Chapter Six

...

September 15th

The Hogwarts Grounds

06oo hours

...

'Hello Findley, what are you up to?' Rose, joined this morning by a grudging Lily, skidded to a halt as the tall figure of the assistant grounds keeper emerged from the Forbidden Forest, today sack-less, but carrying Hagrid's enormous crossbow.

Rose seemed to bump into Findley most morning about this time. Sometimes they stopped to chat about Rose's plans for the Gryffindor team, or what new and terrifying creature Hagrid had prepared for the students to study next, and sometimes they only waved. Still, Rose found herself liking him a great deal, much to the disgust of both Albus and Scorpius who had both taken an instant dislike to him.

'Been looking for unicorns for the third years', he replied, shifting the crossbow. 'But I'm too old and too manly to have much luck.'

Rose chuckled. 'How is it in the Forest these days?'

'Oh you know, a bit dark, a bit gloomy, and as always full of things that want to eat me.' Findley nodded hello to Lily who was breathing too hard to be much use at all in the conversation, and she managed a weak wave back.

'How are team practises going Rose?' He asked.

'Good thanks, we've had three so far and I'm feeling reasonably confident. Mind you, lots of that is thanks to Lily here. When she's not gasping like a stranded fish she's possibly the best chaser you've ever met!'

'So I've heard. You know, I met your mother once at a quidditch match, back in her Holy Head Harpies days. Never seen a chaser so good with the quaffle. I reckon she could have gone on to play for England if she hadn't wanted a family instead.'

Lily managed a nod, and bent over, her hands on her knees.

'I didn't know you knew aunt Ginny', Rose said intrigued.

'Well I don't know her. She knew my dad you see, and he took me to one of her matches when I was a kid.'

'Mm, I'll have to write to her and ask if she remembers you.' Rose stretched out one of her shoulders, then the other.

'Oh I'm sure she won't remember me', He said easily. 'Don't bother her, I'm sure she's very busy with running the sports section of the Daily Prophet and all.'

'I'm going to kill you for this Rose', Lily wheezed when Findley had stumped off in the direction of the Black Lake. They were jogging slowly up towards the castle and Lily's heart rate had finally returned to normal. 'Five am starts, what were you thinking?'

'Not my fault you decided to ditch working out over the summer.' Rose said with teasing superiority. 'I did offer remember?'

'I'm still going to kill you.' Lily muttered under her breath as they made their way back up to Gryffindor Tower.

...

The Great Hall

07oo hours

...

One of the best things about her early starts, especially on the weekends, was that she always reached the Great Hall while it was almost deserted, which in turn meant that she got the best of the food, the hottest of the coffee, and the peace and solitude of a breakfast without constant interruptions from annoying third years and their hideously embarrassing bodily functions. Really, she could do without fart humour this early in the morning.

Scorpius joined her as she was just finishing her protein-heavy breakfast and slumped down in the seat next to her.

'Sausages?' Rose waved the platter enticingly under his nose. 'Bacon? Eggs?'

'Coffee.' He replied, rubbing sleep from his eyes. 'I didn't make it to bed until three this morning, and then blasted Peeves just woke me up by throwing cold water over me.'

Rose gave him a quick, one-armed, sympathetic hug, then reached for the coffee pot.

'Least you got all your work done though.' She said soothingly, pouring him a large mug which he gratefully gulped.

'I'm three weeks in advance now, actually', he said rather smugly. 'Even in Herbology which I'm pretty sure is going to kill me!'

'Well, why don't you ask Lizzie to help you?' Rose suggested. 'Everyone knows she's the best at Herbology in our year. And she's Head Girl, she's supposed to help us.'

'Maybe', Scorpius said noncommittally. 'She's so busy. And anyway, I'm not so sure Albus wouldn't jinx my junk off just for suggesting it.'

'Albus is just going to have to grow up and realise that she doesn't like him back that way, and that she has other male friends outside of him.' Rose said exasperatedly. 'It's not like she hasn't been entirely clear about her feelings for him. Only you know my cousin-'

'-That I do.'

