Thank you so much to those who reviewed/favourited/alerted this story. :) Here's chapter two - a bit more of a plot in this one. :)
The next morning I stumbled down to breakfast with Lily, both of us half asleep and using the other for support down the stairs. It didn't work too well. We almost fell over twice, once was on the trick step that I, as usual, had forgotten about.
When we entered the Great Hall it was not hard at all to find our friends and family, even in our state – we were both, I had to admit, a bit of a mess.
I hadn't slept well last night and kept waking up so, some time around two in the morning, I found myself sitting in front of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, my knees curled up to my chest and my arms holding them in place. Much to my surprise, Lily had come down the stairs and silently sat down next to me. We didn't say anything accept to ask the other why they were up in the middle of the night. I told her that I just couldn't sleep and I didn't know why, which was the truth, and Lily told me that she had a feeling that the next day would be bad, she had said that something bad always happened on the first day back to school. We had finally gone our separate ways to our dorms around half past four in the morning.
We made our way over to the mass of ginger hair in the middle of the Gryffindor table. Most of our family were in Gryffindor. Actually, I think it is only Louis who isn't in Gryffindor; he's in Ravenclaw, a year below our friends Lorcan and Lysander (who are fifth years), which was how we started hanging out with them really. I mean, their mother, Luna Lovegood, she was a friend of mum and dad and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny so we knew them already but we weren't good friends with them but because they knew Louis we started to hang around with them more and more and, eventually, came to know them in a 'good friends' way. It's kind of hard to get to know them because they are both always quite distant but, I guess mainly because there's so many of us and we all wanted to know about them, they started to talk. It wasn't like they told us secrets in their past and all about their family; we just wanted to be able to be in a room with them and not be uncomfortable and to be able to say, 'Yeah, we're friends'.
Lily and I were greeted with more noise than I thought was fully acceptable at that time in the morning. Okay, so it was only half past eight but I preferred to stay in bed until at least nine. Unfortunately, I couldn't have things my way at school - the timetable didn't revolve around my life. Speaking of which, just as I filled a glass with pumpkin juice McGonagall came round to us all and handed us our timetables. I quickly glanced at mine and immediately made an impatient noise.
"Great," I said. "Double potions with Slytherin first thing."
"I don't see what's wrong with that," Lucy answered and I caught her wink at a boy from my year sitting at the Slytherin table with John Zabini.
"Lucy!" her sister, Molly, appeared from nowhere at this exact moment. Although only one year older than Lucy, Molly was very overprotective and didn't think that her younger sister should be dating anyone 'at her age'. But apparently dating was fine for Molly to do as Lily and Roxanne caught her snogging her boyfriend, Oliver Vine, instead of going to class a few times last year. Other than that, those were the only times Molly had ever missed a class, she was quite a goody-two-shoes before and after her Oliver-phase, but we all expected that, being as her dad was Percy Weasley and all. This Oliver-phase was quite good for me though because I won our bet that year to see who missed the least classes out of us - I've only ever missed nine classes in all my six years of being at Hogwarts.
You could say I was a nerd – and I wouldn't disagree with you, I got straight O's in all my OWL's – but the main reason why I didn't miss class was that I found it completely boring to do. I had no reason whatsoever to miss class in the first place so if I did I would just be sitting around doing nothing and wondering what I was missing in class. And I decided this was utterly pointless so I just didn't miss class (unless I was ill or in the hospital wing due to Quidditch injuries).
"What?" Lucy complained back at her sister, which brought me out of my daydream. "You know I date, Mol, so what's the problem?"
"I just don't think that you should date at the moment. OWL's are important and you're only just starting them this year. It's extremely important, Lu. I think you should just forget about boys this year, yeah?"
Lucy looked at her sister like she had just expressed a sudden desire to join the circus and run away with the Giant Squid. Luckily we were saved from an argument, unluckily that savour came in the form of one Scorpius Malfoy.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Say, Scorpius," Lucy said and Molly looked livid. "You don't have a girlfriend at the moment..."
"No, I don't... why?" He asked, looking back and forth between Lucy and Molly and completely unsure of what was going on.
"I wouldn't even ask, Scorp," Albus told him as he arrived on the scene.
"Right, good point," Scorpius said and they both sat down at the Gryffindor table.
Albus was in Gryffindor with the rest of us. I remember when he got sorted into this house; the relief on his face was so obvious. I am the only one who he told, apart from his father, that he had asked the Sorting Hat to put him in Gryffindor, and it had. He only told me in our fourth year, but I knew how hard it must have been for him to tell anyone and I knew why he had told me. James would have just made fun of him, as would Lily, Lucy, Roxanne, and Fred. Molly and Al weren't very close and neither were Al and Louis. But what did surprise me was that he hadn't told Scorpius. I assumed then that it had been because telling Scorpius, who was in Slytherin, that he didn't want to be in Slytherin would, in one sense, show that he didn't like his best friends house which would probably offend Scorpius at least a tiny bit.
