Chapter 22

A/N: As one of my friends who reads this very justly pointed out, I said I would post on the 8th, which I had not realised was a Friday! So enjoy this a day early! Though the next update will most probably be on Saturday. Now, we will see what McGonagall is going to announce…

Disclaimer: I don't own anything here! Apart from the plot, perhaps!

Happy reading! (WC: 2,946)

Headmistress McGonagall was no longer the Transfiguration teacher, so to have her come into her old classroom with good news was generally not good news. She went up to the front desk, and shook hands with Professor English (whose name was ever so ironic, as he was a pure product of Ilvermorny, as he often reminded them, and whose metameric accent and slang sometimes had murmurs of laughter ripple through the room. Nevertheless, he was very competent and held Headmistress McGonagall in the highest esteem, which got him in her good books).

"Most of you are sixteen and some of you already seventeen, full grown mature legally major adult wizards, so it's only natural that we initiate you in a branch of magic that will make you independent Wizarding citizens," she explained.

"What is she going on about?" whispered Lizzie, who was always sat next to her in Transfiguration, as it was now one of the only lessons they had together.

"I have no idea," she mouthed back, though something told her that she probably should know and that she had forgotten it.

"So, I am most delighted to inform you that your Apparating classes will start next week!" There was a pause and the class was silent. "They will be every Wednesday afternoon from 5 to 7. Please go and see your Head of Houses if you still have any financial or paperwork issues. Have a good day!"

The class broke out into chatter.

"Apparating! Oh my god, I'm so excited!" Lizzie squealed.

"My father's already taught me the basics," bragged Jay Lee.

"No one care about your father, Jay."

"Ouch, Lizzie, you wound me."

Rose let Lizzie and their fellow Gryffindor continue their idle banter, clearly flirting by the looks of their body language and turned to some more important subjects. How the heck had she forgotten about Apparition lessons? It was a pretty big deal in your sixth year, ever since the laws concerning who could, and could not learn, courtesy of her mother.

Of course, Hermione Granger, ever the protector of the unjustly wronged, had found it incredibly unfair that one must wait to be seventeen to learn, so that your birthday meant that you could not learn with your friends and had to wait an entire year. So, off she went, changing the rules, making it that it was open to everyone in their sixth year at Hogwarts, and even setting up a tuition for students for whom the 12 galleons the lesson cost could not be spared. This way, literally everyone learnt to Apparate at 16 except if they failed the test. Also, it sure helped that Aunt Audrey was the instructor.

As to why she had forgotten… she now distinctly remembered bringing a form to her father some time during the holidays, but after all, she had spent most of her time thinking about… About a person she was trying not to think about. NO MATTER WHAT THE STUPID BOOK WAS TRYING TO MAKE HER THINK ABOUT! Actually, where was the stupid git?

She looked around the room and spotted him looking out of a window, Albus by his side. Of course Mister Annoying Jerk was not paying attention. Too bad for him. Or maybe he already knew how to Apparate. Hmm. That wouldn't surprise her; he was, like her, an overachiever. But if he already knew how to do it, then she was going to have to hurry up and learn as quickly as possible. She always beat Malfoy at everything!

"Rose? Rooooooose? Are you okay?" Lizzie suddenly came back into focus.

"Huh, what?"

"You just look slightly murderous for a moment, which I wouldn't blame you for, of course, we all have psychotic tendencies, but…"

"Oh, I was just thinking about how I was going to beat Malfoy into a pulp."

"Ooooooh, my favourite star-crossed couple!"

"Lizzie." Her voice was daggers.

"Just kidding, but you would think the events at Christmas might have changed a couple of things…." she added nonchalantly.

"LIZZIE!" Of course, Rose had caught up with her best friend on all that had happened during those few unfortunate days with her family and other less welcome guests, if you got her meaning. But now, she was kinda starting to regret it.

The annoying blonde pest (a description that seemed to fit more than one in her entourage, huh) just shot her an evil smile. "Whatever. So, what do you think about Apparating?"

"Uuuuuugggh. Just one more thing to add to my schedule."

"I know!"

"I've seen your schedule, there's nothing!"

"Doesn't mean I didn't like having all of my Wednesday evening free!"

Rose just rolled her eyes. "Well, at least I get to see my Aunt Audrey a bit more."

"Is she-"

The conversation was cut off with a loud rapping coming from… the teacher's desk. Ah right. They were still in Transfiguration. Whoops? Professor English sighed at the guilty looking Sixth year Gryffindors and Slytherins before proceeding to introduce them to what was apparently "one of the hardest branches of transfiguration they would ever meet" and that "they should expect a lot more homework from now on." Wasn't Rose's life just perfect?

