CHAPTER 22

THE QUIDDITCH CUP PARTY

Rose didn't think she'd ever see anything more hectic than the vast majority of Gryffindor House crammed into the common room with loud music and butterbeer with questionable alcoholic content levels, but she supposed that's what happened when you won the Quidditch cup. She wasn't exactly one for big parties, but as she was part of the Quidditch team, she really couldn't avoid this one. That didn't mean she had to fully participate, however; she was sitting at the edge of the room in a small chair when Al found her, clutching a mug of butterbeer himself.

"Have you seen James anywhere?"

"No, I thought he was with you."

"No. Last time I saw him was in the locker room. He was talking to Fred and Harry about getting the butterbeer. It's really good, by the way, but it tastes a little different. Do you know where they got it?"

Rose sighed. "Probably the Hog's Head, and I really wouldn't drink it if I were you. That funny taste is probably actual beer."

"Oh," Al said, setting it down on a nearby table. "Well, let's hope Rudomin doesn't check in."

"Yeah. This is crazy; how is everyone even fitting in this room?" Rose wondered.

"I don't know. I'm a little scared to run into Ariana."

"I'm actually impressed with how much you've managed to avoid her," Rose remarked. "It's been a week, and we have all but one class with her."

"Don't underestimate my anxiety," Al said seriously. Rose laughed.

"Ah, well, there's always Alana," she said, and Al looked alarmed.

"What? No."

"Come on, Al, she flirts with you in front of the whole Quidditch stadium. All the time."

"Who, Alana?" Min asked, sitting down next to them. "Oh, definitely fancies you, Al."

"No, she doesn't," he said, starting to blush.

Min rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You guys are unbelievable, by the way. You just won the bloody Quidditch cup and you're sitting in the corner. It's a party! Have some fun! Come dance with us," she said.

"No, I don't really dance," Rose said quickly.

"You dance with Scorpius," Al muttered. Rose felt her whole face and ears go bright red and Min laughed.

"What did you say?" she asked sternly, and Al backed off.

"Nothing," he said quietly.

"Thought so."

"Come on, Rose, dance," Min said, and Rose sighed.

"All right, fine," she conceded, and Min looked at Al expectantly.

"Nope. You're way too close to Ariana's friends," he said with a shudder. Min rolled her eyes and ran off, motioning for Rose to follow.

"Well, I got one of them to get up," Min said when they reached Harry, Roxanne, and Emma on the other side of the room.

"Ah, well, at least you tried," Roxanne said.

"Do you know where James is?" Rose asked her, and she looked like she was trying not to laugh suddenly.

"Er… no," she said.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "That wasn't very convincing."

"Er… I've been sworn to secrecy."

"That's more accurate."

"Well, let's think… who else is missing?" Emma asked, looking mischievous.

Rose shook her head. "Stephanie's not in Gryffindor."

"It's James. Who says it's Stephanie?"

"Yeah, you've got a point," Rose sighed. "Who is missing?"

"Er… I haven't seen Tara Mitchell, didn't he have a thing for her in third year?" Min asked.

"I remember that. She's with Daniel Logan, though, I think," Rose said.

Harry suddenly looked very alarmed. "Alice. Alice is missing," he said, and took off running out of the portrait hole.

"Well, this'll be interesting," Min said.

"What's interesting?" Scorpius asked, appearing from who knows where behind Rose and Min.

"Er, James is probably snogging Alice somewhere," Emma said, and Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"That's sort of a given, isn't it?"

"He has a girlfriend," Rose insisted.

"Yeah, well, it's James," Roxanne said. After a few minutes, there was a commotion by the portrait hole, and Harry and Alice stormed in arguing. Following closely behind was James, who seemed to be trying very hard to make the portrait hole close faster while fighting with someone outside of it. The party continued as most people probably didn't even hear anything over the music, and Alice stormed right up the stairs to the girls' dorms. James walked over to them, clutching his jaw, and waved halfheartedly.

