DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is very much J.K Rowling's.

Chapter 11 - Explanations


The following afternoon I was in the midst of crushing moonstone for my Draught of Peace potion when McGonagall entered the classroom.

"Professor Disraeli, I wonder if I may borrow Miss Weasley?" She phrased it as a question, though her stern voice effectively told me that I was going to walk out with her immediately.

Professor Disraeli still produced a courteous nod, and I was forced to abandon my endeavor. I stood up, glanced uncertainly at Al who returned my gaze with curiosity, and followed after her. McGonagall marched me to the Headmaster's Tower, tight-lipped and unwilling to speak a word except to get us past the gargoyle staircase. Upon entering her office, my mood quickly sobered and reflected that of hers.

"There she is!" Verne spat, eyeing me reproachfully.

My eyes widened, heart raced, and nerves wakened.

"Miss Weasley, please have a seat," McGonagall gestured to an empty chair by her desk.

I did as asked, though a little unsteadily.

No one else sat down; instead, they all gathered around me – circling me.

I recognized Verne, obviously, and his dedicated follower Evane. The other five individuals were foreign to me, and the only face in the room that brought me any comfort whatsoever was McGonagall's.

"Yesterday evening, what we have traced to be around nine o'clock, there was another attack on a student. This assault had striking similarity, both in victimology and execution, to the attack on Miss Caverly – which I have been made aware you were a prime suspect in," One of the men from Verne's party relayed monotonously.

Another attack. The scream. Proof that it was real. Truthfully, I wanted to break into tears in front of them and beg them to believe me when I said I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know why it kept happening around me. I wanted to be vindicated. But the atmosphere in the room told me that the worst possible thing I could do right now was ask for mercy, so instead I kept the tears to myself.

The man who had spoken obviously had more influence than Verne, evidenced by how he was the one to tell me about the nature of my supposed crimes. He stood tall, his dark eyes unwavering as he inspected my face, and I almost retracted from the intensity of such a gaze. Still, I tried to pretend that I wasn't intimidated.

"And you think I did it?" I said venomously. "Don't you think you've done enough with all of your speculation? Locking me up in Hogwarts, not letting me go back home, removing me from my dorm, don't you think that's enough action based on no solid evidence?"

"Now, Miss Weasley," The man replied, his voice soaked in patronization. "No need to take this so personally. I am sure you and I can agree that these cases must be investigated to fullest capacity, yes? Let's start with you telling me where you were around nine o'clock last evening."

No need to take it personally? Was this guy serious? This was as personal as anything could possibly get. Fury – all I felt right now was fury consuming me.

"I was at Hagrid's a little before then," I said rigidly. "I was back at the castle around the time of this alleged attack."

He raised his eyebrow at me, "And this Hagrid is the groundskeeper here, is that right?"

I nodded stiffly.

"And to get from his place of residence, you would have to walk by the Whomping Willow, if I'm not mistaken, Miss Weasley," He continued, as if he didn't even care about my answers anymore.

I simply nodded once more.

"What did I tell you?" Verne burst out.

I flinched, surprised by the unexpected forcefulness of his voice, especially in contrast with the other man's soft yet penetrating one.

"I told you, Minerva," Verne continued, his face growing redder by the second. "I told you. You defended her, and I warned you what would happen if I found out it was her!"

I looked over at McGonagall, who appeared more tired than I had ever seen her, and she just exhaled and kept herself from snapping back. Ignoring Verne, she turned to the other man.

"Eldritch, surely you cannot be insinuating that this circumstantial evidence is going to be enough to accuse Miss Weasley of a crime of such gravity," She told him evenly.

"I cannot believe what I'm hearing!" Verne cried. "You're still defending her, Minerva! How can you keep –"

"Verne, please,' Eldritch cut him off. "Minerva, as you can see, this would simply be a staggering coincidence."

The man, Eldritch, turned to me.

"Miss Weasley, did you make Hagrid's acquaintance alone?" He pressed.

"Yes."

"With no one to corroborate that Miss Weasley returned to Hogwarts Castle without incident, I'm afraid Minerva –"

This time I cut him off.

"There is!" I exclaimed, causing six pairs of eyes to focus on me with undivided attention. "There's someone who can verify that."

"I don't think the testimony of one of your family members will provide adequate assurance, Miss Weasley," Eldritch said dismissively. "I'm sure most of them would say just about anything to keep you from facing the consequences of your actions."

I glared at him unabashedly and said, "Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy."


I had to find Malfoy.

After my proclamation, I had been swiftly released. On my way out, I overheard them stating that they needed to bring Malfoy in for questioning. I had to find him and plead with him to confirm that he came back to the castle with me last night. His word was everything; he literally now held the power to ruin me and I wasn't all that sure he wouldn't use it.

Classes were over by now, so I decided to begin my search in the Great Hall. Once I got there, my eyes immediately scanned the Slytherin table, only to be disappointed. Malfoy wasn't there.

"Rose!"

I jumped, spinning around to find Al standing behind me.

"What happened in Potions today? Where did McGonagall take you?" He asked.

"Al, I'll tell you all about it later," I spoke hurriedly. "But right now, have you seen Malfoy anywhere?"

He nearly recoiled at my question.

