Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is whenever I'm with you
Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I'm alone with you
-Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes (Home)
When Scorpius Malfoy woke up on Saturday morning, there were two things that he perceived to be unusual before he even opened his eyes. The first was that he was rather cold; his blankets were off of him. He considered that curious because he always slept with the blankets right up to his chin. He didn't like being cold at all. The second thing was that he didn't think he was on his bed. . . or touching anything at all. He couldn't feel the mattress underneath him, and when he did feel something every here and then, it was hard, like a rock. Scorpius then had a bizarre and completely random thought: what if he was floating in the air?
As soon as he thought it, he dismissed it as false. However, he felt something hard against his head for a moment and his eyes half opened, albeit rather reluctantly. He was able to see some of his surroundings through his sleepy eyes.
All he saw was grey. Scorpius was on the floor. He shut his eyes again though because he was still tired. He and his best friend Rose Weasley had been up late in the library the previous night. He had been finishing some homework while she had been looking through old manuscripts for forgotten and unused spells. Not surprisingly (it was becoming increasingly more common) they ended up staying later than intended because Rose was getting detained by his lips.
Even though he was on the floor, Scorpius wasn't feeling particular uncomfortable. He felt rather light and buoyant. He probably would have stayed sleeping on the floor for a few more hours but one of his dorm-mates was snoring loudly. Every time Scorpius was halfway to a deep sleep, he would be jolted awake. After a few unsuccessful attempts of trying to sleep he reluctantly decided to just get up.
He pushed his hands against the floor to lift himself up – but his body kept moving away and away from the floor – he was flying!
"What the hell," he murmured to himself as the floor got farther away. He was rapidly blinking his eyes, trying to clear the sleep from them to see what was going on.
The further away from the floor he traveled the more bizarre everything was becoming. He looked behind him and then realized what he had perceived to be the floor previously had in fact been the ceiling. He looked back up and realized what he had missed.
It was chaos.
The whole dorm was in chaos. Everything was floating in the air near the ceiling in a haphazard and completely random order. Not that their Seventh Year dorm was very clean most of the time, but this, this was a complete catastrophe!
The beds, the inhabitants of the bed, clothes, school books, blankets, pillows, parchment, quills, there was a liquid floating around in this giant oblong bubble. . . anything that could possibly be loose and floating around in a dorm room, was. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was on the floor. That woke Scorpius completely up. Why would everything be on the ceiling? It was like there was no gravity! He tried to come up with another explanation for what was going on but nothing else came to mind.
He continued to float downwards and gently hit against the empty floor. He stared in amazement up above him. He could see one of his dorm-mates, Grek Vlashel, half under a bed, and there were legs from someone else under a large pile of rubbish in the corner. Another one of his friends, the one who had been snoring so loudly, was draped over a bedside table. Besides the snoring, it was rather quiet in the dormitory.
"Hello? Anyone else awake?" called out Scorpius.
There was no answer so Scorpius just sat in the air for a moment, trying to think of what to do. This was absurd, it was crazy! He half wondered if he was in some sort of bizarre dream, or if someone had fed him some sort of potion the previous day.
Scorpius went to push himself off the ground to get back to the roof so he could get changed when he realized he was no longer on the floor. He had slowly been floating upwards the whole time.
By the time he reached the roof, he found where his bed was, but had more trouble locating his trunk. The two had somehow separated to completely opposite ends of the dorm. Once he reached the ceiling he managed to half pull himself onto the nearest bed and climbed from bed to bed to get to his trunk. If he pushed too hard with his hands, the bed would wobble slightly with Scorpius almost pushing himself off of it.
He reached his trunk and popped it open. A few of his belongings floated out but he gently pushed them back so he wouldn't lose anything in the huge dorm mess. He pulled off his pajamas and put on a loose shirt and a pair of black pants, only once pushing off too hard from the ceiling and taking another trip to the floor. He pocketed his wand and ran his fingers through his hair to untangle a bit of his bedhead.
Scorpius wasn't exactly sure how to proceed now that he was dressed. Obviously he wouldn't be able to transport himself around in the normal way because he kept floating everywhere. He pushed himself harder off the ceiling again with his hands and flew down much quicker. Halfway down he realized he probably didn't need to have pushed that hard and when he reached the floor, he hit it with a thud. Scorpius tried to hold himself there with his hands, but his legs were already rebounding into the air and eventually his hands lost their purchase on the stone and he was back on his way to the ceiling. When he reached the ceiling, the same thing would have happened, his body flying back down by the force of the rebound, but he held onto the bedframe that was near him. Since it was heavier, he stayed there.
Through much trial and error, he found a way to propel himself from bed to bed in a faster manner without knocking the beds over. As a Seventh Year student and almost full grown, Scorpius was rather tall and definitely heavier than when he jumped from bed to bed in his first year. He started laughing at himself. It felt ridiculous! It was like he was playing don't-touch-the-lava and trying to stay away from the floor – or the ceiling as the case was now. He passed another one of his dorm-mates positioned in a bizarre way and was rather thankful that nobody slept naked.
