A/N: Thank you for reading, this is my first HP fanfic to appear on this site and I hope you enjoy it! Reviews are MUCH appreciated! ~Ellie
"Bye Rose," said her mother, kissing her cheek. Rose smiled at her mum, excited.
"Bye!" she replied, grabbing her suitcase and dragging it onto the train, glancing down to her chest to check her prefect badge was still there. She was guided into a special compartment, where she put down her trunk and looked around the room, quickly taking in who else who had been made prefect. Her eyebrows joined together in the middle, frown lines on her forehead as she spotted one Scorpius Malfoy sitting, leaning back in his chair so he was only on two chair legs. She looked away, shaking her head slightly. He was a Ravenclaw and she was a Gryffindor, but rather like her mother, she had beaten him several times in the past. They had never really spoken, but on several dire warnings from her dad, she had made sure to stay away from him, but his fellow Ravenclaw prefect, Jessie, was one of her friends. She saw her cousin, Albus, sitting at the Hufflepuff table with Phoebe. Over at the Slytherin table was Olivia Parkinson and Gordon Zabini, neither of whom Rose got on with, given their parents hated each other. She headed over to her own table, where Josh Western sat. "Hi," she said, sitting opposite him. He grinned at her, evidently pleased to see she was a prefect too.
"Hey," he said cheerily. "Congratulations."
"You too," she said. The two were best friends, though many people thought they should be more than friends, but neither was interested in the other. The room was filled with the quiet buzz of each prefect pairing talking, congratulating each other and catching up on what they had missed. Suddenly, the buzz died down as the Head of Gryffindor house and Deputy Head of Hogwarts, Professor Neville Longbottom, entered the compartment. The 8 were silent, but they glanced around, confused. No-one had ever mentioned teachers being on the Hogwarts Express, although, logically, how else were prefects supposed to receive instructions?
"Now, you will all be patrolling the train at intervals, which aren't going to be set, just make sure you patrol at least twice during the journey. I am really here to tell you about something important. Everyone else will be finding out this evening, so I don't want you telling anyone just yet, but we will be having a Triwizard tournament this year." A babble of excited chatter broke out, but Neville held up a hand to silence them. "However, the last Triwizard tournament didn't exactly go to plan… and it was hosted at Hogwarts. So, the three schools have decided that this Triwizard Tournament will be hosted at Beauxbatons."
Rose's eye opened wide, along with everyone else's in the compartment. "You will all be travelling to France, to represent the school, as well as those who are of age and wish to place their name into the Goblet of Fire. No doubt many of you will have heard about the Triwizard Tournament and will be excited about this prospect, but you must not tell anyone about this until the details are revealed tonight. Unless anyone has any questions, you may leave." Neville waited for any questions, but all 8 slowly got up and walked out, slightly shocked.
Outside, Rose grabbed Jessie, Albus and Josh. "Did that…"
"Really just happen?" finished the three. Then Rose and Jessie squealed, grabbing each others forearms and jumping up and down in their excitement. Albus and Josh just watched, eyebrows raised. The other four prefects had already left, but Rose and Jessie were too excited and Albus and Josh were waiting for them.
"Guys," said Albus. "We better find a compartment." The two girls were still too hyper to respond. "Guys!" he shouted and the two girls finally stopped jumping up and down, looking at him expectantly. "Us. Compartment. Find one," he said, rolling his eyes.
"Sorry," chorused Rose and Jessie. Albus shook his head and led the way down the train until he found an empty compartment for them to pile into excitedly.
"This is ridiculous!" gasped Jessie. "We're spending the entire year at Beauxbatons? This is our OWL year! And we're prefects!" Albus shook his head. Jessie looked at him, confused.
"We'll more than likely be going for the tasks and the selection of the champions and spending the rest of the time back here." Jessie and Rose's shoulders slumped slightly, but they were still excited. They sat down, but they could hardly sit still.
"I wonder who's going to put their name in!" said Rose.
"I expect a lot of people will," said Albus. "Now, I'm going to patrol and look for my other friends. I'll see you guys later." Rose and Jessie continued to chat excitedly, with Josh sitting looking out the window, until Rose's best friends, Scottish Bryony and Katherine, or Kat, who was one of the prettiest girls in the school, arrived.
Kat wasn't looking particularly pretty at that moment in time, though, because the two girls had their faces pressed against the glass of the compartment door, squashing their noses flat. Obscured by the two was Jessie's best friend, Lexi. Bryony and Kat were in Gryffindor, but Lexi was in Ravenclaw, which was probably why Rose was closer to Bryony and Kat. "How's Chris?" Rose asked Kat. Chris was one of Josh's best friends and when Rose had last seen Kat, she'd been going out with him.
"I dunno," she said. "I dumped him." They all sighed.
"What was wrong with him?" asked Josh, who, although he was friends with Chris, Albus and their other friend Oscar – Bryony's long-term boyfriend – he spent more time hanging around with the girls, which would get most other boys teased, but not Josh.
"He's a bit short," said Kat, tossing her long blonde hair. "And he was an awful kisser." They all laughed, but apparently Kat was deadly serious. Rose pushed her red hair out of her face. "You need a hair cut," Kat sang. "I'll do it for you if you want." Rose nodded. She wouldn't trust anyone else to cut her hair, but Kat was more than capable and had a unique way of knowing exactly what would suit her. Kat smiled, her blue eyes twinkling.
"So, who's next on your list of boys?" asked Bryony, interested. Kat usually had her sights set on a boy, unless she was dating one, in which case she would wait until he'd dumped her, or more likely she dumped him.
