CHAPTER 6!

This chapter was...different... from what I had expected to write. Actually, I had no idea where most of it came from... but I like it!

Thank you guys for reading! Chapter 7 might be up soon... but my boarding school starts next week, I have a wedding to go to, and I still have to do my summer reading... so MAYBE.

And I'll stop blabbering on and let you read... ENJOY!

I stood in the center of the pitch letting the cool breeze whip my hair every which way. Though it was only September, I had opted to wear one of the knit sweaters Grandma Weasley had knit me for Christmas because at this time of morning the sun wouldn't be up high enough to warm the air. Why I was out at six o'clock in the morning with my broom and a quaffle, standing on the muddy lawn, was beyond me. To clear me head, maybe. Most likely it was because I did not fancy running into my multitude of family members. Knowing my family genes none of them would crawl out of bed until seven, at the earliest. So I was safe.

Grabbing the quaffle at my feet, I zoomed off the pitch on my Thunderbolt. Once in line with the goalposts, I tossed the ball into the air and smacked it away with the tail-end of my broom.

For what seemed life ages, I persisted to hit the quaffle, each time striking it with more force. The harder I hit it, the better I felt. It was like each smack given to the leather-covered ball would lighten the pressure that seemed to be building up onto my shoulders.

The first blow was for quitting when everyone needed me. The next was for teaming up with Malfoy, the family nemesis. The four hits after that were for Roxanne: One for letting her down, another for making her cry and two for being such a rubbish cousin.

And the last one, the one that I sent soaring straight through the center hoop, was for what I was expecting to come next. Letters from mum and a howler from dad, fights in the common room, months of receiving the cold shoulder, and a massive amount of evenings spent alone.

My trainers touched down on the grass and I strolled over towards to the locker rooms where the broom shed was located. To my surprise the door was wide open and I could hear someone shuffling about.

"Hello?" I called out, peeking my head through the doorframe.

"Rose?" Lucy stepped out of the shadows and into the strip of sunlight. Her dark mahogany hair was lifted off her neck and into a ponytail at the top of her head. She, unlike me, was dressed in much lighter clothes. Obviously she was accustomed to the chilly air of the dungeons and was unaffected by the winds that had started to pick up. "What are you doing out of bed? Seems terribly unlike you."

"I needed to clear my head…" I admitted. "But what about you. Do you normally wake up at this ungodly hour?"

Lucy nodded, "Yeah, though today I've had a bit of a late start. Normally I'd be out here by six at the latest."

I laughed, "You're definitely different from the rest of the family. The rest of us are off snoring in our beds while you're here…awake!"

"Yeah," Lucy smirked, stepping out of the shed and onto the pitch. "I've definitely earned my spot as the black sheep of the family."

"In a good way though."

"A Weasley who's in Slytherin, friends with children of Death Eaters, actually likes Divination… yeah, I s'pose I am quite different. You have my father to thank for that."

I wrinkled my nose and quirked my eyebrow. "Why?"

Lucy leaned against her racing broom handle and sighed. "When your father is the Minister of Magic and he's got a rule-abiding, book-loving, perfect daughter like Molly, you get sick of trying to be better than her."

"And you start being different?"

Lucy nodded her head yes and grinned mischievously. "Though being unusual is a lot more fun than being perfect. At least this way I get to drink firewhiskey and pull some pretty brilliant pranks."

"Got to say I was in hysterics when you made Malfoy's cauldron explode in his face!"

"Please don't mention Malfoy," Lucy groaned.

"Is this about his plan for the tournament?"

Lucy looked taken aback. "H-how do you know about that?"

"Guess who got dragged into his scheme?" I rocked back onto my heels pointing at myself. Lucy crossed her arms, well as best she could with her GoldenArrow still clutched in her hand. "Don't give me that look! It was either join him or stand with everyone else watching James win the contract. And you know I couldn't do that."

"Yeah, I know. But lemme guess. He wants you to persuade me to join the team? I'm right aren't I?" I didn't have to respond, the guilty look on my face told her exactly what he wanted. "The answer's no."

"Why?" I cried out.

"Because!" She stomped.

"Because why?" I asked, gripping onto both her shoulders. "Do you want to quit? By the look of your broom, that's not an option! Why?"

Lucy took a breath. "Because of Warrington."

"What does he have to do with this?" I questioned, dropping my hands to my sides and taking a stride back.

"He's an arse. And he hurt me, more than I'd care to admit."

"What did he do?" I asked incredibly concerned.

"Well, you know we were dating last year, right? Turns out he wasn't all that faithful. He had to go out and shag Atalia Higgs. Multiple times at that!"

My jaw dropped, "Merlin…"

"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "This is why I can't be on the same team with him. Hell, I can barely share the common room with the prat!"

"Lucy, I had no idea."

She shrugged, "I'll get over it. Just don't tell me I have to join."

"You don't have to," I agreed. "But you should."