Scorpius then had an epiphany. He pulled his wand out of his pocket, and cast an air spell, Auramentio. Instead of pushing himself from bed to bed, he was able to spell bursts of air from his wand and sort of 'jet himself' in a much easier fashion as it only depended on the angle of his wand. Since he had more or less figured out a more efficient way on how to get around, he decided it was high time to go see what was up and what everything else looked like. Perhaps this was some prank just on the Seventh Years, or perhaps just the Hufflepuffs?
Just before he reached the tunnel to the common room, he grabbed two shoes that were nearby. When he reached the tunnel, he whipped one of the shoes at Grek, and at his snoring friend, Perry Manguil, who was just visible. Grek was closer, and as Grek was clunked in the chest, he was quickly awoken and his eyes shot open. He screamed.
"WHAT. THE. HELL!" he shouted.
Perry had similar dramatics. He had tried pushing himself off the ceiling and went sailing down towards the floor. "Holy Jésus, Merlin, and Dumbledore!"
Scorpius cackled loudly and he could hear Perry ask, "Scorpius! What the hell did you do!"
He could hear some rustling around in other piles of jumk and he imagined everyone else was slowly waking up. With Grek and Perry's reactions, he was beginning to doubt this was all a dream or the result of a funky potion.
"Not a thing Grek! I'm going to investigate what's up. See you clowns later."
He navigated through the tunnel pretty easy. He found it much easier to use his wand than to try to get around by jumping.
Scorpius found the common room in a similar state of disrepair. There was nothing on the floor; everything had accumulated on the ceiling.
He saw one of the Seventh Year girls emerge from the girls' tunnel by pushing herself from wall to wall like a monkey.
"Bea!" called out Scorpius, propelling himself towards her with his wand. "What's happened?"
"I have no idea! I just woke up. This is kind of fun though, don't you think?"
Scorpius shrugged and watched her bounce around.
"All the girls are in quite a tiffy in the room. They're rebounding everywhere and not finding it easy to get around. All our things are scattered and flying everywhere! It's so bizarre."
"Our dorm room is similar, but I just woke everyone up before I left. It'll probably get crazy soon over there."
"It'll be a gong show. It's really hard to get dressed when you're floating. All the girls are freaking out because they can't wear their skirts today in the uniform. . . for obvious reasons."
Scorpius looked down and noticed Bea was in jeans.
"I suppose so, hey? Hope you don't lose us points though." Scorpius grinned at her.
"Oh shut up! Like I'm going to go bouncing around in a skirt." Bea laughed. "I'd like to see you, Isla, or a professor dock us points for that!" She pushed from the wall towards one of the settees, but misjudged the height and so knocked it over when she hit; her path continued to the wall.
"This is going to take some getting used to," groaned Bea from somewhere out of Scorpius's line of sight. "I should probably go find my wand. It might be easier to get around."
"Well you'll get fewer bruises for sure. But I'm going to go to the Great Hall. See if anyone is awake and knows what's going on."
"Alright, I'll meet you there, but I might be awhile. I don't think it'll be easy to find my wand!"
Her head poked up from behind the settee and she waved goodbye.
En route to the Great Hall, Scorpius was tempted to stop by the kitchens as he passed to see what state they were in and how the House Elves were doing, but he was more curious about why nothing seemed to be staying on the floor. He wondered if there would even be breakfast today. He quickly realised it wasn't just the Hufflepuffs who were affected. In the corridors, rugs were displaced, end tables, vases, and even suits of armour were against the ceiling. It made for a very weird journey. Scorpius kept himself lower to the floor as he jetted around.
Compared to the state of the common room, dorm room, and corridors, surprisingly the Great Hall looked rather normal. Normal as in the four house tables were still on what was the 'usual' floor with a few students sitting on the benches. There were even plates on the table, though no cups, cutlery, or food.
Then Scorpius looked up. There were no limitless sky in the air and a roof was visible for the first time in Scorpius's Hogwarts career. The roof was filled with food, so much food.
Then Scorpius noticed what he had missed the first time. The students were seated at the table only because they had hooked their legs under the benches. Other students were flying around gleefully in the air, and others were sitting on the roof and eating their breakfast. There was food flying back and forth from various groups of students. Some students were even making trips from the floor to the ceiling; collecting food, and then bringing it back down. Scorpius even noticed a few people eating while they floated around in the air.
The Headmaster, Professor Vanderkamp, saw Scorpius and flew over to him by propelling himself with his wand in a similar way to how Scorpius was.
"Scorpius m'dear! Finally! We just need the Head Girl here now and perhaps you two can figure out some sort or control and order over everyone. The prefects are all taking their time to come here, only the whole Gryffindor squad is here." The headmaster sighed heavily and looked over at the Gryffindor table with a grimace. Scorpius understood his exasperation. The Gryffindor folk usually had a different definition of 'order' than the other houses.
The Headmaster continued on, a bit flustered. "We've put temporary sticking charms on the tables and plates to keep them to the floor, but we can't do that to the food! I've got to fly to the kitchens! As soon as the House Elves are putting breakfast on the table it's floating up, and they must think it was eaten that quickly! There's way too much food in here and it just keeps showing up."
