He was nervous. He hadn't been nervous about anything besides tests for years. Scorpius paced in the empty common room, his house mates still being down in the Great Hall for dinner. The fire crackled in the stone hearth and he paused to watch it, hoping to settle his mind.

It would be easier not to show up. Everything would go back and that would be that. No more secret meetings, no more mistakes...no more teasing, or good conversations...no more smiles or temptation. Scorpius clenched his jaw and stalked across the room again. This was not helping. He knew he was going to go, so there was no point in trying to convince himself otherwise. He just had to follow his feet to the north tower and let the rest fall into place.

As he stepped through the portrait, he couldn't help but think how much less stressful his life was before Rose showed up on his doorstep.

Light filtered through the windows in the tower, mixing with the dim glow of her laptop. She scrolled absently through some news articles, not really reading them, but pretending she was absorbed. For the twentieth time, Rose released a slow breath and rolled her shoulders to get rid of the tension that had settled there. She just wanted to get the whole thing over with and move past it. If they could do that, she was sure her memories would do the same.

The other night's events just kept running through her mind. Mostly at the most inopportune moments. She had spaced out in class earlier today as her thoughts drifted back and she'd almost missed the answer to a direct question by her professor. Sophie just kept shooting her knowing grins, though she had been good enough to refrain from teasing too much. Rose was grappling with whatever all this was already without having the added pressure of dealing with jibes from her friend.

"And what is this you're looking at?"

She stifled a small scream at the voice that floated just beside her. Glancing over, it was to see Nearly-Headless Nick, the upper half of his torso visible while the rest was interrupted by the stone floor of the tower. She felt a ridiculous amount of relief. He blinked up at her apologetically. With a breathless laugh, Rose shook her head, "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

He lifted his eyebrows, "You are expecting someone more terrifying than a ghost tonight?"

Warm hands, soft lips...She flushed and focused back on her screen, "You could say that."

Nick hummed thoughtfully as he followed her gaze. After watching her for a time, he asked, "What is this thing?"

Rose smiled, "A muggle contraption."

"Ah," he replied, watching for a few moments more before becoming disinterested. He floated fully up through the floor and moved over to the windows to peer out. She didn't blame him. It was something he couldn't use and she wasn't sure it would be much help to him even if he could. Rose glanced up at the ghost, taking in the strange way the moonlight fell through him and how he was almost planted on the floor, but was about an inch too high.

Then, a quiet voice drifted from the entrance of the stairs, "Is three a crowd?"

Something in her chest stuttered for a moment as her gaze snapped toward where Scorpius stood. He was leaning against the wall, watching her with an amused look on his face. His eyes drifted to meet Nick's closed face and he gave a polite nod of greeting, "Hullo, Nick. How goes the drifting tonight?"

The ghost shrugged, "The same as all nights. Slowly." He looked down at Rose and a small smile played at the corners of his lips, "Out looking for...terrifying things." Rose was glad for the dim lighting as she felt her cheeks heat up again. Nick's eyes slipped back to Scorpius, "Though I very rarely find them."

The boy smiled, "Well, I can't say those are things I find myself looking for, but I do wish you luck."

Nick chuckled, "Well, thank you, Sir Malfoy." He gave a graceful bow, "I bid you both a fine evening. Keep an eye out for the patrol, Miss Weasley." She waved to him and then he turned and drifted down through the floor once more. They both watched the spot of stone for a few moments more.

Rose then turned her gaze back to where Scorpius stood, no longer leaning casually against the wall. His hands were shoved in his pockets and he was pointedly staring out the window to his right. She realized her hands were gripping the edges of the laptop too hard and she flexed them open to relieve the quiet ache. Finally, she cleared her throat, "Evening."

His eyes skipped to her for a moment, a polite smile lighting on his lips, "Good evening to you as well." His jaw clenched for a moment, "Look, Rose, about-"

"Forget about it," she interrupted, "Remember? Didn't happen." He closed his mouth and watched her without expression for a moment. She cleared her throat again, "So, anyway. I wanted to show you something." She patted the stone next to her and he hesitated before slowly making his way over. She ignored the panicked feeling in her stomach as he got closer, dropping her eyes to her laptop. He settled in the same place that Nick had floated up from, a good two feet away from her, careful to leave plenty of space so they didn't touch.

Scorpius glanced over at her, "So...what is this thing, then?"

She smiled, "A laptop." The frown that crossed his lips at the name made her laugh and she continued, "It's a muggle machine." She held up a finger, "And...like the car, I don't actually know how it works. Just that it does. So chock most of it up to muggle magic, alright?"

He lifted an eyebrow at her and smiled, "And if I don't believe in muggle magic, Rose?"

