A/N: Before you get cracking on this chapter, I'd just like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who has read or reviewed this story. I read every one and appreciate them greatly. If you have any questions, just stick them in a review. I really hope you enjoy this chapter - it's my favourite one so far!...
"JESSIE, where's my toothbrush?"
Jessie looked up from the book she was reading and rolled her eyes.
"Seriously, James?" she said, in the direction of the bathroom. "You turn 20 in two days' time and you're me where your toothbrush is?"
James stuck his head of the bathroom door and glared at her.
"Hey! You're the one who re-ordered my entire bathroom because it was 'a complete state'!"
"Well it was!" exclaimed Jessie, dumping her book on the bed and marching past him into the bathroom.
Instantly finding the toothbrush, she handed it to him and sat back down again.
James scowled at her.
"If I'm going to be spending two evenings a week here," she continued, crossing her legs and fixing him with an icy stare, "I want to be safe in the knowledge that I won't be in danger of catching herpes every time I visit your bathroom!"
James just tutted and continued his packing.
Jessie had been spending a large amount of time with James since her bust up with Al; knowing she didn't want to be anywhere near his brother, James offered her the chance to help him plan lessons Care of Magical Creature lessons with him, which she jumped at.
Since then, they'd been pretty much inseparable, only parting when they each had classes.
Whilst the two of them hadn't thought much of it, James had caught Sienna staring jealously at Jessie on more than one occasion.
He didn't mention it to her, however, and allowed the memory to slide each time it happened.
James' need for a toothbrush was down to the fact that they (him, Jessie, Mark, Rose, Hugo, Lily, Finch, Razor, Barrat, Terri, Jas and Nathan – not Al) were off on a camping trip for James' 20th birthday.
Admittedly it was now mid-November, but due to a rather massive spell backfire, courtesy of the Ministry's weather team, they were now experiencing May conditions; so, whilst it wasn't blazing sunshine and bikinis, it wasn't freezing either.
Finally satisfied he'd packed everything, James said, "Alright Goldstein, let's go camping!"
FINCH was feeling supremely uncomfortable.
He, Hugo and Razor were stood in the Entrance Hall, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.
Much to Finch's horror, Hugo had invited Barrat along on their little soiree, having become good friends with him again after their numerous one-on-one tutoring sessions.
Finch was constantly on edge, consumed with fear that Barrat would let slip their little secret.
Spending a whole weekend with him was going to be, Finch was certain, an absolute nightmare.
He felt his stomach flip as he caught sight of Barrat making his way towards them.
"Hey man," said Hugo, clapping him on the back as he reached them. "Got everything?"
"Yep," said Barrat, pulling two bottles of Firewhiskey from his jeans pockets. "This weekend is going to be fucking immense!"
"Mr Barrat, is that alcohol you've got there?"
Barrat nearly dropped the bottles he was holding as Harry's voice echoed around the Entrance Hall.
Spinning around, the bottles poorly hidden behind his back, he began uttering a completely unbelievable excuse.
He stuttered to a halt, however, when he saw Harry was nowhere in-sight.
Instead, James was stood twenty yards away, Jessie beside him, nearly wetting himself as he took in the horrified expression on Barrat's face.
"You bell-end!" cursed Barrat, his face reddening with humiliation. "I thought I was completely busted!"
James continued snorting with laughter as he spat out the same Voice-Converter Jessie had used to fool Al many months ago at the Burrow.
"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes – entertaining and scaring the wizarding community since nineteen-ninety...something," said James, holding up the Voice-Converter. "You can thank Jessie for that little prank!"
He went to pass the Voice-Converter back to her; Jessie looked repulsed.
"Hey, I don't want that back after it's been covered in your saliva!"
James looked offended.
"I haven't got a disease you know! I've kissed plenty of girls and none of them have died!"
"Didn't you give Maria Finkle the Clap once?" asked Lily, who had just arrived with Terri and Jas.
"Christ, we're only going for three days!" exclaimed Hugo, looking at the sheer amount of luggage his cousin and her friends had bought with them. "What the hell have you packed?"
"Shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser, make-up, shoes-" Lily began to recite.
"That was a rhetorical question!" interrupted Hugo, looking exasperated.
"'Rhetorical'?" repeated Lily, eyebrows raised. "I didn't know you knew any words longer than 'tits' and 'arse'!"
"Ha ha," said Hugo, sarcastically, sticking his middle finger up at her. "Barrat taught it to me."
