A/N: I was going to update this tomorrow, but I'm not leaving my sleeping bag for the next ten hours and therefore have ample time tonight. It's -50 degrees outside here with wind chill. SO COLD. I'm venting here instead of Facebook because that's where everyone else is complaining. Ha. Enjoy this rather large chapter!
ACT II - CHIAROSCURO
(Fifth Year)
The summer before fifth year Rose finally grew. She could now reach the drinking glasses on the upper shelves in the kitchen at home (she was on tiptoes . . . but it was an improvement!). Right then she knew it was going to be the best year ever. She was surely taller than Pippa by now and couldn't wait to lord it over her.
Once again Pippa couldn't spend time with Aziza and Rose during the summer. Even though they sent letters imploring her to come, there was nothing they could do when she didn't respond.
With such a firm denial once again, they began to realise they knew almost nothing about Pippa's life. She mentioned a sister once, and a mother. But they didn't even know if she had any other siblings, or a father. Did she live at home? Was she allergic to Floo or hated apparating? Where did she go on vacation? Why didn't she send letters from the countries she visited?
Even with those questions darkening their minds, they decided to do a fun summer project.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde was the Rose's favourite play at the moment. She read it once in First or Second Year and decided to reread it at the beginning of summer as soon as she got home. This time, she understood way more of the context and could appreciate the humour and satire it contained. Rose thought so much about it in the first month of summer, acted out so many of the lines to her toads and to Hugo, that she decided she wanted to see a live performance. However, it wasn't being shown anywhere near her in the theatre.
Therefore, Aziza and Rose decided to put on a show themselves. They wrote furiously back and forth for a few weeks, discussing how it would all work.
Rose would do the casting (the Potters and her brother would do just nicely), she would write a script for them to read from, and direct the play. Aziza was in charge of costumes, set design, and invitations for everyone to come. Rose's mum took them to a thrift store and they bought different outfits for everyone. The costumes weren't quite Victorian, but they were as close as they could find. Some very old green bridesmaid dresses would suffice for the ladies, and wool vests and yellow top hats for the gentlemen.
Josef had come to the Potters house for a few weeks while his folks were away on a honeymoon. Rose took advantage of that to cast Josef and Al for the lead characters, Jack and Algernon respectively. Aziza was cast as Gwendolen, Lily was Cecily, and Rose was going to play the minor characters, the Canon Chasuble, Lane, and the Butler. They managed to get James into a dress to be Lady Bracknell and Hugo agreed to play the nursemaid, Miss Prism, since he only had to wear a black sheet with a head hole cut out.
It turned out to be far more work than either of the two girls anticipated, getting everyone together and trying to practice. As it was, they only managed thrice before the final performance.
Their audience was their whole family; their cousins: Victoire with her boyfriend Teddy, the twins, Dominique and Louis, and Fred and Roxanne, and Molly and Lucy (all the older cousins who were already done Hogwarts); their aunts and uncles: Charlie, Bill, Fleur, George, Angelina, Ginny, Harry; her parents: Ron and Hermione; and her grandparents from both sides of her family. The audience was dominated by Weasleys but Aziza's parents and grandparents also came for the big performance.
Even with a script and having practiced a few times beforehand, they didn't quite start out 'by the book.'
First of all, the set fell off the tree when not even the first line was uttered. And then Aziza accidentally ran into a branch while trying to crawl underneath the tree to fix it and it took ten minutes to get her hair unstuck.
While that was happening, Lily and James fashioned swords from two branches and insisted on carrying them on a belt around their dresses. Swords weren't part of the play! They hadn't even practiced with them for the dress rehearsal! Halfway through the second act, they started saying lines with a pirate lilt instead of the elegant Victorian prose everyone else was using.
Then they started sword fighting backstage between scenes and it carried over onstage as well. None of the rest of them really knew what to do as they acted out their lines with a sword in their face, or poking in their back.
Hugo, even though he promised he wouldn't, had toads and salamanders falling out from under his sheet and out of pockets. He tried to take his role seriously, but he turned out to be the creepiest nursemaid in existence.
Al and Josef were wonderfully in character and actually managed to memorise a few of their lines; Rose was so worried about everyone following the script and entering the stage on time she missed a few of her own entrances; Aziza got stage fright and nobody could hear her say anything.
For Rose's first play, it turned out way different than she imagined.
The play took an unexpected turn at the start of Act IV when Lily and James started killing everyone with their swords. The actors and actresses couldn't do anything but 'die' and wonder what the heck was happening. Rose was having panic attacks as she bled to death on the ground.
The ludicrous comedy soon turned out to be a tragedy. In the grand faceoff between the only two characters left, Cecily and the Lady Bracknell, they both were mortally wounded in the dramatic swordfight and perished.
Even though it didn't turn out like it was supposed to, they received a standing ovation. Rose had never felt so stressed and happy.
Her mum kissed her and Hugo on the forehead afterwards and produced some flowers with her wand. "You two were wonderful! I have such brilliant children."
Rose accepted the praise from her family and as soon as everyone left, she went inside, laid on the couch, and fell asleep instantly.
It was early in Fifth year, when Scorpius finally figured out the truth of why Rose owned toads.
It was one of the mornings where Rose got up earlier than normal and let her toads continue to sleep on her bed. She usually met up with Aziza and Pippa in the Great Hall for breakfast, but they certainly wouldn't be up yet. Instead of waiting down there for hours, she raided a broom closet for chalk and went to an empty classroom to draw on the board, or write, actually. She sucked at drawing.
The room was empty and her footsteps echoed as she made her way down the stone stairs, past all the desks and chairs, to the bottom. It was a large room and Rose felt the quiet permeate around her. Eventually she got comfortable and settled in.
She wrote out her signature numerous times, flourishing the R and the W in her name and changing the style each time she wrote it. She wrote with her opposite hand for fun, wrote in bubble letters, thin letters, drew stick cats, blue whales, and mosquitoes. She erased the board quite a few times in the hour she was there for it filled up fast with her doodles.
Eventually she progressed to writing lines of her plays upside down. And then her name upside down. She realised the W looked like an M. . . and then she wrote once, in very very tiny letters Rose Malfoy before she aggressively scribbled it out and then whited out the whole board with the chalk to cover her foolishness and fancies. After erasing, she started flipping through her books for some of her favourite quotes.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility.
You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
"But not with James or Lily on board," thought Rose. "They'll just kill all!" She drew stick figures sword fighting beside that quote.
She was just starting to write one of the Shakespearen quotes when out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something black moving on the ground.
Time slowed down around her.
Her hand let go of the chalk and it dropped to the ground in a languid fashion, almost as if it were moving frame by frame in a stop motion production. As soon as it hit the ground, it cracked into hundreds of pieces; they skidded off the floor in high definition to Rose, she could see each and every piece as they spun, twisted, and flipped away from the impact.
Her breath escaped her as she plunged her hands in her pockets to grab Matilda and Guacamole – but they weren't with her – they were in her dorm. She gave a small cry.
The spider was ginormous. As big as her hand, as least, and it's hundreds of beady eyes stared straight at her. It crawled forward closer, the black hairs on its legs so defined, its ligaments bending so carefully in its advance.
