"C'mon Rose!" Scorpius yelled over his shoulder at her as she struggled to keep control of her broom. "You've got to speed up, they catching us up," his voice barely carried over the roar of air blowing past her face. Rose gritted her teeth and tried to go faster, but some ingrained reaction urged her to slow down, as if a voice in her head was telling her that she'd crash.
It had been established that, though she was a first-rate tactician, Rose was never going to be a passable flier. Though no one could be quite sure why she was so different from the rest of her family in this aspect, Rose thought it stemmed from an incident that occurred when she was a toddler.
As well as she could remember, the five-year-old James had somehow managed to get her on his new broom without the adults noticing and taken her for a ride. This would have been a perfectly nice, cousinly thing to do, however, even then James was pretty sure if himself and decided to try out a few loop-the-loops. Unfortunately, Rose wasn't expecting it at all, and James seemed to have almost forgotten that she was there, and she fell off and tumbled towards the ground - a fall of at least twenty feet. It had been the most terrifying experience of her life - and also the first time she showed signs of magical ability, after landing gently on the ground and bouncing until she lost momentum.
James was punished severely by Aunt Ginny, but Rose was still left with an inbuilt fear of brooms. Flying at a reasonable speed she could handle, but anything fast or requiring manoeuvres was too much for her to handle. With the group of Aurors (she could tell who they were from their Ministry robes) close behind them, Rose flew after Scorpius down the staircase that lead to the sixth floor.
"Where are we going?" She struggled to make herself heard.
"I don't know!" Scorpius replied. "I thought you had a plan!" Rose grimaced. Yes, she had made a plan for the rest of the DA to ambush Sicarius' cronies, and given them a few strategies to use, but she hadn't quite got to the afterwards part of the plan.
She wondered worriedly what had happened to her cousins and their friends. They were supposed to double back and attack the Aurors a second time, but it seemed that they'd been defeated twice, and it was unlikely that Rose and Scorpius had any reinforcements coming. Only half concentrating on flying, Rose started formulating an escape plan. They needed to get to the Ministry - but how? They couldn't apparate, couldn't fly or Sicarius would catch them ... they needed magical transportation, but what could an underage wizard and witch possibly do?
And then it hit her.
"The Floo Network!" She called hoarsely to Scorpius. Most of the fires were monitored by the Ministry - at least to stop anything more than conversation through the fires. You could talk to people, but the line was drawn at getting in or out of Hogwarts - it would be a security risk. So which fires weren't policed? Rose could only think of one ...
"Can you get us into McGonagall's office?" She asked her boyfriend. Scorpius craned his neck around to look at her.
"Probably, but if you don't speed up we'll get caught by Sicarius' guys before we even get there!" He turned back to concentrate on where he was going and Rose took a deep breath. She had a plan, Scorpius would do his bit, and now she had to do hers - slow down the Aurors and get over her fear of flying.
She narrowed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.
"Okay Rose - stop being stupid and do this," she muttered to herself. "Scorpius," she called again, "do you happen to have any of Uncle George's Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, by any chance?" For once, she was relying on her boyfriend's prankster streak - though she promised herself it would never happen again.
"Carry it with me everywhere," she heard him say, and imagined him smirking. "What do you want it for?" Rose drew her wand out from her robes.
"When I say 'Go!', I want you to throw it as far as you can behind you," she started speeding up and almost smiled as she began to draw alongside Scorpius. "Got it," he said, and Rose glanced quickly behind her. The group of renegade Dark Wizard Catchers were only twenty or so feet behind them, and she let them round the next corner before she acted.
"Stupefy!" She yelled, pointing her wand at the group. A beam of red light shot towards them, but Rose didn't stop to see the effect of her spell. "Stupefy!" She waved her wand again, and more red light shot towards their attackers. She knew that they were too far away for her spells to have any impact - the Aurors would have already started shooting spells at her and Scorpius if that wasn't the case - but hopefully it would slow them down.
