Author's Note ~

Okay, so the real-story chapter is finally here! I don't know if this took too long, but if it did, sorry! I've been super busy the past two weeks, but I managed to write a little each night before I went to sleep so it's all good right?

I think this a good chapter. It was fun to play it out in my head hahah. So I hope it's at least okay for you guys!

Enjoy! And please review? Thanks :)

*Oh, and I'm not British. No matter how much I wish I was, I'm not. But I read fanfics by those who are and sometimes I'll reread the Harry Potter series, but I'm still American. So if I don't get it perfect, sorry! I'm trying my best!*

The Secrets, Lies, and Notes of Rose Weasley

Chapter 3 – Polyjuice Potion

Rose's P.O.V.

I took my seat next to Dominique Weasley (my best friend and cousin) as the powerful fumes of potions hit me like a bludger to the face. "Hey, Dom," I said, distributing my stuff across the table. "Do you know what we're doing today?"

She nodded, examining her pristine nails. "Meredith said we're learning a new potion, but that butt wouldn't tell me…" she said, her tinkling voice ringing throughout the cold air of the dungeons. I really had no idea what the appeal was… How could Slytherins do it? Live down here all year… Ugh. I just shiver at the thought.

"Maybe she was sworn to secrecy…?" I thought out loud. "Must be real important if not even Meredith can open her big mouth." Meredith, a mutual friend between us, was the biggest gossiper I have ever met. She's knows everything about anyone, anything, and ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, she can't keep her trap closed. Now, we love her and all – she was the first friend we made in our first year – and we would rather die than let anything hurt her (emotionally or physically), but…we've learned not to spill our secrets to her. That could be harmful to your social life.

You see, Hogwarts… Despite the size of the castle, there are really only fifty one seventh years in all. Compared to Muggle high schools, that's nothing (and I did my research – with the help of Granddad Arthur.) Forget the rest of the school (don't really care about them anyway – especially the second years.) Just in the seventh year alone, we've got fifty one pairs of ears, fifty one mouths. It's pretty simple to figure out.

News travels fast around here.

"So, Three Broomsticks this weekend?" Dom said, smiling and looking up at me from her nails.

I smiled back. "Saturday night. I'll have to borrow the map from Albus first though." Albus was both of our cousin and same year. He was also the famous Harry Potter's second son, and younger brother of James Potter II, the youngest Gryffindor Seeker since his father attended Hogwarts. And being the younger brother and son of those two, he was always awarded the Marauder's Map when James graduated (plus the Invisibility Cloak.) And now, since we are two excessive drinkers (me more so), I have to take the map every once in awhile for certain…reasons.

She snorted. "Right, borrow…"

"What?" I asked, my big cobalt eyes wide and full of innocence.

She just rolled her eyes and didn't say anymore on the subject because just then Professor Slughorn walked through the doors, his cane cracking against the stone floor and silencing the room instantly. It really was quite a feat that he was breathing. For Merlin's sake, the man was old when my parents were here!

"Good morning, class," he croaked, grinning a toothy smile (probably dentures.) "Welcome to your second Potions of the year. I've got a special treat for my N.E.W.T level students today, I do. I'm sure many of you have heard about this special treat already, though, haven't you?" Nearly every hand was raised. "But I trust none of you have heard what that little treat is?" Slowly, our hands fell back to our laps, and we listened intently. "Perfect, and I expect whatever you do in this class today, you not tell your dear friends. Understand? Good. Now," he paused, smiling at the class while leaning against his cane, "tell me – how many of you have heard of…Polyjuice Potion?"

My eyes widened, and my heart nearly skipped a beat. Polyjuice Potion? The man had to be crazy, making Polyjuice Potion with a bunch of teenagers… "Polyjuice Potion? But, Professor, isn't that incredibly difficult? Shouldn't we be starting the year off with a simpler potion instead? Like…love potions?" I said, looking around nervously and wondering if anyone had the same apprehensions as I. And it turned out I wasn't the only one; many other students had worried expressions splattered across their faces.

