Disclaimer. I do not own the Harry Potter series, it's characters or settings. All you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling.

A/N: Hello everyone! Long time no see!! I'm so incredibly sorry for not uploading in almost a month; my semester was ending and I barely had time to finish my assignments and study for my finals. Anyway, now I'm on summer break (even though we don't really have summer over here ^^') so I can finally write again! This chapter is pretty thrilling and you'll get to see a little bit of Rosie's personality, since this one is written in her point of view! Scorpius' parts might confuse you a little, but the next chapter will set the record straight. Oh, and I've delayed the Quidditch match to the next chapter too, 'cause it's just too exciting and too important in my storyline to not have a chapter only for it. So, sorry to those who expected this chapter to include the match, but trust me, the wait will be worthy!

Anyway! Happy reading! And please review!!

Chapter 11

"One side of the Story"

If I said I'm about to do something I really shouldn't, would you hold it against me?

My intentions are good, I promise; but I don't know how Malfoy would react. He said all he wanted was for Goyle to apologize, right? I'm sure she knows she has to, but maybe she's just afraid to do so because of how it all turned out the last time she and Malfoy crossed words.

Here I am, gathering my things, as slowly as I possibly can, after the last class of the afternoon. People have gotten started on leaving the classroom to go to supper. I catch Malfoy's blonde head walking through the door. OK, I'm good to go. I look around until my eyes find Charlotte Goyle.

"Hurry up Rosie, I'm starving!" Albus' voice reaches my ears.

I look behind me and see my cousin standing next to the door looking rather annoyed as Nicolas seems to be enjoying the show.

"Go ahead." I tell them as I pretend to organize my bag.

Without thinking anything over, Albus rushes out of the classroom as Nicolas nods at me and leaves at his usual lazy pace. Once I cannot see his dark hair any longer; I stand up and walk cautiously across the room to where Charlotte is still sitting.

"May I have a word with you?"

"What could you possibly want to tell me, Weasley?" she asks, her noisy, high pitched, snobbish little voice sounding annoyed.

"I heard what happened between you and Malfoy." I tell her, keeping my eyes on her evasive ones.

"Of course you did." she sneers without looking me in the eye still. "What do you care anyway?"

"I don't." I say coldly, slightly feeling like I'm lying. "I just thought that maybe there was a reason he said all that."

"I've been called worse, Weasley, and precisely by his little fan club." She says. I believe she means the 5th years that have been chasing Malfoy around for the past three days.

I stand there as Goyle packs her quill and parchments.

"Have you ever thought about apologizing?" I couldn't help myself.

Then Charlotte finally looks me in the eye and as the seconds pass remarkably slow, I notice her brown eyes wanting to hide something from me.

"He needs to apologize to me first." she says after a short while as she looks away.

"Why would he? You cheated on him." I know she's lying. I'm sure that if I push I'll find what it is she's avoiding to say.

"If he had acted differently, I wouldn't have cheated on him." She excuses herself as she stands up rather aggressively.

"What exactly was that he did or didn't do?" Tell me Goyle. Tell me what is it really that doesn't let you accept your part of the fault.

"That's none of your business, don't you think?" she asks harshly after a minute or so.

I stare at her for a while. She can't look me in the eye and there's an annoyed frown on her face.

"Right." I say as I turn on my heels planning on leaving the room. I'll let her go. I already did what I had planned on doing in the first place. The doubt is there. The guilt is there. She'll apologize, I can almost guarantee it. If she isn't a complete shrew, if she is better than we all paint her to be; she'll admit her part and take the fault for her actions.

"I know what you're trying to do." Charlotte suddenly says, stopping me within my tracks.

I turn my head back and stare at her coldly from three seats ahead.

"I know he must have told you something about us." she says as she leans against the side of her vacant chair. "I know all he wants is for me to tell him I regret it all, no matter whose fault it was." she then looks at her nails and continues "I don't know why you care, but I'll tell you the truth, just because I'm sure you won't tell him."

We stare at each other silently for a while. She keeps on looking at her hands. But it isn't a sign of embarrassment or redemption. No, she's smirking.

