Chapter 12 – Full Disclosure
Disclaimer- Harry Potter is not mine. He belongs to the wonderfully talented J.K. Rowling
Nora awoke to yet another splitting headache. "Ugh," she groaned loudly into her pillow. She slowly raised her body from her bed, pushing the tangle of sheets that lay on top of her as gently as possible so as to not jerk her head in any way.
Nora moved herself so that she was sitting on the edge of her bed before grabbing an already open bottle of Tylenol and pouring a couple into her hand. Nora stared down at the little red pills with distaste before popping them into her mouth and swallowing them dry. She was a witch resorting to using muggle medicine to relieve a headache; she had definitely reached an all time low. Not that the pills were working very well since she had this headache for close to a week now, but the pills made sure that the headache stayed a headache and did not bloom into a full blown migraine.
Nora surveyed her surroundings with a bored expression. Both of the Grenning twins were still snoring soundly in their beds, Alice's bed was empty but Nora guessed that the off-pitch singing coming from the bathroom was her, and her quidditch uniform was laid out on the top of her trunk.
"Shit," Nora swore under her breath. She had completely forgotten about the bloody match against Ravenclaw today and Al had even reminded her yesterday. Nora got up from her bed and trudged over to her trunk, grabbing her uniform while grumbling under her breath. She was just going to have to suck up the pain, just like she'd been doing all week. She had to show everyone that she was fine and that she didn't need to use her powers at all in order to function properly.
While pulling off the tank-top she wore too bed, Nora mused over the conversation she had, had with Al just yesterday about something Rose had uncovered about Zabini. Nora opened her trunk, her uniform falling to the floor in a heap, so she could root around for her sports bra. The only reason Zabini would be asking for handouts of the cash variety from Knight would either be because she'd been cut off from her money or she just didn't have any left. Was that why she was holding on to Scorpius so hard? Nora knew for a fact that he had quite a substantial amount of money he was going to inherit when his daddy kicked the bucket. Retrieving her sports bra from the confines of her trunk, Nora quickly pulled it on over her bare body, before removing the pair of boxers she had borrowed from Al's drawer so she could put on a more feminine pair of underwear. But there had been not a single word of the Zabini family having money problems and from what Nora knew about the wizarding world, gossip got around very quickly.
She scowled at the thought as she grabbed the pants to her quidditch uniform and began pulling them on.
"Good morning, Nora," Alice chimed happily from behind Nora, causing her to jump suddenly. The sudden movement did nothing for her head, which instantly began to throb even more.
"Morning," Nora grumbled as she savagely pulled her pants on and did them up.
"What's wrong?" Alice said worriedly.
Nora turned her head to stare at Alice, who was already dressed and ready for the day. "It's just a headache," she replied dismissively as she scooped up her shirt.
"Well we can easily fix that," Alice said brightly before rushing over to her bedside table and pulling out one of its drawer's built to rifle through it. "I know I have a headache curing potion in here somewhere."
"Don't bother," Nora replied as she put on the shirt that went under her jersey.
"Why?" Alice asked, her head snapping up from what she was doing to give Nora a baffled look. "I promise that I didn't make it myself. My mother sent it to me."
Nora couldn't help but grin at the blonde. "It has nothing to do with your potion making skills Alice. It's just that they don't really work for me anymore."
"Huh?"
Nora bent over to grab her jersey before pointing at the bathroom. "Did you see all of those empty little glass bottles in there?"
Alice nodded as she straightened her body. "Yes. Those are yours? I assumed Sharon and Sarah were collecting a certain kind of random object again and I didn't say anything because glass flasks are a step up from square-shaped rocks."
"No their mine," Nora replied as she tugged her jersey over her head. "And they all once had different kinds of headache cures in them. Too bad none of them worked. Now I'm resorting to muggle Tylenol, which surprisingly seems to work better."
"There are like 15 bottles in there Nora," Alice protested. "How long have you had this headache?"
"A week now," Sharon Grenning called out from the confines of her curtained off bed.
"And they're probably not working because she so special," Sarah Grenning finished mockingly.
Nora lifted her middle finger in the direction of the twin's beds. Since when had they been awake?
"Is that true?" Alice asked, ignoring Nora's finger. "Have you had this headache for a week?"
"Yes, but it's not that big of a deal. I have everything under control."
