Here's chapter 5… Umm, we haven't left the introduction of student heads yet… so, it's a kinda continuation of the scene… Here you go…
Title: The Future is Waiting
Chapter 5: Rose Ashworth
Ringing silence fell around the room when Archer spoke. Every head turned to the girl Harry was so sure was Claire. Apparently, he was wrong. He opened his mouth to ask about it, but realized he'd be causing much of an act, so he closed it again.
"Ahh, yes… The name rings a bell, doesn't it?" Archer said, smiling, amused at the Hogwarts students' reaction. Ashworth looked daggers at him however, and he drove the talk back to Student Heads. "But of course, that was not what we were talking about… Right… Yes… Er… Student Head Clive Gideon…"
Archer resumed his introduction of the Student Heads as a nerdy, small boy in glasses hurried forward. The rest of the crowd turned their eyes to the boy afterwards. Hermione, however, looked at Harry, and Harry knew he could talk now. He did not hear the rest of the Student Heads' names when he, Ron, and Hermione had put their heads together to talk noiselessly.
"I thought you said – " Hermione started, but Harry cut her short.
"I'm sure it was her!" Harry hissed.
"But – she's not. She's Rose Ashworth, Harry," Ron said quietly.
"I don't know what's going on but I'm sure it was her I saw, and she told me her name was Claire!" Harry whispered back.
"Maybe – Harry, maybe you didn't – maybe you didn't meet her in your dream after all. Maybe she wasn't dreaming of the same thing. Maybe you just imagined her – "
"Hermione, how am I supposed to imagine her into my dream when I've never seen her face, ever! And where would I get the name Claire if I'd imagined it?" Harry was now trying very hard to keep his voice down.
"I – I don't know Harry…" Hermione said quietly. Harry turned to Ron.
"I don't know either… Maybe you should go ask her some time. I mean, it's the best you can do, if you want your dreams cleared out…" Ron said. He looked just as bewildered as Harry.
"And what is he supposed to say?" Hermione looked nastily at Ron. "'Hi, Ashworth! I was just wondering, have you been dreaming about me? Because I have been dreaming about you,'"
Now that Hermione had said it, the idea of stepping up to Ashworth to ask her if she'd been dreaming about Harry seemed rather ridiculous. He thought that Ashworth might even think that he was an attention-seeking little boy if he did this. But however preposterous his worry was, Harry could not help but wonder how he dreamt of Ashworth.
Could it be that he was again seeing through another person's vision, just as he did before? Was it possible that Voldemort was the one who was in the dream? But that's ridiculous, he thought. Lord Voldemort would not be in Sirius' house. And he certainly would not be hugging a teenage girl. But the question of how he dreamt about Ashworth lingered on in his mind.
This kept him preoccupied for the next few days. He was thinking of nothing else for two days straight. On Wednesday morning, however, he was called back to his senses by the arrival of owl posts in the sixth years' common room.
"Harry! Ron! Look!" Hermione said, waving a blank white envelope at them.
"Who's it from?" Ron said quietly as they approached her. Hermione was sitting on a wooden chair near the fire, while Ron and Harry were just coming down from the boys' dormitory at the left side of the fireplace in the common room.
"Do you think it's from – " Harry lowered his voice so that no one could hear. "the Order?"
"Well, who else?" Hermione said silently as well. The two pulled chairs closer so that all three of them could read.
Ron, Harry, and Hermione,
This letter is just to assure you that everything is all right. I will not say anything else, just in case this goes into the wrong hands. Though with the Ministry on our side, it is still not safe. Just don't do anything harsh while you are there. Keep your heads down. Don't worry anymore.
Bill"He wrote us just to tell us to keep our heads down?" Ron said, insulted. "Honestly, do they really think we're not trustworthy?"
"Well, if I was in their place, I would have thought so too," Hermione said, folding up Bill's letter. "I mean, with all the stuff we've done before, what would they expect?" she added, seeing the angry look on Ron's face.
"But that letter did not tell us anything at all. 'Everything's all right.' Like we don't know how dangerous it is," Harry said, staring into the fire.
"We know what to do anyway. Keep our heads down," said Hermione darkly.
"We don't have anything to do yet! I mean, nothing's happened here at Bridgework, right?" Ron said.
"I wonder if Ginny's received a letter too," said Hermione, placing the letter in her pocket.
"Gather 'round, everyone!" Lair was standing at the bottom-most stair of the girls' dormitory at the right side of the fire. She walked to the center of the room and clapped her hands like she did on the Hogwarts students' first day to get their attention. "I have here your schedules, your classes. Please form a line in front of me and sign your name on this piece of paper. This is to make sure that you all have taken your schedules."
People rushed to get to the front of the line. Harry, Ron, and Hermione managed to get to somewhere in the middle. The line shortened as the schedules in Lair's hand thinned. Finally, Harry was in front of Lair.
