Chapter 11. It's shorter but I hope you guys like it!

"Rose, get out of bed. You've been in here all day." Reluctantly I threw the covers off my face and sat up to face a chipper Lily. "Merlin! You look awful!"

Leave it to Lily to make me feel worse about myself. She was never very subtle. But I couldn't blame her. My hair must have resembled Medusa's, sticking up every which way. Makeup had to be smeared all over my face and dark circles had probably formed under my eyes from a lack of sleep. My mind would not shut off as it kept replaying the events of the past few nights.

I had tried to put on a smile even after my own brother had informed me I had been booted off the family tree. For awhile I was able to trick everyone, maybe even myself, that I was fine. Of course that couldn't last very long. One mistake had led my best friend to show her true colors. And for me to shown mine.

"Come on, Grumpy Pants," Lily encouraged as she sat to join me in the tangled mess of sheets. "I know it must have been a hard night but you can't stay locked up in here for the rest of your life."

"How'd you find me? And who told you about..."

"About last night? No one had to tell me. Amelia's been crying and she refuses to speak to me. James keeps sending people up to check on her. I went down to breakfast this morning. You weren't there and Malfoy couldn't tear his eyes off his cereal. Something had to be wrong. Even I am not that dim. And as far as figuring out where you were, I just thought 'Where would I go?' And TA-DA! Here I am!"

"The Room of Requirement? Why here?"

Lily smiled knowingly. "The same reason you're here. To be alone. To mope in my own misery."

"I'm not moping," I lied.

Lily's piercing green eyes narrowed with a single raised eyebrow. "Yes you are. Now, get out of bed and put your clothes on. I'll be waiting outside." She stood up and slapped a pile of clothes at my feet before sauntering out the door.

Moving as slowly as possible, I was able to stick my toes out of my blanket and shuffle out of bed. At the pace of a turtle I was ready to go after five minutes. On my way out the door I tied my tangled mess of hair in a ponytail. "I'm ready," I grumbled.

"Well, we better hurry up before we're late for the feast," my cousin stated, grabbing my hand and dragging me down the corridor.

I struggled to break free and attempted to prevent us from inching forward by planting my feet on the ground. "Lily, the last thing I need right now is to face the whole school. Can't we just skip the feast? I'm not in the mood for it this year."

Lily tightened her grip and rolled her eyes. "Godric, Rose! Can't you trust me?"

"Depends. But right now I am more than a little worried."

"Oh hush!"

It was a miracle that I handled making it down the steps with Lily's tugging. I had even managed to avoid the tricky step, third from the bottom. "Lily," I begged as I almost tripped between the changing staircases, "could you at least slow down!"

Lily shook her head. "I told you, we're late! So pick up the pace, Grumpy!"

My cousin had gone insane. I'm sure Aunt Luna would say that she simply has had a nargle infiltrate her brain. But she's wrong. Behind her sleek strawberry hair is the severely damaged brain of a messed up little girl. She is the only person I know to go from reading the Quibbler upside-down to hexing Leo Thomas for stealing her knickers to snogging said knicker thief. That couldn't possibly be the behavior of a sane girl.

As we passed Filch's office, which gave off a distinct stench of fried fish and yogurt, I assumed Lily had taken a wrong turn. "Lily, the Great Hall is that way."

The red-haired girl let out a disturbing noise resembling some sort of hippogriff mating call and I could only assume that it was supposed to be a groan. "I told you to shut up and trust me!"

In order not to unintentionally push anymore of Lily's buttons I opted to keep my lips sealed shut. The only thing left to do was pray she hadn't done something stupid. Like call a family meeting. Or set Lia's bed aflame. That would be bad. And honestly I can't rule those out because knowing her those are viable options.

We came to a screeching halt in front of a portrait. Lifting her finger, Lily tickled it, allowing us entry.

"Miss Weasley! Welcome!"

"Good evening, Miss Potter!"

"Tweeny has prepared everything just the way Miss has ordered!"

"Cupcakes?"

My cousin tore through the mob, pushing house elves aside. "Yeah, yeah! Move it!"

