Do you know how sometimes you get so used to wearing a mask that you almost forget you’re wearing it?

When is it too late to take it off? To prevent it from getting so attached to you, from irrevocably changing who you are at your core?

Will you have the courage it takes to face off your fears when your mask falls?

***

Two years ago

“Looks like we’ll be trapped in here for a while…”

I’m going to kill him. I’m positive, absolutely sure, 100% certain that as soon as I can get my hands free, I’m going to kill him. And then report his careless arse to The Force.

“Oh really?,” I ask rhetorically, my tone bordering on exasperation. It’s been, I’m guessing, almost two hours of captivity. "I'd never thought."

Malfoy narrows his eyes at my sarcastic response, but it doesn't go completely unnoticed to me how he keeps bouncing one of his legs. I can tell that he’s agitated, and I hate that I know his habits so well by now. “Yes, I’m dead serious. We are really gonna be here for a while, Weasley. It’s a fact. They’re not letting us go anytime soon, and it’s…”

He continues rambling and I huff my annoyance, trying to free my wrists again by pulling at the ropes that bind me. As expected, it does nothing. “Then you’d better shut your mouth, Malfoy, because I’m fed up with you already!,” I blurt out, frustrated to no end.

I swear to Circe that no one tests my patience as much as he does.

Malfoy's mouth pops open and he has the nerve to glare at me in disbelief with those infuriatingly gorgeous grey eyes. “Why are you looking at me like this is my fault?”

The audacity! 

If it weren’t because of him, I would have never found myself in this situation. It was my day off, The Force didn’t need me and if it hadn't been for him going missing, I would have probably never been called in. But no! He'd gotten himself into trouble, the rest of the team was occupied with other missions, and I had almost barked at my mother something very unladylike when the Ministry called for me and demanded that I went looking for the git.

While the appraisal that came with such a task was commendable (after all, I am the best Curse Breaker in the Ministry in this time and age, and they did send me in by myself), I’m positive that my mother dreaded sending me in to free Malfoy almost as much as I regretted having to accept it.

And so when I could have been at home relaxing, doing some facials and drinking tea curled up with a good book, I instead find myself in a confined room deep within one of the most prestigious art galleries the magical world has to offer, tied to a chair without good (read: any) prospects of escaping, and with Malfoy beside me in the same unfortunate predicament.

Powerful charms prevent us from using any magic to get free, and on the other side of the door several members of The Brotherhood steal paintings too valuable to even imagine their worth while Malfoy and I sit passively and let it happen.

Alright so I can admit, quite against my will, that Malfoy can be incredibly sneaky, a quality that I have reluctantly come to admire. And he's smart. So smart (almost like a mastermind really, not that I'll ever say it out loud) that he got this lead all on his own, decided to investigate on a hunch and ended up catching The Brotherhood in the act, which is a first in the Ministry’s investigation of the group. Given that they mostly operate without leaving traces behind except for the emptiness that lingers in their wake, it's surprising that Malfoy was able to trace them at all before things went down.

It seems that the problems only arose when Malfoy tried to call for reinforcements and, being the klutz that he can be sometimes, ended up alerting the villains to his whereabouts, resulting in his incarceration. I don't know if I’m more bummed that Malfoy screwed up, that he got me caught as well, or that some of the most beautiful and wise, secret-ridden paintings are being ripped off the walls mere feet away while there's nothing either of us can do about it.

I may have a hate/love thing going on here for this airhead- No, wait! Scratch that. Hate/crush, or infatuation perhaps, is more like it (and emphasis on the hate part because Merlin knows I can’t stand his face).

Good Dumbledore, I can’t even listen to myself in my head!

Thankfully, Malfoy bouncing his leg more and more as time passes us by stops my inner rant and I groan loudly. “Would you stop that?! It’s driving me crazy.”

He follows my gaze and ceases the movement at once, to my surprise. Something seems off. “Sorry. Bad habit.”

“What, are you nervous?”

Trying once more to free himself as well, Malfoy worries his lower lip. Strangely, and only for a moment, he almost looks forlorn. I’m not used to seeing him like this. “Well, of course I am,” he admits. “I don’t stand a chance now.”

 “Of…?,” I ask tentatively, unable to squelch my innate curiosity even if I regrets it almost immediately. 

“Of getting on the official team, Weasley, what do you think?,” he snaps at me, clearly frustrated. “They won’t let me in now. Not now that you’re here.”

I know all about frustration. Only Merlin knows how much Malfoy riles me up.

Still I tilt my head in confusion, not sure what he means. “Why? What does me being here have to do with anything?”

