Using the prompt 'spoil the child'

Chapter Forty-Six

Hugo had been sitting in the armchair closest to the fire with a copy of the evening Prophet in his lap when it happened.

He'd heard voices coming from the dormitories, and a small group of students had gathered by the staircase to try and get a closer look. Hugo ignored it to begin with. After all, fights were common when you shared a common room with such strong-minded people.

It wasn't until Lily – who had been sitting beside him – nudged him. "Hugo," she said in a frightened whisper. "It's Rose."

At the mention of his sister, Hugo looked up to see Rose – all hot and bothered – was marching down the stairs with Jasmine tailing her. Both girls looked furious, which instantly alerted Hugo to the fact that they had been fighting.

This, of course, wasn't uncommon either. It was known to at least all of the Gryffindors they didn't like one another, but even Hugo had to admit this time was different. Rose didn't just look irritated, she was fuming. Her cheeks had turned red, and her eyes were narrowed, glaring at Jasmine.

Jasmine was simply standing there, looking as smug as she always did around Rose.

Georgia Grey – Jasmine's best friend – joined them a moment later, appearing to try and come between the two of them to break up their fight.

Neither Rose, nor Jasmine, paid the third girl any attention.

"I'm sorry that my mum and dad were murdered. I'm sorry that I took some time out of Hogwarts to grieve for my parents. I'm sorry that me being back is not doing anything for your ego, Jasmine."

"That's not what I meant!" Jasmine retorted, her voice becoming high pitched as rage seemed to overcome her.

"Well, that's certainly what it sounded like," Rose spat. "You're pissed off because now that I'm back, everyone apparently wants to know if I'm okay. Well, I'm not. Would you be okay if you were one day taken out of class – on what had started as just a normal day – to be informed that overnight, while you were happy and blissfully unaware, your parents were lying dead in their own home? I got up that morning, I ate breakfast, I even wondered what Mum and Dad might have been doing. Not once did I think that they weren't even breathing anymore. Not once did I even consider that as I sat in the Great Hall, eating a piece of toast, my mother's life had been taken because she tried to stop my dad from being killed!"

The common room had fallen silent now as more people had come to join those who were already watching the argument unfold. Subconsciously, Hugo took a step nearer to his sister.

Stop, Rosie, he silently begged. Please stop. Ever since her failed attempt at a date with Scorpius – or when she had stood him up, essentially – she had made it her mission to bring her own misery upon everybody else. She seemed to think it was everybody else's fault that Scorpius now wasn't talking to her, or that nobody cared. And of course, Jasmine was her number one target.

But Rose never stopped once she got going. It was what would always get her into trouble.

"Just because your parents are dead doesn't mean you should be getting any special treatment from anyone!" Jasmine snapped.

"What special treatment?" Rose demanded. "That maybe not every boy in the school is into you? That maybe Scorpius doesn't gawk at you like my cousin does."

Hugo turned to where James was standing, arms folded, giving no impression that he had any intention to stop the argument between his girlfriend and cousin.

"You mean, Scorpius, the boy you ditched before you even had one date?" Jasmine said cruelly. "That Scorpius? At least if I'm not interested, I have the decency to tell them and not string them along."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, even Jasmine seemed to realise she had said the wrong thing. In her moment of absolute fury, Rose lunged for Jasmine, grabbing hold of her hair.

Some shuffled in a small attempt to break the fight up, but mostly, everyone just stood there. From beside him, Lily vanished, but Hugo had no idea where she had gone. He didn't really care either.

"Every bloody teacher looks at you as if you are some charity case!" Jasmine cried, trying to escape Rose's firm hold. "Slughorn even gave you a two week extension of a goddam essay because he felt sorry for you. My aunt died over the holidays, but no one cares about that, do they?"

"Do you think I want people looking at me like that?" Rose screeched. "Do you think I like it?" She let go of Jasmine, looking her squarely in the eye. Hugo thought this would be a very good time for his sister to develop some common sense and let the matter go.

But she didn't.

"You probably love it," Jasmine replied icily. "You probably loved that your parents died, because all the attention is now on you. I've heard you say how much you hated them before. Maybe you even plotted it."

