Hey everybody! I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO (x1000) sorry! I've had a CRAZY month and I've barely had any time to write/post, but thankfully I have an hour of free time, so I'm updating not one, but TWO chapters! I'm excited! I hope you all like this one, I personally think it's pretty great :)
Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own. Harry. Potter.
Chapter 8: Trouble
"Rose! Get up!" Molly shrieked in frustration, hitting her sleeping cousin with a pillow. In an instant, Rose's blue eyes flew open and she sat straight up.
"What? What? What time is it? Did the Scorpion prank back? What's wrong?" she asked, groping at thin air for the hangings, not realizing they were already open.
"Nothing. It's four in the morning. I just wanted to talk about Lorcan," Molly admitted, flushing slightly and sitting on the edge of Rose's bed. For a split second, Rose just stared at her. The two cousins had done their homework alone in the library for three hours yesterday, and Molly hadn't said anything then.
"You choose to talk about this now?" Rose inquired, sitting up straighter and rubbing her eyes. Molly sighed.
"I'm sorry. It's just...he said he doesn't want to go to Hogsmeade with me anymore. He wants to stay at Hogwarts instead."
"Why is this a problem? You guys would have some alone time, no one watching you. Get to know each other better. It's way easier to talk to someone sitting by the lake with no one near you then scream across the table at them in the Three Broomsticks, you know," Rose pointed out. Molly sighed.
"I know, but I really wanted to go to Hogsmeade. You and your war with Scorpius have run me down on Uncle George's products, and Dad promised he'd be in Hogsmeade as well this weekend. He wanted to meet Lorcan. Besides, I've been craving a Butterbeer lately," Molly admitted, flopping backwards on Rose's bed.
"Why don't you just go down to the kitchens and get one, then?" Rose asked. "You know those house-elves, they'll get you anything. Right helpful little buggers."
"Rose!" Molly reprimanded. "Your mother's worked hard to ensure their freedom, you shouldn't say things like that!"
"I know, but honestly, I'm with Dad on this one. They're happy, let them be! But I know better than to argue with Mum by now," Rose sighed. "Learned that lesson a long time ago."
"That's beside the point," Molly replied, waving her hand. "The point is, I really want to go to Hogsmeade, but Lorcan absolutely insists we stay here."
"Did he give you a reason why you just have to stay here?" Rose inquired. Molly shook her head.
"No. He won't tell me," she admitted.
"Then you just tell him that if he doesn't have a legitimate reason, that you're going anyways. Be your own person, Mol. He may be a sweet guy, but that doesn't mean he can't be a right dick at times," Rose reminded her cousin.
"I know," Molly sighed. "I guess you're right, Rose. I'll ask him why it is we just have to stay here."
"Good for you, Mol," Rose replied, trying to hide a huge yawn behind her hand. Molly noticed, however.
"Let's go back to bed. Sorry for waking you up," she apologized sheepishly. Rose half-smiled.
"That's what friends-and cousins-are for, Mol. Now go to sleep."
And they did.
The next day passed very peacefully for both Rose and Molly. They got back their Charms test, and both had achieved perfect scores. Gryffindor was currently in the lead for the House Cup, which always improved their moods. And, most importantly for Molly, the house-elves served Butterbeer as an option for breakfast that morning. Rose took one look at the drink and burst out laughing.
"What?" Lily asked, watching her older cousin rolling around in her chair.
"Nothing," Molly replied grumpily.
"It's obviously something," Albus countered. "I haven't seen Rosie laugh that hard since Scorpius came in covered in goop."
The memory of this incident did nothing to stop Rose's laughter, which only doubled.
"What's the joke?" Fred inquired, leaning across Elizabeth Thomas to speak to his cousins. "I like a good laugh."
"We don't know," Albus answered. "Rose can't tell us and Molly's refusing to speak."
"We had a, er, conversation...about...Butterbeer...at four in the morning last night," Rose gasped, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
"Four in the morning? Why didn't you invite me?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Because it was four in the morning! You should have been sleeping!"
"I was! But I love Butterbeer! I would have gladly come up for a conversation about Butterbeer!"
"Well, that was only a very small part of our discussion," Rose admitted, giggling and glancing at Molly, who turned red. Fred snorted.
"And what else, exactly, might that discussion have consisted of?"
"Pranks," Rose replied easily.