"Just try," she shot back with a cheeky grin. And then she showed him the wonders of the internet and any awkwardness faded. He was immediately fascinated, shooting questions at her and she did her best to answer honestly. She showed him as much as she could of how to use everything and after an hour, his shoulder was pressed against hers and he was leaning forward to peer at the screen better. Up until that point, she had been doing very well in her teacher role. Then, she started getting very distracted. The warmth that crept into her shoulder, the closeness of him when he sent a bewildered smile her way, the smell of him wafting around her...

She abruptly shoved the computer over into his lap and he fumbled for a moment before balancing it. He blinked at her in surprise. She grinned, "Your turn to play. I gotta stretch. I was up here for a couple hours before you got here." He accepted the reasonable excuse and then was taking advantage of his new lessons. Rose watched him for a moment before moving a few feet away, stretching her arms above her head as she turned to one of the windows.

She stared down at the nightscape below, watching the wind pull at the trees. Everything was muted out there. She felt like the space in the small tower was the exact opposite. Saturated and sharp.

"Oh, look at this!" Rose looked over at Scorpius and he beamed over at her, tilting the screen so she could see the video that was playing, "They have pictures that move, too! And they have sound!"

She tried very hard not to, but she ended up bursting into laughter. He just rolled his eyes at her, still smiling, before returning his fascination to his discovery. She took advantage of his distraction and watched the colors move across his face.

'Oh, I am in trouble...'

The next few nights ran much the same. After the first night of Scorpius exploring the internet, they both then worked together to brainstorm ways they could use it to find any information on her grandfather. They scoured more news sites and Scorpius offered some suggestions of other key words that might be associated with his disappearance. Every possibility turned up dry, however, and in the light of her mother's continued silence, Rose's hope was starting to fray.

She snapped at Scorpius a few times on the fourth day. He didn't respond, merely took the laptop from her and continued the search. She'd apologized the next night by bringing him some chocolate frogs she'd saved from the train ride in to Hogwarts. She ended up with yet another Albus Dumbledore card and Scorpius got her father.

They both peered at Ronald Weasley's grinning face for a moment. Scorpius laughed, "He looks so proud of himself."

Rose shot him a grin, "Yeah, he practically glowed for days after getting a card in the frogs."

"Maybe someday you'll be in there," Scorpius said with a nudge, "and I bet you'll glow just as much."

Then, he slid the card into his pocket and opened the laptop again. She watched him, hoping he got a chance to earn a card, too. Besides, she thought he sort of glowed all the time. Rose shook her head sharply and focused again on their hunt.

After a particularly frustrating night, she wrote a letter to her mother demanding any and all information. The Prophet had all but dropped the article on Arthur Weasley's disappearance, placing it at the back of the paper next to an ad for an overpriced acne potion. She vented to Scorpius after classes that day and they finally bridged the physical gap they'd imposed when he pulled her into a hug as tears of frustration stung her eyes.

She turned her head into his shoulder and just breathed, her hands digging into his shoulder blades as she tried to calm down.

The next night, Scorpius showed up with a surprise. She had been typing up a response to her cousin's latest boy troubles when he arrived. She glanced up with an absent smile of greeting before returning her attention to the words in front of her. Why did Emily think a traveling artist had sounded stable? She shook her head and it took her a moment to realize that Scorpius hadn't settled down into his normal spot at her side yet.

Looking back up at him, arms crossed in front of his chest and a sly smile levelled at her. Narrowing her eyes at him, she cautiously asked, "What is it?"

He shrugged, "I spoke with my dad last night. I have some news."

Suddenly, she was up and moving toward him, laptop deposited and chest constricting, "What?! What is it? Tell me!"

A laugh bubbled out of him as he pulled a small slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. She opened it and peered down at Scorpius's handwriting. Leonard Bane. Rose blinked at the name a couple times before returning her gaze back to him. "Okay, I'll bite. Who is Leonard Bane?"

"Leonard Bane," he drawled out, "is the man with the enchanted toaster that your grandfather was called to fix. He is the dead end of this whole mess." Rose stared at Scorpius, heart pounding. He shrugged, "I figured a name would help. At the least, we can find out his address and check out the area. Maybe there are some clues that you would pick up that some of us wizard types wouldn't think to look for."

She wanted to kiss him.

Instead, she covered her mouth for a moment and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm down. He made a sound of worry and she felt his hand seek her elbow. Her eyes snapped open and met his. Then, before she could really do anything she might regret, she just stepped in and hugged him. Then, after a few minutes of the bone crushing hug, she stepped back, face beaming and she tugged his sleeve to follow her to the laptop.

"C'mon, wonderboy. We have some research to to."

If she felt a thrill of warmth at his responding laughter, she wasn't going to tell anyone.