When Rose woke up the next morning, it took her a minute to realise why she was so excited... The she remembered: The Inter-House Challenge! Mu- Professor Weasley, sorry, had said that the team lists would be up in the common rooms this morning- was that good or bad?
There was only one way to find out.
Rose climbed out of bed, and walked to the window, admiring the view of the Quidditch pitch and the rest of the Hogwarts grounds.
"Hi Rose," said a voice behind her. Rose turned to see a short-ish girl with a plain face, brown hair and hazel eyes stood behind her. She was skinny for a 4th year, and many people doubted her age.
"Tracey!" exclaimed Rose "I'm sorry I didn't say hello yesterday-that was rude of me,"
"Don't worry about it," Tracey told her, smiling, whilst hanging something up. That was one of the things that Rose liked about Tracey-she was very easy-going, unlike the other Gryffindors who were fierce and competitive. "You excited about the Challenge? I like the idea, but I'm not sure how good I'll be."
"You'll be great, Trace, don't worry. And yeah, I'm excited, but nervous too, mainly about who's in my group."
"Do you go and see who that is then?" Tracey asked her.
"No-one's going anywhere without me!" declared Molly, emerging from the bathroom, clearly having had a shower. Her hair was still damp, and was leaving marks where it touched her uniform.
"We're only going down to the Common Room, Mol," Rose informed her.
"All the same, I'll come with you; I want to see who's in my group too."
When the three girls reached the Common Room, there was already a small crowd around the notice board, jostling to get a better look. You could gather the 4th years opinions on their groups just by listening to their reactions:
"-but I hate her!"
"Who's that?"
"Well, I'm ok with-"
"Are we allowed to swap?"
"-he's alright..."
"I suppose I can cope with-"
"-we never get on!"
"Out of our way!" declared Molly, and the crowd parted like the Red Sea. They all headed either back to their dorms, or down to breakfast, as Molly read out the groups: "So, my group is me, obviously, then from Hufflepuff there's someone called Graham Collins- does anybody know who he is? I've got Katie Thompson from Slytherin- great- and, ooh! Nathan Williams from Ravenclaw!" then suddenly "Oh, Rose, you're gonna love this!"Molly exclaimed, mockingly.
"What, why?" although Rose thought that she already knew what was coming.
"Your group is you, Thomas Smith from Hufflepuff, your favourite cousin Lucy from Ravenclaw-" Rose sighed. Lucy Weasley was the only cousin that she didn't really get on with. There was nothing wrong with her personally; it was just that the two girls clashed, as they were both so intelligent. However, they greatly differed when it came to rules, and that was where the main problem lay: Lucy wouldn't break a school rule if her life depended on it, but Rose was more like her father when it came to being a bit rebellious- she liked the adrenaline that came from being a daredevil, even if she wasn't quite as big on risks as Molly. So whilst Lucy was declaring that what Rose was about to do was dangerous and could get one or both of them killed, Rose would just ignore her, causing Lucy to go running to her father, Rose's Uncle Percy, and therefore an argument between the two girls. That was a problem that they'd need to overcome if they wanted to get anywhere in the competition. "-and from Slytherin, it's only our favourite Scorpius Malfoy!"
Just for one tiny micro-second, Rose thought her heart kind of fluttered at the sound of his name. Ridiculous, she knew, because he was a foul-mouthed idiot and they'd always hated each other, and whose heart actually flutters in real life? Didn't that just happen in books?
She dismissed it from her mind.
"Great." said Rose, sarcastically, "I can't wait. What about you, Trace?"
"I don't know these people..." she murmured apprehensively. "I mean, I've heard of them, but I don't know them personally. How can I work with them if I don't know them?"
"Well, at least they're not your sworn enemies," Rose comforted her.
"Anyway... Breakfast?" Asked Molly, who always had her priorities sorted, "But you two might want to get dressed."
Rose and Tracey looked down at themselves to discover that they were still in their nightwear. "Good idea," Rose said, "C'mon, Trace"
A few minutes later all three girls arrived in the Great Hall, fully dressed in their Gryffindor robes, and headed towards their table.
