I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THAT SERIES BECAUSE THEY ALL BELONG TO JOANNE KATHLEEN (J.K.) ROWLING!

-Chapter Three-

Albus, Rose, Scorpius, and Alice walked down the road. Both people and other students were walking past them. Rose bought her father a couple of treats and the others got something for themselves. All three of them then entered the Three Broomsticks so that they could get out of the cold summer wind.

Albus, Alice, and Rose sat down at a table while Scorpius left to get some Butterbeers. All of them kept the bags in front of them and Scorpius did the same thing as he came back with four bottles of Butterbeer in his hand.

“Thanks.” Alice told him as she opened her bottle and took a sip.

“No problem. Hey, anyway Alice do you know if Hagrid can talk to you at all?” Scorpius asked her.

“No, but I’m pretty sure that he can. He usually is free.” Alice shrugged.

Albus looked at Rose. She had barely said a word and she had been silent all day. If it weren’t for Albus remembering that he left with four people, he was sure that he wouldn’t even remember that Rose was around at all. She had a pale face a slit eyes.

After a little while, Albus asked Rose, “hey, so are you already studying for OWLS?”

Rose looked at him and told them as the other two came in to listen, “well, yeah, a little actually. You can never start too early. My dad says that I get it from my mom.”

Albus nodded and gave a smirk. Rose silently drank a sip of her drink and Scorpius asked her, “are you okay Rose?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m not feeling too good.” Rose admitted.

“Then maybe drinking Butterbeer isn’t the wisest choice.” Scorpius considered.

“No, I’ll be fine. I think that the nerves are hitting a little early.” Rose answered.

“A little, we have a month!” Alice commented, “are you sure that you are okay?”

“Yeah.” Rose answered.

Albus nodded and turned to his friends and said, “Excuse us?”

Rose looked a little shocked, but Alice and Scorpius nodded. Albus thanked them and took Rose’s hand before he led her outside again. Once both of them were outside, Albus let go of his cousin’s hand and led her to a bench. After they sat on it, he saw Rose look at the ground almost embarrassed. Albus put a hand on her shoulder and asked her, “what’s wrong Rose? You know that you can tell me.”

Rose looked at him and said, “Really Al, nothing is going on.”

Albus shook his head and said, “Rose, I know more than you think. Did something happen to you before we left because you seemed to be fine this morning.”

“Albus when am I ever fine?! I don’t have any friends and all I care about is school! Albus, I told you before, I am just feeling a little sick.” Rose told him angrily.

Realizing what she did, Rose gasped and looked back to the ground, shocked by what she did. Albus let his hand drop and he stared at Rose as well. Rose never did this. Rose never yelled and she especially never yelled at Albus.

“Albus I am so sorry.” Rose told him as she lifted her head to meet his eyes.

“I know. Rose what is wrong and please don’t lie to me. You never have before.” Albus encouraged her.

Rose gave a deep sigh and said, “Al, I think that I need to tell you something.”

“Anything.” Albus told her.

When Rose opened her mouth to say something else, all they heard was Alice’s scream.

*

Alice and Scorpius stared at Albus and Rose before they walked outside. Scorpius sighed and Alice looked at him.

“You know, you can just go out there and help her as well.” Alice said.

“I guess, but she would think that it was weird. Besides, she only tells her secrets to Albus.” Scorpius answered.

“Then get her to trust you.” Alice smiled.

Scorpius grinned and shook his head.

“No. That would be mean. It would take a while too.” Scorpius answered.

“Then you better start.” Alice said as she got up, “I’ll be back in a second.”

Scorpius nodded and watched Alice get up from her seat and walk to the washrooms. It was Alice who had made Albus and Rose his friends. She talked to him on the day that they got sorted. He could remember being terrified. He was sure that both of his parents were wanting him to be a Slytherin and that he had let them down. Alice was the only one who would talk to him since she was muggle born and never knew his family’s history like everyone else. Alice talked to Rose and Albus as well so at the end of the month, Albus, Alice, and Scorpius were friends and once in a while, they would hang out with Rose as well.

When he finally sent his parents a letter, he was surprised to know that they were completely okay with it. Even him being friends with the Potters and Weasleys. His father and the Weasleys never got along and again it was because of family history. He could remember Albus and Rose telling their parents the same thing. It was weird to know that all of them were okay with it too. Now, every summer, Scorpius will go over to Albus’s house for a little while or Alice and Albus will go over to his house for a couple of weeks.

To him, Alice was one of the strongest people that he had ever met. Two years ago, she lost her parents and older sister in a fire while she was at Hogwarts. She missed three weeks of school, but teachers were happy to get her caught up, especially since it was near the end of the year. Alice managed to stay with a family friend for that time, but for the summer, she stayed over at Albus’s house. The Potters were happy to let Alice stay in. She over took Lily’s room since Lily already left by then. Though Scorpius knew that Alice missed her parents, she didn’t let that get in the way of her life. Scorpius was sure that her moving in was what helped Albus’s crush.

He watched her as she got to the doors, a man came up beside her. He asked her a question, and like her, she turned to answer him. Watching closely, Scorpius took a drink of his Butterbeer and watched Alice’s face smooth into a smile to fear. Alice then looked down and Scorpius noticed that there was something pointing to her stomach. A wand?

