Hey again! :D Thank you guys so so so so much for your amazing feedback! I hope you like this chapter! I've got to tell you, I wrote chapter 1 of this a little while ago, and I've just finished writing the last chapter before the epilogue... I cannot BELIEVE where this story actually went, but I hope you all like it when it comes around!
Realisations Can Make You Laugh or Cry
As soon as I walked into my dormitory after rounds, still trapped inside my own head with my crazy thoughts, Angie, in a dark purple, silk night dress, grabbed me and yanked me to the floor in the corner of the room between my bed and hers.
Alice was already there, beaming away at me as if she loved her and Angie's plan to kidnap me and it was the most genius thing since broomsticks were invented. I wasn't really surprised, they did it every year. Alice was wearing her fluffiest, pinkest, warmest pyjamas with a picture of a cartoon pygmy puff on it, complete with fluffy slippers. The area had been filled with quilts and pillows from our beds and then covered with various sweets of all sizes and tastes. This was typical of a Halloween, except it usually included Dom, too. Our other roommates liked to stay late in Hogsmeade because Niomi's parents lived there.
As I was guided to the floor and wedged between Angie and Alice, Dom appeared from our bathroom, in her own blue pyjama shorts and Appleby Arrows top (seriously, why she wanted Appleby Arrows pyjamas I do not know), and joined us in the corner. I ignored their chatter whilst I loosened my tie and pulled my jumper over my head, loosening the top and second button of my uniform. I'd been wearing it for rounds, as usual.
"And it's not exactly like he doesn't like Slytherin's because he's best friends with one," Dom was complaining about Al again.
"Give him a break, it was a bit of a shock with you both getting asked by Slytherin's," Alice defended him.
"Stop being a loyal girlfriend, Al," Angie complained to her.
"Oh, I've just realised," Dom exclaimed suddenly, causing us all to turn to her. "They're Al and Al."
"Merlin, Dom, you've only just realised?" I asked her whilst Angie laughed and Alice tried to shoot them both a 'shut-up-now-or-I'll-kill-you-in-your-sleep' glare.
"Can't you just leave us alone?" Alice pleaded with them, violently throwing a Pumpkin Pasties wrapper in the direction of Dom.
"Well, it's not as if you've made it any easier on us," Dom told her, throwing the wrapper back. "Snogging in the common room and everything – it's just asking to be mocked. If Rose had been there she would have given you both detentions for your PDA."
Alice looked at me as if to ask if I really would have given her a detention but I ignored her and turned to Angie as she spoke to me, "How were rounds tonight, Rose? Any pranks on Halloween?"
"No, it was actually quite peaceful," I told her. "And...pleasant." And I realised that I honestly thought that. I wasn't angry or annoyed by Scorpius' actions – I actually liked them.
Why would I like them? I thought to myself, seriously confused now. There is no reason for me to like the idea of Scorpius Malfoy and me in a deserted corridor.
After I had successfully retrieved a packet of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans from Angie's bed, behind my head, I turned my attention back to their conversation, trying to ignore my dodgy thoughts.
"And then he just sort of told me that he liked me and would I like to go to the dance with him," Alice was saying.
"So you seriously like Al?" Dom asked incredulously. "Honestly?"
"Of course I do," Alice said firmly. "Haven't you seen his eyes? They're so beautiful and he's really sweet—"
"—Al? Sweet?" Dom again.
"Yes," Alice laughed, her expression changing to look dreamily out of the window and then back at us again as Angie snapped her fingers in front of her face. "He carried my bag for me and opened the doors and kissed me on the cheek and let me choose where to sit. I felt kind of weird and lazy but Al's so nice about it. He just made me laugh and I felt so..." she sighed whilst Dom pretended to be sick behind her hand, "so happy."
Alice noticed Dom rolling her eyes and trying not to laugh as soon as she looked at her a moment later and so they started an all out Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean war with beans flying in all directions and wrappers following them a moment later.
