Hellooooo My lovelies! I have come back from the dead! I apologize so very much for not updating sooner. BUT I have rewarded all you faithful readers with a 9,000 word chapter! YAY!
Again, I would like to thank Call me cat333, who owns almost all of this chapter (or at least the ideas). Thank you SO much, you are such a big help!
Disclaimer: I own lots of chocolate, not Harry Potter
Chapter 3: Mudbloods, Billywigs, and Some Accidental Snogging
I awoke the next morning to the sound of numerous nails tapping on the window nearest to my bed. I pulled back the curtains only to see at least a dozen owls crowded outside said window. I groaned and checked the clock on the wall, which read two twenty six in the morning. A second groan slipped through my lips. Couldn't it wait till a more reasonable time? Like maybe breakfast , when all the other ruddy owls come? Speaking of owls, I looked over to Sajni's cage, but Sajni wasn't there. Then I remembered someone saying something about an owlry. I figured she somehow got herself there. I turned back to the owls crowding outside the window.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" I heard a cry coming from Molly's bed, "WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING, JUST SHUT UP!"
I reluctantly slipped out of my comfortable bed and walked swiftly to the window. Turning the knob, a swarm of owls flew into the dormitories, each one emitting a loud screech. I covered my ears with my palms and ran to see what on earth brought the owls to my room at this hour. There were more than a dozen, and each was carrying a letter. My eyes widened in shock. Who would be sending me this many letters? One by one, each owl flew to my bed and dropped their letters. The last owl finally dropped its letter and left through the open door, but not without screeching particularly loud.
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, MUDBLOOD! SHUT IT! CANT YOU SEE I'M TRYING TO SLEEP?" Molly shouted, once more. She pulled back her curtains and I had to stifle a laugh at her expression. She looked murderous, alright, but her hair was in such disarray, it could be compared to a tumble weed. Her eyes had this glint in them that made her look like an evil scientist, and the strange grin on her face only added to the look. "Oh, now you're going to get it. I told you to be quite, and you didn't listen. Do you know what happens when little mud-bloods like you don't do what they're told?" I looked at Ursula's bed. The curtains were drawn, indicating that she was still asleep. I mentally sighed, who knows what she would have done had she heard Molly's rampage. I focused back on Molly, who obviously wasn't done, "so, do you know what happens when you don't do what you're told," she continued, and I shook my head, adding fuel to the flame, "they get hurt. And we wouldn't want that to happen, now would we? So, to prevent that I have a few rules. One, don't wake me up. Two, don't wake me up. And three, DON"T WAKE ME UP!" she then turned and stalked off to her bed, closing the curtains behind her. I smirked at the curtains and turned back to the huge pile of letters sitting on my bed. I gingerly picked one up and inspected the envelope suspiciously. It was completely blank. How strange. I wonder who its from. I hesitantly opened the letter and hold it at an arms length away, as if it could explode. Actually, from what I heard about Howlers, it very well could have. Once I saw what was on the letter, I practically dropped it. In side, on blood red letters, it read No one likes you, mudblood. I was quite shocked, to say the least, that someone would send this to me. But then I thought of the response the Slytherin House had, when I was sorted. Maybe it's not so improbable after all. But who would do this? I wondered. I turned back to the remaining letters warily and started reading them. They all said something along the lines of..
Do us all a favor and go die
Go back to your filthy little shack, mudblood
Go cry to McGonagall, why don't you. Let's see where that gets you
Little girls who play with fire get their fingers burned
Do what your told or your sweet little muggle family just might get hurt
You and your filth needs to take a long walk off a short cliff
No body actually wants to be your friend, they just feel bad for you
That's nice, going and brainwashing the Potter boy
Even the Half-blood could do better than be friends with you
It's disgusting to even have to look at you
You're a disgrace to the Slytherin House, and Salazar Slytherin himself.
I couldn't read anymore after that. I grabbed both the ones I hard read, and the ones I didn't, and bolted out of my dormitory to the common room. I took the wretched letters, and thrust them into the fire that was, surprisingly, still burning. Slumping back on the emerald couch, I watched the red ink burn in the orange and red flames. That's when the tears came. I was so good at not crying, at least in public. I never let anyone see what I was really feeling, only the sarcastic, snarky part. All crying gets you is "sympathy" which isn't really sympathy. It's just people wanting to make you feel better to that you're not their problem. But I continued to cry, albeit silently. No one likes me anyways. And besides, it's too early for them to be up. I didn't notice the boy until he was standing right beside me.
"Are you all right?" he asked quietly, and I jumped.
I nodded vigorously and wiped the tears off my eyes. "I'm sorry I woke you,"I responded politely, making my way back to my dormitory. I was almost to the stairs, when he grabbed my arm. Thats when I really looked at him. He had a pointed chin, platinum blond hair, and grey eyes—wait, it's Scorpius.
"No you're obviously not fine," he said, still holding my arm in an iron grip.
"Really, Scorpius, I am," I tried to get out of his grip. No luck there," we should probably get back to our dorms before we get in trouble."
"Nice try," he smirked, "but I'm not letting you go until you tell me what happened. And don't say it was nothing. Because I saw you last night, when they were calling you a mud—that word. I can tell it takes more than that to make you cry."
