Chapter rated T for language and mildly suggestive themes.

Chapter 2: A New Professor

One year and seven months earlier

I hated mornings. I hated waking up, I hated rolling out of bed, I hated brushing my hair, and I hated breakfast. I didn't like looking at anyone, and I didn't like talking to anyone.

So when my alarm went off to signal the start of the first day of my last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I didn't feel excited and refreshed. I didn't feel ready to take on the day. I felt pissed off.

After laying on my back and staring at the canopy of my four-poster bed for five minutes, I finally rolled my eyes, swung my legs over the bed, stretched, and stood up to go to the bathroom. My eyes were barely open when I put on my rectangular, black-framed glasses and padded to the bathroom. When I got in, I saw one of my dormmates, Ainsley Dale, curling her hair in the mirror with her wand.

"Hey, Rose," she said with a glance at me before she went back to doing her hair.

"Hey," I said groggily as I grabbed my toothbrush.

I wasn't really friends with any of my dormmates. I used to be. But that was before. Ever since the beginning of sixth year, everything had been different. I didn't mind it though. Frankly, I preferred it this way. If we weren't friends, then I didn't have to speak with anyone in the mornings. That made it worth it.

A while later, I was marching through the Great Hall toward the Slytherin table to sit next to Albus who was reading the Daily Prophet and eating a banana.

"Don't let Fergie see you doing that. He'll lose his mind," I said as Albus took a particularly large bite.

Albus laughed. "Fergie can lose whatever he wants," Albus said, leaning over and kissing my cheek before going back to the Prophet.

I shrugged and reached forward with my fork to pile food onto my plate. "For the record, I like Fergie," I said as I stabbed two sausages.

"That's saying something because you don't like anyone," Albus said, not looking at me.

"Ha ha," I said sarcastically. "He's better for you than Lysander," I said with a mouth full of scrambled eggs.

Albus glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "How you eat so much and stay so thin is beyond me."

Again, I shrugged. "I don't care about my fucking figure anyway."

"No, not since…" Albus trailed off. I raised my eyebrows. We never talked about before. I tilted my head and looked at him. I knew he was trying to pretend like he hadn't said anything.

"Since when?" I goaded.

Albus shrugged.

"Since Hadley?" I suggested innocently.

"I saw him staring at you last night," Albus said hesitantly after a pause. He took a sip of coffee.

I waited a moment before responding. I took a bite of sausage and stared straight ahead. "Probably because we made out on the train," I said simply.

Albus started choking and spluttering on the coffee he was drinking, and I patted his back with a grin, still not looking at him.

Albus coughed before speaking. "What the bloody hell?" He wiped his mouth and shifted on the bench so he could turn and stare at me. I kept looking ahead, fighting a smug smile and losing the battle. "Rose, you hate—I mean hate—Hadley. Why would you…?" He shook his head, trailing off.

I shrugged, trying to feign innocence, and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Albus narrow his eyes.

"What did you do."

It was more of a statement than a question.

The truth was, that I'd planned the entire thing. At the end of fifth year, Hadley Underwood had broken my heart. I'd found out that he cheated on me with some slag who I won't even name, who may or may not currently reside in my dormitory. This event may or may not also be the reason I distanced myself from my dormmates. What do I care anyway? They were all basically useless. Since the break up, I'd been plotting to get the both of them back. So I put myself in Hadley's way. Since after the Christmas holiday last year, I'd done all that I could to keep myself on his radar. He was a Gryffindor so it was relatively easy. I started wearing lower cut shirts, brushing up against him when I could, and swaying my hips when I knew he was walking behind me. For a while I'd thought it wasn't working, but then I'd seen him on the train yesterday, and it was as if all my months of disgusting hard work had paid off.

I hated Hadley, that was true. He'd cheated and I hated him. I would never, ever get back with him. I'm a fucking Weasley. I would never sink so low. But sabotage certainly wasn't beneath me.

So after I'd seen Hadley walk by my compartment on the Hogwarts Express, I'd immediately left mine, telling Albus I would be back in a minute. ("The loo.") Then I'd slammed the compartment loud enough to make Hadley turn. When he turned around, I just shrugged my shoulders with a small smile and turned in the opposite direction.