She fell backwards onto the floor and managed to push herself away, her eyes stuck on the spider. She couldn't think of what to do; she had no defenses against such a beast.
Her legs weren't working when she tried to stand back up and she could do no more than crawl. The spider got closer and closer.
Her back hit one of the desks behind her just as the spider was only a few feet away. She was crying now; sobbing because she was so powerless and so afraid. Somehow she pulled herself up and found herself curled up on the desk, unable to move anywhere else.
Rose was completely blind to her surroundings. She didn't see Scorpius peer into the classroom when he heard crying. She didn't see him come racing in to her hunched and quivering figure; he was standing right before her and all she saw was the spider steadily getting closer to her.
He noticed where her gaze was centered and stepped on the spider, squashing it flat to the ground with his foot.
Rose was still in hysterics and wasn't moving, so Scorpius picked her up, one hand under her knees and the other around her back. She barely noticed the contact she was too lost in her fear. He carried her to the very back of the classroom, setting her on the desktop to face him. She tumbled forward and had her head in the crook of his neck and holding onto the collar of his shirt as she cried.
Something warm climbed into her lap and Rigel was there, kneading his claws into Rose's legs and the pain helped her focus. She gradually calmed down and felt Scorpius patting her back awkwardly.
She suddenly pulled away from him and rubbed her eyes. Rigel was lifted off her lap so her leg wouldn't get any more shredded.
She was so humiliated.
"Are you okay. . . ?" asked Scorpius. He sat on the back of a chair, looking intently at Rose with his hands balled up on his knees.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," whispered Rose. "Usually I don't panic as much. I was just unprepared."
"You were pretty out of it," he said. " – it was the spider that was scaring you?"
Rose nodded and tried to go for some humour to lighten the mood. "That thing was huge. I'm surprised you managed to stomp on it. I thought it would fight back or something."
Scorpius slowly nodded his head. "He did fight a noble fight, but I managed to vanquish him in the end."
Rose gave a teary laugh and rubbed her eyes again, trying to get rid of all the evidence of her breakdown. She was sure her eyes would be red for most of the day.
"If this happens with all spiders you see, how have you managed to keep it a secret from the school because this is the first I've heard of it? You'd think there'd be some rumour, or more people would – ooooooh. Do toads eat spiders?" he asked, his dimple becoming pronounced and his eyes lighting up.
Rose smiled, seeing his dimple made her happy for some reason. "Toads love spiders. I thought they were doing a good job of keeping the spider population down. I foolishly left Guacamole and Matilda in my dorm this morning."
"Luckily I was here for the rescue!" he said before he became bashful. "I'm sorry I've teased you, in the past. It makes sense and it was stupid of me not to think you'd have a rational explanation."
Rose shrugged. "Toads are pretty great pets regardless. And please don't tell anyone!"
She got up off the desk and stepped away from Scorpius. Together they walked back down to the chalkboard where her bookbag was, Scorpius making sure the area was clear of spiders.
While Rose's red eyes gradually faded, they both stayed, doodling and drawing on the board. She felt much better now and was able to laugh easily at him and his jokes. But there was still a smidge of fear in her. "Please don't go spilling it to Nolan. Or Josef. Or anybody."
Scorpius promised he wouldn't. They left for the Great Hall together to get breakfast. He let her go in first and then came in a few minutes later so it wouldn't look like they were just together.
"Doesn't it bug you guys. . . " Rose said.
"What?"
"That Scorpius is only friends with us in secret. I mean, would it really be that big of a deal if the school knew that he sometimes hung out with us?"
"Maybe for him," said Aziza. "I feel like he's lonely a lot of the time and doesn't really know what to do or how to act. . . It must be somewhat of a burden having his last name and the expectations that come with it while at the same time trying make his own name for himself. . . "
"Well, you - " started Pippa but Aziza shushed her and kept explaining to Rose.
"I mean we don't exactly have friends or connection in the popular group, nor are we popular at all and I think he associates popularity with happiness and being liked. Because then more people would look to him as a person and he could shape their perceptions more. . . He'll figure out where he stands eventually. And even though he nags and complains, I know he does like hanging out and doing homework with us. Also, maybe his father is pressuring him somewhat. Think of his boggart."
"Stop being so sensible," moaned Pippa. "He's a snake. Through and through. Only occasionally entertaining."
"Just like you?" teased Rose. She would have to really think on Aziza's response.
"Oh shut up."
"Guess what?" Aziza said in Defence Against the Dark Arts. They were being lectured on the Unforgivable Curses, which was a very interesting topic. . . if the Professor hadn't already talked about it the year previously. They were sitting at the back of the classroom. Technically it was only the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors that shared the class, but Pippa had a spare (or was skipping - who knew) and so sat in with them.
Like usual Aziza's page was filled with doodles all around the margins with only a few relevant notes, Rose had The Comedy of Errors open under her desk as she flipped through the pages, and Pippa had her feet on the desk and was rocking back and forth on the chair, watching Professor Alicant's glares at her every time the chair squeaked and grinning a vindictive smile.
"Just a sec, just a sec," muttered Rose. She was enraptured by the play and needed to finish the scene.
Creak creak went the chair. A glare came their way
When Rose finally finished she looked up at Aziza expectantly.
She turned away from her doodles and tapped her quill on the table, not looking at either of them. "I'm a vegetarian now. Since summer"
Pippa frowned. She started putting her brown hair up in a bun on the top of her head. "I just saw you eat bacon yesterday!" she said accusingly. Rose thought back the past few weeks, but she couldn't recall Aziza's eating habits.
"No. I passed the bacon to you. I didn't eat any though," Aziza said quietly.
Creak creak.
"Holy Medusa. You didn't eat bacon? What's wrong with you?"
Rose hit Pippa on the arm and whispered, "there's nothing wrong with becoming a vegetarian! What do you think that means?"
"Well I know it's giving up meat. But how can you give up bacon? That's like the Supreme Most Delicious Top of the World in the Food Kingdom."
"It actually wasn't that hard. There's other food just as good as bacon out there."
Creak creak. The professor gave a loud huff of indignation in their direction.
Pippa looked skeptical. "It'll take more than that to convince me."
"I also made the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Keeper," Aziza said with a twinkle in her brown eyes as she finally looked up at her friends.
Creak creak, SMASH.
Pippa pushed too far back and the chair tipped over. "You tried out for Quidditch?" she exclaimed loudly from the floor. All heads in the classroom turned to the back.
"That's it!" shrieked the Professor. "Out, out, OUT! All three of you!" She stormed up the aisle to them and banished them from the class. They quickly shoved their notes, books, and quills in their bag and ran out of the classroom.
"Wentworth isn't even in this class," they heard a Gryffindor girl say behind them.
Pippa was giggling. "Ah, Professor Alicant cracks me up. Let's go outside! I've got some new braids I want to try in your hair."
"At least we've already heard the lecture. . . " Rose said. Aziza and Rose exchanged looks. It was OWLS year. She didn't want to get kicked out of class in only the first month of school. She really didn't want to have detentions dominating her life either. The problem was that those ideas were only thoughts. Rose didn't know how to voice them to Pippa because she probably wouldn't take it very well.
"I guess we'll head out," said Aziza reluctantly. She then perked up. "I can also show you the broom I'm using. It's in the storage shed at the Quidditch pitch.