The professor stopped to take another breath.
"I've already sent five students to the hospital wing when they collided head on – but who even knows what state the hospital wing is in! Once this spell wears off this is going to be a hell of a mess to reorganize. Make sure nobody goes outside! We aren't sure if this is within just the castle or outside too. We don't want anyone floating away to the unknown. Do something, whatever you can help out. I don't even know what to suggest! I don't know why most of the professors had to choose this morning to sleep in. I'll be back!"
As soon as the Headmaster had said 'spell' Scorpius got a weird feeling in his stomach. If it was a spell. . .
With another frantic look around, Professor Vanderkamp was off, his dark blue robes flying behind him.
Instead of going to the Hufflepuff table, Scorpius flew over to the Ravenclaw table to look for Rose. She wasn't there. He did a quick search of the roof from his vantage point in the middle of the air, but couldn't see her at all.
The weird feeling in his stomach increased.
He continued to the Gryffindor table where some of his mates were. They also happened to double as Rose's cousins and would perhaps have answers to her whereabouts.
Albus Potter was seated across from a boy named Lane Jimsiu, who was in their year. They were sitting at the table and looking upwards to the ceiling where Fred Weasley and Lily Potter were situated. Lily and Fred were shifting through all the food around them, collecting some things and discarding others. Every once in a while, Fred and Lily chucked food down to the table for Albus and Lane.
"Hey Scorp," called out Albus. "Cool idea with the wand, it's like you're using a jetpack. We've just been bouncing off walls."
"Yeah, that's what a few people in my dorm were doing."
"We're getting breakfast. Come join."
Dodging some flying food and a giggling, spinning first year, Scorpius sat beside Albus and hooked his legs under the bench so he didn't float to the roof.
"LILY, a bagel! NOT BACON!" yelled Lane to the roof. He let the bacon go and it floated upwards. "Oh wait. Did anyone want bacon?"
"Too late," said Scorpius. "Have you guys seen Rose at all?"
Albus sighed loudly while Lane shrugged. Albus rubbed his fingers on his nose in frustration. "If this was her. . . I swear to Merlin. . ."
"Haven't seen for a solid three days," said Lane. "Honestly. I don't see her much though anymore. But she's probably behind this. Who else would be mad enough to cast a spell like this? I don't even think anybody else has the ability here, besides some of the profs! And what prof would cast this spell?"
That didn't make Scorpius feel better. His stomach felt like it was flipping back and forth and knotting. It was nerves. He didn't know if he was nervous that this spell could have been her doing, or that she could have somehow harmed herself while performing the spell.
Albus was still pinching his nose. "She will be the death of me. I sometimes don't know how we're related."
"Easy Al," said Scorpius. "It's just who she is. She's unique."
"Well you take her then. Or anyone else! It can be an auction!" Albus unhooked his legs and lifted himself carefully on the table so he didn't go careening to the roof. Regardless of his efforts, he still hovered over the table, floating slowly upwards. "COUSIN FOR SALE! SMALLISH SORT WITH BROWN HAIR. KNOWS ALL SORTS OF NIFTY SPELLS. BIDDING STARTS AT 10 GALLEONS!"
Scorpius rolled his eyes and Lane started laughing. Scorpius made sure his legs were secure under the table before he reached over to Albus and yanked him down. Albus was very light. After hitting the floor, he managed to scramble back to the bench and hook his feet under. "Ow!" he said pointedly at Scorpius.
Scorpius raised his eyebrows at him. "I'm just trying to keep the order here. You can't auction Rose off. Come on. You wouldn't say that if she were here, so don't say it now."
Lane was still sniggering. Albus glared at him and sighed as he re-pinched his nose. "I just wish sometimes she was more normal, you know?"
Scorpius didn't reply. He liked her just the way she was.
Albus grabbed an apple that was floating near his head and took a bite of it, finally un-pinching his nose. At that moment a hard-boiled egg hit his head and exploded. There was laughter from above as they could hear Fred tell Lily, "good shot!"
"I didn't want an egg!" shouted Albus with half chewed apple almost flying out of his mouth. "I'm a prefect, trying to keep order, y'know! Don't make a mess!"
He sat there grumpily, letting the egg stay where it was.
Lane regarded Albus with a frown. "Are you just going to leave the egg in your hair?"
"They just don't respect me, those bloody wankers." He turned to face the roof. "SCORPIUS'LL DOCKS POINTS FROM OUR HOUSE!" he yelled. He then nudged Scorpius with his elbow. "But don't actually! The Gryffies are really behind in house points right now."
Albus looked back up at the roof to yell something else when he noticed a clear liquid flying downwards. He was puzzled for a moment before he realised what it was. His eyes got wide and the apple went flying from his hand as he threw it to free both his hands and attempt to unhook his legs from the bench. He was scrambling and he jumped – forgetting that gravity wouldn't pull him back. He went sailing straight towards the liquid and screamed as he got instantly drenched. He was carried all the way to the ceiling by his momentum.
