Chapter 29. Hogwarts response
His heart sank. It sank down and down and he felt so low. He showed no emotion however. He set the magazine on the table, poured himself some tea and looked around.
This was a Friday morning … this was deliberate. The Great Hall was filled with so many students eating breakfast before classes. There were also hundreds of magazines flashing around, with owls bringing more by the second. It seemed futile though; speech was more powerful than print. He was sure all of Britain would know of this by mornings end: students writing parents, parents writing professors, reporters writing everyone and anyone. The Witcher was the start – all the national papers would pick up the story in the next few hours. He wouldn't be surprised if there were special editions of the Daily Prophet sent out by the evening.
He scanned the room looking for any of Rose's relatives. The room was devoid of them. Completely devoid of them.
Most students were reading the article intently and talking about it with their friends. Some students looked scared, Merlin forbid. He then noticed there were a lot of people eyeing him up from his own table. And frig, the room was super loud. This was definitely above normal buzzing. Voices echoed off the walls and from the ceiling and went back into the crowd.
"Can I help you?" He said to the fourth-years next to him who were staring.
They vehemently shook their heads but kept glancing over at him.
Astrid sat down across from him with a thump. "This is cool. Did you know?"
He gave her a look. "It may be a little sensitive and premature to call it cool."
She shrugged, pulling a knot out of her hair with her fingers. "Yeah maybe. It's a lot of excitement though. I have so many questions for her."
Scorpius let out a soft sigh and put his hand on his forehead, leaning onto the table. "I'm sure she's not going to be easy to find," he said rather bitterly. "She knows how to stay hidden. She doesn't like questions."
"Is she going to quit the Quidditch team do you think?"
He could not feel shittier, really. This was terrible. That was another layer of complexity added on. Honestly he didn't even think of it. She better not. Nothing changed with the team. Merlin, what was the reaction going to be with this? This wasn't like pre-war times where werewolves were publicly scorned and shamed. There was more forgiveness, more understanding.
"She better not," he said to her. "We've worked too damn hard this year to have her quit because of a minor inconvenience." That was rich of him to say minor since he didn't know anything of what she thought about it. Minor inconveniences could be life shattering. This was something she had kept hidden for years, potentially. This was something that could fundamentally change someone's life.
Is this why she skipped so much school? He didn't know where that added up, but there had to be some sort of connection. Is this why she didn't want to be friends? Or was she always evasive and alone?
There was shouting across the room that jolted everyone upright from their friends and the magazine. "HEY HUGO IS YOUR SISTER ACTUALLY A WEREWOLF?"
Hugo was frozen in the doorway, a stunned look on his face as the whole of Hogwarts beheld him. The silence was deafening. After the sheer amount of noise before, it was now so quiet he could hear a candle pop from above.
Hugo didn't delay; he immediately turned around and sprinted off, jostling his friends beside him.
"That's probably the only Weasley sighting we'll see today," Scorpius muttered to Astrid. Shame too. He wanted to talk to them – same as everyone, probably. What right did he have to their answers though?
In the end, he had no right. He was the same as everyone else: wanting to be on the inside of this dirty little secret, but missing the pertinent connections.
The Witcher. He looked at the magazine in scorn. It had to have been Rennings who exposed it considering the amount of jewellery she had been flashing around on purpose the past few weeks and the fact that she told him to watch out for the magazine. The whole spiel on 'taking back her power' nonsense. What the hell was between Rennings and Rose? Why did Rennings even know?
Sprocket came over to the table to sit by Astrid. He looked scared and worried.
"What's up with you?" she asked him.
He shrugged, looking at the table. "What do you think of this?" he whispered. His glasses slid down his nose.
"What do you mean? This is so cool. And I have so many questions for Rose. What are you worried about? She'll still be our friend, no questions asked."
Scorpius sighed. "Okay, remember there might be a little sensitivity around saying this is 'cool' – this is a lifelong curse. It's easy to say its cool when you don't have the curse. Let her define it how she wants and we'll support her."
Sprocket looked between the two of them. "Really?" He looked hopeful. "You're not ... scared or anything?"
