Scorpius laid on one of the couches in the Slytherin dungeons, his hair damp from a shower. He wore a sweat shirt and pants, and Raven sat on the floor in front of the couch, still in her uniform from today. Her face in a scowl as she texted on her phone. "What?" Scorpius asks.

"Christine is making me do tutoring this weekend." She groans, clearly pissed. "I told the girls we'd go to Hogsmeade." Where anyone can kidnap you? Nice try, but no. Harry said that Hogwarts was safe. He never extended that same security to Hogsmeade. Scorpius didn't say anything, having been the orchestrator of this. Albus sat across the room, next to Normani at a small table. Normani was reading a magazine, Albus was focused on highlighting through his notes. Both of them had already showered and changed for bed. Raven just tended to wait on Friday nights before taking off her makeup.

Most Slytherin students were still in the common rooms, mingling and socializing. Some were studying. Scorpius opened up his phone and went to text Albus from across the room.

Scorpius: My social battery is dead. Wanna charge with me?

He looked over to the boy as he sends it, and watched as Albus felt his phone vibrate, pull it out, and read the text. When he did the boy looks over at Scorpius, giving him a questioning look. Scorpius gestures towards the dorms. Albus understood, and nodded in response, gathering up his books and pens.

"I'm turning in." Scorpius tells Raven, sitting up.

"What, already?"

"I'm an insomniac. I'm always exhausted. Plus, it is ten o'clock."

"Yeah but it's also Friday." Raven points out, looking up as he stands and stretches, phone in his hand. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I'll probably just go with you to tutoring, I have stuff I have to finish for classes anyways. Then you won't have to deal with Christine by yourself." Scorpius offers, like he didn't plan it all along. Raven thinks about it and finally nods.

"I guess that works. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

No one was in the boy's dormitories yet as Albus and Scorpius both sat on Potter's bed. Scorpius yawned, his exhaustion not having been a lie. Albus was still focused on highlighting. It looked like he was doing it for all his classes. Scorpius didn't create a study guide for the OWLs, he just reread the tests and quizzes he kept over the course of the school year. School came naturally to him, and while Albus was the top of his class- specifically in Slytherin- he worked at it to stay there. Scorpius still put in all his effort into schoolwork, but he didn't have to take as much time studying or writing as the others.

"I thought you might attack Orion earlier." Scorpius mentions to start conversation.

"What would you have done, if I had?" Albus wondered, not looking up from his notes but he was smiling. Scorpius considers.

"Well you're not really the physical type. You'd have probably pulled your wand out so, I would've gotten out of your way." Scorpius finally reveals. Albus glanced up and then back at the book, a shimmer of appreciation on his features. "I'm glad you didn't though, especially with the entire group there."

"The only reason I didn't was because of you. He infuriates me. It's not just him taking an interest in you that pisses me off." Albus goes on. "He utterly disregards everyone else's feelings about it- he ignores the way he makes people uncomfortable."

"It's part of his charm." Scorpius shrugs. "I can be like that too."

"He doesn't have charm." Albus snarled. Scorpius couldn't help the smile tugging on his cheeks.

"You hardly know him."

"I know enough. He's part of the Gryffindor team, and my Mum always invites them over during the summer. I can't wait until James graduates this year, none of them will be at the house anymore." Albus grumbles. "At least Slytherin jocks have tact. Gryffindors are just obnoxious."

"You haven't been around Slytherin Jocks, Albus. How would you know?" Scorpius retorts.

"You've been on the team every year except for this one, so you qualify as a jock. You're a prep jock." Albus explains. "And Calum is a jock jock."

"You've only socialized with Calum outside of Hogwarts. When he went here he was just as-" Scorpius cut off his own words. "Well, nevermind. Calum isn't the worse of the Slytherin Quidditch team. Is there some kind of scale you're categorizing us into that I'm unaware of?"

"Yes. Raven has it all written into her phone. A chart, of sorts. Calum and James falls onto the jock-jock end of the spectrum. She falls directly into prep-prep. Christine is more nerd-prep. You're prep-jock." Albus explains. "She's told you about it before, no?"

