Chapter 11 - Something There

"So…how do I look?" Belle asked as she looked unsure of herself in the mirror. Rose was lost in her thoughts on the whole situation she encountered last night that she didn't quite hear Belle ask her a question.

Taking Rose's silence for worse, Belle sighed, "You're right. I look hideous. I can't do this."

Rose immediately snapped out of her thoughts, "What? Oh no, Belle, you look amazing," as she looked her over.

Belle was dressed in a shimmering tight blue v-cut dress that reached down just covering her thighs. Small wrinkles cascading from her waist making the dress look as if it was an ocean.

Her shoes were the same color blue. The heels hardly scrapped three inches. It was pointed at the end of the toe.

Her brown hair was pulled up in an elegant bun with little loose pieces dancing in the air. However, instead of Rose she wore a little more make-up.

Her eye shadow was lighter blue and her black mascara brought out her brown eyes.

"You look really nice, Belle," Rose said almost in awe at her. This was the first time she had seen Belle show off more of her feminine side. Belle had always dressed in only clothes she felt most comfortable in and that did not include anything that really showed her slim figure.

Rose gave her a big smile, which Belle returned.

"So do you. You look absolutely stunning," Belle said. Rose felt her cheeks go red. Lily had encouraged her to wear her tight-fitting white dress. It was practically the same lengthy dress as Belle's and the same v-cut that stopped just above her breasts with the addition of a small white flower that hung at her side. The white made her stand out…or rather her red mess of a hair that hung loosely on her shoulders.

"Er, thanks," Rose said lightly. She suddenly felt so old going to these things, especially looking at Belle's frail shoulders. But then again it's not like she had ever attended a dance before so what would she really know.

"Should we head down?" Rose asked.

"Yeah," Belle said, "Let's get this over with." Rose believed that Belle was secretly excited for this party as she was. Rose had never been invited to a secret party because of who she was back when she attended Hogwarts. This was her chance to go through Hogwarts living a different life that not many people get to.

Belle and Rose walked down the stairs of the Dormitory. The party was going to be held in the Room of Requirement. It was on their floor only towards the opposite end of them. It was near where the Gryffindor Common Room was rumored to be.

Belle walked out of the Eagle entrance.

"Wait!" Rose grabbed Belle by the arm. Belle looked back at her. "What about Prefects and Heads?" She asked.

"I am the Head Girl," Belle said.

"You are?" Rose asked bewildered. Belle rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I am the Head Girl and Aaron Gaston is Head Boy."

"Oh, this whole time…I can't believe…I'm sorry," Rose stammered.

"It's ok. I don't like wearing my badge as much. It annoys me when people try and put a label on me."

Rose smiled, "I know what you mean." They walked out of the Eagle entrance.

"So, is that why Aaron asked us to come?" Rose asked.

Belle shrugged, "Either that or because he doesn't want me to tell on him or the party he is throwing."

Rose raised her eyebrows, "Would you do that?"

Belle smirked at her, "No, but it's good to know I seem to be the only person he is afraid of," as they both reached the wall where the Room of Requirement is hidden in.

"What do we have-" Rose began. Belle went up and knocked on the wall four times. The door appeared quickly as it flung open. Luke Johnson looked down at them. The music flowed past him.

"Well, hello there ladies. Come in, come in, quickly now, before anyone hears," he urged them as they scampered in. He closed the door. He turned to them. "Welcome, to our seventh year party! Go on and have fun, I don't need to tell ya twice," he said.

They both scanned the room, "Oh, look there's room over there for us, let's go," Belle grabbed Rose's arm as they took steps away from Luke. Before they could get much further, Luke reached out and grabbed Belle's other arm.

"Hey, hands off!" Belle snapped.

"Sorry, but I almost forgot to tell you that Aaron wanted a word with you." Belle rolled her eyes and looked at Rose.

"What could he possibly want now?" She asked. "Come on Ari, let's go find Mr. Bighead." Belle said. Rose followed along behind her.

