"Scorpius!"

The blonde turned around, spotting the source of the voice almost immediately. He stopped in the middle of the hall, forcing the crowd to part around him. "Hello," he said. "Why are you dressed in such heavy clothing?"

Adelena ignored his comment about her blue and white winter clothes. A Beaubaxton emblem was clearly sewn on her robe, located atop her right breast. A silver scarf adorned her neck. "Are you heading to Hogsmeade?"

Scorpius shook his head. "I've already memorized the area."

"Oh," Adelena's face fell slightly. The Headmistress of Hogwarts had invited everyone to visit Hogsmeade, the famous headquarters of the rebellion. She composed herself the next second. "Will you show me around then?"

"Why would I ever do something so dastardly boring?"

Adelena frowned, emphasizing her next words by poking a finger at his chest. "Because we're friends."

"Friendship? Don't you need a contract of some sort? An official declaration and all that?"

Adelena looked flabbergasted. "You are joking...right?"

Out of the blue, he grinned. "So you've finally been able to tell the difference. I'll admit it took you longer than I expected."

"Not quite," she muttered, pushing him towards the side of the hall so that they wouldn't cause a block up. "You'll show me then?"

He grabbed her hand, oblivious to the furious blush that spread across her face at the action. Scorpius tugged her away from the halls, dragging her through stairways and people. Students gave them strange looks as Scorpius maneuvered the two of them past. Adelena gave a meek smile to all of them, of which wasn't often returned. They arrived on the third floor corridor, in front of a statue of a witch. It was a one-eyed witch, carved so intricately that the woman might as well have been alive.

"Er-," Adelena said, the heat still in her cheeks. "Aren't the gates down in the first floor?"

He looked at her strangely, placing a hand on her forehead, then on her cheek. "Do you have a fever? Why are you so red?"

She leaned back from his touch, blushing even redder. A tomato would've paled in comparison to her face. "I'm fine. If you don't like repetition, you should answer my question."

"Who wants to go through the front gate? Hordes of people; it's absolutely atrocious. They're all shoving each other like a pack of animals."

Scorpius leaned closer to the statue. Out of our instinct, Adelena mimicked his movement.

"Dissedium," Scorpius whispered to the witch. A loud creak, and then...

"What the-" Adelena jumped back as the statue swung outwards, revealing a long, dark passageway.

Scorpius gestured for her to go in. "Hurry, before someone walks by."

Adelena took a deep breath. The passageway looked long, dark, frightening. "Lumos," she whispered. A little light flickered to life at the edge of her wand. It seemed so awfully small compared to the darkness. She stepped inside, her shoes causing a slight click sound against the stone floor. Behind her, she saw the light fade as Scorpius closed the stone.

"Lumos Maxima," Scorpius said. A bright light flared out form his wand, illuminating the stone walls of the passageway for a small moment. His light was much brighter than hers, lighting up both their faces and their path.

"I should've done that," Adelena muttered.

Scorpius pointed his wand at his shoes. "Celeritate." A small blue thread spiraled from the end of his wand, creating small, shimmering wings on his footwear. He did the same to her winter boots. The wings had a small glow to them, emitting a blue aura.

"It takes an hour to walk through the passage," he told her. "This'll speed it up."

She looked down at the magic. "I've never seen this spell before."

"Of course not," he said casually. "I invented it."

"What?" she looked up in surprise, only to find that he was already speeding down the passage. A blue trail was left in his wake. "Hey, wait!"

She took off after him.

The thing was, she hadn't actually taken the steps of her own will. It was as if someone had read her train of thought and decided to make it come true. Her legs were speeding along on their own. The spell made her fast, faster than she'd ever run before. In absolutely no time, she was alongside Scorpius.

"Ceci est incroyable! You invented this?" Adelena asked, forgetting to speak English.

"Je vous ai dit que je ne suis pas fan de la répétition," he replied in perfect French.

"You speak French?"

"Obviously," he replied.

Their voices echo off the chamber walls as they speed along. They're going at least twice as fast as a broomstick.

