A/N: Greetings everyone! Sorry I've been away for so long :( The short story for the competition took a lot longer to write than I expected. Hopefully it was worth the time and effort I spent writing it and I might win something *fingers crossed*
And look, we've made it to chapter 10! Double digits! Woo hoo :)
I won't keep you waiting any longer. Enjoy!
About a week later, Scorpius brings up the topic of the Slytherins to Rose again by the lake. "Have you changed your mind about talking to Headmistress McGonagall about those boys that have been attacking you?" Scorpius asks. Rose hesitates, not knowing what to say. She knows he won't approve of her plan with James. Scorpius sees her hesitation and gets hopeful. "You have?"
"No."
"Rose...have they confronted you since?"
"NO!"
"Okay, that was way too defensive to be the truth." Scorpius says. "Please, Rose, do something about it."
"I am!" Rose bursts out. Oh, crap. I've said too much.
"What do you mean?" Scorpius asks, confused.
"You won't like it." Rose tells him, looking away.
"What do you...oh." Then his face clears as he realises what she's planning. "How did James convince you to do it his way? What is he getting you to be a part of?"
"Nothing I wouldn't do without his help!" Rose replies, annoyed. "I want to do this! This is my choice!"
"Well, what changed? I don't understand. Because I remember you being too scared to lift a finger against them before, terrified and cowering, all, 'Don't make them get in trouble, don't make them face any punishment, I'll just sacrifice my own well-being to stop them from getting caught, to stop them from turning against me even more.' And now you've cooked up a plan with James to do Merlin knows what-"
"What the hell Scorpius?" Rose cries, stung by his comments. "How can you talk so lightly about how scared I was of them?"
"I didn't mean to trivialise-"
"And," Rose says, getting louder, "I thought you wanted me to do something about it! To stop being so passive and letting them get away with it? Well, I'm making a stand now. You should be proud."
"I didn't mean it like this, Rose!" Scorpius tells her. "I meant to let McGonagall and the other teachers take care of it officially. You don't need to put yourself in harm's way to do it on your own. And you definitely don't need to lower yourself to their level to do so. You're better than that."
"But I'm not." Rose tells him, her voice cracking. "I'm not better, I'm not brave, or heroic like everyone expects me to be. This is who I am. And I'm doing it my way."
Then Rose stands up, brushing at her eyes to fend off the tears that are forming there, and walks away from Scorpius.
After many long nights of planning and preparation, the day of the prank finally arrives: Valentine's Day. It's not a coincidence that they fall on the same day. The trick is actually quite simple, yet will be so satisfying. It will only take James and Rose to put it into action - which suits Rose just fine - and most of the hard work and spells have been done already. All that is left to do is sit back and enjoy the mayhem.
That morning, everyone is already excited, cheery and talkative. Time to give them something to talk about. Rose sits down next to James at the Gryffindor table, on the side that they can face the Slytherin table from. They smirk at each other in greeting, then put on an act of eating breakfast casually, while in reality they are watching the Slytherins and waiting for the post to arrive.
Rose accidentally makes eye-contact with Scorpius and hastily looks back down at her plate. She still hasn't talked to him since their argument. It's all too complicated and difficult. Rose doesn't want to feel guilty for taking revenge, and she knows that's exactly what will end up happening if she lets herself have a conversation with Scorpius. She wonders what this means for their friendship. What will he think of her after this? Will he ever forgive her? Will Scorpius still think of her as weak? Will he be disappointed in her? Will he ever be able to talk to her again?
Maybe it's for the best that he doesn't. If he just stays away from her and leaves her be. There are only a few more months of school, then she never has to see him again, never has to go through all this pain. Rose has been looking forward to the last few weeks to the end of her time at Hogwarts as much as Scorpius has been waiting for an escape and reprieve.
That's all that gets her through the days, hoping and telling herself that she only has to make it to June and then she is out of here, free to be whoever she wants to be, not having to experience judgement firsthand. Well, aside from the fact that she doesn't know what she wants and her surname will follow her everywhere, and so there will always be people to judge her.
Rose doesn't let herself think too deeply about what exactly the outside world will be like, forcing herself to believe that it will be better. Except for the nagging thought that a world without Scorpius won't be better, can't be better, not for Rose. She doesn't let herself think too deeply about that either, not thinking about the risk that she's taking of alienating Scorpius in her choice to deal with her attackers herself.
Whenever she's sucked into these thoughts, she tells herself, You've already lost him. To Georgia. Remember her? He'll probably be too busy gazing into her eyes, or whatever it is that couples do on Valentine's Day. Surprisingly, it actually makes her feel better. If it's already happened, there's no point in worrying about it. She has nothing left to lose. Rose can just shut her heart off to him (at least for the moment) and focus on the task at hand.
The owl post arrives, and James and Rose grin at each other briefly before returning to their food. There's a lot more post, which is to be expected. Many students send love letters to significant others or secret crushes, under the impression that this day actually means something and is worth opening their hearts and becoming vulnerable for. Rose searches the flurry of owls, knowing that somewhere in the crowd are the 5 letters that her and James sent for a completely different reason. The students around the Hall are paying as much attention to the owls as Rose and James are, wanting an owl to land in front of them, even if they won't admit it. The two cousins watch and wait for a few certain owls to land, but not in front of them. At the moment, they couldn't care less what they receive. Even James.