"Right," Albus remarked, rolling his eyes. "You're a terrible liar, Rose."
Rose stuck her tongue out at him, and talk moved on to other things.
That afternoon in Transfiguration, Professor Switch decided that they were ready to start human transfiguration earlier than he expected. So, after lots of notes and diagrams, he finally gave them the incantation and told them to attempt to change the color of both eyebrows.
"Not to worry," he assured the class when several looked worried, "I've got the countercharm all ready. I've been teaching for about seventeen years, and there's never been a student incident with this that I couldn't fix."
Not too many people looked very reassured about that, but nonetheless, people started muttering the incantation and pointing their wands at themselves. Not much happened, as the concentration was more on not changing themselves than on actually changing themselves.
As per usual, fifteen minutes into the lesson, Rose successfully changed her eyebrows to a bright blue color. Professor Switch was delighted, but Rose wasn't. The countercharm was even more complex, and would likely take her the entire lesson to do.
Five minutes after that, Scorpius's eyebrows were a bright green, and he and Rose were sitting at the same table (again), attempting to figure out the countercharm, which was enormously complex.
"I think," Rose began, "that we should get Professor Switch to do this for us."
"He said he would at the end of class," Scorpius muttered. "I know we can get this before then! What do you have deciphered?"
Rose eyed him suspiciously, but, figuring she had nothing to lose, shoved her notes across the table at him. He ran an eye down them, then compared them to his notes.
"I think...I think we've got it, Weaselbee," he announced in a stunned voice.
"Are you serious?" Rose gasped, getting up to look over his shoulder.
"Yes. Look. I've got this part of the charm figured out, and you have the other part. If we just connect the pieces, it comes to...there!"
"We did it!" Rose exclaimed. "Here, let me try it." She pulled out her wand, moved it in a figure eight, then twirled it above her head before bringing it back down to point at her eyebrows and yelling, "Ad normalis!"
There was a flash of white light and Rose's eyebrows returned to normal. There was a stunned silence as everyone stared at her, then the class burst into applause.
"I am impressed, Miss Weasley," Professor Switch commented, coming over to their table. "I've never had a student figure out the countercharm in just one class period. I applaud you for that."
Rose blushed.
"Thank you, Professor Switch, but I must admit, I didn't do all the work. Scorpius did half of it," she admitted, gesturing to the notes.
A stunned silence filled the classroom. Never before had Rose Weasley admitted that Scorpius Malfoy could take credit for anything. This was definitely a first.
"Well...that's wonderful," Professor Switch finally choked out. "Mr. Malfoy, why don't you try the countercharm?"
Scorpius nodded and stood.
"Ad normalis!" One bright flash of light later, and Scorpius was back to normal as well. The class just stared at Rose and Scorpius, the Professor included. For a moment, no one seemed to know what to do. Rose could feel her already red face getting even redder. She chanced a half-glance at Scorpius and saw that he, too, was flushed a light pink.
"Well," sighed Alice Longbottom from the back of the class, "She is the daughter of Hermione Weasley."
"And he is the son of Draco Malfoy," Gerald Flint, Marcus Flint's son, quipped. Scorpius's expression darkened.
"Don't say that," Rose snapped at Flint. The entire classrooms jaws dropped. Luckily, the bell rang at that exact moment, and Rose and Scorpius quickly packed up their belongings and left, having restored their eyebrows to the correct color.
As they hurried along the corridor, Scorpius remembered the prank that he and his friends had set to go off, and found that, suddenly, he didn't want Rose to get hit with it.
"We-Rose!" he called, noticing that she was nearly in the prank zone. "Hey, ROSE!" She still didn't turn.
"Scorpius, what are you doing?" Dan called from behind him.
"Rose, watch out!" Molly squealed, just as Scorpius lunged towards her.
It all happened in the space of about a second. Just as the hand on the clock reached noon, the whipped cream explosions, fireworks, and everything else Scorpius and his pals had rigged last night exploded-all over a group of third year Hufflepuffs, sixth year Slytherins, five of the faculty members(who were passing), and Rose and Scorpius themselves. The entire hallway went dead silent, watching the eighteen people stand, shell-shocked, blinking as the fireworks filled the hallway with smoke and sparks, and as Rose and Scorpius stared at each other. For a full minute, no one moved. And then the dam broke.
