Chapter Two: The Aftermath
Scorpius looked at me, encouragingly. I couldn't believe that he was helping me with this. I began the story from where I left off…
The Monday after that weekend, I went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As I sat down at the Ravenclaw table, I noticed everyone was whispering and pointing at me. What was going on?
It was in that moment that Venus approached me at the table.
"You really should be more careful what you talk about to people. You never know who is listening," she said cattily.
I sighed, "Venus, I didn't shag anyone. Ros was just assuming something that she shouldn't have."
"Desi, whatever you have done, hopefully you knew the charms to be careful about it," she countered without actually listening to what I had to say. It was like talking to Ros all over again.
Somewhere in the castle the bell rang, it was time for classes to begin for the day. I left my untouched breakfast at the Ravenclaw table as I made my way to doubles Potions with the Gryffindors.
Scorpius met me at the doors, "Hey Desi, how is it going?" I looked up at him and smiled. I really did like this boy. He was completely sweet and I had known him from childhood. My mother and his mother were best mates.
When I finally arrived at the dungeons, I was glad to see that my classmates had stopped talking about me. Hopefully Hogwarts would find something else to gossip about with one another. Potions class was my favorite, mainly because Professor Pucey was the best teacher. He liked me because I actually cared about class and was excellent at potions.
I took my seat next to Ros. I looked around and noticed the one other Weasley kid I had befriended in my years at Hogwarts. Hugo was sitting alone and I could see Venus pointing and making faces at him. Sweet girl, Venus was. I knew from being friends with him that Hugo was into blokes instead of girls. He looked miserable. I tried to ignore my pity for him. Luckily, Professor Pucey decided to start class.
"Today we start on Veritaserum," he announced.
Glad to be distracted from everything going on outside of class, I opened my textbook to the pages about Veritaserum.
"Will you at least tell me what it was like?" Ros questioned. I shook my head. Why wouldn't anyone bloody listen to me?
"I can't tell you about something that didn't happen," I responded going back to the directions. She huffed before commenting, "I'll just ask Lorcan what happened then." I had to get to Lorcan before she did to make sure he didn't try to joke with her and she believed it.
"Miss Weasley and Miss Corner, do you have something to share with us?" Professor Pucey asked. I shook my head quickly and then kicked Ros under the table.
"What was that for?" She whispered.
"Stop talking in potions. Let's just do our work."
"Okay," she hissed before picking up the knife to slice some ingredients.
When we successfully brewed our potion, I dropped it off on Professor Pucey's desk. A noise from behind me caught my attention before I left the classroom. I looked behind me to see three of the boys from Gryffindor tossing stuff at Hugo's cauldron.
A bright liquid shot from his cauldron into his face. He cried out and clawed at his face.
"McLaggen, Sloper, Coote, and Weasley, stop it! The four of you will meet me here after the rest of classes today. Weasley, go to the infirmary!" I heard Professor Pucey snap as I exited.
Hugo passed me in the hallway on his way to the hospital wing. I hoped he was going to be okay.
Once classes were over, I ran to the common room. I had to beat Ros to Lorcan.
I was breathing raggedly once I finally made it to Ravenclaw tower. I barely made the answer to the riddle escape my lips with my inability to breathe. Too late, Ros was already talking to Lorcan when I got into the room.
"What are you telling her?" I shouted at him. I hoped he hadn't made this situation worse.
"That we spent a magical night together in a very vacant Ravenclaw common room," he grinned with a wink. I knew he was joking, but it would go over Ros' head. She would take him literally.
"He's joking," I tried with Ros. She ruffled my hair and I knew I had lost with her. Since Lorcan wasn't going to help me out and the whole school already knew about it, I decided to just lie. I didn't see the point in trying to tell the truth when everyone wanted to believe the lie.
"Fine, it was okay," I started, shooting Lorcan a glare. If he wasn't going to be helpful, then he was going to get knocked down a peg. "No romance, no lust, it was just boring." I hoped he liked that. It served him right for not helping my cause any.
"Maybe it'll be better next time stud," Ros snapped at him.
"What next time? It wasn't worth my time," I countered. Lorcan's head whipped to look at me so fast if you blinked you would have missed it. He glared, and for a moment, I regretted saying anything. I quickly got over it as I justified my story with his stupid joking.
XXXXX
On Tuesday, I wandered to class skipping breakfast. I was sure that I didn't want to hear the conversation in the Great Hall. However, I noticed some sixth year Hufflepuff blokes that I had never met staring at me. Suddenly the entire older portion of the school was aware that I existed.
My stomach grumbled as I trudged to the greenhouses for Herbology. At least this class would only contain fifth-year Ravenclaws. I could handle any gawking they did. Unfortunately, Professor Longbottom was a stickler about language.
"Apparently the harlot made time in her day for class," I heard Brown comment. Ros wasn't in this class with me so it looked like I was going to have to verbally smack Venus for myself.
"Yes well at least I don't have to rely on class as my only entertainment you bint," I wittily retorted, but immediately regretted it the moment I saw Professor Longbottom.
He didn't skip a beat, "Miss Corner that type of language results in detentions in my classroom. You will report to Mr. Filch tonight at seven."
Who was I turning into? I had never previously received a detention. I couldn't believe on top of the horrible lie I had told the previous evening, that I was going to detention now.
XXXXX
At seven, I reported to Filch's office. It smelled horrible and Mrs. Norris II was staring at me with her creepy yellow eyes.
"I don't care if it wasn't your fault. I just tell you what to do for detention," I could hear Filch saying to someone. I did not expect to see Hugo standing behind him when he finally entered the office. Mrs. Norris II scampered to him. I wondered why only Hugo was in detention and not the other Gryffindor boys.
"I see another face in here," Filch commented when he saw me. I nodded. Beyond when I saw him in the corridors, this was the first time I actually met him.
"Yes Mr. Filch. My name is Desi Corner and Professor Longbottom sent me here for detention," I explained. Hugo rolled his eyes at my introduction. I had never been in detention before; I didn't know how this was done.
"Well Miss Corner, you and Weasley will be cleaning out the boys' lavatory on the fourth floor," he doled out the detention. It could have been worse. I knew quite a few good cleaning charms. Professor Flitwick had given the essay to me as extra credit. "It'll be done by hand. We don't use magic in my detentions," he finished, destroying my thoughts of using cleaning spells. He handed us both buckets with hot soapy water and sent us on our way.
As we were walking up to the loo, I asked Hugo the question on my mind. "So why are you in detention? I saw what those gits did to your potion."
"Because Deputy Headmaster Higgs is against wizards liking other wizards," he answered quickly, then asked a question of his own, "What is with your new look?"
"Haven't you heard? I slept with Lorcan Scamander," I answered.
"Oh wow, I heard that you were shagging Professor Longbottom," he responded.
I shuddered, "Ew, that's gross! He's married, and his kids are in school with us. I don't understand how that was even said." He shrugged and went into scrubbing the bogey marks off of the sinks. I sat there and thought about everything going on in my life.
"So you know Hugo, the whole thing with Lorcan, it didn't happen. Ros assumed Lorcan and I had sex after seeing us doing homework together last Friday night. I tried to deny it, but then I got tired of trying to tell her that I didn't."
"So you started your own rumor?" He asked.
"Sort of," I answered, then thought about it, "Well I tried to stop them."
Hugo looked at me in disbelief. I really didn't try that hard. Instead I just decided to let the rumor happen. I didn't think it would turn into anything.
"I just don't think it's that big of a deal. This is Hogwarts. Other stuff is bound to become the news around here."
I stood in the middle of the pitch. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was going to be the news for quite some time.