"Oh really?" I snapped at him, "if you know me so well, then why do you have to even ask? If you're so good at reading people, you should have seen that I didn't want to talk about it. I don't need someone to look after me and tell me it will be alright. You know why? Because you can't go through life holding someone's hand! It wont get you anywhere! You have to do it yourself, or not do it at all! Got it?" He looked hurt, and I immediately felt bad. "Scorpius—"
"No, I get it," he cut me off, "I'll just leave you to 'do it yourself,'" he turned and started walking to the staircase to the boys' dorms. This time it was me who grabbed him.
"Look, Scorpius, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."
"Yeah it was," he muttered under is breath. I glared at him.
"It just that I was so frazzled and it's just I didn't really want to talk about it because…" I trailed off, not knowing how to phrase what I wanted to say.
"I'm a pureblood," he finished bluntly.
I looked up at him in shock, "well I wasn't going to put it that way, but yeah."
Scorpius laughed humorlessly, "have you ever heard of the Malfoy family before?" I shook my head, "I thought not, but I expect you'll learn about it in History of Magic. Anyways, we're not a very respected, if you will,family. My father and grandfather have done some… dishonorable things in the past. And many people look down on us because of that, but I don't let what happened in the past or what others say about me define who I am. Look, what I'm saying is don't let other people choose who you are going to be. And don't let some pureblood prejudiced prats get in the way of whatever it is you're going to do."
I hugged him and he stiffened slightly, but soon returned the hug. "Thanks Scorpius," I whispered in his ear.
"No problem. Now you should probably go back to sleep," he whispered back.
I snorted, "sure, like that's gonna happen."
He laughed for real this time, "Promise me you'll at least try." I nod in response and we both return to our respective dormitories for the rest of the night—er, well day.
As to be expected, I couldn't get a wink of sleep. So I just sat in my bed, staring at nothing, until Ursula, and Molly of course, woke up. Sitting there, I thought about how it the course of 48 hours, my life completely turned around. Before Hogwarts, I was the joker, the one who never took anything, especially school, seriously. And I brought that attitude with me, thinking I would make the same type of friends as I did before. Well boy was I wrong! I was probably the most targeted student at Hogwarts. Sure, the prejudice had gone down since Voldemort's demise (McGonagall explained this to me privately, as not to worry my mother), but I was in Slytherin for god's sake. The House of the purebloods! Honestly, what was that Hat thinking, "better be Slytherin"?
"Meh….Wh-what…where…?" Ursula's puzzled voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Ursula," I walked over to her bed and gently shook her, "it's time to wake up now, we're going to miss breakfast," I had been so caught up in my troubles that I completely forgot to watch the clock. It was almost 8:30 in the morning.
"Not now Mum," Ursula mumbled. I had to stifle a laugh.
"Yes, now," I gently nudged her, but it was no use. But then I thought of a brilliant idea, "Ursula! Wake up! Someone just called me a….you-know-what!" Just then she shot up, wide awake
"Who? What? Where? Whoever said that is going to suffer the wrath of Ursula Rachelle Williams!" she yelled.
"Oh good, you're up. Get dressed, I don't want to miss breakfast," I said as calmly as I could, struggling to keep a straight face.
"Wait—what?" Ursula asked, bewildered. A few moments later, it dawned on her. "You just made that up! Ugh, I am disgusted!" I bit my lip, willing myself not to laugh.
"Yeah, well you needed to get up. A girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do."
"Oh alright. Just give me a few minutes. D'you think we should wake up Molly?"
"Nah. You missed it. Earlier this morning, she screamed her head off at me for waking her up, when all I did was roll out of bed." I killed me to lie to her, but I really didn't want to worry her. She would only get worked up and then it would be up to me and Albus to try and calm her down. "So I think we should let her sleep in. You know. Just to let her know we got the message," I grinned and Ursula grinned back.
"Okidoki then. I'm ready!"
"That was fast."
"That's the advantage of having an older brother who has yet to know the meaning of the word 'privacy.'"
"Well then, off we go." We intertwined out arms, and together made our way down to the common room, where we met Albus.
"Hey Al," I greeted him with a smile.
"Hey Ria, Hey Ursula," he responded with a smile just as wide as mine, "Do you mind if Scorpius joins us?" I shrug.
"Of course!" Ursula says, with her usual enthusiasm. Albus waved Scorpius over from his spot in front of the fire. Scorpius joined us gladly and greeted Albus and Ursula with a smile. He and I shared a knowing look that, unfortunately, was not missed my the ever observant (note the sarcasm) Ursula.
"Am I missing something?" she asked, directing her gaze to me. Her expression clearly stated "spill, or else".
"Oh, it's nothing," I waved her off with another smile, "Scorpius and I were just having a casual conversation this morning."
"About?" she raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.
"Nothing you, or anyone else for that matter," I looked at Albus, "needs to worry about. Now can we please go to breakfast? I really don't want to be here when Molly wakes up. Trust me, it won't be pretty." The other three nod, and follow me out of the common room, up the two flights of moving staircases, and finally into the Great Hall. There, I saw that most of the Slytherin house was already seated at the table, leaving very few places available to sit together. But we did eventually find a spot, albeit accompanied with a numerous amount of glares. I started to pile food onto my plate, when I noticed that it was acting strange. The plate seemed to be vibrating. I stared at it suspiciously for a moment, and then looked around to see if anyone else's plates were vibrating. Of course, none of them were. When I looked down at my plate again, I gasped in shock. All the food on my plate had turned to dirt, and a red liquid was oozing out of it. I touched the liquid. It was warm. Blood. I quickly glanced up to see if any of my friends had noticed, but thankfully they were immersed in some heated discussion. I looked back down with a mixed expression of both confusion and horror. Why the dirt and blood? And then it clicked. Oh, the dirt is like mud. And then blood….mudblood. Tears started to sting in my eyes, but I quickly blinked them away. When I finally looked up again, I saw Scorpius looking at me with sad eyes and an expression that said "remember what I told you." I nodded once and was just about to say something when Professor Slughorn started walking — very slowly— down the table, handing people what I assumed to be their timetables. When he reached my spot at the table, he gave me a reassuring smile, a pat on the back, and handed me the timetable. I looked at what my first class was: Charms. With the Ravenclaws. Brilliant. My first magic class, and I'm with the nerds. As I scanned over the rest of my schedule, I heard Ursula squeal next to me.
