A/N So this took me a while to get up, its and epically long chapter for me. Thank you so much to all you lovely reviewers, bridgetonbaby, autumn faith, Miss Dumbledarcy, boblovespotter, banana175, phoenica and Blue Carnation Green Butterfly, you guys had me doing a little dance around my room. I am currently writing chapter 7 and it will be from Scorpius' point of view, I'm not sure yet if its gonna be the whole thing, but yes, be excited(: Also, I know that some of my characters are a little bit flawed, but I'm working on it... anyway, please enjoy! Review and make me do my weird happy dance. Love. x
Chapter Six
When I walk into the common room, Ria is sitting up waiting for me.
"Nothing happened." I laugh at her expectant face. "We studied, end of story."
"You lie," she says gently shoving me, as I plop down into the chair next to her.
"No, I tell the truth." I say mimicking her tone.
"Fine don't tell me." she says, giving her puppy dog eyes.
"Nothing happened Ria." I repeat.
"Eugh, you're so boring. But guess what?"
"What?" I say, settling myself down for what is no doubt going to be a very long winded explanation.
"So Jake Abrams was walking in front of us – Josie and I – as we were going up that staircase, by that portrait of the trolls dancing, and he stopped, just plain stopped right in front of us. I nearly walked into him. Then he turned round, and I'm not joking, his eyes were black. Literally black, and then he stormed past us back down the stairs, muttering crazily to himself. He nearly pushed some first years down the stairs. I dunno what's gotten into him, but I don't think he's ever pulled this much attention to himself. Ever."
"That's weird, he was in the library in a foul mood. Had a right go at me when I tried to help him. "
"Curious." Ria mutters.
"Anyway, I'm going to bed," she announces.
Merlin that girl has the attention span of a goldfish.
I follow her up the stairs, and my thoughts traitorously drift to Malfoy. As I go into my bedtime routine, I switch on autopilot, my mind wandering. What is with him? Why on earth does he suddenly want to be friends? I know he said it was because of Al, but somehow, I don't think that's the real reason. Maybe he likes me? Shut up brain… but what if he did? At the thought of this I shiver in pleasure and roll into bed. No, I canNOT be thinking this. No. No. No. Body, you are such a traitor. Anything I fantasize about with him is wrong. And will never ever happen anyway. So even if I did get my hopes up. It wouldn't happen. Not that I'm getting my hopes up. Once more, I fall asleep, with my thoughts on a certain Scorpius Hypherion Malfoy.
XX
The next morning I awake roughly, a cold sweat drenching me as result of the nightmares that swamp me. A black eyed Jake swims through my mind. I sit up abruptly running my hands through my hair, pulling out the knots. I get out of bed, and go to shower, and my vanilla and lemon shampoo and conditioner relaxes me. I sigh and switch off the faucet as I step out of the shower, and pull a towel around me. Josie is standing staring in a mirror over one of the basins.
"You alright sweetie?" she asks. "I heard you get up."
"Yeah, fine. Just nightmares again." I reply.
She comes over and gives me a hug.
"You can always come and share my bed," she says, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at me.
The door swings open.
"Why are you two becoming lesbians?" asks Dom as she joins us.
"Because, I am the only person who can comfort Rose," gloats Josie.
"Pah, I'm her cousin, and her best friend. I will always win that contest." Retorts Dom and slings her arm caddishly around me.
I shove them both away, "I love you both the same. And if the worst comes to the worst, we can always join a convent together."
"Or a brothel," Dom adds, winking.
We all giggle madly.
"What's going on in here?" Molly walks in too, "ah so this is where the party's at," she continues.
"We're going to join a brothel," I inform her, smiling.
She laughs, "You guys are crazy."
They all get in the shower and I walk back to our room, rousing Ria from her rather undignified sleep. "Up, now! We have lessons."
"No," she moans, "It's Saturday."
"No sweetie pie, its Friday, we have Herbology this morning."
"Eugh, you ruin my life Rose," she moans, rolls out of bed, and leaves to go and have a shower.
I laugh and pull on my uniform and my long Gryffindor robe for warmth before I'm joined by the rest of my dorm.
"Hurry up!" I moan at them "I wanna eat."
"You always wanna eat," mocks Josie.
"So do you," I retort, sticking my tongue out at her.
"Yeah, I know," she says dropping her head in mock shame.
We all head down to breakfast. It's become a tradition that on a Friday, we all eat breakfast together as a dorm. We're not allowed to talk to other people because we decided, we need our girl time. We sit down in the Great Hall and all have our usual pancakes with maple syrup and we each have a different fruit on top. Lorcan and Al bumble in and sit down next to us.
