SEVEN
"ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER!!!"
The majority of people who were eating dinner in the hall turned round to look at the large oak doors where a small blonde girl, namely Tess, was standing, her hands on her hips looking murderous.
This was a pretty much regular sight as the number of times that Al had done something stupid causing Tess to scream his full name at the entire population of Hogwarts was shocking.
However, not once before had Tess been covered from head to foot in ink.
"Oh shit," Al said, his eyes as wide as saucers and he ducked under the table as Tess started walking towards where we were sitting. "Oh shit, shit, shit!"
I presumed that this was the prank he had been planning to get back at Tess for winning the exploding snap game, and started laughing at the look on Tess' (ink-covered) face when she finally stopped in front of Al's abandoned chair. He wasn't exactly doing a good job at hiding, as ducking under the table didn't award many benefits, Tess could still…
"Furnunculus!" she screeched.
Yeah…Tess could still do that.
A second later Al emerged from his 'hiding place' with a collection of nasty boils covering his face and hands. He looked in horror at his distorted skin and then whipped out his wand, but before he could even think of a hex to send Tess' way, I disarmed him and Tess and grabbed both of their wands.
"Rose! Give me my wand, I need to hex Al into oblivion," she said in a fake sweet voice whilst giving Al a death glare.
"What exactly did he do?" I said with a giggle, observing my currently blue friend as she dripped ink onto the stone flagons.
"IT sent me a letter which once opened exploded covering the whole of the Gryffindor common room in ink!" she said angrily, folding her arms with an angry look at Al, who burst out laughing.
"It worked better than I though it would! The WHOLE of Gryffindor common ro – " he stopped at the look on her face, and turned to look at me. I was trying my hardest not to completely burst out laughing, even though I knew Al had broken about 10 school rules.
"You better go clean it up before McGonagall finds out," I said, with a grin. Tess glared at me. "Or…" I added, trying to get rid of my grin, "I'll write to your mother."
Tess smirked at Al.
"Awww…Rosie..." he pleaded. I just gave him a look.
He, of all people, should know how much I hate being called Rosie.
"Woops…" he said with a sheepish grin.
"Well, well, well, what's going on here?" I heard a voice from behind me sneer.
I know that sneering tone all too well.
I turned around and sure enough…
"Nothing of your business, Malfoy," Al said, replicating the sneer that I could imagine was currently plastered all over Malfoy's hideously conceited face.
"Looking good, Potter," he said sarcastically, with a snort. "And, Taylor?" he added. "The smurf look totally suits you."
Tess just rolled her eyes and I distinctly thought I heard her say, 'boys, honestly!' under her breath.
"Err…Tess, shall we
go?" I asked, not wanting to be involved in another Potter/Malfoy
fight, which have been going on since first year. Though they did
calm down a little in fourth year when Malfoy was…dare I say it…my
friend.
God knows how that actually happened.
"Yeah sure," she replied, with a worried look at Al who was currently squaring up to Malfoy with narrowed eyes.
"Wait, Weasley, I came to talk to you…" Malfoy began, ignoring the disbelieving snort from Al. "Our detention's tonight in the Hospital Wing."
"Oh, thanks," I said without smiling. Then Tess and I hurried off so that I could give her the password to the prefect bathroom. After all, she was completely blue and did need a good bath.
***
"Unfortunately
for you, the hospital wing is completely empty so you can clean every
bed. I'm going to go the staffroom if you need me. I expect these
beds to be shining by the time I get back," Madame Pomfrey said,
before shuffling off.
"This is house-elf work," Malfoy said, kicking the edge of one of the beds then clutching his foot in agony.
I couldn't help but laugh.
"Smooth, Malfoy," I said with a chuckle.
He gave me an arrogant smirk. "I always am."
"I was being
sarcastic."
"Let's just finish this. Contrary to popular
belief, I don't exactly enjoy being in your company," he drawled
pompously.
"Ditto," I say.
Though I am wondering what this 'popular belief' has been saying.
I dropped down to my knees and grabbed the cloth that was next to a bucket of lukewarm soapy water. I dropped it in and then rolling up my sleeves, put my hands in and with a sigh wrung it out before starting to wipe the metal bed frames. The beds were unnaturally dirty, I wouldn't have been surprised if she had purposely dirtied them just to irritate us. After about five minutes of mechanically cleaning the bed whilst my mind drifted off and started thinking about Al's prank and whether I would write to his mother.
It took me one side of a bed to decide that I wouldn't bother as long as he cleaned up the common room.
I was brought of my reverie by a hushed frantic whisper coming from the doorway.
"Is she gone?"
Completely befuddled I looked up and saw Zabini peering round the edge of the door looking at the two of us (Malfoy and I) who were resolutely ignoring each other.
"Hey, Rose," he whispered with a suave grin.
"What are you doing here?" I asked bemused. Has he come to join in our detention or something?
That is very un-Slytherin-like.
"Is she gone?" he repeated, with a frantic look around the room to see if the withering old lady that is our nurse is there.
"She went off to the staffroom," Malfoy piped up, looking a little less disgruntled now that his friends have arrived.
Zabini walked in, clapping his hands together. "Excellent!" He is followed in by a small selection of Slytherin 6th years.
All of whom are male.
Kill me now.
"We have firewhiskey, my friend," Ben Nott said, holding up two large bottles that are full to the brim of an orangey-red drink – firewhiskey. And judging by the colour of that, quite strong firewhiskey.
Oh sweet Merlin.
