Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, etc. all rights belong to JK Rowling!
Authors Note: As promised another chapter without the prolonged wait! thank you Ivyvinex and Plucie who reviewed on the last chapter, your feedback means a lot! Let me know what you all think about this one. Next chapter shall hopefully be up on Tuesday.
He was like a brooding storm of over thinking, about to erupt and he was also heading right towards her.
Everyone knew you should never mess with Owen Wood. He was a boy full of wit and laughter at the best of times, students would line up to bask in his presence, but when one tried to even attempt to defy him or call him wrong, then you were simply in the shit. Molly had fortunately only crossed him once and that was during his fourth year when he trying to impress a fifth year girl with his Quidditch Knowledge. Having a father who was a famous quidditch player, Molly had found herself nosing in on their conversation, thinking Owen might just know a lot more about her favourite sport. To say she was angered with the conversation would've be an understatement. It seemed Owen had thought it smart to insult her aunt Ginny about her previous position on the Holyhead Harpies, saying she had not gained her position on skill but because she was the famous Potter's wife. Molly had intervened at that point and pointed her wand straight at Owen, of course he laughed at her, what could a witch with no magical skill do with a wand? well Molly demonstrated just that, reeling back her wand and instead slapping a hand straight across the smug Ravenclaws face.
Owen had hated her ever since; she had been the first witch to embarrass the great Owen Wood and the first to make a girl run away from him. That moment in third year had also been the only occasion in her Hogwarts history that anyone had talked about her, that was until now. Even more coincidentally, it once again involved Owen.
It was the first morning of the school year and one Molly would have done anything for a long lie in. By all means this was not an option, it was a day to collect her years schedule, attend her first lessons and once again go unnoticed by everyone. At least she would not go unnoticed by Scorpius she hoped, she missed her friend, her best friend and she'd be damned if she let Rose go another day taking him away from her. It was a fortunate thing the both of them had decided and agreed to take Astronomy, one of the very few lessons she had with him.
With Lesson's due to start in an hour, she was rushing to have a shower and throw on her school robes. It appeared all the other girls had already gone to breakfast, even Rowan, not even bothering to at least wake her up in the process. Thanks to them, she now found herself descending the stairs at a rapid pace and bursting into the Great Hall with hope there was still time for breakfast. But she never got the chance.
Heads were turning fast toward her, staring, pointing and some whispering, one was even heading her way. Though it wasn't just anyone, it was Owen Wood, the one she had been supposedly shagged. His face was contorted into emotions she could not even begin to decipher, anger maybe, confusion? possibly and perhaps even humiliation.
Molly stopped walking the moment her feet hit the entrance of the hall. She wanted to stare back, but her hands were shaking, to look at an angry Owen was like looking at the sun, you became blinded by his outrage. Instead she glanced straight towards Rose and her little posse of 'friends', they all wore the same self-righteous smiles.
"What do you want from me, Weasley?" Owen spoke in a low voice as he approached her, it was a surprise to not hear him shout. "Do you have some petty girl crush on me? because these are some sick twisted ways to show it."
Molly frowned, sick twisted ways and a crush? how did a rumour even in the slightest make her sick and twisted, let alone have a crush on a pompous fool. She lifted her head, ready to give the seventh year a piece of her own mind, she instead discovered herself staring at his battered face. With one eye black and blue and the other swelled to the point that he couldn't open it, he spoke through a very fat and cut up lip, "Well?" he asked.
"I-" Molly blinked and sucked on her bottom lip, completely lost for words, "I…"
Owen grunted impatiently, "Just stay out of my way, Weasley."
The entrance doors slammed as he made an exit, leaving an eerie silence behind and the whole of the student body staring at Molly. She was not used to this much attention, in fact she hated it. She wanted to shout at them to quit looking at her and mind their own business, but she did not have the guts. Sure she was fearless when it came to riding her broom as fast as it could go, or sneaking out past curfew to feed the thestrals in the forbidden forest, but anything that involved people and the status quo; she was coward.
Someone standing up from the Slytherin table caught Molly's attention and she had never been more relieved. Scorpius regarded her with a small smile, while her other two friends glared over to the three girls on the Gryffindor table, it was no doubt them who had spread the futile rumour.
As he approached her, she couldn't hold back any longer, she ran the rest of the way and wrapped her arms around him in a embrace. Scorpius laughed and lifted her up within arms before setting her back down onto her feet, and it was a hug she could never not miss.
"Can we get out of here?" Molly pleaded.
Scorpius nodded, "C'mon."
iiii
As it turned out the weather in Scotland was surprisingly dry and rather warm for September and the lake seemed like the perfect escape from the Hogwarts drama. Molly sat herself down along with Scorpius, Colton and Rowan on the grass, basking in the last of the summer sun. Lucky for her, Rowan had collected her lessons schedule off one the teachers and her first period of the day was a free. The other three had happily skipped out on their first lesson just for her.
"Ya'know," Rowan started, tilting her pink clad head towards the sun, "I think this is the first time in two years the four of us have skived a lesson together."
"We done it plenty of times last year, Ro," Colton argued. Molly was shocked he was even paying attention to the conversation, his eyes seemed to be fully content on staring at Rowans open blouse with the top few buttons set apart. "What'd you think we are, wee boffins?"
"Ya'know what I mean, you idiot. It's been like two years without Scorpius," she corrected herself and the three of them glanced over at Scorpius.
He was the only one laying back on the grass with his eyes closed, his silver blonde hair almost white in the sunlight. A smirk spread from ear to ear across his face, "Am I that good looking, you all have to stare?".
