Chapter 7; To Slowly Lose One's Marbles.

Hey it's been a really long time. I'm sorry, I've been really slow on updates.
They're made us study over Christmas for exams, for Christ's sake, literally. The Fuck? (Tries to breathe) I am going to bomb this blasted school some day...but first I'm giving out this new chappie:)Eeeeenjoy.
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(Al's POV)

You know, one of those days, the Weasleys are going to be owling me a nice salary every end of the month. For what?

For giving up my personal life for their precious daughter's, that's what.
Since when had Hogwarts become a babysitting agency for unstable, red-headed teens? Sitter Potter assigned to Rose Weasley, Unstability Class Aplus plus plus plus. Plus.
Mission; Do not let her move.
Do not let her talk.
Do not let her run.
Do not let her do anything alone. Except breathing. And chewing But assist her with a nice thump on the head when she forgets how to breathe, swallow, chew. Which happens quite often.

I perched my legs upon the now too-familiar teatable of the hospital wing.
Hello, wooden teatable. Huh? What's that?
That it's nice to see the hottest Potter like, thrice a week thanks to his cuckoo cousin?
Yeah, too bad the feeling's not mutual.

I raised a brow at her.

She raised both.

"Yes, Al, I apologized to Mal-Scorpius. And bam. End of story."

I inched my brow even northward.

"And I'll try to stop landing myself here.
Hey, it's not exactly Disneyland for me either! Besides, that teatable is horrid, it looks like a troll's toe."
How the fuck was a troll's toe even supposed to look like? Shudder.
She should really stop shutting herself away in the library with those books. Seriously? A book about troll toes?
Is that even legal?
Subtly masking my shudder into a shrug, I narrowed my eyes.

"Excuse me? Nothing's quite ending until I am fucking mashing that withering little hippogriff shit. That dirty wanker is going down."

"As much as your deep concern absolutely moisturizes my waterline, Mal-uh, Scorpius beat you to the protective guy-friend job. While you were more like, mashing your creamed potatoes at dinner. Without a clue."

"Technically, that would be blaming your beloved houselves, Rosie.
My taste buds are only guilty of doing their job. Which is enjoying food. So stop goddamn nagging me and eat your goddamned breakfast WHICH I goddamn carried up here so we can go watch that goddamn Qudditch match WHICH your Scorpiepoo is competing in!"

Not that I said that out loud.

"Dearest Rosaline. I have apologized exactly 62 times since the moment I set foot here and you threw the teapot at me with that wonderful aim of yours.
But again, I am truly, heartachingly, so very sorry. And I promise I will control my appetite and open my ears wide as Kreacher for any news that involves bastard ex boyfriends trying to sabotage you. And I am so going to sabotage him afterwards. Now, darling, why don't we pick up that spoon and dig in so we can go watch that match before the sun goes down?"

I said in a faux sweet voice with a stage sigh.

Glaring at me, she simply picked up the spoon and started to shovel the porridge into her mouth like an angry excavator.
I just gave her an innocent smile as I cupped my face towards her.

"Sooooo, since when did Malfoy become Scorpius?"

And a spray of lukewarm rice came showering onto my smile.

"I-WELL-ACTUALLY, THAT'S A VERY GOOD QUESTION! TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!-IT-THE ANSWER IS, wekindabecamefriends?OH, UH, LOOK AT THE TIME, WE SHOULD-"

Yes, they should so definitely pay me.

Wincing while swiping grayish goo out of my carefully gelled(Yes, gel is the secret key to my boyish-devastatingly charming-I just won a Quidditch match-Potter hair, people. Too bad Dad didn't pass on his hair genes and I have to create it myself.)hair, I sighed again.

Ooh, news flash!
They should also double the pay.

"Good to know you're friends now. Told you, he's a good guy."

She fell silent.

"Now if you're quite done parodying the Magic Cooking Pot, grab your scarf. We've got an extra special match to catch."

Scourgifying her ricey mouth, I marched out of the door.

-/-
(Rose POV)

"AND THE POSSESION OF THE QUAFFLE GOES TO PUCEY, POTTER, GOYLE, POTTER-AND POTTER SCORES! TEN TO ZERO, FAVOR OF GRYFFINDOR! YEAH, TAKE THAT, YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE OF REPTILIANS-"

"WEASLEY!"

"Sorry, Professor. Aaaand PUKEY, oops, PUCEY BARELY DODGES BONNER'S BLUDGER, WHAT A SHAME- (Louis Weasley, keep up with that and I will-)-WHILE CAPTAIN POTTER SEEMS TO BE YELLING AT LILY POTTER, OUR FIERY SEEKER! WELL, HAS SHE SEEN THE SNITCH YET?"