They spotted him over near the drinks. Aaron was entertaining a small crowd of people. Some girls were standing off to side a bit, giving them snotty looks. Two of those girls were Barbara and Bernice.

"Hem, hem," Belle said clearing her throat behind Aaron. He jumped a bit and turned around. Once he saw both of them, he gave them each a gigantic smile.

"Belle, Ari! You made it!" He said pushing punch into both of their hands.

"Yes, we're here. What is it that you want? There's only so much we can take of you," Belle said sarcastically. Aaron howled with laughter.

"Dear Belle, your humor is always welcomed," he said.

"Really? I wasn't trying to be that amusing," Belle mumbled under her breath to Rose. Rose held back a snort.

Aaron only smiled at the both of them. Belle was losing patience, "So, what is it you wanted to ask me?"

Aaron scratched the back of his neck, "Well, now that you're here. You know how we're both Heads right?"

"I know how one of us was made Head, but you? I still haven't figured it out." Belle said. Rose nudged her lightly, "Sorry, you were saying?"

Aaron folded his arms, "Yes, and I'm sure you've both been to our Quidditch games."

"No, we haven't." Belle said for the both of them. Aaron's eyes popped open as well as his friends who had been listening in behind him. Some of them whispering: "Is she serious?" "How doesn't she watch Quidditch?"

"You…don't…watch…Quidditch?" Aaron asked slowly trying to understand if he heard right.

"That's right," Belle said smiling.

One of Aaron's friends stepped forward, "What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be our Head Girl. I can't believe you missed my man, Aaron here, our best Seeker this team has ever seen, play Quidditch," Aaron's friend wrapped his arm around Aaron's shoulder and gave it a shake.

"What do you want me to say? Oops?" Belle asked.

"You're the Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team?" Rose asked intrigued. Aaron looked at her and gave her a wide smile. His friend dropped his arm.

"Why yes, Ari. I was actually thinking about going pro after I get out of here," he said with height of confidence.

"Oh, really?" Rose asked, "And why Quidditch as a profession?"

I can so totally use this for my story. Someone who actually knows what he wants to do after Hogwarts.

Aaron slowly walked closer toward her. "Well, you see, Ari, my father was a good Quidditch player, but he stopped after his Hogwarts days." He moved even closer. Rose would have backed up too, but there was no room, but the wall. "He regretted turning down the Chudley Cannons ever since."

"Oh," Rose said not sure how to escape from his closeness, "Er, my…my father loves the Chudley Cannons, shame yours didn't get on then." Before Aaron could say anything else, Belle reached out and pulled his shoulder back.

"Come on, Aaron, just tell me what you wanted and we'll be gone."

As if he had been brought back to planet Earth, he shook his head, "Oh right, must have gotten carried away."

Belle slanted her eyes at him, "Must have."

"Right, me and the guys were wondering since your Head Girl and all, that it would be good if we had some kind of representation at the game, if you know what I mean," he said wiggling his eyebrows.

"No," Belle said.

"What? You never even let me finished!" He said hastily.

Belle shook her head at him, "You don't have to. We're not having mascots or any kind of that," Bellepointed her head over toward a girl fawning on one of the clearly known Quidditch players, "during Quidditch matches."

"And I think there are quite a lot of people who would love my idea! You girls can get more involved and even the first years can have something to do." Aaron protested.

"I've known you for seven years, Aaron, don't think I know what you're thinking. It is an abuse of the first years and Headmaster Lupin would never agree to have women displaying themselves as sexual objects. So, no. A thousand times no. Maybe when you go 'pro' it'll be fine, but this school as a certain tradition and we stick to it," Belle said. Aaron gave her a loathing look.

"We're not going to-"

"I said 'n-" At that time someone came hurdling in between them and spilled his entire contents of his drink all over Belle. The guys roared with laughter…even Aaron. Rose watched as Aaron clamped the boy who spilled the drink all over Belle on his shoulder as a way of congratulating him.

How dare he!

Rose could read Belle's face like it had been her own. She had been in this situation countless of times in her past. It was a horrible moment of truth that people didn't like you for who you are.