"Wait a moment..." she says. "Isn't this against the rules? Doesn't a spell have to be Ministry approved?"

"I'm already hanged as a dragon for an egg," Scorpius said.

Adelena couldn't help but grin at his arrogance. "I suppose. Where does this lead to?"

"The basement of Honeydukes," he said. "Honestly Adelena, you should question strangers taking you down a dark passageway."

"You're not a stranger," she corrected. "But I guess you're right about the passageway part..."

Sometime later, Scorpius began to slow down. Adelena followed his lead. Her wand was still clutched in her hand; she raised it higher to have a better view of her surrounding. The tunnel had ended in an abrupt wall of stone. High above them, a wooden board lay. From what she could see, it had hinges on its side. Wisps of light shone through. Adelena tilted her head sideways, "How are we going to get up there?"

"The staircase," said Scorpius, rather bluntly pointing out the staircase that she hadn't noticed. It looked to have over 200 steps, spiraling upwards.

For once, Adelena was glad the dark hid her blush. Scorpius went ahead of her, not bothering to offer a hand to the girl. So much for being a gentleman...

The Slytherin opened the hatch. Adelena followed him out, only to find herself inside what looked vaguely like a basement. It was full of wooden boxes and crates.

Suddenly a door opened, shedding brighter light into the room. A rather large man walked through, exclaiming in surprise when he saw them.

"Hello Mr. Flume," Scorpius said, unfazed.

"Scorpius," Mr. Flume said, clearly trying to hide his astonishment. "What are you doing here? And who is that with you?"

Adelena waved from behind Scorpius, "I'm-"

Scorpius cut her off. "Her name is Adelena. The rest of the students are here, aren't they? Why are you so surprised?"

Mr. Flume frowned at them both, opening the door and indicating that they should leave the storage room. Scorpius walked into the main shop, Adelena close behind.

She gasped at the enormous amount of candy that was displayed on the wooden shelves. The colors seemed to be flying off the shelves. She frowned the next instant when she noticed something strange. "Where are all the students?" she whispered to Scorpius.

She noticed the frown on his face.

"No, actually, you're not suppose to be here Scorpius." Mr. Flume said, walking past them. "Hogsmeade is closed today, which you both would've known if you had went the normal entrance."

"Why?" Adelena spoke the words on both their minds.

"There's an Adze wandering around. I was just about to seal the shop. It's dangerous in Hogsmeade right now."

Adelena had never heard of an Adze. "What's an Adze?"

Scorpius ignored her. "What's an Adze doing here? They only live in Africa, don't they?"

"I thought so too, my boy," Mr. Flume grumbled as he locked the door of the shop. He went behind his desk, pulling out a box. Inside were bottles of clear liquid and a thick net.

Seeing Adelena's confused look, he explained. "Coconut water and palm oil. Damn Adze can't do a thing if I catch it first."

"You can't catch the Adze if it isn't in human form," Scorpius said, his voice even as ever.

"What is an Adze?" Adelena repeated her question, this time raising her voice. She'd heard of many creatures that could change their form, but they were all Ministry Class X.

"It's a vampire," Scorpius said bluntly. "Or, if you want, its true form is a firefly. They're invincible in that form, so there isn't much detail about their anatomy."

"A-A vampire firefly?" Adelena cursed herself for stuttering. She could hardly believe the words coming from Scorpius, but he said it with such seriousness she couldn't help but take it as true. "What do you mean invincible? What other forms does it have?"

"You can not harm it in its firefly form, is that so hard to understand? I thought you had a higher intellect."

The insult slid right past her. "Answer the question."

Scorpius put his hands together, leaning on the table. Mr. Flume was busy drowsing the net with the liquids, using his wand to position it over the doorframe.

"They have a human form, but it's fairly easy to recognize," Scorpius continued. "Midnight black skin and talons red as blood. They can also possess a person, in a certain sense. Travelers say that they prefer to possess sorcerers, in order to gain their magic."

"So," Adelena said slowly, trying to process everything. "You can't tell who's possessed?"