'-He's got it into his prat head that because they're both Heads this year, and they get to share a private common room, that they're destined to be together.'

'Wouldn't he find it weird though?' Scorpius asked round a mouthful of eggs. 'Dating his brother's ex-girlfriend?'

'It definitely would be weird, but the idiot has persuaded himself that they're soul mates. Ridiculous isn't it?'

'What's ridiculous?'

Rose and Scorpius looked up to see Keegan sliding into the seat opposite them.

'Albus's crush on Lizzie.' Rose explained.

'You mean his slightly weird crush on his brother's ex-girlfriend?'

'That would be the one', Scorpius sighed, setting down his cutlery. 'So, on another note, where are the rest of the team? It's almost half seven and I'm pretty sure they're all too scared of you to be late.'

'Lily's probably still trying to drown herself in the shower.' Rose replied, taking a sip from her goblet. 'I made her come running with me this morning and she's not as in shape as she was.'

'There's Lucy now', Scorpius nodded to the door where Lucy, already dressed in her scarlet quidditch robes, was hurrying towards them, a spring in her step and her beater's club in one hand. She slid into the seat next to Rose and gave her older cousin a hug before loading a plate and beginning to eat.

Lily and Erin sat down next, both taking toast and liberally applying jam, but it was a full twenty minutes later that Mack McClaggen finally deigned to arrive.

'Morning all.' He said cheerfully, as though he was not seventeen whole minutes late.

'You're late', said Rose through gritted teeth. Beside her, Scorpius rolled his eyes, though whether that was because of McClaggen's lateness, or Rose's pedantic ways she wasn't sure.

'Training doesn't start until eight', Mack answered, casually taking a bite of toast (with marmite - Yuck!)

'And I told you to be here at half past seven so we had half an hour to eat, then half an hour to digest while we go over some housekeeping before starting flying training at eight-thirty.'

Rose was beginning to wonder why she had been out with this boy on three separate occasions. It had never occurred to her before, probably because, even though they had dated off and on for the last three years, they had never spent all that much time together. She had been pretty sure he had only been with her because she could always get great quidditch tickets, thanks to her aunt, and she was only with him because he could do this really great thing with his tongue, and had the tightest set of abs she had ever seen.

But really, she thought crossly to herself now, what kind of reasons are those for dating someone three times?

Scorpius had a real connection with Isabelle, despite their slightly middle-aged ways. He'd actually been upset when she ended things. Rose had felt absolutely diddly-squat when she'd ended things with Mack last time. She snuck a peak at her best friend as he absentmindedly poked at some leftover yoke on his plate with his fork.

I'd give up Mack a thousand times over, than give up Scorpius, she thought, and felt her ears go red.

...

The Gryffindor Changing Rooms

08oo hours

...

'So that's the layout for our training regime over the next term', Rose concluded, pointing to the diagram covered in squiggle arrows with her wand. 'And a general overview of how I see this term, and the match against Slytherin, progressing. But now I want to go over something else.' She flipped over the piece of parchment with the moving arrows and pinned it back to the board.

'These are the rules of this quidditch team.' She announced. 'For those of you who were on the team last year, you will know how it goes and the consequences of breaking one of these rules. Some are simple expectations as part of this team, others are for your own health and safety. I demand a lot from you as my team mates, but your safety is one of my most pressing concerns, especially with the added pressures on the tournament this year. Lastly, some of these rules may seem a little strange, but over the years I have been Captain I have found these rules help create a family, a secure environment for the players.'

Mack snorted slightly and Lily shot him a frosty look. Rose closed her eyes for the briefest of moments and then moved on.

'There are five rules that I will expect you to follow if you wish to remain part of this team.' She cleared her throat.

'One. This team is a family, a platonic family. We have found in the past that when relationships interfere with quidditch the only losers are the team themselves. Hence, no relationships are allowed within this team.'

Rose glanced over at Mack, but he seemed uninterested as he picked at a speck of mud on his robes.

'We also don't want to encourage relationships with players from other house teams due to the complications this can lead to. '

Erin shifted slightly, but didn't say anything.