I was a bit surprised to find out that Al and Scorpius had managed to become best friends when they weren't even in the same house but Scorpius sat with us all at every meal, much to my disappointment, and pretty much ignored the house difference completely, except in Quidditch, where he continued to predict Slytherin's win over Gryffindor in every Cup. It never came true. We were just too good. Okay, so there was that one time in First Year where Slytherin won the Cup but I hadn't been Seeker then and therefore there had been no one worthy of kicking his butt. I am glad to say that since Second Year, when I was appointed Seeker, we've never failed to get the Snitch in any match... Unless I'm knocked off my broom by a certain Weasley from Ravenclaw with two bludgers at once, but anyway, that's another story.
I must have still looked glum and my silence, due to the extra daydreaming I was doing this morning, probably added to the affect because when Angie joined us a few minutes later she immediately turned to me and said, "What's up, babe?"
I gave her a questioning look about the whole 'babe' thing but she didn't take it seriously as she called me a different nickname everyday, then I answered her question, handing her the timetable I stole for her. "Double potions with Slytherin first thing."
"Excellent," Al and Scorpius said at the same time, a mischievous look in their eyes whilst Angie's face showed understanding and she told me, "Never mind".
"Hey," Scorpius protested. "We're not that bad."
"You are that bad," I muttered and Roxanne laughed next to me.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," I muttered again but I could tell that this just made him even more curious, and annoyed.
"Seriously, Weasley, just get your words out or don't say anything,"
"Oh yeah, Malfoy, 'cause I'm really going to change just for you," I retorted sarcastically. "Because you're that great,"
"I know I am," he told me arrogantly.
"Don't flatter yourself," I retorted curtly.
"So now you're telling people what to do,"
"I am Head Girl, genius," I reminded him.
"Well, I'm Head Boy,"
"That's such a joke," I let out a laugh at this.
"Making you Head Girl was the joke, Weasley. I thoroughly deserve Head Boy,"
"You couldn't care less about being Head Boy,"
"How would you know? It could be my life's ambition," he told me and I had to laugh at that too.
"Yeah, right,"
"So now you think you know me?" He challenged and stood up.
"I don't want to know you," I spat, standing also.
"Good, cause I'd rather not know you," He said and we were practically yelling at each other now.
"Both of you sit down," Dominique told us forcefully but we both remained standing, daring the other to speak. "Now!"
We did as she said, sometimes Dom could be quite scary; I reluctantly sat down again first and Scorpius followed suit.
"You're going to kill each other one day," Dominique continued, Scorpius and I kept our eyes locked, seeing who would break first and look away. I was so angry I was going to kill him as soon as I knew Dom was out of sight. "If you survive rounds tonight then I'll... I don't know what I'll do, it'll be so shocking."
"She'll kiss Ben Wakefield," Lucy said, typical of her always-thinking-about-boys mind, and Dominique gave her a glare so evil that Lucy excused herself and ran early to her next class, not before bending down to mutter in my ear, "Or maybe not," as she passed me and "If you don't, I will," when she passed Dom which made her laugh and Lucy knew she was forgiven.
"I better go after her," Lily said. "We have Herbology together." She stood up and asked, "Has anyone seen Hugo?"
We all looked around but, obviously, Hugo wasn't with us. It was easy to sometimes think someone was their when they weren't because there were so many of us. You see a mass of ginger hair, that's the Weasley clan. There were only a few of my relative that didn't have the famous Weasley red hair, one of them being Hugo, whose hair was brown like his eyes, both of which he got from our mother. I got my red hair and blue eyes from our father. The only other Weasley who didn't have red hair was Dominique – her hair was blonde like her mothers and flowed to somewhere between her shoulders and elbows (her sister Victoire also had blonde hair). Then there was Albus and James who both had black hair, but they were Potters so it didn't really count. Of course Lily had red hair because she was a clone of her mother (right down to the eyes).
I felt a bit guilty that I hadn't even realised that my own brother had been missing until someone else had pointed it out. Once everyone declared that they hadn't seen Hugo, Lily left and I returned to finishing my breakfast like the others. We'd see him later and all demand to know why he wasn't eating breakfast with his charming family.
"Quidditch tryouts are Saturday at ten," Al told us all. "Everyone already in the team must be down at the pitch at half past nine. Everyone got that? Rose, that means you."
"I'll be there, Al," I told him impatiently. "I was late for practise once."
"I know, Rose, but this year I'm captain so you won't be late at all," he told me and I really felt like bad things would come my way if I was late for any practise.
"Don't worry," I replied, a stroke of inspiration hitting me – I'd found a full-proof way of getting Al to shut up. "Dom's in my dorm so she'll wake me up anyway, Al."
"Okay, as long as you are there," Al looked unsure and I couldn't be bothered to answer so I just nodded.
After another five minutes of chat about the recent Quidditch match between Italy and France, where Italy had won by a huge seventy points, we all got up and left for our classes. Dom, Angie, Fred, Scorpius, Al and I headed to the dungeons for potions. I didn't speak to Scorpius at all and neither did I make eye contact or try to apologize in any way. We'd forget about all that yelling in a few days and start a new argument, we always did.
