The Best People I'd Ever Meet

"Um, what?" I said, jumping up. I couldn't believe what had just come out of his mouth.

"I like boys. Well, one boy, in particular."

"What in Merlin—then why did you ask me out?" I asked, completely furious.

"Because I thought maybe I could get rid of it," he said. He looked like he was about to cry. I was so angry, but the sight of him made me pity him.

"You tried to use me to get rid of the homosexuality? I'm sorry to tell you—but it doesn't work that way!" I said.

"Please, Rose, don't tell anyone."

"Why would I tell people that you went out with me to get rid of the gay?" I asked, stepping away from him.

"The boy I like beat me up and threw me into the closet. This summer, we had a thing, and I thought I could maybe reinstate it but he didn't think so—"

"Wait, you still like him?" I asked, feeling probably the weirdest I have in my life.

"I—I can't help it. And he can't either, it's all very scary."

"Merlin, don't be such a little bitch. He almost killed you. And no, you know what, I'm going to leave now. I'm really hurt right now. Maybe it's not leaving me for another girl, but it's still leaving me for someone else, while knowing that you liked them."

"Rose, I'm so sorry," he said, reaching for my hand. I pulled it away and ran down the stairs, trying not to cry. Everything that happened was just too weird to wrap my head around. I didn't even have a hunch. How do I not have a hunch?

Thank Merlin I was going home.

Eve's POV

I was ready and packed when McGonagall sent me another one of her letters.

"She's probably telling me I can't go."

"Stop being such a pessimist," Liz said, fiddling with her hair in front of the mirror.

"Girl, you can admit it you know," Reed said. "And then you can give me some."

"Reed!" Dona said.

"I am not selling drugs, Reed," I said calmly. For some reason, her accusation didn't bother me. She wasn't judging me, and for that I gave her credit. "And I don't believe in them, either."

"Whatever girl. Hash makes the world go round."

"Well, I think McGonagall thinks I'm selling much harder things," I said, laughing.

"So wait… do you have hash?"

"No, I do not have that either, Liz. And this is my queue to leave. I'm off to the Headmistress then."

"Good luck! If you get to go to the Potter's it's going to be extravagant."

"If I get there," I repeated.

"Martin, sit down," McGonagall said, shutting the great doors behind me. I sat down, feeling very scared. She sat down facing me, folding her hands in front of her. "First, I would like to apologize." I looked up at her, completely caught off guard. "Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy alerted me to possible foul play. And so I found my source and found out that you were falsely accused, and there was no reason to suspect that you are involved in the selling or using of drugs. I am truly sorry and I have no objection to making a public statement—"

"No, that's not necessary Headmistress," I said quickly. "Just the people following me, if they could just you know—"

"Of course," she said.

"Who… who made it up Professor?"

"Renee White did. I was pondering whether or not I should tell you, but I do believe you have a right to know who is trying to sabotage your reputation," she said. "But I want you to understand that the appropriate consequences have been given to Miss White, and I expect none to come from you or your friends. If I find out that Miss White has come to any harm then I will have the person responsible expelled." I nodded. She stood and I stood as well, turning to make for the door.

"Miss Martin?" I turned to look at her. "I want to emphasize that you should not trust so lightly."

"Professor, I didn't tell her anything. No one knows expect for three people," I said. She looked worried.

"Well make sure that those three people don't spread your story without your consent. I would rather this kind of thing not happen again."

"Yes Headmistress."

"It worked," I said breathlessly, when I saw Scorpius sitting in the Great Hall, picking at his food. He jumped up and gave me a hug, which I wasn't prepared for at all. I stood there, in shock, and became very aware of my hands.

He pulled back and grinned. "You need to learn how to hug."

"Can I teach her?"

I looked up and saw James standing behind Scorpius. Scorpius shot me a concerned look, to which I nodded. He shrugged and left, glancing back my way one more time. I looked back toward James.

"Did you tell Renee?" I asked, before he could say anything.

"What?" He asked, completely caught off guard.

"She's the one who told McGonagall that I was selling drugs. Apparently she knows everything about me, and I don't know how."

"I didn't tell her, Eve, I promise."

"But she's your ex-girlfriend. Maybe you were trying to make it up to her—leaving her for that Ravenclaw—"

"I did not leave her for that—" James said, his teeth grit. "Merlin, I hate that bitch."

"Then what happened?" I demanded, realizing that this was probably none of my business.

"I can't tell you," he responded. I raised my eyebrows at him, but he just shifted his eyes away from me.

"Whatever. Well if you didn't tell her, who the hell did?" I asked.