"Of Rose?" Astrid gave a hearty cackle. "No way."
Rennings walked into the Great Hall and she had that smile on her face. That sneaky smile that said she knew was happening. It wasn't even a large sneaky smile. If Scorpius didn't know her better, she appeared calm and reflective. But there was no way there could be this much chaos without a larger reaction, much like the one from her friends.
They were shocked. Emmanuelle ripped a magazine out of some kid's hands who was walking out and flipped through it frantically. Melody was staring ahead as if not seeing anything, mouth agape in surprise. Rennings oh–so–inconspicuously frowned and leaned forward to look at the magazine with Emmanuelle, hands on their backs and pushing them towards the table.
Welp.
They didn't sit too far away. There was a small crowd that had immediately gathered around Rennings.
A Hufflepuff student tapped him on the back.
"Dude did you know? You're friends with her – is it true?"
Funny how everyone saw them as friends. Appearances were deceiving. He didn't know how to respond – didn't get any sort of briefing note from her or the family. Not that he thought he deserved one. He wasn't in the golden circle. Friendly with everyone and friends with no one.
In the end though, he could only be honest. "I didn't know."
By the time he had left the Great Hall, four other people asked him if he had known.
He was sure the whole Potter/Weasley family was together right now. If he actually was their friend, maybe he'd go join them. They could complain together. Plan a mode of action forwards. Support and help Rose. Condemn Rennings to the chopping block.
But he wasn't. He was nothing. And he had to face the day as that and stop moping around.
He found Westlock and Nott in class and sat down next to them for the first time in a long time. He only had to raise his eyebrows in question. Seemed like the current events erased the fact that they'd not been speaking recently.
"This makes her cooler in my books," Westlock said. Scorpius put his head in his hands. "Though I think we need a rematch for our food eating contest. Being a werewolf is an unfair advantage."
Nott shrugged it off. It wasn't a concern in his daily life. "We guessed it. Mind you, we didn't narrow it down as the only option. Nothing's going to change. She's not a terrible, horrible person. It's everyone else who will be showing their true colours."
He seemed right about that.
Because he went to class, he painstakingly saw firsthand everything that was going around.
It seemed a quarter of people were outright bigoted against it. Thought she should drop out of school for their safety and that she was a monster.
At least half of the students were speculating about her life. Asking all the 'who, what, when, where, and why' questions. There was immediately rumours about how she was bitten by an enemy of her parents – an old Death eater who was after revenge. There were talks about how there should be a national registry of werewolves so surprises like this couldn't happen and people wouldn't be in danger.
Stories and stories circulated from people whispering, getting more and more ridiculous throughout the day. He also heard that she had been bitten protecting Hugo under a full moon. Also that Hugo had pushed her in front of a werewolf when it was attacking. He heard that she injected herself with werewolf venom; that she had shady friends who bit her one evening. It seemed there was so much mystery around her in general, that speculations turned to the wild side.
However, it was only when he was walking behind Melody and Emmanuelle in the crowded hallway heading to Charms that he heard Rennings name whispered and thought it could be the sole useful thing overheard today.
"...a lot of money on … werewolf … how ... place."
His ears popped to attention and he quickened his pace, without making it seem like he was listening. He was still looking at the ground, shoulders slumped.
"I don't believe her," Melody whispered, voice a little louder than Emmanuelle. "She has to be exaggerating."
"... Doubt her. It all … real."
Merlin, how did Emmanuelle talk so quiet. Scorpius didn't dare walk any closer, he was already almost at their backs.
He peeled off outside the classroom and ducked into the men's washroom. Of course, they could sit anywhere in the classroom theoretically, but at this point of the year, everyone had their spots picked out – part of the regular schedule and habits now.
But he got a crazy idea –
– and he was in luck – Beyries and Morrison from his dorm were coming together near the classroom. Scorpius darted out in front of them.
"I have a favour," he said quickly. "Can we switch spots in the class today?"
Morrison seemed surprised over Scorpius appearing in front of him. Beyries was more composed. "Why do you want to switch spots?"
Oh man, what to say without arousing suspicion. "I ... I'm not feeling well and might need a quicker escape to the toilet."