"Ooh! I just love charms! And my mum is brilliant at them, she is! Oh, and with the Ravenclaws!" Ursula is literally jumping with joy. I rolled my eyes and looked to Albus, who was looking slightly crestfallen. I reached out and put my hand on his.
"Hoping to be with the Gryffindors?" I asked, Albus still not meeting my eyes.
He shrugged, "Yeah, I guess. I mean the rest of the House will be happy. Slytherin and Ravenclaw are on pretty good terms. I just…"
"Wanted to spend some time with Rose," I finished for him. Looking back down at my timetable, I saw that our second period, Care of Magical Creatures, was with the Gryffindors. "Oh, look! We have Care of Magical Creatures with them! And its our second class," I pointed it out on his timetable. I turned to the Gryffindor table, only to see Rose waving madly at us and gesturing to her timetable at the same time. I chuckled quietly. "Looks like she realized that too," I told Albus and he smiled, but glanced over my shoulder. I followed his gaze and saw that he was sneaking a glance at the girl sitting next to Rose. She had a slender build, straight black hair that fell to her waist, and beautiful almond shaped grey eyes that make you feel as if they are piercing right through you. "Who's that?" I ask Albus, raising my eyebrows. He rolled his eyes in response, "Anya Gryfolian. She's Rosie's friend," he sighed.
"Oh? Does someone have a crush?" Ursula perked up at those words.
"Ooh! Who has a crush?" she turned to me, "Is it you? Do you have a crush…on Scorpius?" She gasped, getting giddy again.
I glanced at Scorpius, who looked completely and utterly bored. "What? No! He's my friend," I said, putting emphasis in the word "friend".
"Sure. Whatever you say…" she waved me off and went back to closely examining her timetable. Albus was staring at Anya again. I was finished my breakfast, and had already memorized (or mostly memorized) my timetable, and was feeling just as bored as Scorpius was looking. So, I gestured for him to come with me and together we left the Great Hall.
"What is it?" he asked as soon as we were out of the Hall.
"Oh, I…uh… left my charms textbook in my dormitory, will you come with me?" I asked. I really just wanted to spend time with him. He understood me. Sure, Ursula and Albus were great friends, but I really needed someone who just got me.
"Oh, yeah. Sure. But…what about Ursula?"
"She's a little busy combing over every detail in her timetable. And it's best you don't disturb her whilst she's concentrating on something important because she rarely ever concentrates," I laughed and Scorpius gave an uneasy smile, glancing back at the Great Hall. "Something wrong?" I asked, "look if you don't want to come, that's fine. I can just go and get it myself. There should be enough time."
"No. I'm happy to come," he responded a tad too quickly.
"Ok," I shrugged. We soon reached the entrance to the common room, and I spoke the password to the wall. As I did so, I noticed from the corner of my eye, Scorpius watching me intently. No doubt taking in my response to the password. Honestly, does no one believe me? The password does not bother me! I glanced back at him, letting him know I saw him, and shrug, as if to say "I told you it didn't bother me."
He sighed, "Whatever you say," he said as he entered the common room.
"I didn't say anything," I responded, following him.
"Of course you didn't. Now, go and fetch your book. I hear Professor Flitwick isn't too lenient these days."
"Really? Funny, I heard differently."
"And are your sources reliable?"
I thought about that for a moment, "probably not." He opens his mouth to respond when I cut him off, "alright, alright! I'm going, I'm going!" I ran up the staircase to my dormitory and shoved open the door, but grabed it at the last second, remembering that Molly is most likely still in there. Low and behold, loud snoring was coming from around her bed. I calculated how much time it would probably take me to get my book, and ran back down the stairs, not bothering to wake Molly.
Scorpius saw me sprinting and snickered, "took you long enough."
"Oh shut up, you," I joked, and swatted him with my bag.
"So, did you get the book?"
"Yup." I patted my bag, indicating the textbook was safely stowed there.
"That's good. Not that it matters."
"Why?"
"Because we're going to be late. The Charms classroom is on the other side of the castle." I looked up at him to see if he was joking, but by the look on his face I could tell he wasn't. I frowned. I wasn't one really listen to the rules, but being late to class on the first day was something I would not like to do.
"Don't worry, I know a short cut," said Albus, coming out of nowhere. I jumped in surprise.
"Where the bloody hell did you come from?" I practically yelled at him. Scorpius laughed at my outburst and a nearby portrait told me to watch me language.
"Short cut," Albus replied simply.
"Of course," I said, rolling my eyes, "now please, enlighten us on the whereabouts of the short cut, or I will shortly cut you into a million pieces for scaring the begeezes out of me." Both Scorpius and Albus burst out laughing at the word "begeezes" but I quickly shut them up with a glare.
