Fair warning: I'm going to switch POVs on you. I've only ever attempted once at writing from a guy's point of view, and no one has ever ever ever read that little piece of writing, so I have no feedback. Not sure how believable this is, so I apologize in advance. But, lucky for readers, you get to get into Scorpius's head for a while, and get introduced to some Slytherins.
I threw down my quill in frustration. There was no use trying to pay attention in this class. Binns's voice flew right over my head, and after a full twenty minutes of class I had only one line written down. The rest of the class had already given up, even the Ravenclaws, doodling or passing notes or drifting off to sleep right there at their desks. What a waste of time, I thought bitterly. I couldn't concentrate on anything, not even a good book. My chair was uncomfortable, the room was stuffy and warm, and Binns's voice was like a Sleeping Draft in the crowded room. I groaned audibly, causing several people to glance in my direction, but not Binns. Binns never did anything. I had always wanted to throw something at his ghostly form, just to see if he would notice.
The hour was a long one, and my thoughts drifted again back to the week before last's meeting with Rose in the library. I'd been dwelling on it constantly, ever since I had admitted my real problem with Stiles and Potter. She didn't know it, but I'd never told anyone that, ever. I hadn't even confided my worries to my parents, and it was still a mystery to me why I had chosen to share it with Rose Weasley, of all people.
The truth was, I enjoyed our meetings, not only because I could finally keep up with History of Magic, but because of the conversations that came along with it. Our third meeting last week had been by far the most comfortable. We had both arrived at exactly seven o'clock and swapped notes easily, chatting now and then. It was becoming routine. Though there had been no in-depth conversations that went along with the meeting that time, it was still refreshing to spend that hour or so with her instead of the rest of the Slytherin fifth years. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I liked her, especially with the company she kept, but I found her views and opinions interesting enough to keep coming back to the library. I was rather looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow night.
It was a surprisingly hot day for early October, and by the end of the class I had rolled up my sleeves, loosened my tie, and unbuttoned the top of my shirt. I got yelled at in class a lot for minor disturbances, ninety percent of which were the cause of my inability to follow the dress code. Hogwarts uniforms had definitely not been designed for comfort.
Finally, the bell rang. I gathered up the parchment I'd been doodling on randomly and stuffed it roughly in my bag. So much for taking notes for once. The Ravenclaws who had the class with us hung around the front of the room, chatting idly. I didn't know how they could stand hanging out in this room. Even the smell of it made me feel like I was going to pass out. I slung my bag over my shoulder and filed out with the rest of the Slytherins. Dinner could not be more welcome.
I found myself walking next to Lucille (trying hard not to look at her too much) and Ezra Smith, who was a year younger than the rest of us. She was a short redhead with deep brown eyes and a lot of freckles. She could've easily passed as a Weasley. We all teased her that she should be in Ravenclaw; she was a total braniac, more than I or Rose or any other Ravenclaw was. Ezra had skipped her second year and joined us in our third, much to the displeasure of her brother, Jalen, who was also in our year. On the outside she seemed timid, but her attitude when she was alone with friends proved her reputation completely false.
"Did you process any of that?" Lucille asked her as we headed towards the Great Hall. I looked down at Ezra in time to see her roll her eyes exasperatedly.
"For the hundredth time, no. I'm good, but I'm not that good," she said. Lucille turned to me instead, the question all over her face.
"You'll get the same answer as you did from Ezra," I said before Lucille even had time to open her mouth. She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.
"But you two are the smart ones," she complained. "How am I supposed to pass this year if you two don't?"
"Who said I wasn't passing this year?" Ezra and I said at the same time, and then grinned.
Katherine Ervin, walking in front of us, turned her face around to us. "Keep that up and you two could be Valdez and McKowen," she smirked.
"Never compare me to those two again," I said lividly. Katherine's smile stretched broadly. She was a vain girl, with lush brown hair and too much lipstick. She believed herself to be extremely cool and popular (which she wasn't) and did not often take other's feelings into account. Regardless, she was fun to joke with, and also happened to have the most amazing blue eyes. She was dating Darrius Flint (a relationship that none of us could've seen coming,) who was one of my better friends in our group and the newly appointed Chaser for Slytherin.
