Again, sorry for the wait. I've been really busy lately. Unfortunately, this chapter isn't as long as the past few have been, and it's the closest I've ever gotten to a filler chapter, so I'm sorry about that. I'm already working on the next chapter, though, and I promise I'll try to make it better! And I'll update really soon, and all that . . .
Review! Tell me what you think, even if it's to get mad at me for coming up with this measly chapter after claiming to update every couple of days. I'm really afraid this is horrible, although I hope it isn't.
I'll stop rambling now.
Disclaimer: This world and these characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The only thing I own is the plot.
Al leaned against the tree's trunk, watching as the others woke up. "Teddy contacted me while you lot were asleep," he told them idly, fingering his coin.
Rose sat up straight. It was almost comical – her blue eyes were extremely wide, her robes were filthy, and she had a large leaf sticking out of her hair, which truly resembled a bird's nest. "What did he say?" she demanded.
"They've figured out where we are, but have no idea how to get here. The magical barrier the Riddlers put up won't let them Apparate in, and we can't Disapparate out."
Alice slammed her forehead against the tree trunk. "It's been two days," she moaned. "Two days in this bloody forest, eating moss and those weird fish."
"It's not moss," Al snapped, sounding irritated. "Honestly. Is it my fault food is one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration?" He was tired, having lost several hours of sleep (it was his turn on watch).
"Well, if you could –"
"Shut up," interrupted Scorpius. He was frowning; he appeared to be thinking hard about something. "Alice, do you remember what Cecy Pryce said that first time we met her?"
"A load of rubbish," said Alice irritably. "I remember she was going on and on about how she made the Ravenclaw Quidditch team –"
"Quidditch!" Al said suddenly. He looked mournfully at the sky. "Gryffindor has a match coming up, and James is missing half his team!"
A sane person would have said something like, "We've nearly died several times in the last few days and you're worried about Quidditch?" Scorpius, however, appeared to be severely perturbed by this thought.
"You didn't think of that until now?" Alice snorted. "I've been worried about it ever since Al mentioned it when we stole our wands back."
"How did you do that, anyway?" Rose asked curiously.
"We used that somersault maneuver you, James, and Del taught us in our last practice," Alice answered.
"There was a man holding our wands," Al explained, "so we vaulted over the couch we were hiding behind and stole them. I borrowed an idea from Scorpius, actually." He grinned. "I bit him."
"Mate," said Scorpius in surprise, looking oddly touched. He was grinning like an idiot.
They all took a moment to appreciate that before Rose prompted, "Scorpius? You had an idea?"
"Right," he agreed. "When we first met Cecy, she said she was related to Dangerous Dai, and that all of her family had a career in Quidditch except for one uncle who works with –"
"Portkeys!" Alice realized. "Scorpius, that's brilliant!"
Rose and Al locked glances before turning to Scorpius accusingly. "You're going to have them break into the Ministry?" Al asked. "Without us?"
"There are always other times, mate," Scorpius comforted him.
This didn't seem to appease Al. "What's she going to do?" Rose demanded. "Obliviate her aunt? We're in this mess because we've broken the law way too many times to involve the Ministry cleanly."
"Exactly." Alice nodded emphatically. "So what's a few more times?"
"Alice!" Rose exclaimed, aghast. "You yelled at me yesterday when I wanted to obliviate the Riddlers into thinking they're Muggles." Could they imagine the irony? It would have been hilarious! The Riddlers thought they were delivering justice? It would be justice at its finest!
"We're in this mess," Alice said, "because the last memory charms Legacy performed were traceable."
"We're older now," Rose argued. "It would be so much easier –"
"You can tell when a person's memory has been tampered with," Scorpius objected flatly. "And they are unreliable. How many people do you know who can perform a long-term memory charm without having somebody catch the evidence?"
"Gilderoy Lockhart," chorused Al and Rose.
"You're impossible," sighed Scorpius, tracing a pattern in the dirt.
"You're insufferable," Rose retorted immediately.
His head snapped up. "You're incorrigible –"
"Let's not do this again," snapped Alice. Rose and Scorpius ignored her, exchanging grins.
"Oh, bloody hell, mate," Al muttered under his breath. "I thought that punch to the jaw would've done it. It's too late to save you, isn't it? You're too far gone." He looked mournful.
Alice had narrowed her eyes at Rose. We're going to have words later, she seemed to be saying. Rose looked slightly sick at the thought.
"Let's just contact the others, shall we?"
"I have identified the potion as a sleeping draught, Mr. Scamander." Madam Pomfrey sounded deeply suspicious. Lorcan didn't blame her. "It will take one week for me to acquire the antidote."
Lorcan considered acting surprised for a moment before deciding against it. Slytherins didn't like to let on that they hadn't seen something coming – it was a matter of pride. When Lorcan was silent, Madam Pomfrey continued, "I find it difficult to believe that such talented students as these four managed to mess up a potion so badly that they put themselves into comas."