"No idea. I don't think Rose is much of a gossiper. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Although I would like to take care of Renee—"

"No, I promised McGonagall nothing would happen on our part." James still looked like he wanted to continue plotting. "Seriously, you'll get expelled. Apparently, she's facing her own consequences. Probably detention or something."

"Fine. Are you packed?" James asked.

"Yes, I am."

"Good. We're leaving in an hour. So meet us down here. We're taking the fireplaces." He turned and walked away, leaving me frustrated. James and I were always at odds. He was either pissed with me, or I was pissed with him. There was that brief period in which we were both friendly with each other. But it was brief, like I said. I punched the wall beside me as hard as I could, causing my fist to bleed.

"Ah, to bleed. What a feeling," said a passing ghost. I scowled and made my way back to the dormitories.

Rose's POV

"Scorpius," I whispered to myself, fumbling through the map in my hands. I saw his labeled dot in the Great Hall, next to Eve's. I waited for a while, watched as James walked up and saw Scorpius leaving. He was out on the grounds. I threw the map on top of my suitcase and flew downstairs to find him.

"Malfoy!" I called out. He turned and broke into a grin.

"Weasley, guess what?" he said, when I reached him.

"What?"

"Eve is cleared. McGonagall got the truth out of the source. We make a good team—whoa, whoa why are you crying—Rose, Rose, talk—use your words Rose," he said, grasping my shoulders. I fell into him and began to sob even harder.

"Riley—" I gasped out, "he broke up—up with me."

"Why?"

"Because he's gay, Scorpius."

There was silence after I said this and I pulled back to see a slight grin on Scorpius's face. I exploded.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" I yelled, tears still flowing down my cheeks. "THIS IS NOT FUNNY!"

"Rose, stop yelling. I know it's not funny right now, but honestly, it's one of those things that you'll think back on and laugh your ass—"

"Shut up. You're an ass," I said. But I couldn't help but let a watery smile escape through. He bent down and kissed my forehead. I pulled back, surprised. "That was super sensitive," I commented.

"I'm super sensitive, Rose, duh."

"Don't tell anyone, Scorp. I don't want it to get to Fred and James before Riley comes out himself."

"Well that's nice of you. But what are you going to say when they ask what happened?"

"Just that we weren't feeling it," I said. "You know, I feel like I should've known."

"Rose, Rose, Rose. He wasn't gay. He met you. You turned him gay. Congratu—"

But he never got to finish that statement, because I hexed his mouth closed.

I kept my eyes on the floor. James, Riley, and Fred were only a few paces away from me, and Riley didn't say anything, so neither did I. My family didn't seem to have a clue. Everyone was basically around Eve, talking about her redemption. "Everyone to the Burrow, fireplace number 4!" came Flitwick's chirpy voice. I joined the line leading to the fireplace. One by one, we stepped inside. I stepped in second to last and found myself covered in soot and laying on top of Lily on the dark wood floors of the Burrow. I stood up and helped Lily up, before brushing the soot off.

"Rose? What's up with you and Riley?" Lily whispered, watching Riley come out of the fire, and not even sparing me a glance.

"Um…we broke up," I admitted.

"Why? You were so cute together!" she exclaimed, in a very Lily-like fashion.

"Shh, we're not quite telling everyone yet. Especially right now—hello Nana!" I said, giving my grandmother a hug. She turned and gave Lily a hug as well.

"Look at my girls!" she said, happily, smelling like cooking. In fact, the whole house smelled like freshly baked rolls and I had worked up quite an appetite. Someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned and saw Ted. His hair was black today, and his eyes were dark brown. He only looked like this when something serious was going on.

"What's up Ted?" I asked, not forgetting our last meeting.

"I'm sorry, Bud," he said, giving me a hug. "I shouldn't have overreacted."

"No, I'm sorry," I said. "I should have been less careless."

"Alright, enough with the apologies. Time to eat!" James said, gesturing toward the table, where plates upon plates of Nana's delicious cooking awaited us. I watched as Riley took his seat next to Fred and James and went to the other extreme of the table. James gave me a funny look but I looked away before he could say anything.

Eve's POV

I felt like everyone was staring. I tried to take a seat as close to Rose as possible, and ended up with the next best thing—Al. James was far away on the other side of the table, not making eye contact with me, which was good.

"So, Eve is it?" I looked up to see the Weasley's grandmother Molly smiling warmly at me from beside my chair with a huge pot of stew levitating nearby. She waved her wand and it landed in front of James, who started scooping some out almost immediately. "How are you dear?"