"Y – You have everything under control?" Alice spluttered. "For all we know you could have some kind of tumour that is slowly killing you. You should go see Madam Penny."
"I do not need to go see Penny," Nora grumbled.
"Yes, you do," Alice said stubbornly. "What if you faint during the match and plunge to your death. Al would never forgive me if he found out I could have stopped you from playing."
"I'm fine," Nora insisted as she began to her required protective gear.
"No you are not," Alice huffed, hands coming to her hips in a way that made Nora feel like she was being scolded by her mother. "You've been absolutely out of it for days and I know for a fact that you have skipped your last few meetings with Monroe."
Nora stopped what she was doing abruptly to stare at Alice in shock. "How do you know about that?"
"I found the note Monroe sent to you reminding you that you shouldn't be missing them in the trash the other day," Alice said sternly. "Why aren't you attending your lessons?"
Nora didn't have an answer to that question. She wasn't sure why 2 weeks ago when she was heading towards Monroe's office, that half-way there she turned around and went for a walk outside by herself. Nora partially believed that she angry at the headmistress for trying to sick Grant on her. She didn't want to know what was going on at the Ministry right now because she was worried she wouldn't like what she heard. And besides why couldn't Monroe have taught her about all of that. She had been an auror once herself. So while being stubborn and feeling sorry for herself, she had decided she had, had enough of people trying to make her better. She was fine just the way she was.
Even though she was pretty sure she wasn't.
"I just had better things to do," Nora lied, looking away from Alice.
"I doubt that," Alice retorted.
Nora gritted her teeth as she donned her quidditch gear. "You know what, Alice," Nora muttered heatedly.
"What?"
"None of this is your bloody business," Nora said furiously. "So lay the hell off!"
"You're my friend, Nora," Alice said sternly, her hands coming off her hips as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And since Rose asked me to keep an eye on you, I am obligated to watch your back."
Nora tensed at Alice's statement. So Rose had asked Alice to watch her. Someone was always watching her. Babysitting her. Coddling her when they thought she was upset or angry. Well she was bloody sick of it. All she wanted to be was normal. Boring, plain, normal and... happy.
"Whatever," Nora muttered dejectedly. "I'm going to the washroom and then we can meet the guys and go down for breakfast."
"Nora," Alice said anxiously.
Nora ignored her and trudged into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
"What's wrong with her?" David whispered to Alice, who promptly sent him a death glare.
Nora didn't bother to acknowledge the exchange as she distractedly pushed her eggs around her plate. Nora and Alice had met up with the guys about 15 minutes after her first temper tantrum of the day and she had made it very clear to Dave, Andy and Al that she was in no mood for idle banter this morning. She just wanted to get the match over with so that she could go back to her room and sleep.
"Where the bloody hell is Rose?" Andy asked impatiently. "We're going to have to head down to the pitch soon for the game."
"She might be busy with a few things," Al said cryptically. Nora moved her head slightly to give him a questioning look and he just winked and lifted one of his hands to start massaging the back of her neck. Nora closed her eyes and focused on the way his fingers were kneading the back of her neck before moving to her shoulder. He was distracting her and she knew it. From what she wasn't quite sure. He either knew about her headache and was trying to keep her calm or something was going on with Rose that he didn't want her questioning. If it had been any other day, she probably wouldn't have let him get his way, but she was way too exhausted and in pain to play detective.
"Brilliant," Andy moaned. "Rose is always the one who makes sure Alice doesn't puke when she notices how high up in the air she is. Now what the hell am I supposed to do?"
"I'm right here you know," Alice muttered darkly.
David chuckled from beside Alice. "I'm sure she'll be down soon."
Nora, now becoming curious as to why Rose was late, turned her head to look at the Slytherin table. There was Scorpius, in his normal King of Slytherin seat at the middle of the table, completely surrounded by people who knew absolutely nothing about him. Nora couldn't help but notice that he looked quite distracted, like he was trying to solve some sort of complex puzzle.
"Who are they?" Andy suddenly asked, causing Nora's head to turn in the direction of the head table.
"Who?" Al asked as he stared at where the professor's were all eating their breakfast.
"The two blokes talking to Monroe," Andy said impatiently.
Nora's eyes moved to where Monroe was sitting, only to find her head turned slightly to talk to two older men dressed in boring black professional dress robes, each of them wearing matching scowls on their faces.
"No idea," Al mused, his hand still kneading away at Nora's shoulder.