And then they see it. A pink envelope is dropped in front of each of their 5 targets. James and Rose try to contain their excitement. Inside each of those envelopes is a card that has been sprayed with Amortentia that Rose has tampered with. When opened, it will cause the person reading it to fall in love with the first living thing they see. Let the fun begin.
Classes that day are very entertaining. Zabini keeps on flirting with an extremely uncomfortable-looking Hufflepuff. Goyle has to be restrained so he doesn't run looking for some poor third-year. Morgenstern tries to sit on Flint's lap, and Flint was unfortunate enough to read his card under his desk in Transfiguration only to look up and see Professor Swappette telling him off for not paying attention. Never has Rose seen a student so eager to move their table right in front of the teacher's desk.
The plan has worked exactly the way it's supposed to. The whole school has noticed their strange behavior. Already they are the butt of so many jokes, and Rose knows that they will continue to be made a laughing stock, even though the effects of the potion that was on the card will wear off at the end of the day. They have been well and truly humiliated, only they are not aware of it at the moment, focused only on the object of their obsession. No, the best part will be tomorrow, when the spell is over and they realise what has happened. The students of Hogwarts have long memories. They'll never let them live this down.
Rose and James' hand in this chaos will never be traced. They used school owls and disguised their handwriting. The only hiccup in their otherwise perfect prank is that Nott hasn't read his letter yet. He put it in his bag when he got it. Saving the best for last! Rose thinks savagely. There's no doubt in her mind that he will eventually read it and when he does, his situation will be worse than the other boys'. Rose can feel it.
Rose hasn't forgotten that he tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on her. She couldn't if she tried, and she has, she's been trying to do it ever since it happened, without success. She now has a new nightmare: Nott standing over her, yelling the curse, but in the dream he doesn't miss her. The curse hits her again and again. She hasn't told anyone about it, not even James. If she says it out loud it will become more real, bigger, and more frightening. Rose just tries to live in the moment, telling herself that after this they will never attack her again, even though that doesn't make sense. She doesn't want the Slytherins to discover she's behind it, but she expects it to stop them from tormenting her. Rose considers herself to be a logical person, but this year she has thrown all sense of reason away. She has lost her mind, her grades, her respect and many other things besides. All she has left it this need for revenge.
But it hasn't worked perfectly, not yet. Nott hasn't been affected at all. Rose has a mini-meeting with James halfway through the day, mainly to swap triumphant stories, but also to discuss what they should do about Nott. They can't exactly go up to him and ask him to read his letter. They decide it is best to just let him read it in his own time. "Be patient." James says. "That's the first thing you learn when it comes to tricks."
That's another thing Rose used to have: patience. It takes all of her will power to restrain herself from marching up to Nott's bag, taking the card out and shoving it under his nose (and then running for the hills so he doesn't fall in love with her).
Rose holds herself back all day, as the other four boys chase the ones they have fallen in love with all around Hogwarts. At dinnertime, when the Slytherins' behavior is all anyone will talk about, it takes another enormous effort not take credit for it. Rose suddenly has a great appreciation for James. He does this all the time, and is infinitely more prideful than her, but he never gives in to this temptation. If James can resist it, so can I, Rose tells herself whenever she want to blurt it out. Also, if she tells everyone, she would have to tell them about of James' involvement, and possibly get both of them in trouble. You never know who you can trust and who you can't.
After dinner, Rose retreats to the library, hiding herself away so that she doesn't tell anyone about her participation in today's craziness. She's been sitting there doing homework for a while when Scorpius comes running in and plonks himself down in the chair opposite her.
"Oh, hello Scorpius." Rose says without looking up. "Have you and Georgia had a nice Valentine's-"
"Shut up Rose." Scorpius cuts across her. Rose flinches, taken aback.
"What was that for Scorp?"
"You were behind today's fiasco." He hisses. "You and James. Don't deny it."
"Scorpius," she starts, but something in the way he is looking at her makes her stop. "Yeah. We did."
"Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Why are you acting all teacher-y all of a sudden? It's just a harmless prank!"
"Your "harmless prank" has come to McGonagall's attention and caused her to come to me as the Head Boy to find the culprit. She also asked me to tell you to help. But I didn't come here to ask for help in finding the perpetrator. I already knew who is was. I came here to ask you to turn yourself in. I can't turn a blind eye to what you've done."
"What's the big deal? Why are you so angry at me?" Rose demands, defensive now.
"The big deal is that someone has been seriously injured. They had to be relocated to St Mungo's about an hour ago."
Everything freezes. Rose stops hearing the scribbling for nearby students doing their work, stops seeing the table in front of her, stops breathing. The only thing that doesn't stop is her mind, which works at double-time instead, as though to compensate for the absence of her senses, churning out a flurry of half-finished thoughts.
Bloody he-
Who was-
How did the-
What's going to -
I'm so-
How bad is-
What do I-
Through the overwhelming noise of these thoughts, Rose comes to a decision. There is really only one option that she can take that won't cause her to hate herself for the rest of her life. Rose says nothing at all. She just nods at Scorpius and stands up, gesturing for him to do the same. Then she follows him out of the library, all the way to the Head's office, where he leaves her to face to consequences of her actions alone.
A/N: Yeah, I was planning on posting this on Valentine's Day but I ran out of time. Sorry again for the wait, hope you haven't given up or forgotten about this story. Now I can get back to the usual posting speed of every 1-2 weeks. See you soon!
TheEagleFeatherQuill