"I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley. Thank you for the lunch."

"Not a problem! The more the merrier! In fact, all of your parents will be arriving after lunch for tea. They're all at the Ministry, save for Ginny, who is at the Prophet," she said.

"Where are Dom and Vicky?" Louis piped up.

"They're still at Aunt Fleur's," Ted said.

"Dom's coming?" Rose asked, excitedly. Everyone looked excited at the prospect, and I couldn't help but be curious. I turned to Al and asked him who Dom was.

"Dominique is Louis's brother and Ted's fiancée's sister and our cousin," Al said, taking a bite of a chicken leg.

"Oh. I see. What does she do?"

"She's a model and she basically goes around the world on her photo-shoots."

"Wow, she must be beautiful then."

"Oh, she's the best looking out of all of us, and that's saying something," Al said, winking. I laughed and secretly agreed with him. "Thing is, her mom, Aunt Fleur has some veela blood in her."

"Ooh, wow, Veela."

"Louis has it too, but since he's a guy…" Al said, trailing off at the sight of a fresh batch of rolls.

"Yeah. And what about Ted's fiancée?" I asked, feeling weird about not calling him professor.

"Vicky is just as beautiful, but in a more elegant way. Dom's looks are like… the pixie rebellious looks."

"Oh, I see."

After lunch, everyone went outside to play Quidditch on the Burrow's pitch. Al told me that his dad had drawn up plans for it the minute Ginny had expressed wanting to be on the Holyhead Harpies. The Harpies used to practice on this pitch when Ginny played for the team and when I saw it, I knew why. It was spectacular.

Al threw me a broomstick out of the broom-shed. I wasn't much of a Quidditch player. Actually, I had no idea how to play except from what I had seen before. James was already in the air, picking out his team. Al was on the other side, picking his team. He picked me, and I unsteadily flew up next to him.

It was James, Lily, Fred, Hugo, and Riley, against Rose, me, Al, Rox, and Louis. Ted had decided to be the referee and keep score. I was appointed Keeper, and I kind of flew by the goalposts a while, not exactly sure what I was supposed to be doing. Both sides were so good though, that it had been a full twenty minutes and no one had come close to either of the goals. So really, I just floated around and hoped that nothing was thrown my way.

Until it was.

James was speeding toward me with the Quaffle in hand. I panicked and flew in front of him. He didn't see me, got caught off guard, and we both went tumbling to the ground. He landed right on top of me. I know how cliché it sounds, but that's how it happened. But the next part wasn't so cliché.

"James Sirius Potter!" I felt James scrambling from on top of me to face his angry mother. "What are you doing on top of that girl?"

"Mum, this is Eve. We're uh… she's Rose's friend, and we were playing Quidditch, it's not what it looks like—" James tried to explain. Meanwhile, I pulled myself up to face her. She turned to me and gave me a warm smile.

"Oh, I remember you from the station. You were with Neville. Well nice to see you again, dear. Did James hurt you?"

"No Mrs. Potter—"

"Call me Ginny. Now, James, how has school been?"

"Good mum," James said.

One by one, the Weasleys began landing and the brooms were placed against the side of the house while everyone hugged Ginny. A moment later, I watched as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Weasley came in and got their hugs too. I was introduced to everyone and treated like I was family almost immediately, which was pretty overwhelming. And then everyone except for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and me got back up in the air to play real Quidditch. It was intense. Age hadn't slowed down anyone. Harry and Ginny were an amazing team and beat James and Al in practically no time.

Dinner was a candid affair, with everyone laughing and making small talk. Victoire and the famous Dom had finally made their appearance, and took my breath away. Victoire didn't really talk to anyone, but went straight to Ted. They spent the whole evening with their heads bent toward one another, talking in hushed whispers. Dominique on the other hand was lively and talkative. Her hair was pixie cut and bright blonde with blazing red tips. She had small tattoos here and still managed to keep up a classy appearance. Her clothes were designer and her teeth were brilliant. Her eyes even sparkled and I saw what Al meant. She was so beautiful; she made everyone around her look beautiful.

I went to bed in one of the Burrow bedrooms that night full of food and happy thoughts, glad to find myself amongst these people. Something the Sorting Hat said to me found its way to my thoughts just before I fell asleep.

You seem to have already judged a group of people of whom you know nothing of except for the situation they were born to.

I realized then what the hat meant. And I realized that I had been wrong. I had judged this fantastic group of people because they were rich and famous and didn't realize that maybe, just maybe, they were probably the best group of people I would ever meet.