"Okay, okay. Calm down. It's right over here, behind this ghastly portrait." I looked to where he was pointing, and grimaced. The portrait really was awful. It was a woman with curly brown and black hair, who seemed to be smiling. But it was really hard to tell because she had several eyes and lips scattered around her face. I quickly entered the doorway behind the portrait, not wanting to look at it much longer. I wondered how long it would take us to reach the other side of this "short cut." But not a minute later, we arrived at what I assumed to be the end of the tunnel. I wondered how that was possible, then I remembered. Magic, of course. Scorpius pushed open the portrait in front of us and then stepped aside to let Albus and me exit first. After we were all in the corridor, Albus turned and closed the portrait behind us.
"Here we are. Lady and Gentleman, welcome to the Charms corridor," Albus said with a wave of his arm, "so lets get a move on before we're late."
"Sure thing, tour guide," I said, patting his head on my way into the classroom. Albus and Scorpius shot me questioning looks. "Muggle thing," I responded and they nodded in understanding. We walked into the classroom just as the bell sounded for class to start. I sighed in relief. Just in time. Professor Flitwick gave is warning glares and we each took our seats. Albus took the seat next to Ursula and Scorpius took a seat next to Ethan, who shot me a menacing glare that I promptly ignored. I looked for an open seat, finding that the only open one was next to a fellow Slytherin. I rushed over to him and swiftly sat down. He looked at me with curious eyes and I could tell he was about to say something when Professor Flitwick finally decided to start teaching.
"Welcome to Charms. My name is Professor Flitwick," he said, as if we didn't know. "Since today is the first lesson, we'll start out with something easy." There was a collective groan from the Ravenclaws at the word "easy" and a collective sigh from the Slytherins.
"Now, now. We will be learning the charm Wingardium Leviosa. This is the levitating charm. Now repeat after me: Wingardium LeviOsa! Without wands please."
"Wingardium LeviOsa!" the class chanted.
"Good, good! Now with your wands, you must swish and flick. Try it, try it!"
The Ravenclaws eagerly reached for their wands and began waving them silently. The Slytherins, on the other hands, lazily swished their wands about, muttering under their breaths. I sighed in exasperation and grabbed my wand. I swished and flicked, swished and flicked. Professor Flitwick was walking around the room, watching the students practice. He had only praises for the Ravenclaws, whereas all the Slytherins got was criticism. Stupid Favoritism. Even Ursula didn't get any compliments. "You're too rigid, try loosening up," was all Flitwick said to her. I glared nastily at the back of his head. "Alright. Now that the majority of you have somewhat mastered both the incantation and how to wave your wand, please proceed and try to lift the feathers in front of you," Professor Flitwick addressed the class. I glanced at my desk to see if there was a feather, but none appeared. I, along with the rest of the class, looked up at the professor in confusion.
"Oh!" he squeaked, "I forgot the feathers!" he quickly waved his wand and large white feathers appeared in front of each student. I stared at mine for a moment, and was about to recite the incantation, when I heard several people gasp. I looked up to see Ursula grinning from ear to ear and staring at the ceiling. I followed her gaze and saw a floating feather. And then it clicked. Ursula levitated the feather. I looked around at the rest of the room. Most Slytherins looked shocked (that a half-blood could do it, no doubt), the others looked happy for her. The Ravenclaws, on the other hand, looked extremely jealous. Except for this one girl, who had her head stuck in a book and wasn't paying attention in the least.
"Excellent, Excellent!" Professor Flitwick cried, "10 points to Slytherin! Good job, Ms. Williams." Ursula smiled even wider, if that was possible. "Now back to work!"
"Stiff," I heard Ursula scoff.
I turned back to my feather and started to twirl my hair around my finger, something I do whilst concentrating. I raised my wand, pointing it at the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa!" I said quietly. Nothing happened. I tried again, this time saying the incantation a bit louder. Still nothing. I kept trying again and again, until I was practically shouting. Yet my feather did not rise one centimeter. "Levitate you bloody feather!" I yelled.
"Language, miss Oliver," Professor Flitwick chastised.
"Sorry Professor," I apologized, bowing my head.
"Just don't do it again," he responded and turned back to whatever he was doing. I raised my wand once more and was just about to recite the incantation again when someone grabbed my forearm. I looked up to see who it was. It was a Ravenclaw. He had a skinny build with long limbs, bronze brown eyes, tanned skin, and oddly bright copper colored hair. His hair was short, but was completely wild, sticking up at all angles as if he french kissed a power line.
"Do you mind?" I asked, glaring at him and trying to yank my arm away. But it was no use, the more I would pull, the tighter his grip was.
"You're doing it all wrong," he said simply, as if I should know what he's talking about. He was also smiling.
"Care to explain," I snapped at him, yet he still smiled.
"Of course. Well, to start off, your saying the incantation ALL wrong. Were you even listening to the Professor?"
"Yes," I growled.
"Oh, then perhaps you remembered that he clearly said you pronounce the incantation Wingardium LeviOsa, not LevioSAAA."
I gave him a curt nod, "thank you." I turned to try again, but the boy once again caught my arm.
"I'm not done," still, he was smiling.
"Well you might as well finish," I responded.
