Rose POV

I glare at the Slytherin table from across the Great Hall. They're all laughing about the marks around my neck; slightly green from some special herbs Alice and Frank concocted. I'm supposed to speak as little as possible for the next week; if I do that, I'll be perfectly fine.

"Rose," Albus says quietly behind me. I turn around slowly. Al sits down next to me. "How are you feeling?" I shrug. Truth be told, I feel like crap; but maybe it's just because one of my best friends would do that to me.

Alice and Frank join us, Alice announcing her presence by giving me a hug like she's done for the past three days.

Then Malfoy comes, sitting only a few seats down from us like he has every day. I lay my hand on Al's arm when he looks like he wants to get up.

"Ignore him," I say hoarsely. "He's not worth it." Al tries for a smile and stays seated. Malfoy gets up and walks over to the Slytherin table. He murmurs a few words to Nott, who nods. Then he sits down next to Nott.

Next thing I know, Alice is soothing me, trying to calm me down.

"He's not worth it," Al says lightly, which makes me laugh.

"Hey," Frank says suddenly. "Don't we have Quidditch practice tonight?" I groan. This is not going to work out well; seeing as more than half of the team hates Malfoy now. Only my family and close friends have been told who hurt me; the rest of the school is in the dark. But seeing as that's the entire team except Chelsea Robins and Malfoy himself, I'm not sure how it's going to work out.

Of course, come practice, the entire team is glaring at Malfoy, who gulps nervously.

"You okay?" Al asks. I nod. The first half of practice goes okay, until it becomes obvious that this isn't going to work out. I try to avoid Malfoy as much as possible, which works out fine until he nearly hits me with his bat. I can tell it was an accident, but it sets Albus off on a screaming rampage, something along the lines of, "I TOLD YOU TO NEVER GO NEAR MY COUSIN AGAIN!"

James and Frank have to restrain him from tearing Malfoy apart, who is stammering that it was an accident, and I have to intervene. "Go," I say quietly, gesturing to the locker room.

"Rose, I-"

"GO!"

I don't even care he used my actual name-which he never does-I just want him out of here. Thankfully, he leaves.

"This isn't going to work," Frank says, letting go of Albus. "Most of the team hates him, and…" he trails off. We all know what he's going to say.

"Personally, I'm glad he's gone," a small voice, Chelsea Robins, squeaks. "I mean, I don't know what all this was about-" she gestures to my throat- "but I assume it had something to do with him." I nod, and she sighs. "This isn't going to work."

"Well, would you rather have him or McLaggen?" James asks, and we laugh.

"We'll see," I rasp. "Hopefully it'll work out. Back to practice?"

We do, and it's not easy with only one Beater, but I'm skilled, so I can handle it.

Then comes lunch. I'm definitely not prepared for what happens in the entrance hall.

"Oi, Weasley!"

Nott.

"What do you want, Nott?" I ask hoarsely.

"What happened to your throat?" He's grinning, which only deepens my dislike for him. Standing by him are Goyle and Warren, his usual goonies, and Malfoy. Ugh.

"Ask your friend," I snap, nodding at Malfoy, who looks at his feet.

Nott looks at Malfoy. "You did that?" he asks. Malfoy gives a single nod, barely noticeable, still staring at his feet. "Great job, mate!" Nott says, holding his hand up for a high-five.

"Are you done wasting my time?" I ask impatiently.

"No," snarls Nott. "I'm not." He pulls out his wand.

I sigh. I've been saving this one for a while, one Uncle Harry taught me last summer.

Levicorpus!

The non-verbal spell hits Nott, lifting him into the air by his ankle. Just my luck, Peeves comes zooming around the corner.

"Students using spells, are we?" he cackles as Nott flails in the air.

"Go away, Peeves," I say.

"Oh-ho-ho, it's the Weasley girl!" he cackles. "Guess I better leave, before-good day, your Headmistressness!" he says as Professor McGonagall rounds the corner. She takes one look at the scene before her and sighs.

"Miss Weasley, was Mr. Nott threatening you?" she asks me. I nod once. A wand pulled out counts as threatening, right?

Professor McGonagall sighs again. "Any of the others?" I glare at Malfoy and shake my head no. She sighs one final time and says to Nott, "Next time it will be a detention." Then she stalks off back down the hall, Peeves following her. She waves her wand once and Nott falls back to the ground. Goyle and Warren help him up. I glare at Malfoy one last time and turn to go to lunch.

"You okay?" Alice asks immediately, seeing my expression. I nod.

"Nott," I say. She nods sympathetically, we all saw Malfoy at the Slytherin table this morning, which is where he is now as well.

Christmas break is more studying. Except for meals and Quidditch, which Malfoy doesn't show up to again, I never leave the common room.

And when classes resume, I'm in for a big surprise.

Albus POV

"And so, if you take the nonverbal form of the Stunning Spell, you can see that the eyebrows tense up, causing you to be able to perform a nonverbal Shielding Spell…" I yawn. This term in DADA we're working on dueling...and it's both boring and entertaining at the same time.

Rose and I are top of the class, Frank and Alice just behind us. Rose and Alice usually partner up, and Frank and I, and the four of us take turns silently using whatever jinx we're practicing on Scorp-I mean Malfoy. And since we're all so bloody brilliant, none of us show the "eyebrow tensing" or whatever Professor said. The funny thing is, he can't seem to figure out it's coming from us.

I wouldn't do it at all, and I know the other wouldn't either, if he hadn't turned into Nott's right-hand man. He's been awful to all of us, especially Rose, which has me seething because he never makes fun of her when I'm around. At least he's taking my promise seriously; he's been trying to avoid me as much as possible. Which is hard, seeing as we share a dorm.

Don't get me wrong about Slytherins, most of them are actually quite nice. Once you push aside the fact that they'll usually put themselves first, a lot of them are nicer than some of the Gryffindors, and if you're friends with them they'll literally kill for you. I have some (okay, quite a few) of those traits, but once I saw that all my friends (Malfoy, Frank, and Alice were all before me in the Sorting) were in Gryffindor, I decided on Gryffindor.

And I'm glad I did, because who would be there for Rose otherwise? Seeing as we have about half our classes with the Slytherins, and all of them with Scorp-Malfoy. Not Scorp anymore, because he's just as awful to me.

But then when Nott strikes, none of us are prepared. None of us but Malfoy, that is.