Chapter 1 – Unavoidable

Disclaimer - Harry Potter is not mine, he belongs to J. K. Rowling.

A/N - If you have not read Evolving Stakes, the prequel to Forbidden Thoughts, I suggest you do. Otherwise, you may be a bit confused.

"Hugo, what the hell are you doing in the bathroom?" Rose shouted, banging on the bathroom door. "You've been in there for half an hour."

"It's hardly been 15 minutes," Hugo yelled back through the door. "And there's more than one bathroom in the bloody house!"

Rose ran a hand through her thick curly red hair in frustration. "I'm aware of that, but there are things in this particular bathroom that I need right now."

Rose heard the floor creak behind her and she turned to see Nora giving her a disgruntled look. "What's going on?" Nora yawned. "You two woke me up during a very pleasant dream."

Rose scowled at her friend. As usual Nora looked phenomenal, which wouldn't have been so annoying at that moment if it wasn't for the fact that Nora clearly had just woken up. Nora's version of bed head was something that looked like it had been styled by professionals and Rose's version was more of a cross between a bird's nest and a lion' s mane.

"I need my hair solution from the bathroom, but Hugh is doing Merlin knows what in there and he will not let me in," Rose complained and she banged on the door yet again.

"He probably just cut himself shaving again," Nora replied in a tired voice.

"Oi!" Hugo exclaimed. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that, Nora."

"Too bad," Nora shot back grumpily. "You woke me up and Rose desperately needs her hair solution because she looks like she was just attacked by wild animals."

"Hey," Rose said as Hugo opened the door to reveal a large cut on the side of his cheek. Rose instantly forgot about Nora's comment and began to laugh.

"Are you happy?" Hugo muttered darkly to Nora.

"Very," Nora replied patting Hugo on his uninjured cheek. "And what have I told you about the shaving thing. If there really isn't anything there, you don't need to shave." Hugo glowered at Nora and stomped past her down the hall and into his room. "Right then," Nora said brightly. "Before I go back to bed, why exactly are you up at 8' o clock in the morning on a Saturday."

"We get our Hogwarts letters today," Rose explained brightly. "And I was so excited to find out if I'm head girl or not that I couldn't sleep."

Nora blinked at Rose and shook her head. "You'd think after living with you for two months, I would be used to this by now." Before Rose could say anything back Nora had turned away from her, shaking her head in awe, and began to slowly trudge her way back to her room. Rose scowled and rushed into the bathroom.

It had been an interesting summer at the Weasley house ever since Nora had moved in. Since Nora had literally spent all of her adolescent years being neglected and on her own, she was not used to the attention Rose's parents were giving her. While Nora was respectful to all of her parents rules, that hadn't stopped her from finding ways around them.

Rose chuckled at the memory of waking up in the middle of the night to her father flipping out over finding Al in the living room, with Nora, in a very embarrassing situation. Once Rose's dad had kicked Al out the front door, he had immediately began shouting the fact that he had told Nora there were no guys allowed in his house without him knowing about it and that included his own nephew. Nora had proceeded to respond that she had informed him by writing him a note telling him what she was doing and that it was located on his bedside table.

Rose and Hugo were in rolling fits of laughter by the time their dad had come back from his bedroom with a sticky note detailing exactly what Nora was planning on doing with Al downstairs. Of course Nora had been grounded and, even though Nora had protested at the beginning of her punishment, she didn't seem to mind being grounded all that much. She had later admitted to Rose's parents that she had never really been grounded before, so it was interesting to experience it for the first time.

There had been no similar incidents afterwards but that didn't mean that Nora still wasn't sneaking out of the house late at night to go meet up with Al. That hadn't been all that surprising to Rose, since she knew that Nora had issues with following rules. Rose also knew that her parents were well aware of Nora's late night escapades but they didn't seem to mind all that much, since they knew she was only going to see Al.

Most of the time.

Rose scowled as she picked up her hair calming solution and began to run it through the tangled mess that she was her hair. Nora had also been sneaking off to go visit Scorpius Malfoy as well since the two of them had become very good friends in the middle of their sixth year.

