DISCLAIMER: huh? me? no, i don't own this!

Chapter 12

Scorpius

The door bursts open.

I jump to my feet as Professor Schiffer enters the classroom. He looks the same as always – emotionless. I have no idea why his face never changes its expression. It's always blank. And this is the first time it annoys me. Didn't it matter that a student of his was experimented upon by a couple of pranksters who had nothing else better to do and who are holding a grudge against him because he happens to be in love with one of the said prankster's little sister?

"Sir – ," I call out to him.

"Later, Mr. Malfoy," Schiffer said, not even sparing a cold glance to accompany the equally cold tone of his voice. "After class."

Great. Like I can concentrate in class while my best friend is in the Hospital Wing fighting for his humanity. Maybe I should just walk out of the class. I feel a restraining hand grip my arm tightly.

"Don't," Louis warns, "He'll put you in detention. You know how he hates anyone disrupting his class. Plus, I need your help with this potion."

Damn his veela blood. There's really no doubt why girls throw themselves at him. One pleading look from those eyes… I shake my head to clear it from disturbing thoughts. Oh, and I shudder of course.

"You can just ask your cousins," I mumble in an undertone, slumping back on the chair.

Speaking of which, Albus Potter is staring at me curiously and questioningly.

"Well?" he whispers, "What does he look like?"

The unwanted and scary image comes rushing in my head. It keeps on flashing like that gigantic poster on the window of the Weasleys' joke shop. Does Boris still have those feathers covering his body? What if Schiffer was unable to get rid of them? Are they going to pluck them off one by one? What about the horrendous tail and talons? Never mind the yellow eyes. I think it's awesome.

Albus Potter gasps excitedly. "The wings! What about the wings? Does he have wings? Do you think he could fly?"

I glance at the front. Schiffer is taking out some parchments from his bag.

"Stop bothering me, Potter," I murmur loudly. Sure enough, the professor's piercing glare focuses on us.

"Something the matter?" he asks calmly.

Potter glowered at me but I ignore him. "Nothing, Sir. Potter was just asking some questions I do not deem worthy of answering."

Schiffer stares at us for a while. "Come here, Potter."

He growls at me before walking off.

"You didn't have to do that," Louis grumbles disapprovingly.

I just give him a snort. What can I say; we all do shitty things when we're pissed. And too bad for Albus Potter, he's the available one to vent on.

I catch Rose Weasley peeking at me. I smirk at her and she becomes red immediately but to my surprise, she didn't fret like she usually did. Instead, she gives me a sympathetic smile. As though she actually understands the reason behind my actions. My smirk disappears to be replaced by a scowl. I convey as much anger as I can through my eyes. She's only sorry because she knows her cousins were the ones responsible for what happened to Boris.

I guess she got the message because her smile disappears and she stiffens as she swivels to face the front again.

"Hand these homeworks to your classmates," Schiffer instructs Potter, indicating the pile of parchments on the desk. "You will brew antidotes today. I wrote the poison on your papers. Work as soon as you got it. So you better hurry up, Potter."

Potter scoops them up and when he has his back on Schiffer, he rolls his eyes. Louis chuckles quietly. I already settled my scores on Potter therefore I permitted myself to smile in amusement. Potter knows that all is cool between us again when he comes over to me and rolls his eyes in exasperation. He shoves the paper in my face, though.

Laughing, I look at my homework.

Outstanding.

No surprises there.

xXx

Al

Rosie loves surprises. Even though she knows it's a surprise, she's always excited to be at the receiving end of that surprise. I remember her 8th birthday when we caught her parents doing the preparations for the supposed surprise birthday party for her. It was midnight. We snuck downstairs to find out what the noises were. We knew it was Rosie's parents arguing – they do that all the time – but we heard different voices that night so we thought we might as well investigate. Turned out that the whole Weasley family was there and they were preparing to surprise Rosie when she wakes up in the morning. I had to practically drag Rosie away from the banisters. When morning came, she was so overwhelmed with excitement. If I didn't know that Rosie was a terrible actress I would have thought back then that she was pretending to be excited. But, no. That's just how Rosie is. She loves surprises. Expected or not expected.

However, I highly doubt if this particular surprise will be greeted agreeably. Maybe I should just run away now before Rosie sees this. I am quite sure something will definitely go wrong. Terribly wrong. As wrong as Zabini turning into a hippogriff. As wrong as James and Fred when they did that.

"Al?"

I look up at Louis. He's staring curiously at me. Beside him, Malfoy gives me a raised eyebrow. They're probably wondering what I'm doing, skulking at the very back of the dungeon. The dreaded paper is still in my shaking hands.

What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?

"Give that to Miss Weasley now, Potter," calls Professor Schiffer out.

Rosie turns in my direction. I gulp. She looks confounded. After all, she's the only one left with no antidote to work on. I glance once more at the paper I'm holding then back at Rosie. Bracing myself, I approach our desk with apprehension.

I should have written to my parents this morning, tell them I'm doing great in my life. I may not have accomplished as much as James but I'm happy and content. I wish I could have thanked them for being the best parents anyone could hope for. I wish I could have said I love them. For the last time.

Mum, Dad, if you somehow had the ability to read minds thousands of miles away, I just want you to know that I love you very much. I am now giving Rosie the paper that will end your son's sunny days.

Without looking at her, I sit down stiffly. Here it goes…

A shocked silence and then…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I cringe.

A million things happen after that – cauldrons plummet down the floor, potions are spilling everywhere. I think I saw some of my classmates draw out their wands as if expecting an attack.

"What the – !" Louis exclaims in shock, his cauldron suddenly got feet and is running away from him. "Rosie?"

