"Eww," I screwed up my nose. "That was so sexist."
Yet again Al had had his asshole friends over for the whole summer. The group of Slytherins were snarky and enjoyed trying to stir me up.
Unfortuneately I spent my summer at my grandparents house, as did Al, at the insistance of our parents. Therefore I spent a hell of a lot more time with these idiots than I would like.
Currently, I was sitting on the Burrows couch, while Al, Drew Nott and Zach Brennan hung around the kitchen.
"It's not sexist if she agrees," Zach grinned sleazily.
"Yes," I nodded, massaging a temple. "Yes it is."
"You're no fun," Zach shook his head. "When's Scorp coming?"
"Malfoy's coming?" I wrinkled up my nose.
"What's that face for?" Al poked my stomach.
Scorpius Malfoy was my number one rival. He enjoyed the fact that he could easily beat me if he actually applied himself seriously in his studies, while I had to revise my notes quite extensively to get the marks I valued. Now he had been appointed my fellow Head. Delightful.
"Oi, Malfoy!" Al shouted as the fireplace lighted up.
Scorpius walked out of the fire place, shaking his hair free of soot.
"rose, you didn't have to dress up for me," Malfoy teased, looking at my black tank, grey sweats and the bun on top of my head.
"Oh shut up," I rolled my eyes. "I'm going home. Tell grandma I said bye," I directed at Al.
"Studying?" Scorpius asked, a grin playing across his pale lips.
I threw one of James' dirty socks at him.
"Rosie!" Mum clung to me. "I can't believe it's your last year."
My dad blinked away his tears. "It seems like only a month ago that you were starting your first year."
I decided to humour them. After all, I only had a last year of Hogwarts once in my life.
I found myself being bustled from Mum's arms to Dad's arms as they told me to study hard (and in Dads case prod me about pulling off a Graduation prank).
Hugo had run off with some of his friends and so I said goodbye to my parents, waved to a few of my uncles and aunts scattered around the platform, and walked to the Prefect compartment.
Not to my surprise, Scorpius, Zach and Al had already taken over the variou surfaces.
"Losers," I rolled my eyes. "Any of you seen Kat? Or any of the other girls?"
They looked at me with blank faces before returning to their conversation about . . . Quidditch. Or motorcycles.
Katerina Bairstow was my lovely best friend whom I had missed over the last week or so I hadn't seen her.
The girls were my ever so lovely dorm mates, all of which I happened to get along well with. Elle, Liz, An and Joanne. Out of necessity Joanne had to be called Jo instead of Anne, so that when we yelled An/ne two girls didn't appear. And due to jo being in South Korea visiting relatives, Liz boating around the Greek Islands with her family and friends, Elle working at various charities and making houses in Asia and An at her new job in a book shop, I didn't really see them too much.
"Prefect meeting soon," I rolled my eyes, directing it at Scorpius, my fellow head.
"Whatever." I sat down at the front of it, pulling out the notes I had prepared earlier.
Soon enough Drew arrived and he and Al and Zach left to find an actual compartment while Malfoy sat in the Prefect compartment. Soon enough the rest of the Prefects began to filter in and detached himself from a girl, and instead sat himself next to me, picking up my notes.
"You made actual notes?" He laughed, as I pouted and attempted to subtly grab them off him.
"Shut up," I growled, hiding my blush as I tucked away a strand of my brown hair and he placed the notes in front of me.
"Typically the meeting did not go as (I'd) planned. Instead Malfoy hijacked it.
"Alright everyone. I'm Scorpius and this is Rose, my fellow Head," he said casually, blocking me from the speech I'd prepared. ('Good morning fellow Prefects. I am your Head Girl, Rose Weasley and accompanying me is the Head Boy, Scorpius Malfoy.')
"So you should all have read the responsibilities of being a Prefect. You should read the brochure that came with your badge. If you haven't, well do so," Scorpius completely ignored the fact that we were expected to go through the responsibilities that came with the honour of being a Prefect. "Patrol schedules will be posted on notice boards soon. 5th year Gryffindors and Slytherins are patrolling the train first, then Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."
My mouth hung open as he dismissed the Prefects. How dare he? Not only had he not let me speak at all, but he had also cut the meeting short by at least an hour.
I smiled at the Prefects who filtered out (throwing a smile at my cousin Lily and An's sister Kenzie) as I gripped Malfoy's arms tightly., making sure my nails digged into his flesh. I waited until the Prefects had all left before I turned to him, "What the hell?" I hit his shoulder.
"Ow!" He massaged it. "What was that for?"
"What do you think you idiot?" I asked, my face screwing up in frustration and embarrassment. "How dare you completely take over the meeting?"
"Chill Weasley," he smirked, evidently pleased with himself. "I just tried to speed it up."
"You are such an asshole," I stood up, grabbed my trunk and notes before I walked out.
"Jo!" I squealed and flung my arms around her neck.
"Rosie!" She giggled as her braid flung over her shoulder.
