50 kisses, 10 sessions, 3 weeks had gone by filled with planning for the ball and a lot of fooling around with Scorpius.
Everyone was angry with anticipation, waiting for the theme of the ball to be announced. Mcgonagall had chosen opposite houses and seasons as the two deciding themes. With the season being overdone and not enough people voting, the theme was opposing houses. Everyone who didn't vote was pissed, especially James.
" What a crock!" He bitched
" Oh come off it James, besides I think you look rather cute in blue," Alice said
"Not a bad idea" he perked up at his girlfriend's comment.
"And I shall join you in that trend." I spoke up
" Why not green?" Scorpius said and you could hear the air being sucked out of the room. I looked around as if I was the only one to hear his ridiculous statement.
" cause I would rather die than wear Slytherin green."
" Come on Weasley, house unity!" Scorpius said in a rather annoying tone.
" Yes, and there are two other lovely houses whose colors I'd rather wear."
" You know Rose, it's pretty cowardly to avoid wearing a color. Maybe you really aren't a Gryffindor." Albus chimes in. That was when I whip out my wand beneath the table and set a spark right on his leg.
"OWW" he Exclaimed
" Are you calling me a coward, Albus Severus Potter?"
" If he's not, then I will." Scorpius cut back into the conversation
" Surely you've said worse about me, Malfoy. I am not surprised." I put away my wand and tried to go back to my food, tossing his ridiculous comment out of my mind.
" Care to prove me wrong?"
" What do you have in mind?"
" A simple bet, the loser has to wear the enemy's color. The winner laughs at their demise the whole ball. Deal?"
" What is the bet?"
" I bet..."
"Wait! Let's make this interesting." James interrupted us. " I've been looking for something exciting to do. How about you guys let someone else pick a task for each of you to do? If you complete it, you choose your color. If not, you wear the opposite color of the enemy house."
"Okay, who will choose our task?" I asked
"You guys chose" James simply said
" Alright, I chose Albus to pick for me," Scorpius said quickly.
That prick, he only chose Al because he knew he'd pick something easy for him to do. I looked at James, waiting for him to oppose Scorpius' choice.
However, all he did was shrug and say " Your turn Rosie"
It that's how he wants to play, then let's fucking play.
" Fine, then I chose Alice." I know she'll look out for me.
"Perfect, now no discussing with your victim. We have to play at this fair. I'll be the moderator and have your idea here by tonight. We'll meet in the Gryffindor Common room."
I looked over at Alice and smiled at her, she smiled back which gave me an incredible sense of relief. There is no way she'd screw me over on this.
" So do we have a deal?" Scorpius leaned over and stuck his hand out for me to shake it.
" Deal" I grabbed his hand as hard as I could.
We shook hands to agree to our little bet. I knew I would destroy him at any task Alice throws at me. Besides it's Alice, what could be that bad?
Just at that moment, I saw Breena walk in with a mighty stride. She looked around the room until she saw her target.
Nova.
She was sitting at the end of our table quietly talking with one of her cousins.
I don't know what was going on with Breena but she had had enough of Nova ignoring her, she had the kind of fire in her eyes that made me believe she was looking for a fight.
She got up on the Hufflepuff table and walked with the same conviction she came in with. She was stepping on plates, food, people's fingers, and anything that got in her way. When she reached the end she stopped to look right where Nova was to get her attention.
The whole hall was on the edge of their seats to see what was going on. Even the one teacher who was finishing his meal didn't know what to do.
It was quiet until Breena got the nerve to speak.
" Nova Chang!" She yelled so that everyone could hear her.
" The past few days I have been empty without you. Not only have I been in misery but I have been in pain knowing that I have hurt you the way that I have. What we share is far more important to me than anything I could possibly have with anyone else. " she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. " because not only are you my best friend, but I want to make it clear to YOU and to everyone else in this room that you are my soulmate."
Every girl in the room Aw'd at the same time.
I looked down again at Nova to see tears in her eyes.
" And with that" Breena jumped from one table to the other right in front of her. " I would like to ask one thing of you and that is... will you accompany me to the Winter Ball as my date." She asked
The silence was deafening.
" yes," she said and the crowds went wild.
Breena pulled her up on the table with her and kissed her passionately.
HOLY SHIT! I did not see that coming.
Why is everyone around me gay? And how did I not know about it?
I mean we knew Breena was bi, but Nova?
I looked down at Alice and we were both in shock.
"Did you know about this?" We said simultaneously
" No, of course not!" We said again in unison.
We looked down at our roommates and back at each other. It was at that moment it was like our brains were connected. We got up at the same time and bolted for our friends who were on the ground now talking to people.
" Breena? Nova?" I exclaimed
" How did you hide this from us?" Alice exclaimed,
" it just happened all of a sudden, we didn't know if this was serious."
