DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter! If I did Fred would still be alive. But this plot and most of the characters are mine.
Also, thank you for all the reviews on the previous chapter! You guys are awesome! :D
Anyway, enjoy- I hope ;)
"Get your filthy hands off my cousin." snapped a voice.
Rose jumped away in shock. Al was striding down the corridor, looking the picture of anger and distrust. It was the same corridor as at the end of the last task – with all the students sat on benches along it, being tended to by the older ones. In plain view of whichever 4th years and older students were interested. Not a great place to show any sign of affection for someone who you shouldn't – sorry, couldn't – be with.
"I'm sorry, Potter, I don't quite understand. I'm at perfect liberty to hug whoever I like. I don't see why it's any of your business."
"Because Rose is my cousin, you bastard!"
"And your point is?"
"That you cannot, under any circumstances, have anything to do with Rose!"
"You're still not being very clear. Why should I not have anything to do with Rose?" Scorpius' voice was calm and cool, irritatingly so, but was starting to show cracks in his armour.
"How stupid can you be?" Albus exclaimed. "Rose is my cousin. Our parents hate yours. Therefore, we hate you. And, if you ever try anything with any of us, then you'll have the entire extended Weasley family to answer to. And there are a whole lot of us."
"Firstly, you're mistaken in thinking that hate has to continue in each generation- why the hell should it? If I make friends with a Weasley, then so what? Also, I wasn't trying anything. Rose is my friend. Yes. There, I said it. I'm friends with a Weasley. Deal with it, Potter."
With that, Scorpius turned away from Al, leaving the dark haired boy dumbfounded, and swaggered off.
Being left with no-one to rage at, Al strode over to Rose and took his anger out on her. "Rose! What the hell did you think you were doing? Letting that creep run his hands all over you!"
Time to choose. Does she defend Scorpius; keep up their friendship and probably lose Al's, or agree with Al that Malfoy is a creep and retain her cousin's trust? Scorpius or Al? Al or Scor?
"That creep happens to be my friend! He's also very smart, and we couldn't have completed this task without him! We barely escaped just then, but Scorpius saved us all last minute." She ignored Al's mocking noises and comments about Scorpius being 'Rose's hero, her Prince Charming,' and continued. "So we hugged. Big deal. It was in the moment, and we were happy. Yep, that's right. I was happy whilst being with a Slytherin. A Malfoy. What's the problem?"
"The problem?" Al screeched. "The problem is that I hate Malfoy! And you're like a sister to me, Rose, so I've got to hate any boyfriend of yours on principal, but when it's Scorpius Malfoy, this is a whole new level of... of... I don't even know, but I want you to keep away from him, Rose!"
"Boyfriend?" Rose gasped. "Scorpius isn't my boyfriend!"
"Not yet, maybe, but one thing leads to another. He's got his eye on you at the moment, but if you let him win you over he'll be lovely until he gets bored of you; dump you; move on to the next girl; and leave you heartbroken. And I can't stand by and watch that happen. So I'm banning you from having anything to do with him."
"Banning me?" Rose spat. "You don't have any authority over me, Al, so you're in no position to say anything like that!"
"Maybe I don't, but your Dad does."
Rose's face drained of colour. "Is this blackmail?"
"Hell! No, Rose, I'm not that cruel! I'm just saying: if you don't keep away from Scorpius, I'll have to tell your parents. It's for your own good!"
"How am I supposed to stay away from him?!"
Al snorted. "I know he's irresistible, but I'm sure you'll find a way."
"Not like that, you moron! Because he's in my team!"
"I don't know; just don't hug him or anything."
"And how do you know what's 'for my own good'? It's not your place to decide!"
"Well, whose is it then? Your parents?"
"Back to blackmail, are we? No, it's mine! My place! M-I-N-E. Mine."
"Alright, calm down!"
"How can I, Al? When my cousin is trying to blackmail me!"
"It's notblackmail!"
"What else would you call it? No, scrap that, I don't want to know. See you around, Al."
Rose followed Malfoy's lead and swept off.
The 4th years had the afternoon off, so Rose spent it up in her dorm with Molly and Tracey, pouring her heart out to them about the incident with Al.
"I just don't know what to do!" she finished dramatically, flopping face first down on her bed. "I like Scorpius," she began, before realising that her voice was muffled by her pillow and sitting up. "I like Scorpius, but I have no idea whether he likes me in any way at all. He definitely doesn't have any romantic feelings for me, which is both good and bad. Sometimes we get on well as friends, and other times he'll just ignore me. I mean, when we started the task, he was going out of his way to be horrible, but by the end we were hugging and he was arguing with Al over me! What's he playing at?" Molly burst out laughing. "What?" Rose exclaimed with a mixture of anger and curiosity.
"It's just so funny: normally you never give a damn what anyone thinks of you, Rose. As long as you have your fantastic grades, and me, of course, you're happy. But now... well, wow! You can't stop thinking about Malfoy!"
"I can!" Rose exclaimed indignantly. "I'm don't think about him in class-"
"No, you're too busy staring." Rose opened her mouth to object, but was silenced by a knowing look from Molly. "My point is: you like him a lot. More than you've liked anyone before. Unless you have had a secret crush on someone in the four years we've known each other and not told me." There was a brief pause. "Have you?"
"No one as much as I like Scorpius." Rose admitted, her cheeks flushing slightly.
"See, that's what's so funny. I've never seen you like this before! All blushing and nervous around him-"
"I am not!"
"You are. How long did it take you to figure out the 'hair-grip-in-the-lock' thing? Normal Rose would have managed that in seconds!" Rose pondered this for a moment, but was unable to come up with a decent response. Thankfully Tracey sorted that out for her.
