Disclaimer: I own everything you don't recognise and the plot. Clearly I'm not J..
Chapter seven.
The end of term drew nearer and nearer as Rose thought more and more about the attack in Diagon Alley. The daily Prophet hadn't gone into anymore details than the damages and people injured. Soon everyone learnt about Eleanor and Scorpius seemed confined to their room in the room of requirement more than ever. He only left for classes and Rose would bring him meals along with some of their friends who just offered condolences before leaving.
Rose was sitting at the Gryffindor table eating eggs on toast when Professor Longbottom stopped by the group of friends who were all discussing the upcoming Quidditch final: Gryffindor VS. Slytherin.
"Ahh Rosie, could you please remind Mr. Malfoy about the upcoming OWLs please? Considering his circumstances we -err- can't really excuse him from them along with anyone for that matter. They will commence this Monday," he uttered awkwardly and then flourished his wand in the air and a stack of timetables appeared on the wooden table. "These are the timetables, good luck."
The first timetable had Ruby's name printed on the top and she passed them out; putting aside Scorpius' as she came to hers and begun to examine it.
Because she was taking 10 classes she had two examinations every day next week. First up she had Care of magical creatures followed by Herbology, giving her exactly one week to study.
"At least my first two exams are outside. When are yours Freddie?" Rose questioned as she pulled out a piece of parchment and quill. He too was looking at a piece of parchment with a timetable on it, but it had NEWTs printed across the top along with his name.
"On Sunday night I have astronomy… then transfiguration after lunch," he took a swig from his goblet and then rubbing his brown eyes, sighed.
"I suppose I had better visit Hagrid, get a list of the creatures he expects to appear in it. Then I'll go ask Professor Longbottom the same. Did you want to come?" she asked her fellow friends.
"I will!" Tim spoke up; from the corner of her eyes Rose was Lily's ears turn red.
"Okay, well I suppose we have to hurry because they'll be teaching soon. Then I wanna cram in some studying. You guys can copy our lists," she spoke hurriedly, rising from her seat and grabbing her timetable and unfinished study chart.
Tim outstretched a white hand and rapped on Hagrid's door. The burnt grass had long since recovered the outburst from Bellatrix Lestrange, but he wished he could have said the same for the hut which still had charred bits on the roof and walls, excluding the extended section that faced the pumpkin patch. From the other side of the door they heard small yaps and as they heard Hagrid chuckle, the door opened.
The man had aged a fair amount over the years and his hair and beard was gray. He had wrinkles all upon his face which disappeared when his face light up at the sight of Rose. From behind him they saw Olympe, his wife for twenty years now, who wore a pink coat and sat smiling into the fire.
"Rose! Tim! Wha' do I owe 'ter pleasure? Can't believe its end o' term already…" he asked as he shuffled back inside and placed Tillie, their newly purchased puppy, in its basket.
"We needed to catch you before your first class- oh hello Aunt Olympe," Rose bounced over to her and pecked her cheek, Olympe returning the favor, smiling," We'd like to know what you think will come up in the exams."
Offering them some rock cakes, which they politely declined (claiming to have full stomachs), he took a seat and divulged deep into the incredibly long list of creatures. Soon after the couple stood up and left the happy two giving them time before Hagrid's first class. Retreating up the warm slope to the greenhouses they interrupted Neville before he entered his classroom.
It was about 11.30 when Rose returned to the French room with book hugged under her arms, after her fresh trip to the Library.
No soon as she put the books down, did warm, protective hands encase her waist from behind. Scorpius kissed the top of her scarlet hair and whispered:
"You were ages; more books? Really Rose?"
She turned and smiled. "OWLs next week, we need to study. I bought you breakfast," still smiling she reached into her pocket and pulled out a napkin that wrapped up two pieces of toast. "Don't eat it all at once; remember what I've always told you."
She stood with a hand on her hip and a finger pointing towards him in mock-mother-imitation. Then casting her robe onto a chair she fell onto the bed kicking off her shoes. Over the past month they had taken the room upon themselves, clothes and pieces of parchment were thrown all over the room.
"I got a letter from dad; she woke."
Rose sat bolt upright in the bed to better study his face; a huge smile was plastered across his face and he scratched his platinum blonde hair at the awkwardness of her concentrating gaze. He was still standing beside the desk, but he walked over to her and sat on the bed, the springs squeaked mouse-like when he sat down causing her to break her gaze and laugh.
"That's really great. Honestly."
"Thanks," he smiled and squeezed her hand. "Can we go get lunch now?"
"O.M.G. that's like, totally like, oh my gosh!" she joked laughing, "Of coarse we can. Everyone will be so happy to see you. C'mon," she still held his hand as she shoved him out the door and lead him down the moving staircase and into the Great Hall. Passing shocked faces they continued to the group of people who were gawking and smiling welcomingly at the blonde and red-haired Gryffindors. They slid into the spaces between Albus and Ruby and there was a rather loud farting noise.
James, Freddie, Hugo and Albus burst into hysterics.
"Th-th-that was so f-f-funny," laughed Hugo, clutching his side. "Merlin, bless muggles and their jokes. Whoopee cushions… Love it!"
