Hi guys! Sorry for the wait, but here's Chapter 11 and it's my longest so far! Yay!
Slughorne makes an appearance in this chapter, but I'd be grateful if no-one pointed out that he'd probably be dead by now
So anyway, enjoy!

Rose took at seat at the breakfast table, feeling especially pleased with herself. James liked Molly! Nathan liked her! It was going to be perfect.
"So what did James want?" Molly asked her, buttering a piece of toast.
"Nothing much, just to tell me that I'd got on the Quidditch team, as have you-" Molly let out a squeak of delight, because she'd get to spend more time with James, Rose assumed, as she poured milk onto her cereal, "-and first practise is tomorrow night,"
"Excellent! I've really missed Quidditch over the summer." Molly was Muggle-born, so she hadn't been able to practise, but Rose couldn't imagine life without Quidditch, or without half a dozen cousins to practise with. No matter how jealous she got of Molly sometimes, with her looks and outgoing personality, she wouldn't swap places with her for the world.

"Ok, quiet everyone!" called Hermione from the teachers table. Silence descended a lot quicker than usual, as everyone, especially the 4th years, wanted to know about anything to do with the Challenge. "I know that the rest of the school are probably sick and tired of hearing me speak to the 4th years alone, and if this is the case, feel free to let your attention wander for a couple of minutes, but please keep quiet!" she added, as the noise level rose. Immediately silence descended. Hermione looked please with herself. "Ok, the second task is based on Ravenclaw House! You must all practise different sorts of Charms, as that is traditionally the subject that said house is best at-"
"We're best at everything!" shouted a boy from the Ravenclaw table, his comment greeted with cheers from the rest of his housemates.
"Except from DADA!" someone retorted, "You lot couldn't defeat a Boggart even if your worst fear was a goldfish!" it was a certain Gryffindor, also known as Molly Saunders. There were a few cheers of agreement from her fellow Lions, but most just looked at her, clearly thinking that her response had been a terrible comeback.
"Anyway," Hermione continued, ignoring the interruption, "I would also like to remind you that you are supposed to be prepared for the tasks! There were far too many injuries in yesterday's event that it made me want to cut the tournament completely-" there was a cry of outrage, which Hermione merely shouted over, "-but I was persuaded not to, as long as the Ravenclaw task has no more than a handful of minor injuries. I do not wish to put any of my students in danger, and I did not imagine that so many of you would be so unprepared that your friends would get injured as a result! There was barely a group that did not have a member of their team in the hospital wing last night! This number has got to go down! Work harder and you will be more prepared, and then be able to tackle whatever you will face in the next task, which will not be until after half term. Therefore, you may relax for a couple of weeks, but as soon as your week off is over, I will give you more information on what you will face, and I intend you to begin studying for the next task then. Ok, you are dismissed." Hermione seemed to have forgotten that it was breakfast time, as oppose to a meeting, so the students ignored the dismissal and carried on eating.

