The change rooms, Quidditch pitch, Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, Jan 11, 2023
Rose pulled her scarlet robes and sighed deeply with anticipation.
Quidditch.
The best sport ever invented.
Today they were playing Ravenclaw and Rose was nervous because they were a very hard to beat. But the Gryffindor team had been training very hard lately and Rose was confident they could beat Ravenclaw by a margin of 60. If they won then they would be in second place. They would also be playing Slytherin in the last game of the season, which meant playing Scorpius. Not something Rose wanted to do. And if they did play Slytherin Rose and Scorpius would be up against each other very close indeed. Rose was a keeper, the one who blocked the goals. Scorpius was a chaser, the one who shot the goals. So yes, they would be playing closely.
Off course Lily was very enthusiastic about it.
'Think of it this way Rosie!' Lily had said, 'It will give you an excuse to knock him off his broom, has he been doing anything bad lately?'
'No!' Rose had cried.
'Well this complicates things…' said Lily frowning slightly; 'Try not to knock him off then!' and she had walked away with a grin on her face like she'd just saved the world. Rose sighed; her cousin Lily was one of those people who saw the goblet as half full not half empty (a phrase she had learned in muggle study, it meant optimistic, always saw the good side of things) and she was cheery nearly all of the time. Uncle Harry said that she had gotten this from his father who had been just the same, as Harry had heard.
'Common Rosie! Lets go kick some Hufflepuff butt!' Lily cried. Rose was confused sometimes, she was confused as to why she had received the Captainship instead of Lily. Before Rose remembered that Lily was fifth year and couldn't receive captainship.
'Ok people, clear skies today, the suns bright so be careful! Lily, I need you to wait until at least thirty points until you go for the snitch. We need a win by 'one eighty' or more' Rose said to her teammates, 'Ok, lets go!'
Rose walked out to the middle of the pitch and shook hands with the Hufflepuff captain. He winked at Rose as he shook her hand and she narrowed her eyes into a glare.
'Mount your brooms!' Wood yelled.
The whistle blew.
'And they're off! Rose Weasley heading up to Hufflepuffs goals, she needs to be careful, Quidditch is a dangerous game…'
Rose groaned. The commentator was none other than Aaron Finnigan. He seemed to have moved on but every now and again in classes and the common room she caught him staring at her.
'If a guy stares at you for more than eight seconds you've stolen his heart' Rose remembered giggling her head off as she and Lily had read Victoires copy of witch weekly magazine. Rose knew that Aaron had stared at her for longer than that before, it creeped her out.
'DON'T GO TO SLEEP THERE ROSIE!' Lily screamed as she flew past, 'Scamanders got the Quaffle they're heading up here!'
Rose flew to the right just in time to catch the Quaffle by her fingertips as it had headed for the ring. A loud cheer rose up from the Gryffindor seats and Rosie grinned as Lily let out a loud whooping cheer, taking both hands off her broom as she did.
'AND THAT'S A SAVE TO GRYFFINDORS KEEPER ROSE WEASLEY! SHE NEARLY MISSED IT THERE! MAYBE SHE NEEDS TO WAKE UP A LITTLE!'
The cheers of the Gryffindors drowned Rose's swearing out as Ryers scored two goals in the matter of two minutes.
'…AND POTTERS SEEN THE SNITCH!'
Rose's head snapped around to see Lily diving towards the ground, the Hufflepuff seeker following closely. But Rose knew better…
'He's so annoying! He never leaves my side during a game! I wish I could learn a way to get rid of him!'
Rose had remembered Lily complaining to her father during the Christmas holidays and Harry had agreed to teach her some tricks. Apparently the whole school was about to witness the product of Harry's teachings.
Lily swooped to the ground and pulled back up into the air at the very last second. But the Hufflepuff seeker saw it far too late. He went crashing into the ground, his broom bounced off onto the grass and he lay winded on the pitch, blood pouring from his mouth.
'FOUL!' screamed the Hufflepuffs.
'… Quite amazing little feat Potter pulled off there, that move's commonly known as the Wronsky Feint and is very popular in the main league Quidditch but never before seen in a Hogwarts match. The Hufflepuffs are calling for consequences but the Wronsky Feint is completely inside the rulebook. Sorry Hufflepuffs!' Aaron looked smug as he announced this. Booing was echoing from the Hufflepuff end of the pitch.
'…Although the Wronsky Feint is a nasty little piece of a move…'
Wood blew the whistle and the pitch roared as Jason scored a goal and Lily caught the snitch as the exact same moment!
Aaron remained completely oblivious to this piece of information, still babbling on about Lily's move and now attempting to blame it on Rose.
'…Of course her cousin Rose, being Quidditch captain and all probably told her the move, not very nice of you Rosie but oh…'
SMACK!
Being so close to the microphone a sickening crunch echoed through the stadium as Lily Potter grabbed a beaters bat, swung it and shot a bludger right at Aaron head. It came in contact with its target, hitting him right in the jawbone and Aaron fell from his seat onto the ground, out cold.
Meanwhile Rose was in hysterics, she was laughing so hard that she fell sideways and almost fell off her broom. She flew to the ground where Lily was standing with a grin on her face.
