I step onto the train, head girl badge neatly pinned onto my robes, and walk to the Head's cabin. I know Scorpius will already be there; he has a habit of being early.
"And the head girl decides to arrive." An arrogant voice greets me as I step into the cabin.
"Malfoy. I see they decided to take charity on someone dumb this year and make him head boy. I can't say I'm surprised they would choose you."
He throws his head back and laughs tauntingly. "Relax, Weasley, you've only been in here two seconds and you've already turned red."
He looks me up and down with his frustratingly sharp grey eyes, wearing his constant smirk. He's wearing his hair slicked back, like his father likes him to wear it, but I know that when we get to school he'll wear it in its usual 'I just got out of bed and look this good' fashion. His green and silver tie is loose, and he's leaning against the window, his legs draped over the other seats next to him.
I plop down directly across from him, and loosen the top three buttons of my blouse. My mother always makes me button my shirts up to the top, and it's ugly and uncomfortable. Resting my feet against the seats next to me, I try and make myself more comfortable.
"And you've gotten, if possible, even paler, over the summer. You'd think the sun might make you more tan, Malfoy, but no, you're still an albino."
He's about to come up with a, I'm sure, very clever retort (note the sarcasm), when Neville, or should I say, Professor Longbottom, walks into the cabin. I quickly sit up in my seat and make myself seem more presentable while Malfoy stays lying against the window.
"Welcome, Rose and Scorpius, to your final year at Hogwarts. We've decided to make you head boy and girl due to your impeccable academics and behavior on campus. We hope you will continue on this exemplary trajectory, lest you wish to be stripped of your head privileges. You will be doing rounds every other night, and will be taking care of the prefect program. As a reward for this, you will be getting a shared head's common room and dormitories."
He keeps going on his speech for the next fifteen minutes, outlining every single one of our head's responsibilities. I hang onto every one of his words with rapt attention, because you never know when you'll need to know something. He's about to leave the cabin when he gives us a last bit of advice.
"One last thing. I know that both of you have had your… difficulties with each other." referring to our multiple detentions for our acts of aggression against each other. "I certainly hope that these will not come between you and your duties, unless you wish to discontinue being head boy and girl."
He walks out of the cabin, and I look, smirking, at Malfoy. "He just threatened us."
"Better behave, Weasley."
I tip my head back and laugh. "We meet with the prefects back here in an hour. Don't miss it Malfoy."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Rosie."
Ignoring him, I walk out of the cabin, trying to find the rest of my cousins and friends. I see them soon, all crammed into a single compartment, laughing at one of Albus's shitty jokes. I step in and dramatically fall onto the last seat available.
"This year, my dear friends, will be the death of me." I recount to them the events of the previous twenty minutes, from when I walked into the door, to Neville's thinly veiled threats, to how an entire year sleeping in the same general area as Malfoy will almost definitely kill me.
"I'll be expecting many chocolate frogs and comforting words from all of you guys."
"Sure thing 'cuz. I'll even throw in some fainting fancies, make it even more dramatic for you." I look over at Al, whose glasses are on the verge of falling off his nose.
"Al, move over and give me some more space. I'm only going to be here for another forty-five minutes and then I have to go meet the prefects. And if you give me fainting fancies I'll give you puking pastilles. Watch yourself, Potter."
Al disgruntledly scoots over, giving me some room on the bench. I've managed to squeeze myself between him and Skylar, my best friend and roommate. Across from us are Harper and Taylor, my other two roommates.
Skylar Cantor and I met when we both got sorted into Ravenclaw our first year. She got sorted before me and when I went to sit next to her at the table, we automatically became friends. She's American, and absolutely gorgeous. With black hair, caramel skin, and an athletic body, she's every boy's dream. She's witty and sarcastic, and one of the smartest people I know, in the least conventional sense of the word. Instead of focusing on schoolwork, like me, she'd rather use her brains for pranks or Quidditch strategies (she's the Ravenclaw captain). She'd rather not waste her time on things she really doesn't care about. Everybody already knows she's going into professional Quidditch. She's already gotten a few offers.
Harper Hewett is another one of my close friends and roommates. She has shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, full pink lips, a smattering of freckles across her nose, and overly large glasses. She's a full on bookworm and enjoys doing extra credit work in her free time. She's lovable and cute and is always there if you need comforting or just a friend to hang out with.
My last roommate, Taylor Deberrio, is one of my favorite people. She regularly dyes her hair blue and wears very ripped clothing. Her sarcasm and sense of humor always lighten up every room she walks into. I'm almost sure she'll pursue a career in wizarding entertainment. Oddly enough, she and Harper are inseparable, as are Skylar and I.
I lean onto Albus's shoulder and start talking to him and Skylar about Quidditch. Thirty minutes pass, and the candy trolley rolls in. Harper immediately grabs a few chocolate frogs, her favorite candy, and Skylar takes a packet of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans. She offers me one with a slight yellowish tint and I refuse. I'm not a big fan of candy.
Another fifteen minutes pass and I'm forced to squeeze myself out of the tight space between Skylar and Albus to go meet my wonderful co-Head and the other prefects.
I'm early when I get there, so I try to prepare what I'm going to say to the prefects. Malfoy and I have around twenty minutes until the everybody else arrives to decide on the rounds schedule, which I feel is much too little. Unfortunately, he refused to come any earlier and I'm not doing all the work on my own.
He arrives the second the clock turns to 11:00, shirt messily buttoned up, hair mussed, lips dark pink, and gleaming eyes. I sigh and roll my eyes. He'd just gotten laid.
