Rose's P.O.V.
I glanced over the great hall and saw Scorpius looking at me. Or should I say, staring at me. His gray eyes seemed to pierce my own, and I got the strange feeling that he was trying to read my thoughts.
"Rose," Lily said, distracting me. "Why is he looking at you like that?" I looked over at Lily and wondered what was up with her as well. Why did everyone in our family have to treat the Malfoys like they were scum? Why couldn't they just get over the fact that Draco Malfoy and his father, Lucius, were both death eaters, but had repented? I was especially shocked to hear Lily behaving this way. Usually the Potter side of the Potter-Weasely clan was a lot less biased towards them.
"Rose?" Lily repeated. "What's going on?" As if I knew. The only thing I could understand about Scorpius was that he liked for everyone to think he was such a big player. In reality, he was just a jerk who pushed girls around. The fact that he was glaring at me wasn't a good thing either. Lily seemed to pick up on that fact, and she gave me yet another questioning glance.
"Rose!" she said for a third time. "Can you please tell me what's going on with you and Scorpius?" At least she said his name that time.
"Look, Lily," I snapped, turning to face her. "I don't know what's Scorpius is playing at, so why don't you just go hang out with your fifth year friends!" Lily looked offended and turned to Kyle Thomas, a tall sixth year. She took his hand and the two walked out of the hall, Lily giggling all the way. I turned my back on her and began chatting with the other sixth year girls about how ridiculous the 4 foot long essay on the different methods of antidote making that Professor Barry had assigned. The man was gorgeous; we would all give him that. But he gave homework like there was no tomorrow. Immediately, I felt bad about being so peevish, but Lily had been being...well, Lily-ish. You know, stubborn-very. From what I hear, that was just the way Aunt Ginny had been. However, I think Lily had gotten her sense of empathy from Uncle Harry. If you know what I mean.
"Oh, but he's so cute,"
Dominique, my blond-haired, blue-eyed, cousin raved. "He can assign all the homework he wants if he lets me get in on those sweet, sweet lips…" I nearly gagged, but spared myself for Dom's sake. She was family, right? Besides, she was one of my only friends in our year.
"Hey, Dom," I began. "I'm going up to the dorms, I have to get up early for Quidditch practice tomorrow. James is making us train harder than ever for the match against Slytherin that's coming up. I'd like to kill whoever made him captain." I dragged my feet out of the huge room, and watched as stars twinkled above me in the enchanted ceiling. Little did I know, but as I left, a certain pair of gray eyes were watching me.
I took the fourth floor corridor, with a painting of Sir William Barthelme, a wizard famous for inventing the disarming spell, hoping that nobody would be there to interrupt my confused thoughts. The truth was that I kind of knew why Scorpius was watching me that way. The other day, before potions, he had approached me, saying that Professor Barry had told him to get a tutor, or start taking Remedial Potions. Because that was humiliating, and the only other kid even close to as smart as me was Dominique, who treated him like dog crap, he had asked me to help him out. We were meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the library to study.
Stepping into the corridor, I saw something my cousin, and other close friend, Albus, would've wet his pants at the sight of. Standing in the corridor, arms wrapped tightly around each other, were Lily and Kyle. Their faces were meshed together, and Kyle was pulling Lily into the broom closet for some…more intimate relations. Lily looked a little reluctant but I saw her heading for the closet. Yeah, I was going to let that happen. I checked my watch-it was still early enough for Kyle to be awake-but not Lily.
"Lily Potter!" I cried, adjusting my prefect badge so that it showed more prominently. "It's 9:03! That is later than curfew for fifth years! Come with me to the dormitory! Now! And you!" I yelled at Thomas. "Get your paws off of her! And if I see you pull any more fifth years in for a little fun, I'll make sure you never see the outside of detention again!" I grabbed Lily's arm, and her face went scarlet, blending in with her hair.
Pulling her past Kyle, I raced away to a different deserted corridor.
"What were you thinking?" I demanded.
"What does it matter to you?" she cried, outraged. "You aren't the boss of me!" She seemed to realize how immature that sounded as the words came out of her mouth.