"I tune her out when she's on her rampage about how socializing works at Hogwarts. If you haven't noticed, I'm not big on socializing." Scorpius reminds him. "After today I think I've had enough for the rest of my life." Albus just laughs, dragging his highlighter across a sentence.

"Don't be so dramatic. It's not that bad depending who you're with."

"You're right. If it's you and Raven, then that's fine. No one else."

"That's a small circle." Albus turns a page. Well, Aries was part of it too. Scorpius decided he needed a small circle. Albus and Raven were trustworthy but everyone else? He'd trusted Aries too. See where that got him? And just like that, whatever good mood he had disappeared. And despair filled him, along with that pressure from instinctual magic Scorpius pushed away. He hoped Michael wasn't getting into trouble.

He also hoped Selwyn hadn't tried to get to the manor, or Daniel.

"Are you ever going to take the bandage off?" Albus gestures to the white cloth covering Scorpius's arm, as though Albus had somehow understood where his thoughts had strayed. Scorpius's burned basilisk wasn't scabbed anymore, or itchy. It was a dark purple scar. An intricate beast- detailing scales and sharp eyes. Even with long sleeves on, the head on the back of his right hand would be easy for anyone to see when he eats, writes, anything. But he noticed the white bandage is less noticeable against the paleness of his skin. It's still noticed, but people don't comment on it. The scar which was raised from his skin underneath, that would be whispered about.

Albus hadn't even seen it. Scorpius hadn't shown anyone aside from Harry Potter and the nurses who bandaged it initially. Perhaps Raven had glimpsed it when they were in the infirmary that day last week. Scorpius saw it every time he bathed, and then immediately wrapped it afterwards. "It's healed right?" Albus continues when Scorpius doesn't respond.

"Yes. Madam Pomfrey has something for burns. It healed extremely quickly." Scorpius agreed, recalling the rate of which Michael's had healed- which was even faster because it wasn't the real one. It was a reflection of Scorpius's. Over the course of a year or two, the scar would lighten to pink and then white. Scorpius looked forward to that. When the scar was primarily only visible under the sunlight, where it would shine. But he was far away from it. "I don't think I'll ever get use to it." He tells Albus, who looked at him with soft green eyes.

"You don't have to hide it, Scorpius."

"I don't need people thinking I'm weak."

"No one thinks that." Albus soothes. Yes. They do. Scorpius felt like he was weak. Because looking back, even though the fury and wrath at Aries, he had never wanted to hurt her. And maybe that's why his magic against her didn't phase the girl. Maybe she knew the extent of what friendship meant to Scorpius. A boy who didn't let anyone in. And he'd let her in. But he was conflicted, because a part of him, a dark part of him- wanted to see her dead. And that's the part that let the killing curse twinkle at the edge of his mind like a star in the darkness.

Maybe he wouldn't hurt her. He wouldn't watch her suffer. But Scorpius had that part of him which restlessly told him to hunt her down and kill her for what she'd done. Broken his trust. Broken him. She deserved it.

And then there was that side, saying she had to. She had no choice- she was held under an unbreakable vow. It was either her, or him. How could he get upset because she saved herself? Maybe Aries had been his friend. Still was, and she did all that to keep up the rouse. To protect not just herself, but also him by doing those things. By killing Cypress, and interfering into the situation between him and Daniel. But if that was the case, why hadn't she told him that?

"Has anything changed, with your parents?" Scorpius changed the subject swiftly, and Albus didn't stop him.

"No. I thought that the traditional spell had worked. But maybe I did something wrong." Albus sighs. "They were back together, trying, and now it's just the same as before. But I think we're getting use to it now." Scorpius filled in who he meant; the kids. The ones suffering from the parental feud. "Rose is even back on the team, like you heard earlier."

"It was magic to bind souls, wasn't it?" Scorpius clarifies, not having really been informed of the spell in it's entirety. But now he had a specific interest in soul binding magic- because maybe Albus's magic had worked. Just not in the way he wanted it to. Clearly, souls can be bound to one another without liking the other person.

"Yes. But there must have been something I missed. Something vital." Albus shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. I've since realized that it doesn't matter if my parents come back together anyways. James will never forget about the cheating. And Lily has wholeheartedly decided she won't talk to Dad anymore. Even if they worked things out, it won't go back to normal."

