Just as Scorpius Malfoy had predicted in his conversation with Ashley Cleary, I was forced to sit next to him at dinner that night. As we silently exited our carriage, both exhausted from the fight, Professor Longbottom greeted us.
"Uncle Neville!" I exclaimed, happily embracing my family's close friend.
"Now, now, Rosie," he chuckled, releasing himself from my grasp. "Good evening, Scorpius."
"Good evening, sir," Scorpius answered with a polite smile.
Neville stood straight, and adjusting himself, said, "Now. You two have been the talk of many teachers at school."
We both nodded sheepishly.
"I hope you know that your badges and duties will be taken away if you step out of line even the slightest."
I gave a little gasp. If I so much as had a little argument with Scorpius all my hard work would be put to waste. Meanwhile Scorpius nodded solemnly.
"Good, very good," Neville nodded. "Now, Professor McGonagall has requested that you be seated next to each other at dinner."
I had to stop myself from groaning.
"Come on now, follow me."
We followed him into the great hall where most of the other students were already sitting. I looked into the mass of students and saw Lucille. I gave her a smile and waved at her while she gestured to the seat next to her. I shook my head, and followed Scorpius and Neville. We finally stopped in front of a tiny almost desk-like table at the feet of the teacher's table.
"You two will sit here for your meals," Neville told us. "Your food is over there," he said as he gestured towards a table that usually only the teachers used in a nearby corner.
"Will we ever be able to sit in our old seats again?" I asked, worried. A whole year of eating meals next to Malfoy didn't seem so amazing.
"We, the teachers, will talk about it," Neville said with great dignity. "Have a good evening." He walked away.
"Merlin!" I shouted.
"Just sit down, Weasley," Scorpius rolled his eyes. I noticed that he was already seated, so I sat down next to him.
I threw my head on to the empty plate on the table.
"Gosh, Weasley," Scorpius said, barely looking at me. "Grow up."
I picked my head up. Scorpius Malfoy, the most annoying and immature git in the world telling me, Rose Weasley, to grow up, was not something that I ever wanted to happen again.
As soon as we were allowed to, we both got food. And then I gobbled my food down. I wasn't a Weasley for nothing. I wiped my mouth carefully, because I wasn't an immature freak unlike the person sitting next to me, and jumped up. I ran to the base of Professor McGonagall's chair.
"Professor?" I asked in my most polite voice. "Is there anything that I should be helping with? Leading the first years to their rooms, anything?"
She looked very surprised to see me. "Oh," she answered, swallowing her food. "No, thank you, Rose. We've decided to let you and Scorpius know each other tonight. No need to help the first years, the prefects can get all of your duties for you."
"But Professor," I began. This was all incredibly bizarre. I'd washing Merlin's underpants than be spending the rest of my night with Scorpius Malfoy!
"No need to thank me, Rose," McGonagall said with a twinkle in her eye. "Have a lovely evening." I was clearly dismissed.
I got back to the table with Scorpius. "They expect us to sit here and talk all night," I moaned.
"No!" he whispered. "Why?"
"I don't know, McGonagall wants us to bond or something shitty like that," I said putting my head on the table.
"Sometimes I think that that old bat has been at this school for a little too long," he said patting my back with a chuckle.
I laughed in spite of myself.
Somehow I found myself continuing to talk with Malfoy while the first year stood up and filed after a prefect. And I didn't stop once the rest of the school left the Great Hall. In fact, we only stopped talking once a timid looking house elf tapped him on the shoulder and requested that we leave.
"Time flies, I guess," I said to him as we stood up.
"I'll say," he answered.
We reached the two great oak door in front of the Great Hall where a floating scroll waited for us. Follow the footprints to your dorm. The password is changeable, but it currently is "heads". Under the instructions on the scroll, we made our way to the dorm.
In front of the little alcove that the room was in was a statue of a centaur. "Hello," I said.
"Good evening, Ms. Weasley. Password?"
"Heads," Scorpius said.
"Very good Mr. Malfoy," he marched out our way, revealing an incredible room. It was green and red but the colors didn't clash, and gave a sense of unity and coziness.
"I guess that my room?" he said, pointing to a set of stairs with the a plaque on them that read "S. H. Malfoy".
"And that's probably mine," I answered. The other set of stairs had an almost identical plaque, but this one read, "R. H. Weasley".
"And there's the bathroom." He said, pointing to the room in the middle of the flights of stairs.
We stood in silence for a second, before I bolted up the stairs, yelling behind me, "Goodnight!"
And that was the first day of Hogwarts.