Lane cracked up laughing. Scorpius managed to laugh a little even though it physically hurt his knotted stomach. Albus could be quite a drama queen sometimes.
A red faced Albus eventually made it back to Lane and Scorpius.
Albus growled. "I don't want to hear a bloody thing about eggs and water and cousins. Let's just find She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and get her to unspell whatever the hell she did."
"We don't know for sure it was Rose," pointed out Scorpius, putting specific emphasis on her name. He really didn't want it to be her, for her sake and for his peace of mind.
"No, it's her. This has her aura allll over it." Albus waved his arms around the room.
Lane snorted. "Yeeah. Okay. D'you think the map would work at all?"
"I doubt it. Unless she was somehow sitting on the floor, but nothing is on the floor in the school except for in this room. I don't even think the Marauders ever managed to pull something like this. But we can check after brekkie, I'm still hungry. The map is in that pile of rubbish in my trunk – though it's probably floating around the room somewhere because I think I forgot to shut the lid."
Scorpius nodded at Albus and Lane though he didn't need the Marauder's map to find Rose. If this was her doing , he knew exactly where she would be. It was where she always was if she was out casting spells. Scorpius never felt the need to tell anyone else her favourite spots because quite honestly he liked being the one to go to her. He always felt the need to take care of her because sometimes she forgot to take care of herself. Albus didn't have much patience with her, and more often than not, Rose left in tears after those encounters. Anyone else would probably not be very nice to her or treat her like a child. If it was a professor, they would be very stern with her and probably write her parents about how she was disregarding school rules and putting everyone in danger. Her brother Hugo was the only person Scorpius would trust besides himself.
He liked having conversations with her when she was experimenting with spells. Rose always shared what she was doing with him, and the way she talked - how passionate and analytical she was, Scorpius could only marvel at her. He had to admit that he did like kissing her afterwards – or during her talking, when the occasion called for it. They had been friends since forever and Scorpius just considered it a natural transition for them. He didn't know exactly what Rose thought of it, but it was just between them. Nobody knew, or needed to know for that matter. Scorpius was sure that many people wondered. But quite frankly, it was none of their business.
After they were done eating what they could, Scorpius asked Lily to throw down a jam sandwich that he pocketed and then he left with Albus and Lane.
Most of the students in the Great Hall seemed to be enjoying the spell on the castle. They were bouncing around and shooting water from their wands and watching what happened to it as it flew through the air. As soon as a person was on a certain trajectory, they didn't stop until they hit a wall or a person. Acting as Head Boy, he did manage to stop a food fight between two Ravenclaws who were both covered in jam and porridge. They were laughing so hard that Scorpius's attempts to be stern weren't very effective, but he didn't take any house points away when they agreed to stop. Scorpius witnessed many collisions between students, though most of them seemed to shrug it off with a smile.
"I hope this cheerful mood lasts," muttered Scorpius to Albus and Lane. He spotted the Head Girl over at the Slytherin table and excused himself from Albus and Lane to go talk to her.
"G'morning Isla," said Scorpius courteously.
"Morning! What's going on exactly? Nobody has been able to explain much to me – except what's obvious, the no gravity part. Where's Vanderkamp?"
"He went to the kitchens to tell the House Elves to stop making food and to check how they were fairing. No idea if he is still there or went to check a different part of the castle. I haven't received an update though on what the spell is from – if it is a spell. I have suspicions, but nothing for certain."
"Ah, Rose?"
Scorpius shrugged, not wanting to say anything unless he was certain. There was still the possibility it wasn't her – but the longer he went without getting an answer, the more Scorpius was starting to really think it was her. He wouldn't be surprised at all if it was true, he just really hoped it wasn't. His worry was increasing because if it was her, there was a chance that she may have hurt herself in some way. It happened more common than he liked when Rose was testing out new spells. The knotting in his stomach gave a gurgle almost as if to remind him to hurry up.
"We've just got to keep some bit of order around here. But to be honest, I'm not even sure how that's possible. What's order when we're all like this? It'll all be a mess anyway when everything's back to how it was. Might as well as take advantage and have some fun."
Isla nodded. "Some of the younger students are really having fun. I've seen a few superman's flying around. One fellow tied something red around his neck like a cape."
"Superman is muggle, right? A superhero kind of deal?"
"Yessir! Is that all that Vanderkamp said?"
"He also said to make sure nobody goes outside yet, just in case students start to float away to the infinite beyond. But that's basically it. I've really got to run though! Good luck for the next little while!"
After he left Isla, Scorpius propelled his way to the fourth floor. Besides his stomach acting up, it was actually quite relaxing to zoom around by his wand, especially since he had more or less gotten the hang of it. The feeling of weightlessness was an interesting experience.
Rose's room was usually just one of the abandoned classrooms on the fourth floor. For some personal reason she always chose the fourth floor. He opened the first door he came across.
There was no Rose, but all of the desks and chairs were on the roof. It looked very empty. Every classroom he checked, the rooms were in a similar state. Scorpius got more nervous the more rooms he checked. It wasn't until the second last room that he found Rose.