"Miss Weasley, I appreciate your concerns but I am afraid you are missing a crucial fact," he said, and his cane made more obnoxious noise as he came to stand in front of my desk. He leaned in, and whispered (loudly), "This is a class of…N.E.W.T. level students. The only reason you made it this far in my class is because you can make these difficult potions, otherwise, I wouldn't be wasting my time. Oh, and, if I'm not mistaken, didn't your mother accomplish in her second year?" He chuckled. "I think this class will be just fine. So, if you would turn to page…"

But he was interrupted by the doors opening suddenly, and tall, toned blonde sauntered into the classroom with a smug grin painted on his face. "Terribly sorry, Professor… Got held up before class," he said, brushing his lateness off with a sorry excuse.

"Well, as long as you're here now… Go ahead; take a seat, Mr. Malfoy. Ah, nevermind… Might as well stay standing since I'll be assigning seats in a few minutes anyway," he added, with an afterthought. He waved the arrogant boy to the side of the classroom then returned to the rest of the class, his usual jolly grin back on his face. "Alright, so before I set you free to start the potion, we are going to get into our assigned seats. So, if you would, just pick up belongings and move to the sides of the classroom…"

I groaned, not bothering to hide my annoyance, but followed the directions and moved to the opposite side of the room of Malfoy with Dominique, who looked equally pissed off at the news of assigned seats. But all we could do was hope Professor Slughorn sat us together again. I mean, Dom was the only one who could put up with my bossy attitude when it came to brewing potions. If I was seated with anyone but her, I'm sure that person would leave the class with one black eye and maybe a few boils here and there.

"Fuck this…" Dom muttered, standing with a hand on her hip, staring with narrowed eyes at Slughorn as he began rambling names off (randomly, I suspected, since he had no paper in his hand.) "If he doesn't seat us together… Do you know what a mess that would be?"

I nodded, mirroring her narrowed eyes. This man was quickly falling from my favorite teachers list. Very quickly.

Out of nowhere, she snorted from beside me and I looked at her oddly. She just nodded towards the other side of the classroom, and automatically I knew who she was nodding towards – Malfoy. I glared at her, opening my mouth to say something but she beat me to it.

"How the bloody hell did that sod get into N.E.W.T level Potions?" she whispered, staring in his direction. That was the thing about Dom; she didn't care if it made you nervous or if you knew she was staring – she would still stare as much as she wanted without giving a hippogriff about it. "Seriously – I love him and everything, but I saw his marks last year. The highest grade he got was a Poor, and that was for his best class: DADA."

I shook my head. "Who knows? He won't last long anyway. He never does anything in class, so I'll bet you ten sickles that he won't even make it through this class without getting yelled at by Slughorn for slacking."

"I don't know… He's in here, isn't he? That must mean something… But, whatever, it's a deal," she muttered, shaking hands with me firmly before Slughorn made his way to us.

"Alright, then, Dominique Weasley and Troy Gilbert," he said, pointing to two empty seats while walking towards the next table where he seated our friend Gretchen Minch with a nasty looking Slytherin. I tried not to laugh at her frightened expression (I didn't blame her – a lot of Slytherins look scary, and this one certainly wasn't lacking in that department) and that ended up not being all that hard because just then Slughorn randomly placed me at a desk next to someone.

Would you like to give a guess as to whom that someone is?

It's really not that hard.

Come on – you're not really that daft, are you?

Congratulations.

Hoorah.

You guessed right.

My mouth fell open with a gush of air. He couldn't be serious, could he? Was he really stupid enough to seat me next to…to…to that git?!

"Miss Weasley, is there a problem?" Slughorn said, pausing his seating arrangements.

My mouth remained open, and I looked past the plump man to the boy he was expecting me to sit next to. Scorpius Malfoy was grinning at me smugly, as if he were actually enjoying this!

"Please, Miss Weasley, we don't have time for this. So would you kindly take you seat, and we can get on with the day?" He sighed exasperatedly, which only aggravated me further but I did as he said, grudgingly taking my new seat next to it.

I glared straight ahead, trying to ignore the arrogant smirk next to me. So I nearly jumped out of my seat when Slughorn excused us to get supplies, and, thanks to that jump, I got all the best ingredients. I came back to our desk to find that he had already started the fire and the desk cleared.

