Unexpected Things
KeysCanHurt: MWAHAHAHAHAH!!! We shall find out when Hugo actually tells him xD I mean who has the guts to tell Ron? =)) I will probably write about the next tourny ;) Yeah, the Higgs bros are so cute :))
yellow14: Yeah, they really should meet xD Haha, yes we will see what's up with our new char ;) And Ron will react when Hugo or any Weasley or Potter will gather the guts to actually tell Ron ;)
MalfoyMaiden: Hahah =)) I debated with myself whether or not to actually do it xD Then I decided what the heck, the more miniplots, the more fun =)) Thanks, Maiden ;) :P
heartshaped-sunglasses: MWAHAHAHAHA! Yes it will be xD
hermione .jean. granger.123: thanks for adding this to your Story Alert list :D :D
Warning: This chapter will include confused just-turned-teens talking about their lovelives :P xD
Chapter Six
Sleepless Night
Paler than even Scorpius, Hugo sat down next to Al. "How did that just happen?" Hugo's voice was a squeaky whisper. Moaning, Hugo buried his face in the sleeves of his robes. "Dad is gonna kill me!"
"Come on, Hugo! Don't say that!" Al patted his cousin's back. "Uncle Ron's met Scorpius and he's… getting used to him. And he knows that I'm in Slytherin. So he won't take it so badly!" Al, with a very slight hint of bitterness, thought about how Uncle Ron reacted when Al was sorted into Slytherin and friends with a Malfoy. Surely, Uncle Ron should be just a little bit used to Slytherin, and won't react as explosively if he finds his son in the House...
"Did the hat say anything to you?" Scorpius asked.
Hugo's answer came out muffled by his sleeves. "It told me that it liked my ambition or something like that. Whatever that means. And then it just suddenly said Slytherin!"
"Oh, come now!" Tom and Theo squeezed in on either side of Hugo.
Hugo lifted his head and sat up to see who were speaking.
Tom lightly punched Hugo's shoulder. "Slytherin ain't that bad, tell your dad that!" It was then that Al noticed Hugo was tall. Hugo was about the same height as the twins, sitting down. Although the twins themselves were short, they did make Hugo's height noticeable.
Theo ruffled Hugo's brown hair. "And don't you worry! We'll prank yer dad if he comes here to yell at you and the hat." He winked. "Watcha think of that?"
Hugo managed to smile. "Cool. Thanks… er…?"
"That's Tomas Higgs." Theo pointed at his brother.
Tom stuck his tongue out at Theo. "And he's Theodore Higgs."
Theo made a disgusted face. "Anyway, just be sure to call us Tom and Theo." Then a serious expression appeared on the identical faces.
"Or you-"
"-will regret it."
"Understand?"
Hugo nodded his head solemnly.
Al almost laughed. Tom and Theo had introduced themselves to Scorpius and Al two years ago in a similar way.
"James, have you seen Rose?" Lily asked her older brother. She'd been looking all over the Gryffindor table. She even asked her brother to point out the Gryffindor third year girls, which he did so proudly, winking and waving at the ones who noticed that he was looking at them. Rose wasn't among the four girls talking to each other.
"I told you, Lily, I still haven't seen her." James replied before returning his attention to his friends.
Lily rolled her eyes at James's lack of concern. Even if he didn't feel like something was wrong, Lily did. And it wasn't just Hugo's sorting.
James reacted to that with surprise. Lily… she was shocked, yes. But Lily also found herself accepting it. Besides, if Al, a very decent person, was in Slytherin, it would be fine for Hugo to be in Slytherin too.
After the shock of Al being in Slytherin, Hugo being there isn't that big a deal anymore. That was how Lily saw it. She wondered if Uncle Ron would see it the same way. Hugo looked like he was doing well enough with Al, Scorpius and two other Slytherins.
So Lily decided not to worry about him.
It was Rose that Lily worried about. She hadn't seen her older cousin all through out the Sorting Ceremony and the Welcoming Feast. There was a rumor going around that there were two girls fighting during the train ride. Someone said it was Rose Weasley and a girl named Jacqueline Chua.
