"Houses of red, blue, and green work together,
To solve a mystery in the land of heather.
With such house unity, what shall they face?
A dark lord risen will be the case.
As times grow troublesome, so will the weather."
One Redheaded Ravenclaw stood frozen in the light of a partially opened door. The words flowed out and seemed to echo throughout the hallway, or was it just echoing in her head? Was that... Professor Trelawney? It hadn't sounded like the crazy professor, whom had barely gotten through an entire year.
Her essay was clutched inside her hand tightly and now crumpled as she stared at the Charms door. She had thought the woman had lost her gift for being a seer so long ago. Considering how many untrue death's she tried to scare into her students, they all thought she was completely nutters.
Then again, hadn't Professor Trelawney been the one to tell of her Uncle Harry's prophesy with the last Dark Lord? Lord Voldemort, the first man to successfully resurrect himself. He lost his nose for it but to complete such a feat was something of a wonder.
"Minerva, this is the second prophesy just within this week."
Rose swallowed and held her breath as she now heard Professor Flitwick's voice and the concern that was so deeply etched into each word. "Only last time, she was going on about some sort of jewelry. Some ancient historical artifact that hasn't been seen in... a millennial." Rose replayed everything he said over in her head, trying to memorize each word like she was in a lesson.
"Miss Weasley. Please stop your eavesdropping and come in."
Headmistress McGonagall commanded, and wordlessly the door opened at her wide eyes. She hadn't meant to be caught. Heat flooded her entire face, ears, and crawled down her neck until it matched the color of her hair. It was the Weasley blush, or so she had begun to call this curse.
"Oh, yes, hello dear. Is that your extra credit essay we talked about on Monday? Good good..." Looking down at the ground Rose shuffled forward to set the crumpled pages on the Professor's desk and nodded.
"Yes Professor."
Her head felt so heavy, her eyes glued to the floor. She felt so ashamed. If she had been fit for Gryffindor like her cousins, she would have been able to stride in and look them all in the face as she delivered her extra credit essay. Maybe it was buried deep, deep inside ofher, yet it likely wasn't to be coming out anytime soon.
She had to live up to her great parents name or up to her cousin's prank. With not just a large family, but a famous one, everyone knew you and many of your secrets. Even when she did great at work, they would just think of her mother. She was sure the teacher's thought of her as Hermione Weasley's daughter, not as Rose Weasley another student. It was one of the reasons she hadn't liked being out around people. Even her temper was something people remarked could rival her mothers. She wasn't distinctly Rosetta Weasley. She wasn't even that brave. She was loyal at least, but she was now agoraphobic which made going out into the world even more daunting. Hives wasn't something she liked very much.
The tension in the room grew and Rose felt her body begin to tense along with it. Each muscle was tight and there was now a lump in her throat so she couldn't excuse herself. Instead, she stood there like some mindless idiot who didn't know when she was unwanted in a room. She could hear the rhythmic ticking of the clock and stared at the wall, unsure of when her voice would return.
"Is that all, Miss Weasley, or have you already finished the assignment I gave you this morning?"
Disdain etched in his voice as he spoke. Who was he? Professor Miles Bletchley was not one who was impressed with Rose's heritage. The former Slytherin had a select few in whom he favored, and Rosetta was not one of them. It wasn't only Slytherin either but select students who held true promise for greatness.
Rose turned from them all and strode quickly to the door before freezing when she heard the Headmistress' voice. "Miss Weasley, please keep quiet or forget about what you just heard. No one else needs to know right now, of this little matter. We do not even know what it means but there is no need for a panic over nothing." Rose nodded quickly, her head getting a bit light with allthe action. "Yes Professor." With those last words, Rose shut the door and instantly began on her next venture. The Library.
Considering that it was so close to dinner time, the hallways were fairly empty as she made her way there. The library had now been decorated in something called Gnui Fei. A form of magical balancing practiced by mostly the Chinese - all thanks to their new librarian Miss Rei Wang.
About five years ago, the entire library had been changed. Apparently, the library didn't have the 'correct elements' for students to learn as much as they were capable.