He slowly opened the door and peeked in. All the desks and chairs were on the ceiling, but she had apparently pushed everything to the sides of the room. She sat cross-legged in the middle of the ceiling, completely upside down to Scorpius's point of view. Rose was surrounded by sheets of parchment, none that seemed to be in any sort of order. Scorpius breathed a silent sigh of relief and his stomach stopped flipping. She was safe. Though there was no denying it now. She had cast the spell.
She had her head down and was scribbling madly on a sheet of parchment. Scorpius watched her as she mumbled to herself.
He stared at her brown hair specifically for a little while. It was one of the things that made her distinctive and one thing he really loved about her. Her hair was a medium brown colour, but curly, and it was cut short. She only had about six inches of hair when it was curly, and perhaps around twelve if she ever got around to straightening it.
Two summers ago, her mum had told her that if she didn't start taking care of her hair better, she would have to cut it off. The next day, Rose had taken scissors to her head and chopped it off without a second thought. However, she didn't seem to realize what her hair would look like when it was short. Since it was so curly, it naturally formed an afro. It was her characteristic hair now and somehow her afro managed to suit her wonderfully though sometimes it turned into a wiry crazy mess, like how it was now. She had her school tie pulled onto her head and tightened around her forehead; forming a band to keep her hair out of her face.
That was the other thing he loved about her. She never really cared about her what she wore, she didn't let peoples judgements affect her in any way. One way she stood out was that she could never seem to match anything. Right now, she was wearing two completely different coloured socks and even two different shoes. She was dressed in her purple-spotted pajama shorts, but then she wore her white collared school uniform shirt with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows. It was almost as if she got half dressed in the dark before coming to this classroom. Scorpius thought the chances were highly likely that was true, especially if she was using her tie as a headband.
As soon as she finished scribbling on the parchment, she blew on it to dry the ink. Then she pushed it away from her and it went fluttering randomly around the room for a bit before settling on the ceiling among the couple dozen other pieces of parchment.
She paused from her writing for a second and Scorpius could make out part of her mumbling.
". . .only a few parts per million normally. . . but the sources of error? I did account for the. . . oh, yes. . ."
She started scribbling again.
Scorpius figured he had stared enough and he knocked gently on the door. "Rose. Rose."
It took a few moments for his words to register to Rose. Her scribbling slowed down and she eventually looked up.
"Oh! Scorpius! I thought I heard something. How're you? Come in quick and shut the door."
Scorpius swung himself to the other side of the door by using the door handle as his fulcrum. When he pushed the door shut he was sent across the room.
"You know. Pretty good," he said en route to the other side. "How're you?"
"Wonderful! I've made some interesting discoveries! What are you doing – Oh bollocks! Its Thursday isn't it? I completely forgot about class and I didn't even look at the Charms assignment!"
Scorpius twisted himself so he was floating on his back and could therefore see her as he talked with her. "Rose, its Saturday."
"Saturday! Well where did yesterday go?"
"Well would you like a practical answer, or my philisophical one?"
"Always philisophical, you know that. Where did yesterday go?" she asked again.
Scorpius thought for a moment before answering her. "To the lands of the unknown, past the blue gate of forgotten memories and unfinished assignments, up the hill to forged friendships and fragmented promises."
Rose tilted her head at him and grinned wide. "That's a good answer. I like it. 'forged friendships and fragmented promises.' I'll write it down." She scribbled his sentence down on a sheet of parchment and eventually looked back down at him. He was relaxed as he rebounded gently back and forth between the walls. Rose continued, "I didn't even realize it was Saturday today. Is that Charms assignment due this week or has it passed? I can't even remember."
If there was one thing almost all people found surprising about Rose, it was that she didn't really care for homework and marks. She was smart – incredibly so – but she always seemed to prefer spending her time dissecting spells, modifying spells, and performing her experiments than writing homework for a class – or even going to class.
"We did it in the library on Wednesday. As long as you finish your Astronomy charts by Monday you're good for another week in terms of homework. How long have you been in this room?"
"Humm, not sure. A while I guess."
"Rose, you know exactly what time you came to this room at. You've mapped the moon out and know how to tell the time from its positions in the night sky. I know you can never resist using that talent."
Rose cracked a smile at him. "Alright, it was around one thirty in the morning. After we left the library I did go to bed, but then woke up half an hour later and realised I knew what I was missing on the anti-gravity spell I've been decoding and working on the past few weeks. It was just the last parameter I was missing! I wrote out the final formula and then decided to test it while I was awake. I'm surprised you haven't commented on the spell actually. It's not every day I'm sitting on the ceiling."
"I'm rather used to you by now; we've been friends for almost seven years. I could almost say that this is rather normal behaviour for you! How long does the spell last? Or will it just wear out with time?"
"Of course I put a limit on it. The oxygen in the room will actually run out in 6 hours and 21 minutes, though since the door has been opened I wonder if any 'new oxygen' has entered the system. I wonder how I could check. . ."
"So the spell will wear out in about six hours and twenty one minutes?"
"Hmmm? Oh, no. There is only four hours left. I didn't want to push it since it's the first time I've tried casting this spell."