Not quite thinking on what she was doing, Rose picked up the bowl full of punch and dumped it on Aaron Gaston's head.

She grabbed Belle and pulled her away from the scene before Aaron knew what hit him.

As soon as they were out of the room, Belle tore herself away from Rose. "Belle! Belle, wait up!" Rose called to her. Rose reached out and touched her arm. She flung her off.

"GO AWAY!" She yelled.

Rose was confused why she was yelling at her, "Why are you yelling?"

Belle whirled around almost knocking Rose over, "I told you I didn't want to go. I told you it would be a waste of our time. But, noooo. We just had to go." Rose suddenly realized why Belle was so upset. Perhaps this had been the first time something like this has happened to Belle. She has never been humiliated before until now.

"Belle…" Rose began.

"For Merlin's sake, Ari, you just don't get it, do you? You don't have to stick up for me. You don't need to save me or make me out to me some charity case that needs special attention. I can take care of myself. So if you don't mind, just leave me alone," with that she turned back around and stormed away from Rose. Rose didn't follow. It was worse than she thought. She had taken her pride.

Rose leaned against the wall and let out a long sigh she realized she had been holding in. She slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. She felt completely wiped out even though she literally only arrived about a half hour ago.

The door to the Room of Requirement opened that made her jump thinking it might be Aaron to get back at her for what she did, but instead it was Barbara and Bernice.

"There you are," Barbara said. Rose was confused. Why were they looking for her? Perhaps to get revenge on her for Aaron's sake?

"Look, I didn't mean to. I just was-" Rose began.

"Relax Ari, we're not going to hurt you," Barbara interrupted her.

"Oh. You're not?" Rose asked.

"No. We wanted to thank you," Bernice said.

Now, Rose was really confused. "What for?"

"Aaron Gaston is a git," Bernice responded angrily. Rose gave her a questioning look.

Barbara rolled her eyes, "Aaron dumped her not too long ago," Barbara said. Ooh.

"What happened?" Rose asked.

Bernice's face went dark, "He said there was someone else he fancied. Cruel, huh?" Bernice said in a snotty way.

"I'm sorry, but I must go find Belle. She's pretty upset." Rose lied trying to find an excuse to leave.

Barbara smiled at Rose, "Relax, Ari, all we came out here is to thank you for what you did to Aaron."

Before Rose could answer, Bernice added, "And whether you would be interested in helping us get even more revenge on him."

"Oh, well… I'm flattered, but I…it was just a one-time thing. I'm not the revenge type person." Rose said even though it wasn't for them that she dumped the punch bowl over Aaron's head.

They nodded at her as if they were already bored with her. "Whatever," Bernice said, as turned away sharply from Rose. She was clearly angry she wouldn't help her cause.

"If you change your mind, let us know," Barbara said before turning away to follow her friend. Rose was now left all alone in the corridor.

Deciding not knowing what else to do, she started in the direction of the Ravenclaw House. However, as she whipped around the corner, she bumped into someone who had clearly been in a hurry, knocking hard on her arse.

She rubbed her bottom to soothe the pain when she heard the person that had been in hurry muttering.

"Sorry…sorry…I…Ms. Saleway?" Ari looked over and felt her insides freeze. She wanted desperately to crawl in a corner and die. Of course it had to be Scorpius Malfoy that she ran into. What's worse she was in a dress and out past hours. Not to mention what had happened last night. Scorpius was crouched beside her as if he was making sure she was alright. "What are you-"

Rose interrupted, "Sorry, Professor, I know it's past hours and I know you know where I am just coming from and I can't ask you to forget that you ever saw me, but you do see me so I of course I will take whatever punishment you must give me. Because that's your job and I know being out past hours is wrong, but I was curious about this party you see, but it was actually a-"

"Woah, slow down." Scorpius cut her off. She squeezed her lips tight as to not peep another word. "Um, I'm not going to give you detention. I, er, actually wanted to apologize to you on how I overreacted last night."