"So, Alice..." Angie tried to start up a normal conversation about ten minutes later after being hit squarely in the eye with, what appeared to be, a frog flavoured bean (firstly, don't ask me how she knew it was frog flavoured because I don't want to know and, yes, I was worried). By the look Angie shot at me before she spoke, I knew this conversation would not go well for me. "What would you rate Al out of ten?"
I groaned involuntarily and glared at Angie as if my life depended on it. "Probably a ten," she told us, blushing.
"Well..." Dom said as if she had been given the worst piece of gossip in the world. "We all knew that was coming."
I laughed at her. "Nobody rates people ten unless they really like them," I told her and then, remembering what Scorpius had said to me in the Three Broomsticks, blushed and wished I could take it back.
"What about a certain Mr Malfoy..." Angie muttered.
"What about him?" I quickly snapped.
"Well, when he rated you—"
I coughed dramatically and loudly to cover up what Angie was saying.
Alice started to open her mouth to speak but I was saved by Dom, who hadn't really been listening.
"There's a number to liking-ness ranking order?" Dom asked me. Actually I think she knew she had just saved me from an embarrassing conversation because she winked at me a moment later.
"Yep," Angie answered for me. "1 to 2 – there's no way in hell. 3 to 4 – you're thinking about it. 5 to 6 – you fancy them. 7 to 8 – you think they're hot. 9 to 10 –they're crazy hot and you wouldn't mind a minute alone, of course."
"It's got nothing to do with personality, this ranking?" Dom asked through her laughter.
"Only a genius can tell someone's personality through how they look," Alice said.
"Yeah..." I agreed, shoving another Pumpkin Pasty into my mouth. "Some people are hard to guess."
"Scorpius?" Dom asked and my head snapped to look at her as I started choking on my pasty. Once I recovered, quickly spitting out the pasty into a bin, I stuttered at Dom, rushing my sentences.
"What does that mean? What are you talking about? I haven't said anything about him... have-have I?" I finished my sentence unsure of myself. Had I mentioned Scorpius? I don't think I had...Unless I'd been thinking aloud, and that would be bad.
Alice and Dom exchanged confused, slightly amused, looks.
"Calm down, Rose," Angie told me, I could sense her trying not to laugh. "You're a bit jumpy."
"Jumpy? I'm not jumpy."
"I only meant that Scorpius looks, like, well... really arrogant—," Dom started to say.
I snorted.
"—but he's actually quite nice, so we've seen," Dom finished.
"You have?" I asked her.
"Rosie, he broke his nose for you," she told me firmly, looking me in the eyes.
"So?" I felt my heart rate quicken. Oh, Merlin, they know that I like Scorpius.
Wait, what? I like Scorpius? I do? Oh, Merlin, of course I do.
I leaned my head back against Angie' mattress, closing my eyes and rubbing the second and third fingers of both my hands against my temples, "I need therapy,"
They laughed at me until Dom had the courtesy to ask me, "Why?"
"Nothing," I replied quickly.
What, in the name of Dumbledore, was wrong with me this year?
Maybe it was the stress of NEWTs, I tried to reason with myself.
Or maybe I really did like him more than I should.
"Come on, Rosie Posie," Dom tickled me. "Tell us,"
"No," I told her firmly through my laughter. "Get off me,"
"No way, if you don't tell me I'll have to start another war," she threatened.
"Go on then, Dominique," I emphasised her name.
"Oh," she froze for a moment – I knew she hated being called her full name – "It is on."
And with that, another war ensued. And a more violent one at that. In a matter of no more than four minutes Angie had, again, been hit in both eyes and the shins by Liquorish Wands and one of Alice's slippers had been lost out of our open window.
Eventually the screaming and yelling started, it was well past midnight by now but all the sugar in the sweets had given us all a sugar rush and we couldn't stop running around our dorm, over our beds, into the bathroom and, once, into the hallway.
Dom tried to hit me with a round of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans so I hid behind Alice, who got the full blast of it. Whilst being pursued by Dom again I attempted to run to the safety of the bathroom. Unfortunately I only reached halfway across the room before she grabbed onto my uniform, the only part of me she could reach was my skirt, and then tripped.