I rolled my eyes at Louis spraying his saliva into the air.
Merlin, that was just so...unVeela.
Sometimes I secretly wonder whether Aunt Fleur and Dad had an affair. That would explain Louis's...being.
Not that I approve the thought. Ugh...

Shaking my head, I roamed my eyes across the sky.
For Malfoy. No, no, no, Scorpius.
What is wrong with the short term memory section of my brain, dang it.
Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius!
Remember, you brainless brain..
Squinting at the piercing wind, I searched the busy swarm of greens and reds for a head of yellow until my eye caught him.

Scorpius(FINALLY!) was looking around on his Nimbus 2023, his usually tame hair wild. Probably looking wildly for the snitch, I thought while adjusting my scarf.
Even in a sweaty mess and baggy robes in the ugliest shade of green (No house feelings, seriously, I just downright despise emerald green. Or lime green. Or grassy green. Or yellowish green. Dammit, I'm prejudiced.), he managed to look...manageable. Yeah, manageable, not gorgeous. Or hot. Or handsome. Meh. Pshhhhhh. Him? Me? Nawwwwww.
I blew a large raspberry to myself, drawing several strange looks.
Yeah, whatever, suckas, like that's the first time.

That second, he chose to swivel around and look at me.
My heart almost stopped functioning, but was it solely because I was surprised at the sudden contact?
Feeling my heart racing, the beat rang in my ears and blood rushed to my cheeks and earlobes. He offered me a small smile, which I hesitantly gave back in a way I hoped looked polite, not like I'd mistakenly chewed my tongue. Still smiling, he dipped downwards elegantly.
And I could feel my ears heating to match the color of my scarf. Great.
Just like a pathetic fangirl fangirling her life away.
And I had an impulse to accio the quaffle towards my head.

"So, wanna bet on the game?"
I tried averting my attention to Al, who was actually quite quiet. This was the part of the match where he was screaming his bloody lungs off about skinning reptiles alive. Yet he was silent.

"Al?" I turned to look at him.

His eyes were transfixed on the sky, glassy as..well..glass. Okay, this was creepy.

"Albus. Seeeevvveruuuus. Potter."

"I know you flushed Molly's goldfish when we were nine."

"And she still thinks it escaped to the wilderness in pursuit of a mate."

"And I'm going to go and tell her. Right now."

"Uhhh...your hair looks like Gramp Weasley's? Oh right, I spewed porridge at you..er.."

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, earth to Albus Severus Potter?"
When there was no reply, I jabbed my wand into his belly button.

"Urgh! Fuck! What the bloody hell was that for!"

"Uh, checking whether you were under an Imperio? Mr. Skyscraper? Is there a boob shaped cloud or what?"

He threw me a disgusted look.

"Just saying." Well Al hon, as much as I love you, we have to face the facts, you love boobs.
And that sounds just wrong. Why do I always have such wrong corrupted thoughts?
Hence the Potters' bad influence.

"FYI, I am not under the Imperius, the Cruciatus, or a bloody AK, and plus, a boob shaped cloud? Really?"

"Okay, okay, getting the message...But you were definitely concentrating on a chick. I know that look."

Wrinkling his nose, he turned his face away.
Wait, was that a BLUSH?
Oh, that's his scarf, never mind.

"The Sexy Lost in Thoughts Look?"

"No, you condemned fountain of narcissim, the Drooling Fanboy Look."

"Whatever floats your pretty boat, couz.."

He kept his gaze trained on one spot of the game, and I sniffed. Oh well. Whoever it was, he would succeed in his quest of sharing a bed with her with the probability of 99.99999 percent.

"-AND IS THAT SCORPIUS MALFOY DIVING LOW?! BLOODY HELL, HAS HE FOUND THE SNITCH? LILY! LILY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHERE ARE YOU!"
Louis dropped his microphone to scream properly at Lily, and Albus ran over to mimick his actions while I frantically looked for said Slytherin. Spotting his diving figure, I felt my nerves jumping. Oh my god, he was going to fucking highfive the ground with his face soon at this rate. No wait, he was going to high five with the angels of heavens! Ohmigododohmigodohmigod, was he risking his life to win a match? Silly, silly, foolish, argh!

'Maybe not just to win this', a sly voice suggested in my head.

"Oh, SHUT UP, INNER ROSE!"