"Morning ladies," says Lorcan, winking. We all ignore him.
"Guys?" asks Al. We continue to ignore them.
"Oh it's their girl morning," explains Lorcan, and they both turn away.
"I know," says Molly. "It's completely ridiculous. I cannot believe that they dropped Marcus Jones, from the England team."
"And he's so hot." I add. They giggle. "Jose, you have maple syrup down your face." I point out to her as it drips down her chin.
"I know," she replies, "but it's only you girls so I don't care."
"Look!" exclaims Dom, "I made a face with ears and everything," she says, showing us her plate.
"Dom, you shouldn't be so excited by that," says Ria shaking her head in despair.
We finish our pancakes, nattering in a typically girly fashion, and head off to lessons. I drag Ria, Dom, and Jose off to Herbology while Molly goes to Divination. I think it's utterly hilarious that she keeps on with Divination. My dear mother thinks it's a complete waste of a subject and wouldn't even let me take it at OWL.
Herbology was fun, we were getting the pods out of snargaluff plants and Professor Longbottom was getting hugely excited by the amount we had collected.
"Brilliant, brilliant," he bumbles merrily as he bounces along the rows of the greenhouse, ducking and weaving as the vines from various innocent looking stumps shoot out at him.
Suddenly, a vine catches my neck, I scream as the sharp prickles cut me and I fall to the ground and hit my head hard against the reinforced glass of the greenhouse. Josie had the common sense to cut the vine before it could wrap itself around my neck. I sit on the ground, leaning gingerly against the workbench. I put my fingers up to my neck and can feel the slick of blood. Crap. What happened to being good at everything?
"Rose? Rose? Are you all right?" Jose asks. I look up at a sea of concerned faces staring down at me.
"She needs to go up to the hospital wing. She may have concussion and she's bleeding," says Professor Longbottom, looking shocked that anything bad could happen in his lesson.
I begin to feel faint. There must be a lot of blood. I look at my hand - its red. Shit. Bad idea. Definitely feel sick now.
"I'll take her," chorus two voices, I look up to see who said it and too my surprise, Malfoy and Jake Abrams have both stepped forward. The class look at them in shock.
"Malfoy, you can take her," says Professor Longbottom.
He bends at the knees to pull me up, I put my arm round his waist and he practically carries me from the room.
"Here," he says, and takes off his scarf, letting go of me, and I wobble dangerously. He presses the scarf to my neck and then grabs me again.
"Keep the pressure on it."
I walk slowly, my head pounding. Eugh, I hate blood. I begin to slip slowly down his side. Then out of the blue, I'm not even sure how I got there; I'm up in his arms.
"I can walk thanks," I mumble incoherently.
"Um no. You can't. Just keep pressure on your neck, okay?"
I nod vaguely, random things running through my mind. Blood, Malfoy, Malfoy's arms, blood, Malfoy, Malfoy, blood, Malfoy's body, Malfoy, Malfoy… Malfoy. And similar things drift across my head. Man, I'm tired and my head hurts like a bitch. I could just fall asleep right here against his warm solid body. Merlin, he must have abs of steel, I experimentally turn into him and surreptitiously lay a hand against his chest. He definitely works out. I shut my eyes.
"No Rose, don't close your eyes. You can't fall asleep," he says, concerned. But the only thing that registers with my muddled brain is that he called me by my first name.
"Rose, open your eyes," he says.
I grudgingly do as he says and I see him peering down at me.
"Good girl." Eugh, he's treating me like I'm a dog. "We're nearly there."
Then I hear Madam Pompfrey's calming voice.
"Dear Merlin. What happened?" she asks.
"Snargaluff pods in Herbology. It snagged her neck and she fell and hit her head." Comes the reply.
"Lie her down, lie her down." I feel a bed underneath me and I see the overly white ceiling of the hospital wing. Then Madam Pompfrey's concerned face appears in my line of vision and she waves her wand over my eyes. I feel the pain leave my head and I promptly black out.
XX
When I wake up its dusk and I can see the sun setting from the window opposite my bed. Merlin, did I miss a whole day of lessons? I'm gonna have to catch up now. Damn head.
A crowd of people are sat round my bed. I see Ria, Josie, Lorcan, Al, Dom and to my surprise, Malfoy is still here - pacing. I wonder where the rest of my family are, and then I recall Madam Pomfrey's strict rule of no more than six visitors at a time. These must be the ones who made the cut, or who were here first. They haven't noticed I'm awake yet, mainly because it would seem that three of them are asleep and the other three are reading. The only one moving is Malfoy, but his continued pacing is driving me up the wall.