It had been an unusually hot summer in London. So on the train, I wore a short, floral, sleeveless sundress. When I turned, I felt him follow me. I walked past the compartment that I knew his girlfriend would be in. The slut he cheated on me with. I made sure that she would see me walk by only to see him walk by seconds later. I looked over my shoulder, saw him following me with an arched eyebrow, and I smiled, bit my lip, and booked it down the hallway of the train.

I heard him running after me. Fucking idiot, I'd thought to myself. It was like he wanted his girlfriend to find out.

Just like I did.

As soon as I found an empty compartment, I ducked in, turned, and he was all over me.

"God, you look so good, Rose," Hadley had said, his hand finding my breast. I shivered in disgust, trying not to physically heave over his touch. I'd felt so gross. The thought of him touching me made me want to hurl all over his stupid fucking trainers that I knew he probably spent a fortune on. It was so strange how much my mind had completely changed about Hadley in such a short time.

But I knew what I had to do. So I let him grope me and whisper into my neck about how much he missed me. I wanted to shake my head and roll my eyes. Funny, I wanted to say. You didn't miss me when I wasn't wearing a short skirt.

Luckily—thankfully, Jesus—it was over quickly, because after about a minute, the compartment door slammed open, and the dumb bitch who stole my boyfriend was standing there, red in the face.

And would you fucking believe it? That slag had the nerve to be outraged that the man who had cheated on me with her would have the nerve to be kissing another girl. Dumb broad.

I relayed the story to Albus with a satisfied look on my face, and after I was finished, he clapped quietly, raising his hands in my direction.

"Why Rose Weasley, you animal," he said with a proud smile. "I can't believe you were able to orchestrate this entire thing without me. Months you planned this?"

"Oh, yeah," I said, topping off my glass of pumpkin juice. "He thought I was over it all. Please."

Albus was saying something. He was talking about what I'd done to Hadley and The Bitch, but I'd stopped noticing. I stopped noticing because the sexiest man I had ever seen had just strode through the door that the professors came out of to take their seats for breakfast. He had white blonde hair that was messy in the best way possible, he was tall and thin with broad shoulders, and more than anything I wished that he wasn't wearing his robes so I could see what he looked like underneath. He had high cheekbones, a pointed nose, and beautiful blue—or were they gray?—eyes. My heart rate started to increase as I watched him take his seat, and then suddenly he was staring back at me, and my face was flooding with heat.

Albus, who had noticed my distraction, looked over his shoulder.

"Holy shit," Albus said under his breath. He turned back to me. "Who's the hottie?"

I took a deep breath and looked at Albus, forcing myself to tear my eyes away from the beautiful specimen who I wished more than anything was sitting right next to me. I could feel my fingertips tingling.

"New professor?" I said breathily.

"He's so young," Albus said, glancing over his shoulder again. The man had started reading his paper and eating the food that had magically appeared in front of him.

"Looks familiar," I said. I started staring again, but yanked my eyes away when the man glanced up over his paper at me. Stop staring, you fucking idiot, I told myself.

"He wasn't at the feast last night," Albus said. "McGonagall would have introduced him."

As if mentioning her name had summoned her out of thin air, McGonagall had appeared in front of us.

"Ms. Weasley," she said. "Your schedule."

And before I had a chance to ask who the man was, McGongall was walking swiftly to the Gryffindor table to give the rest of the Gryffindors their schedules. Most of the other students had filed in, but I stayed with Albus, choosing not to go over and sit with my fellow Gryffindors. Ever since everything had happened with Hadley and The Bitch, it was weird over there.

Certainly won't be less weird now, I thought with a grin as I remembered what I had done to Hadley and his girlfriend.

"So there's something I have to tell you…" Albus said, interrupting my thoughts. I looked at him with narrowed eyes as he looked at his paper, clearly trying to suppress a grin.

"If you tell me that you and Lysander—"

"No, no," Albus said quickly. "Nothing like that."

"Then what?"

He took a deep breath. "So you know how McGonagall's letting us have that concert in a few weeks?"

"Yeah," I said, picking at a corn muffin. "It's the one fucking cool thing she's let us do in the past seven fucking years at this school," I muttered.

Albus chuckled. "True." He paused briefly before he continued. "I got a letter today," he said. He put it in front of me.