Lucy froze. She looked at me with her coffee colored eyes as if I belonged in St. Mungo's.

"Listen. If you don't face this how are things going to get better?"

"Earth to Rose! I'm not a Gryffindor! I can't put on a brave face and deal with this as easily as you lions could!"

"Well then act like a Slytherin!" I argued. "Do this for you! Forget about the rest of us, don't do it for the team! Do it for yourself!"

Silence.

Lucy shuffled her feet around on the dewy grass. "For me?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Tell Scorpius he's got a chaser."

After running swiftly up to my dormitory after my chat with Lucy, I had hopped into the shower and changed out of my dirt covered clothes and into my uniform. Lily had dragging me out the portrait hole before I even had the chance to do my tie.

"Honestly Lily! Couldn't you have waited a minute for me to get ready?"

Lily's piercing green eyes narrowed at me. "Well, maybe if you had told me where the bloody hell you went this morning! I had to get ready all by myself!"

I rolled my eyes. I love Lily to bits but truthfully she was the biggest drama queen I'd ever met. Dominique came quite close though. "Lily, I just went out to clear my head. Besides," I shrugged, "had I not gone out I wouldn't have persuaded Lucy into joining the team."

"You what?"

"You can thank me now," I smiled as we shuffled down the staircases.

Lily's mouth was wide open in surprise. "I love you!" I laughed causing her to eye my skeptically. "What? It's the truth! I mean I owe you everything, Rose!"

"No!" I shook my head.

"Really?" Lily smirked. "Because last time I checked, ditching your team to work with your mortal enemy all for your boy-crazy, effervescent cousin is a big deal!"

"It's not that big of a deal."

"Can't you just 'You're welcome' and be done with it?"

"Fine. You're welcome."

Lily nodded, very pleased with that fact that I followed through with her orders. Though we both know the only reason I obeyed was because if I hadn't she'd have been bugging me about it for the rest of the week. Maybe even my whole life.

"Now where are we going to sit?"

I scrunched my eyebrows and looked pointedly at Lily. "I thought you knew!"

"No," Lily shook her head. "I've been sitting with a few of my Ravenclaw friends. But we can't sit with them because they're annoyed with me."

"Why do you think that?"

"They said I was annoying them," Lily shrugged and turned to look towards the cluster of Ravenclaws working on their essays scribbled down on long rolls of parchment. One lifted their gaze away from their assignment and saw Lily and me standing at the entrance of the Great Hall. Her eyes went wide and she quickly whispered to her fellow housemates, who hustled to spread out giving us no place left to sit down. "Haven't you been to meals?"

"I've just been so busy," I lied. Actually I had been afraid of choosing where to sit. Sure, I had friends in other houses to sit with, but the chance of running into James still existed. So, instead I spent my meals in my dorm with my stock of Honeydukes sweets or sneaking out later in the evening to go to the kitchens. I was becoming quite the regular and the house elves always waited for me with a large mug of hot chocolate.

"There's always the Slytherins."

"Are you crazy?" I whisper yelled. "We're already the rebel Gryffindors! Do you want to make us complete pariahs?"

"How would that make us piranhas?"

I looked at Lily stunned by the words that had just come out of her mouth. "You need to spend more time in the library and less time in the broom cupboards."

"Whatever," She waved off my comment. "Look, it's either glares sitting with Roxanne, Hugo and James or it's a few strange looks sitting with Lucy and Malfoy. Which do you prefer?"

"Right, so the Slytherins?"

"I'm right behind you," Lily smiled sweetly before pushing me forward towards the left side of the hall.

Slowly I inched my way away from the archway of the colossal wooden doors and in the direction of Scorpius and his cronies. Each step we took Lily and I seemed to be collecting more and more pairs of eyes. I resisted the temptation to see what my family was doing as I stood next Lucy. "Could we… I mean would it be alright if we ate with you?"

Lucy nodded, not taking her eyes off her plateful of scrambled eggs as she scooped up a bit with her fork. "You know," she mumbled in between bites, "that you're risking social suicide sitting with us Death-Eaters-in-training."

"Not to mention the gossip," Scorpius drawled. He leaned his elbows onto the table and smirked at me. Pieces of his white-blonde hair hung in front of his eyes and his sleeves were rolled up showing off his defined, muscular arms. I inwardly cursed him for managing to look attractive at this time of day and Lily for not letting me escape her grasp long enough to make my hair not resemble an electrified clown. "I can already hear the rumors spreading about how Weasley finally realized her undying love for me."

"Believe it or not, not every girl in this school wants to shag you," I sighed bitterly as I piled pancakes onto my plate.

"No," Scorpius replied smugly, "just the vast majority."

"You sicken me."

"Get used to it, Red. I am your captain after all."

I dropped my fork and glared across the table, "What?"

"I'm the captain."

"Since when?"

"Since Higgs left the team. I was going to receive the honor next year after he left, so it's only right that I take his place."