"I don't regret anything." she admits as her eyes find mine "Leo is way better than him. And the only reason I need Scorpius to let it all go, is because my father has some business with his. Leo was able to repair some of the damages, but still." she finishes with that hateful smug smirk much wider than when the words first started coming out of her spiteful mouth.

Then she starts walking towards me.

"How could you tell if I'll tell Scorpius all of this or not?" I wonder out loud just when she's steps beside me, stopping her dead, like she did me. "You don't know me, Goyle."

"I know you better than you think Weasley; we all do." she says after a couple of seconds and keeps walking.

.

OOOO

.

I'm so tired. How am I supposed to be at the Ball all night if I can barely concentrate on putting Halloween decorations on the right place? This will be a long long day.

"Watch it, Rosie." Nicolas calm voice says from my left.

I turn my head to him. The bat I had been trying to charm into staying against the wall had missed its course and pasted itself against Nick's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." I sigh as I wave my wand, freeing the paper bat from my friend's robe.

"Didn't sleep well?" he asks as he walk closer to me.

"No." I say annoyed.

As I keep trying to maintain myself awake and Nick helps me with the bats, my eyes decide to scan the Great Hall. It's looking pretty good by now. The candles are perfectly placed in mid air, still not lighten up yet though. The houses tables have disappeared and have been replaced by a really large one. All the candies have been laid out and the pumpkins have been placed strategically across the Great Hall and charmed into making funny faces to anyone that walks by them. At the moment, about five people are charming the smaller decorations, such as enchanted paper bats and cotton spiders. As I watch around the volunteers, my eyes can't help but fall upon the reason I couldn't sleep last night.

Malfoy is at the other end of the Great Hall enchanting his cotton spiders. No, I didn't tell him anything. But Goyle's confession and her stipulation of me doing nothing about it weren't why I could not close my eyes last night.

'I don't know why you care'

Those words have been echoing in my head since I was left alone in that classroom. I don't know what to think about it all. I shouldn't care. I mean, Malfoy and I are not even friends, we have a truce, that's all there is to it. So I can't help but ask myself why I felt I had to meddle in his business. Whatever happened between him and Goyle has nothing to do with me. Although he said he only wanted Goyle to apologize. That was the most personal thing I have ever heard him say. We have barely spoken about three times in the past (before this year I mean), so why would he tell me, of all people, such a personal opinion. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but to me that kind of conversation is pretty personal.

What I cannot wrap my head around though, is the fact that I seem to care enough to have had a chat with Charlotte. Yeah, I know, Albus never lets me forget; I'm perfectly happy trying to solve other people's issues; but never mine. I know, it's stupid to get caught up in a problem that's between two people I don't even understand; that's the one thing about myself I hate the most. Apparently the only way I can be content with my life, is making the rest of the world happy as well.

Maybe I should just forget it all and start minding my own business. He's a big boy, he can take care of himself. Besides I don't think he deserves to be helped at all. He's cold as an iceberg and quiet as a mouse. He's too much of a closed book... Then again, so am I. So I guess that's the perfect way of making sure we never have a real conversation, let alone a friendship.

That's OK though. This is our last year at school; if we ever have a friendship, it is bound to come to an abrupt end anyway. I don't plan on sticking around once I graduate. I don't plan on keeping in contact with anyone really. I'm planing into actually disappearing and making my life my own.

.

OOOO

.

"What are you wearing?"

"A dress."

"Really? I thought you'd just go with your school robes" Lily says sarcastically as she digs through my closet and I dry my hair. "Which one?"

"The black one." I say as I start combing my hair. "What are you wearing?"

"A dress." she simply says as she smiles to me through the mirror.

"Very funny." I say as I shake my head slightly.

"I have to go get ready" Lily says as she jumps to my bed and then slides off. "I have plenty to do."

"There are still two hours left." I say as I finish taming my red locks.

"Look who's talking." she says grinning that mischievous grin of hers.

"I have to be there an hour earlier, may I remind you." I say as she opens my bedroom door.

"Whatever!" she shouts as she crosses the common room and gets out.