What am I supposed to do? I couldn't escape as I'd get in trouble, nor could I stay as I would most likely be forced into drinking by the sneaky Slytherins who were currently forming a circle on the floor. I was busy going through the pros and cons of my various options, that I didn't notice Miranda walk in until she came and stood next to me.
"Ah, Weasley on the floor. In her place, finally," she sneered down at me.
"Hey, Miranda, give it a rest," I heard Zabini say in between swigs of firewhiskey. "Hey, Rose, come on and join in!"
See what I mean? I just knew that they would invite me in.
"Uh…well…" I said, trying to formulate some sort of polite way of saying, 'No way in hell'.
"Didn't know you were a chicken, Weasley," Malfoy drawled, with his eyebrows raised.
"I'm not…I just…." I stuttered. Ben Nott began to make chicken noises.
"Are you a Gryffindor or not? I thought they were supposed to be brave," Malfoy sneered at me.
"Getting drunk during a detention is not a sign of bravery," I replied, worried that Malfoy was getting his definitions mixed up.
"True. It just makes you boring, maybe you should have been a Hufflepuff."
With more confidence than I was aware I possessed I flopped cross-legged on the floor opposite Malfoy, and without removing my gaze from his took a long swig of firewhiskey.
Immediately after, I regretted my decision as my throat was burning. I blinked my eyes shut tightly to stop them from watering.
I locked my eyes onto his again. "I'm not boring."
Malfoy leant back with a smirk and rested on his hands. "Touché."
*
After an hour, and ten more swigs of firewhiskey on my part, I had completely forgotten the fact that I was in detention and was conversing in a surprisingly friendly, albeit drunken, manner with Miranda.
Miranda giggled. "Look at Ben!" She put her hand over her mouth and continued to giggle manically.
I looked over to where she was looking and saw Ben Nott removing his school uniform to cheers from his drunken friends. Normally, this would have been the point where I either hexed him, or put him in detention, but in my current intoxicated state I replied with a fit of giggles to rival that of the giggle queen herself, Miranda.
"Nice pants, Nott!" I shouted over at him as he threw his trousers at Zabini's head and posed in his blue stripy boxers. He blushed furiously.
"Would you like them…uh…Weasley?" he said with a bit of a slur. Miranda and I exchanged a look and burst out into a fit of giggles. I have to say that when this girl is drunk, she is actually bearable. Not that I would ever tell Al this, as he dislikes her greatly.
At this point, Zabini stood up with a bit of a stumble and taking another gulp from his bottle announced, "Let's play truth or dare!" Miranda jumped to her feet, equally disorientated, and stumbled over to the group of 5 Slytherin boys.
"In a circle," she demanded, in drunken bossy voice.
I got up and dropped on the floor next to Zabini and another Slytherin boy whose name I didn't know.
"Hello, beautiful," Zabini said with a flourish and I blew him a kiss.
"Oi, Leo, out the way! As the only other girl, I'm sitting next to Rose!" Miranda said, giving Zabini a gentle kick to move him out the way. Zabini shuffled over, but before Miranda could sit down –
"Malfoy!!!" she said, stamping her foot like a toddler who wants its own way.
"I got here first!" he said with a cheeky grin at her.
"Fine then, Pucey, shove over!" she said with a mock sweet grin at the burly guy sitting next to me. He grunted then shuffled around the circle a bit to let her in.
Zabini put his hand high in the air, in the manner of someone asking for a professor's help. Nott, who was still only wearing his boxers, said, "Yes, Zabini." He sounded scarily like a professor that I did a double-take.
"I've got one. A truth, for everyone. We go around and everyone answers it," he said, sounding very smug. I giggled, earning myself an amused look from Malfoy.
"Go on," Nott said, raising an eyebrow to urge him to continue.
"What's your favourite…colour?" he asked dumbly.
"That's stupid," Pucey said, "I got one. Have you ever kissed anyone in this room?"
Zabini flung his hand in the air again with a grin plastered over his handsome features, "ME FIRST!" he shouted. We all looked at him expectantly, "No," he said and grinned.
"I thought I was the boring one," I said with a giggle and Zabini laughed.
It was Nott next, so we all looked at him. He turned bright red. "It was an accident, I swear!"
"What was?" Zabini asked, with a sneaky smile. "Who was it?"
Nott put his head down and mumbled something incoherent.
"What, Ben? Didn't quite catch that?" Pucey said, smirking.
"Vaisey," Nott said and all of us turned to look at Vaisey who had his head in his hands. He looked up and saw us looking at his questioningly.
"What?" he asked, nervously. "We were drunk." He added shrugging as if that explained everything. Miranda and I both burst out into giggles.
"Vaisey? Any more to add?" Zabini asked Vaisey who shrugged in return then turned to Pucey.
"Your turn, now."
"No," he said and turned to Miranda.
"Me neither," she said with a giggle.
Then everyone's eyes were on me. The image flashed into my memory: "No way, hose," he said with a smirk. That was when his lips crashed down onto mine.
Had my brain been in correct working order I would have obviously lied. I did not want a bunch of Slytherins to know what happened between Malfoy and I, and I'm sure Malfoy didn't either.
But unfortunately for the both of us, I was drunk.
"Of course I have!" I squealed with a giggle.
Everyone's mouths dropped open. Malfoy definitely didn't tell them then.
"Don't look at me," Zabini said, "She wouldn't let me near her!" He put his hands up in the air as if he was cornered by the police or something.
"Who was it then?" Nott said, glad that the attention had finally been taken away from him and his little encounter with Vaisey.
I sneaked a sideways look at Malfoy who's eyes were wide open. He grinned and shrugged.
"Malfoy," I said confidently.