"Okay, well you're waving your wand around like a madwoman, and all that will get you is an explosion. Here let me show you how it's done," he raised his wand and gracefully waved it, first in a circular motion and then flicked it rigidly. "See? Now you try." He turned on his heel and walked back to his seat to resume whatever he was doing before.
"Who was that?" I heard someone whisper in my ear. I swiveled in my seat and found myself face to face with Ursula.
"Zachary Zauber," I said simply. I remembered him from when we were sorted.
"He's cute," Ursula mused.
"He's annoying."
"You think everyone's annoying."
"Yes, but he's really annoying. Like Hufflepuff annoying."
"Oh, that is annoying."
"Yup."
"But what's so annoying about him?"
"He's just so happy. It's annoying."
"You said that already."
"Yes, but it true." Ursula was about to respond, when the bell rang, signaling it was time for our second class. I smirked, slid out of my seat, and quickly exited the classroom. As I did so, I heard Flitwick saying something about practicing. I ignored him. Albus and Scorpius quickly caught, falling into step beside me. "Where's Ursula?" I asked.
"She's talking to some Ravenclaw guy," Albus said. Oh yeah, that narrowed it down a lot.
"Zachary Zauber," Scorpius clarified. I nodded.
"Yeah, him." Albus said, this time with a twinge in his voice. I looked at him in confusion. And then it dawned on me, Albus was jealous.
"Jealous Potter?" I teased.
"You wish Oliver." He replied.
"Oh, no. Not me. I think you mean Ursula."
Albus opened his mouth, but Scorpius cut him off, "Enough. Let's just get to Care of Magical Creatures. It's outside, which means we have a lot of stairs." I groaned. I hate stairs. Why can't there just be slides? I mean really. It would be so much quicker, and not to mention much more fun. I grinned at that thought.
"Care to share?" Albus asked, peering at me over his glasses.
"What?" I responded, bewildered.
"You were smiling," He clarified, "nothing good ever happens when you smile."
"And how exactly do you know that?"
"I just do."
"Oh really?"
"Yes really."
"ENOUGH!" Scorpius bellowed, earning us a few looks and more than a few glares. "Honestly, do you two ever shut up?"
"Nope." Albus and I said in unison. We looked at each other and grinned, while Scorpius just chuckled.
"Of course you don't."
The three of us were almost at the entrance hall when Ursula, looking very out of breath, caught up with us. "Thanks for waiting," she said huffily.
"Sorry, you were too busy talking with Zachary." Albus sneered.
Ursula turned to me, looking very confused, "what's got his wand in a knot?"
"He's jealous," I explained.
"Am not!" Albus yelled.
"Are too!" I yelled back.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Ha! You just said no!"
"Yeah, well you just admitted that you are jealous!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"They just won't shut it," Scorpius said over our banter, putting his head in his hands. "I've tried, believe me, I've tried."
Ursula patted him on the back, "Leave it to me."
"But—" Scorpius started, but was drowned out.
"SHUT YOUR BLOODY TRAPS!" Ursula screamed at Albus and me. We stopped talking, or at least Albus did.
"Language," I chastised playfully. Ursula shot me a menacing glare.
"You know you love us," Albus smiled at her.
"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that," Ursula responded, still glaring.
"I've rubbed off on you!" I grinned.
"Unfortunately," Ursula mumbled and I grinned even wider. "Now don't let that go to your head, or it might just explode."
"I'm far too flexible to explode," I scoffed.
"Flexible my arse."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"That's what I thought."
"Ugh, let's just go outside," Scorpius interrupted and shoved us out onto the grounds.
"Watch it," I say, whipping out my wand.
"What are you going to do, levitate me? Oh that's right you can't," he said.
I put my wand back in my robes. "That's not very nice."
"I'm in Slytherin, it's against the rules to be nice."
"I'm nice," Ursula said. I snorted and she glared at me. I raised my hands in surrender.
"I'm nice too," Albus said.
"Just keep telling yourself that, Al," I said, patting his head.
"Way to steal my line," Ursula pouted.
"Way to steal my angle," I countered.
"Touché."
I smirked and skipped the rest of the way to Hagrid's hut. As I did so, I heard Albus mutter something along the lines of "she's gone mad." I turned on my heal and glared at him. He raised his hands in surrender just like I did to Ursula. I was just about to smirk at him, when he sprinted passed me. My smirk turned to a confused expression.
"Whaaa….?" I asked Scorpius. He pointed in the direction of Hagrid's. I followed his finger and saw a head of flaming read hair. Rose. My mouth formed and "o" shape. Right, we have COMC with Gryffindor, haha… I kew that… I jogged over to where Rose and Albus were standing, away from both houses I might add.
"I missed you so much, Rosie!" Albus cried, trapping Rose in a tight hug.
"Calm down, Albus. It's only been a day. Less, actually," She laughed, trying to disentangle herself from Albus.
"I know, but you're my favorite cousin!"
"Oh really…?"
"Yeah, just don't tell Hugo…or Lucy, Roxanne, Fred, Molly, Victoire, Louis (though he probably won't understand you), Dominique, or anyone else!" Albus inhaled deeply.
"Relax, I won't."
"You're the best Rosie!"
"Hey! I thought I was the best!" Ursula said from beside me. Rose and Albus instantly broke apart.
"No, I'm pretty sure he said I was the best, Ursula. You really need to get your hearing checked," I argued. Ursula opened her mouth to respond, but apparently thought better of it, and closed her mouth. I smirked. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.I then turned to Rose and put on a smile. "Hey, Rose. How's it up in Gryffindor Tower?"