Rose stared at her reflection in the mirror. Scorpius. She shivered slightly at the name. Rose had successfully managed to avoid seeing him all summer. He had even popped by the house a couple of times to do something with Nora, much to Rose's dad's displeasure, and Rose had made sure that she was nowhere near the house when that happened. Nora had instantly caught onto her plan to ignore Scorpius at the beginning of the summer and gone on to tell her that she was being an idiot about her feelings towards him. Luckily for Rose, Nora still didn't quite understand why there was even a plan in the first place. Rose recalled one of the arguments she had had with Nora with a scowl.

"Who would even care that you liked Scorpius?" Nora said angrily.

"How about everyone," Rose argued. "My family would go mad over the idea of me fancying a Malfoy and that's not even the main reason why I'm ignoring him. You and I both know that he only fancies me because I'm the one thing he can't have."

"So you're plan is to avoid the problem in the hopes that it will go away on its own," Nora replied irritably. "That is completely insane. No one can just put their feelings for someone in a box and forget about them. Take it from someone who knows."

"I don't care," Rose replied stubbornly. "And it's none of your business anyway."

Rose turned away from her miserable expression in the mirror as she remembered their argument. Nora hadn't been pleased with her much after that. Then again, Nora had been very on edge ever since the news of Kingsley Shacklebolt stepping down as Minister of Magic mid-way through July, only to be replaced by Robert Sampson, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the time. He had been one of the men who had come to Hogwarts the night Darius had fallen off of the astronomy tower and he had not taken to Nora very well. Rose had a feeling that Nora had not told everyone the complete truth about Darius' fall off of the astronomy tower, and with the news coming out the next day about Nora's super natural abilities, Rose was pretty sure that Nora didn't have many fans in the Ministry right now. Not to mention the fact that many people in the Ministry were uneasy about the 17-year old super girl going to a school with Cassandra Monroe as the new headmistress, a person who would never take orders from the ministry.

Rose knew her parents had been trying to hide the unease that was stirring in the Ministry, especially when a couple of auror's with questions for Nora had stopped by the house a week before in the middle of the day and Rose's mom, who had taken a day off, had told them to leave immediately on the grounds that they had no right to come into their home without written consent from either the new head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the head of the Auror Department, which was Uncle Harry, or the Minister of Magic himself.

Uncle Harry had stopped by the next day telling them that one of the wizard's from the Winzengamot had gotten 2 auror's who were lower on Harry's pay role to go ask Nora a few questions for a fair bit of money and they had not been expecting Rose's mother to be around. Harry had suspended the two auror's for a couple of days for disobeying his orders and he had apparently had 'words' with the wizard who had sent them.

Rose could tell her family was troubled by the news. Uncle Harry had explained that Sampson had been the best choice to take over the position of Minister of Magic. He had been instrumental in the past for tracking down the remaining death eaters at the end of the war and he was very qualified for the job. However, like most human beings who feared the unknown, it was obvious that Sampson was not wrapping his mind around the idea of Nora being able to use telekinesis and telepathy very well.

Rose sighed at the thought as she turned on the shower and began to pull off her pyjamas. All she wanted was for her last year at Hogwarts to be as drama free as possible, but she wasn't an idiot. She may be able to control her own life but she had no say in what anyone else did. Rose stepped into the warm shower with a grateful sigh.

"Oi! Rose! Our Hogwarts letters are here," Hugo's muffled voice called out from the other side of the bathroom door.

Rose almost slipped and fell in the shower from surprise. Her Hogwarts letter was here. A huge smile broke out on her face, her hot shower completely forgotten. Rose quickly scrubbed the rest of the calming solution from her hair and hopped out of the shower. After wrapping a towel around her body and her hair, Rose sped out of the bathroom towards Nora's room.

"Our Hogwarts letters are here!" Rose exclaimed excitedly into Nora's dark room when she had opened the door.

Before Rose could even register what was happening, a large pillow connected directly with her face, knocking her back a few steps.

"Who, bloody well, cares!" Nora yelled grumpily from the darkness of her room and Rose watched in shock as Nora's bedroom door slammed shut on its own.

