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Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling, but that would be awesome if I was.


When Everything Changes

Chapter 3

New Enemies and New Friends

Rose and Albus had purposefully arrived early to their Flying lesson, thankful they were able to enjoy the gorgeous day. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue with very few clouds, and the sun beat down warmly on the two. This would be one of the last days of summer before October brought on the cold.

Without warning, a ball of mud was launched into the air and landed directly in Albus's face. Albus immediately moved to a more upright position and scowled at what he saw: Garry Jordon and his new friend Trevor Goldstein. "What the bloody hell was that?" Albus exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Rose got up too, and crossed her arms furiously.

Jordan and Goldstein laughed. "Oh, sorry about that," Jordan snorted. "We assumed you were Slytherin."

Rose wiped a clot out of her flaming red hair. "Are you blind? Did the Gryffindor robes not clue you in? Or were you two too busy acting idiotic to notice?" she screamed.

"Maybe it was the evil and maniacal look in your eyes," Goldstein mocked.

"I wasn't thinking anything evil and maniacal until you dingbats threw mud at us!" Rose exclaimed. "Maybe you are the evil and maniacal ones."

"Yeah," Albus said. "You got mud in my bloody eye. Who does that?"

By that point a small crowd of Gryffindors and Slytherins had gathered around the four. Feeling pressured by the crowd to do something, Albus drew out his wand.

"Ooh," someone on the outside jeered. "Potter's got a wand. Shit just got real."

"Albus!" Rose whispered venomously. She didn't want to get involved in a physical fight, but with Jordan and Goldstein snickering and drawing their own wands she didn't have a choice. She pointed her dragon heartstring wand at the two boys and thought hard about any offensive spell she knew. She wished she'd been school longer and learned more.

"Aguamenti!" Jordan shouted his spell and aimed it at Rose. A tiny stream of water sputtered onto her face, and she lifted up her arm to block it. The water was white, indicating an imperfect spell. As she spit out the water that had gotten into her mouth, the spurt coming from Jordan's wand shifted to Albus.

"Lacarnum Inflamarae!" A burst of tiny flames came out the end of Ablus's wand, but quickly fluttered out. Garry Jordan's water charm immediately followed.

"This is pathetic!" Rose turned her head to see a few Slytherins snickering at their brawl. "This is the weakest duel I have ever seen."

Rose frowned and tucked her wand back into her robes. "Come on, Albus," she said. "This isn't worth it." We haven't even learned anything good enough to fight with, she thought.

"Ooh, running away?" Jordan called to Rose, desperate to get his edge back. "Good thing I didn't try for real on you. Then you'd be begging for our forgiveness. No one challenges us and gets away with it."

The girl froze angry in her tracks and clenched her fists. It isn't worth it, she repeated over and over to herself, but it wasn't enough. She peeked back to see that Jordan had turned his back to them, basking in his victory with the other students. As quickly as she could, Rose turned around and launched herself at him. The two came crashing to the ground, and Goldstein and Albus rushed to join them. The four students punched and tugged at each other until finally a painful spell lodged itself in between all four of them and threw them towards opposite ends of the Quidditch Pitch.

"No one makes a fool out of themselves during my lessons!" a woman's voice shouted. Rose stood up to see none other than famed Gwenog Jones casting the spell. "Come on back here, now," the intimidating woman called. "I have a class to run." Rose, Albus, Jordan, and Goldstein ran back towards the other students to form a semicircle around their instructor. A few of the other students stared in awe, also having caught on to their instructor's identity.

"Good afternoon. I am your flying instructor for the year. You may call me Madam Jones," the muscular woman beamed at the students, "and yes, I am that Gwenog Jones." A blonde Gryffindor girl raised her hand. "Any muggleborns may learn who I am from their friends after class," the girl drew her hand down, and Rose and Albus exchanged a glance, "but that's enough about me. Everyone, choose a broom and shout 'Up!'" Madam Jones pulled one of the school owned Comet 260s out of a pile, and placed it next to her to demonstrate. The broom shot up to her outstretched hand with ease, and a few students whispered to each other in amazement. Soon enough, everyone was lined up with their brooms to give their own try.

The blonde muggleborn who hadn't recognized Madam Jones was the first to get her broom to rise, and was offered a smile of congratulations. After seeing this, Scorpius Malfoy's shouts of "Up!" had gotten so loud that Madam Jones had to calm him down. Rose snorted. He was probably jealous that a muggleborn had beaten him at a wizards sport already.

At the end of the lesson, the first years all landed their brooms and helped Madam Jones haul them into a storage closet. As the laughing students skipped towards the main castle to get their dinner, Madam Jones called out. "You four," Rose stopped in her tracks, and felt her face begin to burn, "I need to talk to you." Rose, Albus, Jordan, and Goldstein all walked up to their flying instructor, upset that they had not left the Quidditch pitch unblamed for their actions. "What do you all have to say for yourselves?"

"Weasley attacked me, I swear," Jordan spat out. "Trevor was only protecting me."

"—Only because Jordan used magic on Albus and I!" Rose retorted.

"But Potter took his wand out first. I was only protecting myself." Jordan held his hands up in a protective manner.

"But Jordan and Goldstein threw—"

"Enough!" Madam Jones shouted, shutting up Albus's defensive statement. "I don't care who started it. You all are at fault. Twenty points from Gryffindor."

"But Madam Jo—"

"Not buts!" she interrupted. "You're lucky I'm letting you stay in my class at all. I will not be so easy on you next time. You!" She looked at Jordan with fierce eyes. "You have promise. Don't let me down." The tall woman walked away towards the castle, and Rose frowned.

"Isn't she conceited," Rose muttered.