'Hey Lily!' Rose cried as she wiped tears of laughter from her eyes, 'I thought you were the seeker, not the beater.'
'Oh well, if Chris and Roxy don't mind I can be both!' Lily laughed.
'Yeah!' said James, who just ran down from the stand.
'Lily Potter! The amazing Seeker… and Beater!' he added.
The team burst into hysterical laughter.
Rose grabbed Lily's hand to leave before Professor McLaggen; head of Gryffindor came striding over to them.
'Miss Potter! An atrocity treating a fellow Gryffindor in such a way! A week of detention and you are henceforth banned from partaking in the Quidditch cup until next year. I am sorry but I do not wish to another performance like that from you again!' The Professor walked off towards the castles.
Lily stood there slightly blown away by this punishment. She unable to speak from shock as Rose and James guided her (carefully, because she was in so much shock she was at hazard of falling down stairs) back to the Gryffindor tower. Once inside the common room Lily recovered and she got her voice back.
'ARGH! OH HELL! I'M GOING TO MURDER SOMEONE! NO! I'M GOING TO MURDER PROFESSOR MCLAGGEN! OH THE SLIMY GIT! SOMEONE MUST HAVE DRUGGED THE SORTING HAT THE MOMENT HE GOT SORTED, FOR THE HAT TO PUT HIM IN GRYFFINDOR! ARGH! HE SHOULD BE IN FRIGGING SLYTHERIN!' Lily screeched so loudly all the students (and the portraits for that matter) in the common room covered the ears and ducked for cover.
Lily let out a few other particularly vulgar swear words that caused the portraits on the wall to gasp in horror; and a group of small first year boys burst into sniggers at the performance.
'It's alright Lil!'
'Who's going to play Seeker?' Lily moaned, taking it down a few decibels.
'Well, who came second to you in try outs?' Rose asked
James head snapped up!
'Merlin's beard Rosie! Are you serious! Me? Seeker?'
Rosie smiled weakly.
'You're the best we've got when Lily's not around…'
'Woah! I love you Rosie! I…' James stopped halfway towards hugging Rose to see most of the boys in the common room were going red with the effort to keep a straight face and the girls were giggling silently.
'Yeah… well… I've… got to go to the library!' said James as he grabbed his bag and ran through the portrait hole.
'Library?' said Fred getting up from his armchair, 'he is joking, right?'
'No, not in this state.' Lily replied.
'Who is he and what has he done with James Sirius Potter?' Fred demanded.
Platform nine and three quarters, Kings cross station, London, Jan 4, 2023
Draco turned from his pacing to Ron.
'So Weasel bee what exactly do you want me to do about this?'
Ron scowled, 'I don't know! But something!'
'Well that's very…'
'I DON'T WANT MY DAUGHTER DATING A PURE BLOOD MANIAC LIKE A MALFOY!' Ron yelled.
'WELL I DON'T WANT MY SON DATING A BLOOD TRAITOR AND A WEASEL!' Draco yelled back.
Ron had gone completely red in the face.
'I will not allow this!'
'I won't either, Weasel!'
Hermione scowled.
'HOW CAN YOU TWO AGREE ON SOMETHING BUT STILL BE FIGHTING WTH EACH OTHER! THIS ISN'T GOING TO HELP!'
Harry and Ginny both shook their heads at the same time.
'Hermione, this is Ron and Draco we're talking about! They could agree about every single thing on earth and still they'd be at each others throats.' Ginny reasoned
'… MY DAUGHTER WILL NOT MIX WITH SUCH FILTH AS A MALFOY!'
'…OI YOU CAN BLOODY TALK!'
'…THEY'RE GOING OUT, THIS ISN'T RIGHT, and YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED THEM!'
'…ME? HOW THE HELL WAS I MEANT TO STOP THIS? I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THIS, NOR THINK IT POSSIBLE! IN FACT IT NEVER CROSSED MY MIND!'
'…OH YES! HOW CAN ANGELIC, INNOCENT DRACO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING, OH! I DIDN'T KNOW! IT NEVER CROSSED MY MIND! WHAT A LOAD OF BAT DROPPINGS!'
'…OH FOR HEAVENS SAKE SHUT UP YOU WEASEL THEY'RE GOING OUT! THIS ISN'T RIGHT! WE HAVE TO STOP THIS BEFORE IT GOES TOO FAR!'
'…WELL WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? IT'S ALREADY GONE TOO FAR! THEY'RE ALREADY BLOODY SNOGGING EACH OTHER IN PUBLIC, HARRY WALKED RIGHT IN ON THEM JUST ABOUT MAKING OUT!'
Draco gasped sharply, apparently he hadn't heard about this.
'WHAT?' he shouted
'Yes that's right,' said Harry 'snogging in public.'
'I don't like this!' Ron frowned
'Nor do I, Weasel bee, but I have an idea.'
'What is it Draco?' Astoria had just returned from seeing the train off.
'Well, I think I should probably meet you daughter Rose and then have a talk to them both. Make them understand…'
'What are you saying...?' said Ron
'What i am saying Weasel bee; I want your permission for Rose to spend Easter with us at Malfoy manor.'
Ron frowned before nodding slowly…