"Scorpius, seriously if you don't stop pacing, I'm gonna have to Avada you on the spot," I say quietly to the room. He looks up abruptly. As do the others, even Ria, Josie, and Dom who were supposedly asleep.
A chorus of "Rose!" fills the room. The loud sound hurts my head. I put my finger to my lips looking round at them.
"Sorry," they whisper apologetically.
I look up at Malfoy. "Thanks for bringing me up here," I say to him.
He looks down at me, smirking slightly, although I think I can see worry in his eyes still, but it's too dark to be sure. "No worries Weasley. You owe me now though." he smiles mischievously.
"Err, no I don't, you offered. It's not like I begged. Jake could've taken me."
"Yeah, cause he's not creepy as hell." smirks Malfoy.
The circle around me laughs.
Madam Pompfrey toddles over, she's getting on a bit now. Not that her mind isn't still incredible. "Ah, Miss Weasley, you're awake." she says and starts waving her wand around me. "You seem to be alright now? You may have a tender head for a while and your neck should heal by tomorrow. You could go now, but I'd rather keep you here over night just in case."
"Yeah, my head hurts a lot." I say wincing (perhaps for dramatic effect to see if I can get a potion for it).
"It will be gone in the morning. I'm not going to give you anything because I don't think it's necessary right now. A good nights sleep and you'll be fine in the morning." She says seeing right through me. "You lot, out. Miss Weasley needs rest, and she'll manage it a lot better without you here."
"Can't we stay for a bit longer?" asks Al, in a tone of voice that we call the 'Potter charm' because Uncle Harry does it as well, when he wants something. "Five minutes? She only just woke up."
The nurse looks appraisingly at him. "Fine. Five minutes." And then she toddles back to her office.
"So what happened while I was out?" I ask.
"Well, Scorp was here all day." Starts Al, I look at Scorpius in surprise, he looks down at his feet embarrassed.
"Clearly the obsession with me is growing." I say to him, sticking my tongue out.
"And then after you left Herbology," continued Al, clearly irritated at my interruption. "Abrams went all apeshit, saying Neville was mad to let Scorp take you alone, and that Scorp was a psycho. So Neville gave him detention, which shut him up. And I'm not kidding when I say that his eyes, went black, literally black…"
"Like they did last night walking up from dinner," interrupts Ria.
"Then after the lesson, Max and I went up to him and asked if he was alright. And he told us to fuck off and that he didn't need our pity."
"That's what he said last night when I tried to help him in the library." I say.
"I think we've all established there's something wrong with that kid," Scorpius cuts across Al quickly. "Lets talk about something else?" I look at him curiously. Here a guy, who hated me up till about a week ago, and now, has stayed with me all day in hospital while I've been unconscious. I am beyond confused.
"Anything else happen?" I ask.
"Nope, apart from Fred and James got detention for creating one of those massive portable swamps in the third floor corridor. Like the twins did when they were at Hogwarts." Dom says.
"Is it still there?" I ask.
"Yeah, its mega impressive. But it smells foul. I wouldn't go near it with a twenty foot stick if I were you." She says wrinkling her nose. I laugh, but stop quickly because it hurts my head.
"You alright Rosie?" asks Lorcan.
"Yeah, just my…"
I'm cut off abruptly as Madam Pompfrey's shrill voice rings out across the room.
"Out! Out now! All of you. This girl needs rest."
They all look at me apologetically. Ria, Josie, Lorcan, Al, and Dom all give me a hug and I'm shocked when Malfoy leans down too, thinking he's going to hug me as well. But he just whispers in my ear "You still owe me Rose." He straightens up smirking at me and then turns and strides out of the room ahead of Madam Pompfrey's chivvying hands.
She turns round and hands me a small bottle
"Sleep potion." She says. "Drink it and you'll have a dreamless sleep."
It couldn't have been more welcome, I unstopper the bottle and drink down the potion, and find that it tastes of Ribena, a muggle drink that I love. I slip into sleep, not worrying about the nightmares that normally plague it. But once more, as I fall asleep, my thoughts are on Scorpius Malfoy.
XX
I am released from the hospital wing the next morning. I head down to breakfast late and find only Max, Al and Scorpius are there, eating copious amounts of food. In fact, eating so much food, should be made illegal. I plonk myself down next to Max.
"Rosie." He says giving me a one armed hug, shovelling food in with the other hand. I shrug away from him.
"Do you ever stop eating?"