"I'm going to make sure that I listen to every word Aunt Hermione says at breakfast now, after the Kappa incident." Albus commented, shoving a bacon sandwich into his mouth, "I can't believe that I didn't pick up on the fact that she mentioned some vital information about how to defeat that water-bastard!" Rose and Molly exchanged sideways glances. Al hadn't been there when Hermione mentioned the Kappa; it was the morning he'd gone off in a strop because he'd discovered that Rose had helped Malfoy. However the two girls hadn't told him this, partly because it was funny watching Al angry with himself, and partly because if they did, he'd say that they should have told him this useful information.
"So, Al, are you looking forward to Quidditch tomorrow night?" Rose asked, changing the subject.
"You mean I made the team?!" He asked, delighted, "I mean, I already knew I had, of course, with my impeccable talent that even my brother can't miss, but I thought I'd better appear surprised, to be modest, you know..."
Rose, who was naturally modest, and Molly, who never even pretended to be, just shook their heads, to say that they didn't 'know', whilst grinning at Al's response.
"Whatever," he said, devouring the remains of his breakfast. "Well, we'd better be off, we've got Potions in a few minutes," he pointed out, "and Merlin knows I need the practise," he added in a disgusted mutter, clearly still annoyed with himself for the Emily incident.
"How is Emily?" Molly asked Al, as the three of them stood up. Although still concerned for the Hufflepuff's well-being, she had forgiven Rose for her lack of consideration the day before.
"She's better, but not great. I went to see her last night with Louis and Flint, and Emily was awake and talking, but still very weak. Madame Pomfrey says that she'll be out within a week, though." He looked at his friends who nodded at this positive news, before saying, "I think Alex likes her, though,"
"We know, you've already told us." Molly pointed out impatiently.
"I know, but I think he really really likes her. I mean, he goes into a daydream whenever he sees her, and I could tell that if Louis and I hadn't been there he'd probably have held her hand and confessed his undying love, and all that rubbish,"
"You can call it rubbish, but I think that's very sweet," Molly told him, "they'd be such a cute couple!"
"Everybody hide yourselves, Molly the Matchmaker is out and about." Rose muttered under her breath, but not quietly enough.
"'Molly the Matchmaker'" Molly brooded, "I like that title. Which reminds me, I said I'd get you a boyfriend this year, and I still haven't got around to it!"
"No, really, Mol, it's fine, I like being single," Rose reassured her hurriedly, "No extra presents to buy, or anyone to dress up for. It's great."
"But how do you know you wouldn't prefer having a boyfriend, if you've never had one?" she demanded.
"I don't, I guess, but I'm happy as I am,"
"Wait, can I get this straight?" Albus interrupted, stopping in the middle of the corridor, "You're trying to get Rose a boyfriend?"
"Yes. Why do you sound so surprised?" Molly asked him coldly.
"Because she's Rose!" Al pointed out, waving his arm at her, as if that explained everything.
"So?"
"Yeah, so what?" Rose asked, folding her arms.
"Because you're... well, it's hard to explain, but..." Al stuttered, realising he'd landed himself in a dangerous situation, and trying to speed-walk away from the two girls. They simply followed him.
"Don't make him say it, Mol." Rose said, slightly sadly, "I know I'm hardly Katie Thompson in appearance, but I like to think that I'm a nice person. Doesn't that count for anything?" she asked Al.
Realisation dawned on his face, "Rose, I didn't mean you're not pretty! You should hear the comments you get from some of my friends! One of them even said that you were 'smoking hot', I think it was-"
Rose burst out into fits of laughter. "Al, it's touching that you're trying to flatter me into forgiveness, but that's not going to work, especially with lies as exaggerated as that."
"They're not lies! I do find it slightly disturbing sitting there whilst they discuss my cousin like that, you know, but they've been saying similar things about Roxy since we were in first year, so I've kind of got used to it."
Rose shook away the mental image of 11 year old boys discussing her cousin, who would have been 13 at the time. She could see why Al would find it awkward, "Well, on the basis that you're telling the truth, why did you shun the prospect of me getting boyfriend?" Rose asked her cousin.
"Because... because you seem so intimidating sometimes! Even to me, who's known you my entire life, so just imagine how other boys feel!"
"What?" Rose asked, "Since when was I 'intimidating'? I didn't even know you had that word in your vocabulary, Al!"
"Oh ha-ha," Albus replied dryly, "and it's because of how you behave in class. You know the answer to, like, every question, and guys generally find that sort of superior knowledge scary. They like to be in charge in a relationship, and feel like it's their girlfriend who needs the protecting. With someone as smart as you, Rose, it's hard for them to feel like they can look after you. That's why they restrain their feelings for you to discussing you behind your back."
