Unexpected Things

KeysCanHurt: Haha! Benta :)) I love Theo too! :)) Yeah! Jacqui is so lucky! Roar :)) yeah, I wonder about Trelawney's age too... :)) Hahah! Blonds are hotness! ;)

yellow14: Heehee, we shall see ;)

RosoMC: thanks for fave-ing :D

mimimi213: Thanks fer story alert-ing :) And it's great to know you're loving this :D

Zee: Dude, you've got sharp eyes ;) Yep, more than Scorpius. Glad you're enjoying ScorpiusxJacqui :) But they'll have some... unhappy moments for a while... Lol, it's great to know how loved the twins are xD Ron has yet to find out :P xD

heartshaped-sunglasses: LOL dark side... when you put it that way xD Hmm... in some parts, your guesses are right ;) Heheh

Awww! Me feels loved! :D I was exhausted yesterday, so I didn't get to go online, now that I am, SHOWANG! Reviews and faves! HURRAY! :D :D

Chapter Eight

Pets and Potions

"Where is it?" a girl's furious shriek pierced the ears of anyone unfortunate enough to be in the Slytherin Common Room. "WHERE?" A first year with golden blond hair stomped into the Common Room from the girls' dormitory. "WHO TOOK IT?"

Everyone stared at her.

"Took what?" Al asked in a soft tone, hoping to calm her.

"You don't know?" the angry girl growled in frustration. She breathed in deeply, then exhaled slowly, obviously trying to calm herself. "My… erm… medicine. For my health. It's a potion in a bottle."

"Sorry, we haven't seen it. But I'll help you find it if you want." Al offered.

"You are too nice. You know that, right?" Al ignored Scorpius's comment.

"I NEED IT!" the girl yelled again. "I had it with me when I came here! Then when I noticed it wasn't in my trunk the other day, I didn't really search. But then today, when I checked properly, it ISN'T THERE! I need it before next week! It's IMPORTANT!"

"Calm down, calm down!" Al tried reassure her. "You'll find it!"

"Was it a potion that smoked a bit? In a green bottle, wasn't it?" Al looked at the speaker. It was a black-haired first year girl. There was a smirk on her face.

"Lestrange! Give me back my potion!"

Lestrange stuck her tongue out at the first year. "Make me!"

The angry girl glared at her before turning around and walking to the dormitory. "I'm searching your things!"

"Lestrange?" Al recalled Aunt Hermione mentioning that name.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lestrange glared at him. "Bring up my Aunt and Uncle and I'll kill you!"

"I won't! Sorry!" Al put his palms up defensively and inched away from her.

He decided he would just rather not get involved. Al went back to his seat by Tom, Theo and Scorpius.

"What's with the firstie girls today?" Tom asked. "They're all cranky."

"GIVE IT BACK, BITCH!" the angry golden haired girl ran back out of the dormitory and charged at Lestrange. Lestrange ended up on the ground under the furious girl. "WHERE IS IT, RENEE LESTRANGE?"

"Gah! Fine! JUST DON'T KILL ME! I hid it! It's under that weird box-looking table by the fire!"

The angry first year released Lestrange, and stood up to walk towards the spot that was described, but Dirk Kron beat her to it. He pulled out a bottle that looked just as Renee Lestrange described. Green, and when Dirk uncorked it, smoke drifted out of the bottle. "Vot's this?"

Dirk inspected the potion while the girl glared at him. Maybe she knew not to attack him since he could just as easily drop her precious potion. At first, there was curiosity on his face, then his eyes widened, as if in understanding.

He smirked at the girl. "I know vat thiz is."

The anger left the first year's face, and fear took its place. "Don't tell them…" she whispered pleadingly.

Dirk closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. "I von't." He opened his eyes. "Don't vorry." Corking the potion, he put an arm around the girl's shoulders, but still kept her potion out of her reach with his other arm. "Come vit me, I vant to talk to you."

He led the girl outside of the Common Room.

When they were gone, the Slytherins mutually agreed it was alright to return to their business. Talk was once again exchanged, as well as the sound of quills scratching parchment for homework.

"That, was no doubt, the weirdest five minutes I ever witnessed."