"I've missed you so much!" We had managed to exchange a total of four letters due to flight time.
"Rose?" An hugged me. "Like the skirt?"
"It's beautiful," I grinned. "Betties."
"Don't you know it."
"Elle," I kissed her cheek. "How was Vietnam?"
"Beautiful! The people are so merciful!" She smiled, looking wistful, almost liked she wished she was back there, with them.
"Doll, I've missed you!" Liz hugged me tightly.
"I've missed you too!" I could smell her familiar No.5 overpowering me.
"How was the Prefect meeting?" An asked.
"Horrible," I sighed, slumping down next to Liz who patted my hair. "Malfoy's Head."
"That asshole!" Elle exclaimed.
"I know right?" I asked.
"Hun, whatever he did, we're behind you," An said reassuringly.
"He didn't let me talk," I frowned.
I could see the flash of anger in Elle's eyes that was oh so familiar. "Yet another jerk attempts to shut down a powerful woman."
I smiled at her, recognising the familiar rant about misogyny and patriarchal society.
To my complete and utter disappointment I did not spend my final year of schooling in my dorm. Rather I would be spending it in my very own private room across from my fellow Head.
My room was beautiful. Traditional. And there was a lovely common room and also a small library inside our shared study complete with archives of past Heads speeches, the point deduction and addition history since 1921 and also a list of every Prefect and their files since the early 1800's. In the long run it was amazing.
But I was still upset. I would miss Elle's late night conversations where we wrote short stories for Teen Witch or Hex and Jo's baking and cooking at random intervals or Liz's waking me up in the morning and readng out Latin verses to help me sleep or An helping me redesign my wardrobe every few weekends or Kat staying up late and discussing boys and makeup and clothes.
And also the fact that I was sharing the Head quarters with Malfoy.
Already he had managed to annoy me, dumping himself on the (comfiest) couch in the common room, with his feet on the lovely cherry wood coffee table.
Throwing a dark look at him and his stupid blonde hair and his stupid tan skin I turned around and headed into my own room, and headed into the ensuite, deciding after the long day I deserved a nice, hot shower.
"Eww," I found my roommate half naked on my couch. "Put some clothes on."
"I'm good thanks," he smiled.
"Whatever," I walked out of our rooms with my bag swinging and headed down to the Great Hall where predictably Liz was sitting in her school approved length skirt, sipping on her tea while looking through her Daily Prophet.
"I missed you," I dumped myself next to her and grabbed a nectarine.
"Oh love," she patted my hair, her dark skin contrasting against my own. "I'll sleep over once in a while."
"Yes! Kat's at the Pitch?" My face lighted up as Vic walked by with the schedules, referring to Kat's habit of going for a long run every morning during breakfast.
Liz nodded.
"Hey Rosie!" Vic grinned. "How are you?"
"I'm good. Schedules?" I grinned excitedly.
"Don't you know it," Vic winked.
Victoire Weasley, my eldest cousin, was also the Head of my House. She was fun and lively and also studious much to my enjoyment.
"You're with me, like first thing," she grinned.
"Yay," I took the schedule she offered off her.
"Hey can you give the rest of the girls their schedules?" Vic asked, swinging a curtain of blonde hair over her shoulder and causing a fourth year to nearly faint.
"Sure," I shrugged, and Liz looked over her own schedule.
"Looking forward to class," Liz smiled, after wiping her hands on a napkin.
"Looking forward to seeing you Liz," Vic smiled.
Okay so Liz worked really hard in all of her classes and was also a model student. She was also a well known ex contender for the Head Girl position. One of the reasons that I hadn't been particularly enthusiastic about receiving the position. therefore I was extremely grateful when An arrived, dragging along a yawning Elle and Jo.
"Hey," I grinned, more than excited to see them. "How are you?"
"Tired," Elle groaned, resting her head on the table.
"Why?" I asked as An applied dark eyeliner to Jo's pale skin.
"She was up al night creating poetry," Liz smiled. "And then Jo was making a jacket."
I smiled. "Got your schedules."
"Ooh, do we have any together?" An looked up at me.
"I don't know," I shrugged. "Maybe."
"You should of checked!" Elle tied up her hair.
"Whatever," I rolled my eyes, smile playing at my lips. "Me and Liz have Transfig."
"Me too," Jo said, while An and Elle nodded.
"Awesome."
"Malfoy, we have to talk," I declared, dumping my books onto the coffee table.
I'd spent the past hour in the library studying for some classes and going over today's notes only to come back to my sitting room and found my loser of a cousin and his stupid friends draping their sweaty selves all over the room.
"Scram," I looked at the remaining three.
"Ooh, Malfoy's getting some!" Zach jeered.
"Shut up Brennan," I chucked a sock at him.
The three picked themselves up and exited the room."We have to talk about the schedules."
"What about them?" He asked.
"We need to make them," I looked at him seriously.