It was Molly's turn to explode into laughter, "Oh, Al, playing the Alpha-male. Still, if that's what's scaring the boys away from Rose, we'll just have to dumb-her-down a little..." she saw Rose's jaw drop, "Ok, a lot,"
"No." Rose said defiantly, as they reached Potions, "Absolutely not."
"What? But I act dumber than I am all the time!"
"Yes, but at the moment my grades are more important to me than boys. I refuse to let mine, and my mothers, reputation slip, simply to allow some creep to run his hands all over me!" she exclaimed, as they entered the classroom.
Molly and Al exchanged exasperated glances.
"Alright, ok, Rose, I won't ask you to hide your brains, but I will get you a boyfriend, even if your intelligence makes it harder for me!" Molly compromised, as they sat down at a table with the other Gryffindors, ignoring the Slytherin students.
"Ah, I'm sorry children, but I can't allow you to sit there," said Slughorne, entering the classroom.
"Why?" asked Al, half angry, half curious.
"Ah, James, you're so like your father, and your grandfather too,"
"It's Albus,"
"Sorry, my lad. You look just like your brother. Anyway, you can't sit there, because in the spirit of the Inter-House tournament, I've decided to jumble up your usual partners a bit." A look of horror descended over the students, and there were a few cries of outrage, although the reaction was slightly better than it would have been last year, Rose thought. "I've paired up each Gryffindor with a Slytherin, and I'm sure that you'll all get along splendidly!" Slughorne clapped his hand in delight, seeming unaware that the students didn't share his slightly camp enthusiasm. "Ok, everyone, come here, up to the front, then I can tell you all where you're now sitting, and who with." Slowly the pupils rose, and wandered to the front, shuffling their feet and looking altogether displeased with the idea. Once everyone was out of their seats, Slughorne began again, "Ok, so can we have Molly Saunders and Alex Flint here, please?" he asked, gesturing to two of the seats directly in front of his desk. Molly rolled her eyes, stomped over to her new allocated place, and threw her bag down moodily, flicking her sheet of straight, shiny black hair. Alex's reaction was more neutral. As a general rule, he seemed to be a lot calmer than his housemates, so he merely walked over to Molly, and sat down next to her, pulling his text book out of his bag. 'EC' Rose read off the corner. What did that stand for?
"Excellent. Ok, now here..."
Slughorne continued sitting students with people they didn't know, or their worst enemies, depending on how lucky they were. Al was seated next to Katie Thompson, from Molly's team. He tried to give the impression that he was royally pissed off with this arrangement, but Rose saw him repeatedly glancing at Katie. Admittedly, she was very pretty, but Rose had always assumed that her obnoxious personality would put any self-respecting boys off her. Clearly she was wrong. Rose almost wanted to laugh at Al's hypocrisy, the way he'd yelled at her for helping Scorpius, when he really needed it, yet here he was trying to make conversation with the human equivalent of a Barbie doll, who also happened to be a Slytherin. Pathetic.
"-Miss Weasley?" came a voice, bringing Rose out of her reverie. "I've just allocated you a seat. Care to take it?"
"Erm, yeah, sorry..." she walked towards the desks, having no idea where she was supposed to sit. Most of the seats were already taken now, and those who weren't sat down were stood in the aisle between the sets of desks. She was about to ask her Potions Professor where to sit, when she tripped over a table leg and fell forwards. She threw her hands out to stop herself, but didn't need to, as a pair of strong arms, from someone stood in front, had caught her, still about a metre from the floor. Someone has quick reactions she thought. The hands gripped her just below the elbow, and she could hear whoever it was breathing heavily into her hair. Rose looked up apprehensively, to see no other than Scorpius Malfoy holding her arms. His expression was hard to judge, but it wasn't the default 'I don't care, I'm better than you' face. As he helped her upright, Rose was suddenly aware that the whole class was watching them.
"Thanks," she muttered, letting go of him, and brushing herself down, even though she hadn't touched the floor.
"Well, I'm glad to see that you two are introduced now." Slughorne called; amusement evident in his voice alone. He scribbled out something on the piece of parchment in front of him. "I was originally going to sit Miss Weasley next to Mr Parkinson-" Rose glanced over to where the said boy stood. He was leant on the wall, chewing gum with his hands in his pockets. Aster Parkinson was good looking in the manufactured sense, all hair gel and confidence, with a cool jacket over his uniform, a baseball cap, and extremely leery personality. Seeing Rose looking at him, he winked and made an inappropriate gesture. Rose blushed furiously, rolled her eyes, and looked away. "-But I doubted that you two would get along, so I'm glad that I've found someone else to pair you with, Rose. Mr Malfoy will be an excellent partner for you this year. Could the two of you sit here?" he gestured to a pair of seats at the back of the classroom, as far away from Molly as was humanely possible. Great.