"Malfoy? Why would you need Malfoy?" Then laughing, he added, "For that matter, why would anyone need Malfoy?"

"Al!" I said, a little short on patience. "I'm serious. Have you seen him?"

He looked at me, as if he still couldn't quite understand, but then shrugged and said, "Slytherin's day for Quidditch practice, so he's probably at the pitch."

I didn't wait to hear anything else, running like mad to the Quidditch pitch. They would probably bring Malfoy in tonight for questioning, and I had to get to him first.

Like Al had said, tonight was Slytherin's practice day, as I found out when I saw the sea of green and silver in the air above me when I entered the pitch. A few scattered supporters sat around lackadaisically on the bleachers, watching the Slytherin players fly around on their broomsticks.

I spotted Malfoy easily; his hair really did make him stand out from everyone. Aside from how uncomfortable the idea of me crashing a Slytherin practice was, the other issue was that he was far too high above me for me to call him down without attracting too much attention. There really was only one way to do this.

I positioned myself directly in the center of the pitch, pointed my wand to the sky, and yelled, "Periculum!"

Red sparks shot out from the tip of my wand, soaring up. This successfully got the attention of, well, everyone.

The first of the players to fly down was the captain, Bletchley. The rest followed closely.

"Weasley," Bletchley snarled, advancing towards me.

Bletchley was physically intimidating in his build, and I backed up a couple of steps as he came closer. He seemed exceptionally aggravated.

"Right, okay," I cleared my throat softly. "I need to borrow Malfoy for a couple of minutes, if you would be so kind. Sorry about interrupting your practice and all – well, actually, in the interest of honesty, I'm not all that sorry because I hope you lose – oh! I mean, I'm a Gryffindor so of course I hope you lose, nothing against you but—"

"Weasley!" Thankfully, Malfoy interjected. "Is there something you need?"

"You."

It was an unfortunate phrasing that I regretted as soon as it escaped my mouth, because the immature "ooo's" and the laughing began instantaneously.

"Merlin, Malfoy's got Weasley chasin' after him!" Bole taunted.

"I mean, I need to talk to you!" I tried to shout over the hoots and cries of absolute juvenile amusement.

"She wants to 'talk' to him!" Bole ridiculed, laughing far too hard at something I found not funny in the least.

My grip on my wand tightened. The foul little git wouldn't stand a chance if I hexed him.

"Alright!" Malfoy hollered. "Daelan, take over the training. Everyone back up."

It was odd that Malfoy seemed to be the authority here, and even Bletchley didn't argue with his instructions though he was supposedly captain. Everyone silenced themselves immediately, and with a few final sneers and a pure, unadulterated look of hatred directed at me from Sefton, they all flew back up.

"You better have a bloody good reason for doing this, Weasley," Malfoy warned, leading me off to the side.

We faced each other, him waiting expectedly, and me struggling find the words to begin. In the end, it all just tumbled out from me.

"You have to tell them the truth!" I said, nearly hysterical. "You have to. They're going to bring you in for questioning and you have to tell them that you saw me yesterday when I was walking back from Hagrid's and that you walked back with me to the castle. I don't care about your trivial dislike of me – if there's some semblance of a human inside you, you're not going to wreck my life beyond repair."

"What?" His eyes clouded with confusion. "What are you even talking about? Why would I be brought in for anything?"

"There was an attack yesterday. By the Whomping Willow, I think. And now they think I did it because of what happened with Astra, but I didn't and you know it because you were there. If anything, you should be the suspect, really. I was just passing by! This bureaucracy is so ridiculous, they don't know how to do anything right and –"

"Weasley!"

"Right. So just tell them we went back to the castle together Malfoy, okay?" I finished, staring up at him imploringly.

He bit the side of his lip, thinking, then said, "So, the scream, was it… real?"

My eyes widened, "You can't tell them about that!"

"I thought you said I had to tell the truth," Malfoy argued.

"I meant the other truth! The truth that doesn't get me tossed into a mental facility until I'm as old as McGonagall," I told him, since he obviously didn't understand the most basic of concepts. "And also, please leave out the part where I jinxed you. That's not going to reflect nicely on me."

"Reflect nicely on you?" He repeated, stunned. "Maybe you shouldn't go around jinxing people then."

"I told you, it was a mistake. I've learned from it. Next time I'll assume that all dark masses laying around Hogwarts's grounds are you, and I won't jinx them."

"You sound like you've learned nothing."

"What do you mean by noth—"

"Malfoy!" Sefton slowed his broom a few meters away from us. "How much longer is the Weasley girl going to be bothering you?"

"We're done here," Malfoy said, and he swung himself onto his broom, racing past Sefton.

I didn't even have time to call after him, to ask if he knew how important it was that he did as I said. If Malfoy helped me this time, I swore to myself that I would forgive him for everything like a saint. I would forgive him for setting me and Al up, I would forgive him for being an irritating prick, and hell, I would even admit that Slytherin House had half-decent wizards in it.

This time, I depended on Malfoy more than anyone.


A/N ~ Wow, yet another chapter! (I'm even more amazed.) Thank you to everyone for reading! Also, I kind-of changed the name of this fic... again. Haha, this should be the last time though! Promise. (: