Chapter 13 – A Beginning and an End
Disclaimer- Harry Potter is not mine, he and the wizarding world belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.
Rose was worried. There was no way she could pretend that she wasn't. Professor Longbottom had told her to just go about her daily business and that he would let her know if anything important happened, but how could she when there was the possibility that one of her best friends may get kicked out of school any minute now?
It had been six days since Nora had skipped the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw quidditch match with Rose and Scorpius. Since the three of them had no idea how to get into the headmistresses office without the password, they had headed straight for the hospital wing. Everything after making that decision had been a blur of anxiety ridden adults and questions.
As soon as the three of them had gotten to the hospital wing, Madam Penny had known immediately that something was wrong and had made Nora cough up every little detail of what had happened, before pouncing on Scorpius and Rose.
Once Penny had gotten all she wanted out of the three of them, she had quickly contacted Professor Monroe, Stone, Longbottom and, much to Rose's surprise, Grant.
The four professor's had taken very little time getting to the hospital wing and as soon as they entered the room, Monroe, Stone and Longbottom had swooped down on them, peppering them with even more questions, while Grant hung back and surveyed the whole situation.
After the three professors had stopped asking Rose and Scorpius for their version of the day's events and what else that had gone on underneath their noses, they had kicked both Rose and Scorpius out of the room in order to be alone with Nora.
After that, Rose's parents, who were still unofficially the closest thing Nora had to legal guardians, were asked to come down to the school and Uncle Harry had followed them.
It was the day after that the Ministry had joined the fray. Nora had explained to Rose and her friends later, when she had finally been allowed to take a break from being constantly interviewed, that she had, very bluntly, told everyone who talked to her that not using her abilities at all put more people's lives at risk then if she was using them regularly.
Of course, several people had not taken the news very well, especially the men from the ministry. However, many had come to Nora' s defence, by arguing that the fact that she was being honest with them was a major sign that not only did she not have any ill will towards anyone, but also her willingness to work with the ministry in order to put people at ease about the current situation, gave them a positive reflection of Nora's true character.
Rose remembered being very happy when she had heard Nora report that to her. One point to Rose Weasley for being incredibly intelligent, thank you.
Today, however, Nora had been given the privilege of skipping classes in order to accompany Professor Monroe to the Ministry of Magic, where Nora would be asked even more questions before the Board of Governors, as well as the Minister of Magic, decided on how to proceed from that moment on.
Needless to say, Rose felt like she was going to puke.
And she wasn't the only one.
Al was an even bigger jumble of nerves then she was. He continually kept running his hand through his unruly hair, making it so that it now resembled a poorly constructed bird's nest. She had even overheard him talking to his father a few days back about him keeping an eye on Nora when Al couldn't. That was how worried he was.
Scorpius was also very preoccupied with the entire situation. She could easily tell that Nora being in trouble put him on edge, so she had been giving him space for the past few days as he encouraged Nora in his own way.
The one good thing that had been born from this entire affair was that the old Nora was back. While she was still worried about what would happen to her, she did appear to have her old spark back. She had left this morning dressed in a smart-looking black pants suit and wearing her trademark superior grin.
'Don't worry about me, Rosie,' she had said. 'For some reason, I'm feeling really optimistic about what's going to happen today.'
Easy for her to say. She wasn't the one who had been left behind to ring her hands like an old woman fretting over her lost cat.
Rose stared across her at Alice and David, who were ignoring their lunches as they both stared off into space; matching looks of worry painted across their faces. Al sat to her left, his face uncharacteristically pale.
Andy seemed to be the only one who wasn't sulking, as he quickly gulped down his lunch in his spot on the other side of her.
"How can you eat at a time like this?" Rose asked, slightly disgusted. "Nora could be expelled any minute now and you're stuffing your face like a pig."
"Oh, come on," Andy said, rolling his eyes. "Nora was way less nervous then you lot this morning and it's her ass on the line. Besides, it's my birthday today, remember. Everything will be fine."
Dave sighed in exasperation. "Sure, mate. We all know how lucky you are."