My skirt ripped in half, the bottom half tearing off unevenly so that it only reached a few inches down my thighs, and was left clutched in Dom's hands as she lay, laughing hysterically, on the floor. Alice and Angie froze in the mist of their Sugar Quill fight on my bed and turned to stare. For the first time in thirty minutes, it was silent.
"Dom..." I started in a deadly calm voice. "I'm going to kill you!"
I took a step towards her, ready to kill my cousin with my bare hands – that was the only skirt I had at the moment, I'd have to wait until the Christmas break to buy a new one, my parents would tell me that it was my fault so I'd have to get it myself – but there was suddenly a loud banging on our door.
I went to open it, distracting myself from my murderous rage, with my skirt still ripped and only reaching halfway up my thighs.
And who was standing at the door but none other than my cousin (Well, what are the chances? They take up most of the school, after all).
"Al!" I exclaimed as Alice, somewhere behind me, muttered quickly 'really?' and was promptly tripped over, most likely by Angie, when I heard a loud thump. Al smiled at me. "What are you doing outside my door and how, in the name of Merlin, did you get up the girls staircase?"
"Ah, Rosie Posie," he started and I sighed (did everybody in my family insist on calling me that tonight?), "I have ways. Don't you think I share shortcuts with my brother and don't you think he shares his little findings with me?"
"Okay, firstly, eww," I told him. "I don't want to know what James gets up to in the girls dormitories. And secondly, why are you here?"
"Good question, Rose, but I think I should be asking a more important one: What is up with your uniform?" he raised his eyebrows.
Okay, I did look a little... well; Victoire-ish was the only way of putting it. The first two buttons on my shirt were undone, which made the neck-line seriously low, my tie was loose so it looked more like an accessory rather than an item of clothing and my skirt, as previously mentioned (I am going to kill Dom), was incredibly short (any shorter and you'd be able to see my underwear, seriously).
"Shut up, I'm not in class," was my brilliant reply. "Seriously, Al, what are you doing in the girls dormitories?"
"We thought somebody was being killed," came a voice from behind Al and Scorpius pushed himself off of the wall and joined his friend at the door. Oops, hadn't seen him there.
I glared back into my room, trying to avoid looking directly into Scorpius' eyes, at Dom just as Alice made her way over. "Al," she greeted him.
"Somebody was about to be killed, before you interrupted us," I told Scorpius.
He smirked at me and said quite suggestively, looking me up and down slowly. "By the way, I love the new uniform."
I blushed and tried to pull down my skirt so that it was longer. "And that, my dear Scorpius," I glared at him, "is why I was just about to kill dear Dominique, here."
"Well, don't let us get in your way," he motioned a hand towards our room as if to tell us to carry on. He wasn't getting off the hook that easily.
As Alice and Al disappeared back down into the common room I turned to Scorpius, "How did you get into Gryffindor Tower, let alone into the girls common room?"
"Ah, Rosie, I have my ways," he said simply.
We stared at each other for a second; his face was unusually soft. We stood alone in the girl's dormitory corridor, neither of us speaking. I knew he was thinking about the same thing I was – what would have happened earlier if we hadn't been interrupted? Would he have kissed me? Would I have kissed him back? My head spun as I tried to look for answers, only coming to more confusing questions.
The tension between us built until it was almost unbearable, I tried to think of something to say but nothing came to me. Suddenly, Scorpius took a step towards me, looking as if he meant business, and opened his mouth to speak, "Rose, I—"
"—You're a bit of a rebel then, Scorpius," Dom told him as she finally made her way over to the door, apparently deciding that I wouldn't kill her and unknowingly interrupting Scorpius.
"I'd like to think so," he smirked back at her, taking a step backwards to lean against the wall again, his whole expression and posture changing back to arrogance and elegance.
"Stop it, Dom," I told her, snapping back to normal-mode instinctively. "You're inflating his already over-inflated head."
"Well," he turned to me. "At least you're looking into new uniforms. I dare say that one's a little too suggestive, Head Girl."