"How did it happen? Why did it happen? When did it happen?!" Alice asked
" it just did. It was just hooking up that turned into more. And it was the beginning of the year." Breena said quickly. " We'll explain everything later but if you don't mind I need to some time with my girl" with that they both left the Great hall with applause following.
Alice and I returned to our seats, dumbfounded. We sat there completely silent, not even looking at anyone. Our best friends and roommates have been in love with each other and we had no idea.
"Sausage?" I looked over to see Scorpius offering me a link in order to break the awkwardness at the table.
It wasn't effective in the slightest bit.
Later that night, everyone in the family gathered in our common room to hear me and Scorpius' task.
While we all waited for James', I observed Scorpius and Al whispering with smiles on their faces.
I wasn't worried though, I had a chance to talk to Alice earlier about my task, and we said we had to talk about Breena and Nova's new relationship. But instead, we were discussing the task. While she didn't feel good about going behind James' back, she gave me a hint at what the task was and I'm not worried at all.
Whatever it is, all I know is that it has to do with my favorite subject.
"Alright!" James came down from the boy's dormitories with Fred and stood in front of all of us. "Let's get this started. Al and Alice, please join me"
Both of the Al's walked up next to my dear cousin and awaited instructions.
"Baby? Would you be so kind as to announce Rose's task?" James kissed her on the cheek.
"Gladly." She smiled.
"Ugh. Get a room" Al couldn't take the lovey-dovey bullshit.
But all Alice did was roll her eyes and continue her statement. " Rose's task will be to simply move Greeta onto the quidditch field without getting caught."
Everyone oo'd and ah'd at my new task.
I think my stomach fell out of my ass.
" What! You expect me to move a 500-pound Hippogriff into the school unnoticed?" I exclaimed.
"The task has been told, now Al, your turn," James announced
Al took a step forward while winking at Scorpius.
" Scorp's task will be to fly his broom through the school, without getting caught. I've even provided a route for him to take. " Al pulled out a piece of paper with the school on it, and a flight pattern he'd drawn up.
"Inside the school? Without getting caught? How is that possible?" Scorpius' smile seemed to have dropped from his face. But still, it seemed less bad than mine, he's great on his broom.
"Silence! Opponents up here!" James yelled and Scorpius and I switched the places of Albus and Alice.
Once we were there James had a cruel smile on his face.
He looked at Scorpius and started to laugh, then he looked at me and started to laugh even harder.
" What's so funny?" Scorpius asked. Everyone was confused at James' random fit of laughter.
" You guys didn't think I'd actually let you choose who picked your task, did you?" He grinned wickedly but everyone was still left confused. " Scorpius have fun taming Greeta and Rose have fun on the broom." He laughed again walking away from up.
" You want to switch our tasks?" Now I was convinced my stomach was outside of my body.
" I never said you were picking your OWN task person." He grinned
"You arsehole! You set us up!" Scorpius looked like he wanted to kill him.
"Isn't that what you two are doing? When you talked to your task pickers?" We both stood there looking guilty. " That's what I thought, You both will do your tasks at the same time. It won't be a race, but whoever doesn't get caught will remain victorious. We gotta do this quickly to give Scorpius time to pick out his favorite shade of red."
Scorpius was looking down as James tried to make a dramatic exit, but his words stopped him in his tracks.
"Why wait, let's do it now." Scorpius smiled at me and looked back to face, James.
" What are you talking about Malfoy?" James asked him curiously.
" You never said when we could do it, sooooo I'm choosing to do it tonight after everyone is asleep."
" I think that's a wonderful idea." I stepped next to Scorpius to taunt James.
You could tell James was mad that he didn't think of that first. Nonetheless he accepted the loophole. However, I feel like James was a little impressed.
"Fine, tonight it is. Since this is at night, everyone can't watch at once. We need to use the Invisibility Cloak, so one more person can come." James looked around the room.
" I'll do it, I can't wait to see how this turns out" Lily stopped up and offered.
"Hey, that's not fair!" Al exclaimed
"If you wanna risk getting caught then be my guest, just accept the consequences if you get caught" James finished up.
" Well Weasley, better start preparing for your big loss." Scorpius turned to me looking down at me with passion in his eyes, I could see him eyeing me up and down.
" Aww that's so cute, you actually think you can do this." I mocked him knowing that Mythical Creatures is his worst subject.
" We'll see who remains victorious."
"We shall" He turned away from me and left with Al to prepare for the bet.
I finally let out a large sigh that was trapped in my throat.
"Rose? Are you sure you can do this?" Alice immediately came up to me.
"Yea. There is only one tiny problem" I said feeling a little dizzy
"What's that?" She asked me
"I don't know how to ride a broom."
"Fuck."
Two hours had passed and it was time to meet James, Al, and Lily at our starting points. I had spent the last hour memorizing the route Al drew up, and having Alice coach me on how to ride.
