Hi everyone! I decided to post this today too, just to keep myself on track. More chapters soon! Thanks for reading, and reviews are great! -Kelly

CHAPTER 11

THE DEFENCE LESSON

The rest of November went by in a blur to Rose. She published two more essays highlighting the failures of the MET system, and there was a significant amount of discourse in the news, and not only the Prophet anymore, about the writings. She was starting to get overwhelmed with the frequency of which she would hear about it. Luckily, the protests at the Ministry were happening simultaneously, so Prince didn't suspect them as far as she knew, and if he did, he never accused them of anything. Scorpius pretended to be completely fine ever since the trial, and Rose didn't want to start a fight, so she didn't say anything. She was secretly burning with morbid curiosity, though, and wishing he would confide in her. She knew, however, that he probably thought she knew too much already.

When they walked into Defence class on the first Monday of December, Leah and Rudomin were standing in the middle of the classroom waiting for them and had pushed the desks out of the way. The class was whispering quietly in anticipation and Rose turned to Al and Scorpius. "Do you really think the Ministry will let us learn duelling?" Rose asked. "This is what the room looked like the last time we did."

"Quiet, please!" Rudomin called out, and they turned to him, all quieting down much more quickly than usual. "Thank you. As you can see, we will be having a practical applications class today. We will be attempting to teach you the Patronus charm." The class erupted in more excited whispering and Rudomin waited for it to die down. "I know you're excited, but don't get carried away; this is a very difficult charm and I don't expect you all to be able to do it. This is OWL, possibly NEWT material, but we thought teaching it now would give you even more time to master it. I'll turn it over to Leah."

"Thanks," she said. "Okay, guys, spread out." The fourth years took their wands out of their bags and spread to their own space in the room. "I want you to think of the happiest memory you have. You have to really feel it. Then you point your wand straight in front of you and say, Expecto patronum. Got it?"

"Expecto patronum," the class echoed and Leah nodded.

"All right, then, get to work."

"What's it supposed to look like?" a Muggleborn asked from the back. "I mean, how will we know when we do it?"

"Oh, you'll know," Leah said. "Want me to demonstrate?"

The students nodded eagerly and Leah shrugged. "All right." She took a second before calling out, "Expecto patronum!" A blue, shimmering image of a hawk flew out of Leah's wand and soared around the room while the students watched in awe. It disappeared after a few seconds as Leah lowered her wand. "Your turn," she said, smiling, and the students began to attempt the charm. Rose looked around the room nervously, thinking with only a little guilt that she couldn't stand it if Scorpius could do it before her. She smirked a little when she saw him staring at his wand in frustration across the room and began to think about what her happiest memory would be. For a moment Rose thought about when Scorpius had danced with her at Teddy and Victiore's wedding, but she knew she'd be too embarrassed if that ended up working, so she quickly put it out of her mind. After a minute of deliberation, she decided on the day she received her Hogwarts letter and prepared herself.

"Expecto patronum," she said, seeming to echo the students around her all trying multiple times to produce the charm, and her wand tip started to produce a faint blue glow before it evaporated. She groaned and prepared to try again.

"I think you're close, Rose," Leah said as she weaved through the students, watching them. "You've got to really go for it, though. You practically whispered that last one."

Rose nodded and tried again with the same memory. "Expecto patronum!" The blue glow grew again, but it still wasn't noticeable. No one else had even gotten that far, though, as far as she could tell, so she was still slightly pleased with herself.

"Try a different memory," Leah suggested, and Rose nodded. She racked her brain, trying to think of something that made her happier than her Hogwarts letter. She realized that that particular memory wasn't going to work because she'd been expecting it; it was more of a relief when she got it than happiness. She realized that she was truly happy when she got her wand at Ollivander's, since that meant she was really part of the magical world for the first time. She thought about that as hard as she could, pointed her wand in front of her, and called out, "Expecto patronum!"

