First off, a few excuses. I have literally been snowed under with assignments and school work, and then I literally went to the snow! A week and a half of skiing was great, but now I'm back, and writing again. Hope you enjoy it, and as always, please read and review.
Rose Weasley walked into the Great Hall with a smile on her face. The first day of school was one of her favourite days of the year, but her smile turned into a frown once she spied the only other student in the hall.
Sitting at the Slytherin table was Scorpius Malfoy, and she worked hard to keep the surprise from her features. He looked up when she entered, and quickly ducked his head again when he registered that she was staring back at him. Quickly gathering his things, and conspicuously studying his timetable, he shuffled past her and out the door.
That was indeed puzzling. She had expected that Scorpius Malfoy would be off committing nefarious misdeeds of one sort or another, not simply having a very early breakfast. This conundrum frustrated her infinitely, because she then tried to recall why this had been the assumption she had made, and drew a blank.
What led her to think automatically that Scorpius would be up to no good? When she was completely flummoxed, she settled on the fact he was a Malfoy, and began to scan her new timetable.
It was nearly an hour before anyone else she knew appeared in the Great Hall, and she smirked at the sight of Dominique and Lauren stumbling into breakfast looking bleary eyed and disgruntled at the resumption of early morning starts.
It was well known in the Weasley household that Dominique was virtually impossible to co-exist with prior to her morning coffee, so Rose had one lined up that she simply placed in her cousin's hand as the grumpy blonde slid down next to her.
"Good morning!" Rose said brightly to the pair of them.
"Could have fooled me," muttered Dominique into her coffee.
"Morning Rose," managed Lauren, as she retrieved some toast.
"Here are your timetables," Rose said, handing out the two pieces of paper, to which she received muted thanks from Lauren and a cursory grunt from Dominique.
"I heard Teddy and Victoire broke off their engagement," Rose said.
"WHAT!" screamed both her friends in unison.
"There you go, that wasn't hard, was it?" Rose mocked, grinning, "Although I think crushing on your sister's fiancée is frowned upon in polite circles Dom."
Dominique managed to recover sufficiently to look coldly at Rose.
"No such problems for me though," Lauren said smugly, "and I'm not family, so James isn't out of bounds either."
Both Rose and Dominique choked on the different breakfast components they were consuming.
"If you even so much as touch James, I'm applying for a dormitory transfer," Dominique replied, "because one of those things he's caught is bound to be contagious."
"That's your cousin you're talking about there," Lauren pointed out.
"Moving on from dear James' rather doubtful mantra of quantity over quality," Rose said firmly, so her friends turned on her instead.
Lauren grinned at her instead, the smile of a killer deciding to switch prey.
"Alright then Rose, what's sharing a dormitory with a Malfoy like? Do you think the slime trails will come out of the carpet?" Lauren asked, but Rose shrugged in a non-committal way.
"Oh come off it Rosie, surely he was unbearable, I can only imagine what sharing a dormitory with him would be like," Dominique said, finishing off her toast.
"Actually, he's a bit weird," Rose said hesitantly.
"Thanks for that, Sherlock," Lauren replied, as the other two looked confused. Lauren was muggle born, she often said weird things the other two didn't understand. After a while, they began to ignore it wherever possible.
"Yeah well, anyway, he was awake before I was, and you know that filthy cloak he had yesterday? I'm fairly sure I saw him wearing it again today, which makes no sense at all. The Malfoy's are filthy rich, it's not like he's going to be short of clothing," Rose said.
"You're thinking about him too much," Dominique announced, "just let Albus beat the stuffing out of him and ignore him. It's worked for the last six years. Now, what have we got first?" she continued looking at her timetable.
"Well, if you'd actually managed more than four OWLs you might have Transfiguration with Rose and I..."
"Screw you."
"She'd have to, cause it's not like Teddy is about to, is it?" Rose smirked.
Scorpius located the lost property closet with an unrestrained sense of glee. It was essentially a large broom cupboard on the second floor, filled up to Scorpius' neck with misplaced items of clothing and other belongings.
He located two sets of Slytherin robes, and two more shirts, one of which appeared to be the perfect size, and the other which was bigger than was ideal, but he wasn't complaining. He was about to close the cupboard, but then he recalled Professor McGonagall's words about how the clothes were essentially abandoned. He couldn't resist 'borrowing' a grey, hooded tracksuit jacket, or the matching tracksuit pants. He added a pair of stray singlets for good measure, and then spied a nice pair of jeans as well.
The muggle trainers that were less than half a size too big were added to the pile, and Scorpius smiled happily as he grabbed a warm looking blue hooded jacket as well, and bundling them all up in his cloak, he rushed back towards his dorm with his treasure trove.
Hanging up his new acquisitions gave him a fresh sense of satisfaction, and before he knew it the bell was chiming for the beginning of class.
He rushed to consult his timetable, and grabbing his copy of A Guide to Advanced NEWT Transfiguration, courtesy of the library, from his trunk, and bolted for the door.
Professor McGonagall was one of Rose's favourite teachers, as she had been for her parents, or at least her mother, anyway. Despite the fact she was approaching her 90th birthday, the Hogwarts Headmistress had insisted on continuing in her post as the Transfiguration teacher also, despite the fact it was unheard of to do so.
The Hogwarts Headmistress was respected by every student of the school, and as Rose and Lauren slipped into their seats in the classroom, the elderly lady swept into the room with the grace and elegance of someone half her age.