We went and sat down in potions in groups of four. There were four people from Slytherin and Ravenclaw but only three from Hufflepuff and therefore five from Gryffindor (made up of Al, Dom, Angie, Fred and I) but people were not sitting in order of house. I didn't mind the Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws, in fact, I didn't mind the Slytherins either, it was just Scorpius that annoyed the hell out of me.
Fred went to sit with three girls he knew who were from Ravenclaw and Dom wandered off to sit near her latest crush, a guy from Hufflepuff and his two friends. The other three Slytherins all sat together so Scorpius, Al, Angie and I sat at the only remaining table.
The teacher, an old man by the name of Mr Slughorn, entered the room and I could already tell he had no presence whatsoever. He immediately began calling for the class to be quiet, which he did a couple of times after everyone had settled down as well, and then began writing the precise ingredients for a potion on the board including the colour the potion should be at each stage.
Afterwards he turned to the class and asked, "Any questions?" Obviously my hand shot up like lightning. "Yes, Miss, err..."
"Weasley," I told him and I thought I saw his eyes widen for a moment but I didn't have time to worry why, I just wanted to get on with the work. "I was just wondering what the name of the potion was, Professor?"
He faltered for a moment and then turned and scanned the board. "Did I not... Oh, apparently not," he mumbled to himself more than any of the students and wrote the title of the potion on the board.
I was happy and not at all surprised to see that I had already read about this potion a number of times before and could make it properly with my eyes closed if I wanted to. Not that I ever would, of course.
Professor Slughorn turned back to the class.
"Any more questions before you begin?"
Before anyone could so much as raise their hand a boy wearing a Ravenclaw tie hurried into the room and, not before hesitating and hoping for another chair, took a seat with the Slytherins where there was the only seat left empty.
"Sorry I'm late, Professor," he told the teacher and hurried to get out all his equipment whilst we all started to cut up ingredients for our potions. Professor Slughorn didn't even acknowledge that the boy had entered the room let alone spoken to him.
"So," Angie whispered to me and moved round the table so that we could talk quietly in the noisy classroom. "Start of year party tonight—"
"—they throw start of year parties now?" I asked, interrupting her.
"Yep, you know, any excuse," she replied and moved back round the table as Professor Slughorn walked past, examining our work. Then she continued, "You're going, though, right Rose?"
I hesitated - parties weren't really my thing – but Angie didn't wait for me to answer. "Please, Rose." She begged. "I really need you to come. What if I get crazy drunk again and need you? What if I start shouting? What if I start singing?"
"Okay, Okay," I told her. "I'll go,"
"Actually, Weasley," Scorpius said and I realised that he had been listening to our conversation. "I think you'll find that it's rounds tonight."
"Damn," I muttered quietly to myself. I had totally forgotten about it, and Dom had mentioned it only twenty minutes ago. "Sorry, Angie," I said, turning to her and cutting up some roots to put in my potion. "Can't go, hallways to roam, people to lecture,"
Angie sulked for a little but then resumed talking to me a while later when she wanted my help on her potion. Class finished quickly, despite it being a double period, and I was the only one to get the potion exactly right, although Scorpius had come in a close second.
I walked out of potions and down to lunch with Angie and Dom feeling happy that I had beaten Scorpius in potions. I wasn't sure why, maybe it was just because of the way he always acted better than me, like he was somehow superior and owned the place. God, it got on my nerves.
I was so engrossed in hating Scorpius that I missed what Lily was saying to me, I hadn't even realised she had joined us but I immediately knew something was wrong because she looked worried. And Lily was usually always happy, the only times I'd seen her upset was when Al and I left for Hogwarts and when she thought she'd broken my favourite pair of stilettos (I say favourite but of course I mean 'only' pair, but I suppose that could be the same thing because I really did love them).
"What's wrong?" I asked. She really did look frantic by now.
"I can't find Hugo," she told me and her face paled even more than it already had. "I've looked everywhere. He wasn't in Herbology so Uncle Neville let me out early to find him. I've been to Gryffindor Tower, including his dorm, the library, The Great Hall, the out-of-bounds passages, Ravenclaw Tower, the kitchens, the lake, Hagrids, the Hospital Wing, the Quidditch Pitch and anywhere else I could think of... he's just vanished. He's nowhere,"
Lily was practically crying now, something that I had never seen her do before in all the fifteen years I had known her.
"Rose?" Dom asked whilst Angie comforted Lily. "Rosie, are you ok? Rose?" she asked and the next thing I knew, her voice was getting fainter and everything was getting dimmer.
Then it all went black.
That couldn't be good.
It's been a long while since I wrote this so when I looked just now I was geniunely surprised - I forgot I wrote the ending into it! That's not good, right? Anyhoo, I remember now, so I hope you like it. I'd love reviews? But thank you for reading anyway. :)