"DAMN YOU SCORPIUS MALFOY!" Rose screamed, making the entire hallway jump. "YOU FOUL, LOATHSOME, EVIL LITTLE COCKROACH! I HATE YOU! FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, I WAS NICE TO YOU IN TRANSFIGURATION AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME? UGH! I HATE YOU! SO MUCH!" By now, there were tears in her eyes, tears of humiliation as the occupation of the hallway began to either snigger, openly stare or roll their eyes.
"OH, YEAH, YOU'RE ONE TO TALK, WEASLEY!" Scorpius yelled back. "YOU'VE PRANKED ME JUST AS BAD, I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO PRANK YOU BACK! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PLAY WITH FIRE! YOU GET BURNED!"
"Oooooo," chorused the watching students.
"JUST GO AWAY, MALFOY, I HATE YOU!" Rose screamed, wiping whipped cream and tears from her cheeks. A particularly large glob landed in her palm, and without second thought, she threw it at him. It hit him, smack on the face. Without even stopping to think, he grabbed a bunch off the floor and chucked it right back at her. She ducked, and it hit Professor Firie, Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and Head of Slytherin House, right in the face.
Dead silence fell again as everyone watched the witch who so resembled Professor McGonagall. She reached up and very slowly wiped the whipped cream from her face before speaking.
"All Weasleys, all Potters, Mr. Malfoy, and anyone who was in any way involved with this prank or any before it will follow me now."
To their credit, every single Weasley (Dominique, Louis, Molly, Lucy, Fred, Roxanne, and Hugo), every single Potter (James, Albus, and Lily), and all of Scorpius's friends (Dan Thomas, Roger Corner, Michael Davies, and Gregory Goldstein) all came forward to stand next to Rose or Scorpius. Even Rose's dorm mates (Elizabeth Thomas and Samantha MacMillian) came forward. For a split second, Professor Firie looked amazed at the eighteen students now standing in front of her. Then she turned on her heel and led them all to her office. Not a single one of them considered for a moment running away.
"So," Firie began once they were all in her office, standing in front of her desk. "I am to understand that Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy started a prank war because of an insult he gave to her?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Everyone nodded. "And that this has been going on for nearly three weeks now?" More nodding. "And all eighteen of you were involved in one way or another?" They nodded once more. For a moment, the witch stared at them all. "And do you all realize how ridiculously stupid and immature this was?" Once more, the entire group nodded, though Rose kept her eyes lowered, tears streaming down her face. Only Scorpius noticed.
"Well, then, I believe that the appropriate punishments will be as follows. Every Wednesday night for five months, you will assist Mr. Filch with anything he needs you to do, and you will do so without complaint. You will do so in partners, as well. Dominique, you will be with James. Louis, you will be with Lucy. Molly, you will be with Fred. Roxanne, you will be with Albus. Hugo, you will be with Lily. Daniel Thomas, you will be with your sister Elizabeth. Roger Corner and Michael Davies will be together. Gregory Goldstein and Samantha MacMillain will be together. And Rose and Scorpius will be together." There was an outcry of protest.
"But, Professor-"
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"Five months?!"
"You can't-"
"Do not tell me what I can and cannot do, Miss Potter. I was not finished in any case. Both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will lose one hundred and fifty points, and-" she raised her voice to be heard over the noises of protest, "-I will be writing to your families tonight to inform them of your actions."
At these words, Rose burst into tears. Never in her whole life had she felt so terrible. Scorpius humiliated her in front of the entire school, she had detention for five months, she'd gotten all of her cousins in trouble, she'd lost Gryffindor a hundred and fifty points, and now her parents were to be told of her actions. At this point in her life, Rose Weasley was ashamed of herself and wanted desperately to hide from what tomorrow might bring.
"Shh, Rose," Dominique whispered, stepping forward to hug her cousin. "It's gonna be OK. Calm down, sweetie."
Rose managed to calm herself, and Professor Firie, looking at her with distaste, uttered, "You may go. All but Miss Dominique Weasley." And Rose ran. Everyone looked for her (even Scorpius), but only Dominique was able to find her and bring her back (late at night) in slightly better spirits.