"Don't call her conceited," Jordan said with star struck eyes. "She's Gwenog Jones. Besides, she told me I have promise." His mouth drew into a prideful grin.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on! She captained the Holyhead Harpies. My Aunt Ginny was on the Holyhead Harpies once. It's not a big deal."

Albus cleared his throat. "Have you seen my mum play? It's kind of a big deal."

"Fine, but she didn't need to brag about it in front of everyone."

"You're just mad at her because you got in trouble!" Goldstein exclaimed, laughing.

"Am not!" Rose crossed her arms. "I don't need to talk about this anymore. She's conceited and that's final!" Jordan and Goldstein snickered, but she ignored them. Wizards as idiotic as them wouldn't understand, anyways.

By the time they reached the Great Hall, Rose was starving. She spotted Shaelyn Peters, the girl who'd gained control of her broom first, and sat next to her. Jordan and Goldstein annoyingly decided to follow them, as if they were friends now that their fight had passed.

"I can't believe it was me who could fly first," Shaelyn said excitedly. "My parents aren't even wizards, and I could do it before anyone else!"

"Really?" Albus asked. "I wonder what it was like for them to find out you were magical."

Shaelyn nodded hesitantly as she grabbed herself some turkey and mashed potatoes. "Professor Longbottom came for me. He knocked on our door and when he told us the news my father yelled at him to get out. He thought Professor Longbottom was trying to kidnap me and even called the police! Thankfully, the fact that he could confound all the police with a simple swish of his wand proved to my father he wasn't lying. My parents were still kind of skeptical when they sent me off to Hogwarts, but they'd seen enough to know that I had to go."

"Wow!" Albus gasped. "My parents are both wizards, but I'm a halfblood, technically. Before I got my Hogwarts letter my brother kept telling me I was probably a Squib. It was terrifying."

"I'm a halfblood, too," Rose said with a smile. "My mum is a muggleborn though, and she said her parents were absolutely thrilled to find out."

"Oh?" Shaelyn said. "I wish mine were more thrilled. They sort of just accepted it grimly." She looked down at her plate and dragged her fork through the potatoes.

"Aw, come on!" Garry Jordan had decided to interject. "You have to be lying. There is no way a muggleborn is first in Flying, and it is even less possible that your parents would be unhappy to have a witch in the family. Magic is fantastic! I'm not buying it." A charming smile spread across his face. Rose wondered how he could possibly say something so unbelievably ignorant.

"Uh, excuse me?" Everything that came out of Garry Jordan's mouth made Rose's blood boil. "My muggleborn mum was first in her class. And considering the fact that the unknown is scary, I definitely could understand why Muggles would be put off at first. Why else would Muggles try burning witches and wizards before our society became a secret? It's because they're terrified of us."

His eyes widened and he realized the error of what he said. "Oh, no! I mean, just 'cause no one could teach her. I mean, I'm a pureblood. I should've been able to ride my broom first. It only makes sense." He pulled at his hair, embarrassed at his words. "I didn't mean—Aw I sound like a total jerk, don't I?"

Shaelyn rolled her eyes. "I guess that I'm just much more magical than you thought, even more than you," she said, faking a laughter. Rose wanted to ask more about her parents, but Shaelyn had already dismissed that aspect of the conversation and moved on.

"Hey! No! I'm magical! I got into this school, didn't I? You all saw me use magic," he said, referring to his fight with Albus and Rose. He whipped out his wand and swished it in an attempt to transfigure his fork into a feather. It just got a little fuzzy instead.

Rose laughed. "Yeah, that was pretty weak, Jordan."

Jordan crossed his arms. "It's better than you, little miss 'I'm going to attack Garry the Muggle way.'" Rose shot him a death glare. "Oh, you heard that? My names Garry. Not Jordan. Jordan's my surname."

"Oh, really? Guess what? I knew that."

Garry Jordan chuckled, and poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice. When he finished, he flicked his eyes up to meet Rose's. "I prefer for you to call me Garry."

Heat flared up in Rose's cheeks and she looked away, trying to seem distracted. "Fine…Garry. Then I prefer you call me Rose." It didn't feel right calling him by that name. The first name basis implied that they were close, and Rose was not close with Garry, nor did she want to be.

"Fine…Rose," Garry replied, mocking her hesitation.

Shaelyn put her potatoes down and stood up. "I'm not hungry anymore. I'm going back to the common room." She started walking away as if she was upset.

Rose stood up to follow her. "I'm full, too." She waved goodbye to the others and caught up with Shaelyn. "Hey, don't listen to him," she said. "Garry has no idea what he's talking about."

Shaelyn froze in her place and angrily turned around to face Rose. "What the hell are you playing at?"

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked, shocked. "I was defending you."

"No. He was explaining that magic is amazing and my parents should see that. You were explaining that it's perfectly normal for Muggle parents to want to brutally murder me for being a witch."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Rose was at a loss for words. What is happening?! she thought desperately to herself. What did I do? "I just meant the witch trials—"

"I know exactly what you meant!" Shaelyn yelled. "Despite what you think, Muggles are not terrible people, especially not my parents." Shaelyn turned around and hurried away, leaving Rose all alone in the hallway.

Rose stared at the empty space ahead where Shaelyn had stood. "But…I don't think that." Somehow to Shaelyn Peters, Rose Weasley was prejudiced. When hearing about the most recent Wizardring War that her parents had fought in, she had always found the discrimination based on blood purity unbelievable. Rose had seen the scar on her mother's arm that read "Mudblood" and couldn't even imagine what kind of a terrible person would have done that to her. She was shocked to discover that Shaelyn seemed to think that Rose was the type of person who would do that. Rose wasn't prejudiced, but someone now thought she was. She hoped other people wouldn't find out. The last thing she needed was to be associated with Death Eaters.


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