"Ugh. Medusa. Quidditch? It's such a drag. And now you'll be gone most of the time for practices and you'll be all 'buddy-buddy' with your team. Were tryouts that day you didn't meet us for breakfast?"
"Yes they were." Aziza kicked some student's broken quill down the corridor, watching it tumble around and around as they made their way through the castle. "I'll still be around. There's not that many practices. And Pippa, you two will always be my best friends. No matter what.
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled in reply. There was a scowl on her face Aziza didn't like.
"There's also a few games. And won't you guys come watch some of them? I know we've never gone to one before. . . I'm really nervous."
"Of course we will!" said Rose. "It's about time we did something school spirit related besides lose points for our Houses."
Pippa grunted. The two girls didn't ask if that was an agreement or a denial.
A pea hit Pippa on her face. She turned her head slowly and glared at James.
Another one came.
"Excuse me," she said. "Are you throwing peas at me?"
She blinked as one hit her eye. Another one got stuck in her hair.
"Don't be absurd," James chastised. He waited until she looked back down on her plate before he sent another pea.
"POTTER!" she roared and lifted her whole plate and chucked the soggy mess at him. Potatoes with gravy dripped down his face and he stared at her with owl eyes.
"Alright. You don't like peas, duly noted!"
It was midnight and Rose couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned and then tossed some more. Finally having enough of it, she kicked off all her blankets and walked down to the Gryffindor Common Room to sit before the fireplace. There were fuzzy red blankets hanging on the back of the couch that she pulled down to drape over herself.
Only a few stragglers were awake playing chess at one of the tables, but they left Rose well enough alone. It was rare she stayed in her Common Room and therefore didn't really know many students of her House very well.
She knew some people thought she shouldn't be Gryffindor. And Rose sometimes seriously wondered that herself. She didn't get along with the other Gryffindors – besides her cousins and brother and they didn't count.
What was it that made her a Gryffindor? She wasn't really afraid to tell off anybody – but that wasn't necessarily a characteristic of being 'brave,' and brave was apparently one of the characteristics of her House. She was best friends with a Slytherin and Hufflepuff and not really loyal to her House. Heck, now that Aziza was in Quidditch, she would go to the Hufflepuff games and cheer her on! Why had she never gone to Gryffindor games or cheered for them? Both Lily and James were on the team!
If Aziza and Pippa weren't in different Houses themselves, Rose knew she would have started to resent being in Gryffindor all alone.
When she met the other girls of Gryffindor the first time, they were guarded against her. They didn't know how to act around her and ended up calling her names and excluding her from everything they did because she was different from them. There were a bunch of things that weren't exactly 'normal' about her, like the fact that she had toads as pets, which they considered an anti-Gryffindor trait for some reason. She hardened herself to their reception, but it wasn't easy to take classes or share a dorm with them. There were four other girls in Gryffindor. They didn't even give her a chance now to try to be friends. They seemed to regard her as a huge traitor because she found friends in the other Houses. It would have been a lose-lose situation for her either way.
Rose knew she had been rather weird back in first year and probably a lot to take in for new students. She sometimes talked to her toads, she carried around obscure muggle playwrights, and she said the weirdest things – like who would ever say the words 'motley-minded coxomb lout!"
Come to think of it, Rose didn't know if she would be friends with her first year self given the chance.
She really thought about that for a minute before dismissing it. Anybody who was as obsessed with J. M Barrie's works at that age would be good in her books. And anybody who had toads – well they would be best friends for sure.
And she wouldn't trade Pippa or Aziza for all the Gryffindor girls in the world.
Her vocabulary and colourful language was just a quirky trait about her that she liked playing with once in awhile. She hadn't really voiced any of her Shakespearean insults recently. She had a page filled with them – probably at the bottom of her trunk now – that as she had read through the plays she would write down the memorable or funny ones.
After following that little bunny trail, she returned to her main discontent: being in the Gryffindor Common Room. Somewhere in the past few years, the Slytherin Common Room became more comfortable to her. All this red and gold was too red and gold. And even though there was a beautiful view of the sky and grounds from the windows here, it didn't quite compare to seeing underwater in a lake. She saw a mermaid once, and nothing couple rival that! She told her dad when that happened and then had such a fun time bringing it up because he always went red and stuttered for hours afterwards, horrified at the thought. It wouldn't take long before he would leave for the Potters to vent at her Uncle.
Maybe she should have just been in Slytherin? Or maybe she should try to make a little more effort to be in this Common Room and interact with some of her House.
That was a lovely thought but not quite so easy to put into practice. . .
She was just about asleep on the couch when suddenly, from out of nowhere, appeared Lily. Rose blinked in shock and brought up her hands to – to what? This was Lily, not some attacker. And she was holding the invisibility cloak in her hand.
She smiled at Rose's fickle defense and sat down by her. "Can't sleep either?"
Little Lily who was just personified everything Rose wished she could be pulled Rose's blankets up and crawled under them to snuggle close to Rose. Lily had similar red-orange hair to Rose that wasn't as obnoxiously bushy and was a lot shorter. Even though her older brother had red hair too, they seemed to miss out on the memo that they needed astronomical amounts of freckles to accompany the colour. Lily just had a few light freckles across her cheeks and nose, and two in her green eyes. The rest of her body was spotless.
Rose was all freckles and angles; she still had bony elbows and knees, covered with freckles, and her face was the same. She had finally managed to grow taller, but she didn't look very proportional yet. Lily was small, filled out a bit more, and wasn't so angular. She looked healthy and cheery all the time. Not to mention she wasn't a social outcast like her.
Rose sighed loudly and hoped she could eventually be comfortable with herself. She was who she was and couldn't change that. She hated having negative thoughts.
"Sleep is eluding me," replied Rose. Lily nodded and put her head on Rose's shoulder. It made Rose wonder how much Lily wished she actually acted like a Gryffindor and was around more often. They were the only two girls in their family in Hogwarts at the moment and with Rose gone all the time to the Slytherin Common Room, Lily was by herself. Rose put her head on top of Lily's.
She could feel the vibrations from Lily's voice as she talked. "I was going to go sneak out to Hagrids for some tea, if you're interested. He said to come visit him sometime this weekend. Though he probably didn't mean this late. . . But I saw that the light in his hut was on and I was awake. If you don't want to come though, I might just skip out on that to stay here."
"Let's go in ten minutes or so. I'm warm and comfy and don't want to get up quite yet." The fire crackled loudly.
"Sounds good to me."
The invisibility cloak was bunched up on the couch beside Lily and Rose asked about it.
"James passed it down to me and Al. He said he'd had quite a bit of use with it and it was now our turn to have fun even though he still has a year left. Only this is the first time I've had it in forever. I don't know where Al goes, but he's using it all the time."
"Al doesn't seem to by the type to sneak out," pointed out Rose. She was so content just sitting there with Lily. Her eyes involuntarily closed.
"I know. . . and he won't tell me where he goes. I've been asking for the cloak the past two weeks and he said he couldn't hand it over quite yet. But I have it now, and am going to take full advantage of it!"
"Where do you go?"