Rose huffed, her fingers drumming the tabletop nervously as she scanned the room for a distraction from her thoughts.
And she quickly found one.
"Lovely," Rose muttered unhappily.
"What?" Al asked.
Rose stared at the approaching group of people, a feeling of dread washing over her. Tatiana Zabini, in all of her Amazon like stature, glided effortlessly towards Rose and her friends with Marina Kozlova and three other Slytherin girls; each of them wearing a matching smirk across their heavily made up faces. "Seems Zabini has come to have a chat."
"If Marina mentions one more time how I botched our potion yesterday," David said with a groan upon seeing the group of Slytherin's. "I swear I'll kill myself."
"I don't think they've come to talk about that, David," Alice replied unhappily as Zabini and her cronies gathered together behind the couple.
"Well if it isn't the wonder team," Zabini greeted. "Where's the freak today? Getting her daily shots?"
"What do you want, Zabini?" Rose replied, giving the girl in front of her a withering look.
"That hurts Weasley. I just stopped by to say hello," Zabini said sweetly. "After all, from what I've heard at least, your little group of goody goody's is going to soon be losing one of its members."
Rose could hear Al's teeth grinding together in anger from where she was sitting, so she quickly decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if she distracted everyone from cursing each other. "What are you talking about, Zabini?" Rose asked.
"I'm talking about how Wilson is finally going to be kicked out of this place. After all, she has been labelled as a menace to society and it was only a matter of time before enough parents complained about their children being in danger," Zabini explained with a laugh.
"Nora is not a menace," Alice said, her cheeks heating in anger. "She's just different from everyone else and that isn't her fault."
Zabini's eyes moved away from Rose to stare down at Alice coldly and Rose's stomach twisted uncomfortably. Rose knew that Zabini respected her far more than most girls at Hogwarts, no matter how much she hated Rose. How she felt about people like Alice was a completely different story. Everyone at Hogwarts knew Alice was probably the nicest, sweetest person on the planet and people like Zabini loved nothing more than trying to make those types of people cry. Rose began to remember vividly the horrors of third year when Zabini had poor Alice convinced she was the size of whale, when all she was, was chubby cheeked. Luckily, Alice had gotten over that period in her life and had developed far more self-confidence in herself, but Rose was in no mood for Zabini to start tearing her down again.
"Did you say something, Longbottom?" Zabini asked menacingly.
Suddenly David was on his feet and towering over Zabini with a look of distaste. "Get lost, Zabini."
"How touching," Marina simpered from where she stood next to Zabini. "The gentle giant is protecting his mate."
Zabini grinned at her friend's comment, while David bristled.
"Alright," Rose said, getting up from her seat. "That is enough. Zabini, would you please take you and your followers somewhere else before I have to start giving people detention. And that includes you Dave, so sit down before you do something stupid."
Dave grudgingly lowered himself back to his seat but Zabini easily ignored Rose's warning.
"And why would you have to do that?" Zabini questioned. "It's not like we're doing anything wrong. We're just telling you what everyone else is thinking."
"Oh really," Rose replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "Enlighten me, Zabini. What exactly is everyone thinking?"
Zabini smirked. "That Wilson needs to be sent back to where she came from. Everyone thinks she's a liability. A bomb waiting to explode. From what I've been told, her father just sent her here so that he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore. There are even rumours going around that she blew up a classroom because she couldn't control her little gift and that's why the Ministry has finally decided to get rid of her."
Rose sighed, as she became acutely aware of the several pairs of eyes who were now trained in her direction. "The Ministry isn't getting rid of anyone, Zabini," Rose replied slowly.
"Really," Zabini snorted. "Then where exactly is the freak right now, Weasley? Sipping tea with Monroe?"
Al was on his feet in a flash, his gaze wild. Rose held a hand in front of her cousin's chest, silently gesturing for him to calm down.