Professor McGonagall had given her two weeks to prove that she was right with her radical idea. Rose had the pride of saying the library now had a small waterfall in the far right hand corner. There was also a floral smell in the library from the small garden gazebo that was in the upper left hand corner.
None of those things were her favorite thing about the new adjustments to the library. Her most cherished change is what the librarian called a touch of serenity from the night sky which was ever present over the roof. She would be reading up for hours and then she'd look up and see the night sky… Well she'd find constellations, which was fairly easy but her brain would find relief in the mindless work.
As she entered the library, it too was nearly empty. There were two other people in the library. Additionally, there was another Ravenclaw and Miss Wang seeming to be arguing over the proper protection of Hogwarts books when practicing magic or potions.
From the few words Rose could hear from 30 paces away, there was a bit of damage done to a book that had been returned. She wasn't sure if it was magic or potions, but Miss Wang had her eyes almost crossed and her hands gripping to the sides of the counter far too hard.
Quickly passing by, hopefully unnoticed, although little went unnoticed by Miss Wang. Into the corner of the library - now dedicated to history - Rose started her search for this special piece of jewelry.
Really, they could have been talking about anything… Rose always carried spare parchment in her bag but these sorts of notes would be much longer than usual. Perhaps this was jumping the gun but Professor McGonagall had said that she didn't want anyone else knowing, not that Rose was forbidden to look for it herself. The only problem was - she wasn't sure where to start looking.
She took a deep breath and stared at all the books. She supposed she could start with the most obvious ones. "Historic Jewelry and it's Catastrophe Volumn 1" and "Research on Jewelry over the centuries" were the first two she grabbed. Something her mother always had said was; look in the most obvious places first, because it might be right in your face wagging its tail.
Grabbing the over 500 page documentaries, she carried them over to a small sound table. It allowed her to spread out her work and scan over the words again as she wrote her essays. Her fingers itched as they hovered over the cover of her red bound book. She's start with Research on Jewelry over the centuries. Really, it could be nothing at all. The words of Professor Trelawney still echoed in her ears however. 'A Dark Lord Risen Will be the Case"
A new dark lord… That hadn't happened since… well, since her parents were in school. There had only been two serial killers since then, however they were dealt with far too soon to actually call them dark lords.
Finally opening the book, she eagerly read through the Index. While in perspective, there were only 20 of what could have been a hundred. Still, she had to know. It was something that hadn't been seen in, well had Professor Flitwick really said Millennia? That was the thing that worried her. Still, she wasn't going to give up despite her odds.
It took only a quick scan over the words to determine if she needed to write down the article of fashion or not. Many of them, she was glad. This author seemed to be intrigued by violence and the type of magic that could bestow upon something charmed.
"Whatcha got there Weasle twit?"
The sneering voice of none other than Scorpius Malfoy filled the silence Rose had been enjoying. She didn't have to look up to see his platinum blond hair hanging below his eyebrows. Silver eyes seemed to stare mockingly at her loose curls.
She should have tried to pull it back into a braid to tame it, but it had seemed like too much effort that morning. She swallowed before looking up at him.
"Well hello there, Mr. Malfoy. Is there something I can do to help you?" An almost sickly polite voice sprang out of her as she turned the next page. She had to see him enough when she tried to study in the Head's lounge. The very scent of him, rich and expensive, had her nose itching. Had he bathed in it today? Or was he trying to cover up another scent?
Something in the back of her mind tingled but it was something she couldn't quite remember. This further agitated her and she put a small wrinkle in the page as she did her best to ignore the blond prick.
"Look who found their claws." He seemed to lean against table and regard her coolly. She felt every part of her began to itch under his gaze. He had never actually stopped to converse before. It was unsettling. Unnerving. "As for what you can help me with, I believe that we have a small matter to deal with."
She felt her brows furrow as she tried to think about what Malfoy needed to talk to her about. It hadn't even been a week into their last year at Hogwarts. Surely, he didn't find something to complain about this early.