Lily yawned and snuggled closer. "Sometimes the Quidditch pitch with my friends to fly on brooms. . . the Astronomy tower when there's no labs up there. It's usually whim of the moment."
"That sounds fun. . . It's nice to go incognito for awhile. . . " Rose said. And that's the last thing she remembered for she fell asleep. Lily pulled the blankets up higher over them both and snuggled closer before falling asleep as well.
"Rose, Aziza, Pipp -" Scorpius covered his mouth and his eyes bulged.
"Did Scorpius just squeak again!" laughed Pippa.
They all looked at him. He was a fifth year now and thought he was past that phase. He cleared his throat and pounded his chest a few times.
"No. . . No I didn't," he said in a very deep, uncharacteristic voice. "Can we do Herbology later tonight?"
His face turned red when the three girls fell over laughing and he turned his back to scurry away.
"We can do Herbology though! See you tonight!" called out Rose.
The second Hogsmeade trip of the year came up and Rose found herself traversing the distance alone. Pippa had her usual Saturday detention, but she was also banned from all Hogsmeade trips for the year already – in fact she had never been to the wizarding village, and the Hufflepuff Quidditch team was spending the morning practising at Hogwarts then going for lunch together at The Three Broomsticks. Rose had a free morning and was planning to meet Aziza at two.
She let her hair hang loose and put on her wide brimmed sun hat, soon setting off with a bag full of books. Her plan was to go to the candy shop to get some Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and sugar quills, then get some real quills and more parchment paper at the bookstore. It wouldn't actually take that long to do her errands, so she had a few hours to read some of the new books her mum sent her.
She left after eating two muffins for breakfast with Matilda and Guacamole resting in her pockets. She travelled the well-worn path over to the village, pulling out A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen as she tramped through the dead, brown grass.
That was a lie. The grass was only mostly dead. There were still a few green pieces intertwined in the earth. Winter was coming and nature was slowly changing colours from majestic greens to the rich oranges, yellows, reds, and browns.
Double checking to be sure she was all alone, Rose started reading out the lines, dramatizing the work in her head. She could picture the scene set out before her; imagining Nora fluttering about, Torvald speaking down at her, treating her no better than a squirrel.
She pulled the curtains in her mind. . . perhaps on a stage, one day. . .
It made for a very exciting trip to Hogsmeade.
She ran into Josef, Al, and Scorpius at her first stop in Honeydukes. The first thing she noticed was that Josef and Al were both wearing their prefect badges on puffed out chests.
Josef saw her first and he tugged on Al's shirt. "'Lo Rose," he said. He never was one for many words. She gave a smile at him.
"Oh you're here! I didn't think you'd come today," Al said. Squished up next to him in the packed shop Rose was surprised to see she was almost as tall as him. "You could have caught a carriage with us to avoid that tiresome walk. I think we're almost done here though. Scorpius is just paying."
Rose looked over to the counter to where Scorpius was talking candidly with the owner. He was easily visible as he stood a few heads taller than all of the students in the place. He looked over at them and grinned at seeing Rose.
"It's okay, I enjoyed the walk. I just have to pick up a few things before I meet Azzy after lunch. And I brought books to read." She knocked on her heavy shoulder bag to show him.
"Sounds heavy," commented Josef.
Rose shrugged. "It was heavy in first year. Now my shoulder has developed large callouses to dispel the pain."
The two boys looked absolutely grossed at her comment and Rose shook her head. "I'm kidding! . . . partly. Oh, here comes Scorpius."
Scorpius made his was over to them and lifted Rose's hat off her head to put it on his. "Shall we head out mates," he said to Al and Josef, giving Rose a cheeky dimple filled smile.
She put her hands on her hips and frowned at him, trying to keep her smile from slipping out. "That hat does not become you at all. It makes you look like a scarecrow."
"She's right," Al said. "Straw hats don't fit your complexion. You're too fair."
Scorpius sighed and plopped the hat back on Rose's head. "Nobody understands fashion these days."
"You poor misunderstood soul," Rose intoned. Al informed her they had to leave to make an appointment. She tipped her hat to Scorpius and waved at the other two as they left.
She was quick inside Honeydukes; buying Bertie Bott's, sugar quills, and splurging on salt water taffy. Instead of lunch a Double Berry Wizochoc Supreme Smoothie was bought at the small café next to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop where incidentally she needed to go next.
Quills, parchment paper, a pocket dictionary, and a bookmark that softly hummed some popular wizarding tunes when not in the pages of a book were added to her sagging shoulder bag.
Now she was ready to just sit and read until Aziza was done her Quidditch stuff. There was about two hours before that time arrived. Rose decided she would head by the Shrieking Shack to find a good tree to curl up under since the area contained many and it wasn't totally off the beaten path. Plus, it was close to The Three Broomsticks.
As she passed by the Hogs Head, she noticed Al and Josef sitting closely together. She debated going in to see them, but something held her back and her play was calling her name. Scorpius was also no longer with them.
By the time she was seated and reading on a pile of red and brown leaves, there was no need for a sunhat even though she left it on. The rest of the day looked cloudy with no chance for the sun to return. She curled her legs up under and got back into the lives of Nora and Torvald. Her bookmark was humming in the background and Rose was lost in the literature.
She was so focused that she didn't hear when someone started walking up the path, and approached her.
The crunching of leaves entered her ears too late. Just as she looked up, her book was torn from her hands.
She scrambled upwards to face Nolan. "Give my book back!"
"Oi! Lads! Look who I found," Nolan shouted out behind him. Rose could make out four figures coming closer. One of them had blonde hair.
"This isn't funny," Rose said with clenched teeth. "Give. My. Book. Back."
Nolan faced her and held it over her head. "What are you going to do toad-girl? Jump for it?" And while Rose would have been able to reach for it if she jumped, she had too much dignity to take such an action. She didn't want him to have the upper hand.
"What's your problem you ignoramus prat? Can't face me on your own so you need your goons to back you up?" Nolan lowered the book but still held it out of reach. His friends were getting closer and Rose felt surrounded. Rarely did other students venture up the path. She felt around her pockets for her wand and then realised with cold dread that she had left it at the school. At least her toads were not with her at the moment.
As soon as he could see it was her, Scorpius avoided her eyes and turned to argue furiously with one of the boys near him. Whatever they were arguing about, Scorpius looked horribly displeased, and sick, for his face turned pale. His steps got slower and slower until they came to a stop beside Nolan.
"We should all – " he started to say as he turned around, but Nolan cut him off and one of his friends grabbed his arm to pull him back.
"You're going nowhere Malfoy. Stop holding everyone back. You're right where you belong," he sneered. "It's time for Weasley to learn a very important lesson. Just because she knows big words and insults doesn't mean she's smart. She came to read all alone. Now how was that a good idea?"
"Stop being such a fat-toed haggard! You're sick." She took a few steps towards him, but someone grabbed her arm like an iron vise and held her in her place. She pulled Nolan's friends stupid finger back until he yelped and let go.
His friends started encouraging Nolan on. He ran a hand through his white blonde coloured hair and practically preened with all the attention he was receiving. He stepped back just out of reach and held her book up high in front of him, opened it, and tore a page out with a loud rip.