"How are you ever going to pass if you don't pay attention?" Lucille asked grumpily.
"The same way you do," I lied easily. "Cheat."
She seemed to take this is as a compliment. "But I always cheat off you."
"Well then, find someone else to cheat off."
Lucille glanced down at Ezra, who said, "No way, Lucille. Do your own work."
Lucille again looked up at me. "Maybe you could tutor me," she suggested, but it sounded much more like an invitation. I pushed thoughts of tutoring sessions alone with Lucille to the back of my mind.
We reached the Great Hall a few minutes later, our usual talkativeness finally back after the double period with Binns. All of the Slytherin fifth years sat at the very end of our table, farthest from the teachers; we'd been doing so for years. We didn't have cliques or pairings, like the Gryffindors did; all the fifth years in our House got along easily and together we formed our own large group. There were twelve of us…Ten, at the moment, I realized. Darrius and Ervin had disappeared, no doubt snogging in some empty corridor.
Lucille sat down next to me, very closely. I made no attempt to ignore how her leg bumped against mine, or to avoid accidentally touching her as I shoveled mashed potatoes onto my plate. The light of a thousand candles shone on her shoulder-length dark hair, making the edges look almost golden. The only drawback to this was that her hair swung forward and created a sort of curtain between us, so I couldn't see her face.
"You okay, Scorpius?" Amy Pegg, sitting across from me, asked, drawing my attention away from Lucille. "You seem kind of distant."
"Usually when someone's distant, they don't want to talk," Ace cut in before I could answer. "So it might not be the best idea to try and start a conversation."
"I'm just wondering if anything is wrong," she said angrily. "What's so bad about that?"
"What's bad is that it's none of your business," he replied contemptuously. She glared at him.
"Maybe it's none of your business what I—"
"Oh, shut up," Ezra and Jalen said at the same time, rolling their eyes identically. They were a year apart, but they could've passed as twins. The only difference (besides the obvious contrast in gender) was Jalen's dark blond hair as opposed to Ezra's flaming red. Amy and Ace fell into a haughty silence, both of them looking pointedly in opposite directions. The rest of us made a point to always have at least one person between them at all times (today it was Villey Mak) because they were at each other's throats so much. Technically, the two of them were friends, but their personalities clashed too much. Amy was a perfectionist who had to have everything organized and never broke any rules, as well as having an annoying habit of sticking her nose in where it didn't belong. Ace Andrews, on the other hand, was a total slob who was already failing three subjects and didn't really care about anything.
"I can't wait till you two get married," Greg said amusedly, looking at Amy and Ace. They both turned to him with looks of utter disgust on their faces. We all laughed at their reaction.
"I wouldn't go out with him if you paid me," Amy retorted.
"And I don't think she's worth fighting with Sage over," Ace added. "He'd kill me."
Sage Jackson, who had an arm wrapped around Amy's waist, said, "Yeah, probably."
"Speaking of which, did anyone see where Katherine and Darrius got off to?" Villey tried to ask unconcernedly, but I saw right through her. I wasn't sure if my other friends had figured out how in love she was with Darrius, and didn't feel obliged to enlighten them. I felt bad for her. She had long, blue-black hair, large dark eyes, and pale skin: the kind of features that made you look dark and depressed without even trying. Not that she wasn't dark and depressed. Villey was as close as one could get to being Goth at Hogwarts. She had gotten an enchanted tattoo over the summer in Knockturn Alley (without her parents' knowledge) that changed constantly, crawling and swirling around her neck. This could be very distracting during class.
"I think it's kind of obvious," Sage replied, his dusty brown hair falling all over his face. "You really want to make us say it out loud?"
"I'll pass," Jalen and Ezra said simultaneously. They could be pretty scary sometimes.
"Well, Flint better hurry up," I growled. "We've got Quidditch practice in twenty minutes."
"Again?" Rex said incredulously. "I'm getting kind of glad I didn't make the team."