"Dear Mr. Potter," I mumbled quickly. "Thank you for your letter and the recording you sent us. We always appreciate—blah blah, what the fuck is this, Albus?"

"Keep reading," he said, looking down at his plate.

I huffed and kept reading. "Fresh young talent… Incredible potential… blah blah…Okay… We are sure you are aware of a concert coming up at Hogwarts School… Wear the Wolves…" I went on hurriedly. "We would like for you and your band to open for Wear the Wolves on Saturday, September 16 at Hogwarts School. Albus…" My eyes widened and I whipped my head to him. "Is this for real?"

He looked at me and smiled.

"Albus! OH MY GOD!" I jumped off the bench and leaned over to wrap my arms around him. He laughed as I jumped and held him tightly. "Holy shit…" I pulled away from him and looked back at the letter. "We think you and your band are the perfect opening act that we have been looking for to open up this concert with your fresh sound and immense skill…" I read quickly and looked down at Albus. "What the fuck, Albus!" I punched him in the arm.

"Ow," he said, laughing and clutching his arm.

"Why didn't you tell me you sent our track to the label?"

He smiled, looking pleased and mildly stunned. "I thought it was a long shot. I never imagined they would let us open at this concert."

"I can't believe you waited this long to tell me!" I said, plopping back down next to him and rereading the letter.

"I just got it this morning."

"And you let me talk about stupid Hadley and that hot new professor forever before you mentioned this. Oh my god…" I covered my mouth as I read it a third time.

"Ron and Hermione are going to flip," I whispered.

"I know, so are my parents," Albus said with a grin.

"Did you tell Ly and Nate?" I asked.

"I just got it this morning," Albus repeated with a grin and a shake of his head.

"God…" I said as I reread it for a fourth time. "Holy fuck…"

"Mr. Potter."

I jumped and looked over my shoulder, and for a moment I forgot about the letter in my hand and the concert. When I saw who was standing before me, my chest immediately heated up as I looked into the eyes of that hot blonde professor who looking down at me and Albus from behind us.

"I have your schedule," he said. He looked at me with an arched eyebrow before looking back at Al. Great, now he knows you have a fucking potty mouth.

Who cares? Another voice responded.

Then a third voice perked up. Gray.

What?

His eyes. They aren't blue. They're gray.

And then I was staring, trying to understand how someone could have such clear, gray eyes—how that was natural for a human being.

Albus took the paper from the man's hand—mildly shaking me from my reverie—but before he could go, Albus said, "Wait!"

The man turned back. His lips were pursed in a slight pout and his eyes—gray, beautiful—were boring into Albus.

"Sorry…" Albus said. "But who are you?"

He chuckled a bit, and I got my first glimpse at that smile that was going to make me weak at the knees for the next year of my life. Christ, he's gorgeous. That should be illegal—bad for the health of all people. "Professor Malfoy. New Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House."

"What?" I finally managed to speak. "Where's Slughorn?"

"Retired."

And without another word, Professor Malfoy turned and walked away.

"How come no one told us about any of this shit?"

"They announced it at the feast last night. About Slughorn."

I turned and looked at one of the members of the Slytherin Quidditch team.

"Shut up, Sam," I said before turning back to Albus. "Did you hear anything last night?"

"Of course not," Albus said with a look like I was an idiot. "I don't ever listen to half the shit McGonagall says."

"Well, I know he wasn't here last night," I said, looking at Malfoy, who was at the other end of the hall. "I would have noticed."

"Same here," Albus said, looking with me.

"You lucky bastard," I said, my eyes still on the new Professor. "He's your new Head of House… Jesus." Then something occurred to me. Something delectable. Something that might be able to get my mind off those gray eyes and that smile. "What do you say we haze the new prof?"

"I would say, as always, that you're an evil genius," Albus said, lowering his voice.

I smiled. Usually my forms of hazing would include what I did to Hadley—something to sabotage their reputations or ruin their lives—but this professor was new; he was innocent. So maybe I would just have a little fun. And the thought of seeing a frown on that beautiful face had me biting my lip in anticipation.

"Well, what did you—?" Albus began.

"'Sup playas?"