"Dom ripped it," I muttered. "And now I have to wait until Christmas to buy a new one."
"Why not just fix it," I stared at him blankly until he elaborated. "With magic? No? You are a witch, right?"
"It only stays intact for a while, it's not permanent and is very fragile," I recited from one of the many books I had read.
"Okay, then..." he muttered after a minute. "Stay walking round like that for the next month and a half, then. In any case, you look divine." He said the last word in a fake-posh accent and smirked again.
I sighed in annoyance at him, mostly to cover up my blushing. "Get out of here, Malfoy, before I give you six weeks worth of detentions."
He bowed to us both, pretending to be the gentleman I knew he wasn't, and scrambled down the staircase yelling, "Al! Time to go!"
A moment later Alice came sulkily up the staircase, shutting the door to our room behind her.
Skirt fully intact and the proper length, everything continued as normal as October rolled into November. I kept getting frequent updates about Teddy and Victoire's wedding, the same old boring things. All I really wanted to know was the time and place and I'd be fine, but, seeing as we were all going to be at the Burrow for Christmas anyway, I wasn't bothered about knowing the details.
The relationship between Scorpius and I had returned to normal (sort of, we spent less time together but still enough that our friends noticed no difference, simply because I thought I might do something stupid if we were together for too long) – mocking each other as best friends do. Neither of us spoke about that confusing scene at rounds, nor did he ever again try to tell me whatever he had been trying to say before Dom interrupted us outside the dormitory.
I walked out of History of Magic with Dom one Friday to discover that the halls were filled with plenty of people who had apparently discovered how to walk at the pace of a snail. Everybody was excited about the upcoming Quidditch Match, the first of the season, between Gryffindor and Slytherin, but the conversation between Dom and me was on our previous lesson that we had just escaped.
"Merlin, I didn't think that things could be so boring," Dom complained loudly over the noise in the corridors. "Nobody cares if one guy got a little frisky with too many girls and then proceeded to get himself and them all murdered by giants."
I made a disgusted sound. "What's the word for a man slag?" I asked Dom seriously.
"You wouldn't be thinking about anybody in particular, now, would you, Rose?" I heard Scorpius ask me from behind.
I stopped in my tracks to turn and glare at him as he caught up to me and Dom.
"Don't worry, Scorpius," Dom told him. "Tomorrow I'll make sure you get hit with a bludger hard enough that you won't have that kind of problem with girls."
"So it'll just be the outnumbered-and-murdered-by-giants kind of problem that I'll have?" he asked. Dom nodded. "Right... thanks."
"Did you come here with the sole purpose to annoy us or was that just an added bonus?" I asked him.
"Well, at first I thought it was just an added bonus but now I'm starting to think through my options of slipping away quietly."
"What did you want?" I asked, sighing as we made our way into the Great Hall for lunch. For some reason he had started to get on my nerves again – it was probably the increasing number of suggestive comments that I tried, and failed, to avoid.
"Oh, just to tell you that I'm going to kick your arse tomorrow."
I snorted. "I don't think so," I told him seriously as I reached the table with the rest of my family already deep in conversation about the upcoming match and completely ignoring our arrival, Dom went to sit by Roxanne. "I'm going to get the Snitch before you so you won't be able to kick my arse at all."
"Can I slap it, then?" Scorpius smirked as he walked past me to sit at the Slytherin table for once. And he did just that, he slapped my bum.
I glared at him throughout Charms.
The Quidditch stadium was fuller than I had expected, or did it only appear to be so because I was really high in the air and the people all blurred into one?
Maybe, I reasoned with myself, not really bothered.
The game had been in play for around ten minutes and the current score was 60 – 40 to Gryffindor. All I had to do now was catch the Snitch before Scorpius did.
I watched him fly around the pitch in circles some few metres below me whilst I sat in the same spot, only my eyes moving to see where that little zooming ball was.
The clouds overhead threatened us with rain that would be hard to see through and would not help us, especially as it was already a dull grey day and extremely windy, my hair whipped about my face having escaped from its confines in the hair band that I had lost about thirty seconds into the game due to a particularly large and violent gust of wind.