"Do you take any time off, Malfoy? Or are you just so perpetually horny that the minute you see a girl with boobs and an ass you have to bury your dick inside of her?"
He laughs a deep, taunting, laugh. "Jealous, Weasley?"
I lean back onto my seat and pull my hair out from its tight bun. It falls in auburn waves down onto my shoulders and reaches the bottom of my ribcage. I internally laugh when I see Malfoy's gaze darken in lust as it follows my hair onto my shoulders.
"I can get laid all I want Malfoy, there's nothing to be jealous about there."
"Who would want to have sex with you, Weasley? Nobody likes to make out with an ugly person."
"Aww, are you resorting to kindergarten tactics? 'You're ugly! No, you're ugly!' It's almost… cute."
He rolls his eyes and falls back onto a seat. "I need to use kindergarten vocabulary so that you understand it."
"Sure, and that's why I'm Head Girl. They totally needed the girl with the best kindergarten vernacular to direct all of the prefects and do rounds every night."
A smirk appears on Malfoy's face. "But of course! They just needed a change from the usual intelligent person they use as Head Girl, so obviously they chose you."
I sigh and slump down onto my seat. "Whatever. Let's do the rounds schedule."
His smirk widens in victory, but he lets it go.
Ten minutes later, about halfway through meticulously arranging rounds so that people who hate each other are separate, Malfoy pushes his schedule off his lap and stretches, his white dress shirt stretching against his frustratingly muscular chest. In turn, I stand up and open the train window to let air into the hot and stuffy cubicle.
"Weasley, amuse me."
I ark an eyebrow at him, wondering how on earth he could possibly believe he can boss me around. "No."
Rolling his eyes, he says, "I'm so bored with this." He raises his hand to mess his white-blonde hair up, sighs, and looks down at his stuff, unceremoniously dropped on the seat next to him.
I lean against the window. "We don't have much to complete. Let's just quickly finish this, talk to the prefects, and then we'll be done."
He doesn't answer for a second, but I quickly realize where the small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth comes from.
On the top of my head grows two large antlers, and the tip of my nose has swelled to twice its size, adopting a bright red color.
Red hot anger bubbles at the pit of my stomach, its levels rising at a rapid pace. My jaw clenches and my dark blue eyes flash dangerously at Malfoy.
He's clutching his sides, leaning on the window for support, laughing at me.
I grip my wand tight in my hands, my knuckles almost white, and shoot a nonverbal hex at him.
It's my turn to laugh as large black bats fly out of his nose and attack him. While he's incapacitated, I reverse the damage he's made on my nose and head and sit back down to work on the prefects' rounds. He quickly breaks out of the spell, and, without my realization, enlarges my nose again so that I resemble a redhead Pinnochio.
I lift my now very heavy head up to meet his gaze and raise my wand to propel a stream of water onto his fancy designer clothes.
Sending him a sweet little smile, I say, "Felt you were a little too hotheaded there, Malfoy. You needed to cool off a little."
I'm laughing until he sends me careening back into the train seat with his own jet of water. Sputtering and trying to remove strands of my wet hair from my eyes and mouth, I blast him with more water.
We continue soaking each other, each of us getting angrier every time we get hit with another jet of water, until a startled fifth year prefect walks in on us.
"Um… Rose? Scorpius? I thought the meeting was about to start. Should I come back or…"
I jump, realizing that the position Malfoy and I are in is quite embarrassing. The entire train cabin is soaked, including the both of us, and I'm pressed up against the window, with Malfoy leaning into me. With nobody being able to see the snarls on our face, it is quite a compromising position to be caught in.
I swear under my breath and quickly push Malfoy off of me. "Sorry, we were having a slight argument." With a flick of my wand, the cabin and I are dry. "Please, come in. We're about to start."
I try to muster a smile, but fail and instead shoot Malfoy a glare. "This is your fault, you know." I mutter to him under my breath. He rolls his eyes back at me as a clear way of saying that it was obviously not his fault.
I elbow him in the ribs before I start addressing the prefects who have been slowly trickling in since the first fifth year caught us.
"Welcome! We're about to start the new year, and we have a few things to address. Malfoy and I have almost completed the rounds schedule, and we'll get it to you as soon as possible." The fifth year prefect coughs, and I raise an eyebrow at him. "We will be meeting every Saturday night at 8:00. Now, I don't care if this interferes with Quidditch practice. There comes a point where you have to choose your priorities. The two major events we need to organize are the winter formal in December and the semi-formal to celebrate the Battle of Hogwarts' anniversary in May."
I list all of the prefect duties, along with the ways they can be stripped of their privileges. Meanwhile, Malfoy is in a corner, finishing what I hope is the rounds schedule.
"You have a bathroom that you'll be sharing with the other prefects, so please use it wisely. I recommend you don't fool around in there. Its quite embarrassing to be caught by one of your friends, or worse, a stranger, lip-locked in a tub with somebody."
Malfoy looks up and plasters on his famous Malfoy family smirk. "Not that you'd know how that feels, right Weasley? Being lip-locked with somebody. Who would ever kiss you?"
I roll my eyes and place my hands on my hips, turning around to face him. "Again, Malfoy, with the immature insults and inappropriate times. Either you're helpful and you speak up at the right moment, or you will shut up and let me handle the talking."
His smirk widens but he has the decency to shut up.
The next fifteen minutes pass with me still describing the prefects' roles to them until I dismiss them so they can get to their stuff before the train arrives at Hogwarts.
I move to exit the carriage, but think better of it and look back to stick my tongue out at Malfoy.
He sticks out his own in turn, but says nothing.