Nora's gaze hardened as she scrutinized the two men. It didn't take a genius to figure out who these men were. They were politicians, or they at least worked for some. Nora had grown up with one making her life miserable so she could always spot them from a mile away.
"I've seen one of those guys before," David said casually. "At one of my parents rich people parties. I think he works for one of the other governor's on the school board."
Nora's mind processed the information, her head throbbing. She was far too distracted by the two men to notice the worried look Alice was giving her and that Al had stopped massaging her shoulder and was now staring at the two men warily.
Why were men from the ministry here? Were they here to watch the match? Were they here to watch her? She had so many questions and no one ever answered them with a proper answer. And if she were to go up to them right now, would they truthfully tell her why they were here or would they just gloss over the obvious with by telling her it was none of her business.
But how wasn't it her business? They were the ones watching her. They were the ones taking notes on her behaviour. They were the ones threatening to launch an investigation into whether or not they could trust her in the future. She wasn't threatening to do anything, so why weren't they just talking to her about these things right to her face instead of asking her friends to testify against her or getting people to monitor her actions. She had been fitting in here. She had had a place where she belonged. The only reason any of this was happening was because some unknown source had revealed the truth to everyone through the bloody newspaper. Nora gritted her teeth at the thought. No one had ever figured out who had spilled the beans about how 'special' she was, even the Prophet's editor had no idea. But what pissed Nora off, was the fact that no one was looking because why should they. Some unknown person had done the entire world a great service and if they didn't want the spotlight cast upon them, why should anyone bother them.
But Nora wanted to bother them. When Nora graduated, she was going to find out who it was that was trying too hard to ruin her life. Why? Well, before it was more because she was curious and slightly irritated, but at that moment she had a very different reason to want to find whoever was turning her life upside down.
She hated them and she was, one day, going to make sure they understood that.
Crack!
Nora was startled from her reverie by the sudden noise and her eye's scanned the area around her to find what was responsible for the sound, only to stop and stare in confusion at the severely cracked glass goblet in front of her that was slowly leaking orange juice onto the table. Nora stared at the goblet in confusion. She hadn't hit it had she?
"Nora," Al said anxiously. "What's wrong? Why'd you break the goblet?"
Nora gave him confused look. "I didn't even touch it. How could I have broken it?"
Al shifted uncomfortably in his seat before replying. "None of us did either and I'm pretty sure we would have noticed someone using magic."
Nora looked at the surprised look on all of her friends faces as they all stared at her goblet warily, before realizing what Al was talking about. She didn't have to touch something to break it. All she had to do was look at it and will it to break.
But she hadn't wanted to break anything. She wasn't even sure if she had even been looking at the goblet when it had broken since she had been so busy fuming over how much she hated the people who were trying to ruin her life.
Nora gasped suddenly, reality dawning on her. However, there was one thing she had learned over the years about her abilities. If she was put under the right amount of pressure, if she was angry or sad enough, she didn't need to think anything; her emotions would do all the work for her.
Shit!
Nora shot up from her seat as quickly as she could, trying desperately to ignore the now empty cracked goblet and the orange stain that surrounded it, while ignoring the presence of the unknown men at the front of the room.
"I'm going to head down to the pitch," Nora blurted out in a panicked voice. "Anyone coming with me?"
Everyone looked at her and began to stammer confused answers, before Al jumped in. "Nora," Al said warningly. "Is something wrong?"
Nora shot him a quick glance, noting from his expression that he knew something was up. Just great. She couldn't hide anything from him.
"I'm fine," Nora replied as cheerfully as possible, before ignoring how unconvinced he looked and turning back to look at Andy, David and Alice. "Anyone coming?"
"Er-," Andy replied, eyeing the cracked goblet suspiciously as he slowly rose from his seat. "Sure."
"Nora is your head still hurting?" Alice asked tentatively.
Nora's head whipped around to stare at Alice, causing her to cringe in pain over making such a sudden movement.
Al jumped on her reaction and the information provided by Alice faster than lightning. "You still have the headache? I thought you told me it went away?"
Nora groaned in annoyance, taking her hand away from her temple so that she could give Alice an icy glare. "I'm fine. Alice is making a big deal out of nothing."
"I am not," Alice huffed.
"I think you should sit out this quidditch match," Al suddenly suggested.
"What?" Nora said in surprise.