"A lot of potions were spilled in that fall," Lorcan pointed out. "Just mixing them was bound to cause problems, not to mention the fact that some of them may have been improperly brewed. Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing what affected them for sure."
Madam Pomfrey looked unimpressed by his logic. "I am not going to ask what caused this 'accident,' seeing as you've already stressed several times that you 'don't know' and 'only caught them fainting.' However, you're lucky that the potions' effects were not more severe."
"Quite lucky," agreed Lorcan smoothly.
Madam Pomfrey was studying him. "Very well," she said at last, almost reluctantly, as if she wished she'd found a way to blame him for the accident. "You're free to go."
"Thank you." He offered her a charming smile and briskly left the common room. He was sure she suspected that he had something to do with this.
If she only knew.
James was utterly confused when he received an urgent message from Teddy demanding to speak with his girlfriend immediately. He retrieved her from the Quidditch pitch anyway. (Ravenclaw was not having a good practice. Serena Collins was visiting her boyfriend in the hospital wing, and now Cecy Pryce was going off with James Potter – what for, only Merlin knew. James was briefly disturbed by the fact that both he and his little brother were going out with girls on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. He resolved to kill Lily if she ever got old enough to date a former Ravenclaw Quidditch boy; obviously he wouldn't have to worry about that for at least . . . how old was she, thirteen? . . . twenty years or so).
To James's surprise, it wasn't Teddy who snuck into the Gryffindor common room, but Lucy and her mates. "Dylan and Holly are back, so this'll be brilliant" was the first thing she said as they entered.
"What are you talking about?" Cecy demanded, and then they dissolved into conspiratorial whispers and evil grins.
"Yes, my uncle's the only one in the family who hasn't got a career in Quidditch, so he's a bit of an anomaly . . . yeah, that means I've seen his office loads of times; I know exactly how to get in . . . it'll be highly illegal . . . say, have we got that stock of powerful sleeping draught?"
"You're going to break into the Ministry," James said flatly.
"James Sirius Potter," drawled Lucy, slinging her arm around Will, "everyone of Legacy has got to do it once. It's only a matter of time before you have performed this excellent rite of passage yourself."
James arched an eyebrow. "Fine," he said, "but if you ever think about doing something like this again – breaking into the ministry without me, the nerve! – I'll honestly murder you. In fact, I'll set Sir Cadogan on you."
"Noted," Holly told him cheerfully. She clapped her hands together. "So, Cecy, meet us tonight and we'll plan properly, yeah?"
"I'll see you later," Cecy answered with a grin.
Hugo groaned and stirred, opening his eyes slightly.
"You're awake, I see. You were unconscious for two hours." Madam Pomfrey tutted disapprovingly. "You Quidditch players are always ending up in here, and it seems to happen to your family the most."
Hugo noticed the words Dom Weasley was here etched into the side of his cot and grinned inwardly.
"You'll have to stay here overnight, I'm afraid," continued Madam Pomfrey. "I can't understand how you managed to injure yourself so badly. You'd almost have to try."
Not almost. What could he say? Del Pryce had a way with a Beater's bat – he was convinced she was playing the wrong position. She'd obviously missed her calling.
Madam Pomfrey turned around to pour Hugo a goblet of something no doubt tasting of thestral intestines, and he took the opportunity to feel around in his pocket. He breathed a sigh of relief as Madam Pomfrey turned around again.
"Drink this," she ordered.
Grimacing, Hugo tossed the contents of the goblet back and thrust the cup at Madam Pomfrey, coughing madly. He was wrong – it didn't taste like thestral intestines; it tasted worse. He supposed. He'd never eaten a thestral, had he? For one, his mum would murder him, and for another, he wasn't a hippogriff.
"Hmm," Madam Pomfrey mused. "You're not nearly as whiny as your sister. The first time she drank that, she spit it out and cursed every famous wizard ever born in the last century."
Hugo grinned, but it quickly disappeared when he remembered where Rose was. Not that he knew exactly where she was, but still, he needed his sister – who else would Hugo blame when something went wrong at home if not Rose?
Madam Pomfrey left him to his own devices, expecting that he would need sleep. The potion she'd given him would make him slightly drowsy. She had missed, however, the satisfied smile that had stretched its way across Hugo's face as he turned to the left and surveyed the four people on the cots beside him. He had been placed right beside the four imposters.
And he had a flask full of Polyjuice in his pocket.
Rose was running as fast as she could - which, luckily for her, was really quite fast. Alice hadn't had as much luck and had scaled a tree several minutes ago so she could engage in a duel from a higher vantage point.
"Bloody hell," she growled, gritting her teeth as a branch slapped into her face.
"STUPEFY!"
"INCARCEROUS!"
"REDUCTO!"
Rose dodged two of the spells and deflected the third, skidding to a stop as four of the Riddlers appeared in front of her, grinning nastily. She had time to back up a few steps and duck behind a tree before the first spells hit. "Protego," she yelled, throwing her arm over her face as a spell shot by her ear. This was a bad place to duel. She needed to get out.