"God, you two are such gay-boys," sniggered Razor
Finch stiffened as Barrat threw Razor a filthy look.
"Call me a fag again and I'll show youexactly what it's like to have something shoved up your arse!" he growled threateningly.
Razor looked terrified.
"Barrat, I was only joking!" he said hurriedly, holding up his hands in defence. "I know you're no faggot-lover!"
Finch inadvertently caught Barrat's eye.
The searing look he got in response made him regret it immediately.
Before Barrat could say anything further, however, James said jovially, "Right, so that's sorted, then. Now, who else are we waiting for?"
Everyone looked around and saw Rose, Nathan and Mark had yet to arrive.
"I should have known the American would be late," growled James, peering up the Grand Staircase for signs of their impending arrival.
"Oi!" he yelled, spying Mark a few floors up. "Get your girlfriend-stealing arse down here! Is that Rose and her victim I can see? Hurry the fuck up!"
Mark responded to James' yelling by sending a hex at him.
By the time Mark, Rose and Nathan had reached the rest of the group, James, with Jessie's help, had managed to stem the gunge that had been pouring from his ears and nose.
"You know, I could give you detention for that, Bass!" he spat, as Jessie syphoned the rest of the mess off of his clothes.
"Yeah, well," said Mark, with an evil grin, "I could just report you for snogging that Seventh Year Hufflepuff in Hogsmeade the other day..."
Jessie's mouth fell open.
"You did what?" she said, looking partly annoyed, partly upset. "What is wrong with you? I thought you'd stopped messing around!"
James threw Mark a furious glare, before addressing Jessie.
"Actually, ye of little faith, Catherine asked me to kiss her as part of her Potions experiment; she wanted to test the differences in saliva levels pre-and-post kiss, to know whether it made a difference to a love potion's strength or some shit like that. Anyway, she needed people aged between 14-and-19 and I was the only one who fit the highest age bracket, so I had to do it; it was all completely legit. Besides, Hugo snogged her, too."
Everyone turned to look at Hugo in surprise.
He was, unsurprisingly, grinning from ear to ear.
"It was awesome," he confirmed, looking very proud of himself.
"So," said James, turning back to a slightly-flustered Jessie, "What do you think about that, huh? Dick-face got it wrong."
Mark rolled his eyes, not looking at all bothered.
"Whatever, fag-ash," was his response.
Jessie, however, looked a little more humbled.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"Thank you," said James, just as something caught his eye. "Oh, bloody hell."
Everyone turned around to see what he was looking at.
Their eyes settled on Harry – the real one – walking towards them.
Barrat hastily checked the Firewhiskey was properly hidden.
"What do you want?" asked James rudely, looking his father up and down as he searched for a clue as to the reason for his appearance.
"Lovely to hear my son greet met with such enthusiasm," Harry commented, looking amused. "I've bought an extra person for your camping trip-"
"It better not be Al," interrupted James firmly. "I'm not camping with that miserable git!"
Harry's eyes betrayed a hint of sadness.
"No, it's not Al," he said calmly. "He's busy studying for his early NEWT DADA exam-"
James snorted.
"Geek," he muttered.
Harry ignored him.
"As I was saying," he continued, speaking to everyone, "One of your fellow classmates will be coming along this weekend – he needs to trap some specimens for his Herbology coursework."
"Who is it?" asked James, getting impatient.
Rose was nearly sick when Scorpius Malfoy stepped out from behind Harry, his expression stony.
"What?" blurted out James, staring between Harry and Scorpius in shock. "He can't come – he and Rose'll kill each other!"
Both Rose and Scorpius reddened.
"Thanks a bunch, James," muttered Rose, looking mortified.
Scorpius just glared at him.
"Well," said Harry, clapping his hands together, "Now that James has made things suitably awkward, I'll be off."
With a small nod to Scorpius, he began to make his way back down the corridor.
Just as he reached the doors to the Great Hall, he turned around and said, "And no-one kill anyone."
As he disappeared into the Hall, Rose, fixing James with a murderous glare, hissed through gritted teeth, "I can't promise anything."
"ARGHHH!"
Hugo came pelting out of his recently pitched tent, Hugo hot on his heels.
"Bee!" they both screamed, flailing their arms around their heads madly.
The rest of the group just stared at them.
"So," said James, rubbing his hands together excitedly, "Who's up for a barbeque? Everyone? Brilliant – get on it Rose."
"Wh-why do I have to cook?" spluttered Rose, looking cross. "For starters, we haven't got any food!"