The blue glow burst out from her wand and grew until it was about her size, staying firmly in front of her like a sort of shield, and the other students stopped in their tracks. She could almost see a form starting to emerge from the glow, but she was so interested in what it would be that she stopped thinking about her memory and the Patronus vanished. Rose saw Al gaping at her from the other side of the room and thought she heard Scorpius curse under his breath and she grinned. "Impressive, Miss Weasley," Rudomin said, smiling. "Ten points for Gryffindor."

The class started discussing Rose's feat excitedly, some Gryffindors hurrying over to her, and Rudomin called them to order. "Settle down, you can talk later. Keep practicing, we still have quite a bit of time left." Rose tried to produce the Patronus again, but couldn't get anything past what had happened before. She was a little disappointed, as she wanted to see what form it would take, but she was for the most part satisfied with the shield-like charm she'd created. By the end of the class, Scorpius had gotten a small blue glow out of his wand, as did Al and Emma Drake, but the other students weren't able to produce anything at all. When the class was over, Leah stopped them as they were about to leave.

"Hold on, hold on, we've still got an announcement," she said. "Well, first of all, great job to everyone, that's sixth-year magic at least and we didn't expect anything from you. That being said, well done to those who saw some results. As for the announcement, applications for the exchange trip are available now, I'll have them here, take one if you want one. Those'll be due to me by Saturday night and you'll have to meet with McGonagall sometime next week. You'll be notified if you were chosen over the holiday. All right, you can go now." Rose waited while Scorpius and Al ran up to get applications, along with most of the rest of the class. They walked out before anyone could swarm Rose and quickly slipped down the hallway.

"You're not applying?" Al asked incredulously. "I thought you'd be all for 'international contacts' and 'unique learning experiences'."

"I can't," Rose said. "I have responsibilities with the Army and the essays."

"Must be hard to be a revolutionary. I'm going to get an American girlfriend," Al announced, and Rose snorted.

"Yeah, okay. You can't even talk to girls who fancy you here," she told him.

"Girls fancy me here?" he asked, and Rose shared a look with Scorpius.

"I don't believe it. Are you serious?" Scorpius asked. "Mate, any girl would love you to ask them out. You're the son of the Chosen One, you could have just as many girls as James if you wanted."

"Well, I don't—that can't be true," he said, turning very pink.

"Don't you remember how upset Ariana got last year? And don't tell me you don't know Alana fancies you.""That's only two!" Al protested.

"Those are just the ones I know personally," Scorpius said.

"Well, all I know is American girls are supposed to like English accents," Al said quickly, obviously deflecting. "So if a bloke goes, he won't be single long." As they walked to History of Magic, Rose found herself suddenly hoping that whoever was chosen, it wasn't Scorpius.

Rose stayed longer than usual after dinner because of a particularly difficult Ancient Runes assignment that she asked Aidan for help with, and when she returned to the common room, most of her House was already there. She had only been inside the portrait hole for about five seconds when Min saw her and ran up to her with Roxanne.

"I want to see this Patronus," Roxanne said expectantly, and Min nodded behind her.

"What? Er, okay," Rose said. Curious students that hadn't been in her Defence class gathered around rather quickly once Rose had set her bag down, and she thought very hard about the same memory while she shouted, "Expecto patronum!" The same shield burst forth, slightly bigger than the first time but still with no form, to Rose's disappointment. The students watching were clearly impressed nonetheless and a few first years cheered. After she answered a few people's questions and disentangled herself from the small crowd, she went to sit down with Al and Scorpius, Scorpius writing intently and Al staring at a blank roll of parchment. "Hi," she said. "What are you doing?"

"Transfiguration," they both replied, and Al looked up at her in relief. "Please, Rose, help."

Rose asked, "Is this the eighteen inches we got assigned Thursday?" Al nodded and she continued, "The one you had all weekend to do?"

"Please help."

"All right, fine," she sighed. "What's it about again? I forgot. I did it Friday night."

"Vanishing spells and how they relate to the laws of magic. What the bloody hell are the laws of magic?"

Rose stared at him in disbelief and said, "The foundation of Transfiguration and of literally all magic, where have you been?"