Zabini smirked triumphantly over getting a rise out of Al and Rose felt her fingers begin to itch for her wand. What was Zabini trying to achieve with this display? Rose couldn't help but feel that she was here not just because she wanted to mock Nora behind her back or because she was just in one of her moods. No, she was mainly here to remind Rose that she was still very present in Rose's current relationship with Scorpius. Rose felt her temper rise as she thought about how it had been a week since she had told Scorpius to chuck Zabini and he had yet to do anything. While the situation with Nora was a legitimate excuse to put their relationship troubles on the back burner, he could at least assure her that once things got better for Nora that he would break off his relationship with Zabini for good. And it really only took about a minute to properly break up with someone anyway. So, it was no wonder she was a little peeved at the moment.
"Zabini," Rose said slowly, trying to hide her anger. "What exactly is the point of this little conversation?"
Zabini grinned and ignored her question. "Have you seen Scorpius lately? He asked me to meet him here."
Bitch.
"No I haven't seen, Scorpius," Rose replied coolly. "Perhaps I can give him a message for you?"
Rose saw her friends eye her suspiciously, while Al, who was still standing, instantly noticed the change of direction the conversation had taken.
"No, it's alright," Zabini replied innocently. "I am his girlfriend after all. I can wait until he shows up."
Rose eyed the girl in front of her with distaste. Why had Scorpius asked Zabini to meet him? From what she knew, he had been avoiding Zabini as much as humanly possible for the last couple of months and now he was going out of his way to see her?
Rose's eyes widened as a certain thought popped into her head.
Was he going to do what she thought he was going to do?
Everyone around her instantly noticed the change in her demeanour, especially Zabini, as a small secretive smile graced Rose's pale face as she reseated herself, pulling Al gently down with her.
"Oh, I'm sure you can," Rose said, her smile growing wider and Zabini's gaze hardened severely as she tried to figure out what Rose was thinking.
As if on cue, from the corner of her eye, Rose noticed Scorpius enter the Great Hall and all those who had been listening to the conversation unfolding before them, turned to stare at him with interest. Rose saw a slight look of confusion flash across Scorpius' aristocratic face at the stares he was receiving, before his gaze settled on the large number of people grouped at one area of the Gryffindor table. Scorpius' face darkened when, Rose guessed, he noticed who made up the group in question.
Scorpius strode quickly towards them along the side of the table David and Alice were seated at, his presence quickly becoming apparent to everyone around Rose.
"Scorpius," Zabini greeted cheerfully.
Scorpius didn't bother to exchange pleasantries with his wonderful girlfriend and jumped straight to the point. "What's going on?" he asked stonily.
Zabini sighed. "Nothing. We were all just chatting."
Scorpius' eyes looked away from Zabini for a second, his gaze noticing the matching looks of anger on David and Al's faces, before his gaze slid back to Zabini. "About what?" he asked slowly.
"Just about everyone's favourite freak," Zabini replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Which freak?" Scorpius asked in confusion.
"Wilson, of course," Zabini replied and Rose inwardly winced over how easily she had answered. Did she actually have no idea how close Scorpius and Nora were? If neither one of them were distracted by their own problems, they could read each other like open books and Rose had a funny feeling that they knew a few things about each other that neither Rose or Al would be able to figure out unless given clues.
Scorpius' face darkened slightly at Zabini's comment. "How is Nora a freak?"
Zabini snorted. "Really, Scorpius? She's being reviewed by the school's Board of Governor's as we speak because people think she's a menace to society. If that doesn't make her a freak, then I don't know what does."
The chill that came off of Scorpius after Zabini's answer, sent shivers down the backs of everyone in the Great Hall. His head was bent forward in a way that his hair covered his eyes but Rose could tell by the slight twitch of his left shoulder that he was pissed off. What was he going to say next? Rose wasn't sure. However, she had a feeling it wasn't going to be anything good. At least for Zabini.
"Tatiana," Scorpius said in a low steely voice.
"Hm? What is it?" Zabini replied still completely unaware of the situation.
Scorpius paused for a moment, as if he was thinking about what he should say next and Rose couldn't help but hold her breath in anticipation.
And then he lifted his head, opened his mouth and said two words that probably would make Rose happy for the rest of her life.