"Oh, so you know where the Gryffindor common room is, but you didn't know where your own House's was?" Albus demanded.
"McGonagall has a lot of House Pride," I explained.
"I wouldn't know, seeing as I'm not in Gryffindor."
"Do they always do this?" Rose asked Scorpius.
"Yes, they do. It's quite annoying actually." Scorpius responded. Rose then seemed to realize who she was talking to and blushed a deep scarlet.
"You know 'they' can hear you?" I said to them.
"Well then 'they' should shut up!" Scorpius replied.
"Well maybe you should stay out of 'their' business."
"Oh not you too!" Ursula said. Scorpius and I both turned to her, but then Hagrid finally started class.
"Good mornin' class," Hagrid greeted us with a smile.
"Good morning, Hagrid," we replied.
"Good, now since today is the firs' day at Hogwarts, let's star' with somethin' easy," a collective groan issued from the class, "Billywigs!"
"What's a Billywig?" someone in Gryffindor asked with a confused expression.
"Righ'. Now a Billywig, it a small blue creature an' is abou' half an inch long. I have a cage of them to show you all righ' here." He walked around behind his hut and we all shuffled around, trying to get a good look at what he was getting.
"I wonder what they look like," Ursula whispered to me.
"Oh! I know what they look like! I read it in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander. It's simply brilliant!" Rose cried excitedly.
"You've read everything Rosie," Albus said, rolling his eyes.
"Shut up, Al. I have not. Though I thought it was a brilliant book, I still think Hogwarts, A History tops them all."
"Ugh, how many times do I have to tell you? NO ONE ELSE HAS READ HOGWARTS A HISTORY!"
"That's not true. My mum has." Just then, Hagrid arrived with cage covered by a patched quilt. He walked over to a table, rested the cage on it, and whipped off the quilt. Both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins gasped in amazement. The Billywigs were about half an inch long and were a vivid sapphire blue. Each of them were spinning at about a million times an hour and the only reason any of us could see them was because there were so many in such a small space. But, I did notice that there was one Billywig that was quite larger than the others. There was a loud clang as Hagrid, stuffed his large hand into the cage, groping for the larger Billywig. Once he finally caught it, he carefully extracted it from the masses of swarming Billywigs. After he had a firm grasp on the Billywig, Hagrid the proceeded to quickly shut the cage door, preventing any other Billywigs from escaping.
"Now, you'll see here, the Billywig's wings are attached to the top o' its head, and the wings rotate extremely fas', spinnin' the Billywig so tha' it can fly." We leaned in close for a better look and I saw that, in fact it had wings that were spinning quite fast. "Now, the Billywig also has a long, thin stinger at the bottom o' its body. You'll want ter be careful with tha'. Anyone stung by a Billywig will suffer giddiness, followed by levitation. Any questions?" A Slytherin student tentatively raised his hands and Hagrid gave him a not-so-warm look, no doubt from past experiences with nasty Slytherins. Nonetheless, Hagrid gave the boy a nod, telling him to ask his question. I recognized the boy as the one I sat next to in Charms.
"I was just wondering, if those are so small," he gestured to the cage, "then why is that Billywig so large?" the boy asked. Hagrid seemed surprised at the innocent question.
"What's yer name?" Hagrid asked the boy.
"Peter. Peter Bluemoon, sir."
"Well Peter, I had Professor Flitwick charm it, so that all o' you could see it." Peter nodded, satisfied. Hagrid looked like he was about to add something when Ethan raised his hand. Oh no. This is not going to end well. Hagrid, not knowing Ethan, nodded at him to ask his question.
"Yes, well," Ethan started in his perfected better-than-thou tone of voice, "I don't think it's quite safe for these…things to be around children, particularly first years," Hagrid raised his eyebrows. "And they are rated XXX, which could be potentially dangerous. I just couldn't help but wonder, has Dumbledore approved this?" Hagrid shuffled a little, looking uncomfortable, but Ethan looked very pleased with himself. Rose shot him a nasty glare.
"Who does he think he is?" Rose asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Ethan James Channon," I replied, doing my best to sound like a spoiled brat. I failed.
"Also known as my cousin," Scorpius added. I glance over at him in surprise and found him looking extremely disgusted.
"Your cousin?" I asked incredulously, and Scorpius nodded. "Oh, so that's why your hair is so similar," he nodded once more.
"Were his parents…you know…like yours?" Rose asked quietly.
Scorpius' eyes widened, "I'll have you know my mother was never a death eater! And to answer your question, no they were not. They're too cowardly to do anything of that sort."
"Sorry, just asking. You know there's no such thing as stupid questions," Rose replies even quieter, hanging her head in shame.
"Yes there is," I scoffed, which earned my a glare from Rose.
"Er…actually…" Hagrid finally answered, sort of.
"That's what I thought," Ethan said smugly, smiling. Smiling! My hands turned to fists at my side and I shot my most menacing glare at him which, of course, he ignored. I suppressed a huff and turned back to Hagrid, who had started talking already.
"What's he saying?" I whispered to Rose. She looked at me, disappointment written all over her face.
"Tsk, tsk. Pay attention. You don't want to fail your exams," She whispered hastily.
I blanched, "Wh-what exam?"
"She's joking," Albus reassured me, "She likes to scare people with that kind of thing."
"I am not! Look, if you don't ant to succeed in life, then go ahead and not pay attention. I on the other hand, will be getting top marks," she hissed.