I stand up as I laugh and close my door as my beautiful cousin left it open. Then I go to my closet and retrieve my dress from the hanger. I've always liked this dress. It's pretty flattering with it's thick straps and lacy skirt. The bodice adjusts to my torso rather nicely and the skirt falls loosely from my waist to mid thigh. Once the clothing item is on, I put on a pair of strap on high heels. I go back to the mirror and pull my hair into a cute bum. My make up is rather simple; a little foundation, a little pale blush, a thin black line on my upper eye lid and colourless gloss. I put on a pair of small earrings and spray a little perfume on my neck and wrists.

One last glance at myself in the mirror and I head out grabbing my wand on the way.

As I close my door, I realize I ought to wait for Malfoy; so I walk over to his door and knock softly.

"Malfoy? You ready?"

"Yes." I hear near me.

I turn my head a little startled to find the bloke sitting on one of the comfy chairs looking coldly at me.

"Oh." Is all I can say. What? My heart is still racing. He shouldn't do things like that. It's not the first time he suddenly talks, almost giving me a heart attack.

We stay there, starring at each other and I can't help but notice that, to my dismay, he looks rather handsome in his dress robes. After few seconds, that seemed like hours, I manage to snap out of it and walk across the common room heading for the door. I hear Malfoy standing up and following suit.

Soon, but not enough, we reach the Great Hall and I find my perfect excuse to detach myself from the blonde bloke in Headmaster Longbottom.

.

OOOO

.

"Would you like to dance?"

I turn around to meet Nick's baby blue eyes looking at me. He does this weird, overreacted bow and I laugh. He chuckles as well and takes my hand, pulling me into the dancing crowd.

A couple of hours have passed and the party is as lively as it ought to be. Nick and I dance to a rather soft, relaxing song. As we swirl around, completely against the tune's nature, I catch Malfoy walking out of the room. To be honest, that makes me a little annoyed. I don't care if he doesn't like to dance or whatever, he has to stay; it's his responsibility.

Unable to stop myself, I apologize to Nick and let go of his hand. I walk out of the Great Hall into the hallway. I look around and spot his silvery blonde head walking through the castle doors. I too make my way to the grounds and call out to him.

He turns around and when he realizes it's me who called him, his eyes turn slightly cloudy and his face goes cold, as usual.

"Uhm, you have to stay inside." I say, not sounding as annoyed as I would have liked to.

"You didn't have to talk to her, you know." he suddenly says.

"What?"

"You didn't have to talk to Charlotte." he repeats as he stares to the sky.

There's a short pause. I don't know what to say to that, truth be told.

"Did she...?"

"No, I heard you." he cuts me off.

"Oh." Apparently, that's all I can manage to say.

"I don't mean to sound rude, but why do you care, Rose?" He asks after another pause, a little longer this time.

This is the first time he's called me by my actually name and it's rather weird to hear him say it. It's not that I don't appreciate the personal level of this conversation, but it all sounds so serious, I can't help but feel taken aback.

"Because I can't help it." I say after a minute or so. If this has turned so serious, I might as well just tell him the truth. "When you told me you just wanted her to apologize, well, I..."

"I don't want your pity." He cuts me off once more as he turns to face me properly.

"It's not pity." I say rather annoyed. If he would only let me finish one sentence we could both understand why I had to bloody open my mouth in the first place.

"Then what is it?" He asks harshly as his silver eyes finally meet mine. "Never mind." he sighs after a few seconds, apparently deciding he didn't want to hear anything I had to say "Just mind your own business."

Then he walks right past me, back inside. For some reason, completely unknown to me, I want to turn around and make him listen. But I have nothing to say. I know I have to stop caring for his problems and focus on my life; not someone else's.

Sighing to myself I walk over to the Quidditch pitch. I know it's far, I know heels aren't the kind of shoes you'd wear to walk over grass; but I don't care. I don't feel like going back and having to pretend I'm feeling content and like I'm having the time of my life. I don't care if tomorrow I have to come up with a believable excuse for me disappearing from the ball. I need to clear my head. I need to remember not to take other people's issues at heart.