Rose huffed indignantly as she tightened the towel around her body. "She's about as pleasant as a Hungarian Horntail in the morning," Rose muttered to herself and she quickly made her way through the upstairs hall to the stairs.

"Hugh," she called out as she descended the stairs and sped into the kitchen. "Where are our letters?"

Hugo looked up from his cereal, only to drop his spoon in surprise at the sight of his sister only dressed in a towel. "Why aren't you wearing clothes?"

"I just got out of the shower," Rose replied impatiently. "Now where is my letter?"

"Its right there," Hugo replied pointing at the stack of letters on the counter.

Rose practically squealed in excitement at the sight of the letters and she rushed over to the counter to grab hers.

"You're a freak, you know that right," Hugo said dryly as he scooped cereal into his mouth.

"That's funny coming from the bloke with the giant bandage on his face," Rose shot back and Hugo's ears turned red in embarrassment.

Convinced that she had shut her brother up for a good 15 minutes, Rose ripped open her Hogwarts letter eagerly and dumped the contents of the letter out on the counter. The look of anticipation on Rose's face quickly vanished and was replaced with a gleeful smile as she stared down at the golden head girl badge that had landed on top of her Hogwarts letter.

"Merlin, thank you!" Rose yelled happily and she turned around to hold the badge out for her brother to see. "Look Hugh, I made head girl!"

"Yay," Hugo said with fake excitement.

Rose stuck her tongue out at her brother and turned back to look at the stack of letters. "Are mum and dad still here? They'll be so thrilled by the news."

"To be honest, I don't think dad will really care," Hugo replied and Rose shot her brother a dirty look. "And no they're not here," Hugo finished quickly.

"I need to write to them then," Rose said happily. "Do you know where Pea is?"

"Dunno," Hugo mumbled. "Probably out back."

Rose sighed impatiently and rushed out of the kitchen to the back door. Rose opened the door wide and peered out into the morning sunshine to see a large barn owl preening his feathers on her dad's rarely used barbeque.

"Come here, Pea," Rose called out to the barn owl causing him to look up from what he was doing to stare at her curiously. "You have to deliver a letter for me."

Pea hooted excitedly and jumped from his perch to her outstretched arm. As quickly as she could speed through the house with an owl on her arm, Rose rushed into the kitchen and grabbed a pen and paper from one of the kitchen drawers to scribble down a message for her mother. Hugo was right about her father after all. He would appreciate her making head girl much less then her mother. After she was finished, Rose folded up her letter and held it out for Pea. "Take this to my mom," Rose ordered and Pea happily clamped his beak down on the letter and glided out of the open kitchen window.

"You gave that owl the stupidest name in the world," Hugo said dryly.

"I was 7," Rose replied angrily. Pea's real name was actually Peanut and she had somehow managed to be the person to name the barn owl when her mother had gotten it when it had only just hatched. No matter how much her mother tried to change the name, Pea would never listen to any other name then the one Rose had given him. Rose wasn't quite sure why she had named the barn owl Peanut, but she guessed it was probably because he had been so small when she had first seen him.

"And you should open your letter and find out if you're a prefect this year."

"I know I am, Rosie," Hugo said confidently. "Who else could have gotten it? Daniel White. He's smart and all but he's not really 'role model' material. Besides Neville was the one choosing, so it's a given that I made prefect."

"What's wrong with you this morning anyway," Rose said while giving her brother a scrutinizing look. "You're never this grouchy in the morning. Did something happen with you and that little blonde haired Hufflepuff girl?"

Hugo stared darkly at Rose. "Go soak your head, Rose," Hugo muttered angrily as he got up from his seat at the table and trudged out of the room.

Rose just stared at her brother in shock. Was everyone in the entire house going mad or was there something wrong with her?

"It's you," Nora's smooth voice said as she walked into the kitchen, aiming directly for the fridge.

Another problem that came from living with Nora these days was that fact that she could hear everything you were thinking without really trying to. "I told you not to do that," Rose said irritably. "If you keep using telepathy when we're back in school you're going to get caught."

Nora opened the fridge and stared down at the contents inside. "I don't really focus in the mornings, so pretty much everything gets inside my head. For example, that creepy old lady next door has been thinking about catching Pea and eating him all morning."