"I think normal should be redefined. Because normalcy changes all the time. I never would've thought normal meant holding your hand in the halls of Hogwarts." Scorpius tells him. "Or calling up my Dad- Draco- just for idle chatter and reassurance." He thought about how much had changed in just a few short months. "Last October all I cared about was keeping my head down and finding time to sleep."

"Well, you still try to find time to sleep." Albus considered. And Scorpius grins. "You've changed a lot." He tells him. "The values are the same, but... you don't seem as defensive or high strung." Honestly, Scorpius had felt even more different since last week. Since the scar burned itself into his skin. So different that sometimes he'd look into a mirror after a shower, and not recognize those stormy eyes that looked back. Not recognize the way his lips pressed into a relaxed frown.

He may have that temper still, but after Aries he struggled to really find good reasons to get upset. Because he'd experienced worse. Even when he had dared Karl to make a move, there wasn't that normal thrum of excitement. He'd already had too much excitement. Scorpius wasn't bored with his life- but he was before all this.

"Would it be weird, to start going by Salazar Black?" Scorpius asked, not actually considering it fully- but posing the question none the less.

"Weird? No. Curious, yes. Why?" Albus humored the dispute, regardless of how random it was.

"It kind of feels like Scorpius Malfoy is the name of someone who's been gone for awhile."

"Aries called you Salazar. Did you mind it?"

"No." Scorpius bites his chapped lip, chewing on it to the point where it broke the skin. But he didn't flinch at her name, didn't recoil or show any shimmer of distress. "She clearly had some problem with the fact I hid who I was." He lifts the bandaged arm as though to prove his point. "I don't know why. It seems like I get the same amount of clout whether I'm a Malfoy or Black-slash-Riddle-slash-Gaunt." Scorpius looked at his palms.

"Well any of those last names are associated with... bad people. Bad views."

"Technically, so is Malfoy. I've just learned to live with it."

"It's your choice. I told you before I don't care what name you go by. Though I'll have to pick up on Oliver's nickname and call you S, because otherwise I'd probably forget or slip up." Albus tells him honestly. "How do you think Raven would feel about it?"

He shook his head, platinum locks falling into his eyes with the movement. "She wouldn't support it. Raven's sweet and all, but we've always been the Malfoy twins. She doesn't like change. I don't blame her." He sighed. "And she doesn't deserve another thing thrown her way because of all this. If people started calling me Salazar it would probably feel like a slap in the face to her."

"It's your choice. Raven doesn't control that." He repeats.

"If it drives another wedge between us, I'm not going to do it." Scorpius said, signaling an end to the topic. Albus didn't push more on it. "You know Aries is a Legilimens? I found it out when I got into her head the last time." Scorpius volunteers softly. As much as he'd love to forget everything that happened, he knew it was necessary to talk about it- if only to see what Aries might've learned from other student's minds. Albus twirled his highlighter in between his fingers, not saying anything and expecting Scorpius to continue. "She tried to get into my head, but couldn't. I guess I have mental barriers or something."

"That's not surprising to me. You were raised a Malfoy, and ignored who you were for years. Of course you have mental barriers." Albus thought about it. "Honestly it makes sense that Aries was inside people's heads."

"She told me she couldn't do that." Scorpius's voice was soft. "I believed her."

"How did she know how to teach you Legillimency, if she couldn't do it herself?" Albus offered. And it was like a lightbulb went off in Scorpius's head. Of course. She knew exactly how to coax him into it. The truth was staring right at him and he didn't see it. Scorpius internally screamed at himself for being an idiot. "I know that face. Don't blame yourself, it'll eat you up."

"She and Daniel were hoping that bringing my gates down would leave me out of control. And Aries fueled that. Because with that kind of magic, she told me to forcefully engage it." Scorpius goes on. "But that's not how you control it. It's like a leash, and she was telling me to grab the leash. But I followed instinct instead, and I control it by letting it come to me."

"She didn't want to teach you. She wanted you to flounder." Albus didn't grasp what he was saying other than the parts that Aries wasn't trying to help. The rest sounded like gibberish.

"It doesn't make sense. Because when I did control it, she'd celebrate. And it always seemed genuine." Scorpius rubbed his face. "I just don't get it."

"I don't either."

