Every Rose Has Its Thorn
By Lily Orange
A/N: Sorry about the wait, even though I am now finished (YAYYYY!) I have been really busy doing things every day but I'm trying to dedicate a few days this week to writing, so hopefully I can get the updates coming quicker! Thank you to everybody who has reviewed, favourited and alerted this story, you make me so happy :) I hope you enjoy the chapter, please review! xx
Chapter Three
Still September the bloody 1st
In which I unintentionally insinuate that I am Scorpius Malfoy's wife to an impressionable first year...
I spent virtually all the rest of the journey in Pearl's carriage, engaging with their conversation. Maybe they hadn't read all of Jane Austen's books, or taken my advice on something, but they were just as interesting as Scorpius. And Al. Can't forget Al.
Albus Severus Potter had been my best friend since birth, practically. He's slightly older than me, but only by a little bit! He was born on October the twelfth and me on November the sixteenth – but he was so protective of me it was as if I was about three years younger, not a month. To be fair to him, there wasn't many people to protect me from, as all the boys at Hogwarts went for stunning girls like Ophelia (HATE HER!) or my cousins Lily, Lucy and Molly. Likewise, Roxanne, in the year below me, is pretty stunning too. Except me. The whole Weasley family has to be protected by their brothers and numerous cousins of the male variety, except for me. I tell you, it's because when Al and I spent time together over the summer (which was virtually every day, as Hugo and Lily spent time together too) we spent quite a lot of it watching films (I swear Al needs to go to Filmaholics Anonymous, or something, he has that many films, it's utterly ridiculous) and simultaneously eating film snacks, which involves popcorn, ice cream and sweets. And a good deal of cake. That's why at the start of the summer I always used to steal Albus' big red cushion and by the end of the summer I didn't need it. Why? Because my arse is so bloody huge it's like there's a cloud attached to it or something.
"Shall we go back to your compartment, Rose, so you can get your bag?" Pearl suggested. I nodded, getting up and wandering out of the compartment door. Pearl quickly followed, concurrently tying her long blonde hair into a ponytail as she stepped out into the corridor. Once she was satisfied her hair was smooth enough and her fringe was straight, she shut the compartment door behind her.
"Don't tell me you still fancy Scorpius Malfoy," she hissed, folding her arms knowledgeably. I could tell I was taking on the persona of a lobster as I rapidly tried to stop myself from blushing. I didn't fancy Scorpius! No bloody way! I could feel my face heating up though, just like it did when I tripped and fell into Scorpius' lap. I mentally visualised my face (not hard – just imagine a snowball with a huge misshapen lump of snow stuck on the front and there you have it) and concentrated on not blushing. But I could tell it wasn't working. Nothing ever happened the way I wanted it too, especially regarding my appearance – hence the candyfloss hair and the expanding body parts. Except the one part of my body I wanted to expand, my chest, was staying stubbornly flat.
Attractive.
"What are you doing, Rose, you look constipated!" Pearl said in alarm. Maybe my de-blushing technique was less than flattering, so I stopped. I didn't want it associated with bowel movements – or rather, lack of bowel movements.
"Thanks Pearl," I snorted sardonically. There went the snort again. Perhaps I was turning into a pig? It would explain a lot of things.
"Seriously, you don't still like him, do you?" Pearl persisted. She still had her arms crossed, making her look very hostile.
"No, of course not!" I said with a wide smile. "That was first year!" I couldn't help but notice that my voice seemed to rise in pitch as I said this, which, according to my family, is a sign of me telling fibs. I was obviously not telling a fib. My feelings for Scorpius were purely platonic... him being Al's best friend (though second only to me!) I had to speak to him quite a lot. Thus I was friendly with him.
"Are you sure about that?" she asked, raising her eyebrows sceptically.
"Absolutely positive!" I laughed wildly, and she looked at me as if I was insane. I was used to this by now, but I still didn't know why people did it. I wasn't INSANE! I wasn't stuck in St Mungo's, like my mum, dad and numerous auntie and uncles' old teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, who had suffered a backfired memory charm (apparently this was due to my dad's wand which he had snapped in half and repaired with Spellotape – what kind of fool does that? Don't get me wrong, I love my dad, but sometimes... he has me worried). I was a fifteen-year-old with a fully functioning brain but a tendency to be slightly neurotic at times! That didn't make me crazy!
I don't think it did, anyway.
"Shall we go, Rose?" Pearl asked, and I realised I had been standing still in the corridor pondering my sanity whilst she looked on, for quite a few moments.
