Chapter 17---

Mackenzie's POV

I'm jolted awake (I've realized that I rarely ever just wake up naturally) by screaming. I look around the room, which I soon realize is Rose's and listen to the yelling.

"PROTECTING HIM?! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK HE NEEDS PROTECTING?!"

"HE NEEDS PROTECTING FROM YOU! YOU'RE NOT EVEN THINKING ABOUT THIS YOU DIDN'T MIND SCOR YESTERDAY! YOU EVEN SAID HI TO HIM AND GAVE HIM A HANDSHAKE!'

I jump out of bed, and quickly throw my hair up into a ponytail. Then I rush out of the bedroom, ignoring Alice's strange looks. Quite frankly, it didn't take a genius to figure out what Rose and her father were arguing about.

"AND RIGHT ABOUT NOW I WISH I HADN'T! I KNEW THAT BOY WAS A BLOODY GOOD FOR NOTHING MALFOY!!" Ron Weasley was yelling.

"YOU. HAVE . GONE. TOO. FAR. SCOR IS NOTHING LIKE HOW HIS PARENTS OR HIS GRANDPARENTS WERE! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE HIM! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HIM! AND YOU KNOW WHAT? TO YOU HE MAY BE A GOOD FOR NOTHING MALFOY BUT TO ME HE ISN'T. TO ME, HE'S MY BEST FRIEND! WEREN'T YOU IN LOVE WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND WHEN YOU WERE MY AGE? PEOPLE WERE PREJUDICED ABOUT MOM BECAUSE SHE WAS MUGGLEBORN BUT YOU DIDN'T CARE! HOW IS THAT ANY DIFFERENT FROM ME?! PEOPLE ARE PREJUDICED ABOUT SCOR BECAUSE OF HIS FAMILY AND I DON'T CARE! SO YOU KNOW WHAT? GO DIE IN A HOLE!!!" Rose was in hysterics.

They were in the kitchen and I quickly prayed that no one got their hands on a knife, just in case. I stand just outside the kitchen doorway with Hugo, Brody and Luka and Alice who soon joins us. Rose storms out with tears streaming down her face and I quickly grab her hand and lead her through her house. She follows me without protest until I reach her parents room.

Now, I've only ever been in Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's room once or maybe twice but I remember that they do happen to have a fireplace that is connected to the Floo Network in there. I grab the green dust from the bowl on the mantel and shove Rose into the fireplace.

"I'll cover for you! Go!"

She looks at me gratefully and then shouts "12 Grimmauld Place!" before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Merlin knows how I'm going to cover for her. I quickly escape the room but I run into Mrs. Weasley as I'm exiting.

"Oh! Good morning Hermione!" I exclaim courteously.

"Morning, Z." she replies "I assume you heard the argument this morning?"

"It woke me up" I confess "it sounded really intense…I'm guessing Rose finally told Ron about Scor?"

She nods in confirmation. "You don't happen to know where Rose is, do you? I need to discuss something with her."

I cough, "Um… I think she went to the loo."

She raises an eyebrow in my direction. "She went to the loo in my bedroom?"

Whoops. I giggle "Well it sure is surprising isn't it? I think she was upset and not really paying attention where she was going."

She fixes me with an interrogative stare and I squirm uncomfortably. I honestly don't know how Ron and Harry could stand it when they were younger, it's very intimidating.

"She flooed to the Potters to warn Scor." The truth is out before I even realize that I have said anything. I hit my head with my palm and groan. "Please at least give her time to explain and for them to talk it over Hermione!" I quickly try to gain Rose time. "Scor has no idea and you don't want them to get into an even bigger, worse fight than before!"

She considers my words carefully before nodding in agreement. "Yes, I think that would be best. Now, I must find Tina and quickly inform Ginny and Harry what is going on…." She trails off and becomes lost in thought.