"But your team won this task, Mol, yet you were working with Nathan. And if your boasting was anywhere near accurate, then you did most of the work. So, clearly he wasn't distracting you."
Rose threw Molly a superior glance. "So either you don't like Nathan anymore, or you're completely over exaggerating how I behave around Scorpius!"
"Maybe I'm just good at multi-taking." Molly suggested.
"There's no such thing: It's just your brain rapidly switching backwards and forwards between two tasks."
"Alright, genius! Calm down! So maybe I don't like Nathan anymore. But I used to, definitely. I wouldn't have fallen out with you if I hadn't done."
"It's ok, I never liked him anyway. I was just desperate not to be the only girl in our year who hadn't been out with a boy."
"I haven't." Tracey put in, nervously. "Been out with a boy, that is."
"That's just because you're underappreciated, Trace." Rose reassured her friend, smiling warmly at her.
"Actually, it's not. I've been meaning to tell you this for a while, and I really hope it won't change anything and that you won't judge me: I think I'm gay. Sorry, no, not gay, because I'm a girl. A lesbian. I think. Or bi. I'm not sure." Tracey blushed and looked away, waiting for her friends to choose a reaction.
Molly and Rose exchanged awkward glances. This wasn't what they had expected. But it would explain why Tracey had never seemed interested in boys. Rose had always assumed that her quiet friend had just found it awkward discussing guys, like the red-head did, but she should have known it was something more. Rose remembered that time when James had ended up running through the Common Room with just a towel round his waist, after stepping out the shower to discover that Fred and Roxy had stolen his clothes. As his cousin, Rose had just found the sight disturbing, but Molly and the other girls seemed to be melting at the sight of a near-naked, dripping-wet James Potter. Tracey had glanced up from her homework; then returned to it as soon as she had established what was going on.
"Ok." Rose said. "So what?"
"So you're not going to refuse to be friends with me anymore, or tell me to get out of your room?"
"No. Why would we?"
"Because most people are going to assume that I can't be friends with girls without trying to... you know."
"Tracey, I don't think that. People who do are just uneducated. Heterosexual people can be friends with people of the opposite sex without and romantic involvement."
Tracey gave her best friend a grateful smile, relief obvious in her face alone. "Thanks, Rose. You're the best."
There was a quiet moment, before Molly spoke. "So, Tracey, is there anyone special that we should know about?" Her voice held a hint of sarcasm, but not enough to be detected by Tracey. Rose, however, was used to sarcasm, as she got a lot of it from her father, brother, and several of her cousins, so noticed the underlying tone.
"No, not really. It's just... I started noticing girls in a way that I hadn't before. You see, at first I thought that I had to like boys, because it was the accepted thing, so I trained myself to. But then I realised that I shouldn't be ashamed of who I am; that being a lesbian is fine. It's how I was born, so why should I hide it? So I allowed girls to occupy my mind in the place of boys, to see if I was a lesbian. And I can't be sure yet- I don't suppose you can until you've been with people of both genders- but I think I'm into girls. I find women quite a bit more attractive than men, anyway. Wow. It felt good to get that off my chest."
"I don't think I've ever heard you talk so much Trace!" Rose exclaimed, jokingly. "Are you going to come out to everyone else, or is this a secret?"
"I've thought about it, but decided that I'm not ready to tell everyone yet. I don't know if they'll all be as accepting as you. It's not right that I'm in this situation, anyway. You don't have to go around and announce that you're straight, so why should it be any different for me?"
"I know, Tracey, it's not right. Society's motto seems to be 'straight until proven gay'. I hope that will change sometime soon."
"So do I." Another pause. "I think I'll go for a walk. I need to think. See you guys later." Tracey smiled as she made her way over to the door and left the room almost silently.
Then Molly turned to Rose. "What the heck?"
"What?" Rose asked, confused.
"Is she serious?"
"Why would she lie?"
"I don't know... for attention?"
"I don't think so. The only sort of attention poor Tracey will get will be from prejudice people calling her names and judging her. Hardly the sort of attention she'd want. Anyway, Trace isn't an attention-seeker. She's anything but."
"But still... Tracey? A lesbian?"
"You're talking like it's a bad thing." Rose's tone was suddenly cool.
"No, it's not. I mean, I don't have a problem with gay people, but it's not exactly natural, is it?"
"Natural?" Rose spat. "Well, your sexuality has been scientifically proven to be caused by chemicals being released in your brain. It's just how your body works. Nothing is more natural than that."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"So you don't choose it?"
"No. How uneducated are you?!"
"I'm not purposely naive, Rose! It's just how I've been brought up!"
"I'm sorry, I just can't stand homophobes." Rose explained apologetically.
"And I understand that. I'm not homophobic, though. I just... I don't know. I've not been brought up with homosexuality around me; it was kind of hushed up. So I'm not used to it. But I'm not going to judge anyone on their sexuality, especially now I know it's not their choice." Molly noticed Rose death-staring her. "Not that I would anyway, of course." She added nervously.
"I know, Molly. But some people are homophobic, so we're going to have to be here for Tracey when she needs us. Because in a school this size, there's going to be someone who'll give Trace abuse for who she is. And that's not right. But as long as we're here when she needs someone to talk to, and will stand up for her, then we're doing everything we can."
"See, Rose, this is why, you're such a good friend. You're always supportive and understanding, whilst I'm being all judgemental."
"But I'm far too sensible and boring. You're the funny, outgoing one."
"Well, Tracey's very lucky to have both of us. She gets the best of both worlds, then."
Rose laughed a little, before laying down onto her bed to think.
So there you are. Chapter 20 done.
I'm thinking of having a bit of a mystery arising in the next chapter- opinions?
And, as always, feel free to review! In fact, please do; it makes me smile ;)
Lucy x