At the exact moment that I decided to do a few laps around the pitch to see if that would help me catch sight of the Snitch, Scorpius decided to, quite surprisingly, fly closer to me, still a few metres below.
He called up to me, "Hey Rose! Any luck finding the Snitch?"
"I'm not going to tell you, Malfoy!" I called back down to him due to the wind. "Gryffindor are going to beat you Slytherins to a pulp!"
"Hey, you know that whole thing with Angie and Paul, and Dom and Bill...well, I—I was wondering whether you would ever consider dating a Slytherin," he yelled up to me and I was momentarily shocked, looking down to face him instead of about the pitch for the golden ball that I was supposed to be looking for.
"What are you talking about?" I asked him. Was that what he was going to ask me before? No. I knew it wasn't, his tone had been much more serious then, and more... embarrassed? Awkward? Maybe even a little frightened?
"What?" He yelled.
I repeated my sentence louder and blinked back the tears that formed in my eyes due to the wind.
A flash of light caught my eye.
"Just curious!" he told me whilst scanning the pitch. "You know, prejudices and all..."
Suddenly I realised what he was doing – Scorpius was distracting me from catching the Snitch. The Gryffindor team, namely Al, were desperate to win this match and get an early lead in the season; it just took some of the pressure off us knowing that we were winning and also gave us the whole Christmas holidays to rub it in their faces.
"Nice try, Malfoy!" I called down to him. He took a split second to send me a quizzical look and then, watching me speed off down to the other end of the pitch, realised what was happening.
"Weasley, number 12, speeds off down the pitch as Weasley, number 3, shoots, but will she score? Oh! And she's scored another ten points for Gryffindor. It looks like Potter is doing well this year as Captain, whereas Flint isn't managing his team too well," the commentator's voice boomed out from the microphone at the end of the pitch that I sped towards. "Weasley, number 12, is speeding this way. It looks like she's seen something that Malfoy hadn't spotted until now. But is it the Snitch? If it is Gryffindor are certainly in for an early lead this season. And it is the Snitch!"
I zoomed past the commentator, winking at William Jordan as I passed, son of Lee Jordan. Scorpius followed hot on my trail as we raced each other to get to the Snitch in time. Whatever was happening in the rest of the game was momentarily blocked from my mind as I focused on catching the golden ball in front of me.
"And Weasley, number 8, has scored. It looks like he's trying to get in as many points as possible before his charming sister catches the snitch. The score is now 80 – 50 to Gryffindor. And Weasley number 12 and Malfoy are still chasing each other around the pitch. Oh- oh my! That was a close call for Weasley number 29. Lucky her teammate Nelson caught her in time – that was quite a catch! That could have been a nasty fall. Those Slytherin's really do play dirty. Is she alright? It looks as if she's unconscious. Are they calling an end to the game? It looks like there's no point. Oh, my, Weasley 12 reaches out; it looks like she's got the Snitch!"
I was close enough to the Snitch now that I could touch it, having only focused on this aim and not on what William was saying, if it didn't keep bloody moving, that was. My broom zoomed around the pitch, zigzagging between the players and hoops whilst following my prey. I reached out my hand. Not close enough. I had to shift my body weight forwards on my broom, which was dangerous anyway, but going at the speed I was going at... it was practically suicidal. And, no, I did not want to die. I just really wanted to win. If I missed this chance Scorpius would surely take it.
I reached out again and was pleased to feel the cold metal of the small ball curled inside my fist.
Slowing down, I circled in spirals (a new fancy trick that I had learnt) towards Al as the cheering started.
"And Weasley 12 has done it! She's caught the Snitch for Gryffindor as they win this match 230 – 50," William was saying through the microphone. Only now that the game was over was I paying attention.
"Well done, Rose!" Al called to me over the wind.
"We won! We won!" Dom was chanting to me as she joined us.
My attention, however, was caught by a strange shape zooming towards our little group in the centre of the pitch. As it drew closer I realised that the figure was, in fact, Sam Nelson on his broom, holding up a limp Lily and trying to keep her in balance.