Scorpius set his bottle down and took his wand and held it tightly in his hand. Getting up cautiously, but casually, he kept his arms down and walked over to Alice. She noticed him coming over and the large, black haired man had his back to him, but seemed to hear Scorpius’s footsteps.

“Alice? Are you okay?” Scorpius asked, clutching his wand.

“Scorpius, run.” she whispered.

“You run and I’ll kill her now.” the man said in a hoarse whisper that Scorpius had never heard before.

“Let her go. Now.” Scorpius hissed as he walked up and was in front of the wand that was pointing at Alice’s side.

Alice stared at him. They were in a corner of the shop, of course other people weren’t noticing. The man had a hood over his head so Scorpius couldn’t see his face. Alice stared at Scorpius as the man said, “take her wand. Slowly.”

Scorpius looked at Alice and she said, “back pocket.”

Carefully and slowly, Scorpius took the long chocolate brown wand from her back pocket. He looked at the face behind the hood, but only saw a white ski mask. When the man held out his hands for her wand, Scorpius put a protective hand on Alice’s shoulders.

“Give me her and your wand or else she will pay the price.” the man said in a cold whisper.

Scorpius gave the man the two wands from his hand. The man took them and put them into his own pocket. Scorpius gulped and whispered, “if you are taking her then you are taking me too.”

“The only problem with that is that I don’t want her. I want you.” the man whispered.

Scorpius felt his own throat clog a bit.

“Then put the wand down.” he said.

“We understand then, do we? Excellent. Girl you will not scream or do anything until we get out of that door. If you do then I will kill him. Understand?” the man asked.

Alice looked at Scorpius and nodded.

“Good girl. You’re almost as good as your parents.” the man whispered.

Alice’s eyes bulged out of her head and Scorpius’s hand tightened on her shoulder. All of the colour drained from her face. Suddenly, Scorpius’s arm was grabbed in a tight hold and he felt the wand poke hardly into his side.

“Come with me.” the man said.

Scorpius nodded and the man led him down the pathway to the front doors. He could hear Alice behind him taking deep breaths, as if trying to calm herself so that she could help him when she could. As Scorpius held his breath, they were out of the store.

“Where are you taking me?” Scorpius asked as they just opened the door.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” the man said coldly.

The instant that Scorpius heard the door slam shut, he heard Alice’s scream, “SCORPIUS!”

*

Alice took deep breaths of air as she saw Scorpius being dragged out of the store. She had to build up her scream. She couldn’t let that man take Scorpius.

The instant that she saw the store door shut, Alice was surprised to hear herself scream so loud. She didn’t know that she could yell as loud as that.

“SCORPIUS!” Alice screamed as she bolted to the door.

People stared at her as she did so and some even complained. Alice rushed through the door and yelled, “STOP THEM! HE’S KIDNAPING MY FRIEND! STOP THEM!”

Now, everyone was staring at her. She saw Scorpius looking back at her desperately as the man was now hurrying to drag them away. She also saw Albus stand up from a bench on the other side of the street.

“HELP! STOP THEM!” Alice yelled and Albus then helped her as both of them ran to the man.

Alice watched in horror as the man the backed up against the store wall and had Scorpius pinned to him like a shield as his hold was now around Scorpius’s neck, his wand pointing to the side of his head.

“You will let me go with him now or else I’ll kill him!” the man yelled behind his mask.

Alice stopped and Albus came up beside her, his wand pointed to them. A couple of other adults and students from Hogwarts did the same.

“DROP HIM!” Albus roared.

“You drop your wands. I’m not going to hesitate to kill him.” the man yelled as Scorpius struggled out of the man’s hold until he began choking.

There was utter silence around the street. People were coming out of stores to help and to see what was going on.

“Scorpius! You’re going to be okay!” Albus yelled to his friend.

Scorpius nodded, his face starting to turn blue.

“LET HIM GO!” a person in the crowd bellowed and soon, everyone was chanting it.

Terrified, the man held Scorpius in a tighter grip, making Scorpius cough and hack. Alice watched in horror and in fear, she grabbed Albus’s hand. Albus squeezed it and Alice then saw Scorpius drop his hands. He was going to die. He needed air.

Suddenly, the man through Scorpius to the ground before running through the crowd. As some people went after the man, Albus and Alice let go of each other and they ran as hard as they could to their friend. Scorpius was on his hands and knees. He was looking at the ground as he gasped and gulped down the air around him.

Alice got on her knees in front of Scorpius and quickly took him into a hug. Scorpius gasped a little in pain, but he then hugged her back, still gulping and gasping for air his face becoming back to its normal colour.

“Careful Alice. Let him take a couple of breaths.” Albus said as he patted Scorpius’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Alice said before she pulled Scorpius away a little to kiss his forehead before hugging him again.

“Are you okay?!” a man came over to them as others did as well.

Scorpius nodded and said between gulps of air, “I...got...our...wands.”

Albus looked over Scorpius and saw both of his friend’s wands on the ground.

“We better get back to Hogwarts. Professor Longbottom will know what to do.” Albus said.

Coughing again, Scorpius nodded.