Morrison looked disgusted. "Go to the Hospital Wing man."
"No it's not serious, think it was something I ate for breakfast and want to be cautious. But I sit near Su and I know you have a project with her, so thought you two might be able to switch me for this class."
Beyries nodded. "Sure, I do have a few questions for her. Hey, did you know about Weasley? Rather a surprise this morning?"
He gave the fake smile he'd been giving all day. "Just as much to me as to you."
Beyries seemed to not quite believe him. "Right. You two are pretty close, no?"
He shrugged. "This is the first-year we've ever talked because she made the Quidditch team. Not that close."
"Right. Okay. Well I guess we'll wait for updates from the newspaper."
And what did that mean? Merlin the newspaper was the worst source there was. He was sure every paper in the whole country right now was clamoring for more details, urgently trying to cover this juicy story and get more info out first. He wouldn't be surprised if the whole Weasley and Potter families went underground for a bit.
It seemed excessive, but still.
Because of his seat change he sat behind Emmanuelle and Melody, and because he sat behind them he caught the note passing all class, and because he knew they were passing notes he made sure to get a copy of the paper covertly before they burned it up.
He glanced at it briefly before putting it in his pocket. This … had a lot of information. More than he was sure they intended to share at once. This needed to go to Potter – Mr. Head Ref extraordinaire. This was the most damning thing they could possibly find on Rennings trying to stop Rose from making it to a Quidditch game.
Their next Quidditch practice didn't happen on Sunday like was in the schedule, it occurred that Saturday night when he was in the library again. Jazz gave him thirty minutes notice.
"You're always the easiest to find. Abdul is calling practice right now, think you can make it to the pitch?"
His book was already shutting and he was stuffing everything into his bag. "I'll be there in five."
Jazz rolled her eyes. "If you don't mind being twenty five minutes early."
"Not at all."
Scorpius was almost surprised that they had Quidditch – it had been so long since they had a practice that his muscles felt like they would atrophy. It was ... weird that it started back up so soon after this incident.
He didn't think Rose would come to the practice. Did she quit the team? That seemed highly likely at this point since she'd been gone for so long … he tried not to think about it. All would be revealed soon – it was out of his control.
Scorpius was indeed super early at the pitch. Only one week without Quidditch and he already felt the ache in him. It was his release, it was what got him outside and what got his mind off everything petty in his life.
He changed quickly and went out to the snowy muddy mess of the pitch. There was a dirty snow berm around the pitch from when the snow was pushed off to the side during winter. There were little patches of snow here and there – increasing in frequency closer to the forest, some thin layers of ice on the puddles, and a lot of mud.
There were a few people in the stands, which was so odd Scorpius almost didn't believe they were real. But maybe this was the new normal right now – they had a werewolf on the team. However, that wouldn't fly with Cap. It was an unspoken rule that practices were for players only. No spectators allowed – though how they had heard about the practice was a big enough mystery in itself. Scorpius was early enough he flew up to give them all a warning.
A few of them giggled. Some had cameras. They all were young enough that they listened to him when he told them to scram. Then he could hear Brawn's voice in the next stand over, laughing with some friends. Scorpius had no idea how Brawn's even heard of the practice since they were given such short notice – most of the others were at least Ravenclaws or he had passed them on the way to the pitch.
"Excited that you'll have a new friend who's Dark?" he said as soon as Scorpius landed lightly on his feet. He had two of his friends around him, grinning.
"What are you talking about?"
"You used your family connections to infect Weasley – one of the good families – so you didn't have to be alone as the only Dark-tainted creature at the school."
Scorpius blinked five times, processing what Brawn's said. His left hand tightened, he could feel his missing fingers so acutely.
That was the most ridiculous reason for her being a werewolf he'd heard all day. And maybe his normal response would be have been to react with anger, but it was so ludicrous that he ended up chuckling and unclenched his hand, bringing it up to show Brawns. Sure, he'd lost some fingers to a cursed object but he wasn't ashamed.
"Take your vile elsewhere, we have practice and you know you're not allowed." He placed his hand back on his broom, holding it steady. His hand wasn't a setback. "Cursed objects have no correlation with cursed humans. You do a disservice to Rose to even suggest that. Get out of here."