"Mhmm. . . you are aware that the whole school is experiencing no gravity right now? Not just this room?"
Rose looked at him with a frown. "Not possible. . ."
"Everyone seems to be enjoying it though. There were a few food fights in the Great Hall and students are fancying themselves to the likens of Superman I believe he was called – some Muggle superhero that can fly."
Rose seemed to completely disregard the Superman part of his sentence.
"Noo. . ." She reached forwards and started pulling all her parchment paper towards her, quickly setting them in a somewhat disorganized pile. As soon as she finished crawling around to get them all she then started flipping frantically through it, throwing the parchments she looked at and didn't need back into the air to resettle.
Scorpius couldn't see her for a few moments because of all the paper flying around. He started collecting the ones around him.
He could hear her voice come the ceiling. "I set the parameters for the room! The stone! I accounted for the stone! How could it possibly. . . lapidem lapidi muro usque ad murum, yes. . . but. . . where!"
When Scorpius reached the wall again he stopped himself and let go of the papers he had collected. He used his wand to manoeuver himself to Rose. "Rose! It's okay. Calm down."
Her breathing was increasing. "It's not okay! How did I miss this? I have all my calculations for the oxygen and the room, the translated words, the few ruins I had to transcribe, the limitations, hypotheses, projected expansion. . ." Rose started flipping faster through all the pages. Scorpius didn't know what she was looking for but he didn't know how she could read her writing that fast. He grabbed her hands to stop her.
"Rose, look at me." He held both her hands steady so she couldn't go throw any more paper. Rose took a deep breath and laid her head down on their hands for a second and slowed her breathing down. All Scorpius could see was her brown hair sticking up in all directions. Scoripus wanted to run his fingers through her hair, but he needed some answers first. Rose eventually lifted her head and turned to Scorpius. He gave her an encouraging smile.
"It's okay you made a mistake. You're human. You're sleep deprived and probably hungry. It's okay. When's the last time you ate anyway?"
Scorpius released her hand and pulled the jam sandwich out of his pocket and gave it to her.
Rose's eyes got wide as she saw the jam sandwich. "Food. Food's good. It's brain power, right? I need to think of what I missed." She pushed herself away from the ceiling and started looking around her at all the walls; inspecting them and muttering quickly to herself. Scorpius waited. He didn't think it would take long.
She had almost completely finished her sandwich when she spoke. "The door! Of course! Silly me! I set the limitations in the spell to stay away from stone, and the door, but I didn't specify the material of the door - it's not stone! So the spell probably leaked through sometime. . . Oh! . . . But, Bollocks . . ."
Rose trailed off and looked at Scorpius, scrunching her nose.
Scorpius chuckled. "What now?"
"When I first cast the spell I supplemented the anti-gravity with an additive of the colour red so I could observe how the spell spread in the room. The red only lasted for a few minutes, but I was then able to calculate the expansion rate and map the anti-gravity on a graph."
"Wow. Alright. I think I can keep up so far."
"But this is an open room and not a castle with secret tunnels, stairs, corners, and the whole works."
Rose paused again and tapped her cheek with her finger, lost in thought.
"And – ?" Scorpius encouraged.
"I don't know if that rate would change in a castle setting. I cast the spell in that corner," Rose pointed with her hand while she started to drift upwards, "and it spread at an exponential rate to the other side of the room. But that was just in the room! Do you think it spread at the same rate in the castle – ? Because it couldn't go through stone as I had written those restrictions against it. So that means that it would have to go around all the corners and follow the natural patterns that humans take? – Errr, the students. And I didn't experiment with the expansion through temperature! Would it have slowed down in the colder dungeons? Or the warmer towers? Or maybe the spell is weaker in some areas and stronger in others?"
"Rose, I haven't the faintest idea."
"You don't suppose that I could recast the spell tomorrow and test it out?"
"I don't think the student population could take two days without gravity. Nobody is allowed outside and Vanderkamp has lost what few marbles he had."
"Does he seriously think someone would float away? The spell stays away from the stone, but it's still defined by the stone - if that makes sense. There's still gravity outside, and it is safe to travel between the two mediums; though it may feel rather odd in the physical sense."
Scorpius nodded. "Alright, so let's just run through this again. Nobody will run out of oxygen, nobody will float away, the spell will wear off a few hours, and you haven't blown yourself up. Everything's good then!"
"Of course it is," Rose said. "Why did you doubt otherwise?"
Scorpius laughed at her quizzical expression. "Well, when you wake up in the morning on the ceiling and the whole castle is chaos with people moving around by rebounding off of walls or casting a spell to propel themselves, you tend to doubt. Now," Scorpius pushed himself towards her and grabbed one of her hands. "I think you should head to bed now. You need more than a half hour of sleep in a night – if you even got that much."
