The wager- Ch2
A/N: Thanks to those who took the time to review. I'm really glad people seem to like this story and thanks for pointing out the mistakes, constructive criticism is definitely welcome, I'm just glad people are interested enough to read this! I'll change the mistakes at some point I promise and again thanks to those who pointed it out! I have the next couple of chapters of this already written but I'm just editing them so expect another update fairly soon.
Disclaimers: See CH1
Rose found she settled into life at Hogwarts very quickly and though she was homesick at first, everything around her was so exciting that whenever she felt lonely, something happened that took her mind off it, whether it be the chatting with the friendly ghosts over the breakfast table or having tea with Hagrid, James and Albus in his wooden hut. Whenever she did feel lonely or missed her parents and Port Cicely, she made sure to surround herself with people, and of course, her mum, dad and Hugo were only a quick owl away.
It definitely helped of course having her cousins there, but Rose made other friends quickly. She was soon fast friends with Meera and the other Ravenclaw first-year girls in her dorm. At breakfast she sat quite contentedly with her house and after only three days it felt like she had been there forever.
Her timetable was incredibly exciting too; she had never seen such wonderful subjects all in one place before and her quick mind was soon reeling with what she had learnt- Transfiguration! Charms! Astronomy! It was terribly interesting to get to learn such things and even her books could not have prepared her for how exciting they all actually were. Her teachers were all nice too, possibly because they instantly sensed her willingness to learn. The only teacher that she truly found boring though was Professor Binns, who must have been at Hogwarts for about a million years. The archaic ghost was the only teacher who she suspected might have the power to send her to sleep during a lesson.
Most of her subjects were mixed with students from other houses and to her pleasure she had Potions and Herbology with the Gryffindors, which meant she got to sit with Albus and Lorcan, who, with Phillius Longbottom, made up a mischievous trio. Lorcan was indeed as adventurous as she had suspected and Phillius was slightly more cautious. Her cousin fell somewhere in the middle. Nevertheless, the three of them had already indicated their tendencies for finding trouble- much to her Uncle Harry's chagrin they had "accidentally" wandered into a stray patch of venomous tentacula where they had been found swearing loudly at the top of their lungs by Janitor Goyle. He hadn't been interested in excuses and had smugly imparted his first detention of the term as well as deducting ten points each from Gryffindor. It was lucky the three boys had no objection to washing house elves socks.
Rose was positively thriving and wondered if this was how her mother had felt at Hogwarts- she was happy whenever she got out of bed in the mornings and looked forward to the day ahead, wondering what she would learn next and what excitement each lesson would bring.
Scorpius too was starting to relax more at the school and to his amusement, every time he made to enter the Ravenclaw common room he was set a harder and harder riddle by the doorknocker. He found his lessons intriguing and had even taken to heading to the library when he could, to further cram as much extra knowledge of each subject as he could into his brain. He had read all of his books from Flourish and Blotts a ton of times at home of course, his father reminding him that it wouldn't hurt him to be prepared for his lessons, but Hogwarts subjects were just so fascinating that the first-year found he wanted to know more and more. It was so much more interesting than even his father had prepared him for. He found his curiosity about the 'Restricted Section' of the library never-ending too. He wished he had permission to go in there and investigate some of the prohibited texts, but of course he had no way of doing that.
He hadn't made any friends yet however, aside from Lysander with whom he sat with in all the subjects he could and provided an easy companionship. The other boys in his dorm still seemed to be giving him a wide-berth which he was growing to be resentful of, though there was nothing to be done about it. He had tried several times to make casual conversation with them but they seemed unwilling to let him into their little group and always cast suspicious eyes on him. The Scamander twin though, was funny and almost as reserved as Scorpius himself, yet in him Scorpius felt he had found something of a kindred spirit. Lysander also seemed to excel in 'Care of Magical Creatures' though it was hardly surprising given whom his father was and that his mother could see thestrals and Nargles, was it?