"It's over," Scorpius said clearly, his voice resonating off of the Great Hall's high stone walls.
The silence that echoed around the hallway was deafening, as people who had heard Scorpius began to stare at him in complete shock.
"What?" Zabini questioned, clearly very confused.
"It's over," Scorpius repeated, just as clear and blunt as before; his expression almost bored.
Rose gaped at him, her brain struggling to catch up with the situation unfolding before her. Was what she had asked for actually happening? Rose shut her eyes for a second, hoping that when she opened them again, she wouldn't be in her bed waking up from a very surprising dream.
She opened them. Nope, this was actually happening.
"I- I don't understand," Zabini stammered as her eyes darted to her friends for support. They just stared back at her blankly.
"It's quite simple really," Scorpius explained, his face blank. "We both no longer like, nor respect each other, so naturally, I think it's time we end this."
Rose glanced around her to see if everyone else was as astonished by this as she was. David, Al and Alice were wearing matching expressions of complete disbelief, while Andy looked about ready to burst out laughing.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me?" Zabini screeched in a high-pitched voice.
"I promise you, I'm not," Scorpius assured, his statement drawing several snorts from the audience gathered in the room, one of them coming from Andy. Scorpius then turned away from Zabini, his eyes travelling to where Rose was sitting.
"Oh, and, Rose?" Scorpius said politely.
Rose had to blink a few times before she realized Scorpius was now talking to her. "Yes," Rose answered, trying in vain to ignore the fact that everyone in the room had now turned their attention towards her.
"We need to get together later and discuss some rather important issues that I've unfortunately been putting off," Scorpius explained, his expression remaining neutral but his eyes were dancing with mischief.
Rose tried her best to suppress the blush that was threatening to appear across her face. That slimy bastard! He knew for a fact that she would be the only one who could understand what he was talking about and that she would be easily embarrassed by his suggestive attitude. Well, two could play at this game.
"Alright," Rose replied, feigning indifference. "But since it's taken you so long to apologize, I'm probably going to be a wee bit unreceptive to some of your... ideas."
Scorpius' cheek twitched as he fought to suppress the smirk that was threatening to appear upon his face, while Rose just stared up at him innocently.
As for everyone else in the room, they all clearly had no idea what was going on. Except for Zabini, who looked about ready to hex someone, and if Rose had to guess, she would probably be the girl's first choice.
Scorpius cleared his throat in an attempt to keep his voice as unanimated as possible. "Well, I'm glad you told me that before we had our meeting. Now I can spend the rest of the afternoon coming up with a proper way to convince you that I am being 100% serious about my plans for the future," he answered in a deep voice that made Rose's stomach dip with excitement.
"I'm glad you're taking this so seriously," Rose replied, her voice cracking slightly as she began to imagine what she might do to Scorpius once they were alone together.
Scorpius - completely without warning - flashed a smile bigger than she had ever seen grace his perfect face, and Rose was pretty sure each person in the room did a double take to make sure they were seeing things properly.
"See you later then, Weasley," Scorpius said, his mega-watt smile still plastered on his face as he turned to look at Zabini. "Tatiana," he said with a nod farewell, but Rose was pretty sure that the dumb-founded look on her face meant she hadn't heard him say her name. Rose could barely contain her glee. Zabini had obviously never seen Scorpius this happy looking and she had once been having sex with him.
Scorpius turned away from where he was standing and walked out of the hall; the eyes of hordes of drooling girls and astonished blokes following him until he was out of sight.
"What the bloody hell was that all about?" David exclaimed loudly a few seconds after Scorpius' departure.
Rose, unable to hold back her grin any longer, just turned to her thoroughly confused friend and smiled. "I think he's just having a good day. Wouldn't you if you chucked Zabini in front of everyone," Rose said cheekily.
Rose's insult seemed to snap Zabini out of her shock, causing her to turn and face Rose, eyes blazing with rage.
"You – you ... ugh! You bitch!" Zabini exclaimed shrilly. "I know you had a hand in this! And I'm going to get you back. That much I can promise!"
