Disclaimer: As much as I would love for this to be all mine, anything related to HP belongs to the fabulous JKR.
The Red and The Blond
I really feel
That I'm losing my best friend
I can't believe
This could be the end
- No Doubt, Don't Speak
Chapter 12: Losing My Best Friend
Rose's head snapped in the direction of the door in her cabin as Albus entered with a tight expression.
"I'm guessing you couldn't find him then?" She asked quietly, as Albus shook his head before sitting on the seat opposite her.
"I checked in nearly all cabins, but no sign of him. Maybe he's running late?" He suggested, while peering out the window to see just a few people standing on Platform 9 and ¾ . Rose glanced outside too, but shook her head at Albus' question.
"He's always earlier than us. Maybe… maybe he's in one of the cabins you didn't check." Albus nodded his head in agreement, but remained silent.
Rose sat back in her seat and frowned in deep thought. This was so unlike Scorpius. He always got on the train much earlier than them - that's why she hadn't met his parents yet – and then he would save seats for them and stood in the corridor until they arrived. They weren't able to find him on the train home for Christmas break either. Seriously, what was going on with him? Rose suddenly realized the last time she had seen Scorpius was at the Christmas Ball, the night before they left for the break, and it had only been for a few moments. No letters had been exchanged between them either.
She thought she was worried last year about their friendship, now there was definitely something to worry about.
Rose's head shot up in the direction of the door again as it creaked open. Her head dropped slightly, as she saw it was Esmeralda.
"Hey!" She said grinning at them… well, more at Rose than Albus. After seeing Esmeralda at the Ball looking glamorous, it was strange to see her back to her usual self. Her hair was scraggly with a hundred visible split ends. Her clothes were slightly dirty and she had a scratch on her nose, which was most likely because of her cat, plus her suitcase appeared to be broken as she was clinging it awkwardly to her chest.
"Hi Esme, how was your break?" Rose asked as enthusiastically as she could. Esmeralda flung herself onto the seat next to Rose and bit her lip as she stared at the empty seat opposite her.
"Oh, boring as usual…. Where's Scorpius?" She asked casually, but something like concern sparked in her eyes as she moved her gaze from the empty seat to Rose.
"We've got no idea, Gremlin." Albus said, as if he wanted to make sure nobody had forgotten he was sitting there. Esmeralda sat still for a moment then nodded slowly.
"Well, I've got to fix this bloody suitcase." She pulled out a wand and cleared her throat.
"Oculus Reparo." She mumbled, and her suitcase repaired itself right before their eyes.
Rose was about to ask Esmeralda when she had last seen Scorpius, but Albus shouted "Food!" and Esme clapped her hands excitedly, as the Trolley Lady stopped outside their cabin.
Five games of Exploding Snap and a ton of food later, they were fast approaching Hogwarts.
"Argh… I don't think I can move from this spot." Albus groaned, while clutching his stomach. Esmeralda simply laughed instead of insulting him in some way, like she usually would mostly because of the fact that she had eaten too much food as well.
"Well, you're going to have to move to go change into your robes." Rose stated, while giving him a little poke.
"Ouch! Fine, I'm going." He let out one more groan before sliding off his seat and dramatically crawling to the cabin door.
"You're overdoing it now, Potter." Esmeralda giggled, while giving him a small kick so he would move out the door.
As soon as Albus was out the door, Rose shifted in her seat so she was facing Esmeralda.
"Esme?" She received a small 'uh-huh' in reply. "Do you know what's wrong with Scorpius? Why isn't he here?"
Esmeralda took a deep breath before answering.
"Do you remember I told you about my cousin? Max?" Rose knew this was going to be bad. Esmeralda had mentioned briefly about her cousins that attended Hogwarts and that Max was by far the worst out of them. He was a Slytherin and he contributed to the bad reputation that Slytherins have. He had this weird fascination with the Dark Arts History and was one of the very few who favored a pure bloodline. He liked to cause trouble at school and this was his final year at Hogwarts.
"He met Scorpius and obviously wanted to talk to him… I think Scorpius liked the attention Max was giving him." Rose exhaled deeply as she began to tell Esmeralda about the fears she had over Scorpius this past year.
"He wants to be in Slytherin, not Gryffindor. He doesn't think he belongs in Gryffindor."
"Yup, and now Max has him." Rose simply shook her head and stared out the window. She found it difficult to appreciate the beautiful landscape that stretched out before her due to the heavy load on her mind.
