. "Loads."

"Good." The guilt slipped away, along with her pride and some of her self-respect. "I have to meet Krum by the greenhouses," she told a still-dazed Zabini. "And after this little, whatever it is, I'm running late. I'm supposed to be meeting my cousin here, so just spend some time with her, will you? I've got a boyfriend to meet and that's like Uncle Ron on a diet — unheard of. I don't have time to spend babysitting."

As his eyes followed Dominique's retreat, Zabini couldn't help but to notice that he wasn't feeling particularly hurt. The love of his life just confessed that she was dating Erik Krum — that slimy, athletic, muscular, older git — and he was perfectly okay with that. No heartbreak whatsoever.

Angelo huffed to himself, not noticing when a redhead girl walked up next to him as he recalled the kiss.

"Um, Angelo?"

Blinking away from the victory-dance his brain was giving — because, come on, the Weasleys were going to die when they found out about his snog with Dominique — the Slytherin found brown eyes piercing his.

"Yeah?" he asked the girl, inspecting her.

She narrowed her eyes. "It's me. Molly Weasley, you dunce."

Zabini's jaw practically dropped when he recognized the girl. "Holy Salazar," he breathed. She had grown up nicely in those three years that she left to Paris.

"Have you seen Dom? She's supposed to spend time with me while my parents talk to the Headmistress," Molly said, scouting the grounds for her older cousin.

With the widest smirk on his face, Angelo laced his arm through Molly's; steering her towards the gardens. "Dom's currently busy, but allow me to welcome you back."

Oh, it was a good day. Molly had potential.

 X

He had been walking around for a few minutes, or possibly hours; he wasn't sure at the moment. All he knew of was that disgusting sinking feeling in his chest that he hadn't been able to get rid of for days now, or weeks; he wasn't sure.

He was running out of options on who to turn to, even if the most obvious one was to go to his best friend, to his almost brother. If he tried to talk to him about that feeling that was in his chest, he was sure he'd end up jinxing his friend into obliteration and make the situation a lot worse than it actually was. Because of that, he found himself pacing back and forth on that empty corridor that most people didn't know existed.

Except if you were a Gryffindor, of course.

"Ah, it's you."

As he was coming back from his pace to the end of the corridor, twirling a book in his hands, silver eyes found a little redhead girl standing with her hands on her waist, aggravated.

"You have most of the First Year Gryffindors shaking in their underwear inside the common room, Malfoy," Lily Potter continued, still looking mad as she stuffed her wand into the pockets of her floral dress. "And some Fourth Years that say you vowed to hex off their manly-bits."

Scorpius narrowed his eyes, not saying anything.

At his expression, little twelve year-old Lily did the same. "You don't intimidate me, Malfoy, but I will summon the Headmistress if half of Gryffindor House can't get out the common room. I need to study for my History of Magic exam and they're making a racket."

"How exactly are you planning on studying, Lily-pad, if your brother accidentally took your book?" Malfoy threw back, feeling quite smug as he could see a few Gryffindors poke their heads out from the portrait  a few yards away. "Oh, and you can tell your house-mates they can come out now. I'm not here to cause them harm...today."

At his comment and Lily's gesture for them to exit, Scorpius watched slightly amused as ten Gryffindors marched out of their hiding-hole, all of them young except for a few that he still needed to get revenge on for looking at him like they knew the story of his life.

"Pathetic," Lily muttered to herself, shaking her red hair as one of the Fourth Years practically ran past Malfoy. "I'll have my book back, thank you."

Usually, Scorpius would've just tossed the girl her book, turned around and caused havoc among those cowardly Gryffindors, but for some reason he held on tighter to her book, taking a silent step back as she took one forward and extended her little palm out.

Lily raised her brow. "Malfoy," she called, her patience low, he could tell, "History of Magic exam in three days. Give me my book now."

"Do you ever feel...odd? About being in those books?" Scorpius questioned, throwing off Lily completely. "Opening the pages and seeing your family in it. The scans of old Prophet clippings of when you were born?" He paused, looking down at the book he happened to stumble across when he was looking for the shirt he let Al borrow weeks back. "They're heroes, but they're your parents."

Lily dropped her annoyed expression as she couldn't help but to feel partially sympathetic for Malfoy. "And if they fall, or when they die, it becomes another means to praise them, but no one knows the pain you'd feel because they're your family, not the Wizarding World's?" Another pause between the two. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

"They're adding my grandfather's death to the new edition of books next year." Scorpius looked back up at her. "If things would've gone against our favor, I'd expect that most of my family's death would be in that book, too."

Lily pulled on a dim smile on her face. "You care a lot, don't you?"

He furrowed his brows. "Just nervous actually."

"Why? Daddy wrote me two days ago, your dad's perfectly fine. Demi...well, Dean sees potential on that end."

"They both died," Scorpius hissed, that feeling inside his chest tightening as he did, "at the same time. I reckon it's safe to say we'll never know."

"Yeah, but they both came back," Lily continued with that smile. "Only Merlin knows how it happened and why, but they're both breathing again. Isn't it enough that Demi stopped using those tubes and now she can breathe on her own? That's progress, Malfoy."

But nothing is guaranteed, was what Scorpius was trying to scream out. He lived years thinking his family was always going to stay united, and yet his parents were getting divorced. He thought it was unimportant that he shrugged off Demi when she wanted to play, and she almost died. He thought he could live a life without Ariana, and when she did disappear — things were just being reevaluated and it tormented him.

"Here's your book, little Potter." Offhandedly, Scorpius tossed the book. "And we never had this conversation, got it?"

Lily smirked. "I'll curse you if you don't leave Gryffindor territory." Yep, she was his favorite female-Potter.

"I tore out some pages from the middle chapters to make enchanted cranes, just a heads up," Scorpius replied with his smugness as he began to walk past the Second Year.

Lily was about to whip out her wand to curse his back, but both she and Scorpius were silenced as two unexpected Gryffindors turned into the corridor.

"Well, isn't this a surprise," one of them said, forcing the Slytherin a step back like their voice was a ghost from the past.

"Rose! Ana!" Lily screamed in a high-pitch. "For Merlin's saggy quaffles!" Pushing Malfoy away, she launched herself to hug the two returning students. "No one told us you were getting back today! Oh, I've missed you!"

"Easy there, Lils." Rose smiled at her cousin, settling Ariana as Lily practically pushed her off her muggle-crutches. "It was a last minute thing, but Ana was just let out of the hospital today. And,well, we wanted to come back already."

Squeezing both girls' arms, Lily laughed wholeheartedly. "Where you up at the Head Office? Did you see Uncle Percy? Who brought you? Did you know Molly and Lucy are back? Does anyone else know?"

"The entire Auror Department brought us, it seemed," Rose scoffed, helping Ariana settle herself again as she almost lost control of her footing. "And I'm pretty sure some Slytherins saw us on our way up so no doubt everyone will know in a few minutes."

The cousins continued talking like the two siblings were not there, like Scorpius was not staring at both girls with a look of awe written on his face, like his walls of protection that kept his emotions blocked did not just fall.

His heart pounded in his chest, replacing that disturbing feeling that had been plaguing him since the two girls were kidnapped in Hogsmeade. He was starting to get overwhelmed, and the need to flee was starting to cross his head.

But he couldn't move when silver met silver.

What had they done to her?

That sensation to runaway before he exposed himself was faded out by a wretched emotion, a mixture of anger and nostalgia as he got a good glimpse at his sister. She was bruised, her delicate features marked with fading blotches of yellow, green, and purple. Her skin looked paler than usual, like she had been suffering for days; also holding some scabs of previous cuts on it. And the exposed skin she was showing had rings of mending burned skin.

She had been tortured, his sister, his beast. Someone had dared to harm her, and he hadn't been there to protect her.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

"Out of my way!" With rapid footsteps that sounded like a horse was galloping through Hogwarts, Scorpius was distracted from the view of his sister as someone pushed a passing Gryffindor out of the way. "It's true," he breathed, coming to a stop as his eyes met the two newly-arrived girls. "Merlin, it's true."

"Oi, be careful, will you?" Rose snapped as Al Potter rushed to snatch Ariana from her hold. "If you break her she'll be sent to St. Mungos again."

"...I can't believe you're back, Ana," Al breathed in a slow whisper, clutching on to the Gryffindor Malfoy as her brother looked on uncomfortably.

Patting Al's back — trying not to let her emotions get the best of her, because she was not about to tear up in front of his family and his best friend — Ariana smiled into the crook of Al's neck. (She had missed that, missed him.)

"You're really back," he muttered again when her silence pierced his ears.

"Alright, alright. Enough of that," Lily huffed, tugging on her brother's sleeve to let Ariana go. "Help me get her inside the common room. I'm sure she needs to rest. And if the rest of the lot comes around, she'll never make it out in once piece."

Unwillingly, but knowing that Lily made sense, Al separated three inches from Ariana. "....Merlin, I needed you," he said truthfully, not caring that there was watching eyes.

And in the spur of that attitude that Al was radiating out, Ariana leaned back into those three inches he had removed and gave him a sweet peck.

Groaning inside at the unpleasant scene, Scorpius opened his mouth as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and his sister was being helped towards it by the Potter siblings. "Ana," he called in an uncharacteristic tone.

Brother and sister looked at each other in a very deep manner, something intensely pure sparkling in the silver of their eyes. Adoration, admiration, nostalgia, pain, but mostly love.

And being who they were, neither of the Malfoys said anything. Instead, Ariana smiled at her older brother in a way she never had and then proceeded to walk into her house's common room without a look back. (Because she knew he'll be protecting it from now on.)

 With a little puff of a giggle, Rose caught Malfoy's attention. "I expected more from your part, Malfoy. She is your sister after all and she just survived a war," a tone of anger was to be present, but neither of them found it as the redhead sounded more casual than anything. "But I suppose that's who you two are."

Scorpius kept his expression blank. He could see the brown in her eyes gleam in the light of the candles around, still as bright as ever as he remembered them to be so.

"She was most nervous about seeing you, you know?" Rose added softly, looking down at her feet as another thought crossed her head. "....I suppose we both were."

He wasn't the best at the emotional-thing, especially because he thought it was the most weakening thing a wizard could do, but Scorpius knew that there was a reason why everything had spiraled out of control. Now that never meant he would admit it, but there was something, a consequence of almost losing everything.

His grandfather had once told him that he needed to watch over Ariana for a very specific reason, and that was because she would remain distant from the world and give out an image of being coldhearted. And when he had asked his grandfather who would protect him, because he was exactly the same as Ariana, Lucius had said, 'Ana's is automatic, Scorpius, but yours....yours is easily melted away. There will come a time, and you'll know when, that your defenses will drop. You've more of your mother in you than what you can hope. '

He had waved it away as Lucius preferring Ariana better, but Scorpius finally understood now.

Walking towards the redhead, Scorpius felt his heart bang faster in his chest as he could already smell that very floral-essence she carried with her everywhere she went.

Noticing that he got closer Rose slowly picked up her head, her eyes connecting with Scorpius'. It was a match of the age, of that burning silver and that alluring brown; of two polar-opposites. It was of hate and something pure, of need and repulsion, of war and peace.

She was about to open her mouth to say something contradicting to her previous comment, but she was stopped by something that almost ended her life then and there; something straight to the point and destructive.

"....I love you, Rose."

And nothing more.