Rose twirled herself from Scorpius's hand and freed herself. She pushed away from him towards all her parchments that had regathered on the ceiling. "I'm not really that tired. And I should probably go visit different parts of the castle to see how far the spell has spread – because there are still numerous experiments I could do even if I can't calculate expansion now. I also don't know what will happen in four hours time when the spell will cease. It will either –"
"Rose," said Scorpius gently, cutting her off before she really got started talking. "Trust me on this. You need some sleep. You can always perform the spell when we've all graduated in a few months and test your numerous hypotheses and observe the effects in a place other than Hogwarts. But you've got to remember you're still in school and there are a couple hundred students here. You've also got to remember that you need good grades to get out of here, and staying healthy is important."
Rose scowled in between collecting her parchments. "I wish they would've let me take NEWTS two years ago. . ."
"You know why they didn't."
"Rose needs to work on her social interactions. Rose isn't mature enough to be done school; she still has lots to learn outside her schoolbooks. Rose has the intellectual capacity of a mature adult, but the social capacity of an adolescent," mimicked Rose. "Of course I know why. I still don't like it."
"You're overly exaggerating the last one. For one thing, I'm glad you didn't graduate early."
Rose shuffled the parchments between her hands. "Well, I am glad too. . . there just seems to be so many more important things I could be doing."
"Perhaps one of the days after tomorrow you'll look back and be glad you stayed."
"I might, but I'll never know until the day after tomorrow. And when will the tomorrow arrive? Theoretically, it'll never arrive. We'll be foolishly chasing it our whole lives, hoping by some fortuitous chance we might catch it. Tomorrow will never come though," Rose said, somewhat bitterly. She was looking down at her papers and absently shifting through them, lifting pages out and putting them in numerical order.
"You know what? One day far into the future, you and me, we'll catch it. We'll catch tomorrow Rose. Perhaps we'll snare it when we go after yesterday. But right now, we're in the present and we can't catch them yet. And quite honestly I don't really want to catch them for a while yet."
Rose looked up at him and gave him a small smile. "Well I don't either. I'm not ready and I do like the present. It's interesting here."
"I find it interesting too."
Rose carefully made her way over to the tables on the peripheries of the room and pulled her shoulder bag from the middle of the pile. She carefully set her bundle of parchments in it. She turned towards Scorpius who had started humming softly while waiting for her. This time it was her turn to stare at him.
Scorpius had been her friend for almost their whole time together at Hogwarts. She got to watch him grow up from this nervous boy to the confident man floating in front of her. Even though she always said she wished she graduated early, deep down she really didn't. The past two years were amazing, Rose honestly loved Scorpius with her whole heart. She loved how his hair was a mix of blonde and white. She loved how he kept it longer and there was a little bit of a curl around the edges. She loved how he walked, how sure he was sure in himself and how that made her straighten her back and try match his confidence. She loved his large soft hands that encompassed hers the few times they held hands in Hogsmeade or when they went for walks. She loved his soft brown eyes and how much kindness and respect was in them.
Scorpius kept humming, and smiled softly at her. Rose took a deep breath.
"I'm still waiting for you to kiss me," she said in all seriousness.
Scorpius gradually stopped humming. "Are you?"
"Yes. You usually kiss me when I start rambling about things you don't understand, to shut me up. You didn't do that today."
"Ah, but I had to find out first about the spell you cast, to make sure there was nothing dangerous about it that I'd need to tell the Headmaster about."
"Well there isn't anything dangerous about it."
"I know. And I'm very glad about that."
Rose nodded and fiddled her thumbs. "I like it when you kiss me."
"I know you do. I like it too. That's why I kiss you."
Rose looked down at her thumbs shyly.
Scorpius pushed himself towards her and when he reached her he hooked his arm around her waist. Their momentum carried them to the wall where Scorpius cushioned the impact for her with his body and slowed them down as best as he could. She pulled herself up higher so her face was level with Scorpius. If there could be one real benefit to no gravity it would be that he didn't have to stoop down to kiss her. Rose bunched the shirt around his shoulders in her hands and looked into his eyes. He could easily count the freckles on her face she was so close. Rose stared straight at him. There was so much trust in her look.
Keeping one hand wrapped around her back, stationing her to him, he lifted his other hand to her head and pulled off the tie that was around her forehead. Rose laughed.
"I forgot I was using that. My hair was falling into my eyes." Scorpius smiled at her and finally got the chance to run his fingers through her curly hair. She leaned her head against his hand.
"This is one of my favourite parts about the present," Rose whispered to him.
"I'll tell you a secret," said Scorpius. "I don't want the present to ever end." He brought his face to hers and kissed her gently. He could still remember the first time he had kissed her, one year ago. She had been surprised, but she had closed her eyes and tentatively raised a hand to his hair, kissing back as she carefully threaded her fingers through it.
She was always seemed to look forward to kissing him and Scorpius sometimes had a sneaking suspicion that she just used really complex words and said sentences really fast just to him for the specific reason that she knew that he would kiss her for it.
He cradled her face softly in his hands. Her lips tasted sweet, like jam, and he nibbled against her bottom lip as she half grinned at him. Her lips were also soft and Scorpius enjoyed the feel of them against his own. He left a trail of kisses down her neck and he could feel Rose's heartbeat quicken. He pulled his head away a few centimetres and blew cool air on her neck.