That brought James into the middle of the fight now, and Hugo joined him. With great effort, he managed to pull his sister away just as she went for Jasmine again, wand drawn this time. James pulled away Jasmine, his expression furious.

Rose opened her mouth to start letting out her insults, but in that same moment, a furious voice silenced every single student in the common room.

"What in the name of Merlin is going on here?"

Frightened by the sudden noise, Hugo let go of his sister. She fought his hold on her, and turned around – along with everyone else – to see Professor Longbottom standing there, looking more furious than Hugo thought he could ever be.

Lily was standing beside him, looking partly ashamed and partly relieved.

When no one answered him, Professor Longbottom spoke again. "Does someone want to tell me what on Earth is going on, or will I have to put every single one of you in detention?"

Again, no one answered. Rose was staring dumbfounded at Professor Longbottom, panting slightly from her fight with Jasmine. Hugo watched, wide-eyed, as he tried to interpret his teacher's anger. Professor Longbottom had always been kind and gentle, never raising his voice to any student. He only gave out detentions to those who probably deserved to be expelled.

It seemed that everyone was as shocked as Hugo was and too frightened to say anything.

"I'm waiting," he said. "Mr Potter, may I ask why you have your arms around Miss Finnigan in a bear hug?" He looked to where James stood with Jasmine. Neither moved until James let go of her.

"Nothing, sir," he mumbled, pushing his girlfriend slightly away.

"Miss Finnigan?"

Jasmine shook her head.

"Somebody better explain to me very soon what is going on, because I will put you all into detention if you don't. Imagine how that will look: the whole of Gryffindor House in detention together."

Lily was still standing quietly beside Professor Longbottom, and Hugo now realised that was where she had disappeared to earlier. She had probably gone to him to see if he could stop the fight, but she had been a moment too late. Hugo and James had managed to break it up just before.

Eventually, however, it was her that spoke up.

"Professor, it was Rosie and Jasmine," she said softly, barely audible.

Professor Longbottom turned to her. "What about them?" he asked.

"They… they were fighting," she continued, staring at her feet. "They were yelling."

He turned back to where Rose and Jasmine stood. "Explain yourselves," he said.

And in that moment, simultaneously, both girls started speaking at the same time, trying to defend themselves.

"… she was accusing me of getting special treatment…."

"… she's just a bitch who needs her own way all the time…."

"She sleeps with any boy that looks her way!"

"That's nothing to do with it! You accused me of murdering my own parents!"

"STOP!"

Once again, everyone fell silent. "Miss Finnigan, is this true? Did you accuse Miss Weasley of… of that?"

Jasmine's tough demeanour suddenly changed to one of shame. She glanced to her side where James was glaring at her furiously, and then back to Professor Longbottom, nodding.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe that you believe that in the slightest?"

Jasmine shook her head, looking to Rose. "No, sir," she said.

"And Miss Weasley?"

"She attacked me, sir!" Jasmine said before Rose could say anything. "She physically attacked me! Look, I have nail marks on my arm." She held out her right arm and moved closer to the Gryffindor Head. Professor Longbottom gave her but a second glance, before turning back to Rose.

"Detention, both of you!" he said, his voice dangerously low. "You will join me in my office tonight at seven, promptly."

Both Rose and Jasmine went to argue, but Professor Longbottom didn't want to hear it. "Fighting, physically or magically, is not permitted at Hogwarts, nor will I tolerate it in my own House. The pair of you will serve detention for the next week with me at the same time. Is that understood?"

Neither looked happy about it, but both Jasmine and Rose nodded.

Professor Longbottom left after that, and the moment that he was gone, Hugo dragged Rose to the armchairs, and James took Jasmine outside of the common room.

Watching as they left, Hugo couldn't help but wonder if James would break up with Jasmine over this. Accusing Rose of wanting special treatment was one thing, but to accuse her of plotting their parents' murder… if Jasmine knew Rose at all, she would have known that such an idea was despicable.