While she is distracted I quickly steal off to Rose's room and grab some sandals to throw on my feet. "Hey Alice, cover for me will you? I gotta warn Rose!"

I leave the room before getting a reply, but I'm not worried. I quickly run through the hallway, dodging Hugo, Brody and Luka and manage to get into Ron and Hermione's bedroom again. Luckily, they are not inside so I slip in and rush to the fireplace. I throw down the floo dust and scream "12 Grimmauld Place!"

Now, even though I've been in the Wizardring world for five years, I still haven't gotten used to the floo travel. So I cough and stumble out of the Potter's fireplace, probably looking like a disaster, still clad in my pajamas (sweatpants and a t-shirt) and when I look up I see Harry, Ginny, James, Frank, Owen, Al, Lily and Majerle all staring at me.

"Good morning!" I say brightly.

They all stare at me. And stare. And stare. And stare.

Ok I get it. "Um…Rose came by here, right?" I ask tentatively. Then I'm bombarded by questions and comments.

"What happened!?" that was Al.

"Rose looks like shit!" James commented.

"Did Ron find out?" Ginny questioned urgently

"Was there a lot of yelling?" Lily wonders aloud.

"Should I notify my colleagues that a murder will take place?" Harry asks.

Frank, Owen and Majerle look half uncomfortable and half amused.

"What's your favorite color?" Owen asks obnoxiously and Lily cackles.

I look around wildly, trying to decide which question to answer first.

"Blue I guess is my favorite color? But anyway…how do I say this? Well, I'm sure you all can guess that Rose finally told Ron and Hermione that she and Scor were dating."

There were exclamations of 'finally!' and Harry and Ginny didn't even look surprised, though I'm sure they were already informed of this development.

I continued, "And Ron was shocked, unsurprisingly and Hermione wasn't--- though she probably knew that this was going to happen before any of us even had an inkling of thinking this was a possibility. Anyway, then Ron went all ballistic and he and Rose got in a fight which was really intense. He called Scor a Malfoy and Rose yelled at him, called him a hypocrite, and then told him to go die in a hole."

I'd like to say that all of their faces showed signs of shock, but I don't think that many of them were surprised. Actually I don't think anyone was surprised but Ron and Ron and Rose both have quite awful tempers, so no one was surprised that they got in a fight.

"I just came by to make sure that Rose got here safely and is talking to Scor."

They confirmed the fact that Rose was indeed here and actually talking to Scor. I raise my eyebrows, and then run to the window to look outside. I see Rose and Scor walking outside; Rose looks agitated but Scor, in contrast, seems very calm. In fact, Scor is laughing!

"What's going on?"

I see that Lily, Majerle and even Ginny have made it over to the window as well; we're all looking out at Rose and Scor.

Harry, Al, James Frank and Owen all roll their eyes at us and start talking about Quidditch.

"Awww!" Lily and Majerle coo while Scor and Rose kiss.

I cough and turn away awkwardly, not really wanting to see anymore. I meander over to the boys' conversation.

"…I don't know why Ron still supports the Chudley Canons; they're quite terrible" Harry was saying.

"But they just won against the Romanians!" James was protesting.

See, James' godfather is Ron, and he seems to have inherited his godfather's love for the Chudley Cannons much to his father's and mother's dismay. Me? I'm a Holyhead Harpies girl, which is amazing because Ginny used to play Chaser for them before she started writing for the Daily Prophet.

"James, give it up, you know the Holyhead Harpies are going to the World Cup anyway!" I butt into their conversation.

Ginny whoops her appreciation from the window.

James glares at me.

"But on the bright side, Gryffindor is going to win the Quidditch Cup!" I smile at him.

"Hell yeah we are!" James cries ignoring his mother's protests in the background ('Language!')

"Shit! They're coming!" Ginny screams.

"Mum, language!" James reprimands.

"Oh just you lot get out of the room, Ron and Hermione will be here soon anyway to talk with Scor and Rosie." Ginny shoos all of us out of the room and then closes the door in our faces.