She risked a peek around the side of the trunk, only to pull back quickly as three simultaneous spells were aimed at her. One of them grazed her cheek, splitting a gash across her cheekbone. There was only one witch on the other side. Taking a deep breath, Rose closed her eyes, flung herself to the right, and shouted "Impedimenta!" as she dropped to the ground and rolled, coming up on her feet behind another tree.
Thank Quidditch. Her reflexes were sharp, and she knew how to move - and her mum couldn't see the use of the game.
The impediment jinx had worked, but now the other three Riddlers were running forward. Rose dashed off in the opposite direction, running blindly and throwing curses over her shoulder, swerving to avoid counterattacks. As exhilarating as dueling was, she really wished she could stop; she was far too experienced in fighting for someone her age. If her parents knew how good she was at this . . .
"Confringo!" Alice screamed suddenly, and the spell went over Rose's head and hit a branch, causing it to explode. A particularly large piece hit one of the Riddlers in the face, effectively knocking him out. Rose used the distraction to send a stunning spell at one of the cowering Riddlers, and the Riddler was promptly knocked unconscious.
Alice dropped to the ground and yelled, "Expelliarmus!" She remembered Al using it to blast a person off their feet. It didn't work the way she had hoped, but Rose snatched the Riddler's wand out of the air and finished the Riddler off with a full-body bind.
"Thank Merlin," Alice breathed, glancing at Rose. "How do you think the boys are faring?"
Al and Scorpius had gone out for food. "I don't know," Rose shrugged, "but they can handle themselves. Besides, the majority of the Riddlers were here - only three didn't show up to duel us. They can handle three people."
"Yeah," Alice agreed as they tied the Riddlers up, leaving them slumped at the base of a tree. When they were away from the cite of the fight, perched comfortably in trees, Alice turned to Rose again. "So how long have you fancied Scorpius?"
Rose froze. "I don't," she said unconvincingly. "I can't. Oh, Merlin's pointy boots, no."
"They call this denial," Alice lectured. "The first step to getting past it is admitting you have a problem."
Rose cast her a scathing look. "I'm not an addict, Alice. Shut up and snap me out of it."
"Hmm." Alice gave her a considering look before seeming to decide on something. She brought her hand back and delivered a solid punch to Rose's jaw. "There. Does it hurt to talk?"
"Yes!" Rose glared at her furiously.
"Good. Just a reminder. Now, tell me why you feel this way about Mr. Malfoy."
Rose wondered if Alice was crazy. She was not a therapist, and if she was, she wouldn't make a very good one. "Well . . . you know," she said awkwardly. "Um. He's really good at insulting me."
Alice frowned. "That doesn't seem to be a very strong basis for a relationship, Miss Weasley."
Rose choked. "I never said anything about - you - argh!"
Alice looked at her patiently. "When did you discover your feelings for Mr. Malfoy?"
"Ah . . . when he yelled at me the other day."
"When he yelled at you," Alice repeated. "This doesn't seem to be a healthy relationship, Miss Weasley, and the involvement of romance in it would only serve to be harmful. I suggest you get over your feelings. That'll be five galleons for the advice, please."
Rose was scandalized. "Fat lot of use you are!" She returned the punch Alice had given her, and they began to scuffle. Five minutes later, they were sporting matching bruised jaws and an assortment of various other bruises. Alice's left eye wouldn't stop twitching.
"Seriously," Rose said. "How am I supposed to pretend I don't want to run my fingers through his adorably messy hair?"
"Oh, it's 'adorably messy,' is it?" Alice inquired. "But Al's hair, which is just the same, 'looks like a Cornish pixie nested in it?'"
"Er . . ."
"It's possible to be best mates with a ridiculously good-looking guy, you know," Alice informed her. "I'm not developing any strange feelings for Al, am I?"
"No, but you hate everyone, including boys. And it's not his looks, Alice, although they don't hurt. He just does stuff."
"He does stuff," repeated Alice. "How fascinating."
"You know what I mean! Do you remember that one time I was on the potions Madam Pomfrey gave me after I was injured in that Quidditch game against Slytherin, and I was acting like a nutter and got a spell completely wrong? And Boris Morris was giving me snarky tips on magic and talking about how somehow should help me, because it wasn't my fault I was stupid, and she'd offer to help but she was going to attempt a harder spell, and Scorpius said, 'How do you plan to do it, considering you're a Squib?' Or how about the time I was in a horrible mood because of O.W.L.s, and I kept snapping at everyone and nobody could find an answer to my increasingly sarcastic commentary until Scorpius came around, I insulted him, and he snapped right back? And I was sort of just shocked before we both started laughing, and the rest of you thought we were mad?"
Alice gave her a look. "What would Scorpius say if it were another guy, Rose?"
Rose grinned. "'Where's your Gryffindor courage?'"
"Exactly."
Al and Scorpius appeared out of the trees right at that moment, and Rose slumped down, her grin vanishing.
Her courage was at home with her sanity.