A few of then started shooting spells back, but Rose yelled, "Protego!" and a shield spanned the space between them. Two of the spells were blocked, but a third shaft of green light shot towards them and Rose yelled a warning to Scorpius as she rolled over her broom to avoid the Killing Curse. Nicely executed Sloth-grip roll, she thought mutely.
It wasn't long before the group disabled the barrier and raced towards Rose again, though, and she knew it was time to get out of there - these Aurors had stated clearly their intentions to kill.
"Go!" She screamed at Scorpius, though she was really trying to convince herself, and as he threw the black dust over his shoulder, Rose hunched down over her broom and let every fear and preconception of flying she'd ever had go.
She streamed down the staircases, Scorpius hot on her tail, dodging statues and weaving around corners.
"Dive!" She heard Scorpius yell behind her, and without thinking of her fear of heights Rose pointed her broom straight towards the first floor and flew head first through the moving stairs. It was as if her Weasley blood was finally showing through and the broom felt natural in her hands. Streaks of red and white hair, Rose and Scorpius rocketed towards the ground and pulled up steeply just in time to avoid crashing.
As they raced past the Great Hall, Scorpius took the lead and flew towards the Headmistress' office. Rose hoped fervently that they'd lost Sicarius' cronies, but she realised that if the had any sense they'd just jump down to the first floor and use a cushioning charm, so they couldn't be sure of any extra time.
They reached the gargoyle guardians and Scorpius garbled something to them. After a few moments of tension and Rose glancing nervously over her shoulder, they were let in just as the Aurors rounded the corner. Rose and Scorpius raced towards the fireplace and Rose grabbed a handful of Floo Powder.
"Head of Magical Law Enforcement Office, Ministry of Magic," Rose said clearly and carefully, dropped the powder and leapt into the green flames with Scorpius, praying that Professor McGonagall had access to the Ministry, because if she didn't they would soon find themselves in a very awkward situation.
After a few seconds of emerald vision and various fire grates, the two tumbled into a small room. Rose looked up and felt like crying in relief when she saw her mum sitting at her desk, looking rather calm for someone who'd just had two flushed Hogwarts students come through he fireplace. Hands trembling, Rose pulled the box out of her robes and gave the Goblin Wand Rights bill over to her mother, who sat there for a few seconds, eyes tearing across the page.
Finally she spoke.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" She said slowly, and Rose felt words tumbling out of her mouth.
"There are people after that - our Potions Master - and they pushed me off the tower and tried to poison me because I put Fawkes into Dumbledore's painting, and they knew Nobby Leach had hidden the bill in a painting, and they thought I could get it out, which I did actually, but I didn't know about but they thought I did because I was looking for the Scamander portrait which they thought was the one and it was actually Sir Cadogan, and now they're after us and they trapped everyone else and you need to sign it now before they can stop us again," she stopped as she realised that what she'd said probably made no sense, but somehow her mum understood.
"Very well," her mum smiled, "I think it should be passed, but as long as you realise the implications of this, Rose," she looked at her daughter seriously.
"I know, mum, but it's the right thing to do," she dusted a bit of spot off of her robes. "We can't keep these medieval rules forever." The three of them looked at each other and saw agreement in each if their eyes.
"I'll need a witness to sign," her mum said.
"You can't get anyone from here," Rose said frantically. "Sicarius recruited Aurors - anyone could be in on it." Her mother frowned.
"And it can't be a relative - so not you, or Harry, or Ron," she put a hand to her forehead. "I don't know if I can trust anyone else, though." Scorpius stepped forward.
"Could you trust me?" He held Rose's mum's gaze. "I'm 16, I can sign, right?" There was silence in the office for a long moment.
"Yes, you can, Mr Malfoy," her mum said slowly. "You can indeed." And so Rose watched in amazement as her mum and boyfriendprovided the signatures needed to pass the very first law to allow goblins to carry a wand.