Albus clasped his best friends shoulder and pulled him into a man hug. James along with Hugo basically jumped over the table (still laughing) as they attempted to pull him into a hug also, his tie dangling dangerously above the treacle tart. Scorpius' smile never faltered as he held his girlfriends hand and he was passed between his friends open arms.
The day continued like this; between studying in the library and taking breaks by the black lake, the tomb across form them, like always.
The days of the exams went and past and as soon as the last exam was over everybody eased up. When Monday morning rolled up everyone's trunks were packed and at 11am the Hogwarts express left the Hogsmede station chugging along towards the eagerly awaiting parents.
"You promise to write me?" Rose asked after the trolley lady made a wealthy profit from their compartment. Rose lay on Scorpius' lap above maroon carpet as Freddie was playing Gobstones with Hugo and Lily on the ground.
It was setting about the evening and Scorpius' reply was cut of ceremoniously by a flickering of the fluorescent lights that illuminated the train. The train shuddered to a halt and Albus, the Gryffindor he was, poked his head out the compartment door and stuck it back in.
Shrugging he opened the window and again stuck his head out but pulled it back in looking queasy and frozen. An unnatural mist seemed to grow outside the window and the entire train was silent. All they could hear were compartment doors opening and slamming. All the Gryffindors froze; they felt all their previous happiness leave their souls and an icy chill descend upon them.
The windows clouded over and petrified with fear they all listened to the compartment door to their left open and then several seconds later close again. Rose's hand slid into Scorpius and she exhaled a nervous breath that appeared as a white cloud in front of her.
A tall, towering black figure glided to the glass door. Bracing herself Rose took one last breath as she waited upon the arrival of the mysterious creature that brought fear and doubt along with it. Squeezing each other's hands tighter Scorpius pulled a protective arm around her waist.
Ever so slowly the door rattled open and the heavy cloaked, yet torn and tattered figure floated into the tiny space. James' breath caught in his chest as his eyes darted from Emma to the hooded 'thing' to the space between the 'thing' and the ground it floated above.
Scorpius' eyes followed his gaze but hurriedly, not wanting to take his eyes off it for too long. Suddenly it drew in a shaky breath. A chill settled on them once more; the head surveyed the room once and then floated back out the compartment to continue its search.
Everyone remained silent as the last compartment was searched; the thought of it coming back to horrifying. James finally broke the silence once the train buffed into a steady beat along the tracks as it continued its journey to King's Cross Station.
"Phew! What was that?! I felt like I was reliving my worst nightmares over and over again," he boasted as he sat in the empty seat next to Emma and stretched as arm over her shoulder; his legs were out in front of his straight and they were crossed at the ankles.
Pulling at her wand Rose mumbled 'Accio Book!' and her heavily packed trunk opened and a very heavy leather bound book soared toward her (her trunk closing again). Silence seemed to have become a thing in the compartment because never in their history have they not interrupted Rose as she looked for an answer in her collection of books.
"Whoa… why was it so far from home? Hmm…"
Clearing his throat, Albus reminded Rose of their presence, which was still very highly unusual as it had never needed to be justified. Unintentionally Albus again attempted to flatten his hair as he sat beside Alice who was snuggled into his chest.
Rose looked up from her book, her eyes unfocused and Scorpius' arm still around her waist. She slowly came back to them and leant back into Scorpius' chest, her brown freckles highlighting his white face.
"Soul-sucking-kiss… guards from Azkaban… feed on dark memories and thoughts…" she read snippets from her book, the tip of her wand following her words as she dictated them. After some pending she put these thoughts into a sentence, the group still silent. "It was a keeper of Azkaban. They do this job because they feed on the thoughts of bad memories and the only way of ridding them of your presence is to use the Patronus Charm. If a prisoner commits a crime a dementor might use the Dementor's kiss on them, where they suck out their soul and leave them with nothing but a body and organs that do their job. That's its final weapon."
"That's awful!" Ruby gasped, her blue eyes sparkling with tears but curiosity.
"It says hear that in fact, Uncle Harry in his third year at Hogwarts Managed to produce a Patronus charm so strong he repelled approximately on hundred Dementors as he battled to save my Mum's and Uncle Sirius' souls," Rose said, squinting her eyes in concentration as she read so much about what her parents and Uncle would have had to go through at such a young age.
"Well anyway, if it was a keeper of Azkaban then why was it searching the train? Do you think maybe it has something to do with what happened in Diagon Alley? Searching for a suspect?" asked Hamish, who sat beside Ruby and Albus, opposite James.
"Who knows? I hope they were searching for a suspect, it shows they have found a lead," Emma piped up from her seat, under the comfortable weight of James' arm, her black hair blending nicely with James' chestnut brown hair.
"Yeah… I hope they catch the bastards responsible," Scorpius muttered, anger rising. Rose squeezed his hand and stood up. "Can we go to the toilet?"
"That's what I was planning on doing," she smiled strongly. Where would Scorpius be without such a strong and passionate person to captivate his attention?