"Morning." Grunted Al. Rose could tell that she wasn't forgiven yet.
"So who's group are you in?" she asked her cousin, trying to make friendly conversation.
"Alex Flint from Slytherin-he's an idiot, Louis from Ravenclaw, and Emily Carter from Hufflepuff." He told them, not looking up from his plate piled with buttered toast.
Louis Weasley was the son of Rose's Dad and Al's Mum's eldest brother: Bill. Bill had married a part-Veela, and the good-looking genes had definitely stayed in the family. Louis had ginger hair, like most of the Weasley's, and startling blue eyes from his mother. He was tall and willowy, yet still pulled off the muscular Quidditch player look: a definite heart-throb amongst the year group.
Louis' older sisters, Victoire and Dominique, had already left Hogwarts, and Victoire was now engaged to Teddy Lupin.
"Well that's not too bad," Rose told him, making herself a bacon sandwich, "At least you've got Louis. I've got a cousin in my group too." She waited for him to ask who, but she continued anyway when he didn't. "Lucy Weasley. As well as Sc-, I mean Malfoy and Thomas Smith from Hufflepuff. I don't know him that well, but I think you can guess my opinion on the rest of the group." Rose glanced at Albus expectantly, and when he returned the look, she could tell she'd made it worse.
"In a group with Malfoy, are we? Well I bet you're glad you helped him now, aren't you? You might even get along! I mean, you two aren't so different-"
Rose jabbed her wand to Al's chest, whilst Molly and Tracey looked at each other nervously.
"Who's assaulting my brother?" asked James, stopping behind her. Rose could swear that she heard Molly make a strange noise of excitement "Oh, it's you, Rose. Feel free to continue." He was about walk off to sit with his friends further down the table, when Al called out.
"Wait!"
"What?" James asked irritably. "I'm sure you can fight your own battles, Al, and Rose wouldn't threaten anybody without reason, so I don't know what you want me to do."
Rose removed her wand from Al, although there was now a dint in his jumper "He compared me to Malfoy." She laughed awkwardly, "It sounds like a pathetic reason to threaten him now, doesn't it?"
"Not really. Who'd want to be like him?" James threw an unsubtle look over to the Slytherin table, to be met by the stares of the Slytherins, who scowled at him over their food. "See what I mean?"
"But the thing is, brother dearest," began Al, "I don't think our Rose has so much of a problem with Malfoy. Notice how he made it to school after we left him alone, unconscious, with her?"
Realisation dawned James' face as he sat down in between Molly and Rose. "You helped him?" he asked, his tone neutral, as he reached for the cornflakes, "That's quite admirable. Well done."
"Admirable?!" screeched Albus, "Well done? He's our worst enemy, James, or have you both forgotten that?"
"No." James replied, his mouth full of cereal. Swallowing, he continued: "But Rose knew how you'd react if you found out, yet she did it anyway. Pretty brave of you."
"I'm not scared of Al!" Rose pointed out
"I think what James is trying to say," interrupted Molly, "is that Rose knew what the right thing to do was, and she did it, despite the consequences. Aren't Gryffindor's supposed to do that: be the good guys, and do what's right, no matter what everyone else wants them to do? Your parents are like that, so I hear. Rose was just following their footsteps."
There was a moments silence while everyone just accepted that Molly the air-head was giving an in-depth moral argument for Rose assisting a Slytherin.
"Yeah, but Mum and Dad never actually helped their enemies!" pointed out Al.
"Actually, they did. Dad told me how Scorpius' Dad and his friends set the Room of Requirement on fire during the Final Battle, and how he and Uncle Ron delayed their escape to fly back to rescue them."
Al didn't have a response for that. He simply said: "I'm full." And left.
"Thanks, James" said Rose, sincerely.
"No worries. Al was being an idiot, anyway. The whole point of this Challenge is to make friends with people in other Houses, and you were doing that."
"Except I wasn't. Malfoy asked to make a truce with me yesterday, before he even knew about the tournament, and I laughed at the idea. Now I'm sort of regretting it."