She saw him as they were approaching the thestral drawn carriages (although Rose was unable to see the thestrals). Rose was hoping he would be by himself, but unfortunately Max and two other older students were with him.
"Look, there's Scorpius! Why is he with Maximus?" Albus said, putting an emphasis on the last word to show his disgust for that person. Rose took a deep breath and glanced in Esmeralda's direction.
"I should go talk to him." She said at last and Esme nodded back.
"I'll explain the situation to Potter here."
Walking over to Scorpius felt like the longest walk in her life and when she finally reached close enough to them, all she wanted to do was run the other way. Too late.
"A Weasley! Well, this should be interesting." Max said with a smirk playing on his lips. Rose bit down hard on her tongue to stop herself from saying anything. Darn, she was already finding him annoying! With his stupid posh accent and his silly hand gestures.
Scorpius twirled around to face Rose when he heard this. His face was a mixture of confusion and sheepishness. Rose parted her lips slightly to say something, but the words didn't come out, so they just stared intensely at each other for a moment until Max broke the silence.
"Please Weasley, if you have something to say then say it now… or forever hold your peace." The other two brain-dead guys sniggered at this. That wasn't even funny…
"Scorpius… What's going on?" She asked, feeling pathetic for asking such a stupid question.
"He's found new friends, little girl." Max stated in a slightly amused voice, as if this was all highly entertaining to him. Rose could feel her cheeks burning in anger.
"I was asking Scorpius, not you." She snarled at him.
"Quite a temper… Guessing you get that from your father?" Her hand inched closer to the wand she kept in the pocket of her robes. She turned her attention back to Scorpius, who looked like he was still struggling with what to say.
"I know you think you should be with people like them," She pointed in the direction of Max. "But you really don't. You're so much better than them and I wish you could see that. Please come back to where you belong."
Her eyes were beginning to smart, so she didn't say anything else in the fear that she would begin to cry. She wished she had something to him earlier when she first realized he was conflicted between Gryffindor and Slytherin, because now it felt far too late. She cared about him so much and now it was scaring her that he didn't feel the same way about her.
"Sorry." That was all he said. He couldn't even look at her. She blinked back tears and turned to leave, as there was nothing left to be said.
"Yes. Leave blood-traitor." She held on tightly to her wand. The other boys guffawed and shouted out words with similar meanings.
"You dunglicker!"
"Scumsucker!"
"Ahhhh… I completely forgot that you have a mudblood Mother. Poor child!"
She turned around abruptly with her wand pointed right at Max. She had no idea what spell she was going to use… Duelling classes seemed pointless to her in that split second. Max looked like he was on the verge of laughing at her and he didn't even bother to take out his wand. Thankfully she felt someone pull her backwards, even better that person was Esmeralda. Albus protectively stood in front of Rose with his wand out as well, but it was Esmeralda who looked the most intimidating.
Max's wand shot out from his robes and his hand was visibly trembling. Esmeralda laughed at him.
"All talk, no action with you, Maximus. My parents always told me you were a horrible, little coward." She glared at him and moved a step closer to him. One of the brain-dead sidekicks opened his mouth to mutter something, but Esme flicked her wand in his direction and muttered 'Expelliarmus'.
Rose had always admired the ease at which Esmeralda could perform spells and even now she performed as if she were in a classroom. Rose was more of a theoretical genius, whereas Esme excelled in the practical side to subjects.
"If I ever hear those nasty little words come out of your mouth again, I will send a letter to your Mother after I put you through as much pain as possible without using an unforgivable curse." She narrowed her eyes at him at the last part. "Is that understood?"
Maximus quickly nodded, and Esmeralda placed her wand back in her robes and motioned for Rose and Albus to follow her.
Rose glanced up at Scorpius one final time and just saw he was still standing there with an emotionless face. He had at least not tried to protect Max, but he still didn't say a word when Max had said those horrible things to her. She shook her head, feeling disgusted in Scorpius. She had turned to leave when she heard a desperate voice say,
"Rose…" She didn't really care what Scorpius had to say though and continued to walk away.
Esmeralda placed her arm around Rose, and Albus looked a little lost… most likely because of the fact that he had just lost his best friend in the space of five minutes.
"That was a bit overdramatic, Gremlin." He finally muttered.
A/N: It's been so long! I really enjoyed writing that chapter, so hopefully you like it! I haven't edited it though, so I'm really hoping there's not too many mistakes!
Please let me know what you guys think of it! Xx
TheCheeryCherry.
