THREE
Tess and I collapsed simultaneously onto the sofas in the Gryffindor common room after dinner and flung our bags onto the ground.
I rested my feet on the coffee table in front of me and sighed.
"I can't believe we have to write a foot and half essay for potions," I said thinking of the long essay and presumably sleepless night that lay ahead of me to finish the essay that our potions teacher Professor Ackerley had decided to give us.
"I know, it's the first day of the year as well," Tess groaned. "Why can't they just give us a relaxing day on the first day."
"Well, when you're headmistress you can change it," I said with a smile.
Tess made a disgusted face and elbowed me.
"There is no way I'm becoming headmistress, I would have to hang out with Ackerley all the time," she said shivering involuntarily.
I laughed loudly. "You would be best buds!"
"Shut up!" she said giving me a shove so my feet fell off the table.
"Oi!" I giggled leaning over and trying to shove her too, but I was interrupted by someone saying my name.
"Uh…Rose?"
I looked up and found myself drowning in navy blue eyes framed by a curtain of long dark lashes.
"Uhnuh…" My brain seemed to have chosen that moment to completely shut down and leave me completely unable to construct a coherent sentence. Finally I managed to say, "Yeah?"
"We have patrol," he stated, flicking his gaze over Tess and then returning to rest on me again.
"Oh, ok. Two seconds, I'm coming," I said, my heart beating madly against my chest.
***
"I'll do the dungeons, can you check out the owlery?" Max said with a look upon his face that practically screamed boredom. Not that I was really having that much fun either. Admittedly being in the overwhelming presence of a blonde god for prefect patrol was brilliant, however the fact that he had barely spoken to me since we had stepped outside of the common room less than half an hour ago didn't exactly make this the most exciting evening ever.
"Yeah, ok. I'll meet you outside the Gryffindor common room in half an hour then we can do the last couple of floors together," I said in an equally bored tone – being in his presence for so long was starting to rub off on me. He gave me a reluctant smile and headed off towards the dungeons.
He wasn't much of a conversationalist really. Perhaps he was as nervous as I was?
It was possible that he liked me…
And with that thought I rounded the corner with a grin plastered over my face.
Just as I reached the bottom of the winding staircase that led up to the owlery I heard a suspicious bang followed by a girlish giggle coming from the broom cupboard on the right of me.
I figured that someone was trying to hide in the cupboard and thought I might as well take some points off them, after all nothing else had happened all evening. I tried to door handle but it was locked.
With a roll of my eyes
I took my wand out of the waistband of my skirt and muttered:
"Alohamora."
The door swung open and I immediately wished that
I hadn't heard the bang and had gone straight up to the owlery.
Sitting nestled between the brooms and boxes in a comprising position
was none other than Scorpius Malfoy and some particularly buxom
Ravenclaw from the year below.
Upon noticing that I was there they immediately untwined themselves from each others arms and turned to face me with annoyed glares.
I resisted the urge to vomit with great difficulty.
Is it really necessary to engage in such activities in a broom cupboard after hours?
"Get out," I said authoratively. The Ravenclaw girl gave Malfoy an irritated look then clambered out of the cupboard and adjusted her skirt. "Twenty points from Ravenclaw." The girl just pouted, rolled her eyes and with a flick of her honey blonde hair strutted arrogantly down the corridor.
How is it that people worship bimbos like her?
I turned back to the cupboard to find Malfoy still in there, casually leaning against the doorframe. I couldn't help noticing that the top few buttons of his shirt were undone revealing several inches of muscled chest.
"Twenty points from Slytherin as well," I said meeting his pale grey eyes with an unsmiling sneer. Malfoy snorted as I turned on my heel and started climbing the stairs towards the owlery, inwardly vomiting at the sight that I just had to endure.
"Jealous, Weasley?" he said when I reached the fourth step.
Now it was my turn to snort. I spun around to find him still arrogantly resting on the frame swinging his Slytherin tie round in circles with that horrendous smirk infecting his face.
I swear the second his tiny baby self saw his father it adopted the smirk that all horrendously conceited Malfoy's are known to possess. I personally feel sorry for his mother who has to look at his face, and his father's face, every day.
"You wish, Malfoy," I scoff angrily.
His smirk vanished and was replaced by complete blankness. With one last searing glare from his grey eyes he slammed the cupboard door with a little more force than was really necessary and casually loped down the corridor whilst running a pale muscled hand through his platinum hair.
Well, I for one was not expecting him to react in such an utterly bizarre way.
From what little I can remember of our first year days when he and Albus would regularly engage themselves in petty fights where they would hurl abuse at one another he was actually a master at delivering a scathing comeback.
I frowned then carried
on my way up the stairs.
As I had suspected, the owlery was devoid
of any human life and instead full of the sounds of ruffling
feathers. On the way back down however, I collided with Al who was
looking extremely suspicious. His hands were behind his back and his
eyes were huge.
"Oh, hey Rose!" he said with a nervous chuckle.
"What are you doing, Al?" I asked in a disapproving tone.
"N-n-nothing," he stammered, trying to edge past me.
"Back to the common room, or I'll take points from you," I said, ushering him back down the stairs. "What were you doing anyway?"
"Oh…um…"
I gave him a look.
"Fine, I'll tell you! I was sending an owl to Uncle George to ask for some stuff for a prank," he said, annoyed that I'd managed to get it out of him.
"Would this happen to be the prank you're pulling on Tess?" I asked innocently.
"No!" he replied, a little too quickly. Which meant it clearly was for Tess' prank.
I narrowed my eyes at
him.
"Fine, yeah it is. Hugo came up with the idea," he said.
"Urgh…it's bound to be horrible with Hugo planning it," I said with a shiver. Al laughed.
"It's not too bad, we're not turning her hair pink again, if that's what you think!" he said nervously, clearly worried about admitting the contents of the prank to a prefect who could easily inform his mother of any misbehaving he gets up to.
"I won't tell your mum as long as the school remains intact," I said cheerily and Al relaxed a bit and chuckled.
"What a shame, I was thinking of exploding Gryffindor tower," he said laughing.
We were both laughing as we neared the portrait hole, and as we neared I noticed Max leaning casually against the wall.
"Hey, Max," I said quietly. Al snorted loudly next to me and discretely stood on his foot causing him to scream 'OW!' loudly then climb through the portrait hole after nodding his head at Max the way that boys greet each other, and then giving me one last smirk before the portrait hole closed.
"Do we have any more to do?" he asked.
"Yeah, a couple more floors," I replied, trying to stop myself from turning beetroot red. As well as inheriting the traditional Weasley hair and ocean blue eyes, I also seem to have gotten the blushing affliction which has resulted in much teasing over the years, particularly from Al who is the spitting image of his father, Uncle Harry.
"Do you mind if we give it a miss? I have that essay to write for Ackerley and I want to get it done," Max asked politely.
"Sure, I don't mind," I replied and after a quick goodbye in the common room (basically a little wave on my part and a mumble of 'night' on his) we went up the stairs to our respective dormitories.