Wasn't Chua that girl who was comforting Scorpius at the Leaky Cauldron several days ago?
Lily wondered what the fight would have been about. That is of course, if a fight between Rose and Jacqueline really did take place.
Finally, when they arrived in the Common Room, Lily made the decision to ask the third year girls herself. Feeling somewhat small and below them, being only a first year, she approached them shyly, hoping they wouldn't mind her bothering them. "Hi…"
Two of the girls looked at her for a second before continuing their conversation about a hot guy whose name Lily didn't recognize. The other two reacted differently. "You look like Rose! You could be like sisters or something! Right, Ria? She could be Thorny's sister!"
"She could…"
"I'm not her sister, actually, I'm her cousin, Lily."
"Ah, so that explains it! I'm Demelza Sloper and that quiet thing's Ria Coote."
"Thing?"
"Blahblahblah!" Demelza waved a hand, dismissing the subject while Ria rolled her eyes. "Have you seen Thorny Rosie? She kinda… ran off after the carriage stopped."
"Carriage?"
"Demelza, the first years take boats, remember?"
"Oh yeah! Hahah! Carriages are better! Dang, I'm… HAPPY tonight." Demelza burst out laughing. "I think I ate too much of those chocolate desserts. HEHEEHAAHAHAH! Oh and James looked at us. WheeeheeeheeHEEEHAHAHAH!"
"Demelza, you embarrass me." Ria shook her head side to side. "You ate like a pig earlier!"
"Chocolate GOOOOD!"
Lily giggled, amused by Demelza. Then she remembered to answer the question Demelza asked earlier. "I haven't seen Rose… I was going to ask you if you saw her."
"Well she was depressed earlier…" Ria said thoughtfully. "I don't think she would have been willing to join the feast…" She walked over to the girls' dormitory, and to the door of the third years.
"Leave me alone!" Rose snapped from under her blanket. She did not want to talk to her cousin or her friends.
"Let's talk to her in the morning." Good old Ria advised them. Rose hoped they'd follow.
"Alright…" Lily sounded sad. "Night, Rosie." Rose heard footsteps, then the door closing. Good. Lily was gone.
"Night, Rose…" Demelza didn't sound happy or drunk for once. Rose heard her laughter earlier. Thank God Demelza calmed down. Rose was not ready to put up with Demelza's craziness.
After what happened on the train, she found Ria and Demelza, and as if her eyes had a mind of their own, she ended up crying in front of them. Ria comforted her without questioning and even told Demelza to shut up when she was pestering Rose with questions.
Rose didn't want to talk to them because she didn't even fully understand what was wrong with herself. All she knew was that she felt anger when she saw Jacqui calming Scorpius and… intense pain when Scorpius sided with Jacqui.
She also felt betrayed when Al and Scorpius sympathized with Jacqueline Chua instead of herself.
Also, she was confused. She wasn't sure why she acted the way she did. She wasn't sure why she felt so hateful towards Jacqui. After all, they got along well enough last year. Why is it that now, Rose felt so angry with her?
She pictured Scorpius and Jacqui, standing so close together, they're faces barely inches apart. It hurt and enraged Rose.
Then she pictured herself in Jacqui's place…
Why was she feeling and thinking this way?
Rose tried to sleep, but her mind kept playing images of Scorpius and Jacqui. Frustrated, she slid out of her bed and crept over to Ria's. Ria would know something. Ria was the one more like Al. She could understand emotions better.
"Ria…" she prodded the girl's arm. "Are you awake?"
"Rose?" Ria sat up groggily.
"Can we talk?" Rose glanced at the beds, where their roommates were sleeping. "In the Common Room?"
Cookie was sound asleep.
Lily couldn't sleep. She was too full of mixed up thoughts and emotions. She was worried about Rose and she wondered what Uncle Ron would think about Hugo's House. She wondered how Al and Scorpius were. She was curious to know where their Common Room was. And, she was also very excited.
She was in HOGWARTS!
HOGWARTS!
Her first year had finally begun!
Who could sleep knowing that fact? She couldn't understand how her roommates could.