"What indeed!" Andy shouted.
"You heard me," Al responded, ignoring Andy. "I care about you Nora and the fact that you're lying about how you feel worries me. What if your headache gets worse during the game and something happens. I would hate myself if I could have prevented something bad from happening to you or anyone else."
Nora was now thoroughly panicked. Al's voice was far too loud now for people not to notice that something was going on and the fact that she looked like she was trying to run away probably didn't help. Why couldn't he get the fact that she couldn't sit this game out because of her headache? If she didn't play and the Ministry figured out why, she would be put under constant supervision for fear that she was going to hurt someone. No, she had to suck it up.
"I'm fine, Al," Nora said in a steady voice. "I took a few Tylenol's earlier and they just haven't kicked in yet."
"What's a Tylenol?" David asked in confusion.
"Muggle medicine for pain," Andy answered and David gave a silent 'oh' of understanding in response.
"Why aren't you taking the headache curing potions?" Al questioned, getting up from his seat.
"Because apparently they don't work for her anymore," Alice muttered under her breath but Al still caught the message.
"What do you mean they don't work?" Al said his voice filled with concern.
"I'm fine," Nora insisted unhappily. What was happening right now? Everything was unravelling over some stupid broken glass. She turned her gaze back to it, silently willing it to fix itself, or at least disappear, so she could go back to before Al suspected she was lying to him. He was already upset at her for her lack of openness with him, she didn't need this to.
"Bloody hell you're not," Al replied furiously. "The only reason why this headache of yours could be sticking around is because of your abilities. Have you been using them?"
Nora looked at him in shock. "Why the bloody hell would I do that? I could get in trouble if the Ministry found out."
"I could give a flying leap about the damn Ministry at the moment, Nora," Al fumed. "Have you been using them?"
Nora gave him an angry look before turning around and heading for the Great Hall's doors; very much aware of the stares she was receiving.
"Nora!" Al bellowed but she ignored him as she stomped out of the room and into the hallway, knowing full well he would follow after her.
Rose had been making her way to the Great Hall for breakfast when she had literally ran into Nora in the hallway.
"What the-!" Rose exclaimed as she stumbled backwards, only to watch as Nora brushed past her. "Nora?"
Nora didn't even seem to notice that she had even run into her, since she didn't stop as she hurried down the hallway before turning a corner.
"Nora, wait!" Someone suddenly called out. Rose turned to see Al rushing towards her with a frustrated expression on his face, before stopping when he noticed she was standing there. "Hey, Rose," he said quickly. "I can't really talk right now. I'm worried that Nora's gotten too upset by what's been going on lately."
"What's been going on lately?" Rose said in confusion. This was all too much for her so early in the morning. She had just told the bloke she was in love with to break up with his girlfriend or he could never touch her again and now something was wrong with Nora.
"I don't have time to explain," Al replied hurriedly. "I have to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."
Before Rose could reply, Al had already run off in the direction Nora had gone, leaving her more confused than ever.
"Rose!" Alice shouted as she suddenly appeared in the hallway, followed closely by Andy and David. "There you are. Did you see Al or Nora come out here recently?"
"Yes," Rose answered in bewilderment. "What the hell is going on? Isn't the match going to be starting in an hour or so?"
"No time for that, Rosie," David replied. "Nora needs us right now."
"As much as it kills me to say this, Dave's right," Andy said with a sigh.
"What? Could someone please tell me what's going on before I start freaking out?" Rose asked in confusion.
"Don't you remember me telling you that Nora's been struggling," Alice replied brow furrowed.
"Yes," Rose replied.
"Well she hasn't gotten any better," Alice explained. "In fact, she's gotten worse."
"And by worse, she means paranoid as all hell," Andy replied.
Alice shot Andy a dirty look before turning back to look at Rose. "Anyway, which way did the two of them go? We all have to be there to – oh... hey, Malfoy," Alice greeted awkwardly, her eyes looking over Rose's shoulder.
Rose turned her head to see Scorpius standing a few feet away from them, his expression both worried and apologetic. Rose felt her insides melt as she stared at him. Damn, she was so far gone with him that it wasn't even funny. He could be trying to seduce her, be angry as hell or looking like a lost little puppy, but either way she would still be tempted to jump his bones. Rose took a deep breath in to calm her thoughts. She knew why Scorpius had followed all of her friends out of the Great Hall. He was close to Nora as well, so he could break it off with Zabini later.