At least she was just slightly reassured with her ridiculous increase in amount of homework, and her ridiculous decrease in free time: less time to think about Malfoy or even just possibly have to run into him (which still left her slightly bitter, because she still had to have her revenge about the clothes. Rose held grudges, and she sure as hell wasn't going to forget about this one), and even less possible time to meet Draco Malfoy. So, HA! Take that book! Rose: 1, Book: 0. Pssshhh, right, said the voice at the back of her head, given the number of scrapes the book has gotten in you, I'd say Book: 7, Rose: 0. Argh! She had forgotten about the existence of that annoying voice! Damn it!

In Muggle Studies, she was delighted (please note the sarcasm) to find out that were now moving on to a 'practical' lesson. Basically, surviving in the muggle world when you knew nothing. Except, that, contrarily to a lot of people in the class, she actually knew how to 'circumnavigate' (as Professor Carmin liked to call it) in the muggle world. Like seriously, did they really think any child of Hermione Granger was going to be a stranger to the Underground and not be able to correctly use pounds? The curriculum had changed a lot since the years when her parents had gone, and there were now a lot less of 'practical lessons' as they called them.

Truthfully, Rose was mainly there because the class covered some basic muggle literature (as much as Rose loved the Wizarding world, it was greatly lacking in fiction writing, and Hogwarts was terribly lacking any study of writing, often too magic centred, so much that language and words, things that made them so similar to any other human on the planet, were often forgotten) and history. And if you still hadn't figured out that Rose was a history nerd, it was that something was intervening with her usual flow of thoughts.

WAIT! She had figured it out! STUPID MALFOY! He was filling up her thoughts so much she wasn't thinking about history enough! Damn him!

Lunch was a sober business. Rose spent most of it running the crazy amount of work she had to do through her head, and easily overthinking the whole thing. Of course, since she had deduced the Malfoy was being a git just by existing, and that, after all, he had charmed all her clothes green for a couple of weeks, there had to be some sort of revenge. But she was feeling too morose to do anything nastier than cursing his breath bad. It was a particularly bad prank because if they hadn't had their little war going on, he would never have known it was her, and apart from causing mild discomfort around him, it didn't really do anything.

But still, at least the look on his face when he checked his own breath had made her smile a little. She had caught him staring butter knifes (she would have said daggers, but since it was so lame, it didn't really deserve dagger eyes. Besides, butter knives could be dangerous too. Anna had assured her that someone had once had their eye taken out with a butter knife. Trust Anna to love romance and gore at the same time) at her, but she quickly looked away and returned to staring helplessly at her timetable and wondering what else the universe was going to throw upon her that week.

Christmas may have made her question some of her thoughts about Malfoy, but all her thinking had firmly put her ideas back in place, so there was absolutely no reason for Rose not to pursue their personal vendetta and get her revenge. Some idle part of her brain (you know, not the one freaking out over her timetable, or the other part that was responsible for whispering annoying things in her ear) wondered what his next move would be, but frankly, she had other things to deal with. Besides the bell had just rang.

Tuesday afternoons were her absolute favourite. First, she had Ancient Magic, one of the classes only open to Sixth Years and up. They were currently studying the magic of the Maya civilisation. It was absolutely fascinating to see how magic had had an impact on the population living there, and ultimately leading to their disappearance.

And then, there was one of the gems of her week, History of Magic. Her dearest love of all. She swished into class and sat down at her usual seat, right up at the front row and began to copy the date onto a bit of parchment, ready for the lesson to begin.

Most of the class was already sick and tired of being at school, and was currently settling into their most comfortable sleeping positions. After all, it didn't help that the class finished at 6PM that evening. Professor Binns appeared through the blackboard, as usual, and began his monologue. Rose eagerly started to copy every single one of his words in neatly organised notes. Soon she had over 12 inches of parchment filled up.

But then something weird happened. There was still about fifteen minutes of the class left, but Professor Binns stopped. He NEVER stopped!

"Class, I will be doing something new this trimester."

Some heads perked up from their sleeping positions, not used to not having the soothing lull of his voice. New? NEW? Rose was internally screaming. What was this whole new business? Professor Binnes, was a ghost, he never did new! So this was what Carmen had been talking about!

"I can tell some of you are confused, but it has been brought to my attention that my lesson is at times not interesting to some of you," he continued.

The students stared at him in shock. Well, all of them but Rose who was ready to contradict his very point. His lesson was not interesting, it was fascinating. Okay, sure. The way he taught it was absolutely nap-worthy, but the content was absolutely enchanting (pun intended, because yes, Rose was like that. She did bad puns, okay!).

"So, I have decided that you will be doing oral presentations on subjects pertaining to the parts of the curriculum we have not yet seen to. You will be in groups."

Oral presentations? Binns hated listening to students' questions, let alone let them make the lesson! This was absolutely unbelievable! Murmurs started to go around the room as friends shot each other looks of 'you'll be with me, right?'. Rose didn't know who to turn to, but what she did know was that whomever she ended up with, they were going to have to schedule many work sessions. Oh well, there went her Thursday.