Rose's hand flew to her mouth and her heart pounded against her ribcage. The page fluttered to the ground slowly in front of her. All she could see was the line:
It's happening. It's happening after all. No, no, no, it can't happen, it mustn't happen.
It was happening. She couldn't believe it, yet there was the ripped page. She kept looking from the page to Nolan and back again. She would rather take a punch to the face than have her book desecrated in front of her.
Another tearing sound and a second page joined the first. Rose stood there in shock. She looked up at all Nolan's friends, and they were laughing and slapping him on the back. . .
Was Scorpius just going to stand there?
"Not so brave now are you Weasley? Not when your precious book is being maimed. How many pages should I rip? Now let's see. . . here's one for First Year, and Second. . . and that time in Second Year where you hexed antlers on my head. . . "
Thirteen pages fell to the ground. One of Nolan's friends stomped on them and ground them into the dirt, leering at her while doing so.
For the first time in her life Rose was speechless and powerless. Usually her temper flared up at this point, but right now it was depressed; just coals where usually there were flames. She honestly didn't know what to do.
". . . and all the times you and your swarmy friends so much as breathed on me. . . "
How could her day have had such a reversal? Nolan's voice started blurring out and Rose could hear the humming of her bookmark. Her mind turned away from Nolan's tauting and cruel words.
Her eyes went to Scorpius' and he looked miserably at her. He didn't even look like himself, his usual casual attitude and happy nature were nowhere in sight.
Aren't you going to say anything? Rose asked him silently. Aren't we friends?
He was tense and his fists were balled up tight, veins popping. Rose looked away from him, feeling betrayed by his lack of action. She knew that it wasn't in his character to make a scene by standing up for others, or even himself; hadn't the first five years of school been that? - hiding from Nolan when he was with them, not saying anything when Nolan had previously picked on Rose.
Who did he actually consider his friends? Nobody really knew Scorpius hung out with her, Pippa, and Aziza. Was he embarrassed of them? Did he even think of them as friends or was it all a pretense? Weren't friends supposed to be loyal and stand up for one another?
She couldn't be mad at him when she had five years of evidence for his behaviour. She couldn't be mad, but she could be disappointed. And she was. There was a small secret place deep inside of her that dearly hoped he would step up and say something; prove who he actually was.
If he actually cared about them, and her.
Before she knew it, all the pages were ripped out in front of her. Nolan threw the cover at her and it hit her stomach and flopped to the ground to join the rest its pages.
Nolan came up close to her and whispered venomously in her ear. "This was just a warning. Stay away from me and my friends."
He tore her hat off her head and stomped on it. Rose could see the single strands of her red hair fall around her face from where the hat dislodged them. She stayed standing until Nolan and his friends disappeared over the hill. She saw Scorpius look back apologetically once before they were out of sight.
Rose held together, her jaw numb with how hard her teeth were clenched together. The she slowly sank to the ground and picked up the pages of the book and put her sunhat in her bag.
She didn't go meet Aziza at two.
It took her only five hours to get her game face ready for her friends. She didn't want them to know what happened at Hogsmeade; with Nolan, Scorpius, and co. Her friends didn't suspect a thing. It was a stage and she was simply an actress on it, laughing, joking, doing homework, going to classes. She doubted even her parents would have been able to tell, she hid it so well. But it was all fake. Scorpius kept his distance. Aziza and Pippa noticed that. Rose lied and told them she had no idea. He didn't hide his attitude. He was moody, miserable, and kept to himself.
"Pippa can you teach me how to punch?" Rose asked quietly a few days after the incident when she was seated in the Slytherin Common Room. Pippa was braiding her hair again instead of doing homework.
"What!" Pippa pulled tight in surprise and Rose rubbed her cheeks to loosen the skin that was being pulled.
"Well, out of all the people I know, you seem to have the most knowledge. . . And you've gotten numerous detentions for punching students."
"I – well. Yeah. But – Who do you want to punch?"
Rose shrugged. "Just something I might need one day."
It wasn't until Christmas that she finally let that face drop. She finally let the hollowness take over her and holed up in her room. She just needed a break. She just didn't want to act out plays with her cousins; she didn't want to read any books; she didn't want to hang out with her family.
Rose would lay on her bed with Matilda and Guacamole sitting on her chest, staring at her, for hours at a time.
Unfortunately her whole family noticed and constantly asked her what was wrong. She didn't give them an answer, couldn't really. She didn't actually know what was wrong. It was just some stupid book of hers that was wrecked. It was a physical book, easily replaceable. . . Yet Nolan's face and his taunting. . . And Scorpius. Why did she expect so much out of Scorpius? Why was she so utterly disappointed now? It was stupid.
Chocolate raspberry cake didn't even cheer her up. She wasn't that hungry. She would have been content to lie on her bed all holiday except her mum and cousins intervened with a shopping trip.
"Rose! Your trousers are two inches too short! Don't tell me you've grown again!" her mum exclaimed when Rose trudged down to the kitchen for a family supper.
A close inspection of all her clothes revealed that all of Rose's trousers were far too short for her, her shirt sleeves not long enough, and her socks all had holes. Rose hadn't even noticed.
Roxanne, Lily, and her Aunt Ginny accompanied Rose and her mum shopping in London.
It was a combination of the fresh air, the distraction, her cousins, her aunt, her mum, a new background, and shopping that finally made Rose feel better. Not one hundred percent, but enough that she could smile without forcing it.
Roxanne and Lily hooked their arms through Rose's and they promenaded the streets, owning the sidewalk, kicking pop cans up the street, terrorising the mice.
Rose felt herself laughing a true laugh.
She didn't tell anyone why she was depressed, but they seemed to understand.
"Don't ever let a boy bring you down," Roxanne advised to both her and Lily. "They aren't worth it. Find someone who accepts you for who you are. Alright? Someone who you can count on and trust. There's enough of them in the world that you never have to settle for less than what you deserve."
"So do we have to wear Hufflepuff colours? Black and Yellow? Because I feel like if anyone in my house sees me in those colours they will skin me alive. Probably the same with your house as well. People hold such lame grudges."
Rose shrugged and dug through her trunk deeper. "I don't know! I don't think Azzy will really care what we wear. . . But it's not like we should wear our own house colours. We're supporting Aziza and no one else."
"So that leaves us with. . . Well, pretty much going naked! In winter nonetheless!" Pippa sighed and fell backwards onto Rose's bed. "This is ridiculous, so much hype over just one game. Quidditch is a pointless game. Let's just stay inside and not worry about all this."
"We're supporting our friend and you saw her this morning, she couldn't stop shaking. She needs us out there."
"Blegh. It's just the stupid politics with this school. We're the least popular students going to a popular sports game. None of us are from the same House. Where are we even going to sit? We'll probably just get kicked out because nobody will know who we are for we've never been there before and they'll think we are imposters who don't belong. Or because we're not sitting in our own House seating. You see how much flak we get for sitting with each other at meals."
Rose finally found the black tuque and mittens she had been looking for and then sat down on her bed beside Pippa. Since it was winter, Matilda and Guacamole were seated on her pillow. They didn't move around very much during this time of the year because they were ectothermic. At least there weren't many spiders around in wintertime. "This is rather difficult. They should have a neutral seating area for people like us."
"Agreed." Pippa sighed.