From Rose's new seat she could watch Al try and flirt with Katie, who didn't appear the least interested, despite the back that he was the son of The Boy Who Lived. This was clearly unsettling Al, as usually he had no trouble with girls, for that reason. He kept glancing around nervously, as if looking for a new topic of discussion. Catching sight of Rose and Scorpius, he threw the latter a death stare, before shooting Rose a warning look, which either said, 'Don't you dare laugh at me' or, more likely, 'don't you dare get any friendlier with that bastard Malfoy than absolutely necessary, or me and your Dad will give you hell'.

Rose sighed, and turned back to copying down her notes.

"Hey," said a voice next to her. It was Scorpius. Rose was more than a little surprised. This was the first time he'd attempted a civilised conversation with her, outside of anything Challenge-themed.
"Hi," she replied tentatively, not looking up from her work.
"So..." he began, "did you make the Quidditch team?"
"Oh, yeah!" Rose answered, grinning and meeting his eyes, touched that he'd remembered that she was trying out. "First practise is tomorrow night, but don't send any spies, otherwise James will know I told you about it,"
"How can you think so little of us? We'd never do anything like that!" he exclaimed in mock offense, Rose laughing at his expression. Both were recalling how half a dozen Slytherins had turned up to laugh at a Gryffindor practise one day last year when they had nothing better to do. Although Rose had been irritated at the time, despite not actually playing for the team then, she now saw how it might have been perceived as amusing, from a Slytherin perspective anyway.
"I'm sorry about that, by the way," Scorpius said in all seriousness.
"About what?" Rose asked, pretending not to know.
"About the Gryffindor practise last year that me and some friends came to laugh at. It wasn't my idea, believe it or not, but I'm not very strong against peer pressure," He sounded sincerely ashamed. This was a side of Scorpius Rose hadn't seen yet; the meek, apologetic Scorpius, pushing his blonde fringe back out of the way nervously, as oppose to arrogantly, and she liked him. She wanted to see this version of him more often.
Their eyes met. Slate grey with chocolate brown. They stared at each other for a moment without either saying anything, before Rose broke the moment: "Erm..." she said, looking away from Scorpius and back to her work, and he did the same. "It's alright- I mean, it doesn't matter- really, it was ages ago, and they've all forgotten," -They hadn't- "so don't worry, really, I mean, its fi-"
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation, Miss Weasley, Mr Malfoy, but the rest of the class are trying to learn, so if you could keep quiet until break time that would be excellent." Slughorne told them dryly.

Rose was actually quite thankful for a reason to stop talking. She'd been rambling for far too long, but hadn't been able to shut up. This was quite normal for her, except normally she rambled sense and intelligence, not repeated a handful of phrases over and over again. Was he making her nervous? No, it wasn't possible. Rose kept calm at all times, (except for the little incident which involved screaming at Scorpius during the first task, but she decided to gloss over that,) so it wasn't possible that Scorpius was making her lose her- well, it wasn't her 'cool', but maybe her confidence? No. So Rose pretended she felt nothing when Scorpius offered to walk her to her next class, and she politely declined his offer, pointing out that they were at opposite ends of the school. Scorpius shrugged, and acted indifferent, but Rose could tell that he was slightly disappointed. She'd rarely been confused about anything before, but this was a whole new level of 'What?!' as far as she was concerned, and it was really weird...

Thanks for reading, guys
Sorry that not a lot happened, it was just a filler between the tasks.
As a girl, I've no idea if what Al said about what guys like in girls is true or not, so if anyone would care to confirm it, or tell me I'm wrong, I would be extremely grateful.
But anyway, if you liked this chapter, feel free to review, and if you like the story in general, follows and favourites of both me and the story are HUGELY appreciated!
Thanks again,
Lucy x