Finally meeting that grey stare, she reigned in her annoyance. "And this matter couldn't wait until I got back to the lounge?" She asked, keeping her tone dull and even.
Folding her hands ever so neatly, she motioned for him to sit beside her. He shook his head, ever so slightly. She wanted to sneer but kept it inside. So he thought he was too good to even sit beside her. Her hands tightened on each other but she kept herself composed. Hopefully.
Scorpius forced himself not to smile as he looked down at her. A chuckled fought to escape but he simply smirked. It could have waited, but he'd rather do things on his schedule rather than hers. He still had to eat, but there were more important things. There were very few things above food, but he knew his priorities. He wasn't just a normal seventeen year old boy. He was Scorpius Malfoy, the seventeen year old boy with duties.
"Lorcan Scamander proposes that we start an investigation into the missing portraits. Or well, the people in the portraits missing."
It wasn't really that often that they went missing but it was just assumed they got bored of their scene. Some of them had been there for over hundreds of years. He would have been bored to tears within a day. However, he seems to think that it's much more than that. Something was happening to them, not that they were just out visiting some other portrait.
Rose seemed to raise an eyebrow at him. He raised one in return. They stared at each other for thirty seconds before he sighed and went on. "Your opinion on the matter, Head Girl?" He crossed his arms as he watched her as a piece of hair fell into her face. She blew it back for the moment, but he knew it would just fall back down in a minute or so. When you had an enemy, you knew most of the things that annoying the hell out of them.
He saw her face twitch for a moment. His satisfaction must have been evident on his face because she gritted her teeth and if looks would kill. Well it was safe to say that not even a molecule of him would be left for evidence.
"Lorcan already spoke to me, and just like him, you shall have to wait. Things must be done professionally. That means, tomorrow at the meeting this will be discussed."
She looked back down at her precious book, as if that was the final word on the matter. Had she really just dismissed him? The very thought was laughable, yet he was not laughing.
"We are supposed to be a team, Weasley. As much as I hate it, we should talk about it before tomorrow and the meeting. Don't you think so too?" He could tell he pushed a button with her. Her blue eyes flared to life and her mouth opened for a retort but it quickly closed as she tried to fight his reason.
In truth, they needed to be united. He wasn't sure why McGonagall thought they would be a good team, but he always tried to use the cards he had been dealt.
Rose stated in her matter of fact tone,"Well I think that we shouldn't do a full investigation, but we should investigate, if you know what I mean. Take into account what portraits are supposedly missing and while going about the castle as students, try to find the portraits. If portraits have gone missing, which I agree is unheard of, we should at least try to see what is going on." Scorpius listened to her words as he, too, had somewhat the same perception of the situation. However he wasn't going to let her know that.
"You are going to believe the kid that hunts Snorgleboars?" Scorpius responded without missing a beat. In truth, he didn't care for either Scamander Twin too much, but knew Rose was.
"Lorcan has found evidence of their footprints and fur on Hogwarts ground leading into the Black Forest. He also found your," she laid it on thick for the next two words, "favorite broomstick lying in the lost in the empty classroom on the fifth floor. What exactly was it doing there, hmm?"
While her first defense against Lorcan was weak, she expertly diverted the conversation onto him instead.
He knew what she thought about him. She knew, that he knew, what she thought about the broomstick. However, he hadn't been with a girl in there. Slytherin had wanted to keep their strategies private and unlike the Hufflepuff's who just talked about it out in the Quidditch Pitch, they wanted it to stay within their own team.
He stood straight and uncrossed his arms, instead placing them in his pockets with his thumbs out.
"So in order to find out which portraits are missing, we should place a parchment in each common room. I know of a charm that will link all four parchment so once a name is written, it shall only be written once but seen to all houses. That seems the easiest way to collect the names of all those who are supposedly missing. Perhaps more ideas will come out of the meeting."
Just like that he walked away. That, he mused, was the proper way to dismiss someone. Simply walk away and if they shout - or in Rose's case mumble - insults at you then you get to just ignore them. He didn't care for what Rose thought of him anyway.
A Grand thanks to my Beta YourFilthyMudblood and all her hard work!