"But we want to see a werewolf," one of his friends whined.
Scorpius shook his head. "She's no different than she was a few days ago. Leave."
He jumped back on his broom and flew down to the pitch where Nadir was.
He nodded in a question.
"Just clearing the stands," Scorpius said wearily. He felt cold.
He looked back up a few minutes later and they were all gone.
Predictably, everyone showed up except Rose. They all stood around Nadir, in various stages of stretching. Everyone was quiet. It was unusual for them. Usually there would be joking and playfulness.
Scorpius was in his head, his thoughts running around the themes of cursed objects, cursed humans, and wondering if she would show up. Everything was a mumbo jumbo mess of emotions. In the end, nobody had to ask the question, Nadir knew.
"She'll be coming," he said. "In the meantime let's all get in the air and do a few laps and then get a passing circle going."
Even though it had been a week and Scorpius had missed Quidditch so badly it ached, he had a hard time focusing on the practice. His eyes kept scanning the distance. Where was she? When was she coming?
It seemed everyone was in a similar state of mind, Nadir didn't say anything when the Quaffle was dropped multiple times or Bitz and Junior flew into each other while heading for the same Bludger.
Scorpius was flying by Jazz when he heard her mutter, "And she comes."
From the direction of the forest came Rose, walking slowly and purposely, about 20 minutes late.
"Team, practice the beta formation for the next twenty minutes. I'm going to speak to Rose. We'll have a team meeting in about half an hour."
Scorpius felt anxious. He wanted to talk now, he didn't want to wait. Was she ok? What had she heard? Did she need any help? His fingers were numb he was gripping the broom so tight. He was playing right now with only a quarter of his attention.
He watched Nadir talk with her for a long time, and then he took back to the air to join them and she went running laps. Running laps – Scorpius almost laughed out loud. Of course Nadir would make her run laps for being late, even though he was sure she'd been through hell and back the past few days.
Finally finally they were all called down to the ground, where Rose was getting some water, lightly breathing, face shiny with sweat from her laps.
They all gathered around her, Nadir beckoning them closer.
"In light of the recent events, we as a team need to come together more than ever. The story that was published blindsided everyone, as it was meant to. However, nothing changes with the team and with our team dynamics." He could see everyone nodding along. Rose didn't really look at anyone.
Nadir continued. "We will have an open session right now where you can ask questions to Rose, but then I never want to hear of this again. Rose has agreed to answer what she's comfortable with, and then we'll get up in the air again …" He took a breath. "For transparency's sake, I have known since September that Rose was a werewolf. Rose made it on this Quidditch team through her skills alone. We have modified practices and games throughout the year to accommodate the moon schedule and when Rose would be healthy enough to play."
Scorpius felt a lot of respect for Nadir in that moment.
"So we get to ask all our questions while she's out of breath?" Jazz said. "Unfair."
The right side of Rose's mouth slightly lifted. She seemed - at peace, or calm, for someone to have a whirlwind fly over her the past few days. Maybe there were benefits to skipping school during a scandal. Or a benefit to not have to hide anymore.
"I could go for much longer and still answer questions," she said, almost cheekily. "Physical fitness has never been a concern."
"So you are a werewolf for real?" asked Bitz.
"Yes."
He nodded, looking impressed. "Never would have guessed. Cool."
What was with the youth and saying 'cool.' Scorpius wanted to facepalm.
Astrid seemed fascinated and clutched her waterbottle tight in front of her. "I have so many questions. How long have you been one? What is it like? How did you get infected? What does wolfsbane taste like?"
Rose's eyebrows rose. "That ... is a lot of questions at once." Her eyes scanned everyone's face, stopping at Scorpius. Her eyes looked a little hollow, hair a scattered mess of curls like he'd seen in the kitchens. He couldn't hide his interest, he wanted to know.