"What?" Rose replied in horror.

Nora snorted loudly in response. "I'm kidding. But she does think about weird shit." Nora backed away from the fridge with a carton of orange juice in her hand and Rose watched as the fridge door closed on its own accord.

"I thought it was too early to be awake," Rose said to her friend.

"It is," Nora said as she took a seat at the table, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and pouring herself a glass of juice. "But all of your shrieking was making it impossible for me to sleep."

Rose broke into a wide smile. "I made head girl," Rose said happily and she grabbed her badge off of the counter to show Nora.

"I think the entire neighbourhood knows that Rose," Nora chuckled, "but congratulations none the less."

"Thank you," Rose replied, giving Nora a pleased look. "I just sent a letter to my mum but I haven't told anyone else yet. I should call Al to find out if he's gotten his letter yet. He'll be thrilled over becoming head boy."

Rose failed to notice Nora wince at the mention of Al getting his Hogwarts letter, since she was already rushing over to the phone. While most of the adults in her family had no idea how to use the thing, Rose and most of her cousins knew that you didn't need to shout into the phone to be able to hear the person on the other end of it.

"It's a bit early Rose," Nora said, her eyes anxious. "Maybe you should wait a minute or two."

"You're right," Rose replied in disappointment. "I should call Alice instead."

Nora sighed in frustration as Rose eagerly punched in Alice's phone number.

"What took you so long to get here?" Rose said impatiently when she opened her front door an hour and a half after she had called Alice.

Alice yawned in response. "You know I never wake up that early on the weekend Rose. You don't even wake up this early."

"So why did you come?" Nora called out from the kitchen.

"I have news that I couldn't tell the two of you over the phone," Alice replied, suddenly perking up as she walked into Rose's house, kicking off her flip flops onto the shoe mat.

Rose stared at her friend curiously as she followed her into the kitchen.

"Hello, Alice. What news do you have that could possibly top Rose making head girl," Nora said cheekily as Alice grabbed the seat next to her and Rose shot her a dark look as she lifted herself onto the kitchen counter to sit down.

"You will not believe what I did last night," Alice said excitedly, her cheeks turning pink from what looked like nerves.

"What did you do?" Rose asked, instantly growing worried at the nervous expression on Alice's face. "You look like you committed a crime."

"I did it," Alice said in a squeaky voice, looking at Nora for verification. Nora stared at Alice in bewilderment for a second before her eyes widened in realization.

"Oh," Nora said in surprise. "Wow. Really? I thought you said you weren't ready."

"Ready for what?" Rose said in confusion.

"I thought I wasn't but last night I was with Dave and one thing led to another and... it just happened," Alice said with a grin while bouncing nervously in her seat.

Rose stared at her friend in shock when she finally caught onto what she was talking about. "Did you and Dave have sex?" Rose exclaimed loudly.

Alice nodded in response and Rose could not help but let her jaw drop in astonishment.

"Way to go, Alice," Nora said in congratulations while clapping Alice on the back, causing the blonde to turn red in embarrassment.

"Did you use protection?" Rose asked in a high squeaky voice. Rose could hardly believe it. Alice, the most pure girl Rose could ever think of, was no longer a virgin.

"Of course I did, Rose," Alice huffed in embarrassment. "I'm not an idiot."

"How was it?" Nora said with a grin.

"I don't know," Alice spluttered. "It was fine I guess. It hurt a bit at first, but then it got better"

Lucky for Alice, the phone suddenly rang causing both Rose and Alice to jump. Nora, however, didn't seem at all surprised to hear the phone ringing. "That would be for me," Nora said standing up from her seat. "And don't worry about the sex thing, Alice. He'll get better with practice."

Alice turned a bright shade of red in response to Nora's advice. Nora patted her on the head comfortingly and then grabbed the ringing phone and walked quickly out of the room. Once she was sure Nora was out of ear shot, Rose rounded on Alice.

"How long had you been thinking about doing it with Dave?" Rose asked sternly, slightly put out over the fact that she had no idea what was going on in her friend's life. "And why didn't you tell me a thing about it?"

