Enclosed

Chapter Twenty-Six: Fall

"For the fourth time stop playing with that band around your wrist. If you're going to be easily distracted by it then you need to take it off." Rose instructed bossily, as Scorpius tugged at the rubber band.

He sat straight up in the chair like he was on the witness stand, leaving Rose to pace the room, using the floor as her stage.

He dropped his hand guiltily, "Sorry, Rose. I can't seem to help it. I'm getting bored and this is the only thing keeping me awake."

It was 3:00 in the morning. They were running through Scorpius's cross...again. They'd gone through his testimony every day for the last three days. Rose was relentless in her efforts grilling him at a level of ruthlessness Ruiz would be proud of. Scorpius was witty. He never let a response make him falter. Always kept his composure and answered each question professionally.

Scorpius was the ideal witness. The perfect witness even. She could have stopped the cross-examination ages ago but being overprepared was better than being underprepared.

"Let's finish running through this one more time and we can call it a night."

Scorpius perked up, "Ask away Counselor."

Taking a deep breath, Rose put on the lawyer persona. She twirled on her heels and looked Scorpius dead in the eye. "Mr. Malfoy can you describe the events in which you found this ring." She held up a picture of Pious' ring. The very same one she wore as a transfigured necklace.

"It was on the 18th of January."

Scorpius recounted the story of how he discovered the screw was a transfigured ring. He discussed the process of collecting the evidence, running the forensics, and how they tied the evidence to Pious. Rose never let her eyes leave him as he talked. She nodded in all the right places, using encouraging hand gestures to build rapport with the non-existing jury.

Twenty minutes later they finished the last of Scorpius's questions. He slumped back in the chair drained.

"I'm gonna need you to use Leviosa on me and send me to my bed. My muscles are too tired to move."

Rose's muscles contracted as if in solidarity. She was running on four hours of sleep and hadn't sat down in hours. Wearing heels hand't been the brightest move.

Her bed was calling to her with the sweet melody of rest. It could wait a few minutes longer.

In addition to doing Scorpius' cross-examination, filing the subpoena paperwork, and creating notices for the witnesses that would need to show up at trial, she'd also come up with a strategy on how to convince Scorpius and Al to let her meet with Marcus again.

"Before you go to bed," Rose clasped her hands behind her back innocently, "can we talk about something?"

"Of course. You know you can talk to me about anything."

Rose wiped her sweaty palms on her freshly cleaned suit, "I want you to hear me out before you interrupt me to say it's a bad idea."

"You're not going to meet with Marcus."

"You were supposed to let me finish before vetoing." Rose whined.

Scorpius sighed and pushed back the chair to cross the room until he was standing in front of her, "Rose, it is too risky. Last time you snuck out, you nearly got yourself killed. We aren't going to risk that again. End of dicsussion." Scorpius sidestepped Rose, walking into the kitchen and toward the sitting room, seemingly done with the conversation.

With a huff, she stalked after him, "I wasn't done talking to you."

Scorpius ignored her and climbed the stairs heading to bed.