"I assume I need not remind you the importance of your seventh and final year at Hogwarts; you are here because you are each one of the few who gained the required grade in your OWLs to continue with this subject," she began, and then scanned the room with a keen eye.
"Not all of you are here however; where is Mr. Malfoy?"
"Sorry Professor," came a voice from the door, as it opened on cue.
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, you've chosen to join us," she said coldly, "I assume you have found an adequate replacement for that ruined cloak in the lost property cupboard then?"
Pockets of laughter at the irony of a Malfoy being forced to resort to using second hand robes broke out, and one of Albus' friends shouted something out to which the entire group dissolved into laughter.
"You will be joining Mr. Potter in detention, I think Mr. Browning, for that remark. I would suggest you find a seat Mr. Malfoy and don't be late for one of my classes again."
Rose absent-mindedly flicked through her copy of A Guide to Advanced NEWT Transfiguration, while Professor McGonagall began writing on the blackboard, or at least, bewitching a stick of chalk to do so.
The only spare seat was two rows in front of her, and she watched as Scorpius slid into it, and placed his textbook on the table. She immediately noted that he had certainly changed robes, and the idea of him being forced to resort to second hand clothing puzzled her no end.
She couldn't help watching as he removed a quill from the inside of his cloak, and glanced around the classroom. He was the only student in the room who did not have a book bag, and she watched as he surreptitiously removed his wand and silently refilled his ink bottle from the inkwell on his desk. It was all very strange.
"Ms. Weasley, kindly stop daydreaming and pay attention! I am beginning to wonder whether my Head Boy and Girl aren't proving highly inappropriate choices!" barked the Headmistress, staring at Rose with a mixture of anger and surprise.
Rose was surprised herself. She never zoned out in class, and on her first day and all! Apologising, and cursing Malfoy under her breath for giving her cause to do so, she picked up her quill and began copying out what was on the blackboard.
"Now, in the second half of this lesson I would like you to practice the spells, the mechanics of which I hope you are familiar with now."
Professor McGonagall was surveying her class sternly, as Scorpius finished writing the final line of notes on the blackboard, and set his quill down.
"You will pair up, and one of you will perform the self-transfiguration, and then your partner will demonstrate their ability to undo that alteration. Self-transfiguration is a difficult art, and you will all master it at different speeds, so I will not set a target object. Just select one you feel comfortable with. Needless to say however, I expect to hear no sounds when these spells are being performed, if you cannot perform them non-verbally you shouldn't be present in my class. Now find a partner and get started."
Scorpius cringed, and sat unmoving, as the people around him muttered to each other about the formation of pairs. Scorpius turned hopefully to the boy next to him, but he had already found a buddy over the other side of the room, and had moved toward him.
"Who does not have a partner? Come on, there is an odd number of you, there has to be one!" Professor McGonagall called, and shamefaced, Scorpius raised his hand.
"Mr. Malfoy! Well now, we'll just add you to a group then shall we? Ms. Weasley, Ms. Phillips? Mr. Malfoy will join your group I think, get the Head Boy and Girl working together."
This suggestion was met with a polite nod of the head from Lauren Phillips, and an ill-disguised grimace from Rose Weasley.
Scorpius shrugged off his cloak and placed it over the back of his chair, removing his wand as he went. Rose Weasley and Lauren Phillips had taken up residence in the back corner of the room closest the door, and he awkwardly shuffled towards them.
They stood there talking, their heads almost touching as Scorpius stood off to one side, uncomfortably waiting for them to finish their conversation.
"Shall we get started then?" Rose suggested, half ignoring the blonde-haired boy.
Scorpius nodded, and raised his wand.
"Well then, what are you waiting for?" Lauren enquired, and without saying a word, he waved his wand in a complex motion, and suddenly in his place stood a grandfather clock.
Rose was impressed despite herself. It was weird looking at the elegant timepiece as if it contained a person, and suddenly she didn't know where to look. But one thing was for certain; Scorpius Malfoy was seriously talented when it came to Transfiguration.
She knew that if was far more difficult to transfigure yourself into an object with moving parts than something elementary like a nightstand or a desk. The intricate nature of a clock made it doubly as difficult, and the transfiguration of watches was considered a specialised talent.
"Extremely impressive," came a voice from behind them, and Professor McGonagall walked across the classroom for a closer look. "Ms. Phillips, Ms. Weasley, you aren't supposed to stand there gawking at Mr. Malfoy no matter how good the piece of magic is, hurry up and change him back!"
Rose snapped out of her thought-train for the second time that lesson, and hurriedly waved her wand. There was a small 'pop' like there had been when he'd changed himself initially, and Scorpius Malfoy returned to them, looking uninjured.
"Excellent, excellent both of you. Mr. Malfoy, that was an outstanding demonstration of temporis transfiguration, was that a particular timepiece you changed into?" "It was the cloak in the hall at home, Professor," he mumbled, and Professor McGonagall nodded knowingly. "While still very remarkable Mr. Malfoy, work on transfiguring yourself into an object you imagine rather than one you know. Makes the exercise much more challenging, since you apparently are in need of added difficulty," "Thank you Professor," Scorpius replied, his head bowed.
Good news and bad news. Good news first? I have finished all my assignments, and hopefully another chapter will be forthcoming very soon. Bad news? I have exams in a few weeks, and that's going to eat into any writing time I have. I also get shocking writers block, and blow hot and cold on stories in the space of about five minutes. It makes it very hard to get anything done. If you've got any hints, it would definitely be appreciated