Chapter 29 – Fury

"Good evening, Rose," Professor Longbottom said cheerily, with a nod in Rose's direction.

She jumped slightly at the sound of her name, abandoning her desperate search to find Albus and Scorpius, all thoughts and suspicions about Lily's intentions fading away.

"Good evening, Sir," she said politely, offering him a warm smile. It still felt bizarre to address Neville like this, considering she'd known him all of her life.

"Good holiday?" he asked, as they walked side by side into the castle.

"I suppose so," she said half-heartedly, trying to remember anything that had actually occurred over the Easter. "Oh!" she exclaimed, suddenly remembering. "Actually – Teddy and Victoire got engaged!"

"Really? That's wonderful!"

Rose nodded eagerly by his side, unsure of what to say next. "Yeah – they're getting married in the summer. I'm sure you can come."

"I look forward to my invitation! And I'd really love to stay and chat, but I've got a house to organise." And with a wave of his hand he too disappeared into the crowd, trying to round up all the Gryffindor students into some sort of orderly fashion. Rose trailed behind him, deep in thought.


After what seemed like a particularly uneventful welcome back feast, in which she'd spent the entire meal sat with Albus, Rose thought it best to retreat back to the dorm room. The common room was packed full, but Rose really wasn't in the mood to have to deal with James, or Sam, or any other inconveniences she may come across. She craved solitude, wanting time to think about Scorpius, or perhaps Lily's odd behaviour.

She was therefore extremely surprised to open the door to find the room full – full in the sense that Janey, Gwen, and Taylor were all there. The three of them were all perched on Taylor's bed, apparently in deep conversation, but all heads turned towards Rose as she entered, silence falling abruptly in the room.

Rose was about to say something friendly – ask if they'd had nice holidays or enjoyed the feast, but something about their expressions made her stop. She was met not with three friendly faces, pleased to see her, but with what could only be described as glares of hatred, and it unsettled her greatly.

Gwen's gaze dropped to the floor guiltily, immediately sending waves of paranoia surging through Rose's body. "Were you – were you talking about me?" Rose asked quietly, her hand shaking as she closed the door behind her.

Nobody spoke. Janey and Taylor exchanged glances, and Gwen kept her eyes fixed firmly on the floor.

"I don't understand," Rose said, trying to keep her voice from wavering. "Is there something I've done wrong?" she asked, racking her brain for anything that she'd done that may have caused them to act like this, at the same time desperately willing them to not have been discussing her, and it all just be her paranoid mind running free.

As usual with any argument, Janey was first to speak up and speak her mind. "Would you like to tell us why you made us leave the compartment earlier?"

Rose relaxed a little, even letting out a small laugh of relief. Was that all? She thought she'd done something so horrendously wrong that they'd somehow all turned against her. "That was nothing, Janey – I thought you wanted to spend time with your new boyfriend anyway?"

"We broke up," she said fiercely.

"I – I didn't know," Rose replied quickly, dropping her smile immediately. "I'm sorry, Janey." She took a step towards the bed, resolving to hug her in comfort, but there was something in Janey's eyes that flashed like a warning, compelling her to stay put.

"You don't care," Taylor said, so quietly that Rose thought she'd imagined it.

"I – of course I do," Rose stuttered in defence, completely flummoxed by this remark. Janey had gone through so many different boyfriends that it was hard to take her seriously anymore, but that didn't mean that she didn't care about Janey's feelings.

"No," Taylor said more loudly, "you don't. The only person you care about is yourself."

Rose was lost for words – where was all this coming from? "Taylor, you know that's not true," she replied breathlessly.

"Oh, isn't it?" Her tone was patronising now, and her voice getting louder with every word. "Then why did you force me and Sam to leave too? We've been your friends since the very first day at Hogwarts, and we have always stood by your side and been completely loyal to you. You've known Scorpius Malfoy for all of two months, and suddenly you're blowing us off to spend time with him?"

"Taylor, please," Rose begged. "It wasn't like that at all – he didn't have anywhere to sit and I just didn't want him to feel intimidated by you all." This wasn't strictly true, but Rose was desperate – she couldn't lose her friends over such a silly little thing.

Janey mumbled a swear word under her breath. It was obvious that nobody believed Rose.

"Since when did you value Scorpius Malfoy more than you value us?"

Rose couldn't help but notice the way Taylor's nose scrunched up when she was angry – it was bizarrely comical and she had the strange urge to burst into laughter, but now was not the time. That was perhaps the worst thing she could do in a situation like this.

"How could you ever think that? He doesn't mean anything to me. Not in the way that you guys do anyway."

Taylor ignored her. "Ever since he took an interest in you, you've been acting differently."

"I'm the same person I was when I met him," Rose choked out. Every word Taylor said was like a dagger inside her, but to cry in front of them was the worst thing she could do. She had to stay strong, and let them know how much she cared.

