Folie à Deux

Chapter 17: You Shook Me All Night Long

Chapter 17: It's Not Easy Being Me or, You Shook Me All Night Long

Rating: M mainly for language, and I can't discount any funny business later on

Disclaimer: I work with only what J.K. Rowling has given me.

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Scorpius was still awake by the time dawn had broken and early morning light had begun to flood the Astronomy Tower. He hadn't moved from where he had been sitting, even as his back ached and his head had begun to throb. The place was still silent — apart from the birds that had started to sing — silent enough that the slightest disturbance to the environment pricked his ears.

The footsteps had only been audible for a few seconds before he saw the door nudge open, and he trailed the smart black flats up to the blonde ponytail slightly canted to the left.

"Fucking hell, what is it with people and this place?"

Juliette Bexley stared at him, wide-eyed, and then she pointed at the textbook that Scorpius vaguely remembered seeing when the darkness had subsided, but had taken no further notice of. "I forgot something."

"Yeah, you and everyone else," Scorpius muttered, but he leaned over, scooped it up and passed it to her.

She didn't stop looking at him, even as she pulled the book to her chest, and her head cocked a little as she continued, silently, to scrutinise him.

Uncomfortable, Scorpius narrowed his eyes at her. "What."

She shrugged. "You look terrible. Can I sit?"

"I'd rather you didn't."

She sat anyway.

"What's that smell?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. "It's everywhere."

Scorpius took a deep, heaving breath and angled his head towards the area of dark-stained stone next to them. "It spilled."

Juliette frowned. "That's alcohol." She turned her gaze on him accusingly. "You're not supposed to drink alcohol at school. And the bottle's cracked. Did you know?"

"If you tell on me, you won't have a tutor."

Juliette sniffed. "I wasn't going to tell on you. Did you break the bottle because you were drunk?"

Scorpius slowly shook his head. "No."

"Did you break it on purpose?"

"No."

After a protracted moment of silence, she began to click her teeth, and in his periphery, Scorpius saw her slowly turn her head towards him.

"Sooooo...what happened?"

"No."

Juliette raised her eyebrows. "No?"

"Yes. I mean, no."

A tiny smile upturned the corner of her mouth, and she looked down at her shoes, edging her heels together until they were touching. "Whatever it is, it's probably not that bad. Things always look better in the morning."

"It is the morning."

"Is it something to do with that letter?"

Scorpius raised his gaze to the abandoned letter, folded over and face down on the stone floor a few feet away from them. The letter that meant things would be different when he returned home, things that meant funerals and strangers, white lilies and black clothes. Fuck, it should've been.