"Well, thanks for that, Lily, getting me a detention," Rose spat, shaking out of Hugo's hold and plonking down into one of the armchairs. "True loyalty there."

"You were fighting," Lily argued. "I didn't want you getting hurt."

"You had your wand out, Rosie," Hugo reminded her, pointing to the object that was still firmly in her hand. "You were going to hex her."

"She deserves it," Rose mumbled, stowing the wand away.

"She doesn't understand," Hugo said. "She doesn't get what it's like, okay? Jasmine… and Lucian and Quenton… none of them get what it's like. They don't have a family like ours."

"I don't care!" Rose snapped. "She can't go around saying those things. Do you think I wanted Slughorn to give me a stupid extension on that essay? No, I didn't. I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it. It's a recap of last year… parts that I missed. He'd do the same for anyone who was in my position."

"But… it's Jasmine," Hugo said, trying to make her see his point. Jasmine couldn't see past the end of her nose. Her whole life, she had been treated like a princess. At home, she was the only girl in three children. She was the eldest, and she was quite intelligent. Her parents doted on her and treated spoiled her.

She was also a very attractive girl and caught the attention of a lot of the blokes at Hogwarts. She'd constantly been told these things her whole life and she didn't know any different.

Jasmine was a jealous person – everyone knew that – and there was nothing Rose or anyone could do to change that. Rose just had to learn to suck it up and get over it. Everyone else had.

Rose huffed. "I can't believe I got a detention," she complained, once again shooting Lily a disgusted look. "I've never gotten a detention in my life."

"Suck it up and take responsibility for your own actions for once, will you?"

Rose looked slightly startled by Hugo's harsh tone, but he didn't care. She was the one who had attacked Jasmine and she was lucky a detention was all she was getting. It wasn't like Professor Longbottom was going to chain her in the dungeons or anything. The worst detention he would give would probably be lines.

"I didn't do anything," she said after a moment, recovering. "She started it."

"And you continued it!"

"So?"

"So… Mum always told you to ignore people like that; that they weren't worth your energy. Didn't you ever listen to her?"

Rose pursed her lips. "No, I'm too much like Dad," she mumbled furiously. "Listen, Hu, I don't want to fight, but don't you hate it that people think we're getting special treatment from our teachers? They seem to think Mum and Dad dying is a privilege or something. I'm actually glad Neville gave me a detention. At least he's not showing favourites. I hope James is out there right now, realising that he's too good for that stupid bitch."

Hugo didn't want to say that James – at times – was probably no better himself, but he held his tongue. Rose needed to calm down, and so did Jasmine. Both of them were so hot-headed and was probably the reason they were always at each other's throats.

"Why don't we go for a walk?" Hugo suggested. "Calm down?"

Rose looked at him. "What do you need to calm down for?" she asked. "You've done nothing."

"I'll go with you, though," Hugo said. "Make sure you don't send Jasmine to the hospital wing." He grinned at her, but she didn't seem to share his sense of humour.

"I'll go by myself," she said. She got to her feet. "Maybe I can see Scorpius and… I don't know. See if he'll forgive me, I suppose."

Hugo blinked. It had been two whole weeks since Rose and Scorpius had spoken, and it had been a nasty falling out too. He had approached her in the Great Hall, and had obviously been hurt by what had happened. Hugo had never seen Scorpius so angry before, and apparently he refused to sit with her in classes, or even look at her.

It had probably made Rose a whole lot worse for it, but Hugo knew she only had herself to blame. She had done what she did for no apparent reason and she had lost her best friend because of it. It was probably a good lesson for her.

"Are… are you sure?" he asked uncertainly.

She looked at him and then shrugged. "Can I do anymore damage?" she asked.

"But –"

"Hu, please!" Rose said. "I know what I did, and I know it's going to take some time to restore our relationship, but I will. I care about him too much to let him go." Without waiting for a response from Hugo, she got up, and walked away, exiting through the portrait hole.

Hugo and Lily stared after her.

"She'll be okay," Hugo said after a moment. "She'll be okay eventually." It was something he needed to believe, because he didn't know how much more he could take of Rose's changing moods. He just wanted his happy, loving sister all the time.