"You sure it was five minutes, Tom?"

Tom shrugged. "Dunno. But you get the point. That was weird."

"That guy really is weird." Scorpius agreed. "During summer, we caught him spying on us."

"Yeah," Al confirmed what Scorpius said. "He was watching us while we were playing with a Quaffle."

"And he never talks to anyone…" Theo added.

"He's always just… watching." Tom nodded.

"Why were we unlucky enough to have him dumped in with us?" Scorpius muttered.

Lily walked out of her Common Room, deciding to ask Hagrid for advice. After all, he was Care of Magical Creatures teacher. He would be an expert.

As she was walking towards the door, she saw Hugo walking out of the dungeons, where Potions was usually held. She wondered why that was so. It was late Thursday afternoon. No one had any classes anymore, as far as Lily knew. Unless... that's where the Slytherin Common Room was...

"Hugo!"

Hugo stopped. He grinned at her and walked over. "Hi Lily!"

"Hi! Where were you going?"

"I'm going over to the Owlery, I haven't sent my reply to mum and dad's letters yet."

"Did you tell them about the Sorting?" Lily asked, curious.

Hugo smiled sheepishly and admitted, "No… I kind of… left that part out."

"He's assuming you're in Gryffindor, isn't he?"

"Probably."

"Don't worry, Hugo! He won't go crazy! He'll be shocked, but he'll get used to the idea." Lily didn't want her cousin to be upset because of the Sorting Hat's decision.

"Maybe." Hugo showed an envelope he was holding. "I have to send this before it's too late and we're sent to our beds. See you, Lily!"

"See you." Lily walked outside of the castle and towards Hagrid's hut.

As she was approaching Hagrid's Hut, she saw what looked like green and grey blobs chained to a post. Hagrid was pouring buckets of water on them and it looked like he was trying to bathe them. There was also a rather large winged creature standing around nearby.

When she drew nearer, she saw that they seemed to have green, draconic heads, while their horse-like bodies had green and silver markings splotched on. Some markings were more faded, and Lily thought she could see through the faded markings. The parts of the creatures that weren't marked were actually… invisible. She could see through them!

The other creature looked like Al's description of a hippogriff. It was squawking at the other two creatures, almost like it was laughing.

"Oh, 'ey there, Lily!" Hagrid looked over his shoulder and waved at her before returning to his work, washing and scrubbing the strange creatures, while the hippogriff watched, still squawking. "I don' know wha' those crazy twins put in tha' paint, but it's bein' hard to wash off!"

Hagrid picked up a sponge and lightly tossed it at the hippogriff. "Quit laughin' a' them, Thorntalon! Or I'll have them Higgs twins paint you too!"

The hippogriff screeched before sitting down on it's horse hindquarters, looking behaved and obedient.

"Hagrid… what are…?"

"These are thestrals, Lily," Hagrid answered. Thestrals? But Lily had been told thestrals were invisible. How is it that she could see them? How odd... "Oh an' the oversized bird o'er there is Thorntalon the hippogriff."

Thorntalon flapped his wings proudly.

"These fellers, the thestrals, are supposed ter be… er... yer not supposed ter be able to see 'em. But a crazy pair o' Slytherin pranksters decided to spray paint 'em." Hagrid explained. "I wonder if Macmillan'll know somethin'… or Professor Flitwick… I'll ask 'em later." Pouring one last bucket over the pair of creatures and ignoring their snarled protests, Hagrid turned around and faced Lily. "Ye wanna come in?"

"Sure." Lily smiled and followed Hagrid into his hut. It looked like a small, cozy home. "Hagrid… do you know anything about… er…"

"Ferrets an' their babies?"

Lily nodded. "How'd you know?"

"Harry sent me a letter, tellin' me ter help ye take care o' yer ferret." Hagrid's smile faded. "Ter be honest, ferrets bore me." Then he started laughing as he added. "Unless a little git is turned inter a ferret and bounced around."

"What?"

Hagrid shook his head. "Nev'rmind. Anyways, I looked up some ferret books, promised yer dad I'll help you. So I will. Bu' I wouldn' do this fer anyone else's kid."