"Come on, Scorpius," Rose said beckoning him towards her with her hand.
Scorpius grinned in response and Rose's insides purred in appreciation. However, the grin quickly turned into a serious expression. "What's going on?" Scorpius asked as he walked towards her, ignoring the surprised looks on Alice, Andy and David's faces.
"I honestly have no idea," Rose replied before looking angrily over at her friends. "Because this lot continues to be horribly vague about the entire situation."
"We don't have time for this," Alice said impatiently. "Just tell us where Nora and Al went so that we can all get to them before something horrible happens."
"Fine," Rose replied, lifting her arm to point in the direction Al and Nora had gone. "They went that way."
Her friends nodded at her appreciatively before turning away and rushing down the corridor, leaving Rose and Scorpius to follow dutifully behind them.
"So you don't know anything about what's happening?" Scorpius asked again.
"All I know is that Nora hasn't been doing well, but I was told this weeks ago, and according to Alice she's gotten worse. I'm still not sure what 'worse' actually means, though," Rose explained. "I'm surprised you don't know more about the situation."
"To be honest," Scorpius muttered sheepishly. "I've been so caught up with what's been going on between us to pay much attention to anything else."
Rose started to chew on her lip nervously as she began to realize how distracted she had been these past few weeks. "Same," Rose replied as she quickened her pace. Had she been so wrapped up with Scorpius that she had failed to notice things that were staring her directly in the face? Things that she should have noticed and should have dealt with earlier? "It looks like we haven't been the greatest friends lately," Rose mused sombrely, as her mind began to panic over all of the things that could be wrong with Nora.
Scorpius ducked his head slightly, a look of disappointment and guilt beginning to form on his pale face.
"Nora!" Al's voice exclaimed, echoing down the hallway towards Rose and her friends.
Rose heard the fear in Al's voice and her maternal instincts immediately kicked into action. Knowing her friends would follow behind her, Rose began to run towards where Al's voice had come from, stopping in the doorway of an unused classroom to find a scene that Rose believed she would remember for the rest of her life.
Nora sat in the far corner of the classroom, her knees drawn up to her chest and her head clutched in her hands; her body shaking slightly, while Al was slowly getting to his feet a few feet away from her. Rose caught the slight look of pain in his eyes as he straightened himself into a standing position. Her eyes travelled back to Nora's quivering figure and she couldn't help but notice how defeated Nora looked. It was as if the reason she was curling herself into a ball was to prevent herself from falling to pieces. Rose felt her insides churn uneasily at the idea. Nora was always so strong. What had happened to change that?
"What the bloody hell happened to the windows?" Andy suddenly exclaimed when he joined Rose in the doorway, along with Scorpius, Alice and David.
Rose looked to where the sun was streaming into the room, only to gasp in shock.
All of the windows in the room were shattered to the point where the bars that had been holding the panes of glass in place were no longer even present; turning what had once been windows, into gaping holes lining the stone wall. Rose stared around the room for signs of glass but found very little. Instead, she noticed that many of the desks in the room appeared to have been pushed away from the area where Nora was crouched down on the floor and several objects that should have been on the tops of bookshelves and desks were now strewn about the floor haphazardly.
Rose stepped slowly into the room, Scorpius and her friends following behind her. Al cast a quick glance in their direction before walking back to where Nora was huddled on the floor, ignoring Andy's question all together. Rose soon joined him and dropped to the floor so that she was at eye level with Nora.
"Nora," Rose said reassuringly. "What's going on?"
"I can't believe I lost control," Nora replied, her voice barely a whisper.
"Lost control of what?" Rose asked as she tried to keep her voice as level as possible. It was obvious what she had lost control of. The lack of windows in the classroom were evidence of that. However, Rose knew that she going to have to get Nora to admit a few things in order for her to come to terms with whatever was going on.
"My abilities," Nora said in a defeated voice, her hands clenching together at the side of her head. "I can't not use them. It's too hard."
Rose sighed and lowered herself so that she was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Without a word Alice followed suit and plopped down next to Nora. Rose heard the screech of chairs and desks moving behind her and she assumed that the boys were finding a place to sit, as Al leaned up against the wall next to Nora; his expression unreadable. They were going to be here awhile, quidditch be damned. Besides, when half the quidditch team didn't show up for the match, Rose was pretty sure someone would realize something was going on.