"I don't know," Alice replied with a shrug. "I guess I've been thinking about it for most of the summer and I talked to Nora and not you because...," Alice trailed off and gave Rose an awkward look.

Rose scowled. "Because my sex life is non-existent."

"It's not that," Alice explained, trying to find the right words to say. "You've been very distracted lately with your own problems and Nora does have more experience in this department."

Rose's scowl grew. Every conversation she had with either Alice or Nora always turned to the subject of him and it was really starting to get on her nerves. "What kind of problems am I having Alice?" she questioned warningly.

"Um...," Alice said uncomfortably, her eyes lighting up when she saw Nora returning with the phone. "Nora! I brought something for you."

Rose noticed that Nora had an oddly high-spirited look for someone who had been whining about being woken up early. "Who was that?" Rose pried, still in an unpleasant mood.

Nora blatantly ignored Rose's question. "You seem awfully excited. What did you bring me?" Nora asked as she sat back in her seat.

"The latest Witch Weekly has named Al and you one of the most famous couples in the wizarding world," Alice said with a smile as she pulled the magazine out of her purse. "I thought you would get a few laughs from the article."

"Sweet," Nora replied taking the magazine from Alice and flipping through the pages to the article in question. "Oh," Nora said in pleasant surprise. "The picture of me is pretty good and they got a picture of Al when his hair is actually presentable."

"Who was on the phone, Nora?" Rose asked irritably.

"Scorpius," Nora replied in a bored voice. "He had to tell me something."

Alice's happy face quickly fell and she looked over at Nora with wide eyes. "Did he tell you what my dad told me about? Please tell me my father was wrong about Monroe's choice."

"He wasn't," Nora replied with a grin. "Oh look, the article says I'm one of the most beautiful young women in the UK."

"I can't believe it," Alice said worriedly, eyes darting nervously in Rose's direction. "I didn't think Monroe would actually choose him. Is she insane?"

"She might be," Nora replied in a bored voice. "But most of the things she's ever done or said are usually a part of one giant elaborate plan."

"Okay, exactly what is going on," Rose exclaimed angrily, causing both of her friends to stop talking and look at her.

"Should we tell her?" Alice asked looking at Nora anxiously.

Nora shrugged, never looking up from her magazine. "She's going to find out anyway, so we might as well."

"What are you guys talking about?" Rose asked, drumming her fingers on her leg in a show of impatience.

"Um...Rose?" Alice said tentatively and Rose looked over at her friend.

"What?"

"Al isn't, well... Al isn't head boy," Alice replied cautiously.

"Are you kidding me? Of course he is," Rose snorted.

Nora shook her head with a sigh and Alice hesitated before responding. "No Rose... he's not."

Rose stared at her friend in confusion. "Then... who is?"

Alice opened her mouth to say something, but Nora quickly interrupted her. "Scorpius is," Nora responded bluntly and Rose watched Alice physically wince at her words.

Rose stared at her friends in shock. Scorpius was... head boy? "He's head boy?" Rose repeated out loud in a dazed voice.

"Yup," Nora replied candidly, flipping a page of her magazine.

"No," Rose said shaking her head in shock. "No, no. He can't be."

"Rose," Alice said slowly. "My father has known about this for a week. Scorpius is head boy"

Rose's jaw dropped in disbelief. Her plan for avoiding Scorpius for the rest of her life came crumbling down around her. They would have to share a dorm room, a bathroom. They would have to plan school events together. She would have to talk to him every day. She would see him every – single –bloody –day.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!"

"My life is over," Rose said miserably, her head buried in her hands.

"I'm sure everything will be fine," Alice said reassuringly.

"Fine!" Rose exclaimed lifting her head from her hands. "This is so far beyond fine. Why didn't either of you warn me about this? Malfoy being head boy completely destroys my plan to avoid him for the entire year."

"Well the plan was doomed to fail from the beginning," Nora replied bluntly. "Not only does Scorpius have better grades then Al does, he's also not dating me. Scorpius really was the best guy for the job."

"How was I supposed to know that?" Rose whined mournfully.