James shrugged.
"Conjure some?"
"Ow!" He winced as Rose threw a saucepan at his head.
"Good God, James," said Jessie, looking disgusted as she put the finishing touches to the tent she and Rose would be sharing. "Did you ever even read the books based on your father's life?"
James looked horrified.
"Why on earth would I want to read a bunch of books about how my parents - not to mention my aunts, uncles and grandparents - shacked up with each other? If I want to have those kinds of nightmares I'll walk in on Lily in the shower again."
"Oh Jesus Christ," said Lily, looking furious. "You had to tell everyone – I though we agreed to take that horrific incident to the grave with us!"
"As much fun as this is," cut in Scorpius, who had been attempting to create a pyramid with some wood he'd found nearby, "Rose is right – we've got no food and you can't just conjure some out of thin air. I'm happy to go to the shops and get some but I'll need someone to help me because I'm not up on all the muggle customs."
Everyone's eyes swung straight to Rose, who spluttered, "Me?"
"Yes, you," said James, spying a golden opportunity for spicing the weekend up. "You're the only one doing a NEWT in Muggle Studies and, frankly, you're the only one who understands all those bits of paper muggles call money. Now, pip along – I'm starving!"
"BASTARD," muttered Rose, as she grabbed her purse from the tent.
Nathan had quickly offered to go with Rose instead of Scorpius but James had swiftly shot him down by insisting he had to stay and help get the fire going and coach them all on survival techniques as he'd been on a Wilderness course when he'd spent time at a muggle Scout camp.
When Nathan had furiously exclaimed he couldn't be the only one who knew how to light a fire, everyone shrugged.
"We only know how to light a fire by magic," said Jas, pointing out they weren't allowed to do spells away from Hogwarts.
"Even I'm banned," James said, "Just in-case some muggles accidentally see it and we're all exposed."
Obviously fuming but unable to see anyway around it, as the light was already beginning to fade, Nathan grudgingly agreed that Rose and Scorpius would have to go on their own; the group had unanimously agreed that too big a group would attract too much attention, especially since they weren't 'technically camping legally'.
"You'll just look like a couple going food shopping," added Hugo, helpfully.
Rose looked horrified.
"Ready?" asked Scorpius, as Rose crawled out of her tent.
"As I'll ever be," she said, trying not to look too daunted at the prospect of spending potentially two hours alone with Scorpius – she hadn't forgotten what had happened during their detention together. "Got the map?"
"Uh huh," he said, holding it up. "Let's go."
HALF an hour later and they'd come across a small Co-Op.
With Rose in the lead, they made their way inside and headed straight for the meat counter.
"Right, I think we should get a mix of sausages, burgers and bacon (we might as well shop for breakfast things, too). What do you think?"
Scorpius watched as she began grabbing packs of meat without waiting for an answer.
"You are so like your mum," he commented as she placed the food in the trolley he was pushing.
Rose's face went bright red.
"What do you mean?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant
"Your mum does that when she goes shopping with your dad," he replied, indicating the pile of food she'd just put in the trolley. "She makes a suggestion but doesn't wait for an answer – she just gets on with it."
Rose gaped at him.
"How do you know that?" she exclaimed.
"Uh, we were friends for five years," said Scorpius, as though Rose were an idiot. "I did notice a few things!"
Rose looked embarrassed.
"Oh yeah," she muttered, feeling her face heat up again.
Tension filled the air as they both waited for the other to change the subject.
When neither of them did, they silently made their way over to the bread aisle.
Ten minutes later, they'd got everything they needed, paid and left the store.
Not another word had been said.
"LOOKS like it's gonna rain," said Mark, peering up at the darkening sky.
"Oh bloody hell," moaned James, looking at the sky, too. "That's all we need – pissing rain and no food!"
"You know, you could have gone and got it yourself," said Lily, who was getting fed up with James' whining. "You knew Rose didn't want to go with Scorpius but you made her!"
"Hey, you could have gone with her and made Scorpius stay here!" retorted James, looking annoyed. "But I suppose you were too afraid of breaking a nail!"
Lily swore at him before stalking off to her tent.
"I hope they're going to be alright," said Jessie, checking her watch. "They've been gone well over an hour – you don't think they've got lost do you?"
"Nah," said James confidently, as Nathan looked alarmed, "Rose is an excellent map-reader."
"I THINK we're lost," said Rose, frowning as she looked at the map in her hands and the rows and rows of trees and greenery around them. "According to the map, we should have reached a proper footpath by now."