"What happened?" I asked him when he got close enough.
"I...erg, I help Hugh...game..." Lily mumbled incoherently.
"What's wrong with her?" I snapped at Sam.
"She's slipping in and out of consciousness," he informed me concerned with Lily and not bothering to look at me. I felt my blood run cold.
"Oh my Gosh, Lily!" I called to her over the wind. "Lily, wake up!"
"She'll be fine. We just need to get her to the Hospital Wing quickly. Hugo's gone to find her broom." He motioned towards the ground.
"Why?" I asked. "What happened to it?"
"It's...It's in pieces," Sam told me seriously. "Shattered on impact with the floor."
Without taking my eyes off my cousin I muttered sombrely, "At least it wasn't Lily."
We all waited outside of the Hospital Wind for just over half an hour. By 'all' I meant every single member of my family currently attending Hogwarts... plus more.
Firstly there was Rich, and then came me, Al, Scorpius, Dom, Hugo, Fred, Roxanne and Louis. Then Lily's best friends Callie Carmen and Sarah Yang had arrived, and finally two other members of the Slytherin Quidditch Team, Darren Flint (the team captain and son of Marcus Flint) and Tristan Dale.
Apparently Darren and Tristan had collided with each other, squashing Lily in the process. She would have been fine with just that hit but Tristan (as beater) had accidently smashed her in the head with his bat, which then went flying out of his hand as he was pushed backwards by the force. Both he and Darren had been thrown from the collision and Sam, showing dedication to his teammate, had rocketed down towards the floor to catch her falling body before she smashed into the hard mud.
It showed great nerve that he flew faster than 70mph, even when only a few metres from the floor, to catch her. Not only that, but Sam downright refused to leave Lily's bedside. The rest of us were thrown out to wait in the corridor.
The other members of the Slytherin team had wanted to stay too, but Darren had sent them all back to their common room. Scorpius, at first, tried to use his Head Boy status to stay but I told him curtly that he was in the way and that it would be better for everyone if he just left. I think he sensed that I was angry at him for playing that trick with the Snitch because he shot me a confused look but eventually managed to stay.
I even found myself drawn to him, as usual, and we slumped against the wall together, sitting on the floor. My eyes fluttered closed every now and then and I found myself leaning into Scorpius for warmth and comfort in the cold castle. He wrapped an arm around me and I, in turn, pulled one of my arms up across his chest and over his left shoulder, my head resting in the crook of his neck. I was exhausted.
The only other reason that Sam had been allowed into the Hospital Wing with Lily was because he had been the one to catch her and had seen the whole thing from a bit of a distance. Basically, Madame Pomfrey had wanted to hear what had happened from him.
I think she fancied him a little; everyone did. He was tall, dark, handsome and a complete gentleman.
Just as I found myself thinking this the doors to the Hospital Wing opened and out came Lily, looking shaky in a pink dressing gown and slippers and being supported by the elbow by Sam.
We all stood up as she stopped in front of us.
"How are you, Lils?" Al asked her.
"You look pale," I added.
"I... I think I sprained my wrist, but I'm okay. Luckily Sam caught me," she smiled weakly at us all. "Madame Pomfrey says that I can go back to Gryffindor Tower and rest. I'm all fine for school on Monday."
"That's great, Lily," her friend Carmen spoke up as Sarah nodded furiously behind her.
"Lily..." Hugo stepped forwards. "I'm so sorry. If I wasn't so stupid you wouldn't be hurt."
"Don't worry, Hugh," she replied, patting his shoulder. "I'm fine. I shouldn't have gotten in the way."
"You were just trying to help," Hugo reasoned. I had the sudden feeling that I was missing something.
There was a cough from behind me and Tristan Dale stepped forwards. "Lily, I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you at all. The wind... it—it was bad and I couldn't do anything to... to..."
It shocked me to see Tristan, a large, tough Sixth Year who could pass as a Seventh Year at Durmstrang, with tear tracks down his face. He wasn't crying now, but he had been.