"Have you not been using them?"
"No," Nora replied pitifully. "At least, I tried. I know what's at stake. I know what could happen. But I tried." Nora's head dropped onto her knees and a sob escaped her lips.
"What's going to happen, Nora?" Rose asked tentatively.
"I don't know!" Nora raged, lifting her head quickly from her knees to stare furiously at Rose. "That's what I hate about all of this. I have a professor telling me that he wants to teach me about the ministry, ministry officials talking to my friends and people watching my every move, and I'm sick of it! I tried not using my powers just like they asked and I was fine at first, but then…"
"But then, what?" Rose questioned.
Nora shot Rose a withering look, but answered the question. "I started getting headaches and headache curing potions weren't working on them. Then the headaches wouldn't end and I immediately knew why."
"But if you knew why, why didn't you just use your abilities?" Alice piped up.
"Because I was disappointed in myself," Nora said angrily. "Why couldn't I not have to use my abilities? It would have made my entire life so much easier."
"So you were punishing yourself?" Rose queried.
"No," Nora replied sharply.
"Yes," Al said, earning a dark look from Nora.
"I wasn't punishing myself," Nora replied through clenched teeth. "I just didn't want to fail."
"Nora," Alice said. "You're only 17 years old. You're allowed to fail."
"Not me," Nora sniffed. "I have to be perfect or I could get expelled. I can't be a bother or otherwise I'm proving my father right. No, I'm not allowed to fail. And when the ministry finds out that I caused actual damage to the school because I had a headache brought on by having too much magical energy, it will be bye bye Hogwarts, hello extensive tests and interviews."
"But you don't know that," Rose said softly. "Besides what have you learned from this entire experience?"
Nora shot Rose a depressed look. "That I'm beyond help."
"No," Rose replied impatiently. "We've learned that you have to use your powers every once and awhile, otherwise you start hurting yourself."
"Um," Andy said, clearing his throat. "How is that going to help her, Rose?"
Rose sighed. "It's something we can tell the Ministry so that Nora won't get into trouble. They would know that it is asking you too much to not do what comes naturally to you. In fact, we can even say it's far more dangerous for you not to use your abilities and those windows can be our evidence. And you have yet to realize how good this supposed investigation could be."
"What?" Nora asked in confusion.
"I agree with, Nora," David muttered from behind Rose.
"Explain please, Rose," Alice said her expression thoughtful.
"We need to show them just how useful you can be," Rose explained. "You're definitely not a failure and I think they know that. There just worried about where your allegiances lie. You could be a dangerous enemy, but a very powerful friend."
"I refuse to kiss anyone's ass," Nora said, her lip curled.
"You don't have to," Rose replied. "As long as you emphasize how useful you could be to the ministry, they'll be the ones kissing your ass in the end as they beg you to become the legendary auror you are destined to become."
"That's bloody devious, Rosie," Andy said in awe. Rose turned her head to grin at him, catching the smug look on Scorpius' face that she did her best to ignore in order to keep herself from blushing, before turning back to look at Nora.
"That plan depends greatly on telling someone what's going on," Nora said irritably, but Rose noticed that her body had relaxed considerably.
"Nora," Rose said seriously. "Do you really want to continue lying about how you're feeling just to please a few politicians and over-protective parents?"
Nora ran a hand through her hair with a sigh. "No I don't."
"Then it's time you told people the truth," Rose replied.
Nora gave Rose an unconvinced look.
"She's right, Nora," Al said. "We both know you hate exposing your vulnerable side this much and telling the truth would keep meeting's like this from happening often."
"But what if I'm right," Nora insisted. "What if everything goes back to the way it was before I came to Hogwarts."
"We won't let it change," Scorpius replied seriously, surprising Rose's friends and making her smile.
"You can't guarantee that," Nora answered.
"Yes we can," Andy replied. "We're all of age and some of us have lots of money we're one day going to inherit."
Rose gave Andy a sarcastic look before turning back to look at Nora. "What Andy means is that, even though we're only 17 and we haven't finished school yet, we can still protect each other when it's necessary."
"You're going to protect me?" Nora asked, a smile growing on her lips.
"Yes," Rose replied. "We all will. Remember, who are me and Al's parents?"
"And my dad as well," David added.
"And if their parents can't help, we can always use Malfoy's family history to scare people into leaving you alone," Andy joked and Rose could only imagine the look of disgust that had appeared on Scorpius' face.