Malfoy holds my gaze for a little too long to be proper before looking away in contemplation. It makes my mind wander. “The Force is an elite team,” he murmurs after a moment. “Only the best of the best trainees will make it, and there are only so many slots to be filled by Curse Breakers. We can’t seem to work together, you and I. So, between the both of us, who do you think the Ministry will choose?”

Indignation takes over me instantly, living up to my hot temper. “If you think that just because most of my family works for the Ministry they’ll choose me-”

Self-preservation is an instinct that Malfoy possesses, it seems, as he’s quick to stop my tirade to prevent it from escalating. I’ll give him that. “That’s not what I meant.” Sighing and looking everywhere but at me, he adds “It’s just that you’re the best, alright? You are smart, and resourceful. You’re quick on your feet. You’re fearless, if a little insane sometimes.”

I gaze at him, dumbfounded.

I can barely believe that he’s just complimented me, and it’s true that sometimes I’ve wondered whether Malfoy might have these... Lets call it foreign emotions. Yep, that ought to describe how at times I feel towards him. And how occasionally I think he might feel towards me. But that thought is just insane.

I mean, in what world would a Malfoy and a Weasley ever work out?

The Brotherhood must have stunned me before they cast Incarcerous, that’s the only logical explanation for this tangent. Either that or spending too much time so close to Malfoy is rendering me bonkers. Either or.

I’m so distracted that I almost miss the moment when Malfoy finally meets my stunned gaze. His lips tilt upwards in a shy smile, and the words that he delivers next are but a murmur. Only Merlin knows why the sight of that makes my cheeks heat. “It’s just that you’re the better Curse Breaker of us all. Even if we’re always bickering, and don’t always see eye to eye, I respect you. And I admire you, alright? Now don’t let that get to your head.”

And that, I’m afraid, is how it starts. This is how it all changes.

The way he says it, like it’s his most secret admission, makes my heart fill with pride at the recognition, and the walls I had put up so long ago to keep him out crumble a little. Suddenly embarrassed with the harshness that I’ve always treated him with, I’m the one now looking away in an attempt to hide my blush.

I must stay silent for too long because when his voice breaks the void that was starting to swallow us, it startles me. “Will you look at me?”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Feeling suddenly nervous, my thoughts bring to the forefront of my mind all the reasons why we have hated each other ever since we were born. A family feud older than time itself, a rivalry innate to our blood lineage that neither of us could have avoided even if we wanted to. Ultimately a competition that became the fuel which ended up driving us here.

A mask that we were forced to wear ever since I can remember.

“Rose, please.”

I’m helpless to escape the sincerity in his voice now, most of all when he calls me by my first name. It’s such a rarity, I’ve practically forgotten the sound. When our eyes lock this time, I can’t define what passes between us.

All I know is that it’s different.

“I’m tired of believing that this is what we’re reduced to.” I find myself staring at him even when I don’t mean to. I’m entranced, transfixed by the seriousness of the moment. All I can do is listen. “Whatever our parents have against each other, that’s on them. I’m not saying that you and I can’t have a little friendly competition every now and then, but we’re always at each other’s throats and for what? Can’t we just try and be ourselves for once, maybe work together?”

Take off the mask, he says. As if it’s so simple to just stare at yourself in the mirror and remove the disguise you’ve learned to wear so well.

“How do we do that?,” I hear myself murmur. I don’t know why we’re even speaking in hushed tones. Maybe I’m tired of this farce as well. “We’ve known each other for years. Do we... What, Scorpius? Do we just start over?”

He must interpret my words as an agreement because he smirks, the bastard. Or maybe it’s because I’ve called him by his first name too. And the worst part is that he’s smug in that way that infuriates me sometimes, but that I can’t just come out and say turns me on a little. Merlin knows what he’d do with that...

“We don’t have to be who they want us to be. Perhaps it’s time to become who we are meant to.”

And that is, I think, how he really convinces me that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we just trusted each other enough to work together without hexing one another left and right. It’s not like we have to be friends, we just have to... Coexist.

His words stay with me long after we’re freed from our predicament. Later that night, in the cosiness of my bed, I can’t help but wonder where this new stance will take us. Whether taking off our masks will change who we are as a person, who we are to each other.

It’s with ease that I can admit I’m looking forward to finding out.

***

Wearing a mask can become a habit. One that you live and breathe to the point of forgetting who you were before you started engaging in it.

We thought it would be easy to let go, just like we thought it wouldn’t change things all that much.

What we could never have guessed is that we would never end up losing our masks entirely.

We just replaced it with new ones.