"I thought I'd killed you..." he muttered.
Lily smiled at him. "Don't worry, Tri, I'm perfectly fine."
"Come on, it's past curfew everyone, get back to your dorms," I told them all and everyone groaned at me. "What?" I defended myself.
"Must you always be in 'Head Girl mode'?" Scorpius asked as we all set off down the corridor. He slung an arm over my shoulder as we walked.
"Always," I nodded.
There was a party in the Common Room that night. Rather than be upset that Lily had had a near-death experience the house had gone on to celebrate her recovery along with the result from today's game... or so Fred had told me. Personally, I think he just wanted an excuse to sneak more Butterbeer from the kitchens. Why they had Butterbeer in the kitchens anyway was beyond me, the teachers had to know it was being stolen all the time.
I found myself sitting on the largest windowsill in the Common Room, that showed a beautiful view of the moonlight shining off of the lake, wedged between Dom, who was flirting with a Fifth Year (who she apparently rated seven out of ten, so she had told me), and William Jordan and a few of his friends on my other side.
I quietly sat there, looking out at the lake, whilst sipping on my Butterbeer peacefully. Whatever music was playing in the background could not be heard because of all the noise from the students. I could hear Laura and Debbie giggling in the far corner of the room – must they be so loud? – As Head Girl I probably should have broken up the party but then I'd most likely be hated for all eternity by everyone... and there wasn't any harm in celebrating. Even I had to admit that everyone needed a party sometimes (I ignored that part of my brain that reminded me that there was going to be a dance in a few weeks time anyway and people could have probably just waited for that).
I felt a light tap on my shoulder and turned to see who it was.
"Hey Will," I greeted William Jordan, nodding briefly to his friends whose names I did not know.
"Hey Rose, I was just wondering if you were okay? You can join our conversation if you like," he offered.
"Thanks, Will, but I'm good here with..." I turned to see that Dom had disappeared, probably to a secluded corner with her cute Fifth Year. "Ah, seems she's gone."
He smiled at me sweetly. "We're discussing which Quidditch Team can beat the Wimbourne Wasps if cheating wasn't allowed," he tempted.
"Nobody could win a Quidditch match without cheating," I told them all.
"Sure they could," his blonde friend disagreed.
"Do you cheat then, Rose? I didn't think you'd lower yourself to those levels," Will said to me and I got the feeling that he was almost disappointed with me.
"Everybody cheats, Will," I told him firmly. Okay, so I hadn't cheated before in anything, let alone Quidditch, but in professional Quidditch leagues they always cheated and I thought it was just silly to assume otherwise.
"Yes they do," another of his friends agreed happily and they all touched their glasses together.
A frightened looking Second Year girl walked over to us then and, shaking visibly at the sight of the large group of Seventh Years around her, mumbled to the floor, "Rose Weasley? There's a boy outside who says he wants to talk to you," and she quickly rushed off, disappearing through the crowds.
"Okay..." I started as some of the guys around me wolf whistled and some laughed at how they had frightened that girl. "I better go see what he wants this time."
I stood up, fixing my uniform, as Will asked me, "But how do you know who it is?"
"It's always the same person," I told him, shaking my head in an exasperated way, and pushed my way to the portrait hole, mumbling under my breath, "Stupid Slytherin with bad timing... ruins my fun..."
I stepped into the empty and freezing seventh floor corridor, wrapping my arms around my body to keep the cold out, as the portrait swung shut and most of the noise coming from the party vanished.
"Don't stay out too long, dear," The Fat Lady warned me happily, and then continued to drink bucket loads of wine with her friend. Apparently they were celebrating too.
"What do you want Scorpius?" I asked him as he stood up from his previous position against the opposite wall on the floor.
Instead of his usual joking manner, Scorpius surprised me by getting straight to the point. "I'm not sure what I want, Rose," he sighed. I thought for a brief moment that there was a hidden meaning to that sentence. "I just feel that there's something wrong, like I've done something wrong, but I can't think of it... I just can't. So I'm asking you... what have I done that's making you... I don't know, slightly odd with me?"