The next morning was Saturday morning, and Molly just didn't have the heart to wake Rose up that morning. As compared to the crying, blubbering mess she'd been last night, she looked relatively peaceful while still asleep. And so Molly left her be, reading at the end of her bed until Rose awoke around nine in the morning.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," Molly greeted as Rose slowly opened her bright blue eyes and sat up.
"Good morning, Mol," she replied sleepily. Molly watched her warily as the events of the previous day started to return to her. In seconds, Rose's brow was furrowed and she was close to tears, hyperventilating.
"Hey, Rose, Rose, Rose-calm down!" Molly exclaimed, getting out of bed and sitting next to Rose, patting her back. "What's the matter?"
"I've never, ever gotten in trouble before, Molly!" Rose gasped. "Mum and Dad are going to be so angry with me!" She buried her head in her hands.
"Don't worry, Rose-I'm in the same boat. But don't freak out, OK-your parents love you no matter what. You know that, right? Besides, your dad'll think it's brilliant, it's your mum that'll be angry."
"I know," Rose sobbed. "I just didn't...and now we've got detention for a five months and we lost a hundred and fifty points and it's all my fault!"
"Funny, I seem to recall Louis saying the same thing last night," Molly muttered, then let go of Rose, fetched their bathrobes, and helped Rose get hers on.
"W-Where are we going?" Rose inquired, mopping her eyes with her sleeve.
"To an emergency family meeting," Molly replied as the two girls made their way to Ravenclaw Tower and answered the riddle.
"Hey, guys," Louis greeted them with a hollow smile as the two redheaded girls flopped into chairs. "How's it going?"
"Not so good," Rose answered, tearing up again. Dominique moved to sit on the arm of her chair.
"Same," Louis sighed, putting his head in his hands. "If only I hadn't suggested this in the first place. We'd all be a hell of a lot happier right now."
"Don't blame yourself, Louis, we all agreed to it," Lily sighed, as James' stomach growled loudly. "James!"
"What? I'm hungry! Can we have this meeting sometime else? Who knows when that little Malfoy twit will get up and besides, Rose and Molly aren't even dressed!"
In the end, the cousins agreed to have breakfast and meet down by the lake, so Rose and Molly trudged back upstairs to their dormitories to change into an outfit for the day and then meet back up in the Great Hall. By the time the cousins arrived, Molly had talked Rose into a significantly better mood. Of course, this mood would not last long.
The moment the two curly-haired redheads sat down at the table, the post came flying in. Each of the eighteen students who had been involved with the prank war scanned the incoming owls anxiously. Sadly, most found the thing they were dreading.
Scorpius was lucky enough to simply receive a normal letter, but everyone else involved in the prank had Howlers. Rose paled as she stared at hers, and Albus became slightly worried she would faint.
"Shall we all open them at once?" Roxanne suggested in a shaky voice. "That way no one has to hear exactly what their mum said?" Each Weasley-Potter nodded as they took the Howlers from their respective owls.
"Oh my God," Lucy whimpered, "it's smoking!" And so it was.
"On the count of three, then," Hugo whispered. "One."
"Two," Fred continued.
"Three!" James said, and they all tore open the envelopes and stuffed their fingers in their ears. So did the rest of the hall, as the Weasley women (and Ginny) were known for their loud voices.
So loud was the explosion from each Howler that dust began to shake from the ceiling, and everyone in the Hall winced. The stones in the hourglasses were rattling, and so were the plates and spoons. No one could really hear anything any of the women were saying (which was the whole point), but snatches were occasionally heard.
"NEVER WOULD HAVE EXPECTED IT OF YOU-"
"ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED-"
"TERRIBLE THING TO DO, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE THINKING-"
It seemed to go on forever. Rose, Molly, Lucy, and even Lily were in tears by the end of it. Unfortunately for James, Ginny had yelled the most at him and his continued for a good two minutes even after the others had ended. When at last, a ringing silence fell, everyone simply sat, shell-shocked, in their chairs. No one really knew what to say. Some people were honestly wondering if their ears still worked. All of the staff and students could agree on one thing, though-as coveted and famous as the Weasley-Potter family was, it was never a good idea to get on the bad side of any of the mothers.
No, it's not a good idea. Anyways, I hope you liked it. I'm going to update the next chapter now. Leave me a review, pretty please? It's my birthday today and I managed not to burn dinner. So I'm pretty happy with myself right now, and a review just might possibly make me even happier :)
Lovelovelove -D-