Chapter Three
September 1st (Seventh Year)
The Hogwarts Express (Somewhere on the border between Carlisle and Dumfries)
14oo hours
.
"Have a chocolate frog Rose." Albus made to chuck the purple and gold box towards his cousin but she shook her head.
"No thanks Al."
"Aw, come on Rosie," He wafted the enticing smell of chocolate under her nose. "When was the last time you ate chocolate, or sweets, or really anything even vaguely unhealthy?"
"I had pudding yesterday. Besides, chocolate won't help me maintain muscle."
"You're obsessed Rose." Scorpius grabbed the offending chocolate frog and opened the box, catching the frog mid leap with a reflex that Rose envied. "Is there anything you wouldn't choose quidditch over?"
"I-" Rose spluttered. "What is this? Gang up on Rose day? I put lots of things before quidditch."
"Like what?" Albus grinned, pulling a fizzing whizzbee out of its wrappings.
"Like school and relationships and my voluntary tutoring." Rose said smugly.
"Bull." Scorpius bit the head off his chocolate frog with surprising ferocity. "You dump whoever you're seeing the second the quidditch season starts. You hardly take any N.E.W.T.s because you're Professor Marchling's favourite and she really wants to see Gryffindor win the quidditch cup again; and your tutoring is helping younger kids to fly which you only do so you can put it on your résumé."
"I enjoy it as well, doesn't that count?" Rose was feeling decidedly badgered by the turn of the conversation.
"All we're saying," Piped up Jenny from her corner seat. "Is that it can't be healthy to spend all this time obsessing about one thing."
The compartment door slid open, sparing Rose any reply. The two figures in the doorway, Isabelle and her own ex-boyfriend Mack. Scorpius took a moment to scowl at Mack, before standing up and kissing Isabelle on the cheek.
"Scorpius, would you mind coming with me for a moment?" Isabelle looked uncommonly grave, her pretty heart-shaped face creasing into an expression that was both sadness and determination all at once. "I've got the prefect's meeting in a few minutes but I wanted to speak to you first."
"Of course." Scorpius took her hand and allowed her to lead him from the compartment. Albus let out a whistle.
...
Thirty minutes later, approaching Moffat
...
"Oh dear."
"What?" Rose looked up from Which Broomstick. Her cousin was staring through the glass of the compartment door at the deserted corridor beyond.
"Scorpius. I just saw him heading the other way down the corridor."
"You mean Isabelle's finally done it?" Jenny piped up.
"No!" Dinah, another of the girls from Rose's dorm who was sat with her feet in the lap of her boyfriend Sean Finnigan, gasped. "I never thought she'd actually do it."
"Do what?" Rose asked, bewildered.
"She's just too nice." Jenny added. "And she and Scorpius have been going out forever!"
"A year is not forever." Dinah picked up another chocolate frog and, ignoring the card, went straight for the amphibian. "And to be honest, I never thought that they were really suited to each other. I mean, who has designated date nights when you're seventeen? It's practically middle-aged!"
"You mean, she's dumped him?" Rose let her mouth fall open, her magazine sliding from between her fingers. "But they were totally perfect for each other!"
"Not really, actually." Sean said, dumping Dinah's feet out of his lap so he could reach over to the communal pile of chocolate. "I happened to overhear them having a massive row at the end of last term."
"Happened to overhear?" Jenny raised her eyebrows.
"I may have been hiding behind a suit of armour," Sean admitted with a wry grin. "But that's not the point. They weren't all as hearts and flowers as everyone supposed."
"What were they rowing about?" Rose asked, curiosity piqued. Like almost all of her friends, she had gotten to know Isabelle through her relationship with Scorpius, and grown to like her for her kindness and sweet personality. It was impossible not to like someone who brings chicken soup and pepper-up potions to people with colds.
"Actually, about you Rose." Sean looked a little uncomfortable. "I think Scorpius had blown off a study date to go over quidditch plays with you. She's always been a little jealous of you to be honest. It put Scorpius in a pretty awkward situation really."
"Me? But why didn't Scorpius just say something? I had no idea..." She trailed off, guilt settling into her stomach.
"Rose, this isn't your fault." Jenny's face was serious. "If anything, it's Scorpius's problem. It was his choice to balance things last year the way he did. Plus," she added, "Isabelle never said what was bothering her, and while I understand that she was just being kind about it, they are both adults now. It's up to them to make their relationship work."
"They were too serious, too young." Mack added, nodded sagely.
Rose started, having almost forgotten his presence in her confusion. Al rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to retort sharply but Rose cut across him, not wanting the two to argue.
"Should I go and see if he's all right?"
Despite being friends for so many years, Rose was always a little nervous about prying into Scorpius's relationships. Their own relationship, so close as it was, had been nothing more than that between siblings when they had first met, back in their first year. Little had changed over the next two years, but then, in her fourth year, Rose had started dating Mack and Scorpius had formed a hard, but thankfully short-lasting, crush on Rose's older cousin Roxanne.
Roxanne, to her credit, had been kind to her little cousin's best friend, and, when Scorpius joined the quidditch team that year, put up with his puppy-dog ways patiently for much longer than Rose would have expected for such a feisty character. But then Rose dumped Mack who, in any case, was getting in the way of her training schedule, and Roxanne, and her girlfriend Vivienne, became official and serious, Scorpius and Rose readdressed their previous status quo and went back to being best friends.
But there was always something more. No longer could Rose claim that she cared for Scorpius the same way she cared for Hugo. Yet, though their bond was no longer that of siblings, they became nothing more than platonic friends, until that party at the end of fifth year.
Rose could remember very little of that night, having pieced together most of the events of the evening from what others had witnessed. But what she mostly remembered was the aftermath, and a strange awkwardness emanating from her best friend in those last days of term.
