THORNS & VENOM | h.p.a.u

MUDBLOOD

Scorpius cursed. "And with the trend of past professors usually ending up dead or evil... the next victim may be a prefect."

"Or one of the prefects could be the culprit."

Rose burst through the doors, "We did a headcount. There are students missing."

Scorpius met McGonagall's eyes as he asked a question they were dreading. "Who?"

"Lorcan Scamander, Brody, and Hadley Winslet."

All prefects. 

Rose pulled her wand out and gestured for Scorpius to follow her. "We'll check for the missing students."

McGonagall looked like she was going to vehemently deny that they did such a thing, but Scorpius touched his hand on the Headmistress' arm. "Please, we'll be safe. Besides, it's my turn to save her."

Rose smiled softly at him and he felt his heart grow even more. She turned to McGonagall. "Any ideas where the students could be?"

Scorpius and McGonagall caught her up with the theories as well as the other missing students in addition to the prefects. 

"Be safe. Take this." McGonagall passed them both an item wrapped in brown paper. 

Scorpius pulled the edge of the paper to reveal a mirror. It was the same ones they had picked up during their Hogsmeade run for supplies. 

McGonagall opened the doors to the Great Hall where the sound of frustrated and scared students carried over into the deserted hallway. "Those mirrors are enchanted to trap the figure caught between the reflections. As long as you hold, the person caught won't be able to move. Be safe. The professors and I will work to evacuate the students." 

"We won't let you down," Rose promised as she backed away. 

McGonagall pulled out her own wand and cast a quick Patronus. "Be safe, you two."

"Of course." Scorpius nodded as McGonagall shut the doors. 

He could still hear her barking orders at the students and professors even through the door. Rose nudged his shoulder. "Any ideas where they could be?"

He grimaced. "I have a bad feeling they're in the woods. The dementors are flooding that area, the centaur I encountered was terrified of the mere thought of dementors."

Rose accio'd  both of their brooms. "Tight formation, we'll stick low to the ground. The last time we went through the Dementors nearly got Roxanne."

Scorpius shook his head as he mounted his broom. "I still can't believe I was out cold that whole ride. I hate that I wasn't there for you. Or that Albus stole the spotlight with his patronus when mine is clearly better."

Even though this was a very dangerous mission, Rose couldn't help but smile at his frustrated laugh. He really was sweet when he opened up fully to her. No secrets, no hidden agendas. Just them.

"Brody gave me a list of students who were missing before he vanished." Rose kicked off and urged the McGonagall's patronus to follow them out into the courtyard. 

Scorpius had cast his patronus already, a much larger dragon flapping just under them as if they were gliding on the smoke trails left. The dementors kept their distance just from the sheer size of Scorpius' patronus. 

They skirted around to the woods and dipped down at the sound of the centaurs. Rose took lead. Scorpius was glad that she approached the horde of centaurs. He wasn't too sure about negotiating with centaurs for information since his last encounter.