A/N: Again, rushed. A story about Rose, which doesn't really follow the song at all and I pretty much can't write humor to save my life, but I tried. So anyway, this is for Pen's Competition. Enjoy!
"Hey Rose, you'd better hurry up! We're going to leave you behind!"
"Um, alright, just hold on for a second. I only have to finish this paragraph," she said, pushing her dark hair out of her face.
"Well, that's what you said last night and we never did end up leaving the common room," Hugo stated from the chair opposite hers, playing with some small object that probably did something destructive.
"C'mon, Rose, you can't stay up here forever. You have to get out once in awhile," James said from behind her.
"I do get out," she said somewhat impatiently.
Lily scoffed. "You barely leave to eat, and sometimes you have the elves bring your food to you. The only thing you leave for consistently are classes."
"Yeah," Al said, "You, like, live up here. You need to get out and make some friends that aren't, you know, family."
"I have other friends!" she said, looking up finally.
"Name one. Who isn't family," Fred said, playing with something very similar to whatever Hugo had, but he threw his towards the fire with a frightened expression on his face just before it created a small explosion with a light popping sound.
"Says the boy who is playing with...what is that?"
"Answer the question," Molly said impatiently.
Rose thought for a minute. Everyone around her was starting to look really satisfied just as she said, "Scorpius Malfoy!"
"Either I'm in trouble or you're really happy to see me," he said from right behind her, where James had been just a moment before. She turned around to look at him.
"You're going to be in trouble if you keep sneaking up on me." She turned back to her work. He tickled her neck, and she swatted at him. "Stop that."
"So, I hear you're abandoning us for your homework again."
"I'm not abandoning you. I just have to get this done, it'll only take a few minutes."
"If it'll only take a few minutes, you can do it later," Fred said.
"Just come with us, Rose, just this once," Lily said, still sprawled across one of the chairs.
"Look, if you guys can't wait, just go without me, alright?"
They all grumbled and sighed and rolled their eyes at her, but they still stood up and walked out of the room. That's just how Rose was, after all.
She exhaled loudly as soon as they were gone and started back to work on her essay, until she felt someone tickle her neck again. She turned to stare at him evilly.
"You really should come, Rosie. It'll be fun," he said, and then he turned around and left the common room.
She couldn't focus on what she was writing anymore. What if she really was missing something important? What if she regretted missing these opportunities later? She slammed her book closed and, completely on a whim, ran after the group that had just left.
"Fine, what are we doing?"
"You know, I knew I shouldn't have come."
"Oh, come on, Rose, we haven't done anything yet."
"Scorpius, I'm not kidding. We shouldn't be doing this."
"Oh, come on, Peeves does worse than this everyday."
"Ah, and you just feel like you have to add to that, do you?"
He laughed. "Rose, you know you don't have to do this. You could always just go back to the common room and, you know, be boring for the rest of your life."
Rose rolled her eyes. "No, I just think I'd feel better about this if I knew what we were doing."
"You know what we're doing. We're using whatever the hell these things are to create a distraction."
"You don't even know what they are?"
"Well, they don't have a name yet, but I know what they do. You remember what Fred and Hugo were playing with back in the common room? That's what these are. Except these are louder." He was grinning.
"So explain to me again why we're doing this?"
"Just playing a prank on some first years."
She looked at him. "You liar."
He chuckled. "You always could tell, Rosie." He went back to his work setting up his little trap. "So they aren't first years, does it really matter?"
"Well, I just want to know why I'm doing this."
He laughed again. "You know, you are really oblivious."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just that Molly mentioned this weeks ago. Of course, you might have thought we were kidding."
"Molly mentioned what?" He stood up and moved to set up another section of the trap.
"The boys that have been picking on her. You don't remember that?"
"No, I remember the boys. And I remember telling her to talk to the Headmistress."
Another laugh from him. "Oh, right, that's the solution for everything. Just so you know, though, she did take your advice, against my advice. And it just got worse. So, we came up with this plan." Rose looked worried. "Don't worry, we're not gonna hurt them. We just want to scare them, you know? A little bit of payback."
"And what if something goes wrong?"
"Nothing's gonna go wrong. Really, Rose, all they do is make noise."
Rose rolled her eyes again.
"Actually, there is one thing. You may have to make sure that they come down this hallway."
"Why can't you do it?" she whined.
"Well, I suppose I could, but are you sure you could operate these things on your own?"
"I'm sure I can do it."
"Okay, well, have fun. I'll be back."
"Wait, how do I know when to start it?"
"As soon as you hear my voice." And with that he turned away to find those boys.
Rose waited for what felt like hours, but must really have only been minutes. Eventually, she did hear him talking to what sounded like three other boys. She didn't focus on what they were saying, she just set to work starting the trap.
When he said they were a little louder, he was obviously thinking of something very different than the thing Fred had blown up in the common room. The sound was like a thousand cannons going off at once. It did, however, set off a pretty impressive light show. Within seconds of the noise there were different colored lights flying all over the place, directly at the boys. They took the shape of Peeves, mostly, but in a really creepy way, especially with all the colors.
The boys ran away, nearly screaming.
Rose, who had huddled down on the floor as soon as it had made that horrifying noise, looked up, trying to find Scorpius. As soon as their eyes met, she couldn't keep the smile off her face. They laughed loudly.
"Okay, maybe you're right, that was kind of fun. Even if it was just one time."
"Oh, you'll be back for more."
"Yeah, right."
And then they heard footsteps headed towards them and they stared, wide-eyed at each other. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway leading back to the Room of Requirements, where they were meeting everyone after their individual parts of the prank. Everyone else was already there. They all looked at each other, one after another, and laughed.
"I think we may have been followed," Scorpius panted between his laughter.
"Well, that's just fine. It's not like they can get in here anyway," James said.
"Did you see who it was?" Lily asked, a smile still spreading across her face.
"I did," Fred said, "It was Professor Longbottom."
"Who knew he could run that fast?" Rose asked, still trying to get over her uncontrollable giggles.
"Scorpius, you should have just let her get caught. People need to know that such a good girl has suddenly started doing bad things," Al suggested.
"No, no, the first time Rosie gets caught it has to be for something big," Scorpius replied.
"Did you guys actually get to see the light show?" Molly asked. "I only saw the beginning of it."
"Yes, and if it was me, I would have been scared, too," Rose said.
"Well, it serves them right. Another victory for the Potter/Weasley clan," James said.
They got back to the common room later than expected, and Rose didn't have time to finish her essay. The next day, when she got to Herbology class, she tried to be invisible. Neville noticed immediately, but he waited until after the class was over to talk to her.
"Would you like to explain this missing assignment to me?"
"Well, how can I explain something that isn't there?" She asked, just barely hoping that he wouldn't question her further.
He smiled knowingly at her. "I hope you enjoyed your little light show last night. Don't let it happen again."
Rose smiled brightly. "I promise it won't."
"And I expect that essay on my desk by tomorrow morning."
"Yes, sir," she said, walking away.
Maybe being bad once in awhile wasn't as bad as she'd thought it was.
A/N: Wow, Corinne, what a weak ending. There, I said it for you. I know. It was rushed! Anyways, I hope you at least liked it a little. Please review, either way!