"Harry Potter," said Lair quietly. Harry stared at her in surprise. "Of course you are famous even here, don't stare at me like that."
"Sorry," Harry said as he stepped aside for Ron to sign.
"Have you met Ashworth, then?" Lair suddenly asked.
"What?" said Harry. Ron, too, looked at Lair in surprise, when he'd finished signing. Hermione was now bent down on the paper.
"Ashworth," Lair said pointedly. "I expect you know her story?"
"Oh… Er, yeah… I've heard…" Harry said.
"Heard? You've heard? Are you saying you haven't met her in any way?" Lair asked disbelievingly.
"Er, no…" Harry replied. Hermione was now hovering behind him too.
"Good, then," said Lair, turning back to the paper the students were signing, smiling.
"What's good?" asked Ron.
"Oh, nothing," said Lair, but she continued to smile in the same fashion as though gleeful at something illegal.
Harry was just beginning to wonder what Lair was smiling about when Hermione caught her attention by pinching him hard in the back.
"What?" he said loudly.
"Shh!" Hermione placed a finger to her lips, then hidingly pointed it at the foot of the stairs to the girls' dormitory. Rose Ashworth, wearing black robes and her hair in a tight, high ponytail as yesterday, was standing at the foot of the stairs, reading a piece of parchment.
"Ashworth!" Lair called across the room. Rose looked at her with the same coldness she had when she looked at Harry. "You've found your schedule then? Come here, you need to sign this too."
Harry had the feeling Lair was cooking something up. And true enough, when Rose walked rather slowly to her to sign the Student Heads' signature of approval in the corner of the parchment, which Harry himself had signed, Lair spoke with a definite hidden agenda in her voice.
"Ashworth, I want you to meet Harry Potter. I assume you know all about him?" Lair said. Rose froze in the act of raising the quill on the parchment, and then straightened to face Lair as though Harry and the others were not there.
"Not exactly all."
Rose spoke exactly in the same way as Claire did in Harry's dream that Harry was starting to wonder whether she had lied about her name.
"Well, we all don't know everything, do we?" Lair spoke slowly. "For one, there's the mystery of how you both survived You-Know-Who," she looked at Harry as she spoke.
"You know very well that my survival is not a mystery, as your family was the one who told me what happened," Rose replied, still ignoring Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Ah, well… The pleasure is ours, then. But really, you need not thank me," Lair now spoke in a cheerful voice that, if made just a little bit more cheery, would have sounded like Umbridge's falsely sweet girlish voice. "because our families are friends… Or, have been friends. Sorry," Lair smiled carelessly over her shoulder as she bent down to pick up the parchment. Everyone had finished signing now.
Harry knew what Lair was doing, and he didn't like it. Though he wasn't sure if the Ashworths and the Lairs really had been family friends, he was quite sure Lair was trying to make fun of Rose's parents' death. Weird though, Harry thought, Rose did not seem to be bothered by this. She just stared at Lair coldly, no expression present on her face, not even boredom.
"But why are we talking about this? I was telling you about Harry Potter here!" Lair said in an obviously false laugh this time. Harry did not know whether to cut in or to wait for Rose to answer Lair, but both he and Rose were spared the action by Lair. "Ah, look! Another family friend!" she said viciously, pointing at Malfoy, who had just swept over to Rose's side.
"Family friend? What are you on about?" Malfoy said with a laugh. "Rose, I was wondering whether you could lead me to the dining hall? I would love to eat breakfast with you," he said loudly, as though making sure Harry, Ron, and Hermione could hear.
"Only trolls won't be able to find a great dining hall without guides," Ron said, turning his back on Malfoy.
"Watch that mouth, Weasley. You're not in your territory anymore," Malfoy said, grabbing Ron's shoulder and turning him.
Rose's cold blue eyes were upon Malfoy now, who had turned back to her, Ron mouthing silently behind him.
"So, shall we go down to breakfast together?" Malfoy said, offering an arm to Rose. Lair was watching them with an expression of, strangely, satisfaction.
"I'm afraid I have more important business to deal with than breakfast, Mr. Malfoy," Rose said coldly, her eyes still on Malfoy's grey ones, as though trying to see through them. At Rose's answer, Ron smiled and said "Ha!" under his breath. Malfoy did not lose his gracious manner, however.
"Ah, Rose… Haven't I told you not to call me 'Mr. Malfoy'? It's Draco, all right? And, more important than breakfast? You need to eat if you're going to work all day!" said Malfoy.
"Concerned as you are about my health, Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid your concern will not convince me to leave my work undone, and moreover, to join you," Rose said coolly.
Harry did not know if he'd imagined it out of too much hatred at Malfoy but he thought Rose purposefully turned him down to embarrass him in front of many people. Right after speaking, Rose turned and went down the marble stairs, still clutching the paper she was reading when she came down from the dormitory, then disappeared from view. Harry just could not help but smile.