SWTNG

Chapter 8

The Unwanted Challenge

After a short time Rose had calmed down and Scorpius felt better. They had found Rose in the library and a short time later Hugo had joined them. The library was extremely large with hundreds upon hundreds of books. Muggle and Magical. Rose was currently telling him about her mother's books about the war, when she randomly apologized.

"I'm sorry you had to see our bickering." said Rose.

"What?... Oh no, its fine. I kind of feel left out when I see you guys all argue." said Scorpius.

"Yeah, right." said Albus with a roll of his eyes.

"No really, I've always wanted siblings. In fact I've stressed it to my parents since I can remember." said Scorpius.

"Strange how it works. If a person doesn't have siblings, they want them. If they do, they'd like to boot them off a cliff half the time." said Rose, "But in the end, I guess there okay... only when they give you back your books."

"Not done reading them." said Hugo, waving a book at her.

"All seven of them?" asked Rose.

"I finished one, I'll give it to you later." said Hugo with a deep sigh.

"Let's get something to eat." said Rose standing up, everyone paled, "Something I didn't cook."

"Sounds grand." said Hugo.

"Fantastic.. I mean I have nothing against your cooking." said Albus quickly.

"I'm not hungry." said Scorpius, the mere smell of food upset his stomach at that point.

"Honestly? You should be you hurled enough of your stomach up." said Hugo.

"Hue. Manors please." said Hermione walking by the doorway.

"Yes Mum." said Hugo looking up at her.

"Hi Aunt Hermione." said Albus as he walked by her.

"Hello Mrs. Weasley." said Scorpius following group.

"Hello dears. Scorpius you can call me Hermione, Mrs. Weasley is rather formal." and she gave them a smile and walked down the hall.

A few short hours later and they had flooed to Shell Cottage. Scorpius loved this much more than the mansion, it seemed so peaceful. There was a flower garden and the great view of the ocean just pulled it all together. Fluer was very nice, Bill's was more of a forced effort, Scorpius chose to stick close to Albus at all costs. Shortly after meeting Bill and Fluer they went outside and met up with Victorie.

"Scorpius this is my brother Louis." said Victoire indicating to a younger boy.

Louis was around eight and seemed to be talking to the girl next to him in French, but when he spoke there was no French accent. He was almost as tall as Scorpius with bright blonde hair that seemed to glow like Victorie's, he seemed quite posh and dignified. The dignified stance was proven more when he stuck out his hand to shake Scorpius,' this gesture of meeting was well known to Scorpius. It was actually what he was used to before meeting Albus and Rose, hand shakes. He happily shook the other boys.

"Pleased to meet you." Louis voice did not fit his demeanor at all, it was relaxed and happy.

"Same here." said Scorpius, who then turned to meet the other sibling of Victorie.

"This is my sister Dominique." said Victorie.

Dom was rather different then both her siblings. She had chopped short, glowing, fire red hair. Her eyes where the same blue as her sisters, but they seemed more wild. She had no freckles like her siblings, and she had an odd style about her, red, black, and skulls. She was smiling brilliantly.

"Good to meet you Scorpius." said Dom, her voice also didn't match, hers sounded more posh.

"Nice to meet you." said Scorpius, "Your sister said your going to Hogwarts next year."

"Yeah, Frenchies at my school are kind of stuck up and judgemental ... mostly just mental." said Dom, "Because of the education, I'll be a second year. Even though I'd normally be in third. Tell me Scorpius, do you practice non-wand magic?"

"Uhh, not really. My mum once tried, but the kettle blew up." said Scorpius, he felt strange when she draped her arm over his shoulder and walking with him to the garden.

"Really? You should try. Our family does it. Albus is pretty good, doesn't brag much. He should. You seem rather quite." Dom was apparently very chatty when it came to new people.

"No, just..."

"Nervous, don't be?" she continued ranting.

Scorpius looked over his shoulder. The only one who seemed to care he was being dragged off was Rose. In fact he couldn't even read her expression, she looked furious. Dom was ranting with non-wand magic and its benefits. He's heard about it and he'd tried it, but he hadn't really been dedicated to it after all the things blowing up and the lights. It had turned him off of it. He knew why it was so popular for children to grow being taught it. After the war most parents, especially muggle and half-bloods, thought it best. After all the Muggle Registration Acts and wands being taken away. They where taught to control power by focusing it growing up. He'd heard of people using it after they had a wand, it tended to make Non-Wand more powerful because it had been focused more. He hadn't tried it for a couple of years and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

"I've been working on it every summer. You see, if you live in magical household, the ministry can't detect you. It's great. Before I went to school, I had a tendency to make things blow up, most everyone does... or fly. But it all depends on what spells your best at when using your wand. I loved using shock charms. There not very popular at Hogwarts, but they send a shock surge through people. Not to bad, mostly knock them out. But I've been focusing on non-wand use of it. It's nothing much, but I can send some surges to items. There is nothing better then zapped popcorn. Tastes great. What charms are you good at. I'm sure if..." Dom was cut off.

"You mean, you can zap things?" asked Scorpius, he was in shock.

"Oh gods yes. I'll show you... Let's see... My mothers going to kill me, but look at the tree." said Dom.

Scorpius looked at it over Dom's shoulder and heard her mutter an incantation and watched a purple light zoom from her and at the tree, the leaves fell off. He stared in shock for a few moments. He'd heard it concentrated power, but he didn't know it did that much. Suddenly he had an instant regret not practicing.

"Cool, right?" asked Dom, "Still I think it could be better. If I work hard enough I think I can do it without incantation. That's years away."