"It's fine-" Rose began.

"No!" Scorpius nearly shouted. Seeing the fear in Rose's eyes he lowered his voice, "It's not. I apologize." Rose looked deep within his face to see whether he actually was sorry for his outburst and she found that he was. Then all too soon she realized she had been staring into his face far too long.

"Well, I must get to bed," Rose said lamely, getting to her feet.

"Oh, yeah, right," Scorpius said getting to his feet. He was blushing and was thanking Merlin it didn't show on his pale face. He just caught himself staring at Arielle Saleway and wasn't just her face. It was wrong…completely wrong.

"I will…I'll see in class," Rose said as she made to walk around him.

"Miss Saleway," Scorpius said unable to let her go just yet. Rose turned her head back around.

"Yes?"

Scorpius wasn't sure how to proceed, but realized he would just wing it, "Would you still consider continuing our lessons?"

Rose was stunned that after what she had found out that he would be asking this of her. But, she was curious to know why he was trying to brew the Draught of Despair so she found herself answering with a simple, "Sure."

They left to go their separate ways.

The next morning Rose decided to get some breakfast to bring back up to her dormitory. When she woke up to find Belle already gone, she assumed Belle was still angry with her for encouraging her to go to the stupid party and for taking her pride.

However, as she reached the bottom step, she saw that Belle was seated in a sofa by the fire. She looked up when Rose came closer.

"Breakfast?" She asked like last night didn't happen.

Rose looked at her confused, "Breakfast? I don't understand. I thought you were angry with me."

Belle sighed, "Look, Ari, I'm sorry for how I chewed you out last night. I was so angry for believing I can actually feel…" she stopped trying to figure out how to present her thoughts.

"Like you belong?" Rose finished for her.

Belle nodded solemnly, "I've never had a close friend before. I mean I've had friends, but not…someone like you." Rose was shocked to hear this, but it warmed her heart to know Belle considered her a friend.

"Ari, I don't know how to be close to people. My mother and my father divorced each other when I was young. My mother had married three times already and is currently seeing her possible fourth man. And there are many people see my father as odd and raving lunatic, but all he is…is as different as you and I."

"Belle," Rose interrupted, "You don't have to explain to me why you are who you are. I knew you we could be great friends the moment I met you."

Belle smiled, but didn't hug me. I didn't expect her to even though I knew how she felt.

"So breakfast?" Belle asked again.

"Great. I'm starving," Rose agreed.

Belle and Rose walked into Potions class later that week talking about the latest Weird Sisters music. They both found out they had a love for old 90s music that not many like anymore.

They both sat down in their usual seats at the back of their Potions class as they waited for Professor Malfoy to arrive.

No sooner, in came strolling Professor Scorpius Malfoy, his head bent forward as if determined to get the class over and done with.

The normal sighing of girls and the normal hushing of boys to keep him from finding out whatever they were planning to do was heard all across the room. Rose wondered if anyone else in the room had any idea of Scorpius' dark side and his mysterious past.

Professor Malfoy turned to the class as soon as he got to the front. He pulled out a bunch of parchments and announced:

"I've got your essays!" He said in a mocked cheerful voice. People started to groan.

"Oh, I hope I did well," Belle said under her breath.

"I'm sure you did," Rose tried to calm her.

Scorpius was looking at each face individually before continuing on, "Now, I must say a lot of you did very poorly on your essays. Perhaps, next time you can find someone to proofread your work for any misspellings, grammatical errors, or whether or not you put your name at the top," Professor Malfoy said. Most of the class snorted in laughter at the thought of someone forgetting to put their name at the top of their essays.

Professor Malfoy started handing out essays as he spoke.

"And indeed the Hippergrin's Draught is spelled H-i-p-p-e-r-g-r-i-n, not hippo-griff. I highly doubt you can sprout a hippogriff from a potion," The class laughed again, while some who spelled it wrong kept quiet.

"As a treat, I am only handing back your essays and you are all free to leave." The class whooped with excitement. "If any of you have any questions please let me know as soon as possible."