"It's nothing, Scorpius," I muttered. "Just forget it."
"No!" He shouted and then lowered his voice. "What is it? I want to know otherwise it'll drive me insane."
"It's just..." and then I rush through my sentences. "It's just what you said on the Quidditch Pitch... y'know, about me ever dating a Slytherin..."
"Yeah... what about it?" He seemed genuinely confused.
I threw my arms up in a furious manner, my anger suddenly sparking. "What about it? Seriously, Scorpius, you're asking me that? You said it deliberately to distract me long enough to find the Snitch."
"What? No I didn't."
"Yes you did, and anyway, it didn't work," I snapped at him.
"Look, Rose, what is your problem? Maybe I asked you because I was genuinely curious to know the answer. Maybe I actually didn't know how you'd react. Maybe I don't always think before I speak when I'm around you. Did you ever think of that? I didn't think you would, you never think about other people as having problems. We're not all perfect like you. And we're not all selfish like you, only thinking of ourselves!" Scorpius yelled at me, taking a step forwards so that we were practically nose to nose, except I was slightly smaller than him.
"Excuse me? Who do you think you are?" I shouted back, defence kicking in instinctively. "Don't you dare try to tell me who I am. You don't even know me!"
"Of course I do, Rose. I know you much more than I should do!" He fumed. "And now I know just how complicated girls can be."
"That's stereotyping, I thought you, at least, would know how horrible it is!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said sarcastically, his anger building steadily through his next sentence so that he was literally yelling in my face. "I was under the impression that I was calling you a girl and not a good-for-nothing, selfish, stuck-up, arrogant, thinks-he's-superior Death Eater!"
"Well you are!" It went silent just as I realised what I'd said. I didn't mean that, not at all.
The worst feeling came over me as Scorpius simply backed away, staring at me with a hurtful, shocked expression on his face.
I took a step forwards with my hands outstretched. "Scorpius," I whispered to him. "I didn't mean it, of course I didn't. Please, I'm sorry – really and truly sorry."
"You think I'm just as bad as a Death Eater..." he breathed quietly to himself.
"No, of course I don't," I tried to tell him but he seemed to not hear me.
Scorpius just looked at me until, finally, our eye contact broke and he turned to walk back down the corridors to his own House. "You know what, Rose..." he whispered just before he turned away. "You are selfish and I can't believe I ever thought you were kind. If you're going to stand there and call me a Death Eater, then I might as well call you a stupid little blood traitor."
And with that Scorpius turned and left me standing in the freezing corridor alone. The tears started to fall freely down my face and I swore that I could feel a piece of me breaking apart. I slumped to the floor, afraid that I wouldn't be able to stand through all my dizziness. My chest hurt, whether from crying or some strange emotional reason I don't know, and I scrunched myself up into a ball, hugging my knees closely to my chest and burying my head under my hair.
The sound of my sobbing echoed throughout the corridors – the only sound for, what seemed like, a long while – then I heard footsteps. I knew that they weren't Scorpius' because he wouldn't come back; I've just broken his trust and thrown the worst insult he could ever think of at him. He hates me.
The person squashed themselves next to me on the floor and hugged me tightly, stroking my hair and comforting me. Without even looking up I know who it was.
"Everyone heard, didn't they?" I breathed through my sobs.
"Yeah..." Al sighed. His words create a fresh flow of tears as I felt myself breakdown again. I may have just ruined one of the best friendships I had. I turned around so that I could hug him tightly whilst I cried.
Then, with more tears, came another realisation. Maybe I've just ruined something much more than friendship.
Wow, I forgot there was a bit of drama and quidditch in this one! I hope you all enjoyed it - my forte is not drama - I enjoy the fluff (Who doesn't?) Let me know what you think, especially of the quidditch! We all need a bit of quidditch every now and then, right?
Also, if you haven't already, I'd love for you to check out my "One of the Boys" - it's a ScoRose one-shot (may be writing more, though), if you're interested. :D
Thank you for reading!