As it was winter, they didn't have much choice what colours they would wear. Pippa's winter coat was grey while Rose's was brown. At least those colours weren't assigned to a school house. Pippa sported a yellow tuque and wore green mittens; Rose wore her very unused Gryffindor scarf. Their tuques together were Hufflepuff colours. They were even wearing some blue to encompass all the houses (Hufflepuff was playing against Ravenclaw so they didn't want too much blue).
"Do we really have to go?" complained Pippa once again. Her and Rose were making their way to the Quidditch pitch for the second time in their history of Hogwarts, the first time was the First Year disastrous broom lessons. It was an unfamiliar path for them both but at least there was a well-worn trail through the snow they could follow.
They were following a group of First Year Ravenclaws who kept stumbling over the well-trodden icy trail.
"Well would you rather be in detention? 'Cause that's technically where you should be right now." They reached the stadium and the two girls stared at the massive structures.
"It's funny how different this place looks now that we're older. . . And technically yes, but really no. Me and Professor Mowla have reached a mutual understanding last year that if I don't squeal on the fact that he sleeps through the afternoon on Saturdays, he won't make me stay the full six hours." It had gotten to the point that all the Professors were sick and tired of having detention with Pippa; they let a lot more slide now than they did in previous years.
"Rose! Pippa!" called out Lily from beside one of the seating structures as she stood with a group of friends. She came running through the snow towards them. "I can't believe you're at a game! This is awesome!"
Hugo waved enthusiastically at them from his and Lily's group of friends. They were all decked out in red and gold even though Gryffindor wasn't playing.
Rose laughed. "Yeah. It's Azzy's first year on the Quidditch team. Keeper."
"I'm definitely writing your parents about this," Lily said happily. She flicked her red hair behind her shoulder. She was wearing a scarlet overcoat and gold everywhere else. She was like a walking, talking mascot for their House. "Uncle Ron will be ecstatic. Do you want to come sit with us? We're near the Hufflepuff end. You'll have the best view of the goalposts."
Rose looked at Pippa and raised her eyebrows. Pippa rubbed her arms uncomfortably as she stared around at the structures and the students all around her. "I guess. At least we might not get booed from the stands with your crowd."
Lily took them by the hands and dragged them over. "Silly. Why would anyone boo you? Everyone loves newcomers. BUT, if anybody does say anything they have to get through all of us. Don't you worry." She raised her eyebrow at them and grinned.
The announcer was already talking and calling the players to the field. They were just in time to see Aziza fly on; face intent and concentrated towards the goal posts.
". . . Gerbacht, and finally, new to the field this year we have Keeper - well there's so many silent letters in her last name that if she wasn't my cousin's friend I would have mispronounced it - Keeper Whnakistkkrgha. . . "
Her last name was still mispronounced (it was Nakisra, not Nakistraga).
"Is that James announcing!" exclaimed Pippa disbelievingly. She put her hand to her head and looked outwards towards the main stands to try to see.
"Yeah. This is his claim to fame I guess." Aziza flew closer to them and Rose excitedly grabbed Pippa's arm and started jumping up and down. "Azzy! WOO! WOO!" yelled Rose and Pippa started howling.
Aziza looked over at them and it was as if the nerves melted away from her face. She smiled a relieved smile and waved back.
"Alright, so she saw us. We head out now?" They walked up to their seats, squeezing into some seats behind younger students and ignoring all the wonderment looks they were getting from the Gyyffindors who just saw them wildly cheering.
"Pippa!"
Everyone went to their positions on the field and the game started. James had a hell of a time keeping up with all the passes and plays that were going on. Ravenclaw scored three in a row first, and then Hufflepuff ot their heads in the game and caught up, leading 50-30.
About fifteen minutes into the game, Rose finally took her eyes from the game and noticed the dirty glares and odd elbow to the shin from the younger students in front of her. It took her a few moments to figure out why they were glaring at her, but then it all made sense the next time Aziza saved a goal and she leaned forward to cheer, digging her knees in their backs. They were pushed way forward, but neglected to bring it up, and the elbows to the knees were too subtle to really notice. Rose moved back farther on the bench to try to create more room. It was a bit squishy.
"My hands are still freezing!" she heard the younger students say to each other when she started paying more attention to them. They weren't wearing mittens, tuques, or scarves at all and were rubbing their hands together.
Pippa smirked and pulled her scarf tighter around her face to block the wind chill.
"And that's a quick retrieval by the Ravenclaws. The chasers quickly move up the pitch - Raja - Polikstanscjin - Raja - Domino - and he shoots! Oh! Just saved by the fingertips. And Whnakistkkrgha passes it to Trebond. Ah. Bad pass Whnakistkkrgha, keep an eye out for the Beaters, they are tricky players. . . "
Hugo grabbed Rose's arm from behind her. "Did you see that save! Aziza's got some tricky moves under her sleeve. That was a tough shot."
"Oh Medusa. I think I missed it," Pippa said. "This game is too bloody fast. The Quaffle is back and forth, back and forth. And I don't even know who to watch - the Beefers, sleeper, or keeper?"
"You make it so difficult. I don't know why you hate the game so much and you're not muggle-born so I don't know how you know nothing about Quidditch!"
"I just don't," she said shortly and put her tuque down lower over her face and turned her focus to a button on her coat.
That wasn't the only remark she made however. Pippa didn't stop complaining about the game the longer it went on. She was bored, hungry, tired, and then thirsty. She also didn't know what was happening for the game was moving too fast.
Rose was about to wring her neck with all the complaining around her – both beside her and in front of her. She just wanted to go ten minutes without being asked if they could leave or hearing about how cold the younger students were who were sitting right ahead of them.
The girl and the two boys started to get braver and were now pushing back a little bit against Rose's long pushy legs that didn't comfortably fit in the seat. She couldn't stop hitting their backs. She would start to pay attention to the game and creep up in the seat, not really realising she was annoying them until after the fact.
"You said yesterday that you'd bring my tuque and mittens to this game for me because I wouldn't have them on me after the Gobstones club. It's your fault!" said the girl. She had her hands stuffed so far up her sleeves you couldn't see where one ended and the other began.
"My fault! I thought you said that you'd bring all of ours! You were the one knitting all the snowmen onto them, I'm pretty sure they're in your dorm right now." replied her friend. "It's Paul who should go to back to the castle and get everything. He's from way up north in Norway! He should have brought something out."
"You can't blame this on me!" the boy Paul exclaimed.
"I swear we were never that annoying when we were little," Pippa muttered to Rose. Rose flared her nostrils. It was rather hypocritical of Pippa to call other people annoying when she wouldn't shut up herself.
". . . Raja intercepted the pass. To Domino and oh! Lost the quaffle to a bludger. Picked up by Margo - OH! WHAT A DODGE! YOU CAN SEE THE STUNNED LOOK ON DOMINO'S FACE STILL. HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. MARGO IS RACING DOWN TO THE GOALPOSTS AND IT LOOKS LIKE SHE ISN'T GOING TO BE STOPPED. SHE SHOOTS - AND GOAL FOR HUFFLEPUFF! Phew! That was an exciting moment there folks, hope everyone actually watched that play. The next Harpies Chaser is in the works if that team knows what's good for them. 90 - 80 for Hufflepuff."
