Still Waters Run Deep

Half-Term Mayhem pt.1

Scorpius and his friends usually stayed at Hogwarts during half-term break, during which they had the school all to themselves with no lessons to attend to and no schedules to follow. It was Scorpius's favourite week of the year, but this year it had to be cancelled because other more important issues needed to be prioritised and that was the reason why he and his friends were all board on the Hogwarts Express on their way back home. The group cramped inside compartment number seventeen where Rose had called an urgent meeting, they had the limited time of the trip back home to come up with a solid plan to figure out what was really going on with Harry Potter.

"Guys." Rose waved her hands in the air trying to call people's attention, "Hey guys, I really need you to listen to what I'm about to say." It was no use. She let out a sigh and shook her head in defeat.

Scorpius noticed Rose was struggling and called out: "Hey!" Everyone turned silent and looked his direction. "Rose needs you to listen." He motioned to the brunette sitting to his right.

"Thank you, Scorp," She started, everyone in the compartment had eyes in her. "Um, so yesterday at breakfast, Toby, Roxie, Marlene and I came to the conclusion, that all this mayhem is happening because there is a fault in the core of the ministry, which is, as you all know, the Minister of Magic..." she paused before speaking again. "Dominique told Roxie that she noticed Uncle Harry acting weirdly recently, which strengthens the idea that something is going on- like something is clouding his judgment, maybe even someone or something forcing him to make decisions that would normally be unthinkable." She paused again and looked around the room to see if everyone was understanding what she was saying.

"What do you mean by forcing?" Lily asked from the far corner of the room, where she stood next to Caleb.

"We think that maybe he's being blackmailed-" Marlene explained. "Or that someone is holding him at gunpoint or something-not literally-not literally, but you get what I mean, right?" Lily nodded her head slowly.

"Yes," Rose took over, "We think that maybe someone behind" She finger quote, "the curtains, is making decisions for him. And that someone must hold some sort of power over Uncle Harry, or is using other means to threaten him."

"But we aren't sure if any of this." Roxanne cleared. "It's just a hypothesis."

"And that's why we came up with a plan to test our hypothesis," Rose stated.

"We don't have a weird, nerdy name for this one," Marlene added as she eyed Scorpius.

"What not nerdy name did you give it then?" The blonde boy asked.

"It doesn't have a name," Marlene replied.

"It's not a good plan if it doesn't have a name." Scorpius said simply in a monotone. "It's bound to suck-"

"Why does it have to have a name?" Marlene argued. "Can you explain it to me like I'm a three-year-old why does everything have to have a name."

"Because-"

"Scorpius." Rose cut him off, he became silent and stared at her. "Shut up." Scorpius raised his eyebrows and shook his head before leaning back into his seat. "This is serious." She continued. "Especially because no one can know about this if the adults know about what we're about to do they will stop us."

"Can you just tell us what it is already?" Lily snapped. "You're making me nervous."

"Sorry, yes," Rose replied. "Well, um, I'm warning you now that you're not going to like it. Not one bit." She eyed Albus. "The plan we came up with consists of Albus going to the ministry to try and have a talk with Uncle Harry to figure out what is going on..."

"No way in hell." Albus crossed his arms. "I'm not speaking to him, he's dead to me."

"Albus don't say that!" Lily protested. Albus just shook his head. He really didn't want to see his father's face, not now not ever because what Harry did to him was unforgivable, his blood still boiled with anger every time he remembered the harsh cold hand coming into contact with his face. If he knew this was the plan he would have stayed at Hogwarts.

"Albus," Rose said softly. "If you talk to your father, maybe you'll find out why he did what he did..."

"Yeah but what I find nothing?"

"We'll look somewhere else," Scorpius stated. "Until we find something."

"How do you know there is something to find? How do you know he's not just being an ass?" Albus questioned.

"Because he's not one." Scorpius shrugged.

Albus thought for a moment. If he did this and found out that his father was making all these decisions by free will, it would crush him, but if he found out that there was a reason that his father was making these decisions, a reason to why he was acting unlike himself, that would change everything. 

"Alright," Albus spoke. "I'll do it." After getting some reassuring smiles from around the compartment, Rose moved on with explaining the plan.

"Okay, so what we thought would be a good idea, was for you to go into your father's office and start off by apologizing-" Albus raised his eyebrows, "-so that you get on his good side, therefore you can have a good conversation with him. Perhaps talk about your future career, if he has suggestions, ask him lots of questions so you can see if he's acting weirdly. Also, ask him to write stuff down on a paper, like I don't know, an address to a shop or something, so if someone is listening or watching him he can tell you... if anyone has any more ideas to add, these are just some stuff we came up with but obviously we are a team so we waited 'till we were all together to have a more solid plan."

"What about documents he might have on his desk?" Zabini started, "They might tell you a lot more than he will."

"That's good we didn't think of that." Rose scratched her forehead. "Anyone has any ideas of how we could distract him enough to look for stuff?"

"I have an idea!" Marlene started eagerly. "What about spilling ink on his shirt and look whilst his changing? I saw it in a muggle movie once, it might work."

"Or he might tell me to get the hell out," Albus mumbled, but loud enough for everyone to hear, they were in a confined space after all.

"He might do that, but we could try," Rose said hopefully. The room went silent as everyone thought.

"How about we get someone to find out when he's having lunch, Albus would go during that time and the secretary would probably tell him to wait in his office, she wouldn't suspect anything, she'll just think Albus wants to have a talk with his father..." Eleanor suggested.

"That's very smart," Scorpius stated. "And it's totally possible. If the secretary doesn't let him in, he could still try the shirt thing if he sees there is no way he can stretch out the conversation."

"Good thinking, Ellie." Rose looked up at the blond girl and smiled. The group continued to brainstorm all the way to Kings Cross station.

Arriving at Kings Cross at half-term break was very different than arriving for Christmas or at the end of the year. The platform was no where near as full, and the spirit was bland. Scorpius was handing Rose her luggage when he glanced out the window for a quick second and Scorpius spotted someone he wasn't expecting to see and he felt his whole body go rigid.

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We love a cliffhanger

This chapter will probably have 3 parts or another very long one. I've been so busy with school but I'll try to upload tomorrow or Monday:)

This chapter was very very boring but if I added what I wanted to add it would be three times as long and then you'd only get an update in three months time bc i procrastinate like hell w everything I do.

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