I steal a glance at her. She's shaking. That's understandable.

"What's the meaning of this, Al?" Rosie asks me hysterically, flinging the paper in front of my face. "Is this some kind of joke? Are you playing tricks on me? Is this a revenge for what I put you through?"

Ok, so now she's blaming me? That's not understandable. I open and close my mouth. What am I supposed to say?

"Calm down, Miss Weasley," says the ever-so calm Professor Schiffer.

Rosie's head snap in his direction. Her eyes are actually blazing I can't help but be scared. Oh, man. She's really furious.

"Calm… down?" she asks sarcastically. "How am I supposed to calm down, sir?"

She uttered the word 'sir' with so much venom. Is it possible for Rosie to be even more hysterical than she already is?

"I refuse to accept this!" she announces to the whole watching and stunned class, brandishing that paper wrathfully. "This is not mine! This can't be mine! I did not do this! I did not write this! IT'S NOT MINE!!!"

Yes, it's possible.

"Miss Weasley," starts Professor Schiffer evenly. "I am aware that you are not the only Weasley in this school. However, I am quite positive that you are the only Rose Weasley in Hogwarts and in your family. Hence, there is no doubt that that piece of parchment indeed belongs to you."

"NO!!!" yells Rosie, "This can't be! I CAN'T HAVE A T!!!"

The whole class draw a collective gasp. Shocker, right? Rose Weasley – straight O student, number one in the school, daughter of the brightest witch of her generation Hermione Weasley – got a T on her Potions homework. No one in the family was able to achieve that feat since my dad. Well, I was close to having one back in first year. I got a D. I was upset so I wrote to Dad about it. He told me about that time when my namesake gave him a T. That cheered me up. It motivated me as well. Getting a T is embarrassing that I always make sure to study real hard in all my subjects. I can't even begin to imagine how embarrassing and disappointing it must be for Rosie.

"I refuse to accept this," announces Rose, trembling with outrage.

It's amazing how that paper is still in one piece, what with all the clutching I did earlier and now Rosie's rough treatment. I'm surprised she hasn't ripped it to pieces yet.

"Al," Louis whispers from behind me, "Seriously? She got a T?"

I nod sombrely. He stares at me in disbelief. And so does Malfoy.

"I refuse to accept this," Rosie repeats persistently. I turn to look at her but she's not beside me anymore. She's already in front of the professor's desk. How did she get there?

Professor Schiffer raises his blank eyes to hers and states, "Whether you accept it or not will change nothing, Miss Weasley. This homework was given to you, you answered it, and the answers were appalling not to mention obviously copied from other student's work. That is why you earned a T."

"But if I copied from Al's work then I should have the same mark!" Rosie argues. Great, it's so obvious Rosie's not thinking anymore. Louis nudges my back.

"What did you get?"

"Acceptable,"

"How come – ?"

"No idea," I shrug. And I don't really have any idea what happened.

"Your answer on question number one," Professor Schiffer replies steadily, "is in question number ten. As a matter of fact, your whole homework is like a maze of pure, utter nonsense. Everything is in the wrong place."

Rosie was that messed up in the mind a week ago?

"I… I wasn't my usual self at that time," Rosie mutters in defence, "Please, sir! Let me do it again!"

"No," he proclaims, getting on his feet. "What happened already happened. Deal with it. Go back to your seat, Miss Weasley. You are wasting this class's time."

And because he's always bored while waiting for us to be done with our potions (he told us before), he writes next week's homework on the blackboard the Muggle-way.

"Please, sir," Rosie insists stubbornly, "I can't have a mark like this. I just can't. Don't you know how insulting this is?"

My eyes are bulging out of their sockets now. Rosie, disobeying a professor? This day is really full of surprises.

"If you are still standing in front of my desk after I'm done, it will be 150 points from Gryffindor." Schiffer threatens.

I jump to my feet immediately. Facing Rosie's anger is much preferable to losing 150 points. Sure, we can get that back but we are aiming to win the House Cup in landslide victory. We lost last year's to Slytherin. Stupid Malfoy.

I grip Rosie's hand tightly. "Come on. Let's go sit down."

She's resisting, of course. I catch a glimpse of her face and feel really sorry for her. She looks lost. I loosen my grip on her hand to hold it gently this time.

"Rosie," I whisper consolingly, "maybe now is not the appropriate time to talk to him. Maybe we can do that after class, huh? Come on; let's go back to our table. We're supposed to do this potion and look, Malfoy's already ahead of everyone else. If we don't hurry we might get a… well, you know."

But Rosie is not listening. At the mention of Malfoy, her head snapped up. She's glaring at Malfoy. Glaring at Malfoy? She never glares at Malfoy. But she is. There's a look of pure hatred in her eyes that it's not surprising that Malfoy recoils from the impact of the Basilisk-like glare directed at him.

Rosie finally moves from her spot and drags me along, all the while not taking her eyes off of Malfoy. He looks so bewildered I can't help but smirk at him. If I'm guessing it right – and I usually am – Rosie is blaming her epic fail to none other than Scorpius Malfoy himself.

This is gonna be interesting.

hello! wow, it's been a looong time! first off, i want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to those who reviewed, read, and enjoyed this story.

and i also would like to apologize for being a slow updater. you see, not only am i super lazy but i'm also very moody. when i'm not in the mood to write, i really can't write. not even a decent sentence. i'm sure you'll probably notice in this chapter because i felt like i struggled writing this one. i can't seem to find the right words and stuff. and i don't like forcing myself to write because then i can only come up with crappy ideas. so again, i apologize.

anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. not sure about the next one. i'm still thinking about it... ^.^