Chapter XVI

A Friendship is Formed

Albus and Will sat in the hospital wing watching Rose's hair burn bright red as the sunlight rose through the window. Will had his head propped upon his hand as he bent over in his chair, trying to stay awake. Will an Albus had been pretty much up all night, madame Pomfrey had to kick them out of the hospital wing the previous night and they had returned at the earliest hour possible. The two of them had too much on their mind and were unable to sleep anyway. Albus felt a brotherly instinct to protect Rose, they'd been friends since the moment they were born and he felt a great dislike for the Scorp at the moment for not taking care of his cousin while on detention. It was the Scorp's fault Rose had detention in the first place, and she didn't even deserve it.

Rose stirred a little bit in her sleep. Al knew that her cracked rib had been healed almost instantaneously, but the pain would still be there. Al watched as his cousin opened her big, brown eyes and gave a smile.

"Good morning, Rose!" Al sang cheerfully.

Rose looked confused as she took in the sight of the hospital wing flooded with the morning's orange light.

"Oh…" she gave a little sigh when she realized where she must be.

"How do you feel?" Will asked.

"Um, my chest hurts a bit, but other than that I feel fine," Rose said while she slowly sat up in her bed.

"It seems you've been on quite an adventure!" Will remarked, "the whole school has been talking about how the erie Eithne broke the laws by trying to kill you…"

"And how the Scorp saved you, sort of…" Al added grudgingly.

Even if the Scorp did save his Rose, he didn't do a very good job at it.

"Scorpius! How's he? Is he alright?" Rose franticly asked, a look of concern flashing in her eyes.

Al didn't like the way she reacted, was his cousin concerned about the rude Slytherin who landed her in detention?

"Yeah, he's fine," Al replied, lifting his thick eyebrows and giving his cousin a look saying explain more.

"Al!" Rose laughed, interpreting her cousins look, "Scorpius saved my life! And I though he might have been hurt too…"

"No, he was given a potion for bruising and was good to go."

Rose looked relieved, which made Al even more angry.

"So what's going to happen to Eithne?" Rose asked while taking a bite of toast that madame Pomfrey brought over to her.

"Well, that's the problem…" Will began with a grimace.

"What do you mean?" The toast in Rose's mouth suddenly tasted dry. "She is under some kind of surveillance right?"

"Normally she'd be facing the Ministry of Magic for attempted murder," Al sighed, trying to bring the hard news to his cousin gently, "but she's disappeared. She's been summoned, but refuses to appear."

Rose gasped, the thought of that lunatic ghost still on the loose made her shiver.

Al noticed how frighted Rose became and hastily added "Don't worry though. She's no longer on Hogwarts grounds, otherwise McGonigall could use magic and force her to appear. Besides, none of the other ghosts have seen her around."

Rose nodded her head, but she still felt frightened. The feeling of Eithne's cold, air-tight grasp around her neck, and the fiery light that simmered in her eyes as she let Rose drop still burned crystal clear in her memory. There was also something else that bothered her: Professor Speirling's statement about forgiving the ghost. Why on earth would he instantly forgive that ghost for almost murdering her? It was an uncomfortable thought, and she could see the worry bubble in her cousin's green eyes.

Rose gave a fake smile and asked "what classes do we have today?"

WiIl's face lighted up instantly and blurted out "we have art and magic! It's going to be amazing! I bet we'll learn how to make objects move! Oh, do you think we'll learn how to make portraits talk?"

Al laughed, Will had been looking forward to this class since they received their schedules. Will was always doodling on his notes in class. In fact, most of his doodle's were amazing, the shading was almost so real that it looked like magic had been used to capture the dimensions of light.

"Yes Will, I think that's the whole purpose of the class," Al said with a grin.

Rose rolled her eyes, "art and magic sounds good and all, but it won't be very helpful to me later on in life."

"Awe, it's only one class, Rose…" Al nudged Rose playfully.

"Well, it does sound interesting," Rose gave in grudgingly, "what what core class do we have with it?"

"That would be potions in the dungeons with Professor Slughorne," Will said as if he'd been talking about cleaning the bathrooms.

"Well, I think it sounds fascinating!" Rose exclaimed waking Will lightly over the head with her toast.

Will laughed. "Well, if you think it sounds that fascinating, you might want to hurry up eating."

"Oh, and why?" Rose said with a squeamish feeling in her stomach.

"Um, we'll be late in five minutes…"

"FIVE MINUTES?" Rose screeched, shoving the rest of her toast down her throughout, "what time is the class at?"

"Gryffindors and Slytherins have the earliest slot at 7 o'clock."

"Merlin's beard!" Rose looked like she might have a heart attack. "Where's my uniform?"

Al threw Rose her robes and the two boys waited in the hall for Rose, who came running out with her shoes, tie, and cloak in hand and her long red hair twisting every direction.

"You sure you're ready?" Al smiled with a raised eyebrow.

Rose didn't reply and was already racing ahead of them.

The three tumbled into Slughorne's class out of breath and ten minutes late.

"We're so sorry we're late!" Rose huffed.