Chastising my inner voice out loud, I jumped to the front to get a better look between the crowds of people. Even from a fair amount of distance I could see the determined look on his face. (Yeah, not to mention a very pissed James.) What drove him like that?
I mean, yeah, he's crazy as my family when it comes to Quidditch, but he never risked himself or other stuff for winning a match.
In fact, he just wasn't the risking-this-for-that type. Then my inner speaker butted into my already shitty life again.
'Well, he risked his hand yesterday, didn't he?
For..you, right?'

That was fucking IT.

"Shut UP, brain, conscience, inner meditator, WHATEVER! SHUT UP, SHUT YOUR FILTHY IMAGINATIVE TRAP,-"
And between my head banging antics and the crowds' earsplitting cheers, a very resigned Louis's voice reached my ears.

"And Slytherin gets the snitch with a score of two hundred and ten to seventy. Slytherin wins."

The Slytherins hooted.
The Gryffindors booed.
Me? I just sat down.

"Oh well. Fuck."
-

"I cannot effing believe that we lost. To those deceiving, spiteful lot of snakes,"

Minutes later, the whole Gryffindor team trudged into the common room in their dirty Quidditch robes. Usually, I would've yelled at to go and de-germ themselves before the common room got polluted.
But the whole house was depressed, and I was busy myself analyzing the situation.

"I know..it's just...I.."
"It's all my fault, I should have caught it before Malfoy. I just totally screwed this!"

And Lily, being that little girl all undereath that badass act, bit her lip, ready to cry.
And I couldn't help but feel bad, too.

"Oh, Lils, don't. You flew great out there today, honest. Sure, it wasn't one of your best matches, but hey. Even Merlin mispronounces his charms once in a while. There's a lot of matches left, and I'm positive as hell that you're gonna nail them all. Right, James?"

James just stared into space.

"Right? James?"
I gritted my teeth and kicked his shin for good measure.

"Huh? Oh..yes. Of course. We just..It just wasn't our day, team. And as much as it is painful to spit it out, we lost. But we have five more matches, meaning we're gonna kick them in the ass five times!"

And five more painful anticipation for me...

Everyone cheered up noticeably, especially Lily, much to my relief.

"Hey! Why don't we have a party? So that we can cheer up bit!"

"That sounds bloody awesome! Great! We are so having a party today, people! Tonight!"

The room buzzing with excitement, Al asked in a timid voice.

"Uhh, I probably shouldn't invite Scorpius?"

"Why not?"
"NO!"

Like HELL that was happening.
No, no, no. Over my dead body, you imbecile.

"Why not?" repeated James, arching an eyebrow, though knowing amusement sparkled in his eye.
Oh, I hate you, I hate you and your Dumbledore-y sparkly eye and your brother, I hate all you lot except for Lily.

"Well, uhhh, Lily just cried because of him! Try to be a bit more of a sensitive big bro figure, will you?"

There, problem solved.

"Lily, d'you mind?" Yes, she minds, you migraine in the neck.

"Nah, I was overreacting. Besides, I only cried because we lost, not because of Malfoy. He's Al's mate, invite him, whatevs."
Hugging my stiffened torso, she added,
"Oooh, I think I'll go invite Sammie, too. Anyways, thanks, Rosie!"

"No...thank you..." I muttered at her trotting figure.

You know what?
I think I hate all three Potters, now.
Why did my Dad have to be friends with the savior of the Wizarding World, again?

This had got to be the most embrassing memory in my life.

"Go Freddie, go Freddie-"

No, not my whole life, since I still remember the time when Mum and Dad snogged in front of a whole audience. Yeah, nothing beats PDA.

"Whoo hoo!"

Maybe the most embarrassing moment in my five years of education here. Because-

"I kissed a girl and I liked it! The taste of her cherry chapstick-"

The stupidest of my cousins(Of course, Freddie and Jamsie) were performing Katie Perry on the stage. Drenching themselves in fruit punch.

"For heaven's sake.."

If it hadn't been for the fact that I was hiding from Al and Mal-Scorpius(God, I'm dumb.)I would have ran up and reductoed the audios. Sigh.
Luckily, Al seemed nowhere to be. So was a mop of blond.

Massaging my aching head, I sipped my drink after catching a glimpse of Lily caught up in a rather agressive snogging session.
Well, wasn't that cute, young love.
I hope James doesn't mess the party like last time, I smiled bitterly. It was never going to go away, was it? Just fade out really slowly. Or maybe just stay there permanently, like invisible ink.
You can't exactly see it there, but it'll always linger around, make you suffer.

Gulping, I sighed again and walked towards the the dorm when a familiar, warm hand caught my wrist.

"Care to dance?"
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