However, if you are currently dating someone, I don't know your own personal relationship statuses, I am not so cold-hearted as to expect you to end things. However, I am serious when I say it must not interfere with your play.

'Two. This team is a democracy. Therefore all major decisions will be made as a team, though I shall have the overall say in the event of a tie. I know the Slytherins and Ravenclaws prefer to let their captain make all decisions but I feel that this is narrow-minded and potentially is damaging to the team. Therefore speak up. We are first and foremost a team. I may captain you, but that doesn't give me the right to squash your views and ideas.

'Furthermore, this extends to fighting amongst yourselves. This team cannot function if petty squabbles and arguments are rife. Therefore there will be no arguing within this team. If you have a complaint or issue, bring it to me and I shall mediate the discussion with all members of the team.

'Three. You will turn up to training on time and without complaints. I don't want pitiful excuses as to why you are late, or didn't make it. If you have a decent reason for missing practise, I expect to be informed before the training session.'

'Four. Anyone who, for some inconceivable reason, wishes to leave the team, will inform me one month before the next match so I can find and train a replacement. If a match falls within that time frame, you will play. This is non-negotiable.

'Finally, before every match, training or real, you will eat a balanced and full breakfast containing protein. I will not threaten the safety of my players, nor the outcome of a match, with people falling off their brooms due to nerves and low-blood sugar.'

Lily and Scorpius looked unimpressed by these rules, but as both on them had been on the team for three years, this wasn't the first time they had heard it. In fact, Rose was pretty sure that she had seen Lily mouthing along at one point. Lucy was nodding along in her sage little way, despite the fact that, at thirteen, very few of the rules were likely to affect her. Keegan and Erin both seemed to understand the necessity of such rules, but Mack barely seemed to be listening.

Rose bit her tongue and picked up her broom, leading her teammates out onto the pitch. She got the feeling she was going to be biting her tongue around Mack McClaggen a lot this year.

...

The Basements

21:oo hours

...

Rose stuck her head around the corner to make sure that Filch, patrolling prefects and teachers, and most dangerously, Peeves, weren't around, then set off at a smart pace towards the end of the dark corridor. Normally, she would have borrowed the Marauder's Map, but Lily had needed it tonight, so Rose was relying on her wits to reach her destination tonight without being caught.

The basements were situated, much as the dungeons were under the Slytherin common room, one floor beneath the Hufflepuff dormitories and, like the dungeons, they went on for miles. Mostly they were used for storage, as well as the house-elf quarters, but at the end of the corridor Rose was now hurrying along, a left, a set of stone stairs, a trick passageway, one more set of stairs and a secret entrance, lay a destination of a different kind.

Most people knew Rose's younger brother as just that, Rose's younger brother. He had been almost invisible in her shadow when he started Hogwarts two years after she did, and while he had gained some notoriety for his keeping prowess on the Hufflepuff quidditch team, he mostly preferred to remain in the shadows. After all, it made business so much easier.

Rose reached the seemingly dead-end of the corridor she was walking down and reached out, examining the stone wall by the light of her wand. There, on the third brick from the left, was the faded outline of a handprint, burnt into the stone. She stretched out her own fingers, laying her palm against the dark mark and spoke aloud.

'I, Rose Weasley, ask entry to the Hogwarts' Underground Recreational Club.'

She rolled her eyes at her brother's flair for the dramatics when the wall began to roll back, the stones slabs splitting apart to reveal the entrance.

There were a few students, mostly six and seventh years sat in leather chairs by a roaring fire, playing what looked to be poker. Normally, Rose would have joined them for a hand, after all her legillimens and occlumency were remarkably good, but the stakes looked to be high. Mercury Bullstrode seemed to have just put down a thirty per cent share in her family's firm, against a vial of Amortentia and seventy-two hours of Felix Felicis supplied by Cecelia Knot and Charles McNair respectively.

Rose walked past them as Celia Raventhorpe looked at her cards and raised; throwing in her wristwatch which everyone knew had been an heirloom from Morgana, and smiled as her fellow Ravenclaw Manar Ling folded, sacrificing a large pile of gold.