"No, you go get everything from the tower! I don't want to leave and miss some of the game," the girl replied.
Pippa sighed obnoxiously, finally past her limit and tapped two of them on their shoulders. "You know what ickle bitty Gryffindors, it's your own fault you're freezing. Stop complaining and annoying the hell out of everyone."
The three all slowly turned in their seats to look behind them at Pippa and Rose. They looked Pippa up and down, noticing simultaneously the Slytherin emblem, her warm winter gear, and her small stature in comparison to Rose.
"Well at least we know how Quidditch works and what the positions are. It's almost embarrassing what you're calling the players." The boy (named Alfie they later learned) had very blue eyes and red cheeks chapped from the cold as he looked unblinkingly at Pippa.
"Oh we've got some snooty young kids here," Pippa said to Rose. "At least I'm not freezing cold. Who's idiotic enough to not wear warm clothes in winter."
Rose nudged Pippa's shoulders. "They're young! Be nice!"
The girl, Stella, who had sunshine blonde hair, narrowed her eyes. "Oh. Well I bet you one of your mittens that one of the Ravenclaw chasers will score on the Hufflepuff keeper in the next four minutes."
"What! One of my mittens? And you think Azzy will let in a goal?"
"Oooh, too scared you'll lose a mitten?" she taunted slyly.
Pippa looked shockingly at Rose. "Is she serious?"
Rose shrugged. "Well you might lose a mitten."
Pippa crossed her arms and looked at the Gryffindors contemptuously. "What do I get then, if you lose?"
"Hmm. . . " The three friends looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess we'll stop complaining about the cold."
Pippa stuck out her hand. "Deal! Rose keep time." The blonde Gryffindor shook her hand with a big grin on her face. Pippa turned avidly towards the game and for the first time watched and paid attention to what was happening on the pitch.
Rose borrowed Lily's wrist as she didn't own a watch herself and started keeping time. "One minute left," said Rose after a few minutes passed with no goals being scored.
Pippa cursed. The Ravenclaw chasers had the Quaffle in possession and were making their way down the pitch.
"Come on Aziza," muttered Pippa. "You've saved about thirty of these already. Save one more. . . MEDUSA!"
Aziza missed and Ravenclaw was now winning 100 - 90. Pippa very reluctantly gave over one of her mittens. The blonde haired girl and one of the boys stuffed their hands inside of it.
"Bloody Second Years. Think they're so righteous. . . " growled Pippa
The other Gryffindor boy named Paul, tapped Pippa on the knee. "I bet you your scarf that the Hufflepuff beater is going to knock one of the Ravenclaw chasers off their broom."
Pippa frowned. "Like hell that'll happen? How would a Ravenclaw fall off?"
"It's Quidditch. It's possible," Rose told Pippa but Pippa didn't believe her and took the bet anyway.
Ten minutes later Pippa lost her scarf.
"Bloody Gryffindors! It's cold out now. Rose! Share with me, your House is brutal!" She tugged at Rose's scarf but Rose pulled away.
"I'm not giving mine up! Stop betting all your winter clothes away."
Pippa tapped on the three students' shoulders. "I bet my scarf and mitten back that Hufflepuff will score the next three goals."
"Alright," they agreed happily. "If you lose, we get your other mitten and tuque."
Pippa grudgingly agreed. . . And then had to give both up when a Hufflepuff goal was followed by a Ravenclaw goal.
"Good try Azzy," called out Rose. "You'll get the next one."
"This game sucks. I'm cold!" complained Pippa as she put her hood up and burrowed her bare hands up her sleeves.
Rose laughed. "I have no sympathy for you!" One of Lily's friends did however, so Pippa got a scarf to wrap around her face and ears.
The game ended not too long later with the Ravenclaw seeker catching the snitch, making the score 260 - 130.
"That was a pretty good Quidditch game for her first one!" said Hugo on the way back to the castle. They were meeting Aziza for supper after she was done changing and showering. "Azzy flied very well. She just needs a bit more practice with people throwing fakes, almost every one fooled her!"
All the winter gear went back to their original owners after the snitch was caught and Rose and Pippa said goodbye to Lily and Hugo as they went back to the castle.
Pippa was scowling. "Those little Gryffindors are such cheeky bastards. Cheeky cheeky cheeky. . . To think they out-bet me! I almost froze my fingers and ears off! Little bastards. . ."
"Come on in, Rose" Professor Longbottom said. He spread out about four or five pamphlets in front of her on his desk as she sat in the sole empty chair in front of him. "Now I've just been reviewing your marks from the past few years and if you keep them up you will have many options for job opportunities. Have you given much thought about what you want to do after Hogwarts?"
To tell the truth, Rose was rather dreading this careers advice meeting. She knew she had the marks to go into whatever wizarding field she wanted, but she really had no desire to pursue any of the 'normal' fields she was sure the professors all expected, like Healing, an Auror, Lawyer, or Ministry of Magic positions.
"I like reading," she said rather shyly considering Professor Longbottom was the one professor she was most comfortable with at Hogwarts. He didn't really know her and she wasn't sure how to voice what she wanted to do. He was her parent's friend, but not necessarily hers.
"That's a good start," he encouraged. "Have you ever thought about following your mothers' footsteps into a good lawyer practice? There is a lot of reading involved with that profession."
Rose twiddled her thumbs together. She didn't really mean that kind of reading. "I'm not really interested in any Ministry positions. . . or a desk job. . . or anything my family does. . . "
Professor Longbottom looked surprised at that and cleared away the pamphlets from his desk with a swoop. "Alright. Just keep in mind you have the marks to do it if you ever change your mind. Let's start with a blank slate then. What are your ideas?"
Rose took a breath and dove in. "I think I'd like to go to drama school. And I want to learn how to put on plays. . . proper plays, and direct. Maybe write plays one day. . . "
Professor Longbottom's eyebrows raised higher and higher the longer Rose spoke. He looked nervous now, as if Ron and Hermione would hold him at fault that their daughter was pursuing a fine art as a profession.
"Errr. . . okay. Do your parents know about this?"
Rose shrugged. "Well not in so many words. But, I think they've realised where my interests lie. . . I mean it has to be obvious to them, right?"
"Sometimes the obvious isn't as obvious as you think. Last time they spoke to me thinking you'd be interested in Healing. It might be best to tell your parents that this. . . drama school is more than a hobby."
Healing? Rose shuddered. She didn't want to go to school for another five or six years.
"But," Professor Longbottom continued, "we still have to decide what subjects you will take in the next two years of school. I'll be honest with you and just say that I don't know much about the drama schools around here, or the programs available. I'm guessing you don't need to take any advanced OWL or NEWT classes. . . "
Rose raised her hand to stop him. "I'm still going to take all the classes. I have high standards for myself and don't want to get lazy with academics. I might not need them, but they're important still. And. . . also a backup. Just in case."
Professor Longbottom looked relieved. "Sounds good Rose."
They finished up the meeting and Rose headed back up to the castle to the Slytherin Common Room to finish up some homework. Aziza was the second back and Pippa came shortly after. And she was not in a good mood.