"If I lose it and kill him, you're our back-up," I promised. He grinned. On our very first ride on the Hogwarts Express, he'd convinced all of us that his name was actually Rex, and was therefore highly embarrassed when Longbottom had called him up as Darwin, Reynold Xavier. He still persisted that this was not his name, and we had all known to follow suit after he beat up Ace for calling him "Reynold" in our first year. His temper was one of the reasons he had not made the quidditch team this year, despite playing Beater for the past two.
"Do you honestly need to practice that much?" JC asked. "I mean, we can't be that bad."
"We're not bad," I said defensively. "Our first game is two months from now."
"Oh, no, only two months to practice," Ezra said sarcastically.
"Against who?" JC asked interestedly, waving a hand to silence Ezra. No one was as obsessed with quidditch as JC, not even me, though she had never tried out for the team and seemed to have no interest in doing so. I had always told her that she'd make a good Beater, but she persisted that playing the game herself "just wouldn't feel right." Why she said this was still a mystery to me. She was very tomboyish, with short brown hair, a long nose, and huge ego. At times she could be as violent as Rex.
I swallowed a mouthful of chicken before answering, "Ravenclaw."
"They've got a good team this year," she commented, craning her neck around for a moment and glancing at the Ravenclaw table.
"We'll see about that on Halloween."
"What's on Halloween?" Villey asked, her head snapping up at the mention of her favorite day of the year.
"Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw," JC and I both answered.
"What a waste of a good holiday," she sighed, her voice sounding as miserable as usual, and going back to her barely-touched food, tattoo swirling moodily. I noticed Greg staring at her bowed head, but didn't comment.
"What do you mean?" JC asked. "It'll add excitement."
Villey just shrugged. JC rolled her eyes. "You could at least answer me for once—"
"Oh, shut up, Julie-Clara," Darrius Flint said, suddenly reappearing with Katherine hanging onto his arm, flushed.
"After you, Darrius James Flint," JC replied without missing a beat. They both hated their full names, almost as much as Rex.
"What did we miss?" Darrius asked, he and Katherine squeezing in between me and Greg. Ervin ended up on my side, much to my displeasure.
"Quidditch practice in ten minutes," I said, sliding down some food to him.
"I thought you said twenty—" Amy started, but I kicked her under the table. She scowled heavily at me.
"Can't I skip tonight?" Darrius complained. "I've got homework."
Lucille and Jade Montague, sitting on Lucille's other side, laughed loudly at this.
"Have you ever heard a worse excuse?" Lucille asked her with mock skepticism.
"Never," Jade replied, giggling. "Unless Katherine suddenly falls under the category 'homework'—"
Where most people would've grown red at this comment, Katherine took it easily, a smug smile spreading over her face. Darrius had the grace to be at least slightly abashed. He was usually extremely self-confident, but had that soft side when it came to girls. Katherine stroked his long hair, still smirking slightly.
"You're forgetting Rule Number One," Greg said with his mouth full.
"And what's Rule Number One?" Amy asked warily.
"Quidditch before girls," all six of us guys said at once, loud enough for those sitting nearest us to stop talking and glance at us bemusedly. Lucille and Katherine were not very happy with this remark, even less so when Darrius and I high-fived over Katherine's head.
"You are so immature," Amy sniffed. JC and Jade were the only two girls who had laughed.
When I looked up again in front of me, it was to make eye contact with Stiles, who was glowering in my direction from the other side of the Hall. I chose to sneer instead of scowl. There was no way I would let Stiles ruin my every waking moment more than he already had. He was the first to look away, and I found an irrational satisfaction in that. I was not, however, happy when he turned to his left to engage Rose in conversation. I could practically see them both blushing from all the way across the room. It was insane how much they liked each other, yet neither one ever made a move. They weren't even good for each other. I couldn't imagine what anyone, let alone Rose, could find appealing in Stiles. I glared at his turned head for another minute or so before my attention returned again to our conversation.
"So, what's on the agenda for tonight?" Amy asked, and even Sage rolled his eyes. Amy had trademarked this expression early in our third year and had said it every single dinner since. "Besides quidditch practice," she added hastily as JC, Darrius and I all opened our mouths to answer.