"Mostly the Quidditch pitch."

Rose groaned. "If I manage to find time to do both, you can."

"You've got a Time-Turner!"

"Not anymore, and I've still got O's. What about you?"

"I've never had O's. I've got E's, though."

"Well, it's better than what I'd expect from that kind of question," Rose said, shaking her head. "Basically, just say something about how Vanishing spells don't just make the object go into thin air, that nothing can just disappear because of the laws of matter. Please at least tell me you know about the laws of matter, you went to primary school with me."

"I know what the laws of matter are, Rose, I'm not an idiot."

"Debatable," she muttered. "Anyway, use that. So objects can't be created or destroyed, so the objects have to go somewhere. Same with when you make things appear, something just disappeared from somewhere because it has to. That's the fourth Fundamental Law of Magic—"

"Will you just do it?" Al asked. Rose was going to refuse, but he looked so desperate that she rolled her eyes and conceded. As she started to write essentially the exact same thing she'd written on hers with a few intentional mistakes, Al took out the application for the exchange program from his bag and began to fill it out. After a few minutes, he groaned aloud. "They're asking for my average yearly grades. I'm doomed. Someone's going to have all O's."

"The only people that have all O's are Scorpius and me," Rose muttered as she started the second paragraph of Al's essay.

"All right, well, they'll pick Scorpius, then," Al replied.

"Not unless my essay's good enough," Scorpius said absently as he finished his paper, and Al's eyes widened.

"There's an essay?" He looked down at the bottom of the page. "Oh, damn, there it is. 'Explain why you would like to study abroad for the remainder of term'. What do I say?"

"Say it's the opportunity of a lifetime, that you're so grateful for the opportunity, etcetera, they love that," Scorpius said.

Al began to write and then stopped halfway through. "Even I know this is rubbish. I'm seriously considering just writing 'I am single'.""Would you like to argue that point to McGonagall?" Scorpius asked.

Al looked horrified. "Hell, no."

"Then I would advise against it."

Al sighed and kept writing, while Rose started the conclusion of the essay. "Are you staying here for Christmas?" Scorpius asked her, and Rose glanced up.

"Er, no, sorry, I'm going home."

"Oh, maybe I'll see you, then."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked, finishing Al's essay. "Here, Al."

"I love you," Al exclaimed, snatching up the essay. "You're my favorite cousin."

"Whatever," she chuckled as he carefully put the essay in his bag.

"I might be moving in with Teddy and Victoire," Scorpius said, and Rose's attention was very quickly pulled back to him.

"What? Why?"

"Remember that letter I sent him? I asked him if I could move in if I paid rent. He said yes, but he didn't know what they were doing for Christmas and that I could move in over the holidays if they were going to be there."

"Well, I heard that they're going with Victoire and Min's family to France," Rose said.

"Oh," Scorpius said, sounding disappointed. "All right. Then I suppose I won't see you."

"Well, you can move in with them in the summer. Or you could even go over Easter," Al suggested.

"No one goes home over Easter," Scorpius muttered.

"You'd have a reason to," Rose said, and he nodded. She hesitated before adding, "I didn't even know you were leaving the Manor."

"I talked to my parents about it," he said. "We agreed on it. It's better for me not to live there, it just makes me more depressed. I'm still going to talk to them and everything, I just… need to live somewhere else."

"They're okay with it?" Al asked.

"I think so. I don't know," Scorpius said, shrugging. "I'm here most of the time anyway."

"Yeah," Rose said, though she felt bad. "Are they going to pay for it or…?"

"They want to but I don't think I'm going to let them," Scorpius said. "I don't want to use that money. It's Lucius's blood money. It's not worth it. I'll get a job, don't worry about it."

"Okay," Rose said hesitantly.

"I'm going up to bed, I'll see you guys tomorrow," Scorpius said suddenly. He picked up his bag and was up the stairs before they could really say anything.

"It's only 8:30," Al remarked, and Rose shook her head. She'd given up on trying to understand Scorpius a while ago.