"Lily, you're above that kind of stuff! You're-"
"Above what kind of stuff?" a voice interrupted. I turned to see James strolling down the hallway, looking rather concerned about his little sister. I glanced at Lily, and saw her pleading face. I knew James would kill her.
"She tried to…" Lily gave me a begging look. "She tried to cheat on her potions essay and copy it from a book."
"Of course you would rattle off about that, Rose." He looked like plagiarism was something he did all the time. Then, seeing the look of relief on Lily's face he said, "But if I catch you trying to cheat one more time, it's an owl home to Mum and Dad right away!"
Lily looked as if she wanted to retort, probably with something a lot smarter than James could come up with, but she refrained herself. Once James was gone, she tried gaining on me. "What's wrong with you? What if he tells Mum or Dad..well, I think Dad and Uncle Ron cheated off of Aunt Hermione worse than that but…Mum'll blow her top if she finds out what you said!"
"Fine," I said, turning around. "But if you want Uncle Harry to find out you tried to have sex with Kyle Thomas, then I'll just go tell James the truth…"
"No! Rose, please! I promise I won't do it again..." Lily realized she had said something very wrong.
"Wait?" I cried, stopping dead in my tracks. "You've…you've done it with him before?" MY little cousin Lily was sleeping with guys in the sixth year?
"No, just you know…we've gotten very close. I mean very close, Rose."
"Enough." I felt like throwing up. "I don't need to hear the details about Kyle's…stuff. Hopefully, you haven't seen any of that." Upon seeing her guilty face, I ran down the hallway and into the bathroom. I had to tell Albus about Lily, right? It was our job to protect her. No, I would keep it a secret, unless I caught her at it again. I went into the girls' dormitory after giving the fat lady the password and the answer hit me, sitting on the bed next to mine asking, "Where've you been?"
"Hey, Dom," I said. "I need some advice." I told her about what I had seen.
"Well, you stopped it, right? Lily knows better now."
"Yeah, I doubt that. Tomorrow night, Kyle will be trying to get all over her again."
"Well, I'll talk to her later. Maybe she'll listen if we reinforce it, you know?"
"Make sure to tell her that only sluts sleep with sixth years at the age of 15, in broom closets, no less." Dominique laughed, and I fell asleep with my robes on, exhausted.
Lily's P.O.V.
Why did Rose have to be such a…cousin? I knew she had by best interests at heart, but I really liked Kyle, maybe even loved him. What if I wanted to do it with him? What business was it of hers? But she had saved my ass with James. I had to give her that.
"Hey, Lily." Dominique, my older cousin, sat down beside me at my small table at the back of the library. I had just eaten breakfast, and was enjoying the time off from Quidditch because of my broken ankle. I mean, I loved the sport, but a break from James's constant drilling captain voice was always a relief.
"Hey Dom," I said, closing my book. "What's up?"
"You mind if we talk?" Oh boy, Rose had told her. It really wasn't that big of a deal!
"What is it?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.
"I hear Kyle's been…Rose told me that you and Kyle almost had sex last night. Please confirm?"
I nodded, most unwillingly. "But we didn't. Happy?"
"Yeah," she said. "Very. Just thought I'd let you know that if Uncle Harry found out you were having sex, especially with the son of the man who almost stole Aunt Ginny right out from under him, well…"
What was this about Dean Thomas, chaser of the Chudley Cannons, nearly winning over Mum? I asked Dominique to tell me more.
"Wait? You mean you never knew? Dean Thomas dated Aunt Ginny for most of his sixth year, Aunt Ginny's fifth. Apparently, Uncle Harry said it made him sick to his stomach when he saw them snogging in the three broomsticks." We laughed and Dom looked at the title of the book I was holding, Sleeping Potions, the Best Ways to Make 'Em. It was actually very boring, but it was practically a step-by-step guide for making a Sleeping Potion. Right now, my class was working on the Draught of the Living Death. It was impossibly difficult, and it took a month to brew. I needed all the help I could get.
"I remember that. It was brutal making Sleeping Potions in fourth year. I can't believe Professor Barry is making you do it again this year."
"Yeah, I guess. I'm not really worried though. Kyle said he'd- never mind."
"What?" Dominique pressed.
"He said he'd tutor me on Wednesdays if I fell behind. His best subject is Potions you know."