"Maybe this is a good thing," Alice suggested in an overly cheerful voice. "Scorpius becoming head boy is obviously a sign from the fates telling you that you will inevitably have to talk to him about your feelings."

Rose just gaped at her friend and Nora snorted loudly. "Like that will ever happen. Rose has convinced herself that everything she feels for Scorpius will eventually fade away with time."

Rose hopped from her seat on the counter to the floor, gazing furiously at Nora. "I will never go out with a bloke who would actually choose to stay with Tatiana Zabini. I am not a contest to be won and I will happily tell him that. Also, you two better not be telling your significant others, or Andy, about any of this."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Nora said with a smile.

"I promise you that I will not tell them anything about how you love, Malfoy," Alice pledged.

"Wait," Rose snapped. "Back up. I do not love, Scorpius Malfoy. I may have some confusing feelings for him that make me somewhat attracted to him, but those feelings are far from love."

"What I don't understand is what happened when you talked to Scorpius at the end of the year that has you thinking that he wants to win you," Nora asked changing the direction of the conversation.

"That is none of your business," Rose said angrily. "And don't you dare try to read my mind to find out!"

"I wasn't going to," Nora replied hotly.

"Well... good," Rose shot back lamely storming from the room. Rose ran up the stairs two at a time, not bothering to be quiet along the way. She rushed into her bedroom where she dramatically slammed her door shut in an attempt to send a very angry message to Nora downstairs.

"Ugh," Rose groaned loudly kicking her armoire in frustration. Rose threw herself onto her bed and glared up at the white ceiling above her. Nora was right and Rose knew it. Her plan had definitely not been the greatest in the world. She had hoped that by avoiding Scorpius for the entire summer, her feelings for him would fade away due to the separation. Unfortunately, never seeing him had only had the opposite effect on her feelings for him. She found herself up late at night constantly asking herself questions about him. How was he? What was he doing right now? Did he ask Nora questions about her? Does he think about her like she does about him?

"I'm so pathetic," Rose muttered glumly, grabbing the pillow beside her so she could bury her face in it.

"Should we go after her?" Alice said worriedly.

"No," Nora said with sigh. "She just needs time to cool off for a bit."

"You really shouldn't get so angry with her," Alice scolded. "Rose has never been able to handle hard situations rationally."

"That's easy for you to say when you don't have to deal with both sides of the situation," Nora replied wearily. "Scorpius is beyond confused about how he feels about Rose and he refuses to tell me why he won't just dump Zabini in order to show Rose that he doesn't think of her as a trophy. And the trophy thing is a whole different story. Since I'm not allowed to read her bloody mind, I have no idea what gave her the idea that Scorpius just wants her because she's the grand prize in some huge elaborate scheme."

"That would be stressful."

"On top of all that," Nora replied mournfully. "The ministry has been breathing down my neck for weeks by sending me letter after letter requesting that I come meet with Sampson to discuss 'private matters'."

"And what did you tell them?" Alice asked.

"To take their wands and shove them up their asses," Nora replied stonily.

"You didn't actually say that did you?" Alice said anxiously. "Something tells me that they may not like that."

"No I didn't," Nora said with a scowl. "It was much more polite then that."

"You just need to relax," Alice said soothingly, patting Nora on the arm. "Just think positive thoughts and soon you will believe that everything will work out for the best." Nora shot her friend a dark look. "Well... maybe not, but you will feel better."

"Maybe...," Nora replied grudgingly only to become distracted by the sound of flapping wings. "Is that Pea?" Nora said turning around to look at the kitchen window. Nora's heart fell instantly when she found that she was not looking at the Weasley family's cheerful barn owl, but at an entirely black owl with dangerous yellow eyes.

"Isn't that your father's owl?" Alice asked hesitantly.

Nora stared despondently at her father's shiny gold stationary clutched tightly in Nightshade's beak. "Yes." Nora replied. "Yes it is."

A/N - July 12, 2012 - So, I have not updated in a very long time and for that I am sorry. Unfortunately, life got in the way of writing, as it sometimes does. Right now I'm in the process of re-editing and working on chapter 17 (which is half finished) and I hope to get it up in about a week.