Rose just gave Zabini a superior look, not even bothering to retort, which only seemed to infuriate Zabini more and she began patting her body down hastily, as if looking for something. The other Slytherin girls flanking Zabini's sides seemed to notice that Zabini patting her body with a mad look in her eyes, was her way of looking for her wand, so they quickly grabbed a hold of her in order to escort her from the room.
"Let go of me you idiots! I'm going to kill that little Weasel!" Zabini raged.
"Now, Tatiana," Marina said sternly as 3 other girls struggled to drag Zabini from the room. "What did your mother teach you about causing scenes in public?"
"Like I give a shit about what my mother thinks!" Zabini screeched as she struggled to get free of her captors.
The entire study hall stared with mild interest as Marina and the rest of the Slytherin girls dragged the she-devil that was Tatiana Zabini from the room before they all sunk down in their seats to gossip amongst themselves, their eyes sometimes popping up to look at Rose.
"Alright," David said in a low voice. "Once again. What the hell was that all about?"
"I'm just as confused as you mate," Andy said wryly. "I think we just saw Malfoy chuck Zabini and then Zabini blame the reason why it happened on Rose, but I may be wrong."
Al snorted before giving Rose a wink, causing her to blush slightly. Zabini had every reason to blame Rose for ending her relationship with Scorpius, especially since she had told him to do so.
"I never thought that would ever happen," Alice said in amazement. "But this should be a wonderful opportunity for someone I know."
Rose gave Alice a dry look, which only made Alice grin like a little kid who had just been given a candy bar.
"Who?" Andy and David asked in unison.
"No one important," Rose answered quickly, shooting Alice a warning glance when the boys weren't looking.
Andy ignored Rose's answer. "Wait. You're telling me that some poor girl fancies that git? Bloody hell, that's hilarious."
Rose gritted her teeth angrily. "There's nothing wrong with him, Andy," she replied testily. "If you just got to know him better, you would realize he's perfectly normal around people he knows."
"You would know," Al muttered under his breath. Rose kicked the side of his leg, effectively shutting him up.
"You know something, Rosie," Andy said, his eyes narrowed accusingly. "You have been acting weird for weeks now. What the hell is going on?"
"I have not been acting weird," Rose lied.
"Then what was that little conversation with Malfoy just now?" David asked, leaning closer to Rose.
"It was nothing," Rose lied. "He was just talking about some head work we haven't been agreeing on."
"You are such a liar, Rose Weasley," Alice exclaimed. "Your mood swings definitely have nothing to do with your head duties. You're having boyfriend troubles, aren't you?"
Rose gaped at Alice, her face turning the colour of tomato. What was she supposed to say? While Scorpius was not officially her boyfriend yet, he was definitely the closest thing to it.
"She has a boyfriend?" David questioned in alarm. "Who?"
"Oh, who do you think, Dave?" Alice replied sarcastically. "I'm sure Al knows."
"Who is it, Rosie?" Andy asked suggestively while nudging her side.
"Would you all stop being so loud," Rose moaned unhappily. "Everyone can hear you."
"Then just tell us who the lucky bloke is," Andy replied, still nudging her side. Rose turned her head and glared at him.
"Ya," Dave said. "I can't think of who it could be. The only blokes you hang around with regularly are me, Andy, Al and..." Dave's voice trailed off and Rose watched miserably as a look of realization spread across his face. "Bloody hell," he swore. "Al, you were right."
"I usually am," Al said, grinning for the first time that day.
"What the hell?" Andy complained. "How, in Merlin's name, do you all know who Rose's secret boy toy is before I do?"
"Because we're not idiots," Al replied dryly.
"He's right, Andy," Alice replied. "It's all very obvious who it could be."
Rose just buried her head in her hands and began to silently pray that the rest of the day would be over very shortly.
"Well it's not bloody obvious to me," Andy whined. "Come on, Rose. Who is it? You know I'll just get what I want to know out of Dave later."
"No," Rose muttered stubbornly.
"If you don't tell me, I'll start making this conversation public," Andy threatened.
Rose lifted her head to look at Andy, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What do you mean by public?"