"See," Rose said. "It's time you stopped believing that you need to protect everyone, when in reality, you need to be protected just as much as we do."
Nora chewed her lip in agitation and looked up at Al for reassurance. He nodded his head silently before slowly descending down to the floor to put his arm around Nora's shoulder. "Everything will be fine, Nora," Al said in a relaxed voice. "I'm here to protect you. Even when you don't want me to."
Nora sighed dejectedly. "I hate it when you do that. Fine... I'll go talk to Monroe about what's been going on, but if something goes wrong, I am blaming all of you."
"Aw," Alice cooed before throwing her arms around Al and Nora. "I'm so happy that you're not being stubborn anymore."
"And we finished this little intervention early enough to get Roxanne to replace Nora in the game and still make it to the pitch before Gryffindor is forced into forfeiting the match," Andy said distractedly.
"You're going to have to find a replacement for me as well," Al said as he pried himself away from Alice's arms and got to his feet. "I'm going to go with Nora to see Monroe."
"You've done enough already, Al," Andy reassured eagerly. "Malfoy can do it. Rose can even go with them."
Al hesitated before turning to look at Rose. "We can do it," Rose said. "We've been bloody awful friends lately anyway, so we owe Nora a few."
Al still looked unconvinced as he looked down at Nora, who was still trapped in Alice's arms. Nora exhaled noisily as she got to her feet, pulling Alice up with her. "Go play, Al, and you better win or I'm going to kick your ass."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," Nora replied impatiently, untangling herself from Alice's arms to give him a quick kiss to reassure him. "Now go before you have to forfeit."
"Listen to the woman, Al," Andy said, clapping his friend on the back. "Now let's get going."
Rose grinned as she watched Andy push Al out of the room, David and Alice following closely behind them.
"We'll come find you all after the match," Alice assured as she walked out of the classroom. Rose looked over at Nora, who was beginning to look horribly nervous.
"Everything will be fine," Rose said supportively and Nora gave her an anxious smile in response. "Do you want me to fix the windows?" Rose asked.
"No, no," Nora replied. "We should leave evidence of today's events for... review, Merlin, I'm going to start hyperventilating."
"You'll be fine," Rose said soothingly. "Scorpius, talk to her."
"You'll be fine," Scorpius said awkwardly.
Nora gave them both odd looks. "Something's different about you two," she said, eyes narrowing.
Great, Nora had been back to her normal self for only a minute and she could already tell that Rose and Scorpius had a more than friendly relationship at the moment.
"Are you sure you don't want me to fix the windows?" Rose asked quickly, trying to distract Nora.
"I'm sure," Nora replied. "Remember. Full disclosure is my new motto in life. But changing the subject; did something happen between the two of you?"
"Uh...no," she replied unconvincingly, looking over at Scorpius, who was conveniently looking anywhere but at her.
Nora's eyes narrowed even further, a smirk beginning to form on her face. "You two totally hooked up!"
"What?" Rose exclaimed. "We did not!"
"You so totally did," Nora replied gleefully.
"No we didn't," Rose insisted. "Tell her, Scorpius."
Scorpius gawked at her unattractively, his usually pale cheeks turning a light pink in embarrassment.
"Merlin, this is fantastic!" Nora exclaimed happily. "This just makes my day so much better. Okay, now I can go talk to Monroe. You two better be dating right now or I may become very annoyed later."
"Uh," Rose stuttered, as Nora marched out of the room, head held high.
"I don't need to know," Nora called out. "Are you two coming? I have a feeling the next couple of days are going to be very interesting."
A/N- I believe I am coming to terms with how much of a horrible updater I am, but please bare with me. I've been really distracted with school and family drama, so I haven't been able to focus too much on writing. Anyway, I'm not really to fond of this chapter, not sure why, I'm just not. However, it needed to be written and I am far more excited for what is to come (hopefully you are as well). Next chapter I promise that Scorpius will do something about Zabini and Rose and Scorpius will be truly together not long after. Read and review as always and I will try to update sooner next chapter.
Also, if you visit my page you will notice that I have written a one-shot called Invitation about when Monroe first went to visit Nora in Canada. It was something that just popped into my head, since I've been thinking a lot about Monroe's back story. I've even thought about writing a fic about her past sometime in the future. We shall see.
Toodles!