"I was going to be appointed captain next year for Gryffindor! What about me?"

Scorpius leaned forward. "If you haven't noticed, this was the Slytherin team. You're precious Gryffindors are over there," he gestured towards the other side of the hall. "You're on my team now."

"Without the Gryffindors you wouldn't have a full team," I fought back.

"Well, without us you wouldn't even have a team."

"Neither would you!"

"Oh, shut it!" Lucy slammed her cup of pumpkin juice on the table, splashing the two of us with orange droplets. "You can both be the bloody captains! Now shut your traps and eat your flipping breakfast before I rethink this whole thing. Okay?"

Scorpius and I nodded, slowly sinking back into our seats.

"Is that your natural hair color," Lily giggled at Nott as she twirled one of her strawberry locks around her finger. Leave it to Lily to flirt before the owl post even arrived.

"Lily," I hissed, "keep it in your pants!"

"What? I've never snogged a Slytherin before and I'd like to leave Hogwarts with a perfect record."

"You sound like Professor Slughorn."

"Who?" Lily cocked her head to the side.

"The old man that shows up at our Christmas party smelling like sherry and pineapples. He tends to hover around our parents."

"Oh," Lily gasped in realization, "the people-collector? I'm nothing like him!"

"Really? Well, excuse me Miss I-must-snog-a-boy-from-every-house," I teased.

Lily huffed, "Whatever."

"Ow!" I yelped, feeling my side ache in pain after my lovely cousin, Lucy, jabbed me with her bony elbow. "What the bloody hell was that for? Merlin!" Reaching down I lifted the hem of my shirt to examine my ribcage. "Brilliant, Lucy! Now I'm going to bruise!"

"Rose," Lucy hissed through her clench teeth. "Look!" She titled her head in the direction of the far end of the hall.

I raised my eyes. For a moment I thought I was going to faint. Walking in the direction of the table was James with the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team and my replacement, Alice Longbottom, following suit. The looks in their eyes told me that they were prepared to fight. And the rapid beating of my heart and the nervous sweat wetting my brow was telling me that I was prepared for them to Avada me on the spot.

"So," James glared at me, "the rumors are true."

"What are you talking about, Jamesie?" Lily jeered.

Kira Wilkins smiled maliciously with her devil horns visibly sprouting out of her blonde pigtails. "I think you know exactly what he's referring to," her scowl making her face as repulsive as her attitude. "Maybe you're just trying to fool everyone, but give it up because we all know you and Lily have teamed up the Death Eaters."

"Excuse me!" Nott stood up suddenly and slammed his fist down on the table with anger. "For your information people make mistakes! My family made theirs during the war and they've moved on! Your mistake was not letting old prejudices die! And for letting these two," Nott motioned towards Lily and I, "brilliant athletes go!"

"Guess your loss is their gain," I smirked.

Leo smirked back, "I think we'll live."

"Besides," Kira snickered, "joining them doesn't make you any better. It's not like you have a chance anyway. You're a team full of rejects and in all honesty, you're not going to make it past the first round."

"Why don't we test that on the pitch instead of here where you're just making an arse out of yourselves," Scorpius snapped, staring daggers at my male cousin.

"Better than making ourselves look like a bunch of fools," James said pointedly. "Must I remind you, Malfoy, about what happened in fourth year?"

Scorpius's jaw tightened and his cold grey eyes grew even icier. He slid off the bench and stood before my arrogant, brown-haired cousin. "It's just like you, Potter, to be living in the past."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying," Malfoy took a step closer to James, his arms crossed and his head held high with pride, "that daddy's fame can't always get you what you want."

"At least my father was a hero."

"My father was a hero! He may not have vanquished the Dark Lord but he tried his best to keep his family safe! He hurt his reputation to keep them alive!"

"Yeah?" James fought. "I thought he just a bloody coward!"

"A coward? Is that what you think?" Scorpius fumed with anger, his pale complexion was slowly growing redder and redder. "I'd like to see you live up to your namesake!"

"I am!"

"You definitely have the harassment part down!"

"They were great men! Don't you dare try and insult them!" James looked ready to hex Scorpius and Scorpius looked ready to lunge at James and teach him a lesson with his fists. "Besides they died doing what's right! Neither of them has evil tattooed on their forearms!"

"Neither do I! But at least I'm not bloody wanker who doesn't know how to forgive and forget! Maybe you should pull that stick our your—"

"Enough!"

All eyes on the Great Hall snapped away from the bickering boys and towards me. Slowly I rose from my seat and over towards Scorpius. "This isn't a conversation to be had in front of our peers. James, take your gang and go back to the Gryffindor table. I'm fine here. Actually," I smiled, "I rather enjoy it. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my breakfast."

Good? Review worthy?

Bonus points if you guys can guess why I had Slughorn smell like pineapples...

And a question. Are the chapters a good length?