"Yeppedy yep yep," I replied. Pearl ignored this – and I wondered why I had said it. Luckily I didn't do stupid things like that in front of Scorpius, otherwise he would think I was a complete weirdo.
Not that he didn't already.
The train jerked slightly as we began to sear through hills – however, I managed to keep my balance and successfully sashayed into the compartment without any tripping over, closely followed by Pearl.
"Hey Rose, we were just saying–" Albus said, launching into his usual tirade of babble, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Pearl enter the carriage with me. I could tell it was Pearl who had captivated his attention because his emerald eyes locked on her figure and followed her across the train compartment. She seemed completely unaware of what was going on and how my best friend and cousin had fallen in love with her on the spot (even though he had known her since we were eleven), but Scorpius wasn't. He coughed lightly, evidently hiding suppressed laughter, and smirked to himself. He winked at me – AT ME! – as we both turned back to look at Albus' expression.
"Stop catching flies, Al," I commented jokily as Pearl stood on her tiptoes to reach my bag, which was stashed on the luggage rack, so that both Scorpius and Al could lie lackadaisically across the seats. He flushed red and looked to the floor, too embarrassed to say anything.
"Merlin, I can't reach," Pearl cursed – and I was definitely not going to be able to reach if she couldn't, as she was five foot nine!
"I'll get it for you," Scorpius said helpfully whilst Al continued to stare at Pearl, who was still completely oblivious. He stood up, his tall and muscular frame brushing up against my side as he picked up my bag for me, sending shivers down my spine. He passed it to me, and flashed a winning smile, both at me and Pearl. He was so gorgeous.
"Thanks," I gulped, trying to regain a slightly composed state of mind, but it wasn't happening.
"Shouldn't you be changing into your robes?" Pearl pointed out. "That's what we're going to do."
"Good idea," Scorpius replied, smiling again. Al was still staring – subtlety was not his forte.
"We'll leave you in peace then," she said, turning around to leave; however, halfway around, she caught Albus' eye – he was still looking at her intently. A small smile formed at his lips and his eyes twinkled. Her cheeks reddened slightly, but she just gave him a courteous, "Hey, Albus," before sauntering out of the carriage.
"Don't worry, Al, your secret's safe with me!" I said with maddening enthusiasm before sliding the compartment door shut behind me. The blinds immediately fell to try and give them some privacy, but there were a couple of tantalising gaps either side of them – if I peered through (which I unashamedly did, once I checked the corridor was free – Pearl having gone to the toilet to change) I could just see the silhouette of Scorpius' body as he changed his red t-shirt to the obligatory white school uniform shirt. Bloody hell he was sexy. Completely so. The contours of his abs were illuminated by the low yellow lights fixed to the ceiling of the carriage... it was like an ethereal dream. I knew it was wrong to look, but I couldn't tear my eyes away – it was like they were naturally glued to that gap in the blinds...
"What are you doing?" A small voice suddenly said accusingly. I jumped backwards, falling on my bum (no damage there, the excess padding saw to that), to see what must of been a first year, grinning at me precociously, arms crossed, her hair in two neat caramel plaits down to her chest. She was already dressed in her brand new Hogwarts robes, and reminded me somewhat of a younger me, when I first started at Hogwarts.
"Nothing," I said defiantly.
"Yes you are!" she replied, looking at the compartment door I had just been peering through.
"No, I was just... taking a leisurely stroll down the aisle," I responded.
"Are you sure?" she said accusingly.
"Erm, yes," I muttered, lifting myself up and out of the rather unflattering position I had managed to get myself in.
"Because it looked like you were watching whoever is in there," she said, eyebrow raised. Who did this kid think she was, Sherlock bloody Holmes?
"I think you've made a mistake there, I wasn't," I smiled apologetically, before looking around to leave this horrible situation.
"Yes, you were!" she persisted incessantly. Just as she said that, Al raised the blinds on the carriage, and I could see that him and Scorpius were lounging about on the seats again, laughing about something. Unfortunately, I wasn't laughing, as I was cornered by some eleven-year-old Miss Marple wannabe. She followed my gaze. "Were you staring at him?" she added, glancing swiftly at Al.
No. Bloody. Way.
"No, definitely not, he's my cousin – and, anyway, I wasn't staring!" I shrieked.
