I've decided to conclude this little venture at the number 24, because it can be divided by four and six to equal – oh yeah – six and four!

Shout out to lowi, waterlit, xoRetributionox, Loslote, and Sasparilla123 for feeding me many lovely reviews for the last few chapters especially: thanks fellow members of the internerd, it totally makes my day to get such kind responses – this one's for you ^_^

(720): You should probably wake up already as I have yet another story for you. Teaser? Blood from knife wound. Tequila. Guitar hero. Kitchen counter. Lawyer.

"Day After"

"OOF," wheezed Scorpius as an unknown object connected with his stomach. A foolproof way to rouse him from peaceful sleep it may have been, but one that he appreciated it was not. Rubbing the wounded area, he looked about for the missile. It was a Quaffle, which had, unfortunately, been carried too far by momentum to allow him a decent return shot. Damn.

"You know, you should probably wake up already," a voice informed him from somewhere near his left ear, "-as I have yet another story for you." The groggy blond considered the benefits of tugging the covers over his head, but then decided that the owner of the voice would probably read that as a challenge, and to be quite frank, it was too bloody early to be dealing with that kind of crap.

"Teaser?" the voice offered pleasantly, and Scorpius forced himself to roll over and face his flatmate.

Louis Guillaume Weasley was an enigma. The black sheep of the Weasley tree; the Hufflepuff; the friend of Scorpius Hyperion-the-Ravenclaw-Malfoy–

Actually, when you thought of it like that it was really no surprise that they'd ended up renting a flat together. After all, misfits always get along better with other misfits – like attracts like and all that.

Louis was hovering, waiting for an answer and rocking back and forth like a child on a sugar high, and the young Malfoy's resolve crumbled in the face of so much energy.

"Fine," he grumbled croakily, his voice protesting use so early in the morning. It could only be – he glanced at the clock – ten thirty. Eeeeaaaarly.

It had been noted by many a Ravenclaw that the young Malfoy was not a morning person – the school term was a horrific experience for his poor dorm-mates – but Louis didn't seem to care. He grinned maniacally and proceeded to list things off his fingers: "Blood from knife wound – Tequila – Guitar Hero – kitchen counter – lawyer."

There was a moment of suspended silence where Louis continued to bounce up and down on the edge of the bed.

"Is that supposed to inspire pride?" Scorpius asked. "Because all I'm getting is dread."

"Oh, come on!" Louis implored. "It's not so bad. Look, the knife wound isn't even big!" He thrust his hand into Scorpius' unsuspecting face. A gash about four centimetres long had been carved into the exterior of his left hand, reaching along the fleshy part between thumb and fore-finger and turning the 'V' into more of a 'Y'.

"Ergh!" said Scorpius, propelling himself back against the headboard in a flailing movement. "That's disgusting!"

"It's just a flesh wound," Louis said defensively, cradling it comfortingly, as if Scorpius' reaction had hurt its feelings, while Scorpius cradled his face in the palms of his hands, wondering over his own sanity when he'd agreed to live with a Weasley.

"That's to do with the Tequila you mentioned, right?"

"Yeah!" Louis sounded politely surprised. "Hey, have you already heard this story?"

"Not yet."

"Well, I was cutting limes and lemons, which is a bad idea to do when you're drunk. And the knife was for cutting up meat carcasses, I'm pretty sure…so, yeah, that didn't help…I slipped and wound happened."

"Surprise, surprise," Scorpius mumbled sarcastically. He wiped his hands across his eyes, trying to inspire some wakefulness in his body.

"But this is where things start getting good, there's betting, a foxy hot lawyer lady – who, incidentally, wants to meet with me this week-" he waggled his eyebrows "-and a Guitar Hero battle."

Scorpius let dread settle comfortably in his gut. There were some things that he just knew, and at the moment, the sentence 'the hot lawyer wants to meet with me' didn't mean what Louis thought it meant.

Sometimes Scorpius really appreciated the inheritance he'd received upon reaching his majority.

Because sometimes you needed to bail a friend out of trouble before he knew he was in it.

Ended.

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