In the right corner, where a wooden stool had once stood, was now a small table with twin benches on either side. Over half of the seating was filled with our teammates. Lucy was beside Rennison. And on the farthest side a special guest sat in between Scorpius and Nott.

"Lorcan?"

He offered a lopsided grin and laughed, "Sorry I'm crashing the party but I figured this motley crew needed at least one crazy fan."

As I slid in next to Lucy I felt some of the weight fall off my shoulders. Memories of the past became blurred as I focused on the present. "Thanks Lorcan. Is everyone missing the feast for me?"

Michael shrugged, "Well, that and I don't exactly have friends."

"You're an idiot!" Lucy said with a quick thump to Rennison's head. "I'm your friend!"

Scorpius attempted to hold back a snicker. "Come on mate. You going to let her smack you around like that? Grow some balls!"

And then chaos ensued. Laughter and screaming were heard around the table as house elves rushed to fill our plates. Lily started twirling her hair as Nott was reenacting an encounter he had supposedly had with a mountain troll over summer holiday. Scamander had made himself at home and entered an argument over whether McGonagall had been attractive or not in her years as a student at Hogwarts. I couldn't help but smile and think that these guys had gone from being complete strangers to being my family.

"Sickle for your thoughts, Red?" I looked up and saw Malfoy sipping from his mug of butterbeer. "You haven't touched your food. Something wrong? Besides the obvious that is."

"Oh," I responded surprised, "I hadn't even realized. But, uh, no worries. I'm actually quite happy, given what has happened."

"Happy?"

I nodded, "Happy to be here. With family."

"Well, if you're going to call us a family you might want to inform Chryson and Lily. For some reason I don't think they'd be into the idea of incest," Scorpius smirked.

I exploded into a fit of giggles and snorts. Had I been hoping to appear attractive I would have failed miserably.

"Get a hold of yourself, Weasley!" Nott laughed, earning a shove from Lily.

"Someone shut her up!"

Lucy clamped her hand over my mouth in attempt to muffle my chuckling. "You are a complete nutter, you know that?"

I shook my head in agreement as I struggled to breathe between my frantic laughter. Stripping the fingers away from my face, I took a deep breath and sighed. "Alright, alright! I'm all good."

"You're a bit scary."

"Thanks Scorpius."

"You are all a bunch of nutters."

The lot of us snapped our heads to the left and stared at the uninvited figure hovering in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Nott stood up from his seat, challenging our guest to come closer.

Albus timidly tip-toed further into the room. I couldn't blame him for proceeding with caution. For a Gryffindor, he was pretty cowardly and the Slytherins before him were not known for their welcoming nature or friendly demeanor. "Hello."

"Why aren't you upstairs with your Gryffindor friends, Potter?" Scorpius drawled.

"To be quite honest," Albus confided, "James was getting on my nerves. I am astonished I made it past the main course. I wanted to hex his mouth shout as soon as we sat down."

"Sounds like our brother," Lucy agreed prior to stuffing a pumpkin cupcake into her mouth.

I piped in, my curiosity getting the best of me, "Is he complaining about me?"

"Well, that and he won't stop jabbering on about Amelia."

"Lovely."

"Ew," Lucy gagged.

My raven haired cousin plopped onto the bench next to me. "It is a step up from the constant snogging. Pass me a treacle tart?"

"You're speaking to me," I informed, pointing out the obvious.

Albus shrugged. "You know I've never cared much for Quidditch. Plus, I understand the need to escape our loony family. No judgment there."

"Hey!" Lucy and Lily protested.

"Are people talking about the other night?" The teammates that had once been huddled around us to listen had now taken their cue. They moved away to discuss other impending issues, such as the latest Cleansweep model.

"You know Erin. Any story that is the least bit fascinating will spread around the school like Fiendfyre if she hears of it."

"Sometimes," I admitted, "I really detest her."

"Agreed," Albus nodded, raising his glass of pumpkin juice.

Miming him, I lifted my cup and clinked his before taking a small sip. "Al, am I selfish?"

"At times. But Rose," Albus advised, "I would not waste time lingering on what she said. Had she been a real, true friend she would have been upfront about it all from the beginning."