Scorpius shook his head. He didn't seem fazed at all. Adelena took a step back from the door. She tried to keep her voice ordinary as she said, "Shouldn't we be heading back then?"

"Do as the young lady says, Scorpius," Mr. Flume said. "There's already been casualties. Ministry will be closing the entire town soon. You don't want to be here when they do that." The man went upstairs to get something or the other.

Scorpius frowned. "It's the perfect experiment. When else will a mythical creature of Class X come wandering to a boring old town like Hogsmeade?"

"Thank Merlin Class X's don't appear often. The whole wizarding world would be on the verge of extinction."

"Indeed," Scorpius muttered, seemingly to himself. "Class X's don't show themselves often, why is one here now? Hogsmeade of all places? Why not Diagon Alley? There's many more people..."

His muttering slowly faded away into incoherent mumbles.

Adelena tugged his robes. "We have to go back. What if they do an attendance check?"

He didn't respond, still staring at the floor.

She waved a hand in front of his face. "Scorpius. Earth to Scorpius?"

He finally looked up at her. "What?"

"We have to go back, we'll get into trouble."

He shrugged, "So? What's the worse that could happen? Detention?" He said the word mockingly.

She almost slapped him. He looked at her blue eyes, which were practically burning with indignation. "Death, maybe? I have to go back. If I get into trouble, I won't be able to participate in the Triwizard Tournament."

He looked at her in amusement. "So?"

She had thought he understood how important the Tournament was to her. "It's important. I need to win, I can't be disqualified now."

He shrugged.

She felt anger run through her veins. "You wouldn't understand what it feels like to have to prove yourself to anyone."

The words changed his expression instantly. "You think I don't know what it feels like? My father, grandfather, grandmother. They all served Voldemort. What does that make me? A child destined to be evil?"

His voice shook, even though he tried to maintain his normal steady tone. He advanced towards her, making her retreat until she hit the wall. Scorpius towered over her, glaring down. "Why do you think I don't care, Adelena? It took me years, years before I was able to finally realize that their thoughts didn't matter. Years of staying in the back of class, years of avoiding older Slytherins, years of holding my hand down even if I knew all the answers. You know what they said? That I tainted the Slytherin name."

Adelena could feel the heat of his anger. She regretted her words instantly.

"No, I don't care anymore, Adelena Zenore. I don't care what anyone thinks of me, even if their whispered word are equipped with knives. I know better, and you should too." Scorpius walked away from her, turning his back.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I-I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't." His voice was deadly quiet. "You can't read me, not like how I can read everyone else in the world."

She approached him, tentatively wrapping her arms around his torso, as carefully as if she was hugging a caged animal. He stiffened.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I should've known better than anyone else to judge based on first impressions. I guess that means I'm not all that different from them."

She squeezed his waist tighter, burrowing her head in his robe-covered back. "It means a lot to me. The Triwizard Tournament, I mean. I want to prove to my father and the rest of them than I'm smarter than I seem. Everyone underestimates me. I want to prove I'm a good wizard."

"Any idiot could tell that," he mumbled.

She felt herself smile, even if it was very slight. "Please, can we go back to Hogwarts?"

"Only if you allow me," Scorpius replied. "I'd consider this a type of imprisonment."

She removed her arms, still smiling. Scorpius sighed, "How often do you see a Class X, Adelena?"

"I fought one in the first task," she reminded him.

He waved it off. "You evaded it, you did not fight it."

Mr. Flume came back down the staircase, holding another box. He looked at them,"I'll drag you back to Hogwarts myself if I have too, Scorpius."

"I was just about to leave," he retorted snappily.

Mr. Flume laughed, looking to Adelena. "I'm surprised you've convinced his stubborn mind."

Scorpius scowled, but Adelena grinned, "Me too. Thanks for telling us about the Adze, Mr. Flume."

He waved them off. "I wouldn't have had to if you'd both gone through the gates of Hogwarts."

Adelena nodded her goodbyes, dragging Scorpius back down to the basement.

"Still," Scorpius said. "What is an Adze doing in Hogmeade? Something isn't right...I can't put my finger on it..."