We all look at each other blankly. Suddenly, I get an idea.

"Kenzie, I don't like that look on your face…what do you have in mind?"

"Anybody have an extendable ear?" I smirk. "I have a feeling that this conversation might get interesting…"

James announces that he has an extendable ear and runs up to his room to get it while we all wait. Lily and Majerle couldn't really care less about the whole thing (fighting just wasn't romantic) and so they went back to Lily's room. Frank and Owen went off to play chess because really, this whole thing didn't really concern them.

James came back down and handed the ear to me. I unravel it and slide it under the door. I put it close to my own ear to see if I could hear anything but I couldn't. I hit the ear a few times, but nothing was happening.

"Kenzie, what are you doing?"

"I can't hear anything!"

"That's probably because they aren't saying anything…

I shot him a nasty look. "It's early in the morning Al, you never know—"

"Shh!" James says "listen!"

"We need to talk this over rationally…" Hermione Granger-Weasley was saying.

Suddenly, though, we're aware of a horrible high pitched noise, and then Ginny slightly opened the door, gave us a death glare, and handed us the ear. Whoops.

I sigh and turn to Al and James. James is already off in search of his friends so Al and I begin talking.

Al smirks at me, "Nice outfit, Kenzie"

I look down at my sweatpants and XXL t-shirt and then I stick my tongue out at him.

"So, Al, long time, no see. What have you and Scor been up to?" I ask.

"Kenzie, I just saw you last night so the only thing Scor and I have done since then is sleep."

I chuckle, but roll my eyes at him.

"Well you never know a lot can happen in one night!" I motion my hands towards the door as proof.

Al nods in agreement.

"I got a letter from Ben" I inform Al.

He looks at me and rolls his eyes.

"I know he annoys you but I have a question." I try pleading with him.

He raises his eyebrows at me which I take as an offer to continue.

"Is it normal that he's writing to me practically every day? I mean, my previous boyfriends and I corresponded, but every day? I mean, it's so much work! I don't even write to you Scor or Rose every day during the summer!"

"Look, if a guy wants to talk to you, he'll find a way to talk to you. So yes, he obviously enjoys your company."Al advises me.

"All the same it's getting extremely annoying. Wanna hear what he says?"

I don't even give him time to answer. I pull the letter out of my pocket and started reading.

My lovely Z, (insert gag here)

It's been awhile since I saw you last; almost an entire day! It's so weird after seeing you every day to so suddenly not see you! (insert eye roll here) I was wondering if you could find time to get away from your friends sometime during the break and spend some time with your nice, trusty boyfriend. (more gagging and eye rolling) I miss you so much; it hurt and as strange as it sounds I can't wait to get back to school so that I can see your gorgeous face again. (still scornfully reading the letter aloud) Please write me back as soon as you can, I was thinking that we should write to each other every day of the hols.

Your loyal boyfriend,

Benny

"Doesn't the 'Benny' part just make it complete? You know what? He's really starting to annoy me!??" I say the first part sarcastically but I can't help complaining about Ben.

Al just laughs at me. He seems a lot happier during the end of the conversation than he did when I first started the topic of Ben.

But before we can make fun of my boyfriend even more, Rose enters the room with Hermione, looking distressed.

"My father would like to speak to Scor alone!" she relates to us fretfully.

I had completely forgotten about the whole Ron/Rose/Scor situation while talking to Al but I immediately rush over to Rose and try to console her. There's a quiet murmuring coming from the room occupied by Ron and Scor, but we can't make anything out.

So Rose and I wait while Al went to go watch the chess game and Hermione went to go talk to Ginny in the kitchen. It seems like eternity before someone opens the door.

We can only hope that everyone makes it out alive.

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out, i had dress rehearsal and a recital this week so life's been busy. Hope you enjoy it and remember to review!!

Cheers,

~wwccd