Chapter Seventeen

Rose is summoned

The sun began to wink over the horizon announcing not just a new day but also a new year before Rose Weasley fell asleep. The party had lasted into the early morning but she had been home for hours laying in the darkness of her bedroom just thinking. She has prided herself on being such a good judge of character most her life yet she had befriended Max who went on to exploit her friends whilst she was cold shouldered to Scorpius who was kinder than she could have imagined. The months that lay behind her were now looked upon in a different light whilst the months they lay ahead became a complete unknown. She hoped for her sanity that the madness that seemed to have surrounded her and her extended friends and family abated but she doubted it. Life rarely did as it was told.

The journey back to Hogwarts for the first time that she remembered was an unpleasant one. Thinking upon her misjudgment of Scorpius each time she saw him which seemed quite often firstly on the train platform then passing past his carriage as she looked for Marianna then as he bought some food from the trolley then disembarking from the train. It was as though Hogwarts was trying to tell her that she had made a mistake.

However as she settled down to a harsh final few months working towards her NEWT exams the thought was driven out of her mind as arithmancy, charms, potions, ancient runes and transfiguration took over. It was early February before the soap opera that was last term displayed any signs of showing herself again. It started with a single knock on the Gryffindor common room door.

This in itself was a rarity anyone who wanted to come into the common room normally had the password. For a second or two no one made a sign to move as if ignoring it would make it go away. It was Roxanne sat beside the fire who moved first to open the portrait hole wand raised as though she expected a demon to be stood beside the door when she opened it. Instead the whole common room heard the response of,

"Oh hi Charlie what do you want?"

"I was wondering if I could grab Lily for a moment," at that moment Rose was eternally grateful that Albus and some of the other Weasley boys were visiting Hagrid. But she felt apprehensive on their behalf apparently so did Roxanne.

"What for?" she asked skeptically.

"The errr headmistress wants to see her something about prefects." Rose almost stopped Lily going there and then she knew Charlie was lying anything to do with Prefects went through her as head girl but there had been no word. She decided against her gut feeling to say nothing and watch Lily walk out the common room with Charlie. Despite Lily's constant insistence she was not hung up on Charlie Rose saw a slight blush in her cheeks appear. To Rose's surprise the tall boy stood beside Charlie made no efforts to leave with him and Lily but was left languishing beside the doorframe.

"Scorpius would you like to come in?" Roxanne asked.

"As long as you don't think I am stealing your secrets,"

Scorpius smiled as it was said in jest and Roxanne laughed as she let him in. Some of the younger students looked as though they very much thought he would try and steal their secrets and Rose rolled her eyes house unity for some reason seemed inapplicable to Slytherin and Gryffindor.

"Is this seat taken?" Scorpius asked pulling out a rather stern looking chair to sit beside Rose who had her feet up on a little sofa.

"You can sit on here if you would prefer," she smiled and he duly sat beside her.

"Ancient Runes?" He asked looking at the work.

"Yes," she replied not looking up this was for two reasons firstly she was genuinely in a rush to get this work finished as she still had three feet on the properties of hemlock to do before midnight. The second reason was however recently she had found herself at mealtimes or in lessons they shared trying to look at Scorpius as he worked or ate. She could offer herself no rational explanation on the topic and went with the strongest of a weak set of excuses: exam stress.

With Scorpius sat so close she could smell his aftershave, something minty that she couldn't quite place. She was worried about her own expression towards him. And so the conversation continued for several moments in short one word answers her not looking up and he struggling with topics to talk about. After a few minutes of this rather strained conversation Scorpius put his finger under Rose's chin and forced her to look towards him she tried to avert her gaze but his deep blue eyes pulled her in.

"Rose," he asked with sincere concern in his voice "is there something wrong?"

"No," she stammered unable to reply as she looked for the first time at the perfect proportion of his face and it pulled her in a little furrow in his brow where concern was etched on his face. Fortunately, in Rose's opinion, it was at that moment that Lily and Charlie choose to open the common room door their fingers touching as though they'd been holding hands seconds earlier Rose recognized the little smile of happiness on her best friends face, the look she'd worn before her break up with Charlie. Scorpius got up to leave at that moment with Charlie and with a simple.

"Goodbye Rose," Scorpius said as he swept out of the common room. Several of the younger students stared open mouthed at him as he left wondering how one got such a presence and in some way Rose understood their question. She seemed to feel the physical leaving of the boy from the room. She also noticed out of the corner of her eye Lily almost skipped up the steps to the girls' room. With Marianna, Roxanne and Alexandra she made to follow Lily and they cornered her in her dorm room a smile spread across her face.

"Come on then spill," Roxanne smiled at Lily.

"He proposed," she said simply. They all looked at her in shock.

"And you said…" asked Alexandra asked impatiently.

"No," Lily replied as simply she then looked up at the four girls in her doorway all with their mouths wide open.

"I told him I was not to be dropped one moment and picked up another then he said he had been miserable without me and he was worried what his parents would say so he had broken us up. Over the holidays he told them that he was in love with me and they told him to change his mind on threat of disinheritance. He wrote a couple of weeks ago saying he would be asking me to marry him and they've cut him loose.

"So I said yes."

They all screamed a little before composing themselves Rose in particular gave her head a little shake as she swore Roxanne had deafened her with her scream.

"Do you have the ring?" Marianna asked Lily drew out a little chain from under her shirt with a beautiful platinum ring with a diamond held in it. The ring looked at least forty years old and Rose smiled at it. Charlie obviously knew Lily very well as the ring suited her.

"When are you getting married?" Alexandra asked and Lily smiled.

"Not until I have left school at least," she smiled back. "I am only just sixteen now I can't even legally get married until I am seventeen."

"Lily Zabini," Roxanne smiled at her.

"Don't," Lily said in reply "I am like a school girl I'll be doodling that on my parchment before you know it."

"Rose Weasley?" A voice said from behind the group and they all swung round to see a tiny second year girl with long dark braids stood behind them obviously a little nervous of being in the presence of so many older students simultaneously.

"Yes?" Rose asked the girl.

"Professor McGonagall would like to see you in her office now." the girl said.

"Thank you for the message," Rose smiled wondering what the headmistress could want at nearly ten o clock in the evening.

"Maybe you'll come back engaged as well Ro," Marianna smiled.

"Honestly the headmistress that was such an obvious lie from Charlie." Rose left the group still gossiping about engagements and Roxanne starting on venues that Rose thought a little premature.

She entered the headmistresses office by the stairway hidden by a gargoyle the password this time was

"Sugar mice," was always connected to muggle sweets for a reason Rose was yet to work out she could not connect Professor McGonagoll with eating any of these sweets.