"Short end of it ... I was twelve. One month out of my first-year at Hogwarts and camping in the South with my family. It was a muggle area so we were rather oblivious to the full moon. We were playing a sort of hide-and-seek and tag game in the forest … then I was bitten by a full werewolf. He sort of chased me for a bit in the forest before his attack. It was actually more of a nip, not a mauling or anything – even though his claws gouged rather deep. So we weren't sure at first if it was enough to infect me. But it was." She lifted her shirt and showed her side where there were some unremarkable bite scars. The kind you'd never think came from a werewolf. Scorpius knew she had other scars though; the long ones that were near her collarbone had looked deep.
"And wolfsbane," she made a pained face. "It is both tasteless and disgusting. Hard to describe. I don't know if the taste is more mental than anything though."
There was silence as everyone digested what she said.
"Cool," Astrid said. "So why is this national news? It's not a big deal."
Rose's eyes met Scorpius's again. "Everyone loves a scandal and everyone loves secrets. My family was heavily involved in the war against Voldemort. Werewolves in the past were ostracized and turned to the Dark side because he was the only one who was guaranteeing them some rights. Of course, it was all a lie and they were backstabbed same as everyone... so that's one reason. But then there's hundreds of years of history behind that."
"Have you ever bitten anyone?" Junior asked.
Scorpius's mouth dropped and Jazz punched him in the arm. "Holy hell boy that is not appropriate!" she exclaimed.
"I haven't," Rose said seriously, cutting off the hitting. "And never will."
Scorpius could recall the Boggart and her utter fear over the werewolf – which was now obvious as her – and her family, dead on the ground. How terrifying to have the potential to do serious harm every month.
"Are you coming to class on Monday?" Scorpius heard himself ask.
She gave his question serious thought. Silence thickened around them. "... I don't know. Honestly don't want to face this. But I can't hide forever."
"Were you hiding in the forest?" said Junior, holding his arm where Jazz hit him.
She gave a weak smile. "I sometimes do. There's a safe house there if … I need it, since the Shrieking Shack has long been unavailable."
Oh shit. Right. That was her first time there. So much history, and so much missed by him.
If only he paid attention.
There was a moment of silence. "Well," Nadir said, "if there's –"
"What was the werewolf's name?" Astrid asked. "Was it Silvertongue?"
Everyone looked stunned. Rose seemed taken aback but also had a frown. Her mouth opened and closed. Scorpius had never heard that name before but he also vehemently avoided all matter of Dark topics.
Nadir seemed about to speak again but Astrid continued. "I mean, he's dead now. But just wondering if he got you too."
Rose's face seemed to ashen for a second. "What – what do you mean?"
Everyone was hyper tuned into her, this small figure standing there but able to command an audience.
"He attacked me as well, though I was only two so I don't remember much. He wasn't a werewolf when it happened so I'm only wolf-ish. Not full on. Okay, chill everyone, you're much too tense. Also you're the only ones I've told so please don't sell that to a newspaper."
Rose's eyes seemed troubled. Scorpius couldn't help but let his mouth drop. Little Astrid as well. What the hell! Who the hell was that much of a psychopath that he bit two young kids?
"Yes, it was Silvertongue," she said quietly.
Astrid nodded. "Okay. Good to know he was an even worse scumbag piece of shit than I thought."
Jazz seemed on the verge of tears, she reached over to Astrid next to her and Rose on the other side and pulled them close. "Okay group hug everyone. There's been a lot of sharing and I'm sure there's more questions but those can come out later. We're a team, and will always support one another. Thank you both for trusting us and opening up."
She hugged them both tight and everyone came close together. Scorpius had his arms around Bitz and Junior. His arms were long enough he engulfed Astrid and half of Nadir as well. Their heads all touched in the middle and they stayed there like that for a moment, squeezing tight.
Nadir clapped both Astrid and Rose on the shoulder after the group hug. "Thank you both for opening up. If there is any other way we can support you as a team, let me know. Now, let's get in the air."
After practice Scorpius hung back on the pitch. Rose was the last to land as everyone started walking to the locker rooms.
She gave a small wave and seemed to deliberately avoid his eyes. He could see the veins prominent on her hands where they were clenching the broom tight. "I'm not going to the locker rooms right now ... I'll see you later."
"Rose … "
She turned away. "Bye Scorpius."