"Nope. Never. But you're just as bad." He says laughing at the disgust on my face.
"I think after my near death experience yesterday, I'll treat myself to waffles." I announce, pulling some onto my plate and adding syrup and sugar.
"Near death? Seriously?" asks Al sceptically.
"Yes, near death." I exclaim indignantly.
They laugh at me and I huff while eating my waffles.
"Where's everyone else?" I ask. "Surely they should all be waiting for me to see if I've returned from the dead?"
"They went to Hogsmeade. We're going after we've eaten." Says Malfoy.
"Oh."
"And what dear Scorpius meant to say, is would you like to come with us?" says Max, glaring at Malfoy.
"Yeah, that would be good, I need more sugar quills." I say, smirking at Malfoy.
"Oh yeah, your sugar quill fetish." He says amusedly. I glare at him.
I finish my waffles and quickly run upstairs with Max to get our cloaks due to the cold that has grown around the castle in the week that we've been back.
When we come back down, Malfoy and Al are waiting. We walk out of the front doors into the crisp air, and down past the lake towards the school gates.
"Merlin, its cold." I shiver.
"It's all those Muggles heating up the atmosphere with their cars. Makes the climate change" says Max knowingly.
We laugh, Max is muggleborn, and ridiculously proud of it. He never ceases to sprout out random facts about Muggles. I always thought it was weird how him and Malfoy are so close - being that the name Malfoy will always be the associated with Death Eaters. But I spose Scorpius isn't like that. I mean we've always made stupid jibes at each other, but he's really sort of genuine and non-death eatery, despite his families part in the war. Wow. I never thought I'd think that about him. He must be starting to grow on me.
"Honeydukes first?" I ask them as we enter the outskirts of the village.
"Well, since it was you who had the near death experience..." says Malfoy mockingly.
I shove into him and he catches me as I start to fall over. "Careful there Weaslebee. Wouldn't want to fall on your arse now would you?"
I straighten up. "You just wanted the great view you just got down my top." I smirk at him.
Malfoy looks down at me flirtatiously. "Well you know, I can never resist."
Al looks on furiously.
"Oi mate, that's practically my sister you're hitting on. And since when did you two tolerate each other so much. Its weird."
We laugh at him and I pull myself out of Malfoys arms.
"Honeydukes." I repeat forcefully and drag them off.
I replenish my supply of sugar quills so that they'll last me till the next trip to Hogsmeade. The boys buy enough sweets to last a lifetime, and Max buys a whole bag of jelly slugs. And I'm not going to lie, they are the foulest things in the entire world. It's like eating flavoured slugs. Not that I've ever eaten a slug, it's just how I'd imagine the texture to be if I ever ate one.
"What were you guys saying about me being obsessed with food?" I say, looking pointedly at their bulging bags of sweets.
They smile guiltily at me.
"Lets walk down to the shrieking shack." Says Al.
"What so you lot can burn those off? Cause I'm not sure that's far enough." I say sarcastically.
We troop off to the shack, and look at it from a distance. I lean over the fence. It's funny because, although everyone knows its not haunted. No one ever goes any closer than the fence. I've always wondered what its like inside. Malfoy joins me and leans on the fence. He's tall enough to be at the same height as me while I stand on the first rung.
"I've always wondered what it's like inside." he says staring up at the house.
"I know, me too." I reply. "I mean, Uncle Harry's told us. But I'd love to see it for myself."
"He must have loads of stories..." Scorpius says.
"Yeah he does, surely you and Al have talked about it?"
"Me and Al don't talk about our parents." He says shortly.
"Oh, I see."
Now I understand why Al's never been to the infamous Malfoy Manor. Because Scorpius is still worried about his dads reputation. I suddenly feel a wave of pity for him. I scoot closer along the fence. Merlin. What possessed me to do that? He looks down at me inquisitively. I smile back. He chuckles to himself.
"What?" I ask indignantly.
"You." He replies.
"Eugh, I will never understand men." I say exasperatedly.
"And men will never understand women." He adds laughing now.
"Scorp, Rosie, let's go to the Three Broomsticks and see if we can find the others. I'm bloody freezing." shouts Al.
"It's your own fault." I hear Max say to him.
Scorpius helps me down from the fence and we walk up to Al and Max. We all walk up to the Three Broomsticks, which is in the middle of the village. We walk in and are greeted by a blast of warm air and the sound of many voices. As I look around I see Lorcan, Dom, and everyone else crowded round a tiny table near the back.
"I'll go get us Butterbeer." Says Malfoy over the noise and he walks up to the bar.