"Really? A Malfoy offered to make a truce? He doesn't sound like his Dad, then. When Dad and Uncle Ron talk about Draco, he seems a lot worse than his son. He would rather have jumped off the Astronomy Tower than make peace with a Gryffindor, let alone a Weasley!"
"Well, maybe he's better than his Dad." Suggested Rose, barely audibly.
You could always rely on Molly to fill a silence.
"So, James, I heard you got made Quidditch Captain over the summer! Congratulations! When are tryouts?"
Rose looked at Tracey and rolled their eyes, whilst James launched into a long-winded speech about Quidditch, and Molly twirled her hair, batting her long eyelashes.
"Attention please!" called Hermione from the teachers table, "I am assuming that now all you 4th years are aware of your groups for the Challenge. I have a few words that I would like to discuss with you about the first of the 5 challenges, which will take place a month today. Can everyone who is not 4th year please go to their first lesson, as missing any part of your education is not something that anyone should make a habit of." As chairs scraped whilst the students residing in them left, Rose couldn't help but think that when her Mum said: 'missing any part of your education is not something that anyone should make a habit of', she was referring to Rose's Dad and Uncle, who had probably missed weeks of school with being in the hospital wing, and on exciting quests to find the Philosophers Stone, or the Chamber of Secrets. Rose often wished that her school days could be as exciting as they had been for her parents, and she supposed that the Inter-House Challenge would be the closest she would ever get.
"Bye, Rose, Tracey, Molly," James said, nodding to each of them in turn, except for Molly, who got a wink.
She nearly melted on the spot.
"Ok, 4th years. If there is anyone not present for whatever reason, I am relying on you to pass on the facts," Hermione looked straight at Rose, clearly having noticed that Albus was not there. "As I said last night, there will be 5 challenges, and each of the first four will require qualities and attributes that belong to a particular House. The first event will be based on Slytherin House. This means that the Slytherin representative in each group will be responsible for teaching the other three members how to act like a Slytherin, and how to perform well in Potions, which is traditionally Slytherins best subject."
Great, Rose thought. She was going to have to deal with Scorpius sooner than she would've liked.
"You may have hoped that you would get lessons allocated to preparing for the first task, but I am afraid that it is not to be this way. You must prepare in your own time: in the library, in the grounds, in an empty classroom, or in any of the four Common Rooms. Yes, I am going to open the Common Rooms to people of other Houses for the first time on record. Please do not make me regret this decision otherwise your group will be out of the tournament, and in disgrace."
Rose's brain kind of slowed down. Slytherin's in the Gryffindor Common Room. In her Common Room. The one place where she was safe from the names that the other students called her and her family was being invaded. No. Her Mum couldn't have done this. It was against everything she believed in! Or was it?
"Settle down!" Hermione called over the hubbub that had broken out- Rose could tell that she wasn't the only one with this view, although others thought it an excellent idea- they'd always wanted to see the other Common Rooms.
"Now, I know that there will be mixed opinions on this matter, but it's best if you all just learn that this is how it is, and will be for the rest of the year, providing nothing goes wrong. Now, I'm assuming that you'll all want to know more about the first task. As I said, it will be Slytherin-based, which means that you will need to look up and learn simple potions and antidotes. You should also know how to become cunning and ambitious, if you are not already. Slytherins, do not think that this means that you don't need to do anything, because there is always more you can learn. For example, I bet you didn't know that a Kappa's source of strength is a water-filled depression atop its head! Should the water spill, the creature is drained of its powers... fascinating." The students exchanged glances, wondering if the stress of being the head had finally got too much for Hermione. "Now, hurry off too your lessons, for you have already missed far too much, and remember to meet up with your group tonight, after your final lesson. The Great Hall will be open before dinner, entirely for this purpose, but the tables shall not be here. Instead there will be desks for 4, so you and your group can get to know each other and practise what I have told you to. Now, have a good first day!" Hermione waved the 4th years away and walked towards her office, leaving Rose wondering if she would be able to survive tonight's meeting with Lucy and Scorpius, without hexing anyone.