Rose passed a thick red curtain which was closed, but from which thin wisps of smoke emanated, and headed for a thick wooden door at the back of the room. She knocked three times and the door swung open to reveal an office, crammed high with shelves covered in neatly labelled boxes. At the back of the room was another door, but in front of that was a desk, her little brother Hugo sat behind it, shifting through papers.

'Shut the door behind you.' He said, without looking up. She did so with a gentle click then went to sit in the hard-backed chair in front of the desk, knowing better than to interrupt him.

Both Weasley children had inherited their mother's enviable brains, her motivation and dedication. But, much to Mrs Granger-Weasley's despair, neither of her children had followed her into academia as she had hoped. Rose, she had long ago given up trying to take an interest in anything but quidditch, but she had had higher hopes for her young son, who was kind and hardworking, loyal to the hilt, and equally as stubborn as his big sister.

No-one quite knew when the Hogwarts' Underground Recreational Club first began. Hugo claimed that it was the founder's themselves who had sanctioned it, creating these rooms well away from prying eyes. There were strong enchantments around the Club, rather like the Room of Requirement. Only those meaning no harm, either to the club, or to each other, could enter. Rose's own parents had probably been too busy saving the wizarding world to come across it, but she knew Roxy's dad had been a member in his later years at Hogwarts, as had his friend Lee Jordan.

'Ah Rose, how are you doing?' Hugo's smile was warm and welcoming, despite the less than legal surroundings. But then, that was her brother, kind to a fault. There was no wonder really, that he was a Hufflepuff. One of Rose's earliest memories was him picking up ladybirds trapped inside the greenhouse at The Lodge and taking them to the bottom of the garden to be free.

'Hello brother mine', Rose smiled. 'How's business?'

'Not bad, not bad.' He grinned. 'Everyone's stocking up after a summer away. Plus, lots of people want to let off a bit of steam after a summer of behaving at home. Celia Raventhorpe out there,' he nodded his head towards the door, 'had to spend the summer at her family's stately home in Devonshire, so she's practically throwing money away.'

'And, of course, you take a certain percentage.' Rose laughed. 'I will never understand how someone so nice as you can be so devious.'

'I'm just lucky that way.' He opened a drawer and dropped the organised files into it. 'So, Rosie, what can I help you with today?'

'Information.' She replied.

'I thought you were above 'cheating'', he sketched air quotations around the word, 'I thought you said quidditch was a sacred sport and only the weak cheated.'

'And I still mean it.' She leant forward. 'I'm not asking for you to reveal tactics and team line-ups. My team is prepared for any eventuality, and we do not need to resort to cheap blackmail and spying.'

'Then what do you want?' He laced together his fingers, looking intrigued. 'Don't tell me this has something to do with something other than quidditch?'

'What else is there but quidditch?' She replied, only half-jokingly. 'No, I want you to keep an eye out of these people', she reached into a pocket of her robes and pulled out a sheet of parchment covered in names in her spidery writing. 'I may not be cheating but they sure will. So if they come here asking for Felix Felicis, or reflex increasing potions, lucky charms or concealment runes, I need to know.'

Hugo considered for a moment, leaning his chin against his laced fingers. 'While it is an interesting proposition, it would also be a conflict of interest. My customers come to me in the knowledge that I operate with complete discretion. If Flint or Ives, or indeed any of these names', he gestured to the list in front of him, 'Comes to me, I can hardly tell you.'

'Please Hugo! You know I'd never be as foolish as to tattle of them or anything. I just need to be prepared. It may even not happen, mostly my fellow captains are pretty honourable. But with this competition, I need to be sure.'

Hugo watched his sister for a full minute as she sat beseechingly in front of him, then, mind made up, opened a draw and took out a piece of parchment. From a pot on the desk he took a quill, dipped it in the ink, and began to write.

'Payment-' he said as he continued to write. 'I want your sneakerscope. The really powerful one that sits in your quidditch locker room, that uncle Neville gave you for your eleventh birthday.'