Al, Max and I make our way to the back of the pub and summon chairs and squidge round the table.
"Rose how are you feeling sweet pea?" Asks Robbie Sloper a Ravenclaw in our year. He leans over the empty chair next to me, which I'd conjured for Scorpius.
"So much better now, thanks." I say flashing a smile at him.
Robbie is a hunk. Merlin, I would marry him just for his looks alone. He's one of those outgoing, 'I love everyone' types. But some people (cough Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter) find him hugely annoying because he always gets the girls they want and whilst having the personality of an ant. Although as I've said before. Malfoy has no problem getting girls.
"Sloper, mind not slobbering all over my chair please?" Ah, the man himself.
Robbie scowls up at him and moves away. Scorpius hands a Butterbeer to me, Al, and Max as he sits down.
I look round at everyone, they're all immersed in conversation. I look amusedly at Al as we both see Lorcan and Dom sitting ridiculously close. Ria's chatting to Aiden Vane, another Gryffindor, and Damon Vasey – a Slytherin – is sitting next to her. Unlike when Mum and Dad were at school, there's a lot more inter house mixing now. The school introduced a inter-house common room on the fourth floor around ten years after the war, to try and stop the prejudice which comes with each house and surprisingly, it's worked 'cause people were so keen to forget the war. Not that our parents don't still hold grudges. I think of my father and wonder what he'd say about my new 'relationship' with Scorpius. Not that much has changed. I still remember the words Dad said to me on my first train journey here: "So that's little Scorpius… Make sure you beat him in every test Rosie." I thought he was joking then. Now, I'm not so sure.
"A knut for your thoughts Rosie?" Asks Al. Whose obviously noticed my mental absence from the table.
"Don't worry Al." I say smiling at him. He shoots me a worried look.
"Rosie Poo." I scowl; only one person calls me that.
"Hugo." I say through gritted teeth. "What do you want?"
Sometimes I could murder my little brother. He's like James and Al, but the year below. He doesn't have a problem with the girls, and as much as I would like to stay woefully ignorant towards my kid brothers indiscretions, when his 'conquests' meet me for the first time they are blatantly obvious about their relationship with my brother. My conversations with them go strikingly similarly:
"Oh, so your Hugo Weasley's older sister?" Giggle, giggle, giggle.
"Yes. I am."
"Oh he's so wonderful, you must be so proud of him." Giggle, giggle, giggle.
"Yes. So proud." (That he's sleeping with you and every other girl in the world it would seem.)
"He's such a good friend to me." Giggle, giggle, giggle.
Eugh, I just want to slap them, or him. I'm not sure which.
"What do you want Hugo?"
"Well, I was just wondering, if you could lend me some money?" He says putting on his, 'I'm your cute younger brother, pity me' voice.
"No."
"Please?" He whines.
"No."
"But I have to buy Tiffany…" He points to some blonde by the bar. "…a drink. Please Rose, you're the best big sister in the world."
"Yes, I know I am, but I'm still not giving you money." I say smugly
My table is watching our little exchange amusedly. Pretty much the whole school knows about Hugo's reputation.
"Come on Rose, give the kid a chance to get the girl." Interrupts Malfoy.
I flick my head round and shoot dagger eyes at him.
"No."
"Alright then," Malfoy smirks at me. Oh Merlin in a bikini, this is not going to be good. "Hugo, here you go mate." He says giving Hugo ten galleons.
"Scorp. You're amazing. Thanks mate." Says my little brother, slapping Scorpius on the back. He walks back to his bimbo.
I round on Malfoy.
"Scorpius Malfoy. What right have you to be encouraging my little brother into sexual exploits?"
"Well you've gotta let the man have his fun." Says Scorpius sniggering. "And if I hadn't, Al, would've."
"It's true, Rosie. Us men have to help each other out. We've all been there and been helped by our fellow brother. So we must do the same and carry on the tradition." Say Al, self-righteously.
"Eugh, I could kill the pair of you." I snap. The table laughs at me.
"Not funny, you guys." I moan at them sinking my head down onto the table.
"I'm gonna head back to school, anyone want to come with me?" Asks Ria after everyone stops laughing at me.
"Yeah, I'll come, get away from these prats." I say.
"Me too." Says Lorcan. "I have an essay I have to finish for McGonagall."
Lorcan, Ria, and I leave the pub and head back to the school. As we walk up the marble staircase, I look back down the corridor that heads to the dungeons. I could've sworn I saw a dark haired boy with curved shoulders disappearing down it. One who is known to occasionally, have black eyes.