"NO!" Taylor yelled in fury, actually rising from the bed so that they were face to face. "The Rose Weasley I met nearly four years ago wouldn't have skipped class to hang out with some guy she barely knows. She wouldn't have gotten detention, or be having private chats with the headmistress. She would never steal her cousin's invisibility cloak to sneak out of the castle in the middle of the night. She wouldn't be disloyal to her house, or her friends, or her family. And she would never, never, push away her best and most loyal friends for somebody who, quite frankly, doesn't have a reputation for being honest and trustworthy."

Silence fell in the room. Rose could see the fury in Taylor's eyes – a fury she'd clearly been keeping to herself for a while – an anger that had been building up for the past few months. Every word that Taylor yelled stung her, because she knew deep down that it was true. Scorpius had changed her. But Rose liked it. She loved how reckless she could all of a sudden be. This new Rose was different, but she was exciting, and if her friends wouldn't support her, then perhaps they weren't real friends.

Rose had always been the peacekeeper between the Gryffin-Girls whenever they'd argued. She'd never been the cause of an argument before, and they'd never had an argument like this since Neville had told them how disappointed he'd been about the whole Evangeline thing.

"And you all think this, do you?" Rose asked coldly, deliberately glaring at Janey, and then at Gwen, who refused to look up at her.

Janey stood up to stand by Taylor's side, as though emphasising her opinion. "We just want the old you back," she said almost pleadingly, and Rose saw a glimpse of a young innocent child deep within Janey's eyes – some kind of sympathetic emotion that she'd never displayed before. She looked like a little child, so vulnerable that Rose nearly had a change of heart.

"I thought you were my friends. I thought I could count on you to be there for me and support me. When I'm with Scorpius I feel alive, and real, and if you can't be happy for me then what kind of friends does that make you to me? Ever since Gwen got a boyfriend she's barely around anymore, but have any of us made a fuss about that? No, of course not – because we're friends, and friends support each other. So why, when I start hanging out with Scorpius, do you all overreact like this, and make such a huge fuss about it?"

Gwen rose from the bed with such a fierce, feline motion that Rose actually took a step back. "Don't make this about me," she growled. "If you ever had a problem with me and Mason then you should have said so."

"I don't have a problem," Rose replied defensively. "I just meant that –"

"We know what you meant," Taylor cut across her. "It's different with Gwen. She doesn't push us away – we're welcome to hang out with her and Mason whenever we want, and we don't have to change for her. But with you, we're not even allowed to share a train compartment with you, just because you want to hang out with Scorpius? That's not what friendship should be about."

"But that's –"

"Do you know what I had to put up with, just so you could have a nice time with your new boyfriend?"

"Scorpius isn't my –"

"I had to spend hours listening to Sam drone on and whine about how much he hates Scorpius, and how much he doesn't deserve you, and let me tell you –"

"NO!" Rose screamed, fed up with Taylor interrupting her. She was certain by now that her face must be as red as her hair. "Just shut up and let me speak!" Taylor looked startled with her outburst. "The only reason you're not okay with this is because you're jealous of what Scorpius and I have!"

Taylor's eyes were so wide that with her glasses in front she looked like an angry bug, and her hair seemed particularly bushy. Rose took a deep breath, knowing that there was still time to back out if she wanted to. But something within pushed her further. "I know exactly what's going on. You can't handle the fact that I'm more popular than you, and smarter than you, and –"

"What?"

"You spend every day pining over somebody who will never love you. You resent the fact that Professor Longbottom never looks at you twice, and that he will never, never, be yours. You were fine when Janey first got a boyfriend, and fine when Gwen got one too. But now that things are getting serious between Scorpius and I, you're terrified that you'll be left alone, and you can't handle the fact that nobody will ever love you like that!"

Rose didn't even know how much of this she genuinely believed – whether she believed any of it at all. She didn't know where these words were coming from, and as she stood in the room, hands shaking by her side, it only just begun to sunk in exactly what she'd said. But there was nothing she could do now. She'd already spoken. The damage was done.

Tears were streaming down Taylor's face, absorbed by the bushiness of her hair, and her skin was red and splotchy, making her as undesirable as she'd ever appeared before. Janey was eerily quiet, making no motion whatsoever to either comfort Taylor or get angry at Rose. Gwen simply stared in shock, disgusted by what had just been said.

"You know what?" Taylor said quietly. Rose was disturbed by how clear and controlled her voice was. There was no shakiness or stuttering – only calm and quiet determination.

"What?" Rose mumbled, using all her strength not to burst into tears.

"You're a bitch."

And without a single glance back, Rose fled from the room, horrified by the cruel things she'd said, and devastated by the realisation that her friends had turned on her. They would never let her back. They'd kick her out like they'd done with Evangeline. But did she really blame them? Could she even believe what had just happened? Had she honestly just said what she thought she did?

Shaking her head as she ran, Rose hurtled straight for the portrait hole, with one goal in mind. She didn't know where it was exactly, or what she was going to do when she got there, but she never looked back as she ran towards the dungeons – in search of the Slytherin common room.