A/N: Chapter nine . . . not one of my best, but I still like it. :) Enjoy if you will.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything dealing wiht 'Harry Potter.'
Rose waited patiently as her friend Emily grabbed her bag and they left their compartment together. She had been sitting with most of her family, but when Emily came they had moved to another place that wasn't as crowded. Rose had known Emily since first year when she had accidentally tripped over her when she was tying her shoe. Emily had burst into laughter, finished tying her shoe, and helped Rose up and the two began to apologize and talk.
They made the usual "how was your summer" talk before conversing about whatever came to their minds as they moved to the carriages. Rose pointed to a random carriage and they made their way over. Or they were about to before someone came up behind them and put their arms around the two girls' shoulders.
"So, where are we sitting, ladies?" Rose turned around and was met with the dark harlequin green eyes of Albus Potter. She grinned at him and shrugged his arm off at the same time Emily had.
"In that carriage over there. Why?"
"Because we've always shared the same carriage for the last three years and I'm not going to be the one who breaks tradition," he replied with a matter of fact tone. He paused and grabbed Emily's burden before walking again.
"You don't have to hold that, Albus," Emily said. Albus shook his head.
"I know; it's just my gentlemen skills coming through."
"If only you'd grab one of mine, too," Rose said, pointing to her bag. Al stopped and looked at her.
"Can't. You're family so it really doesn't matter." He grinned and nudged her before taking the bigger of her bags. She smiled and he stuck his tongue out at her.
Rose and Emily laughed and followed Albus to the correct carriage. They had to squeeze in, out, and between all the people who had decided to choose now to hug and look for their friends. On the way over, Rose bumped into someone, knocking their ink bottle to the ground. Her eyes widened as she watched it fall and crash into little pieces on the ground as the ink flowed around.
"I'm sorry; here you can have one of mine if you want – " she stopped short of reaching into her bag when the person laughed.
"It's okay," he said, "I was about to throw it at Scorpius anyway." She looked into the brown eyes of Henri and smiled before narrowing her eyes.
"What do you mean you were going to throw it at Scorpius?" His eyes almost gave him away, but he quickly regained his composure.
"I said I was going to throw it to Scorpius," he lied. As her mouth opened to ask another question, he sighed.
"I'd love to chat with some more, Rose, but my dear friend has found us a carriage to occupy." He pulled out his wand and cleaned the mess before smiling at her and running off. She shrugged and looked around to find Emily or Albus, but they had already walked on. She started off in the direction Henri had as that was where the carriage she had pointed out to them was. She had finally found the inherited messy black mane Al called a hair and Emily's blonde locks; they were in a cart with their backs to her.
Rose began to climb in and graciously took the hand Al stuck out to help her.
"You guys couldn't wait for me?" Rose asked, sitting on the seat across from them and dropping her bag on the floor.
"Eh, we didn't know you were lagging behind until I couldn't hear your nagging voice anymore," Albus said. "We didn't have time to go back for you because someone might've taken the carriage and you were the one who pointed this one out, right? You would've been able to find it again." Rose shoved Albus and smiled. She turned to Emily and started a conversation between the three. The three stopped talking when two more people climbed up into the carriage. Rose looked around and saw other people were racing to carriages as the ones in the front had begun to move.
"I was not about to sit next to her," the voice Rose had heard just moments said. He looked up, saw them, and flashed a radiant smile. "Rose," he said. He looked at the other two. "Er, Rose's friend," he said to Emily. "Um – Harry Potter?" he questioned Al. As they corrected him, the carriage started to move. Rose tried to slide over to make room for Henri to sit next to her and Scorpius next to him, but Henri stopped her.
"No worries, Rosie dear, I'll sit there." He grinned at her again and took the seat on her right. She half expected Scorpius to sit on the other side next to Emily rather than her, but he took the seat and glared at his friend who had leaned over to look at him. Henri only smiled his handsome smile like he had so many times before and straightened up.
"So, how about that new Quidditch team?" Henri finally said when a silence had started and stretched on. That one sentence had gotten everyone but Rose to start talking; she did like Quidditch, but she hadn't heard of this new team. Henri had noticed that she wasn't talking and reached into his bag, pulled out a Quidditch magazine with the team in it, and handed it to her. She looked at him and smiled and deduced that Henri Zabini was a pretty nice person even though she didn't know him that well.
Rose opened it and was immersed in the words describing this team and didn't hear a word the other four were saying and barely registered that they were there. That was before she heard Scorpius tell Henri some aspect about the team and how Henri disagreed. Then Scorpius slid over to Rose a little until his leg and arm were lightly touching hers. Henri leaned over also, but not as close as Scorpius had, to look in his book. If they were able to see Rose's face in the dark, they would've seen she was blushing slightly.
A/N: And there it is! Like I promised in a previous chapter (I'm not sure which one), the chapters following this one will be all Rose/Scorpius. Thank you guys for waiting so long! :) Sorry for the length. Reviews would be awesome! :)
--~~ Sparkly S ~~--