"History of Magic essay," Jade said first. All heads turned to me.
"What? We just got the assignment today; I don't have it done yet." My friends sort of expected me to let them copy everything. I didn't usually mind it, since I actually liked learning, whereas they lived for the social part of school.
"Guess that's not on the agenda, then," Jade sighed. "Carry on."
"How about we all go down and watch quidditch practice?" Katherine suggested.
"Closed practice," I said firmly, and she pouted at me.
"Why?"
"Because he doesn't want Darrius distracted," Rex said before I could answer. It didn't matter, though, since he was right.
"Jade and I are studying in the library," Jalen offered.
"We are?" Jade asked, surprised.
He grinned slyly. "Now we are."
"We're all too busy," Lucille complained, and turned to me. "Promise you won't schedule practice Friday night. Please?"
I fully intended to say no to her, but I knew I'd never be able to get that out. "Fine," I said grudgingly. "But I better not be the only one sitting up in the Common Room."
"I've got Remedial Potions Friday night," Villey said without looking up from her food, her limp hair hanging low enough that it was almost spilling onto her plate.
"Why are you taking Remedial Potions?" Amy asked suspiciously. Potions was Villey's best and favorite subject, same as me.
"Because I like Potions," she said, shrugging again. This obviously did not make a whole lot of sense to Amy, who folded her arms with a "Hmph."
"Well, you better be back by ten," Lucille said sternly. "We are all hanging out Friday night. I'll sneak in some butterbeer and everything."
"How are you going to get butterbeer?" Ace asked.
She shrugged. "I don't know. I usually get Jade to do it." Ace turned to Jade expectantly. She was, after all, the prankster out of all of us. This caused a sort of weird rivalry between her and Diana Markson.
"Don't look at me," she said, holding up her hands as though in surrender. "I just pay James Potter to do it. No idea where he gets it from."
"You make deals with that git?" I asked disgustedly.
Jade's eyes narrowed. "Do you want butterbeer or not?"
"Never mind," Sage said hastily, intervening before I could get started on one of my rants about the Potters. "Shouldn't you be heading down to the pitch?"
"Probably," I said, making as though to stand up, but Lucille grabbed my hand and pulled me down.
"Not yet," she said. "We haven't finished our plans for Friday."
"You can make plans without me, right?" I asked, not ever looking away from her emerald green eyes. She was still holding my hand.
"We should probably go," Darrius said reluctantly, though looking longingly at his unfinished food as he did so, "or Zach's going to be waiting outside the locker rooms waiting for you like last time."
"See you guys later," JC said, and the rest of them resumed their bickering over the agenda. To my left, Katherine began kissing Darrius goodbye, something I would not want to be around when Greengrass came and told them off in approximately thirty seconds. I was going to get up, but again Lucille stopped me, her hand sliding onto my leg. "We'll work on changing Rule Number One," she whispered in my ear, and it took all myself control not to kiss her right then and there. I'd wait for a better time. Instead I just grinned at her as I finally succeeded in standing up.
"See you," she said, not disappointedly, but with a hint of triumph in her voice.
"Yeah," I said, still slightly bewildered. "See you."
Author's Notes: I had someone ask me if I knew that "Drole" meant "funny" in French, and whether this gave any insight to her character. Yes, I do know that drôle means funny in French…in fact, that's what we had been reviewing the day I wrote that chapter. I do hope to explain her character a bit more in future chapters.
Lucille Brown, Katherine Ervin, JC French, Ace Andrews, Amy Pegg, Rex Darwin, Villey Mak, and Sage Jackson all belong to me. Greg Goyle, Darrius Flint, Jade Montague, and Jalen & Ezra Smith are technically mine, but not the last names: Greg (Junior) is Gregory Goyle (senior's) son, Darrius Flint (Marcus Flint,) Jade Montague (Montague from the Slytherin quidditch team…can't remember his first name,) and Jalen & Ezra (Zacharias Smith.) I don't know if JKR has actually released whether any of these people had children, and I apologize if she has and mine differ.