Author's note: An early chapter in order to make up for the delay. Read and Enjoy. And Thanks to all of you who reviewed. You guys are truly wonderful. And I've enabled the anonymous reviews too:) But no flaming please.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Scorpius was sitting on the ground looking haggard and panicked at the thought of being stuck in the 17th century without being able to do magic. His mind was functioning by rote and he felt his pulse slow down. He sat there for what seemed like hours somehow expecting to wake up from this perennial nightmare. It was only after a while that he realized that Rose Weasley was staring at him the whole time.
Scorpius looked up from where he sat and saw that Rose was standing with her hands on her hips looking as ferocious as a lioness. Her mane and its redness did give her a striking resemblance to the creature.
"What?" he asked finally, annoyed at being stared at unabashedly.
"What? What?" she kept repeating, her eyebrows arching up each time.
"Are you repeating everything I'm saying?" he asked wondering whether the Weasley had finally cracked.
"Tell me how do we get out of here," she demanded.
"How am I supposed to know?" he cried while Rose's face swelled up and looked internecine.
"I don't care! You are the reason we are stuck here and I'm expecting you to find a way for us to get back. If you don't give me an answer, I'll blow your freaking head off with that branch over there!" she shouted, causing Scorpius to cringe.
"How the hell is it my fault? No body asked you to come to my rescue!" he yelled as he got back on his feet.
"If I hadn't, you would have been slaving in Hell with hot iron rods being shoved down your throat!"
"Believe me. I would rather have iron rods shoved down my throat than be stuck here with you. Who the hell do you think you are anyway, my knight in shining armor?" he mocked.
"I saved your life, you arrogant bastard!" she yelled back.
"Fine. You displayed an audacious display of chivalry. Remind me to nominate you for the outstanding bravery awards when we get out here. But in case you didn't notice, the underlined sentence here is 'No body asked you to jump off your seat and save me'!" he said moving towards the red head – their voices now loud enough to travel all the way to town.
"I understand that the concept of helping people is foreign to you, Malfoy. But unlike the Malfoy's ten commandments, which include 'Save thyself' ten times in a row, normal people do tend to save others during situations like these," replied Rose while taking an equal number of steps towards Scorpius, so that their faces were within inches from each other.
Rose saw Scorpius's expression suddenly turn grim and looked behind to see what he was looking at. Scorpius suddenly grabbed Rose by the elbow and dragged her behind the tree.
"Hey. Get your hands…" she shouted, but Scorpius cut her off mid sentence by covering her mouth with his hands
"Ssshh.. Someone's coming," he said, looking grave while taking his hands off her mouth.
Rose, disgusted with having Scorpius's spindly hands in contact with her lips, was about to retort when she heard footsteps on the nearby foliage and murmurs from a group of men.
"I tell you, he was right here," said a gruff voice, while strutting around the ground.
"It might be, that he left for town. You said you gave him directions to the town, did you not?" asked an elderly voice.
"I most certainly did. He looked very strange I tell you. I am resigned to believe that he might have lied about being a performer," he replied.
"How would you describe his looks, Sir?" asked a younger squeakier voice.
"He was wearing a strange assortment of clothes. He was draped in a heavy set of robes. And by Lord, did he have the most unusual pompadour. He looked quite young. He should be nearing eighteen or nineteen, perhaps"
"Close enough," said Scorpius while he listened from behind the tree.
"But he sure was a striking gentleman, with rich features. Quite attractive I must say," he finished.
Scorpius smirked smugly while Rose scowled and made retching sounds, much to the annoyance of Scorpius.
"I say he must be in town by now. Let us move along and ask the townsfolk," said the elderly gentleman and all three of them walked off, leaving Rose and Scorpius to breathe with relief.
Once the men disappeared, Rose didn't wait a second before bursting out,
"Great. Now they suspect us! Way to go 'Mr I'm so charming I can be unsuspicious with a chicken sticking out of my head'"
"At least I didn't faint when I heard the truth. You should be grateful I was there to ask him what day it was. Had it been you, he would have dragged you off unconscious and…"
"You're the reason why I'm stuck here in the first place!"
"Fine. I'm the reason we're stuck here. Now that we've established that, do you mind thinking what we ought to do next?"
Rose piped down a little and sauntered over to the tree and sat down beneath it.
"1690. 1690," she repeated while she concentrated hard on the events that took place in the said decade.
"What are you doing? Trying to learn the date by heart?" asked Scorpius as he heard her chants.
