Disclaimer: Contrary to my wishes, the world and characters of Harry Potter still don't belong to me. Just thought I'd let you know.
A/N: My sincerest apologies for the lack of updating and my greatest gratitude to all you lovely reviewers. You are all fab.
On Friday, Rose slept late; resentful the weekend was still not there after such a tiring first week and woken by her noisy roommates. She dressed in silence, the other girls chattering and shrieking at each other loudly. She glanced at each one of them surreptitiously, reflecting on how she would spend the next years of her life in the company of them. They were spraying each other with scent; it was reminiscent of the pillow fights she used to have with her cousins, but with a nauseating mix of perfumes involved.
She missed more than the feathers.
She hadn't managed to make a promising best friend out of any of the girls in the room yet, but this bothered her a lot less than she would have believed possible. She had Scorpius; and he was turning out to be the best friend she had ever made in her life.
Smiling, she remembered the previous day when he had impressed everybody in charms by somehow putting a silencing charm on, not even the frog he was supposed to be making float in mid-air, but Mona Thomas. Only Rose had seen the glint in his eye as he suddenly aimed a good ninety degrees away from the frog towards the other girl.
Side-stepping the others, who tried to attack her with a bottle of perfume that reeked of jasmine that Mona had produced to add to the range of fragrances; the room was quickly becoming invaded by a sickening, thick, flowery fog, Rose escaped the dormitory.
Once outside the common room, Rose took a deep breath of fresh air and took her usual route (or as usual as a route involving changing staircases and trick doors can be) to the Great Hall.
Mona had taken Scorpius' stunt good-naturedly. She had laughed (if you can laugh silently, that is) along with the rest of the class. Rose remembered the astonished and impressed face of the Charms teacher, who claimed silencing charms were fifth year level and spent the remainder of the lesson questioning Scorpius about it, who maintained, much to Rose's amusement, that it had been a complete mistake.
Later he admitted to Rose that the Silencio charm was a speciality of his, taught to him by his mother, Astoria, who used to use the spell a lot on her siblings while she was growing up.
Although Scorpius didn't just excel at that one charm; he was very talented in all brands of magic; second only to Rose in the year. The two friends, much to Roses dismay, had already gained a reputation as the cleverest in the year.
As she sat down to breakfast opposite a boy she knew to be called Dragomir Krum, she recalled their first ever transfiguration lesson, which had taken place on Tuesday of that week.
Rose had succeeded in turning her matchstick into a needle and back by the end of the first lesson. Professor Fenwick had been very impressed and after Scorpius produced a silvery, pointy matchstick just before the class was finished; he excitedly declared them the best class he had ever taught, much to Rose's embarrassment.
Professor Sinistra, Head of Ravenclaw house, had told Rose that it was almost like having her mother back in the class, after she displayed some aptitude in Astronomy too. Rose, however, disagreed.
From what Rose knew of her mother, she had been able to master spells very quickly and had read all the schoolbooks for fun, her father went as far as to proclaim Hermione had memorised every single page of the textbooks.
Rose, while she showed quite as much skill in performing spells and brewing potions as her mother before her, had not spent her childhood reading complicated books, memorising facts and dates, nor did she spend her spare time pouring over volumes of text.
Sure, she loved to read. She also could remember facts without too much difficulty. The big difference between Rose and her mother, Rose felt, was that Hermione loved to show off her intelligence a bit. Rose simply felt foolish whenever a professor would compliment her. She blushed like a true Weasley and that meant a bright, brilliant red.
Another poignant difference between the mother and daughter was that Hermione had grown up an only child, while Rose had all her cousins plus Hugo, meaning that she would spend a lot of time playing or talking with them that would otherwise have probably been spent reading.
Scorpius, on the other hand, appeared to have read every single book that Rose had ever heard about. He knew random facts and titbits of information nowhere to be found within the heavy schoolbooks they carried.
The fact of the matter was, she decided, she didn't like people passing her off or confusing her with her mother. Rose was her own person.
Which brought her back to her cousins that refused to accept that fact. Yet again, she looked moodily over at the Gryffindor table, where Victoire, Dominique, Molly and Fred had assembled. She had to talk to them soon; it was only right, it only made sense …
And yet …
Rose was beginning to see exactly why she hadn't been placed in Gryffindor. If she couldn't pluck up enough courage to talk to family about something that wasn't even her fault …
Scowling, she turned back to her plate and mutilated her orange by stabbing it over and over with a fork.
'Good morning,' a cool, distracted voice that she recognised without looking around, greeted her.
'Hi Scorpius,' she murmured.
They sat in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence between them, but they both felt something tense in the air.
Scorpius didn't seem particularly interested in eating, either. He kept glancing upwards as though terrified it might start raining. Rose was watching James, who had just arrived, out of the corner of her eye. As she let her eyes wander to each of her cousins' faces, Molly caught her gaze. A chill of foreboding swept over Rose as her cousin surveyed her quietly.