"How's the party?" he managed, and Harry walked off to some other area of the room.

"What happened?" Rose asked incredulously.

"Well, er… from the beginning or right now?" James asked.

"From the beginning," Rose said, and he shrugged.

"Okay. Well, uh, right after the match, you know, Alice came in to congratulate us, and after you left with Malfoy and Al I stayed there with Fred and Harry and her for a bit, and Fred and Harry wanted to go up to set the party up so I said go up without me, and Alice told Harry she'd walk up with Tom and I. But Tom left a few minutes later and Alice and I got to talking, and we realized the party had started so we started to go up to the castle, and… I'm going to skip the next twenty minutes because I'm a gentleman—" Roxanne snorted and he shot a look at her before he continued, "So, er, basically Stephanie saw us… so we're done, I think. And Harry punched me in the face. And then Alice got mad at him, so… I think that's all."

"You're an idiot," Min said after a few seconds.

"Yeah, I got that, thanks," James said. "Well… I should probably go talk to Harry." He walked off into the crowd and Roxanne shook her head.

"Unbelievable," she said. Rose nodded.

"Should we really let him talk to Harry? Is he going to punch him again?" she asked.

Roxanne shrugged. "Who knows. Probably not. Hey, by the way, you never did tell me what James said you had to show me."

"Because there's nothing to show, James has got it wrong, I swear," Rose said.

"Are you sure? Because he said it had something to do with that rumor from February about you being all Dark—"

"I don't know what he's talking about," Rose said firmly. Roxanne shrugged.

"Okay," she said, though Rose wasn't sure she was convinced. Soon, Harry appeared again, looking as if nothing had ever happened.

"Are you guys… okay?" Roxanne asked.

"Yeah, of course we are," Harry said, looking a little confused.

"This is mad," Roxanne said, rolling her eyes, and Rose nodded.

"I just don't get what all the fuss is about," she muttered. Roxanne looked confused. "Snogging," Rose clarified. Min laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it can't be worth ruining your relationship," Rose said quietly.

"Er… have you never kissed anyone?" Min asked, grinning.

"No!" Rose said indignantly. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just… you're almost 14, you know," Min said, but she was laughing and Rose could feel herself start to blush. She had completely had it with this party, and just walked away. "Rose, come on!" Min called after her, and Rose was glad that she could only barely hear her as she opened the portrait hole and walked out into the hallway. She stomped down the corridor and found an empty stairwell, and decided to sit and wait until the party was over.

After a minute or so, however, Scorpius showed up at the bottom of the stairs and Rose sighed. "Just leave me alone," she muttered.

Instead, however, Scorpius walked up the stairs to where Rose was sitting and sat down next to her. "Min's kind of mean sometimes, but she doesn't really mean anything by it. Believe me, I know."

"I just… I didn't want them to know, I'm probably the only person who's never…"

"I haven't," Scorpius said, and Rose looked at him in surprise. "I mean, Lexa tried to kiss me last year but I wasn't going to let that happen."

"I just want to get it over with," she said. "I mean, so no one can make fun of me."

Scorpius was silent for a second, and Rose looked over at him. He was looking at her like he was thinking very hard about something, and Rose said, "Er, Scorpius?"

Suddenly, he leaned over and Rose realized what was going to happen a second before it did, not that she was exactly complaining. He kissed her for probably only about two seconds, but to Rose it felt like forever, and then he pulled back awkwardly and said, "Now no one can make fun of either of us.""Right," Rose managed to say, hoping that she wasn't blushing, and he stood up.

"Are you coming back to the party?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Er, maybe in a little bit. I'm just going to sit here for a while," she said.

"Okay, I'll see you then, Weasley," he said, and walked down the stairs and out of sight.

Rose put her head in her hands the second he was gone. He didn't mean it like that, she told herself. You can't have wanted him to. You can't fancy him. You can't.

She knew even as she was thinking it that if anything this had only made things worse. "Oh, no," she whispered to herself.