"I guess…"

"He's right, Rose," Scorpius added. Albus looked a tad put off. My guess was he hadn't expected Malfoy to agree with him, a lion and a Potter. "Plus, if she's dumb enough to want to go out with his brother you have to question her sanity. She's obviously not right in the head."

I laughed, "Right because if she was reasonable she would be chasing your bum into a broom cupboard."

"Exactly."

"You know," Albus added, "I didn't know it was possible to be that arrogant. So proud. So…"

"Self-confident?" I offered. "Egotistic? Haughty? Supercilious?"

Scorpius grimaced, "Thanks."

"What?" I quirked my eyebrow in surprise and gave the ferret next to me a quizzical glance. "You're not going to shoot insults back? No calling me an uptight bookworm prude or a frizzy know-it-all. Not even a nickname? Red? Weaselette?"

"Weaselette? Hmm… never heard that one before. Quite like it."

My smile melted and a scowl appeared, "Merlin, no."

"Merlin? Well," he smirked, "I think you've got me confused with someone else, Rose."

I huffed, "You know what I mean, Malfoy!"

Scorpius grinned mischievously and leaned back on the bench. "Oh, I know, Weasley. It's just that you're much more interesting when you are riled up."

"And by that he means he thinks you're attractive when you're mad… or all the time… either way."

"Lily… Not now."

My ears were ringing as I sat in the stands. The Gryffindors were up on their feet, waving flags and screaming at the top of their lungs. Lily and I slunk into the corner, residing as far away from the rest of the group as possible. As soon as Kira Wilkins smacked a quaffle past Ryker Moore the students cheering reached an all-time high.

"Can we leave yet?" Lily asked, yelling over the crowd. I gave her look. "What? Look at the score! It's practically over!"

And it was. James was currently leading the Kenmare Kestrels in yet another successful match. In truth, Quincy Evans never had a chance. Not when it was no more than twenty minutes into the match and the other team was up by 210 points.

I rolled her eyes. "Lily, we're not here to see who wins! We're here to study them! Learn they're tactics, study their movements, and most importantly, find they're faults!"

"They have none!" She sassed gesturing towards the scoreboard.

"Really? Well, Colin Finnigan fumbles with the ball whenever he gets near the goal and Alice Longbottom favors the right side. Kira Wilkins has a temper which leads to the majority of her fouls. Meaning that if we work her well enough she might get herself thrown out of the game."

"ABERNATHY SHOOTS THE QUAFFLE TOWARDS THE GOAL! OH! AND SCAMANDER MISSES IT! 10 POINTS FOR THE VRATSA VULTURES!"

"See that," I pointed toward the hoops at the closest end of the field. "Lysander misses most goals that are shot near his ankles."

Lily tilted her head to the side. "Hmmm, I guess you're right."

"And Lily, Roxanne cracks under pressure. So when it comes down to finding the snitch, stay close and don't be afraid to give her a little shove."

"THOMAS GETS THE QUAFFLE! HE'S HEADING TOWARDS THE OTHER END OF THE PITCH! HE'S GOT A CLEAR SHOT! AND HE MISSES!"

"Plus, Leo has little to no aim. How he got on the team exactly I'll never understand."

"Well," I shrugged, "he might not be able to score but he got a great job as far as passing. And he's not afraid of roughing a few people up. Same goes for James."

Lily nodded, "Trust me. I know. I've lived with him long enough to know he is fully capable of roughing up both my brother and I."

"Yeah."

"So," she said, pursing her lips, "what is James's fault?"

I narrowed my eyes and frowned, shaking me head side to side. "I have no clue."

"WEASLEY'S CLOSING IN ON THE SNITCH! EDWARDS IS TRYING TO CATCH UP BUT HE'S TOO FAR BACK! WEASLEY REACHES OUT AND… SHE'S GOT IT! THAT'S IT! THE KENMARE KESTRELS WIN!"

Lily and I immediately slapped our hands over our ears to shield the noise erupting from the crowd. The Gryffindors were jumping up and down in excitement as James led his team in a victory lap. His fist was clenched as he pumped it into the air with a smile plastered on his face.

So... I realize that I lacked added a kiss into this chapter but soon. I promise!
And tell me what you think will happen next! Help prevent writer's block!

Next chapter- Team meetings, autographs, and a kiss.