Then something happened that Rose was definitely not expecting. Molly grinned at her.
Rose whipped her head around and resumed attacking her orange. The smile had brought her out of her trance. She noticed vaguely that something was out of place …
Gradually, she realised the strange tension and silence emanating from her neighbour. Scorpius sat as a statue, unmoving, head resting on one hand that covered his mouth, giving him an anxious look about him. Only now and then did his eyes flitter round the room.
'Well this is cheerful,' she said, in a poor attempt to vanquish his blatant bad mood. 'What's up, Scorpius?'
'Nothing,' he whispered, more to himself than to her and looked upwards again, 'at least … not yet.'
She shrugged and tore her eyes away from the Gryffindors again, coming to rest on the Slytherin table.
Greta Montague, Rose was mildly surprised to see, was smiling for once. What was more, she was smiling at Scorpius.
Frowning, Rose glanced at the glum Scorpius sitting beside her, mystified.
The world didn't seem right that day. Greta looked cheerful, Scorpius was sullen and cryptic and Molly Weasley had just smiled at Rose. She shook her head briefly, a vivid memory of a frowning Molly seconds after Rose had been sorted flashed across her mind.
'You smell of flowers,' muttered Scorpius, wrinkling his nose.
'I'm a Rose, what did you expect?' she retorted grouchily, mourning the excess of perfume that was lingering around her body, and noticing Scorpius glancing around again.
'You're waiting for the post,' she stated.
He made no reply to this, but gave up all pretence and craned his neck to the ceiling, which showed a beautifully sunny day.
'Are you expecting your parents to write today, Scorpius?'
'No. Expecting would be too much.'
'So … hoping?'
He shrugged. 'Depends on the content really, doesn't it?'
She began to watch the sky with him, both leaning back, eyes to the heavens. Only when a voice disrupted her, did she realise how odd they must have appeared.
'Are you alright?'
Dragomir Krum was frowning at them, as though they were slightly insane.
'Oh … yeah … we're fine,' Rose replied, a little flustered a second year was talking to them, especially considering their strange behaviour.
'Dragomir Krum,' he said, extending a hand towards her.
'I know,' she said, 'Rose Weasley.' They had met briefly before, when the Krum family came to visit her Aunt Fleur. He hailed from Bulgaria, but for some reason his father favoured Hogwarts over the closer Durmstrang Institute, and had sent him there instead.
'Ah, yes, of course. How are you liking Hogvarts?'
'Very well, so far.'
'Hmm. I vonder, if you're cousins vith James Potter?'
'Uh … kind of.'
He looked bewildered.
'Kind of? What do you mean?'
'I meant yeah … we're just not exactly on best terms at the moment,' she muttered quietly, red-faced, 'I'm not actually on very good terms with any of my cousins right now, I suppose.'
'Vell in that case, I vill tell you,' he grinned, happily, 'I've been made Seeker for Ravenclaw.'
'Oh, wow, congratulations,' she vaguely remembered something about Krum's father being an international Quidditch champion years ago. He was clearly following in his footsteps. James was seeker for Gryffindor house.
'You von't tell James, vill you? It's supposed to be a secret, or something,' he asked anxiously.
'No, of course not. We want Ravenclaw to win, don't we?'
'Vell, two of your cousins are on the Gryffindor side.'
She shrugged, 'Professor Sinistra told me that our houses are sort of like our family while we're here.' And Ravenclaws been a hell of a lot more family to me of late than some certain blood relatives, she added to herself with a small sigh.
'That's true. A lot of my friends are now like my family, here,' he smiled, and she briefly wondered how difficult it had been going to school in a different country, where people spoke a different language, for him.
'Vell, I must be off,' he said, nodding at her as he rose from the table.
' 'Bye,' she called.
That next moment the post arrived in a flurry of owls, one flew straight to Rose, her own small owl, carrying a letter roughly the size of itself.
'Thanks, Merwyn,' she mumbled, untying the message from his leg. Scorpius continued to scan the ceiling, but Rose only had eyes for the envelope before her.
At least it isn't red, she noted. She hadn't put a howler past her father.
Her mothers small neat script spelt out Rose's name on the envelope, confirming her thoughts – finally a reply. Apprehensively, she slit it open and extracted a first piece of parchment. There was the comforting, faint flowery scent of home that came from the letter.
Dear Rose,
I'm so pleased you like Hogwarts and have already made friends!
Congratulations on making Ravenclaw, did I ever tell you that the hat seriously considered me for that house? I know you'll do well in there, I'm so proud of you.
We're all fine here; I'm keeping busy at work.
I'll write again soon, I hope you're enjoying your lessons!
Hugo says hi.