I turned back to Albus, still concerned. You could say that I'm not the best student. Actually, that's an understatement. I practically fail at anything and everything academically. Before I left for Hogwarts, my mum made it quite clear that I was expected to get full marks, and nothing less. Of course, Jessamine never had to worry about that. She was perfect at everything, except her family. She always had a stumbling twin sister tailing behind her.
"Ria…" Albus started, waving his hand in front of my face. I shook my head, clearing it of all thoughts related to Jess.
"Sorry, what?"
"I was saying, that we don't have exams until third year," he shot me an annoyed look. No doubt the result of having to repeat himself. I breathed I sigh of relief, no exams for another two years. Thank god.
"Well, tha's abou' it for the Billywigs. Quite interstin' creatures they are, but you'll want to be careful with the lot o' them," Hagrid boomed. The class seemed to be at their wits end. Sensing this, Hagrid quickly finished up the lesson. "Now, you best be headin' back to the castle. It's abou' time for yer lunch."
With that dismissal, the Slytherins sprinted back up the hill and through the great oak doors. The gryffindors, on the other hand, took their time getting back up, a few stopping to chat with Hagrid. Rose was one of them. She rushed over to Hagrid's side (followed by Albus of course) and began chatting away happily with him.
"You coming?" I asked Ursula when she didn't move.
"Yeah, I think I'll wait for Albus. Unlike you did for me," she added.
I shrugged in response and fell into step beside Scorpius, who looked troubled. "Something wrong?" I asked. Scorpius waved off my concern and began walking at a faster pace. I get extremely pissed off when someone waves me off like a pesky fly, and Scorpius was no exception. I quickly walked in front of, stopping short, and put my hands on my hips.
"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, you better tell me what is wrong this instant!" I said, as testily as possible.
"Ria, it's noth—wait, how do you know my middle name?" he raised an eyebrow,
"I have my sources," I dismissed, "now answer the question."
"You sound like my mum, and that's not a good thing mind you."
"So? Tell me!"
"You don't want to know."
"Great. Now that you said that, I only want to know more!"
"Fine if you really want to know—'
"Yes, I do!"
"Let me finish! If you really want to know, I was thinking about this morning."
"Oh," I hung my head, but he grasped my chin and tilted it back up, meeting my gaze.
"I was thinking about who would do that."
"I'll give you three guesses."
"It's not Ethan," he cut me off, "Yeah he's prejudiced and rude, but he's not aggressive. He wouldn't do something that forward."
"Well, who else would it be….Molly," I realized.
"Molly Weasley?" Scorpius asked, confused, "Albus and Rose's cousin?"
"No, Molly Richards. My roommate," I clarified.
"Oh. I hear she's quite a bitch."
I rolled my eyes, "that's an understatement. Now hurry, or there won't be any seats together. You know Ursula would never forgive us for ditching her, and then not saving her a seat."
"You're right," Scorpius laughed, "I'll race you. Ready? Go!" and he took off, sprinting.
"Not fair!" called, starting a slow jog.
"Slow poke!" he yelled over his shoulder. I grinned wickedly and ran full force, shoving him into the entrance hall. The inertia almost knocked us both over. Luckily, someone caught me just in time. I looked up to see who it was, and my hazel eyes locked with grey ones. No, not Scorpius, Peter.
"Thanks Peter," I said, brushing myself off and offering him a small smile. He blushed slightly and muttered something incoherent before rushing to the Slytherin table. I glanced at Scorpius, who in turn was glaring at Peter.
"Come on," I said, shoving him once more. Only this time it was more gentle, like a push. I steered him to an area near the end of the table that had four empty seats. Scorpius sat down on one side, and I rushed to the other, plopping down in the seat opposite him. I had just started piling food on my plate when someone slid in next to me. I looked over at the person, expecting to see Ursula or Albus. But no, I saw a girl with very long dark brown hair, neon green eyes, and a freckled nose. I recognized her as the girl who called me a mudblood the night before (as we were walking to our dormitories). Scorpius had a confused look on his face when she arrives but ignored her when he heard his name being called. He turned his head and saw Ethan waving him over. Scorpius stood up from his seat at the table, shot me an apologetic look and walked over to Ethan. As soon as Scorpius was out of earshot, the mysterious girl, Georgia I think her name was, turned to me with a half jealous half excited expression on her face.
"Hi! I'm Georgia, Georgia Jenkins. I'm a third year," she said, rushing out her words so that I could barely understand them. I noticed she held her head up as she talked.
"I know who you are," I replied, crossing my arms. "You're the girl who called me a mudbl—"
Georgia cut me off with what I assumed to be a giggle. Only it sounded more like she was impersonating a donkey. I smiled awkwardly. "Oh yeah. I'm so very sorry about that! Please forgive me? Of course you do, it was an honest mistake," she "giggled" some more. I raised an eyebrow and scooted over a little. Unfortunately, as I scooted over, so did she. "Anywho, I didn't know you were friends with Scorpius." She emphasized his name, indicating (for reasons I wasn't quite sure of) his importance.
"And that has to do with this because…" I say slowly, not following in the least. I was starting to get quite frightened of this maniacal girl.
"Oh deary, it has everything to do with it," I looked around the Great Hall, searching for help, but there was no one. Scorpius was engaged in a heated argument with Ethan and Ursula, Albus, and Rose were apparently still at Hagrid's. "So," Georgia started again, bringing my attention back to her. "Will you introduce me?"