That was the thing Molly loved about him, he deflected awkward moments with his sense of humour. Even if all those awkward moments were related to Rose and the amount of time he didn't spend with his friends anymore.
"No Scorpius, you're as ugly as a Filch on a bad day and that's about as ugly as you can get," Molly joked, poking him in his side.
With his fast reflexes, Scorpius grabbed her finger with his hand and stared up at her humorously. She hated it when he done that, it only made those stupid butterflies in her stomach flutter all that much more when he was around. "C'mon Freckles, we all know you're secretly in love with me," he grinned.
If only he knew the truth.
"Don't flatter yourself, Malfoy." she grinned back at him and let her attention drop down to her hand which he strangely still had a hold off, longer than necessary. She would have said something had it not been for the bruises she noticed on his knuckles. "What happened?"
It was then Scorpius snatched his hand back and his eyes grew dark, capturing the attention of Rowan and Colton who appeared to previously been in another stupid squabble.
"Mate, you get into a fight or something?" Colton asked first.
Rowan almost laughed, "I bet the other guy looks far worse off than you."
It was nothing but a true statement and something that often worried his friends. Molly knew Scorpius better than he liked her to know, and the one thing she knew was his pleasure when it came to dueling other wizards or even a dirty old fist fight. It was what separated him from ever becoming a Gryffindor, Scorpius had a dark side that most Slytherins had and it was the one thing that scared Molly about him. Fighting had always been the one thing he channeled to take his inner demons out on.
He shrugged, still looking up at the sky instead of his friends. "It's nothing," he insisted, rolling his injured hand until it cracked, "just a fight with someone who had it coming."
"It was Trevor Baldwin, weren't it?" Colton said knowingly, "He's had it coming since he came out. Do you know the amount of perfectly fine lass' he's deceived? They were all the hot ones, I tell ya, the ones not even I could get."
Scorpius finally looked over at Colton, even if it was only to throw him a dirty look, "That's messed up, mate." he shook his head as Rowan punched Colton in the arm for stupidity, "I'm not that much of a prick that I'd beat some more poor kid up."
"Then who was it?" the other wizard persisted.
Like a light bulb switching on her head, Molly did not need Scorpius to tell her who it was, she already knew. "Owen Wood," she answered before he could, her eyebrows creasing in disgust, "It's Owen, isn't it? His face was completely battered earlier, that's where you were last night during the welcoming feast as well, Owen wasn't there either. You were beating him to a pulp and I bet he couldn't even fight back. Everyone knows he's better with his wand than his fists."
Scorpius sighed, and looked almost ashamed with himself as Molly grilled him. She always had the power to make him feel bad about himself when he done something wrong, this time wasn't any different.
"Is this because of that stupid rumour?" Rowan asked.
"No, this happened before the rumour got out," Molly explained and turned her head away from Scorpius. She knew in times like this when she become even the slightest bit agitated, it was best she set on focus on something else; like the lake, in exchange of becoming annoyed and starting an argument. "And just so it's clear, I didn't sleep with Own Wood, I haven't even had s-" she stopped before she could say anything else, though her blood red cheeks said what she didn't.
"I know you nothing happened between you and Wood," Scorpius admitted.
"How?"
"Rose, I know what happened with her and that dick, so I beat the shit out of him," he shrugged his shoulders, "Like I said, he had it coming."
Molly could not be sure who was more confused; Rowan, Colton and herself who were glancing at one another with frowns on their faces, or Scorpius who thought Owen needed a beating, instead of Rose.
"Ey?" Rowan asked, clearing dumbfounded, "What in merlin's name are you going on about? You do know that bitch cheated on you… please Scorpius, tell me you're not that dumb!"
It was Scorpius' turn to look even more confused than the rest of them, "What?" he creased his eyebrows, "that's bollocks, that idiot took advantage of Rose on the train, she told me so herself."
"She told you a pack of lies, haven't you even realised she's the one who spread the rumours about Molly? Ya'know.. your friend!"
Molly sighed, this was one fight she wanted to stay out off. For years she had tried to convince Scorpius of the bad person Rose was. However when she even got the slightest bit close, Rose would swoop in and act like the sweet girl she tried so hard to be, and Scorpius always believed her act. Why wouldn't he? he never witnessed her true side and with only his friends saying what a bitch she was, whilst everyone else praised her for being an angel, he had no evidence. Molly had somewhat became civil with the subject, that was until Rose revealed her true colours to him.
Scorpius run a nervous hand through his hand, "Is this true, Molly?"
Molly looked from Rowan to Scorpius, on the one hand she could join in on Rowan's bitch fest about Rose but that was it, it was simply bitching, they had no evidence to prove their points. "I don't really know who spread it… yes we accused Rose of cheating on you, that's just because we saw her with Owen on the train. I guess she was joking saying we could've seen any red head with Owen, that it could have even been me with him," she shrugged, "then her friend, Meghan, she overheard our conversation and took it the wrong way. She thought I actually shagged him."
In a way she had spoken the truth, Rowan though continued to glare at her and Molly knew she thought of her as a coward. The both of them knew Rose had indeed cheated on Scorpius, and had a hand with the rumour spreading, it just was not enough to convince their friend.
Scorpius let out a breath of air, lifting himself up into a sitting position. No one wanted to get into an argument and settled that it was all a misunderstanding. Scorpius would carry on dating Rose, Rowan would carry on despising the girl, Colton would… well carry on being Colton, and as for Molly, she did not know what to do with herself. If only she knew the trouble she would bring within the next few weeks of not allowing Scorpius to know the truth.