"How about him then?" she said, pointing rather conspicuously at Scorpius, who raised his eyebrows at me. I shook my head in a very cool 'this-little-kid-is-flipping-crazy-however-I-am-perfectly-sane' way, and he nodded.
"No! I'm practically related to him, anyway," I replied. He was almost like another family member – him and Al stuck together like glue.
"How?"
"By... by... well he's not technically a family member... we're mar–" I began.
"YOU'RE MARRIED?" she squealed, in a voice so loud and high pitched, it would have sent dogs barking all over the world.
"That's not what I was going to say," I shook my head vehemently – I was going to say, before Miss Marple Wannabe so rudely interrupted me, marginally like cousins. But no, she couldn't let me finish my sentence.
"Oh My Merlin! I need to tell my friends!" she gasped, scurrying off down the corridor, squealing, "I just met this girl who's married!"
"Oh, so you leave me alone now," I grunted in a rather unladylike manner, just as Pearl emerged from the toilets, fully clothed in her Hogwarts robes.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Not much, I've just been harassed by some weirdo eleven-year-old, but, come on, what's new? I'd better go and get changed," I said, locking myself in one of the bathroom cubicles to exchange my casual jeans outfit for my smart school uniform.
I was just in the process of smoothing down my hair (which stubbornly stayed where it was – nothing was ever going to happen, to be fair) when the train pulled to a stop; we were evidently at Hogsmeade station.
I scrambled up the aisle to get back to Scorpius and Al, who I always went to the castle with.
"Hey, Rose!" Al called to me over the sea of people that were pushing us out of the train and onto the platform. "We'll wait for you by the carriages!"
"Okay!" I shouted back, then proceeded to grunt as an eager second year elbowed me in the ribs. He muttered a quick apology before scooting off to join his friends, presumably. I bet Al and Scorpius weren't being elbowed by baby students. It was just my luck – cloud-arsed and elbowed.
What a fabulous life I was leading.
Deciding I was getting nowhere by being polite, I violently pushed my way through the crowd – I may have knocked out a few students on the way, but that was what Madam Pomfrey was for, wasn't it?
"There you are," Al said in satisfaction as I finally joined them, looking a little worse for wear after all the wrestling I had just had to do. "Come on, we need to get in a carriage, otherwise we'll be late, and we'll miss the food, and then we'll die in the Forbidden Forest after having being eaten by ravenous centaurs."
"Little dramatic, don't you think?" I replied, following them up the little path, where the next carriage was waiting to whisk us off to school. We had lost Pearl, so there was only the three of us to get in one, which was rather fortunate, as there were three spaces left in the carriage waiting.
"Might as well get in," Scorpius reasoned, climbing up the little steps and seating himself on one side of the seat. Al was in quick pursuit, leaving the gap in the middle for me. Great – now Scorpius would know exactly how huge my arse was.
This had turned out to be a fun day.
I put my hand on the door of the carriage and tried to lift myself up onto the bottom step, and managed successfully, but as I hauled myself in, I lost my footing and ended up – where else? – in Scorpius' lap. Seriously, I had fallen in it so many times today I might as well have set up permanent residence there, and have my post redirected from home to my new address.
"Oh my Merlin, I'm so sorry!" I gushed, my face undoubtedly tomato red. He just looked faintly amused, winked at me and gestured for me to sit down.
"Do you want to hold my hand whilst you do it to avoid tripping, Rose?" he teased good-naturedly. I thought it might be the best option, so nodded, making him laugh. Was it good if you made a boy laugh? Did it mean that they found you attractive, or stupid?
There was an intake of breath from the other occupants of the carriage as this happened – for Merlin's sake, it was only holding hands to prevent future falling in of laps! When I turned around to see who it was, I observed it was a group of second years, who had probably never held hands with anybody apart from a family member in their life.
Well, neither had I, but that wasn't the point.
"Thanks," I murmured as I sat comfortably between the two boys, silently praying that Scorpius didn't think that I was a candy-floss-haired weirdo. It was quite an easy conclusion to come to, but I just hoped he didn't manage to reason as far as it.
"What is James doing?" Al questioned vociferously as we began to drive off in the direction of the castle – we all turned round to see my cousin and his older brother practically eating Ophelia Blake's face, stumbling blindly towards a carriage and nearly falling in a bush.
Now that would have been funny.
"Ah, I think Ophelia mistook the glue in her bag for lip gloss and James is now unfortunately stuck to her mouth permanently. Good job they don't mind sharing saliva," I commented. Scorpius and Al exploded with laughter, roaring loudly and shaking as they guffawed so much I thought they might faint. Come on, it wasn't that funny. If I wasn't careful, I was going to give Scorpius the impression that I was the funny girl, not a brilliantly attractive girl.