Scorpius took the map off of her and quickly scanned it.
He looked to the heavens.
"Rose," he said, as slowly and calmly as he could, "You've been reading the map backwards and upside down!"
Rose grimaced.
"Oops."
"Yes, oops is about right," said Scorpius, looking at his watch and then at the sky. "It's going to absolutely tip it down and we're sodding lost!"
"Hey," snapped Rose, trying to hide her embarrassment at having royally messed up their walk back to the campsite, "You're the one who insisted on carrying all the shopping!"
"Yeah, but I only did that because you said you'd got a map-reading badge from Brownies!" he cried, looking furious. "How you managed to find your way there but completely fuck-up the journey back is beyond me! I guess we'll have to break the no-magic thing; this is an emergency. Use your wand to find north."
Rose bit her lip.
"I don't have it," she said quietly, her face flushing.
Scorpius' eyebrows shot up.
"Excuse me?"
"I-I don't have it!" repeated Rose hotly. "I left it in my tent!"
"What? Why did you do that!" shouted Scorpius.
"Because we're not allowed to do magic outside of school and I couldn't see any reason why I'd need one on a shopping trip!" cried Rose, getting angry. "Anyway, I'm not the only one here who can do magic! Why don't you use your wand?"
Scorpius' cheeks flushed.
"Idon'thaveit."
"Pardon me?"
"I said, I don't have it…"
"What?"
"RAIN!" cried Hugo, flying into the tent James, Jessie, Mark and Nathan were sat in. "Thunder! Lightning! Everywhere-fucking-where!"
A loud rumble of thunder confirmed this.
"Oh, what?" said James, crawling forward to look outside. "Oh man, it's-fucking hell, mind out!"
Lily, Terri and Jas had come flying into the tent, arms flung over their heads to protect their hair from the torrential downpour that was now hammering the tent.
They flung themselves at Nathan who, at 6ft 1, was the biggest and broadest of the guys there.
"Oh God, I hate thunder and lighting!" said Jas, holding tightly to Nathan as Lily and Terry nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Really?" said Jessie, looking surprised. "I love storms, they're amazing!"
"You guys are such pussies," said James, rubbing the place where Jas had accidentally kneed him in the head in her haste to get inside the tent. "A bit of lighting won't hurt you – you're all so small, if you stood in the middle of the desert a bolt of lightning wouldn't strike you!"
"Ha ha," said Lily sarcastically, as Finch, Razor and Barrat made their way into the tent, all soaked to the bone.
"Bloody hell," said Finch, beginning to strip off his water-sodden clothes, "I hope Rose and Scorpius are alright – they're still in the forest and if the lightning hits one of those trees…"
Nathan's face was ashen.
"We should go and look for them," he said urgently. "They've been way too long; the shops were only a mile away-!"
"Don't be silly, we can't go looking for them in this weather!" exclaimed Barrat, much to everyone's surprise. "It's getting darker by the minute and even if we use our wands to locate them, we'll still have to go and find them! We'll just be putting ourselves in danger!"
Finch raised his eyebrows.
"As much as I hate to say it," he said, currently wearing nothing but his boxers, "Barrat's right –Rose isn't stupid and Scorpius certainly isn't. They've probably already found somewhere safe to wait out the storm. As soon as it's cleared and it gets light, we'll go and look for them."
Everyone looked at each other and then nodded.
"Great, so it's settled," said Barrat, looking relieved. "And Finch, as much as I appreciate your support, please put some clothes on!"
Finch rolled his eyes but managed a small smile as Nathan passed him some dry clothes to wear.
"You two better strip, too," said Jessie, indicating Barrat and Razor. "You'll catch your death of cold if you stay in those clothes!"
"Who are you, my Nanna Molly?" teased James, as the boys began to undress.
"No," grinned Jessie, as Mark began instructing everyone about where they were going to sleep, Lily, Terri and Jas too afraid to go back to their own tent, "Which you'll probably be glad about as I intend to snuggle up to you if I get cold tonight – you're the warmest person I've ever met!"
James' stomach – and something else – twitched as she laid a cool hand on his boiling hot arm.
"You know," said Mark, settling down next to them, interrupting James' rather impure thought-track, "Despite the fact that they're probably absolutely soaked and freezing their arses off, I envy Rose and Scorpius."
"Why's that?" asked James, keen to distract himself from thinking about where else Jessie could put her hand.
"Because they, my friend, have all the bloody food!"