Unable to sleep, Lily decided she might as well write to her parents. Hopping out of bed, she went to her trunk, took out a parchment, quill and ink and took her things outside of the room. The Common Room had a fire, much better lighting than moonlight in their dorm room. Lily did not want to end up with glasses like James.
Glasses were fine on James, but Lily didn't really see herself looking good in them.
Lily stopped when she heard voices. But curiosity urged her to continue. It was Ria's voice.
"Rose… what really happened? I've heard rumors going around that you and that Chua girl from Ravenclaw had some kind of fight. But I know how rumors can just… fly. What really happened?"
"If the rumor is that we had a Muggle kind of fight, then the rumor was right…"
Lily wasn't sure if she should stay there, if it was okay for her to hear what Rose was saying or not. It should be okay, shouldn't it? She is after all, Rose's cousin. And she and Rose talked a lot, especially in the summer. They'd talk about… people.
Lily decided to show herself. She had an excuse to be down here if Rose asked. Lily reminded herself that she was holding the writing materials.
Soon enough, they noticed her. "Lily? What're you doing here?" Rose's face was tear-stained and her eyes were red.
"I was going to write a letter…" Lily approached them and sat on one of the armchairs. "Hi…" was what she thought of saying.
"Lily… do you think…" Rose stared at the carpet on the floor. "Scorpius and Jacqui look good together… I mean… together as in together…?"
Lily didn't know how to answer that. When she saw Scorpius and Jacqui at the Leaky Cauldron, honestly, she found them sweet. Good for each other. On those nights Lily and Rose stayed up late during sleepovers, talking about Scorpius, Lily thought that Rose would be great with Scorpius. But then after seeing Jacqui with Scorpius, and meeting Raph, and seeing him fight for Rose… she admitted to herself that Rose may be better off with Raph…
"Er…" Lily shrugged. "You could look good with Raphael…" she added quietly.
Rose might not have heard her. "Back at the train… Scorpius and Chua looked so… close. I… I felt really… angry and hurt…and… ugh! Am I in love with him? Is that it?"
"Rose, you might be…" Ria answered, "But if Scorpius really does like that Ravenclaw… you should be happy for him… it'll hurt… but at least you'll know he's happy…"
Rose sighed.
"Al…"
"What time is it?" Al wondered, rolling onto a position so he could reach his watch. "It's three-thirty in the morning, Scorpius." Scorpius was a decent friend, and Al knew he himself was usually a patient one. But at three thirty in the morning, it was hard not to feel irritable.
"Sorry… I… er… wanted to talk."
Al sighed. He was awake now. It would be hard to go back to sleep. He might as well hear what Scorpius had to say. "Okay."
"I was thinking about Rose…" Now that Al's eyes were adjusting to the darkness, he could see Scorpius looked troubled. "And… well… part of me was really… mad at her, for the way she was treating Jacqui." Al knew that. What about the other part? "Another part of me… I… I felt guilty for bumping her out of the way… and siding with Jacqui… then the look on her face when she walked off…"
"It must have hurt her to be so outnumbered." Al agreed. At least Scorpius wasn't as ignorant of Rose's feelings as usual. This was a pleasant change indeed.
"Yeah… and… but when I'm with Jacqui… I feel… happy." Scorpius groaned and then lay back down on his bed. "Urgh, it feels so weird talking about it."
Al laughed. "It's fine! You should hear James talking to me about his top five crushes." Somehow, people just loved using Al as a diary. There were times when it was inconvenient, but he usually didn't mind. It was interesting to see and hear people express themselves. Although, lately, more often than not, Al wondered what it would be like to have feelings for someone… what it would be like to relate, really relate to what they were telling him when it had to do with crushes or loves or whatever...
Not a lot of girls caught his interest. Well… Al admitted that Jacqui was pretty and… shapely. But he doubted she would be single for long. Paula had a beautiful face. But James had named her as one of his top crushes. Also, Paula seemed very interested in James. So… he doubted she'd be single for long too.