As I reach the lower stands, I have this strange feeling of being watched; but that might just be my imagination. I take a seat and look up at the loops of the closer end of the pitch. Tomorrow afternoon we play against Slytherin in the first match of the season. I wonder if what I did today will affect my game tomorrow. I don't usually feel guilty about helping people; then again, usually people don't know what I've done for them. This time, he knows and dislikes the help; so I guess I ought to feel as crappy as I do right now. I wonder if he'll be merciless at the game because of this whole thing.

"You're looking rather captivating tonight, did you know?" Someone says in my ear.

I turn around rapidly just to find one of the Zabini twins (Leonard, I believe) smirking smugly at me from above.

"Do you need something, Zabini?" I ask coldly as I turn back to my initial place, my back to him.

Wrong choice.

Suddenly his chin is resting on my shoulder, his arms restraining me and his lips against my neck. I tense up immediately. This is not happening. He can't do anything. He'd get expelled.

"You smell nice." he whispers against my skin.

I try hard not to shudder. I have to maintain my cool. The least anxious I seem, the better. He won't make me waver. I'm a Gryffindor for a reason. As still as I can, I try reaching for my wand, just to find my pocket empty.

"You wouldn't want to use it against me, Weasley, trust me." he says tightening his grip on me.

"Let go, Zabini." I say coldly. He can't do anything. He can't do anything. He can't do anything.

"I can't." he says imitating a sorrowful tone that sounded more creepy than sorry. "I was ordered to teach you a lesson, and so I will."

"Ordered to?"

"Yes. You seemed to have upset my Captain." he says wrapping his fingers on my left wrist.

No. No, this can't be true. Malfoy wouldn't do that... would he? Did the whole Charlotte thing made him that mad? Was it bad enough to hold a grudge against me? Is he seriously the kind of person that takes revenge this way? Through someone else? Is he really this cowardly?

Then I feel a sharp pain in my wrist. I glance down, to see it being twisted by Leonard's tanned hand. As he twists it further and the pain feels sharper than before, I fight my need to shout out loud. I will not let him have it. I will not scream or cry. I'm not weak. He can twist all he want, not one sound will come out of me.

"Does it hurt?" he asks sadistically against my neck still.

I say nothing, afraid that if I open my mouth, I might whimper.

Then we both hear a soft 'crack' and I almost lose it. My eyes go wide as I fear my wrist might be broken.

"Don't worry, love; I didn't break it." he says as he lets go.

He then, releases me and I wrap my fingers around my wrist carefully. I can't move it from the pain.

"You probably won't be able to play tomorrow." Zabini says out loud my biggest fear. "So you might as well not show up at all, don't you think?"

Then it hits me. They have left my team short on one beater. Is this what they want? Is this what Malfoy wants? Is he really that sneaky? Taking advantage of this stupid misjudgement on my part to, not only hurt me, but make my team default tomorrow? Is this the way they play? Cheating all the way? What happened to the playful competitive attitude he displayed a few days ago in the library? Was he pretending then to be friendly?

Then Leonard jumps off the stands and starts walking away, leaving me alone in a dark pitch, with a bruised limb and the need to cry my eye balls out.

I cannot believe this. Was all a lie? The time he introduced himself to me, so we could start over, was that a façade? Was this his plan on the first place? Trick me into this whole mess? Did he tell me that thing about Charlotte on purpose?

'I know you better than you think Weasley; we all do'

Is that what she meant? Does Malfoy know me enough to use my own way of being against me? Am I really that predictable?

No. I will not give Malfoy or Leonard or Charlotte, the win.

They are all real fools if they think that a twisted wrist will stop me. Did he really think I'm that weak? Did he think I was just going to break in tears and let them get away with this? Idiots... All of them.

And here I was, believing I had messed it up; that I had hurt Scorpius. I knew from the very beginning he was just as bad as we all had believed. I shouldn't have let anyone tell me otherwise. He's a Malfoy. Malfoys don't change; he's just as bad as the rest of his family, that filthy little snake.

But I'm not like the rest of mine. He'll see; he and Zabini, both; will be the ones to learn a lesson.

I know I ought to tell someone; I know I shouldn't take this matter in my own hands. But I don't care. Screw authority. I'm not like Malfoy; I will take action myself.

They will see, they will all see; you do not mess with me.