Rose ignored his jibes and went back to her thoughts trying to recall the pages of her textbook that dealt with the 17th century.
"Come on Weasley. Think hard. They must teach you something in Muggle Studies. Or are the rumors true that the subject is such a waste of time that you play hopscotch throughout the classes," he remarked.
"Malfoy. Either you shut your big fat mouth and let me think, or you do the thinking by using that precocious brain of yours and recall any events that happened in the 1690's,"
When Scorpius, being stumped for words, didn't reply she said, "I thought so," and went back to thinking hard.
Scorpius kicked the nearby leaves in frustration and muttered curses under his breath. He looked over at the Weasley and saw that she had her eyes closed and her hands on her head.
"You better hurry up before those people return," he shouted from the other end.
"Will you please shut up so that I can concentrate," she yelled back.
"Oh take all the time you need, Your Majesty. By which time those men will be back with torch flames to burn us alive,"
Rose jumped up brusquely and cried, "That's it. The Salem witch trials. They were held in the 1690's!"
"But…that's in America, isn't it?" he replied weakly, clearly frightened.
"Which means this is the witch burning era," she said ignoring Scorpius question. "This was when all those witches were burnt at the stakes. Or at least pretended to be," she finished as if talking to herself, looking slightly more bolder than Scorpius, who mean while looked like he had seen a ghost.
"What do you mean 'pretended to be'? he squealed terrified.
"Remember attending a class called History of Magic? Most witches used a freezing charm when they were set aflame. And they made crying noises, so that it would look like they were squirming in pain. Once they left, they would lift the charm and walk free," she stated calmly.
"All that is squeaky clean. Except for one tiny problem," said Scorpius and Rose, without waiting for answer replied in horror as the truth dawned upon her.
"We don't have our wands,"
The rivals stared at each other in shock and fear wondering what they would do if caught.
After a long pause Scorpius replied,
"Weasley. I know it's going to be difficult. But if we want to make it out of here alive, we are going to have to work together," he said with great difficulty.
Rose despite being annoyed at the idea, nodded her head in agreement. It was a stiff nod, which clearly meant 'As if I have a choice'
"Which means no more 'It's your fault I'm stuck here' arguments," he said sternly.
"Fine," she grumbled, while looking away.
"So first we'll have to get out of these clothes and mix in with the townsfolk. The only reason they suspect us is because of our appearance,"
"And your gelled pompadour," she imitated the fat man's voice.
Scorpius ignored her remark and went on "We'll have to get new clothes,"
"And I presume those are galleons and sickles pouring out of your pockets." teased Rose.
"I want you to accost a man who walks by and act like you have been robbed. You tell him that you're pregnant. You ask him for old unused clothes and he'll feel sorry for you and go get you some.," he replied looking confident.
"What a wonderful plan," she said.
"It is, isn't it?" remarked Scorpius looking excited.
"Oh it's perfect and fail safe too. In case he feels suspicious and decides to turn me in, you can run away and save your ass," she replied, her words dripping in sarcasm.
"Fine. We'll go with your perfectly tailored fail-safe plan then. Oh. That's right, you don't have one," he taunted while Rose scowled and folded her hands in her arms.
"So unless you can come up with something better, you'll have to do what I say," said Scorpius.
Rose took off her robes in frustration and walked off behind the tree. Just when Scorpius thought she left, Rose returned with a pumped up belly, which was in fact her shirt stuffed with her robes..
"Do I look pregnant enough?" she shot at Scorpius.
Scorpius stared at Rose and couldn't help but smile at the Weasley's question and her inflated belly.
"Four months can only get you a loaf of bread. Here's my sweater. Seven should be good enough to get you free clothes," he said and took off his sweater and handed it to her.
Rose blushed at his words and turned around to hide the wide smile that had formed around her lips. She stuffed her shirt with Scorpius's sweater and turned around to face him.
Scorpius scanned her from head to toe and gave her a thumbs up. Rose mean while reached out her hand and demanded Scorpius's robes.
"Why do you need my robes for?" he asked bewildered.
"Because a shirt and a knee length skirt haven't made the pages of the 17th century fashion magazines yet." she shot.
"Oh, sorry." said Scorpius, feeling slightly foolish and handed his robes over to Rose.
After putting on Scorpius's robes and adjusting her belly which had inflated to the size of a helium balloon, the two of them waited in silence to see, who passed through them next.
Author's note: A special plea to those who read my story and don't review. Please do tell me what you thought of this chapter. Criticisms are more than welcome as long they're not flames. Positive reviews encourage me and negative reviews help me improve.