"... Do most..."

"Most who practice it? Yes, there's a lot at my old school. Seventh years where pretty damn good. There was one boy, very good at healing ones."

"Healing?" Scorpius thought a moment.

"Very hard to do, but most used." said Dom.

Rose climbed down to sit on one of the rocks over looking the water. She was rather bitter, she sighed. What was her problem. When she'd first met Scorpius, she'd saw him as a threat to her and Albus' friendship. Now she saw her cousin as a threat to her and Scorpius' friendship. She heard someone walking down by her and saw that it was the cousin in question.

"Hello Cuz." said Dominique sitting next to her.

"Done chatting it up with Scorpius?" asked Rose.

"Ooo, icey. Missed me that much? No... No." Rose didn't like that smirk, "You like him."

"No duh, he's my friend." said Rose, rolling her eyes.

"You think he's cute."

"Wait? What?!" Rose did not think that, seriously, he was her friend and she had gotten a new appreciation of their friendship when she'd learned his love of books, "No."

"Really?" asked Dom, with a forced questioning face, "I do."

"Good for you." said Rose, she didn't like this.

"So... you don't mind if I flirt with him?" asked Dom.

"He's twelve. I don't even think he notices either of us are a girl." said Rose.

"No, I think he notices. He just needs to grow up a little more. I can wait." she had a rather snarky voice.

"No... I don't want you messing with him." Rose looked at her, "Your going to use your charms."

"Well I have veela blood, why not use it. It might not work now, but later... I mean no one stands a chance if I actually do end up liking him when he's older." she was challenging her.

"No." said Rose.

"No what?"

"I don't want you messing with him."

"Why?"

"He's my friend."

"Do you like him?"

"Not in 'that' way."

"So it shouldn't matter."

"I don't want him getting hurt." Rose was trying to keep her calm.

"Who's getting hurt?" asked Albus as he and Scorpius climbed down.

"No one." said Dom, "Rose's if being over-dramatic as usual."

"She's not over-dramatic from what I've seen." said Scorpius, Rose smiled, he smirked "Bit childish when she pouts."

"Jerk." said Rose in a whisper, "I do not pout."

"Your doing it now." said Albus.

"Like a little girl." said Dom.

"I think it's kind of cute." said Scorpius, he shrugged.

"But why be cute when she could be pretty." said Dom, leaning against Scorpius.

Albus who was sitting in between the tow, was tossed back away from them. Scorpius paid no mind, he didn't looked behind what was actually happening. He was slightly concerned for Albus' well being. However that seemed less concerning when Rose did the same on his other side. Though he's looked forced and she was glaring across him, he felt unsafe. Where they plotting to toss him from the cliff to the rocks bellow. He looked backed at the confused Albus with a face ridden with fear.

"Me and Scorp..." Al was cut off.

"Scorpius and I." both Rose and Scorpius corrected, Dom rolled her eyes.

"Scorpius and I are going away from the cliff with the sharp pointy rocks." Al grabbed Scorpius under the arms as to yank him away from the battling girls.

The two walked back up the cliff edge and walked into the garden where most of the adults had gathered. Both looked back from where they had just been. Scorpius gave Albus a questioned look, but Albus just shrugged. Girls could be strange, but Rose... that was down right bizarre for her.

"You two look confused. . ." said Fred where he and James where perched in a tree.

"That's normal for Albus." said James.

"Good point." said Fred, "What's up with you two?"

"Rose and Dom are acting bizarre." said Albus as he and Scorpius sat under the tree.

"How?" asked Fred hanging from his legs.

"They just started leaning on me and glaring at each other." said Scorpius, he looked up.

He didn't miss the bemused looks exchanged between the two. James started smiling, Fred was laughing. Albus was apparently trying to look for something funny in the statement, then he started laughing. Scorpius raised an eyebrow and scowled. He'd never remembered doing such a thing. He didn't like this being left out thing. His scowl was apparently noticed because Al stopped laughing slowly and apologized. He even heard a comment from the adults.

"Still think he's not Draco's?" asked Harry with a chuckle.

"Nope, it's his." said Ron with frown, Hermione laughed.

"An Unwanted Challenge on Rose's part. Tell me did she lean on you first?" asked James.

"No, Dom leaned on him." said Albus.

"Ooo. Rose excepted. This is going to be hilarious to watch. Knowing Rose its going to be only when Dom's around. So school is going to be a blast." said Fred, with a chuckle.

"Can someone fill me in, because I feel I'm somehow involved." said Scorpius.

"Think about Scorp, just for a moment." said James.

Scorpius thought about it, trying to see it at the angle. He didn't know Dom very well, but he knew Rose liked challenges. But what was the challenge and why. It took about five minutes to process it all and then it clicked. It was a challenge for his attention.

"Glad to know I'm a simple item." he didn't like this factor, "I am not interested in either of them in that way."

"You see, you may be able to ignore Rose..." James was cut off.

"But our dear Dom is a Veela... Part Veela, but still very effective." said Fred.

"So." said Scorpius.

"Who do you like at school?" asked Albus, "In that way. Who would you kiss?"

"What? This is highly personal."

"It's me." said Albus, then looked up, "And Tweedle Dee and Dumb."

"Mai's cute." said Scorpius, though he couldn't imagine kissing her... in the near future.

TBC

I tried to make Al and Scorp like eleven-twelve year old boys. Good thing I was one of the guys at that age. A thanks to the Boys I grew up with around this age. Without them I'd be having a bit of problems.