"Sounds fun," he smirked. "When will you get them to me?"
"You asshole," I threw yet another sock at him. "You need to get your disgusting feet off the table and and take out some parchment."
Surprisingly he did as I asked. I sat myself beside him and grabbed out my fountain pen, a gift from Grandpa Weasley upon being sent the badge these holidays.
"So every weeknight apart from Friday and Saturday we need to have the Prefects patrolling. Fifth do more than seventh and less than sixth, according to O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s," I smiled. "I've prepared a schedule which is appropriate for each person and any classes of Divination or Astronomy." I took out the file containing my ideas for the upcoming year.
"Oh wow," Malfoy's eyes went wide as I took ot sheets of paper I'd typed on (using my vintage typewriter I'd begged off Grandma Granger).
"Obviously we need to make some changes but here is a copy for you to study," I scribbled his name on the top and handed it to hm.
"I will look it over . . . after dinner."
Yes working for him was going to be difficult.
Elle had somehow managed to find out the password to my rooms (I would have to review my list of passwords and choose what I would change it to) and was camped out on my bed in her bra and a set of sweats, flipping through editions of Hex and Lip.
"So I was thinking, we need some more dances for the year," I paced along my amazingly soft pale blue carpet. "Maybe a Halloween? Although the Feast is a major tradition."
"You know I disapprove of Halloween in general," Elle looked at me seriously.
"Yes, I know. Pagan religions and all that, blah, blah, blah," I rolled my eyes. "A Founders Ball?"
"That's actually really good!" Elle grinned, flipping her wand at the type writer. "Founders Ball," she dictated as it obediently pressed down it's keys.
"We could have a set of historical events throughout the year!" I found myself grow excited as the typewriter continued to take down our notes. "So maybe like a celebration over the Victory of the Last Battle! We could host it a bit before the anniversary and invite parents. Or International Witches Ball?"
"Yes," Elle nodded. "I'm in for that."
"I'm going to make a vow to you here and now, Elle Thompson, that I will be the very best Head Girl in all of Hogwarts history."
"Damn straight."
Unfortunately my fellow Head had decided that his mission in life was to ensure that I went down as the worst Head Girl in the history of Head Girls.
"What the hell?" I screeched at Vic, who was looking at me with wide eyes.
Vic continued to look at me creepily. Like an owl or something. "Okay Rosie, maybe you should calm down. It's not that big of a deal."
"Not a big deal?" I scoffed, pacing her office. "No my fellow Head just punched a Prefect. Not a big deal at all."
"Well the other guy was saying some really horrible things," Vic attempted to defend him.
"I don't care if he was announcing he was a rapist - actually if he was that fully excuses Malfoy's behaviour and I will punch the Prefect as well."
"Why the hell would you punch a Prefect?" I asked as calmly as possible.
"He annoyed me," Malfoy shrugged. "If you'll excuse me, I have Quidditch practice."
"Oh no you don't!" I shook a finger at him. "It's the first freaking week of school! You don't have a team together yet! What I want to know is why on Earth you punched Robbie Griffiths!"
"I already talked to McGonagall," Malfoy drawled from his seat on the couch as I paced back and forth in front of him. "What the fuck else do you want?"
"What do I want?" I turned to face him, a furious expression taking over my face. "What I want is to work with my Head Boy. What I want is honest communication."
Malfoy stood up abruptly, towering over me as his voice sunk to little more than a whisper. "You want honest communication? Here's your communication. Robbie Griffiths was talking shit about my fucking mum."
I felt my eyes widen and ticken prickles as my throat closed up.
"You know what? I'm out of here," he shook his head, his disgust showing, and looked at me like I was a piece of filth, before turning on his heel and leaving the room.
It was strange. You would of thought that in six years of knowing Scorpius Malfoy, that in the six years that he had been Al's best friend, I would of thought of him as an actual person. With feelings and thoughts and relationships. And yet I had managed to make him into some sort of monster whose existence was created to annoy me and punish me.
I never thought that every holiday he would go to his parents home and have actual feelings about them.
And I'd never seen anyone look at me like that. That look of loathing and disgust. No one had ever looked at me like that, not outside from Hugo.
I felt vulnerable upon seeing his vulnerability. I felt emotions, strong emotions and I felt disgust with myself because someone didn't think I was perfect. Someone didn't think I deserved to be elevated.
He didn't come back to much later and barely seemed to notice me as only the fire embers glowed.
"Malfoy," I said causing him to spin around from the direction of his room and turn to the corner where I stood.
He didn't speak, instead looked at me, all the judgement in my eyes.
"I'm sorry," I said weakly. "You can punch a thousand Robbie Griffiths."
He didn't say another word and instead turned to his room.
Nonetheless I put Robbie Griffiths on the midnight shift five nights in a row.
Hey guys - well either this is gonna stay a one shot, or I may expand, depending on my time. Nonetheless I needed to get it out of my head. Anyway feedback is great as always.
xx Louisa