"But your teachers have recommended that I set you up in groups myself," Binns said, and the class groaned, "So I have randomly attributed groups and the subject you will study."

The professor started listing names and Rose wondered who she was going to be paired with, all while dearly hoping she would have an interesting subject that would hopefully be able to be linked to its impact on Muggle culture and vice-versa, her favourite way of exploring History.

"Tudors and Queen Elizabeth I," Binns called out and Rose perked up her ears. That definitely sounded interesting. "Weasley- "said the professor and Rose gave a little inward squeal, but Binns still continued "-and Malfoy."

Wait. Malfoy? Malfoy took this class? She wasn't even aware! She turned around and sure enough, a ridiculously well-groomed mop of blond hair was at the black of the classroom. As the realisation began to hit her, she was filled with unfortunate flashbacks of that fated Potions incident all that time ago, and the terrible consequences that happened.

Rose burrowed her head in her hands. Seriously. The Universe was against her. The literal moment she decided that she couldn't deal with Malfoy any more (apart from some harmless pranking, of course) and that she was determined never to speak to him again, the Universe threw this at her. Whoever was up there was probably laughing their heads off at the moment.

"So, you will have to do a presentation of an hour." AN HOUR? Did the professor realise how much work was going to have to go into that? How much more time she was going to have to spend with the ultimate blond git.

"And will be worth 40% of your final grade."

40%? Rose felt like crying. She couldn't just hope it would go quickly. She was going to have to actually work with the Slytherin toad. He probably would be anything she said. Oh joy.

"And you will all present after the Easter holidays. That's it. You may find your partners to discuss." That was it? No further instructions? The small part of her brain that was still focussing on whatever the professor was staying was protesting that surely they should have more information on how to present and how much their presentation should cover. However, the bigger part of her brain was still inwardly crying at her misfortune.

Knowing what the lazy prat was like, she begrudgingly got up and lade her way towards him rather than the other way around. She barely gave him a glance as she huffed and sat down. A quick glance at her watch assured her that the torture would soon be over. She had too many things going on at the moment, and she was eager to get to her first Quidditch practice. She was going to deal with this later.

"Ah, Weasel. It seems like the Universe has made us be partners again." She could hear him smirking. It was frankly infuriating. She glared up at him (and his absolutely marvellous cheek bones. Wait. WHAT? NO! No thinking about Malfoy like that, no matter what the Amortentia revealed!) then wrinkled her nose when a pungent smell hit her nostrils.

"Phew, Malfoy. Your breath reeks," she told him, hoping to be as rude as possible.

"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed," he replied casually.

"I know you're lying, Malfoy," she growled, "But I thought you knew at least one basic spell to get rid of it."

"Oh, I do; I just find that sometimes bad oral hygiene has some advantages," he said, leaning in so she could get a better whiff.

Rose was positively fuming. Trust that absolute horrid prat of a Malfoy to turn her own prank against her and make her suffer! It was so entirely Scorpius and horrible she wanted to crush something in her hands. It was probably a good thing she had Quidditch afterwards to let off all that pent up agner. Quick! Find some witty, sarcastic remark to reply! "I'm sure your girlfriend enjoys it quite a lot too."

Malfoy nodded. "That does help," he replied sincerely and Rose shot him a curious look. "But it was quite weak on your part. You can expect better from me next time," he taunted and this time Rose glared (she was quite good at glaring, after all, so why waste the ability?)

"So, about the project, do you know when we should meet up?" The astonishingly quick change from infurtiating-Malfoy to It's-time-to-study Malfoy shook her. But still, she was not dealing with this today. She would schedule some time for this torture another day. Why self-inflict harm on one's self when it could easily be put off to another day. After they had over four months to prepare this.

ROSE! The small voice at the back of her head she had affectionately named Rational (and who was doing it's job for once) was screaming, WHY THE HECK ARE YOU DELAYING A PRESENTATION WORTH 40% OF YOUR GRADE? IN YOUR FAVOURITE SUBJECT?

But Rose effectively ignored it. Is it because you can only look at his cheekbones when you're with him? whispered the other annoying voice at the back of her head she named Irrational, but Rose immediately batted away the thought.

Thankfully, like a saving grace, the bell rang and Rose flew out of the classroom before she had to spend a minute more with Malfoy. Okay, okay. It was the fly rather than fight response, and definitely not very Gryffindor response, but surely a girl didn't have to be brave at all times? A good Quidditch practice would definitely set things straight, and eradicate all annoying thoughts about Malfoy.

A/N: (cackling evilly): And here we go with the clichés again! Yay! Don't worry, there will be even more clichés to come! Next chapter will include some Prefect business… Thank you so much to all those who read/reviewed/followed/added to favourites! Please leave a review (good or bad). The feeling of getting a new review is one of the best feelings out there! Until next time, stay safe out there!

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