Love, Mum.
Rose twirled a strand of hair around her finger, pensively.
Hugo says hi?
Last year, Hugo had promised to write to Rose often and tell her everything that was happening with him while she was away at Hogwarts. 'Hugo says hi' was hardly living up to that. Her mother could have easily inserted it just to make her feel as though he had not forgotten her. She was distracted when she noticed a postscript.
P.S. Sorry it took so long to reply, darling, but your father insisted on writing his own letter to you and only finished now.
I read it and I beg you not to take a word of it to heart. You know how he gets. I'd rather you ignored the note completely, he'll regret writing it later, but I know you too well; I know you'll read it straight after this. Love you, Mum.
Rose slowly reached out and turned the envelope upside-down. A rather more smudged, crumpled piece of parchment fell out on the table before her.
She wasn't sure she wanted to read it, but a morbid curiosity triumphed over her and she stretched out a trembling hand.
Slowly, she smoothed the creases on the page before attempting to read her father's scribble. At that same moment, Scorpius gave a start. A big eagle owl had landed in front of him. She saw him glare at it suspiciously.
Returning to her letter, she began to read.
Rosie, he wrote. She frowned at the name. Ron insisted on calling her that for some unbeknownst reason.
You said you're friends with a Scorpius Malfoy, I'd urge you to stay well away from him, as his whole family is nothing but (here was a crossed out word that looked suspiciously like 'scum'.) trouble. Please listen to me, stick with the Thomas girl. I know her father well; we were at school together.
I see you're in Ravenclaw, but don't worry, one of our best friends was a Ravenclaw. You remember Luna? Mad as a hatter, of course, and won't stop nagging me about Nargles, but she's really funny. And nice, a real friend. If slightly odd.
Don't forget what I said earlier about the Malfoy kid, ok? Write back soon.
Love, Dad.
She reread it twice. Immediately, she saw just why her mother had been reluctant for her to read it.
Ron had not beat about the bush; he had jumped straight in to the matter he was most concerned about. Scorpius had found no favour with her dad just from being in Ravenclaw, then. He was still scum to him. She looked at the boy next to her, anxiously reading a letter, mouthing words as he went, looking like he was upset and most of all, an innocent eleven-year-old.
Rose instantly resented her father for telling her to stay away from a boy that he never had the pleasure of meeting.
And he hadn't stopped there.
It couldn't be clearer that, in Ron's opinion, Ravenclaw was a far inferior house to the great Gryffindor house. The best he had been able to come up with was "don't worry" and refer her to an eccentric witch whom he described as "mad as a hatter".
But really, she considered as she folded the letter up again and stuffed it back into the envelope, had she really expected anything different from her father?
If she was honest, no, she had expected little better.
There was that word again. Expected. A word that was fast becoming extinct in the world of Scorpius and Rose, a word that was increasingly being replaced with the word "hoped".
Rose decided that Scorpius must have finished reading his letter as he proceeded to tear it into tiny pieces and fling them with force on the floor.
'Scorpius?'
'My Grandfather Malfoy. I wasn't expecting a letter from him.'
'I – I see,' she answered, tentatively. She hated connecting Lucius with Scorpius.
'He is so pissed that I'm in Ravenclaw.'
'He wrote to tell you that?' she asked incredulously.
At that moment, Greta appeared beside them. Rose saw Scorpius grimace, as though bracing himself.
Greta's eyes examined the shreds of paper on the floor surrounding them, and pushed a few around with her toes. She smirked at her cousin, smugly, before speaking to him for the first time in days.
'Many happy returns.'
Then she skipped off down the hall towards the exit.
Rose looked at him quizzically.
'To answer your question, my dear grandfather wrote to me to scold my being in Ravenclaw, under the pretence of wishing me a happy birthday.'
'It's your birthday?'
He nodded grimly. 'Twelve today. I'm sorry I was a bit off this morning. I was busy contemplating whether or not my parents would bother to acknowledging it.' He swept his hair back by running a pale hand over his forehead. 'I must say, I rather thought that my mother would have written.'
Rose watched him nervously as he sat still for a few seconds, obviously bothered by the whole affair. He seemed to shake it off a moment later.
'No matter,' he claimed, valiantly, rising from the Ravenclaw table.
'Scorpius …' Rose began, wanting to comfort her friend, but not quite knowing how, ' happy birthday,' she finished lamely, but Scorpius seemed to realise she meant more.
'Thanks,' he replied, 'Twelve. Oldest of the year, I expect.'
'It's my birthday in a few days time too,' she volunteered, blandly.
'Really? Interesting …' he trailed off and then departed, leaving Rose quite alone with the remnants of his letter scattered around her at the long Ravenclaw table, which had never more felt like the table of exile.
A/N: Comments/ suggestions/ feedback? Reviews are always appreciated!