Not that I was worried about him thinking I was attractive – no, that was preposterous, of course.
"Well, whatever it is, it's not taught at Hogwarts," Al grinned cheekily – I don't know why he was acting so innocent. I caught him in a classroom last year intertwined so closely with Elenore McCoy that I couldn't tell whose hands were whose – I think I was mentally damaged for life.
"Says you, the little angel," Scorpius winked at his best friend. Al grinned even more. Dear Merlin, I didn't want to know what my cousin got up to – it was none of my business and, quite frankly, it would probably disturb me to no end.
"Anyway, um, Rose, how's Pearl these days? Seeing as I didn't really have chance to talk to her," Al asked nonchalantly, leaning back and breathing in the cool autumn air that was descending upon the dark emerald trees bordering the dirt path we were rolling up.
"No, you were too busy gawping at her," I pointed out, making Scorpius chuckle even more. This was getting bad. I needed to become more serious. "Yes, she's absolutely fine. She had a good summer."
"She's, not, er, taken, is she?" he continued, examining his fingernails disinterestedly.
Okay, serious Rose, here we went. "I don't believe she is, she's single. I'll check with her for you, if you like," I replied, my voice nice and deep and hopefully sexy. I batted by eyelashes at Scorpius in what I hoped was a sultry manner. Merlin knows why I did that.
"Have you got something in your eye, Rose?" he asked in concern.
Maybe it wasn't so sultry after all, maybe just loony-eyelid-flickering.
"Erm, yes, but it's out now," I said, continuing with my deep voice. Nobody seemed to be picking me up on that, so perhaps it was as sexy as I hoped.
"Yes please – but don't make it obvious," Al said, ignoring any possible eye problems I might be suffering from.
"Fine, I will," I concluded, just as the carriage pulled out of the forest-lined track and we were granted the first proper view of Hogwarts castle.
Everybody was silent for a few moments, drinking in the full beauty of the castle we called home for most of the year. Made of warm grey stone, with hundreds of windows flickering yellow and orange invitingly, it just radiated warmth and happiness.
"It still stuns me every time," Scorpius breathed. I looked up at him. Our eyes locked for a moment – ice meeting cobalt... it was utterly magical.
"Well, we're here!" Al proclaimed, punching me on the arm. I tore my gaze away from Scorpius' stunning ice blue orbs and concentrated instead on getting out of the carriage without injuring myself or anybody else. I was lucky, and we all went in together and took seats at the Gryffindor table. Pearl and Esther came and sat by us – Pearl opposite me, by Al, and Esther on her other side. Me and Scorpius sat on the other side of the bench, and we chatted animatedly about what we'd done over the summer whilst other students filed in, also gossiping and catching up with each other.
I was just about to start a Jane Austen-centred conversation with Scorpius when Professor McGonagall made us all quieten down so the first years could be bought in. Unlike when my parents were at school, it was now Professor Longbottom who bought the first years in and put the Sorting Hat on their head. It was sitting silently on a forlorn wooden three-legged stool at the front, ready to be unleashed upon us.
The oak doors into the Great Hall opened and everybody's heads turned as the timid little first years filed in, led by the extremely caring Professor Longbottom, who carried a piece of parchment in his hands.
Just as they did this, Al started to kick me under the table, but when I looked up, he pretended he wasn't doing anything. Little toad-brain.
"Al, stop it!" I hissed.
"What?" he whispered back innocently.
"Kicking me!" I replied in annoyance as he did it again.
"I'm not kicking you!" he persisted. He was definitely a toad-brain now, even if he was supposed to be my best friend.
"Al, stop it, or I will beat you with my broomstick," Scorpius said in a mock-serious voice. I was too delighted to even care when I flung my arms around him in a manner too flirtatious for me usually – just as that annoying little first year from earlier walked past.
"See, I told you they were married!" she said in a very carrying-whisper. I flushed beetroot and everybody looked at Scorpius and me in incredulity.
"Did she just say we were married?" he asked in astonishment.
"Completely off her rocker," I tried to excuse it, but I was actually wishing inside for the ground to swallow me up – the only good thing was that Scorpius seemed to be talking to me more, ever since I put on that sexy deep voice.
"Rose?" Al asked.
"What?"
"Have you got a cold? Your voice sounds really funny."