That was the summer she went to Russia, and Scorpius and Isabelle began seeing each other.
And that was the summer when Rose realised that everything had changed.
.
The Entrance Hall
19oo hours
.
"Miss Weasley, please could you follow me."
Rose, who had been about to follow Scorpius into the Great Hall for the Sorting Ceremony, turned and, catching sight of Coach Hendrix, motioned for Scorpius to go on without her and elbowed her way through the crowds milling about the Entrance Hall. When she reached the coach, he gestured for Rose to follow her and led the way to his office. While crossing the hallway, he gathered three more seventh years, the three other captains. Rose and Robert Davies, the Ravenclaw lead chaser, exchanged quizzical glances, an expression that was shared by Marco Ives, the Hufflepuff seeker. However, Rose studiously ignored Flint, the Slytherin keeper; an studious obliviousness that both captains had perfected over the last few years.
The dynamic between the four captains was intriguing to outsiders, but simple enough to the teams themselves. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had a pleasant enough relationship, and Rose was passably good friends with Robert who had sporadically dated her cousin Dominique, who had graduated the year before. With the number of Weasley's at Hogwarts, it was difficult to avoid old boyfriends and girlfriends, and so there was a general embargo on threatening behaviour to them, unless they really deserved it. After all, if all the spurned lovers of the extended Wotter clan had felt abused enough to team up most of the school would have been at war.
While Rose might studiously perfect the age-old rivalry with Flint and his Slytherin gang of gorillas on broomsticks, it was Marco Ives, the Hufflepuff captain whom Rose was most worried about. Gone were the days when the canary yellow robes were seen as a sign of derision. Ever since her own favourite adopted cousin, Teddy Lupin, had played, Weasley's had been in all four houses. Rose's own brother, who despite his bulk was keeper on the Hufflepuff side, was a talented player, despite his less than competitive ways.
Uneasy truces were formed, and betting was a necessity, but the dynamic of the four Captains worked well, until the points got too close, and then all hell broke loose.
When they reached Coach Hendrix's office Rose refused the chair she was offered and stood leaning against the wall, gazing around at the memorabilia of his own quidditch days that littered the walls and desk. She tore her eyes away from a miniature of the coach who was scratching his nose, his long robes fluttering behind him as the tiny model broomstick he rode, one of the ancient Nimbus's, took flight, and focused on the coach.
'I am sorry to make you miss the sorting,' Coach Hendrix had taken a seat behind the cluttered desk and steepled his fingers, gazing at the four best quidditch players in Hogwarts. 'But frankly quidditch is more important so get over it.'
Rose stifled a snort at his unorthodox words. After eighteen months of working closely with the coach supervising flying lessons, and before that, another three years of him refereeing their matches, she was well acquainted with his brusque manner.
'You are all here because you have each expressed an interest in playing professional quidditch after you leave this school. Some more ardently than others.'
Rose felt the three sets of eyes belonging to the other captains all turn to stare at her, but she didn't turn away from the coach.
'As I am sure you are aware, the Falmouth Falcon's manager has recently stepped down and they have appointed a new manager, Barry Ryan-'
Rose had heard this news, through her aunty Ginny, and personally thought that Ryan was both ancient and out of touch. After all, he hadn't played international quidditch since the 1994 World Cup.
'-who has decided to take an advisory position. However, due to the advancing age of the pool of professional players out there, Ryan has decided to procure a new player straight out of Hogwarts, sponsor them through the playoffs, and offer them a contract with the possibility of playing in the next world cup in four years time.'
Rose let out a gasp. She was not the only one. Ives was picking at the calluses on his fingers, fingernails digging deep without any apparent realisation of what he was doing. Flint was leaning forward, his eyes narrowed as he listened. Even the otherwise unflappable Davies had clenched his fists, leaning forwards so as not to miss a single world.
'This opportunity is open to any of the players over the age of seventeen.' Coach Hendrix continued, a smile on his face as he took in their expressions. 'There will be undercover scouts at every game, and official scouts at the final game as well as officials and some of the team players. Though open to everyone, the captain of the winners of the house cup is the most likely to be signed.'
No tryouts, no waiting in the reserves. This was the best entry to the quidditch world she was ever likely to get, and in that moment Rose knew that more than N.E.W.T.s, more than boyfriends, more than her mother's wishes, that she wanted to win this. That this was her chance.
'I will leave it to your discretion to tell your newly formed teams after tryouts have been completed.' Hendrix concluded, moving his gaze to each of them in turn. When he met Rose's eyes she stared back at him defiantly until he looked away.
'I will also be arranging a meeting with each of you individually over the next few months to discuss the appointment of your successors as Captain after your graduation.'
Hendrix nodded and the interview was over. Still, none of them moved for a moment, still flabbergasted over the carrot Hendrix was dangling in front of their noses.
'What are you still doing here?' Hendrix asked waspishly as he stepped out from behind his desk. 'I would have thought you'd be fighting over booking the pitch for tryouts by now.'
He swept out and they all let out a sigh, but the tension in the office did not disperse.
Flint was eying the other captains narrowly, and Ives was already scribbling names onto a piece of parchment. Only Davies seemed his old pleasant self. He nodded to Rose and held the door for her as they left the office together.
Still, as the four captains pushed open the doors to the Great Hall and stepped inside, it was more than obvious, as they headed for each of the long house tables, that all four were enemies now, and that this competition was going to test more than simply their quidditch skill.
Hello there my darlings, so the plot has arrived! I've always wanted to write a quidditch fic like this, so be warned! Quidditch is going to play a large role, but there will be love, lies, heartbreak and betting as well!
Drop me a review! I haven't had any yet and that makes me really sad :(
love and hugs
A.A.A.