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Last thing on Thursday afternoon came the lesson that Rose had most been looking forward to all week: Flying Lessons with a rather archaic Madam Hooch who appeared to have taken one-bludger to the head too many whilst refereeing Quidditch matches over the years. Ravenclaw first years took their lessons in flying alongside the Hufflepuffs' and Madam Hooch immediately sensed some student's aptitude and those who had no flying experience. She quickly divvied the class up into two groups according to ability and Rose wasn't startled to see that in hers was one Scorpius Malfoy. It made sense of course that he would probably be a skilled flyer. His own father had been a seeker for Slytherin and quite good, according to her Uncle Harry. "Though not as good as me," he had added with a wink and her mum and dad had nodded in agreement. That was probably as charitable as the Weasley's would be about the Malfoy's, she thought with amusement.
"If you could stand aside on the grass for just a moment," Madam Hooch bellowed to their group now, looking slightly frazzled, "I want to make sure the other students can get higher than three feet in the air without killing themselves, then you may begin."
Rose watched with interest as the other group, which included Lysander, struggled to get their broomsticks to obey the very simplest of commands and realised how lucky she was that her dad had taught her to fly almost as soon as she was walking. Albus would be the same in his lessons, she knew. Her Aunty Ginny and Uncle Harry were excellent Quidditch players and even little Lily was already super fast on her junior Cleansweep 3000.
She turned around, suddenly sensing someone was watching her. To her surprise, Scorpius Malfoy was stood not two feet behind her. He blinked when her eyes met his and she was startled by the intensity in his gaze.
He had been rather quiet all week, she realised now. In class, he only spoke when he was spoken to, which had not been what she was expecting at all, even though whenever a professor called on him he always knew the answer. He kept himself to himself at mealtimes and had taken to sitting next to Lysander who whilst didn't offer much in the way of conversation, was easy-going. Rose saw them talking sometimes and wondered what two such incredibly different people could have in common. She didn't know what he did during break-times as she never saw him in the quad and in the common room he didn't contribute much to any discussions when he was there, seemingly preferring to curl up with a book rather than play Wizard Chess or Gobstones. That wasn't to say he was rude or anything he was just… aloof, she supposed. Since the night of the sorting, he hadn't spoken a single word to her, not that she had bothered making an effort with him either. She had ignored him actually, much as everyone else in their house had, which she had to admit wasn't a very nice thing to do, was it? She supposed she had been rather rude.
"I heard your uncle was the youngest seeker Hogwarts ever had," Scorpius said almost challengingly, when he sensed her eyes on him.
"That's right," Rose retorted, instantly bristling at the tone in his voice. It was rather accusing. If he was going to speak to her at all, she'd rather he didn't speak to her like that!
"And your father was the worst keeper Hogwarts ever had," he added with the patented Malfoy smirk that she had heard so much about. She had known it would happen sooner or later. Really, she wanted to laugh at the notion that a Malfoy and Weasley might have been friends, given the history between their parents. She deduced that she had probably been right to ignore him after all.
Rose clenched her fists, her hackles rising. Like so many other traits, she knew she had inherited her father's fiery temper but was unwilling to let Malfoy Junior see how much he had clearly riled her with his acerbic comment. "If he was so bad, why did he make the Cannon's first team after graduation?" she snapped as she faced him, her eyes flashing. He was at least a head taller than she was, clearly he didn't take after his father height-wise even if he did in rudeness, but she refused to be intimidated. "And Puddlemere United got into a bidding war for him after the World Cup and—"
Grudging respect showed in the junior Malfoy's grey eyes. "Alright, don't get your wand in a knot, Weasley," he said with an impatient sigh that almost sounded apologetic. "What's your team, anyway?"
She jutted out her chin. "Rose," she said pointedly, "my name is Rose."
He rolled his eyes, "fine. Rose," his voice was almost silky as he regarded her, an expression of amusement on his pointed face, "what's your team?"
"The Falcons," she was confused by his reticence; he had sounded almost nice there for a second. Polite. Not like she had expected, particularly given that she hadn't spoken to him for almost a week.
"Falmouth Falcons?" Scorpius looked surprised as he clasped his broom. "Oh."