"What I mean by public is, that soon everyone in the room is going to know exactly what we're talking about," Andy answered devilishly, his voice steadily becoming louder.
Rose stared at him in horror. "You wouldn't."
Andy just grinned before taking a deep breath in.
"Andrew Goss," Rose threatened in a panicked voice. "I swear to God if you start shouting, I will-!"
Andy didn't even let her finish before he started yelling.
"Hey everyone!" he exclaimed, causing several people to jump in surprise. "Guess what? Our esteemed head girl has a -!"
Rose, thinking on her feet, grabbed a roll from the nearest bread basket on the table and shoved it into Andy's gaping mouth, effectively silencing him. However, her shocking reaction was all the inhabitants of the Great Hall needed to know that something fishy was going on.
Rose, now completely mortified, sunk as low as she possibly could into her seat as her friends began to laugh over Andy spitting the roll onto the table, only to start coughing uncontrollably on what, Rose guessed, were crumbs.
"Bloody hell," David laughed, practically crying. "That was amazing." Alice and Al just nodded in agreement as they held their sides, both of them almost doubled over from laughter.
"Merlin, Rosie," Andy exclaimed after his coughing fit had ended. "What are you trying to do? Kill me?"
Rose just grumbled obscenities under her breath. It wasn't fair. She wasn't ready to tell her friends about Scorpius but they were figuring it all out even without her telling them a single thing.
"Just tell him, Rosie," Al said as he attempted to keep a straight face. "He'll just find out later anyway."
"He's right," Andy said with a comical huff. "Besides, I think that you telling me who your love slave is is a proper punishment for trying to kill me with a bloody roll."
"Fine," Rose said miserably. "I'll tell you. But you have to promise to not tell anyone. I don't want this getting out right now."
"Ya, ya," Andy replied with an impatient wave of his hand. "Now, who is it?"
Rose hesitated for a second as she silently searched for the right words to say. Come on, Rosie. You're head girl. It's just like ripping off a band aid. Do it quickly and it will all be over before you know it.
"It'sScorpiusMalfoy," she blurted out, her words slightly incoherent.
"Huh?" Andy said in confusion, as Al, Dave and Alice began to laugh once again.
Rose felt her face heat up in embarrassment, knowing full well that she was beginning to resemble what lobsters looked like after they came out of a pot of boiling water.
"It's Scorpius Malfoy," Rose repeated in a quiet voice.
The dumbfounded look that appeared across Andy's face following her revelation was all she needed to know that he had heard her.
Her friends began to laugh louder upon seeing the shocked look on Andy's face, which led to Rose deciding to give up all hope of her relationship with Scorpius remaining a secret for longer than an hour with all the people who were now staring at them.
"When you say Scorpius Malfoy," Andy said slowly after getting over his initial shock. "You mean the blonde, pale-faced, prat who's gotten on our nerves since were eleven... right?"
"Oh for Merlin's sake, Andrew!" Rose exclaimed. "Of course that's who I mean."
"Alright, alright," Andy said defensively. "Don't bite off my head. I was just making sure. You have to admit that this entire situation has a very twilight zone- like feel to it."
"What?" Rose replied, too exhausted mentally to understand what he was talking about.
"Nothing," Andy said quickly, noting Rose's slightly hysteric appearance. "However, I wish the best of luck to the both of you. Only you could be around someone as depressing as Scorpius Malfoy for long periods of time without going insane, Rose, and that's saying something."
Rose just glared daggers at Andy, as Alice, Al and Dave continued to laugh uproariously in the background.
A/N - Hello there all. Due to computer malfunctions this chapter would have been up days ago but alas, sometimes things don't always go your way. But luckily things are fixed now. So, it finally happened. Not only did Scorpius dump Zabini, quite spectacularly I might add, but all of Rose's friends now know, to an extent, what is going on between her and Scorpius. Which means soon many other people will be learning the truth. And lets not forget that, right now, Zabini is quite angry, so I wonder what mischief she might get up to. Anyway, please read and review as always and I will try to get an update up as soon as possible. Cheerio :)