Ria Coote, Rose's Gryffindor friend was just too… quiet, observant… Rose had said Ria reminded her of Al. Al concluded Ria was too much like himself for him to like. Demelza… was.... Al found her cheerfulness very interesting… exciting, even. But he wasn't sure if he… felt something for her.
Al refocused his attention when Scorpius finally started speaking again. "Okay, fine… I'll talk about it… but it still feels weird! I mean… she's your cousin!"
Cousin? Scorpius wasn't referring to Jacqui. Was he talking about Rose?
"Jacqui, yeah, she makes me happy. She's pretty too. But then… Rose… sometimes I feel like…like I like her. And then she goes off and does something stupid that pisses me off." Al wasn't entirely surprised. Al and Lily had discussed Rose and Scorpius as a couple a few times before. Once or twice, Al suspected one might hold feelings for the other.
"And then… when I'm away from Jacqui… I start to think… what if Rose did that? But then when I'm with Jacqui, I think… to heck with Rose! Jacqui's here and now."
"I guess you should… think about it a bit more." Al considered Rose and Jacqui's feelings as well as Scorpius's. "Like… who makes you happier? But also think about them… which would you make happier? Which would you be more likely to hurt?"
"Yeah… you're right. I'll think about it… Thanks, mate…"
Three Ravenclaw girls sat on the midnight blue carpet, warming themselves with the fire in the hearth.
Jacqueline Chua had been staring at the fire, lost in her own thoughts. She hugged her knees and tore her eyes away from the flames. "I'm scared."
"Why should you be?" Sophia Thomas, the younger, Ravenclaw sister of Quidditch player Parvati Thomas looked at Jacqui with a critical eye. "It's obvious Scorpius likes you, you know that, right?"
"How can I know?" From the first time she saw him, Jacqui thought the tall young boy, despite being scrawny, was kind of… handsome. Then when she realized who he was, she feared him- which, to this day, Jacqui felt guilty for. She hated how quickly she judged him by his last name. Especially when he did that… noble, amazing act… she realized how wrong she was about him. She also realized how wrong her mother, Cho was.
But that act also… awoke something in her. She felt this… jealous fear. "What if he likes Rose Weasley?"
"What makes you say that?" Paula asked.
"Well he saved her for one thing." Jacqueline reminded them. "And then… I dunno… they're just… they're always together."
"James is always trying to impress other girls too…" Paula mumbled, nodding. "I know how you feel."
"At least the guys you like actually know you!" Sophia snapped. "They talk to you too. I'm too ugly for Albus to notice me!"
"You are not ugly!" Jacqui looked at Sophia. "And you should try talking to him. As far as I know, he's single."
"Maybe I'll try talking to him tomorrow…"
"Do you even know if he has any crushes?" Paula asked suddenly. "I mean… when we're with them… you don't always hear him talking about girls… come to think of it... I've never heard him talk about girls."
"Scorpius doesn't always talk about girls either." Jacqui pointed out.
"But he does check them out." Paula insisted. "I've seen him eye Rose before, but I've seen him looking you over a lot more."
Jacqui stared at Paula. "You're joking."
"I'm not! Really!"
"But I still wouldn't know if he likes me." At Sophia and Paula's open mouths, Jacqui hastily added, "Even if he did like me, how can you be so sure he doesn't like Rose more?"
Paula and Sophia didn't answer immediately.
"Well…" Sophia sounded thoughtful. "They fight a lot."
Jacqui sighed, avoiding their gazes. She still wished she could know for sure. How could Jacqui know for sure what Scorpius felt for her? It's not like she could look into his mind.
Until then, she was stuck in this pit of fear and worry.
The first morning of school found several students, most of them teenagers, sleepily making their way to the Great Hall among Housemates who were looking a lot better. The tired students had dark shadows under their eyes and their lids drooped. These sleepless ones stood out compared to their brighter, well-rested companions.
Erm... I just wanna say that Al is NOT gay xD Lol, he's just... not aware. I mean c'mon, I didn't really have any crushes until I was like thirteen. So it happens :P xD
Oh, and I might or might not put up chapter seven on sunday. I've got another soccer tournament then, so we'll see if I still have the energy to go online xD