"Great," he murmured as he accepted Rose's offer for a help up and waved as the exited the compartment and walked down the narrow corridor towards the end of the train. As they walked they past compartments of people, most had their curtains drawn and only one compartment seemed to be unaffected by the interruption; loud laughing was audible form within and sure enough as they passed bright colors of Gold and red grabbed their attention. What shocked them the most was that Lily and Beth were amongst them.
"Wait up," Rose interrupted Scorpius' attempts to reach the bathroom; she was paused outside the compartment door. Stopping Scorpius retreated back to her and looked through the door.
"Lily? Rox- Beth? I didn't even know lily had other friends?"
Rose laid a white hand upon the door handle and pulled it to the right where it slid open and all the seven heads in the compartment goggled at her. Rose's eyes flickered between the five boys and her two family members with an unknown emotion. They weren't even sititng next to eachother. Lily was sitting between two boys one side and Beth between two on the other, the last boy was sitting on the floor. Rose didn't know what to feel; Happy that Beth and Lily had made friends? Disappointed that they were all boys and that their skirts were well above mid thigh, baring all to the boy sitting on the ground? Or upset about the fact that her cousins looked like they had committed one of the worst crimes imaginable, when all they were doing was outrageously flirting with a bunch of horny, teenage boys who seemed disappointed about the interruption and as if something interesting must have been going down.
"R-Rose? How are you?" stuttered Beth, all her Sanguine qualities that were present before leaving her with just her Hufflepuff-ness.
"Oh I don't know, a little chilly. And you, Beth? Lily?" she said like a hormonal thirteen year old, nothing like the fifteen year old she was accustomed to being.
"I go by my first name now, Roxy. And I'm good," she said matter-of-factly. Roxy's deep red hair was in its usual signature short pig tails and her eyes were heavily lipped with black liner.
"That's good. Lily, James was looking for you before, I'm just doing my rounds with Scorpius-" he grabbed her hand and she smiled, "-might stop by on the way back down. 'Bye."
She slid the compartment door shut and continued hand in hand with Scorpius towards the bathroom. He never said a word and she respected that part of him; he knew that if she got started she may end up taking out her angered disappointed on him. Huffing they finally reached the single cubical that housed the uni-sex toilet and they both slid into the powder room.
"Are you alright?" Scorpius muttered, shutting the lid of the loo and lazing about on it as Rose examined her incredibly charming face in the mirror.
"I don't know. Out of all my family I never suspected them to be those people. Y'know the types of people you hear about on the great vine. And did you see that pig's hand on Lily's leg? How dare someone touch her that way? If Uncle Harry knew… but apparently Aunty Ginny was the same… She said as soon as she saw uncle harry she knew it was meant to be. I bet she's only doing this to somehow attract Tim's attention. I see the way she looks at him…" she huffed again and sat onto Scorpius lap long ways so their legs formed a 'T'.
He ran his fingers through her hair, a smile paying on his lips. "I fell in love with you the first time I saw you, I just didn't want to admit it. Give them time, they're going through that thirteen year old stage, even you went through it."
"Yeah I guess," she mumbled, her hands seemed to become very interesting from that angle. She looked up into his eyes and silver met blue, they smiled and Scorpius gave her a Butterfly kiss on her nose and then ushered her out the room.
"Alright, alright; do your business. Don't be too long."
She could hear the laughter again from her distance down the corridor and suppressing a sigh leant against the wall and closed her eyes. Shortly after warm, soft hands grabbed her hips and pulled her into a long, deep kiss.
The sound of a door opening and a gasp caused Rose's eyes to open and push the unfamiliar figure away from her.
"What the bloody hell is going on hear? What-How could you?" Scorpius' voice ejaculated profoundly causing yet another commotion to interrupt the train; doors opened and people watched from the safety of their compartments as he yelled at the dark boy standing there all defiantly. From beneath his robes a Green tie was visible informing them that the stranger was a Slytherin. The peculiar thing was Scorpius wasn't asking him but Rose.
"Sc-Scorpius!" Rose yelled at the evanescing figure that she loved. A sob escaped her and her knees buckled. Collapsing onto the floor her vision blurred as warm tears escaped her long-lashed eyelids. Small warm hands ran up and down her back as she cried.
"Shh, its okay Rosie, Lily's hear… Shh…"
Her whole body shuddered and she let go. Lily sat their and soon she was surrounded by her loved ones, except the two she absolutely needed right now. They all offered her support at the end of the train and as James wrapped his arms around her torso she fell into them, fresh tears starting all over again.
As the train began to slow James scooped her up and they all went back to their compartment where they collected their trunks and Rose composed herself.
As she jumped off the train and grabbed her trunk off the stair she turned and there stood her family; the Weasleys and Potters. Plastering a fake smile upon her face she was absorbed into her family and before she could even talk to Albus they apparated to their home and she went up to her bedroom and claiming to bed tired cried herself to sleep.
A/N omgomgomg I'm so sorry about the incredibly long awaited update. I tried writing this chapter so many times and in the end I finally finished. Please review and I promise to try and update as quickly as possible; I was going to update last Sunday but on Saturday I got so badly burnt and my Aunty came over that I was too tired to try.
love to all
kathrynjoy xx