Chapter Six

"Shut up, Malfoy."

"What, I didn't say anything. Are you imagining things, Weasley?"

"You might not have said anything, but your eyes are speaking for themselves." Rose looked over at him, sitting casually at his Potions counter and staring at her with a smile playing on his lips.

"And what would my eyes be saying?"

"Your eyes think they won over me, but they're deluded. So stop looking at me.", Rose whisper-shouted. She turned to the front of the class, trying to ignore him. She prayed for the lesson to start and distract her with something else.

"Make me, Weasley. But I don't think you want to, after all you couldn't keep your eyes away from mine last night."

Rose still kept her eyes glued to the board but she couldn't stop herself from talking back. "Now who's imagining things? If there was any reason I was looking at you last night it was because ugliness attracts the eye."

"Is that why you're spending so much time in front of the mirror, Weasley?"

This time Rose turned to glare at him. She'd barely formed a comeback when she heard Bullstrode's voice outside the classroom. "Mister Potter, stop sucking miss Finch-Fletchley's face and get in the classroom, before I deduct ten points from Gryffindor."

Albus strode in the class with a smile on his face, taking his usual seat by Rose before the door to the classroom swung shut with force. Rose and Scorpius turned to face forwards, ignoring each other and pretending that no arguing had taken place.

Professor Bullstrode waved her wand and the list of ingredients and preparation instructions appeared on the board. Rose felt as if she couldn't read anything - it all seemed foreign to her.

"Today you're going to prepare a Draught of Peace. It usually requires two hours to brew, but since you're working in pairs, I trust that you'll be able to manage it in one hour."

Groans of complaint sounded at that, which Bullstrode promptly ignored as she sat on her chair and opened her book. Apparently the Wardrobe, as the students called her, was into romantic stories; Muggles called those Arlekins, according to her mother.

Albus got up to gather the ingredients needed. It had been their system all year - Albus brought the ingredients over and helped with the simple tasks, while Rose took care of anything that required delicate handling, specific amounts and exact directions.

As soon as Al was gone, Scorpius turned back to her. "You could probably use some of this potion, Weasley. It would do well to ease your constant agitation."

Rose faced him as well. "What would do great to ease my agitation was if you overdosed on it, Malfoy. I'm sure you'd be less aggravating in deep sleep."

"And then you'd come kiss me to wake me up from my endless, irreversible slumber..."

"I would never kiss you, drunk or otherwise..."

"You just couldn't keep your lips away from me..."

"So stop spreading lies about me..."

"Had to pry you off, but took pity on you, it must be hard to be attracted to someone so out of your league..."

"Making a ridicule of me to the whole school, you're going to pay dearly for this, Malfoy..."

As soon as Albus was back, they both turned sharply to their books, pretending to read the instructions. Al's seat was between Rose and Scorpius, putting a barrier between them. Undernearth her anger, Rose was thankful for not having to face Malfoy again for the next hour.

"Everything alright, Rose? You seem a bit ... off."

Rose avoided Al's gaze as they separated the ingredients. She started heating the cauldron, trying to pay attention to the clock.

"I'm fine.", she retorted. She added the powdered moonstone and stirred clockwise.

Albus was disbelieving. He looked over at the counter next to them and turned back to Rose. "Is it Scorpius?"

Shoot. Rose had stirred eight times instead of seven. She tried stirring counter-clockwise once to correct it, but it only seemed to make things worse. Now, instead of a light blue, the potion's colour was dark. She sighed. They didn't have time to restart brewing it.

"Look, don't be so on edge, he's just fooling around.", Albus continued. He was speaking silently so that Bullstrode wouldn't hear them.

Rose added more powder and waited for the potion to turn purple. Its colour was still off.

"We just thought we'd mess with you a bit, seeing as you couldn't remember a thing about last night."

The potion had started fuming, its colour more red than the pink it should have been, according to the book. Rose quickly added the hellebore syrup. Maybe they could still save this.

"I didn't know you'd be so affected by it, it was meant to be a joke. Maybe we took it a bit far, but we thought you'd also find it funny."

The draught was so not turquoise. Rose left it to simmer until it turned a deep purple.

"Okay, we're sorry. The truth is, that nothing happened after Scorp came by at the party. You just drunk a few more shots and then passed out on the couch. No kissing, no dancing naked or singing... Scorp even helped levitate you to your bed."

Rose looked up in surprise. Was that what really happened? So, no crazy stuff last night? She was relieved and maybe a bit disappointed. Even drunk she turned out to be a bit dull.

"Rose, is our potion supposed to be like this?"

Al was looking tentatively at their cauldron. Rose looked over. The draught was black and emitted foul-smelling fumes.

"Shit!" Rose exclaimed, one second before the potion exploded, bathing her and Albus in black liquid.

For a moment the whole class was eerily quiet. And then everyone burst out laughing. Bullstrode stood up and looked them over. "Potter and Weasley, is it that hard for you to follow a set of bloody instructions? What are you, five-year-olds? Clean this up and get out of my class. You are both zeroed for this."

Rose couldn't believe it. Her first zero, from potions of all lessons. She stood as if stupefied, while Albus tried to clean up the mess. Her classmates were still giggling at the sight of them, although they'd all focused back on their own potions, trying to avoid the same fate as Rose and Al.

As soon as Albus finished cleaning, he led her out of the class and through Hogwarts' corridors to the courtyard. They sat on a bench and Albus looked at the sky. "So, how does your first zero feel, cuz?"

Rose was looking blankly at their reflections on a window. She saw herself smile and heard her laughter echo through the courtyard. At the window, Al was looking at her strangely. Her eyes filled with tears. They were tears of laughter. She'd gotten drunk, flown around her common room on a broomstick, had crazy rumours about her circling the school and gotten zeroed in her best class, all in twenty four hours. If anyone ever dared call her dull, she would hex them.