The more Scorpius thought about it, the more it made sense. Aries was in all their heads. Maybe that's why she did okay in the group. Why she managed it. She could read them. Know what was there right thing to say. The wrong thing. Scorpius had just thought she'd toned down her comments but no. She was playing the game. He bites his lip until he felt blood, and watched as Albus highlighted something more. Gosh- was he going through an entire years worth of notes? Scorpius reached forward, and grabbed the notebook gently. Albus's eyebrows furrowed together, but he didn't look up.

"You're done studying tonight." Scorpius tells him. Albus shakes his head, trying to highlight something else but Scorpius drags the notebook out of his hands and lowers it to the floor.

"Oh come on I had like one chapter left-"

"Yeah for that book, and then you'll be onto the next class." Scorpius retorts, taking the highlighter next and snapping the cap back on. He tosses it to the side. Albus looked like he was about to pout, so Scorpius grabbed his legs and pulled him close, the blankets bunching up with the movement. Albus lays on his back as Scorpius crawls over him. "Study me for awhile."

"You're so damn needy." Albus insults, but pulls him down to kiss him anyways.

—-

Scorpius tapped his foot against the floor, biting his lip and scanning the faces in the library. Beside him, Raven had her head in her hands, leaned over a book and scowling at it. Saturday. It had been just over a week when Daniel had attacked him. And where was he? He promised to kill someone else. Sure, Harry Potter had said that Hogwarts was secure. But was it? Really? Christine kicked him under the table and Scorpius nearly jumped out of his skin. "What!" He squeaks.

"Stop tapping! She can't concentrate." Christine snapped, gesturing to Raven sitting beside him. He looks at his sister, who was also looking at him.

"Sorry." He murmured, and rested his leg. He was scrambling for an excuse to leave when his phone rang. The librarian sent him a glare. "Excuse me." He tells Christine and Raven, quickly getting out of his seat and leaving. As soon as his feet hit the hallways, he answered. "Hello?"

"Hi." He focused to try and place the female voice on the other end of the line. Scorpius pulls the phone away from his ear to see the caller ID. It was unknown number. He pulled the phone back up to his ear. "Don't hang up." And then he realized, and his stomach twisted. He felt nauseous.

"You're taking a big fucking risk calling me." The words that came out of his lips were feral. "Why? Why bother?"

"Just to warn you." Aries's voice was rushed on the other end. "Whoever is in your manor, get them out. Now." And then the line goes dead. Scorpius pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it for a moment, his arms starting to shake. He immediately dialed his cousins number, and held it up to his ear. Scorpius didn't have time to contemplate if Aries was lying or telling the truth for whatever reason. Michael picked up on the second ring- probably a record for him.

"Get out of the manor." Scorpius ordered.

"I'm just getting out of the shower, Scorpius. What the hell-"

"Get out now! And take my father with you." Scorpius snapped.

"He's at work." Relief flooded him, and Scorpius nodded quickly, hearing Michael shift something on the other end. Probably to pull clothes on. "Where do I go?"

"Go out the side door near the garden hedges." Scorpius thinks on his feet, knowing the layout so well that he had the home field advantage- even here at Hogwarts.

"That's a fucking labyrinth." Michael sneered over the phone. Scorpius hadn't even thought about that. Unless you're a Malfoy, unless you grew up there- there was no possible way to get out of that maze. And that was the point. But right now, it gave Scorpius an advantage, and Michael a disadvantage. Maybe he could fix that.

Scorpius quickly heads down the hallway, in the direction of the Slytherin dungeons. He needed magic. Maybe there was something he could do to help Michael from here. A charm lingered on the edge of his mind which he struggled to place.

"Go. Now." Scorpius ran through the students and to the dorms, immediately tossing through his stuff to find what he was looking for. He could hear Michael on the other end, his breathing a little labored. And then a small curse left his mouth. "What happened?"

"There's people outside. Their surrounding the manor."

"How many?" Scorpius's heartbeat pounded in his ears. They'd kill him- no questions asked. And that would kill Scorpius. He could hear counting on the other end.

"Maybe a dozen. It's hard to tell." Michael's voice lowered to a whisper, like he was scared they could hear him through the walls. Scorpius pushed the panic down, and