I immediately got a disgusted look on my face and rolled my eyes. Lysander was going through a phase where he was trying out new catchphrases. Calling everyone "playas" was his current experiment. I know that most of the time he said it around me just to annoy me, but now all of this stupid bullshit was just inherent in the way he talked. It made me sick.

Lysander Scamander was the drummer in our band. He was a Ravenclaw and his family and our families were old friends. Our parents had all gone to school together, other than Ly's dad, who was by far the strangest man I had ever met—and that was saying something because Arthur Weasley was my granddad. Ly and Albus had a history, but for about the tenth time in that history they were currently broken up. And this time, Albus assured me—as he always did—it was for good. I hated the two of them together because their fights and breakups were bad for the band—though to be fair, there probably wouldn't be a band if Albus hadn't discovered that Lysander could play the drums. I also hated them together because of the way Ly treated Albus. And Albus was right about what he said earlier—I don't like anyone. And why should I? People are dicks. But there are a few people I like in this world and Albus Potter is one of them. So when someone treats him like shit, why shouldn't he get all my loathing?

Determined to make Lysander pay—over and over—for all the shit he'd put Albus through, and determined to make him pay for souring my mood with his stupid catchphrases, I said:

"We're opening for Wear the Wolves at the concert. Albus just got the letter."

"Rose," Albus admonished, frowning at me and giving me a look.

"What?" Lysander said at the same time, his eyes going wide.

I just shrugged and got up from my spot at the table, and I left them without saying goodbye.

As I walked through the Great Hall and out into the castle, I couldn't help but notice how people seemed to part for me as I walked by. My lips were pursed, and I had one eyebrow raised as if to challenge anyone who would get in my way. These idiots all feared me, and I liked it like that.

Rumor had it that Rose Weasley was the meanest girl in school. It hadn't always been that way. I used to be the nicest, sweetest girl at the school—at least, that's what Albus told me. But heartbreak will make people do crazy things. I didn't think I was any different; I thought I had just decided not to let any of these assholes walk all over me anymore. So what if my appearance had changed slightly so that the boys at the school let their eyes linger a little too long? So what if girls chased after me wanting my approval only to be shot down and told all their flaws? And so what if I spent months planning my ex-boyfriend's demise? That's what happens when you take advantage of the sweetest girl in school. No one ever expected me to fight back. But I did.

"Rose, hi!" A voice said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

A mousy girl with big teeth and big glasses and red hair appeared in front of me as I walked toward the Dungeons where I had my first lesson of the day.

"Hey, Lucy," I said to my cousin and dormmate. I glanced down and saw the gleaming badge on her chest: Head Girl. I rolled my eyes and kept walking.

"I didn't see you this morning," Lucy said, pushing up her glasses and falling in step with me. The last thing I wanted on a Monday morning was to walk all the way to class with my stupid, nerdy cousin. It was particularly annoying because her older sister Molly was actually pretty cool. Why did I have to get stuck with the one who was identical in all things to Uncle Percy? Gross.

"Yeah, because I didn't want to talk to any of you," I said.

My harsh words obviously didn't faze her because she just kept talking.

"I saw you at the Slytherin table. You looked excited about something!"

"Yeah, we're opening for Wear the Wolves at the concert," I said casually, even though I was still screaming inside at the thought.

"Oh my god, Rosie, that's great!"

I flinched at the use of my nickname. I fucking hated that nickname.

"Thanks," I said shortly.

Then she launched into something—I didn't know what she was saying. She was talking so fast in her squeaky voice that I instantly blocked it out. Really Lucy was harmless, she just got on my last nerve. Of all the people at the school, there were only a few who were immune to my attitude. Albus and Hugo were immune because they knew me, and I was almost never mean to them—at least not really. The rest of my cousins pretended they were immune to it, but I could see in their eyes that I freaked them out. But I didn't care. The only other person who was immune to it was Lucy. And that was because she didn't have the social skills or social awareness to understand what I meant when I said things like "I didn't want to talk to any of you." Sometimes it annoyed me that she seemed unfazed by it, but other times I just shook my head in disbelief and mild awe. If only I could go through the world as fucking clueless as Lucy Weasley.

"…broke up, and she wouldn't stop talking about it—"

"What who? Who broke up?" I was suddenly jolted out of my thoughts as I caught the tail end of what Lucy was saying.