"Scorpius Malfoy," she said firmly. Bryony's grey eyes opened wide in surprise.
"Really? You think he'd date a half-blood? I don't think he would, no matter how pretty the half-blood in question is." Kat smiled at the subtle compliment. She seemed completely at ease with the fact that she had next to no chance.
"Oh, he'll come round. And if not, there are others." Rose rolled her eyes, slightly uncomfortable with the subject of boys. She had had boyfriends before, but never anything like Kat's relationships. Her boyfriends had all asked her out, because she was too shy to ask anyone out. "What's going on with you and Oscar?" asked Kat. Bryony blushed slightly and pushed her auburn hair behind her ear shyly.
"The usual," she said quietly. "We met up over the summer… we had a great time."
"Oooo!" joked Jessie and Lexi.
"Shut up!" laughed Bryony, embarrassed. "So, Rose… what's going on with you and Josh?" Both of them went bright red.
"Nothing," they both said firmly. Every time the subject was brought up, Rose got overly annoyed.
"I don't get this whole thing you have with me and Josh. I get that Josh hangs out with a lot of girls and that people naturally think that he's going out with one of them, but you all know he's not, so why do you keep saying we're together? Plus, why do people always think it's me going out with him? It couldn't really be you, Kat, or Bryony, but Jessie and Lexi… or Sammie, or Rhi-Rhi or even Phoebe! No-one's going to think he's going out with Dani," she added. Phoebe and Dani were friends, but there was a big difference between them. Phoebe was a friend, not a close one, but they often hung out together and Dani… Dani was the shy one who seemed alright at first, but when you got to know her, she annoyed the socks off you.
"I don't know why you… maybe because you two are always hugging and laughing?" asked Lexi sarcastically. Rose had to concede she did spend way too much time hugging Josh than was normal, but she didn't care.
"I'm going to patrol now," she said. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
A few hours later, the six sat in their compartment, the floor around them littered with sweet wrappers from the trolley lady. Bryony had tried – and failed – to convince Kat to go after someone else, not Scorpius, but she stood firm. "I bet even Rose thinks he's cute, don't you Rose?" she asked. Rose looked at her, shocked.
"I don't know… I've never really thought about it…" Kat laughed. Rose blushed slightly. Now she thought about it, Scorpius was good-looking. But he was a jerk… wasn't he? Rose wasn't so sure. She'd never spoken to him. She was just basing her opinion of him on what her father had told her about Draco and suddenly she felt bad. That wasn't fair, at all. Rose made a vow to at least try to get to know Scorpius a bit better, perhaps when they were at Beauxbatons. Then, she could judge him, but not before. "She's thinking about it," said Kat, wiggling her eyebrows. Rose blushed furiously. "Definitely thinking about it." Rose cursed her tendency to blush and got up abruptly.
"Where are you going?" asked Bryony. "Kat was only joking, right Kat?"
"I'm going to patrol again," Rose said. "Back in a minute." As she left, she heard Bryony scolding Kat.
"What did you have to say that for? You know she doesn't like it!" Kat shrugged.
"How was I supposed to know she'd take it like that? And come on, she was thinking about how cute he is!" As Rose got further away from the compartment the voices faded and she ended up listening to different conversations. Her mind wandered and she forgot to look where she was going. She walked straight into something and looked up to see Scorpius.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said breathlessly. "I'll just…" She tried to skirt around him, but he took her arm. She looked at him, her brown eyes wide.
"I just wanted to say, I know we never speak, but if we're going to be prefects together, we have to at least appear to get on. All of us do, even the Slytherins, especially at Beauxbatons. We don't want to give the impression that we're divided by houses." But we are, thought Rose. What house you're in does make a difference on who you can be friends with without being judged. But, she just nodded and Scorpius let go of her arm. He smiled at her and she managed a small smile in return as they went their separate ways. Rose had probably looked rude as she had avoided making eye contact with Scorpius, but she didn't care. If she had made eye contact, she'd probably still be standing there, lost in his gorgeous eyes… Rose shook her head. What was wrong with her? This was Scorpius Malfoy. She had decided she would make an effort to speak to him, not make an effort to crush on him! Her father would never allow it! A Weasley and a Malfoy.
She put the thought out of her head and turned around, as she was at the end of the train. By the time she got back to her compartment, Josh had left and the other four girls were in their Hogwarts robes. "Get changed, quick!" said Lexi as she did up her tie. "We're only about five minutes away!" Rose grabbed her bag and quickly began to change, pinning her prefect badge onto her Hogwarts robes and tying her tie neatly. Kat laughed at her pristine uniform. As usual, Kat's skirt was way above knee length, her tie was halfway down her chest and her top buttons were undone.
"Kat… why are you wearing your uniform like that?" she asked, sighing. Kat shrugged, brushing her hair so it fell over her shoulders and applying lipstick. Rose watched her, bored.
"Rose, come here," said Kat suddenly. Before Rose could stop her, Kat had pushed her onto the seat and was kneeling in front of her. "Now, just stay still…" Rose had no choice but to stay still, at least, until Kat had applied mascara, eyeliner and lipstick. Then she managed to get up, but only because they had pulled into Hogsmeade station. "There, you look much better," she said happily. Rose sighed. She didn't want to be wearing makeup, but she didn't have time to remove it and she couldn't have resisted, unless she wanted black mascara or black eyeliner or red lipstick all over her face. Kat was waving a mirror in her face and she had to admit she looked good.
"Thanks," she said grudgingly, as she grabbed her trunk and began to follow all the other students off the train and back to Hogwarts, their home for the next three years.