"Why?" she asked, clearly irritated, "are you going to put down my choice of team now? For your information they're local, plus my father takes me to all their games and we have a season ticket and I know they aren't top of the league but they played really well against the Wasps yesterday evening and—"
"Actually," Scorpius cut in smoothly before he gracefully mounted his broom at a signal from Madam Hooch, "they're my team too. I was going to say that you clearly have better taste than I credited you for. Rose…" With those words, he elegantly kicked off into the air and had soared into the sky before a startled Rose could think of anything else to say. She felt rather confused and perplexed all of a sudden, almost as if she had taken a hit to the head with a bludger.
"Don't just stand there Miss Weasley!" barked Madam Hooch, startling her from her reverie; "your mother may have been an unmitigated disaster on a broomstick but I have it on authority from your cousins and father that you are infact rather good."
Quickly, Rose kicked off too, her cheeks flushed a deep pink, and was chagrined to see Scorpius' look of amusement as he hovered overhead. Somehow, that just made matters worse.
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"Not bad, Weasley," Scorpius' eyes were almost appraising thirty minutes later as they touched back down onto the soft grass and hopped off their brooms, cheeks both reddened from the latitude and exercise. It was clearly a good idea to structure students by their ability in this class, judging by the squeals and startled yells she heard from the far corner of the field as some of their classmates still struggled to master the very basics of flying. Thankfully, no one had been injured though Lysander had seemingly been distracted and had taken off after a 'curly-tailed ring fly' which no one else had seen and had almost crashed headfirst into a tree in the process.
"Rose," she reminded him of her first name curtly, her red hair wild from the wind as it tumbled freely around her shoulders, escaping from its ribbon.
"Rose," Scorpius corrected himself with another smirk as he combed fingers through his tousled white-blonde hair. "Did your dad teach you to fly? He's a quidditch commentator now, isn't he? For WWN? I heard he's got a sponsorship deal for the World Cup and everything. Plus a book deal."
"Yes," she said proudly in answer to both questions as they followed the rest of their chattering classmates back into the school as the bell shrilled, signalling the end of lessons for the day. Both of them heard sighs of relief from those who obviously hadn't taken very well to controlling their brooms.
"Miss Weasley, Mr Malfoy... if I may have a word with you?"
Both students halted as Madam Hooch caught up with them and regarded them intently, her cat-like eyes shining with approval. "That was very good riding today, both of you," she began, "I have a proposition to put to both of you if you are interested."
Rose and Scorpius exchanged glances as the teacher continued; "it is evident that flying is clearly in your genes. I would like you both to try out for the position of the new Ravenclaw seeker."
Rose broke into a smile as Scorpius' brow furrowed. "Really?"
"Try-outs will be on the pitch tomorrow evening," Hooch told them crisply, "be there." She sauntered away leaving both students behind her wearing identical expressions of glee. It was the first time she had seen Scorpius smile genuinely.
"I can't wait to tell my uncle and my dad!" Rose burst out unthinkingly, her brown eyes shining, "he's going to be so proud that—"
"Easy Rosie," Scorpius cut in with a smirk, "who's to say you'll get the position?"
Rose's eyes narrowed imperceptibly, "I'm faster than you," she pointed out.
"Female logic," Scorpius countered with a dismissive wave he must surely have learned from his father, "it's the dynamics of the broom. The Nimbus 12000 is sleeker than my Firebolt and gives the illusion of greater speed. I'm more skilful than you."
"That's where your father got it wrong too," Rose interjected smugly, "he underestimated speed in favour of agility whenever he played against Gryffindor. I've heard all the stories. My Uncle Harry beat him every single time."
Scorpius pondered the indignant look in the girl's eyes with another sneer. "That sounds like a wager to me, Weasley."
Rose lifted her chin again in a defiant gesture that was becoming increasingly familiar to Scorpius. "What are you suggesting, Malfoy?"
Scorpius eyed her appraisingly, "Two galleons says that this time in two days, I'll be the new Ravenclaw seeker, not you."
Rose held out her hand, her eyes sparkling as they shook on the bet. "Oh, you are going down Malfoy. It's a deal!"
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