Rose was deep in thought finding herself not caring much about what she received on her essay. Lily had been right. It doesn't matter how well or how poorly she would do. She wasn't actually a student.

"So I hope you all have a good weekend and please…just stay out of trouble," Professor Malfoy said looking quickly at Rose who suddenly blushed a crimson red. He gave the last essay to Aaron Gaston. The class began to move around as they made to leave the classroom as soon as possible.

Rose watched as the normal crowd of teenage girls walked up to Professor Malfoy, in order to catch his attention.

"The nerve of them," Belle said behind Rose. "He's cancelling class and they still walk up to his desk and swoon all over him. You'd think they'd take the hint or rather grow a few brains."

Rose grinned, "I know what you mean. Honestly, what do they expect? He's a professor."

Belle sighed, "So, what did you get on your essay?"

"Oh, um," Rose began to rummage through her bag looking for her essay as Belle spoke.

"If you got a bad grade, it's ok. I mean I got an 'A.' He's such a tough grader on these things. I thought mine at least deserved an 'E."

Rose looked at her essay, "Oh, I got an 'O."

"See what did I tell you? He's…wait, you got an 'O'?" Belle snatched it out of her hand as she scanned through it. She handed it back to her, "You're a better writer than I thought. Perhaps I should let you proofread my essays for now on." Belle gave her a smile. Rose wasn't convinced she was actually giving her praise.

So she said anyway, "Thanks, Belle."

There was a moment of silence as they walked side-by-side.

"I wonder why Professor Malfoy cancelled class," Belle began, "N.E.W.T.S are this year, you'd think he'd take it more seriously."

"Perhaps, he wasn't feeling good?" Rose asked.

Belle shrugged, "Or he knows none of us wants to be a Potions Master and we're only there to fulfill our requirement?"

"Not everybody feels the same."

Belle was taken aback by her comment, "You mean you want to continue Potions as a career? Ari, you are terrible in Potions. You may write good and do your research, but your potion-making, well, sucks, unless you're brewing the potion wrong on purpose…" She shot her head in Rose's direction suddenly.

"You're not actually taking Remedial Potions, are you?" She asked.

Rose felt her insides go completely cold. She knew it was better to give her some truth rather than lying or the whole truth. She couldn't let her know about Scorpius Malfoy just yet at least not until she was positive that she knew what happened to him. Secondly, it would bring her much to close to finding out the truth of her disguise.

Belle would feel betrayed.

"You're right, Belle. I'm not. I am taking extra lessons from Professor Malfoy on the side."

Belle looked at me with a mix of anger and pain, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Rose bent her head, "Professor Malfoy thought found that I was interested in Potions so he offered to teach me lessons a few nights a week."

"Or maybe it is you fancy the pants off Professor Malfoy like all the other bimbos," Belle said. If she had looked over at Rose at that moment she would have seen her blush. "I'm kidding. Look, Ari, I'm not mad that you're doing something about your career. I'm mad you had to lie about it. I may not know about friendship, but I know friends don't keep things like this from one another."

"You're right. I'm sorry. I was afraid you might be angry if you knew he had only asked me."

Belle snorted, "Oh, believe me. I hate Potions. I would rather sit outside watching Quidditch for ten days straight than take on extra lessons in Potions. It's a complete bore."

Rose smiled, glad Belle wasn't blowing the whole thing completely out of portion. Perhaps she really had found a true friend after all.

Belle and Rose walked down the corridor to get dinner from the Great Hall now that class ended early. Once inside, they both moved to claim their seats at the Ravenclaw table.

Rose looked up to see Scorpius Malfoy in deep conversation with Professor Armour. He looked rather bored with what he was saying. His head swayed a bit as his eyes drifted away from Professor Armour's face to his surroundings. Suddenly, his eyes caught hers.

Rose quickly cast her eyes away as if she was just deep in thought about anything other than the way her heart leapt the moment she spotted him.

She must learn to cast her feelings aside for him or they will surely get her into trouble.