"What?" I asked, bewildered. Where did that come from?
"Will. You. Introduce. Me. To. Scorpius?" she talked slowly as if I was a two year old.
"Um…sure…I guess… but I'll do it after lunch," She gave me a questioning look."He's busy," I clarified and she nodded in understanding. Georgia the stood up, waggles her fingers, and returned to wherever she had come from. But not a minute later, Ursula was next to me and Albus was in the seat opposite. I glanced behind him and saw Rose making her way to the Gryffindor table. I also noticed the other Slytherins were giving Albus and Ursula weird looks. Albus noticed that too.
"Why are they staring?" he whispered to us.
"Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"What?"
"You're a Slytherin," I said as if it were obvious, actually it was.
"Yeah thanks, I hadn't noticed that," he bit back sarcastically.
"Ugh that's not…what I meant was you're a Slytherin, she's a Gryffindor. And you two were talking and hanging out together."
"So…?"
"So! Gryffindors and Slytherins don't get along! That's like, the rules. I can't believe I have to explain this to you." I sighed, putting my head in my hands.
"I thought you don't play by the rules," he smirked. I looked at him through my fingers.
"I don't. But that doesn't mean other people don't play by them as well," I smirked back. Just then the doors to the Great Hall burst open and Hagrid came running through.
"They've escaped! They've escaped!" he cried as he ran up to where Professor McGonagall was seated. Ursula and I both looked at each other with confusion written all over our faces. But that confusion quickly turned to horror when a large blue swarm followed Hagrid into the Great Hall. Oh shit. Billywigs.My eyes widened as my jaw dropped. Who knows what could happen…oh yeah, I do. Extreme giddiness. This ought to be fun. Suddenly the swarm broke apart into smaller groups, each one flying over to a different spot in the Hall. Several "Ow's" followed by giggles filled the great Hall as student by student was stung by Billywigs. The older students, realizing what was happening, cast shield charms around themselves and others beside them. Only some weren't fast enough, including the Head Boy, Josh Perez. Ursula, Albus, and I all gaped as he stood up on the Hufflepuff table (giggling). He was obviously trying to say something, but was too giddy to form the words. Finally, after much struggle, he said what he was trying to say in the first place.
"I AM IN LOVE WITH ALICE AMORE!" he shouted to the entire staff and student body of Hogwarts. Apparently courage also came with the giddiness, even if you weren't a Gryffindor. Of course, this only made the stung students giggle even more uncontrollably where as the teachers looked absolutely dumbstruck.
"I LOVE YOU TOO!" came a shout from the Gryffindor table. A girl, who I assumed to be Alice, with curly chestnut brown hair and sparkling blue eyes stood up and rushed over to the Hufflepuff table. She then proceeded to start snogging the boy on the table. Not to mention in the middle of the Great Hall. I looked around and saw that many other students had been stung already. My eyes fell on the girl I saw reading in Charms class. She was still reading, only she was jumping up and down in her seat as she read. Another girl, one with black curly hair, light brown skin, and grey eyes looked like she knew exactly what was going on, and knew exactly how to handle it. She must have been Australian or something. Off to the side was an older boy with blonde curly hair and large muscles. He was snogging a bunch of girls when Alex came over to him and starting yelling at him. I heard something along the lines of he shouldn't take advantage of girls who got stung. The Billywigs seemed to be avoiding one Ravenclaw all together. The Ravenclaw was a boy with dark grey hair cut short to a buzz cut. He also had grey eyes that were on a face so pale, I could have sworn it was the moon. Oh shit, I just got…I didn't have time to finish my thought because my mind became very cloudy at that moment. I also had the strange urge to giggle. And giggle I did.
I was in the midst of a major giggle attack when I felt someone poke my shoulder gently. I turned in my seat, still giggling, and was one again face to face with Peter (who was not giggling, but still had a goofy grin plastered on his face).
"Um…Hi..Ria…" he trailed off, his grin getting wider.
"Y-yes…?" I managed to say.
"I just wanted to let you know that I think you're really pretty and was wondering if you would go out with me." Of course, the confession only made me want to giggle more, if at all possible.
"I'm sorry…Peter," I struggled to form words in between giggles, "But…I don't….really… like you…"
His smile faltered a bit at that, but not by much. "Well who do you like?"
"I like…Scorpius," I spluttered. And then I had a, or so I thought, brilliant idea. Why don't I tell him? My clouded mind obviously thought that I should do just that, so I jumped up from my seat and sprinted over to where Scorpius was sitting. I found him in a corner, successfully hiding from the Billywigs. Upon seeing me, he shot up with a relived expression on his face.
"Ria," he breathed, "are you okay?" I giggled in response, which he took to mean "no". I tried to tell him that I liked him, but just couldn't stop giggling. So instead, I crushed my lips to his.
A/N: So if you didn't already hate me for not updating in forever, you most likely hat me no for ending the chapter like this. I will try as hard as I can to update soon, but feel free to use your imagination *wink wink, nudge nudge*. On a lighter note, I have finally added ALL the character to the story, whether or not they're are in this chapter, or earlier ones. If I forgot, an OC, feel free to yell at me. UNLESS, you submitted Darcy, Joel, Henry, Catie, or Stephanie, then there is a very good reason they are not in this chapter, but I can't tell you why...
Don't forget to review!
~~Badass. Slytherin. Boys