"Thank you, Hagrid!" Grateful, Lily hugged the big man… or at least, she put her arms around his belly, which was just about all she could reach, and her arms didn't even really… go around him.

Hagrid chuckled. "No problem, Lily! Now when yer ferret gets real roun' an' 'eavy, bring 'er ter me. An' she'll have ter stay 'ere till she gives birth. Alrigh'?"

Even if Lily didn't want to have to part with Cookie, she understood that it would just be for a while, and it would be so that the babies could come out of Cookie's belly safely under Hagrid's supervision.

"Rose…"

A soft voice made its way into the dark fog of her dreamless sleep. Rose blinked. Her back and neck felt stiff. Wincing, she straightened up. And found herself sitting on the floor and leaning her head against the foot of a statue. Her bag and books were on the ground next to her. How did she get here?

Then she remembered.

She had been studying in the library, and then was shooed away by Madam Pince because it was late. Not ready to go to the Common Room to meet Demelza's jokes, Anna and Jenny's mildless chattering about boys or Ria's quiet, observant gaze, she sat next to a statue and continued her advanced reading for the topics of their classes.

She must have fallen asleep...

"Rose… you okay?"

Rose looked up. It was Raphael. "Dunno." she muttered.

He sat down next to her. "What's wrong?" he sounded concerned.

Hugging her knees, Rose rested her chin on them. What should she say? "I… Scorpius…" were what she managed to say.

Rose felt Raph stiffening. "What did he do?"

The last thing Rose wanted was for Raph and Scorpius to start fighting again. "Nothing… it's just… he's so… I dunno… like he's bothered by something. But he won't talk to us about it."

"Ah… have you heard?"

"What?"

"During Divination, Trelawney predicted that someone blond was goin' to hurt Jacqui, and that Malfoy was goin' bad… somethin' like that. It freaked people out."

Rose didn't know what to think about that. "How did Scorpius and Jacqueline react?"

"Jacqui looked terrified, Malfoy looked furious." Raphael answered. "T'be honest, I'm worried about Jaqui. Malfoy's got some issues, and I… I don't want Jacqui hurt."

"We all have issues." Rose wanted to defend Scorpius.

"You've a point." Raph nodded. "But I still don't want Jacqui hurt. She's my friend."

"How are you so sure he'll hurt her?"

"Simple." Raph pointed at her. "He hurts you. What more if he and Jacqui end up together?"

"He d-" Rose couldn't lie about it. She had to admit that Scorpius did hurt her in the past. But that didn't stop her from being defensive. "He won't hurt Jacqui because he actually has feelings for her."

"I hope you're right about that." Raph answered. "But I'm worried about you too."

"You are?" Why should Raph care?

"Why shouldn't I be?" Raph raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Rose! We were real close last year, weren't we? I'd be a real git if I didn't care 'bout yer feelings!"

Rose smiled. "Thanks… for caring."

Raph shook his head side to side. "Tell me somethin', Rose… if it's a'right with you."

Swallowing, Rose worried what Raph was going to ask. "What do you want to know?"

"Why are you still… friends with him? You're always fighting. He's… angry a lot. He snaps at people a lot."

"He is a good friend." Rose frowned. "People don't trust him and spread rumors about him. How can anyone be happy and joyful if people treat them like that?"

Raph shrugged. "I guess you're right about that. But it would be easier not to judge him if he kept his temper in check."

"Speak for yourself, it's not like you haven't got a temper of your own."

Raph laughed. "Fine, I admit I got a temper too." Then he looked at her seriously. Rose suddenly became aware of how close they were to each other. Raph's shoulder was touching hers and he was speaking softly. She realized she had been leaning forward to hear him clearly. "But that time I fought him was because he was… saying things… things I didn't want to imagine."

Raph cared… he really cared. Raph was a great friend. Rose felt grateful, but she didn't know how to express it. She decided upon wrapping her arms around him and hugging him. "Thanks, Raph."

"Huh? For what?" Raph sounded confused, but he hugged her back.

"This… this talk."

Hmm... the cranky, purposely unnamed firstie with the bottle: what are your theories? ;)