"I've got goose pimples now," Rose whispered to him. She brought his face back towards her lips and started kissing him again, getting more bold and kissing a little more intensely. Scorpius couldn't deny that he was getting turned on by her. She was the most beautiful person he knew.
They didn't try to define their relationship. They were best friends. He loved her. Scorpius was pretty sure that she loved him as well. They didn't need labels; they didn't need limitations and boundaries. They were what they were.
They continued kissing until Rose pulled back and yawned into her hand. Scorpius took that as a cue that they needed to stop. To his surprise they had migrated back to the ceiling. He hadn't even noticed, being too preoccupied by her lips.
"Alright, let's get going. When you're bored by my kisses you need to get to bed!" he joked.
"I wasn't bored!" she said indignantly. "And I'm really not that tired!"
Scorpius laughed at her. "We can continue another time. I promise. I don't intend to go anywhere anytime soon. Besides, you're drained. You've had barely had any sleep; too busy spelling and writing these past hours."
"Well, If I went back to my work, I'd wake up again, I'm sure," she stated.
"Good try. Vanderkamp does have a soft spot for you but it's probably best that you lay low until the spell wears off. I'm sure most of the other profs are awake now and none of them seem view you quite as highly as him."
"They like slugs more than me," Rose said, fighting through a yawn. "I overheard Matterhorn last year when I was testing out that ancient Aztec spell."
Scorpius winced. Matterhorn seemed to particularly dislike her, and last year she really didn't win any favours from him.
He unhooked her shoulder bag and slung it around his own shoulder.
"That didn't even weigh anything," Rose said to him. She leaned her head against his shoulder as she yawned yet again.
"Just let me." He hooked his arm around her waist and started shooting air out of his wand to push them forwards. He decided to take her his dorm, instead of taking her to her dorm room at Ravenclaw. That way he could make sure she actually got into bed and went to sleep.
"I think it all just hit me because I lost focus on my calculations. I probably could have lasted a few more hours if my concentration wasn't broken by you," Rose said sleepily.
"Perhaps. It's not good to push yourself without eating, sleeping, or drinking like you do sometimes."
"I just forget. . . I get so caught up in everything. . ."
"That's why you have me to remind you."
Scorpius could feel her nod against his shoulder. He reached the Hufflepuff common rooms and tapped the barrels to gain entrance. There was nobody in sight and he brought her up to his Seventh Year dorm room. Unsurprisingly, the room was more disorderly than it was in the morning. He managed to locate his trunk again and pulled out a loose shirt. He gently shook Rose.
"Here's a shirt to change into. And if you feel like trying the taps out, you should brush your teeth."
Rose nodded and Scorpius gave her a push towards the bathrooms. He tied her book bag around his bed post so it wouldn't get lost and did his best to locate a pillow and blanket. She would be sleeping against the top inside of the bed canopy, but that was the best he could do without gravity in play. He folded the blanket in half and put a sticking charm on the sides and bottom to form a makeshift sleeping bag. To keep Rose from floating away from the bed, Scorpius found some rope in the pile of rubbish on the ceiling and tied down one of the corners of his sleeping bag the best he could.
When Rose emerged from the bathroom Scorpius couldn't help but laugh. She had her head stuck in an armhole of the shirt and an arm out of the neck hole. She looked so cute with her hair frizzing out through the hole. She looked so bright in his large yellow tee-shirt and her bright purple-spotted pajama shorts.
"Scorpius, something didn't work out," she said rather pitifully.
"Here, I'll help."
It didn't take much navigating to fix her situation. When they reached his bed, she crawled into the makeshift sleeping bag. Scorpius pulled it up around her so she wouldn't be cold.
"Thanks Scor. I don't know what I'd do without you sometimes," Rose said to him, her eyes already closed.
"I don't know where I'd be without you," Scorpius whispered back. He didn't. Rose was so much a part of his daily life he really didn't know where he would be without her.
"I love you," he murmured to her impulsively. He could see a faint smile appear on her face.
"I love you too." The words were barely audible, but Scorpius heard them all the same. Then Rose was fast asleep.
Scorpius leaned down and kissed her forehead. He pulled the blankets up higher again. Her lips were a little swollen from kissing but she still kept the small smile on her face through slumber.
Scorpius found a scrap piece of parchment and scribbled a note to his roommates, basically saying Rose was asleep and to stay away for a few hours or just be extremely quiet if they did need to enter.
He stuck it to the outside of the Seventh Year tunnel and then left to go find Professor Vanderkamp and Isla. There was a huge mess everywhere that needed to get sorted out, especially when the spell would end in a few hours. He hoped they were holding down the fort without too much trouble.
Scorpius found it humorous that such a small person could cause such widespead mayhem by accident. Rose always had the best of intentions but he knew not everyone else saw it that way. She would always have him to help her though. Despite her flaws, he loved her all the same. She was his home.
A/N: I hope you all had good imaginations and I'm a decent enough writer that you could picture what it I was trying to depict! I tried to keep this as scientific as possible - but I did ignore some of the rules of physics for the sake of this story, sorry! :)