I huffed, announcing my return, and began putting the first ingredients into the empty cauldron.

"Okay, so after you add the lacewing flies and Antinony, you have to put in the four leeches… And make sure they're unsucculated," he said, reading off the instructions from our textbooks, looking much too focused when I glanced quickly in his direction.

Really, I almost dropped the handful of lacewing flies into the cauldron (which would not have ended pretty.) Since when does Malfoy – Scorpius Malfoy – actually do work or help in classes? What was going on? He was in a N.E.W.T level class when I know he most likely received a D last year. Yet, here he was, instructing me what to do like he actually knew what he was doing.

Whoa, wait a second – he was the one telling me what to do??

I dropped the twelve lacewing flies into the cauldron then pushed him away from the book. "You work, I'll tell you what to do," I said, frowning at the page in front of me when he actually did as I said and began pouring an ounce of Antinony in. I stared at the page for a few more moments, confused and watching him work soundlessly out of my peripheral vision.

You have no idea how weird this was for me.

Clearing my throat, I began reading off the directions, hearing the edge to my voice but not doing anything to fix it. I was really doing my best to refrain myself from screaming at the guy. This whole smart act was seriously freaking me out and starting to piss me off. This wasn't Scorpius Malfoy; Scorpius Malfoy doesn't do anything in class, stretches out in his chair and taking a nap while his partner does all of the work for him. Scorpius Malfoy doesn't actually work!

"How'd you do it?" I asked abruptly, the words leaving my mouth without my consent. Internally, I slapped myself across the face, but I truly was curious so I didn't take the words back – not that I could have anyway.

"Excuse me?" he said, not once looking in my direction and keeping his focus on keeping the leeches still long enough to drop them into the cauldron.

No smirk? No sarcastic reply? Nothing? "Did you get your father to pay your way into this class or something?" I said, furrowing my brows. This assumption really wasn't that hard to believe, and I knew this would probably rile him up but to my astonishment he just snorted.

"Since when do I care about classes, Weasley?" he said, and I could almost hear him roll his dark brown eyes. "And what's it to you, anyway?"

I turned my glare onto him, forgetting about the instructions. "It's not like I actually care. I'm merely just curious, that's all. You have the worst grades in the entire school. You don't even try! And yet, here you are, in N.E.W.T level Potions as if you were really working on keeping good grades for the past six years like the rest of us!"

He glanced at me, but didn't let his gaze leave the leeches for long (two down, two to go.) "It's really none of your business, Weasel."

I rolled my eyes at the lame name he'd started using for me in our fourth year, and crossed my arms. "It is if you're going to be my partner for the rest of the year! I would at least like to know how my dumbass partner managed to get into this class."

He sighed, throwing the third leech into the cauldron, using much more force than he had with the first two. "Fine – if you really must know, my father brought me in this summer to make me take another exam to prove I didn't deserve the D's and T's I got at the end of last year. And since I passed all of them, they placed me in N.E.W.T classes. Happy?" he finished, throwing the last of the leeches into the cauldron.

I stood there dumbfounded, trying to process all of that information. "But…?"

"Great work today, class! Next we'll have to harvest the Fluxweed on the full moon, which is…this Friday, I believe. So, until then!" Slughorn said, smiling jollily from the front of the classroom. "Class dismissed! Oh, and next time Miss Weasley, I would like to see you being more involved in the project!"

My chin dropped and I started to say something, but then I saw Malfoy leaving and I lost all train of thought. Save for one.

What. The. Fuck.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I looked behind to see Dom standing there with a smug grin on her face and her hand held out expectantly. "I think someone owes me ten sickles."

Author's Note ~

Just a little note for you guys out there somewhere: The whole story about how Scorpius got into N.E.W.T Potions will come in later chapters when Rose and Scorpius are closer. I have it all planned, I just have to get the in between chapters figured out.

And I'm really not all that crazy about the title! So, if you have any suggestions, tell me? I have a few ideas of my own, but I'd like to from my readers too :)

Did you like it? The end part...looked way better in my head, but it's still okay, right? It's my favorite part so far, haha.