"What a load of baloney that was," Pippa ranted. She adopted a heavy, deep accent. "'You no have the attitude or marks for anything. You no try. You get detention too much. You no respect anything. Best to work at Azkaban to not end up there later in life.' Like really. What professor would say that to a student!"
"Slytherin apparently," Aziza said. "My Professor wasn't very good either. After everything I said, the only response was 'that sounds wonderful' and 'that sounds interesting.' I asked what some of the opportunities were with my marks, and all I got was 'anything you like dearie. You have the potential to do whatever you set your sights to.' I still have no clue what I want to do. She helped with nothing."
Pippa made a face. "Yours was worse than mine, definitely. At least I have an idea for a job now."
Rose dropped her quill and ink splattered all over her work. Grudgingly she tried wiping it off with her sleeve which only made more of a mess of her sleeve and her paper. "You're not working at Azkaban. No way."
Pippa grinned cheekily. "Well someone's got to do it."
"Says the five foot nothing girl. Good luck."
"I can be fearsome. Size is no indicator of that. And I'm still in hope that I'll grow a little bit more."
"That's beside the point," said Rose heatedly. "You'd get eaten alive in the jail. And why would you want to work with murderers, old Death Eaters, rapists, and thieves. It would be a horrible job!"
Pippa didn't look as shocked as she should have. "We'll see how Hogwarts pans out. As I said, someone's got to do it. And maybe. . . well never mind. At least my professor was right about one thing, it just might keep me out of jail."
Pippa stood on the edge taking deep breaths. Rose and Aziza stood on either side, much more calmly. All three had their hair in high ponytails and were in their swimming gear. Towels rested by the tree with a full thermos of hot chocolate waiting for them afterwards. It was their annual spring swim and the three were getting mentally prepared to jump in. Accompanying them once again was James and two friends, but their stipulation of being allowed to come was that they had to wait for the girls to jump in first, since it was 'their thing.'
"Are you ready?" asked Rose.
"Few more minutes," muttered Pippa. Her eyes were intent on the dark water that was ebbing below them, no doubt wondering about potential octopuses and squids.
James and his friends stood behind them. "Are you going to take as long as you did last year? We could have all been in and back to the castle already."
Pippa turned around and gave him the finger.
"Ohh-kay! I'll shut up," he laughed. "But seriously, let's get this over with before we graduate this year."
"The longer you talk, the longer it will take," growled Pippa with another glare at him.
Rose nudged her shoulder. "Ignore him."
The boys started whispering quietly and Rose sighed. They weren't helping anything. In fact, it would be better if they just weren't around and jumped a few hours later. James wouldn't quite understand though, he wasn't sensitive to those types of things. Rose peeked at Pippa and she was still mentally preparing herself with her eyes closed. She squeezed her hand for reassurance.
"GO!" she heard James yell behind her. She turned her head and saw the boys running full tilt towards them.
"Wait!" Rose called and let go of Pippa's hand to raise them against James's friend. "Don't do -"
While Pippa screamed bloody murder, Rose felt herself being unwillingly being lifted up and carried the few steps to the edge where she was thrown in. James had the crazed Pippa who was kicking and flailing her body wildly. They flew through the air and landed with a large splash in the cold water.
Rose's head burst through the surface and she watched the three boys jump in right after. She breathed in very shaky breaths until her body acclimatised to the cold temperature.
Pippa was still screaming and yelling obscenities with a huge stutter from the cold as she hit James in the head and splashed him with water. James was just cackling loudly as he let Pippa beat him.
"You guys are idiots!" she said to James's friend who had chucked her in. He was laughing at Pippa and James and shrugged at Rose's comment.
"Yeah, I suppose it is rather funny," admitted Rose. Then she swam to Aziza, giving Pippa and James a very wide berth.
"It's a crayon!" said Pippa on the Hogwarts Express back to London as she bit into the blue Bertie Bott's bean. "The brilliant waxy taste. . . brings back many memories of colouring as a child with my sister. "
"Ah, nostalgia," said Rose contently. The sun was shining through the window on her and she felt warm and happy. Rigel was curled up on her lap to the chagrin of Scorpius who passed by every now and then and glared through the window at his cat (or Rose - who could ever tell?). Rose was just waiting to see if he actually came in at all.
"That's rather far off of your guess," commented Aziza. "Blueberries. . . Wasn't even close!"
"Yeah well there's a limited supply of blue things around. I bet this one is going to be a cucumber. Try it." She thrust it at Rose.
"I really don't like the green ones. They are rarely normal things like cucumber, or green apple. It's always the weird ones. Like leaves or a grasshopper."
She still bit into it and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's lettuce. Thank goodness."
"Well I can't believe you would still try it after guessing a grasshopper," said Aziza. "And Pippa I really think you've lost your touch. You haven't guessed one right all year."
Pippa scowled. "This one is. . . popcorn!"
She gave it to Aziza who tried it and then spit it out. "Plastic!" she exclaimed. "Stop giving the gross ones to me."
"This game is stupid," said Pippa. "Let's just pawn the rest of the beans off on a First Year."
Rose shrugged. "If you want." She was running her hand slowly up and down Rigel's back. He was purring loudly.
Pippa put the beans in her luggage instead of leaving the carriage. The three descended into silence. Rose reading, Aziza half sleeping, and Pippa brooding.
"Summer is stupid. Why can't we stay at Hogwarts all year?"
"Well come visit this summer for once! You can stay as long as you want. . . " said Rose.
"I think we're travelling again. Overseas or something," Pippa said angrily. "I don't know. Don't care."
"Pippa. . . "
"I'm going to the loo."
She left and shut the door harshly. "Do you get the feeling that she's hiding something? She hates that her mum writes her every day and whenever we leave Hogwarts we can never get in contact with her," said Aziza with a look at Rose. "I'm kind of worried about her. . . "
"Me too. She's been really moody lately."
"Ha! Understatement of the century," said Aziza.
Scorpius passed by their carriage at that moment and stopped to look in. He tapped on the glass and looked away.
"What's with him as well? He's been avoiding us for most of the year."
Rose shrugged and pushed Rigel off her lap. "I suppose we're not 'cool' enough for him and his friends. He's got better things to do than spend time with us."
Rigel was meowing loudly at her; unhappy at being disturbed from her lap and the sun. Rose opened the door and let Rigel out to Scorpius.
He scooped his cat up and then fidgeted nervously from foot to foot in front of Rose. She crossed her arms and waited.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Well I forgive you," Rose fired back. "I get that you don't want to stand up to them and we're not good enough for you. I'm not going to hold some stupid grudge against you for the rest of your life." Scorpius seemed shocked by her quick reply.
"Does that mean - are we. . . "
"Friends? Good? I don't know. I think it's you that needs to figure that question out. You better leave before someone sees you talking to me, since I'm such an embarrassment and all. Have a good summer Scorpius."
She shut the door and sat back down to her book, not looking to see if he was still standing there.
Boys. School. Friends. Family. Ugh. Thank goodness for summer. Why did she think Fifth Year was going to be so great again?
~xx~
Literature referenced (roman numerals are the act):
The Comedy of Errors (1623) - William Shakespeare
The Importance of Being Earnest, I (1895) - Oscar Wilde
A Doll's House, II (1879) - Henrik Ibsen
An Enemy of the People, I, V (1882) - Henrik Ibsen