She debated for a moment, but conceded. That sneakerscope prevented people spying on her team talks, and detected nefarious plots, but in the end, she could always get another. Rose, who was familiar with her brother's pedantic ways, watched as he outlined their contract. They both signed, then he tapped the parchment with his wand so that the ink was visible only to them, and the deal was struck.

'I'll get the sneakerscope to you before breakfast tomorrow.' She said, standing up and accepting her copy of the contract.

'You'd better, or I may just be liable to sell as much Felix Felicis as I can stock to Stuart Flint before your first match.' He teased.

...

Gryffindor Tower

23:oo hours

...

'Where have you been?' Scorpius asked, looking up from where he was feverishly leafing through Magical Water Plants of Britain and Ireland. 'Curfew was two hours ago.'

She sank into the chair next to him and glanced around the mostly deserted common room, then down at his essay: Gillyweed: growth, properties, uses and regulations. She had finished it that morning over breakfast.

'Covering our arses.' She replied, pulling out her own essay. 'I've bribed Hugo into keeping an eye on things.'

'And how likely is he to actually honour that?' Scorpius asked, beginning to write again. 'He is a Hufflepuff, and on the quidditch team. Seems like a conflict of interest to me.'

'I'm hoping', Rose said with a sigh, 'That he won't mix business and personal feeling. But what can one do? Do you want me to finish your essay for you?'

'No, I'm almost done thanks.' His quill continued to scratch against the parchment. 'I took your advice and asked Lizzie for help, and she went through it with me.'

Rose felt an uncommon raw feeling of jealousy fall into the pit of her stomach but managed to banish it. 'I bet Al had apoplexy!' She laughed half-heartedly.

'Well, he doesn't technically know, and it was a onetime thing anyway. But she did help a lot.'

The quill continued to scratch for a moment, then was sat down.

'Finished.' He said, and blew on the ink to make it dry.

Rose bit her lip. 'Scorp?'

'Hm?'

'I ran into Isabelle the other day. She, she wanted me to tell you that she hopes you can still both be friends.'

His hands stilled on the parchment he was rolling up.

'She said that?'

'Yes. And I think she means it Scorp, she seems pretty cut up about it.'

A moment's silence.

'I asked her if we could get back together yesterday.' Scorpius said slowly, not looking at Rose who felt her face flush.

'And what did she say?' She asked too quickly and Scorpius looked up at her.

'She said no.'

They looked at each other for a moment, and again Rose had that feeling, that sudden desire to lean forwards, to cross that easy distance between them and feel his lips against his own. He watching her too, but with a wry smile twisting his mouth into a crooked, half-sad smile.

She hastily looked away.

'Are you okay?' She asked, playing with the strap of her bag so as to avoid looking at him.

'I don't know.' He answered truthfully. 'But I think I will be. I just- I think I just need some time to get over her, that's all.'

Whether this was meant for himself, or her, Rose couldn't tell. But it was enough to stain her cheeks scarlet with embarrassment, and she hastily stood up.

'Well, good night then. I better get up to bed. Early start and all that.'

'Rose?' He looked confused. 'Is everything okay?'

'Fine.' She answered too fast, then forced herself to relax. 'I'm sorry, I'm just tired.'

'Of course.' He still looked a little puzzled, so she tried again. 'You look like you could use a hug.'

'That I could', he stood too, pushing the rest of his books into his bag.

When he wrapped his arms around her, she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, wishing they could stay that way forever. He held her for longer than usual, but it was not long enough for Rose, and then he was stepping back.

'Goodnight Rosie.' He walked to the staircase to the boy's dormitory and vanished up them, leaving Rose standing in the middle of the deserted common room, her heart still pounding, her skin flushed.

Then she headed upstairs to her dormitory.

A.N.

Chapter 6 my! my!

This story is going to be approximately 25 chapters in length, with updates every Sunday if I can manage it! As you have probably noticed, the chapters are getting longer in length as the plot arrives.

Next chapter we will be following the rest of Rose's wonderful quidditch team and getting to know them a bit better too!

What did you think of Hugo and his club?

How is the Scorpius/Rose relationship progressing?

How successful do you think The Rules are going to be?

Let me know!

Review!

Love and hugs,

A.A.A.