"Megaera and Hadley," Lucy said. "I said you were lucky you weren't there this morning because that was all we talked about this morning. Well—not me—I didn't talk about it. I just sat on my bed and—"

"Meg and Hadley broke up?"

"Yes," Lucy said with light exasperation. "That's what I said."

"Did she say why?"

"Apparently he isn't over his cheating streak,"—Lucy was also one of the few people who knew the actual reason why Hadley and I broke up. She'd been the only one around when I had found out, and I'd sobbed into her shoulder for an hour—"She found him making out with some girl on the train."

"Who? Did she say?"

"No," Lucy said with a frown. "It seemed like she was intentionally leaving that part out. Like… I don't know—like she was trying to protect the girl or something…"

"More like protect herself…" I mumbled under my breath with a satisfied smirk.

Lucy didn't hear what I said, though, and she just shrugged, clearly considering something as she opened the door to the Potions classroom.

He was already there.

I could have sworn that he had still been in the Great Hall when I left, but there he was, sitting at his desk in the front of the room, scribbling on a piece of parchment, his blonde hair looking beautifully disheveled.

As if he read my thoughts, he ran a hand through his hair and looked up.

"Ms. Weasley—or—Ms. Weasleys," he said with a nod at both of us.

How does he already know who we are? My fingertips were tingling again—it was the same feeling I'd gotten this morning when I'd first seen him. Hadley never made my fingertips tingle.

"Good morning, Professor," Lucy said, taking a seat. I deliberately sat in the desk behind her, not wanting her to think for a second that we would be sitting by each other. She didn't say a word about it.

I didn't say anything to Malfoy. It was like I couldn't. I wanted to say something bitchy—something clever that he would be thinking about for the rest of the day. But it was like my tongue was glued to the roof of my mouth. Everything I could think to say sounded stupid and contrived in my head. And I was confused. Why were my fingertips tingling? Why—god, why—was my heart fluttering and my stomach clenching with that same feeling I got when someone jumped out from behind a wall and scared me? Or when I was about to speak in public? Or when we were about to go on stage?

And why was Malfoy looking at me like that? Like… like he was trying to figure out what I was thinking? He's probably trying to figure out why you keep staring at him. I tried to silence the voice in my head, but I couldn't concentrate on controlling the voice. The only thing I could think was how my arms seemed too long for my body, and when the hell were my fingertips going to stop tingling!

"Something wrong, Ms. Weasley?"

Lucy looked up. He's talking to me, you fool. Then Lucy looked back at me.

I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything that was going to make me look like a fucking idiot, a group of people came into the classroom, talking animatedly. I exhaled with relief until I saw that Hadley was one of them, and he was with two other seventh year Gryffindors. When he saw me, he immediately stopped talking, but the two other boys kept going.

For one horrifying second, I thought he would take the seat next to me, but instead he walked to the other side of the classroom and sat at a table alone behind the two other guys. He looked back at me one more time before rejoining their conversation. When I looked away from him, I looked back up at the front and noticed that Malfoy was studying me. I immediately averted my eyes. I felt like he had caught me at something. Like he had—

"Hey," Albus said, plopping down his bag and sitting next to me. Lysander took the seat in front of him next to Lucy. Albus glanced around the room.

"I didn't think Hadley would be in this class," Albus said, not quietly. "I always thought he was dumber than a troll."

"He is," I said, my voice hoarse. I cleared my throat when Al gave me a look.

"What's up?" he said, lowering his voice.

"Nothing," I said too quickly, right as the rest of the class filed in and Malfoy stood up in front of the classroom.

"Everyone take your seats," he said sternly. The firmness in his voice caught me off guard. Who knew?

"I'm Professor Scorpius"—Scorpius, I thought—"Malfoy. This is N.E.W.T. Potions. If you didn't mean to be in this class," He paused as his eyes swept over us. "Well, it's too late now." There was a spattering of nervous laughter throughout the room. "Today we will be brewing a complicated blood regenerating potion. Turn to page 562 of Advanced Potion Making," he said as he turned to write on the board.

Check out that ass, Albus scribbled onto the parchment in front of me. I covered my mouth to withhold a giggle as I began to take notes.

Next chapter:

"Of course I planned it, you asshole. How could you possibly think I would want anything to do with you after what you put me through."