"That's great. I'm really happy for you, you know. It's great to find a guy who'll take care of you, and be supportive."
"Even if you don't think he's a gentleman?" I countered.
"Hey," Dom said, defensively. "I'm fine with you and Kyle. Just be careful. We older cousins worry about you."
"Yeah," I said. "I guess you do."
Rose's P.O.V.
"Hey, Rosie, wait up!" The voice of my dear cousin Albus echoed down the hall towards me.
"How many times must I tell you?" I said. "Don't call me Rosie! Only my dad calls me that, and even he gets my wrath if he overdoes it!"
"Fine, whatever. Just don't unleash Rosie's wrath on me though!" I punched him in the arm and we both started laughing.
"Seriously, Rose, what was the Transfiguration homework?" he asked.
"To practice turning vases into kittens," I told him. "And the reversal."
"Oh, that's easy. I'm glad I forgot that homework assignment instead of 5 feet on elemental transfiguration."
"We had a 5 foot essay on elemental transfiguration?" I fretted, before realizing he was messing with me. "Not funny, Albus!" I pushed open the door to the transfiguration classroom and took my usual seat beside Dominique at the front of the class. We all got our wands and books out, and then some kids started messing around, making random objects fly across the room. They were getting really good at not killing kids by making the objects fly straight at their heads until Professor Greenshot came in and made a flying transfiguration textbook burn to a crisp.
"Not today, guys, not today. Maybe you can join the first years as they begin the Wingardium Leviosa spell in Charms class." She stowed her wand inside her dark purple robes and walked to the front of the class room.
"If you will all take out your wands, we can begin." After everyone took out the wands she whipped out her own and turned her back to us so that the professor's gray and black hair faced us. She was wearing a black witch's hat and her long robes flowed. Words appeared on the board, and vases flew to each of desks.
"I would like all of you to try the spell which will turn you kittens into vases." We all began practicing and by the end of class nearly everyone had managed to perform the spell successfully. Dom and I even started turning cats into vases, which was much harder, seeing as the cats were much larger than the tiny kittens.
After that, we had Herbology with Professor Longbottom. He kept me after class and told me and Dom that Hagrid wanted us to come over for lunch. We said that we'd go and made our way to the gamekeeper's hut. Luckily, it was only the middle of September and the weather wasn't that cold yet.
"C'mon in girls, c'mon in." Hagrid's deep, booming voice came to us across the Hogwarts grounds.
"Hi, Hagrid," I said. "How have you been?"
"Ar, not too bad, girls," he said. "I got some new stuff fer Care o' Magical Creatures. I though' I'd show y'all before I use 'em." He led us inside his cabin and showed us a large bucket over the fire. Using his enormous oven mitts, he placed the pot on his wooden table and told us to have a seat.
"What are they?" Dominique said in awe after looking inside the bucket. "They're adorable!"
"Thought you'd like 'em," Hagrid said, beaming. I looked inside and saw tiny fish, each one sparkling and colorful. I especially like a shimmering green one, which was smiling in a friendly way.
"They're ShimmerFish. Really beautiful, aren'' they?"
"They're gorgeous!" I told him. "Do they have names yet?"
"No, would you girls like to do the honors?"
"Of course!" Dominique cried, glowing. She loved naming things.
"There're twen'y in all," he said. "All different colors." Dominique and I got started, and Hagrid loved each name we thought of. In the end we had Flounder, Bubbles, Samson, Fillo, Macy, Devil, Buttercup, Belle, Cupcake, Ellie, Platinum-a silver fish-, Dory II, Nemo II, Guppy, Dixie, Flint, Quirk, Hades-a black and red fish, with rather sharp looking scales-, Jamie and Liza. Finally, Hagrid said we'd better head up to the great hall if we wanted lunch. That was lucky because his rock cakes were something to break your teeth.
On the way up, I caught my robes on a nearby plant. "Don't worry about me, Dom," I called to her. "I'll meet you at lunch."
"Fine," she said. "See you later."
I disengaged myself from the thorn bush and started walking up to the castle.
"Hey, Rose." A male voice came from behind. "We need to talk."
I whipped around and stared into the cool, gray eyes of Scorpius Malfoy.