It's been many years since I've been on a broom and I couldn't even begin to know how to ride it.
We snuck away to the field where the starting line began. James was waiting there with Al and Scorpius holding his broom, I could already see them laughing at me as they all know I know nothing about brooms.
"Surprised you actually showed." Scorpius teased me.
"Let's do this shit."
"I like your confidence, Rose." James admired " Okay, remember it's not a race, but whoever is farther behind does run the risk of getting caught if the first person slips up, so have at it." He shoved his broom into my hands. "Here ya go Rosie. Let's see if you can get into the air"
I gripped the broom like Alice showed me. I lifted my leg around the broom and strapped my legs around it.
"Now what?" I turned to the boys after a long pause.
They all burst into a fit of laughter. James actually fell to the floor.
"Shut up! You'll get us all caught!" Lily exclaimed
" You just lift the front, and it takes you from there. Lean forward to speed up and lean back to brake. Merlin Rosie, you've got to be kidding me." James laughed at me along with the other boys again.
I took a deep breath and slowly leaned the front of the broom up. I began slowly lifting off the ground, the boys were too busy laughing to notice I was up in the air. At this point, I was fuming with anger from their laughing. I turned myself around and charged toward them, they still hadn't noticed me so I leaned up right behind them all and slapped them across the face as I flew past them.
"Fuck Rosie!" " OWW" " What the hell". They all moaned at their now red faces.
I started going into the sky at an alarming speed. I tried not to look down as my fear of heights kicked in. I was tossing and turning in the sky, but I had to admit the rush of adrenaline was exhilarating. I moved the broom down to try to land near the boys but I came in too hot. I almost smashed through Al and Scorpius if they hadn't moved out of the way. I zoomed past them and landed a few feet past them with a tumble.
I was laying flat on my back trying to catch my breath when James hovered about me. "You ready?" He stretched his hand out to me.
" I'm going to die tonight," I said dryly.
James laughed at that. " At least you won't be seen in Slytherin Green '' I grabbed his outstretched hand and got up, I felt a little sore but not enough to back out of the bet.
"Nice landing Rosie, piece of advice, slowly down on the brakes when you want to slow stop." Al smiled a wicked smile.
"Good to know. Let's get this over with." I said, grabbing the broom.
" Great, maybe practice a little low to the ground before you head out. Let's go to your task Malfoy, Greta is waiting," James turned with Al to head to Hagrid's cabin. But Scorpius stopped before he left and kissed me on the cheek without them noticing.
" Be careful of corners, ease up the front slowly when doing those turns. Wish me luck." He ran to catch up with the boys.
I felt my cheek he kissed, it felt warm.
I can't let him distract me. I've got to work on braking if I'm going to win.
I gave it a few more tries before heading out on the route, I didn't want him to get ahead of me. He did have a Hippogriff, with an appetite for Malfoy's, something tells me he still had the harder task.
Before heading out I took a moment to steady my breathing, this was probably the hardest task I'll ever have to do and I must go unnoticed.
Without thinking much, I headed off into the sky. At first, I had to go around the whole school, the wind made it a little harder but I was still able to manage getting around. I saw Scorpius with Greta at the entrance, he was levitating her while she was sleeping. Such bullshit! She's not even awake to make it a challenge. I was so mad I decided to use the no rule rule to my advantage, as I passed both of them to go into the school, I casted "Aguamenti '' to soak them both. I fumbled on the broom a bit but I quickly got it back. I heard Greta wake up, but her roar was quickly silenced as Scorpius used a silencing charm. He got her back in the air and she was unable to move from his spell. Lucky for me he didn't have time to shoot a spell back at me. I looked forward and continued my task.
I went down a small corridor and went out to the courtyard. I eased up on the turn and almost fell off the broom. I needed to go slower, but I was almost done. I just had to fly up the portrait wall and out the door, without waking up a single painting. If I went fast enough I know they wouldn't even notice me.
I leaned forward slightly in order to pick up the speed but not too much to make noise. I shot through the first hallway and up towards the portraits. The stairs were moving and I had to dodge every single one of them. I felt like I was being tossed around like a rag doll and almost landed on my head every time. I finally made it through the top and got the top. My heart was racing so quickly that I thought I was having a heart attack. I ignored it though, I was so close to winning I could taste it.
I looked down and felt dizzy at the height I was at, but I was snapped out of it for a second when I saw a little blonde head of hair running towards his dorm. I was furious, he did it! NO NO NO! I was so distracted that I started falling. I had completely lost control of the broom and began spiraling downward like a football. I stopped myself in time to avoid the stairs, but a voice distracted me again.
"Rose!" Lily was on the stairs yelling at me.
"Help!" I screamed headed towards the door of the Great Hall.
I quickly grabbed the front of the broom and turned it to avoid smashing into the door.
But I forgot to slow down.
The last thing I remember was seeing black.