"Ah, you must be Rose Weasley!" Slughorne exclaimed, delighted, "you're mother is a personal friend of mine and I was filled with the greatest concern when I heard your misadventure! Ah! And this must be Mr. Potter?" Slughorne turned to Al, "your parents are good friends of mine too. You're the spitting image of your father! Alas, class must continue, we have three seats left." Slughorne motioned to the empty seats.

There was an empty table in the back with two seats and a table in the front with one seat left. Rose walked to the front of the class and Al and Will took the back.

"Hello!" Rose greeted her fellow potions partner as she approached, not really looking at him though because she was reading the directions on the board.

"Uh… hello... MIss Weasley," the familiar voice of Scorpius Malfoy shyly rang out.

"Oh! Scorpius!" Rose smiled at him.

Scorpius refused to make eye contact and bashfully cleared his throat and explained the directions to Rose… as if she didn't know them already. Rose was a little taken aback; he had saved her after all. Then again, the two of them were getting strange glares from the Slytherins and confused looks from the Gryffindors.

"How come you don't have a partner already?" Rose asked as she plopped a drop of moon dew into the potion.

Scorpius laughed dryly, "it's hard enough being popular if your parents were death eaters… However, saving a Gryffindor apparently lands you an instant ticket as the loser of Slytherin."

"Oh…" an actual feeling of pity for the boy rising in her, "I'm sorry…"

Scorpius laughed, "Sorry? Don't be! You're not splattered on the floor because of me."

Rose blushed, "I know… I mean thanks for saving me."

Why was it suddenly hard to think straight?

"I'd hope you'd have done the same for me," Scorpius replied with a casual shrug and added three drops of willow's core to the potion.

"Of course!" Rose practically shouted, furiously stirring the potion, "I just don't understand why you' saving me makes you so unpopular?"

"Rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin… apparently it's cool to let the enemy die."

"That's disgusting!"

"Funny thing is, if it wasn't for my dad's long lectures… I might of been just like the lot of them: empty headed and filled with arrogant pride, " Scorpius tilted his head towards the Slytherins.

"Oh, and what did your dad tell you?"

"Rose!"

"He told you my name?"

"No, I mean your about to set the willows' cores on fire… you're stirring too hard!"

"Oh, right."

Scorpius gabbed the mixer from Rose's hand and Rose blushed deep pink.

"I was always a bit embarrassed of him when we went out…" Scorpius shuffled uncomfortably, "you know, we got a lot of mean glares and random people barking insults at us. Dad never stood up for us or made them apologize… he'd always just take the insults and walk on faster. Then at home he'd always go on these long lectures about how the Malfoys don't need any more enemies and blah, blah, blah. Main point: I'm to make friends and not enemies; but if I do make an enemy, I'm to make sure it's a good person."

"Then how come you became an obnoxiously rude bully?" Rose blurted out.

Scorpius grimaced, "the first night of being a Slytherin I tried making friends by being kind to people, needless to say it didn't work. The only way to get attention and 'friends' was to… well, be better than everyone else… so to speak."

"And it didn't work?"

"No, it worked quite well actually, until I saved you. But don't worry, I don't want those dim-wits for friends anyway… I don't want them as enemies either though. So, as long as I can keep on their good side and not get in their way, I'll be fine. I can be myself. I guess the name of Malfoy will have to go on being friendless though… I'm used to it anyway."

"You're not completely friendless!"

"What do you mean?" Scorpius asked while adding a fern frond to the potion.

Rose gave a big smile, "whether you like it or not, I'm your friend!"

"What?" Scorpius almost dropped a bottle of fire-snail saliva in his hand.

Rose rolled her eyes in poured the portion in their cauldron.

"Make a note of this, Scorpius: usually saving someone's life leads to friendly feelings and gratitude."

Scorpius met her eyes and gave a toothy grin of pure delight.

"I have a friend?" Scorpius whispered, almost disbelievingly.

"Yes," Rose replied smiling back at him. "Now look, this appears to be the right color?"

Rose held out the reference color on her textbook to compare with the rusty orange color in the cauldron. Scorpius nodded his head, still smiling.

Putting on a serious face Rose asked catuously "you've heard about Eithine's escape, right?"

Scorpius nodded with his cheeks losing their color. "Spierling has some explaining to do though… Ah! Professor Slughorne! Would this be correct" Scorpius waved his hand over their caldron to indicate their rusty orange potion color.

"Indeed! That appears to be splendid!" Slughorne exclaimed. "5 points to Slytherin and 5 points to Gryffindor! My, it is nice to see the noble houses of Slytherin and Gryffindor working together."

Thank you for reading! So sorry this chapter took so long to write. Free-time is very precious to me and, unfortunately, I've had very little of it- close to zero. If some interest is shown, I'll try to get another chapter out. Even if nobody reads this, I will finish this story eventually… but eventually might be over a course of the next 20 years or so. Only joking! But really…. I'd love some feedback! What do you want to happen? Who do you want me to focus on in the next chapter? Rose and Scorpius? Albus and Will? The Graybacks? Spierling's story? Please let me know, I have a few ideas swimming around my head and I'm not sure which would be the most interesting for readers.