Hi guys! I'm really sorry for the long wait, and I'm not even going to come up with an excuse for it ;) But anyway, Chapter 17 is posted at last! x
Half-term was a week of sulky students wandering around the castle as and grounds, as far as Rose was concerned. Scorpius was sulking, Molly was sulking, James was sulking, and consequently the Gryffindor Team were sulking, Roxanne especially.
Rose could no longer say that she didn't know why everything was the way it was, so instead she decided her time would be best spent in the library, reading up on Charms that she may need for the next task, and her almost omnipresence there was absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the library was the last place she'd seen a certain Slytherin... As it was, she hadn't seen Scorpius since the day he had called her Rosie.
Yes, he was avoiding her. Scorpius liked to pretend that he didn't give a toss about what other people thought of him, but that was simply not true. It was such a little thing, the use of that nickname, but if anyone had heard it, they would have also seen the two of them together, chatting amicably. And then they would know that Rose and Scorpius did not hate each other. That a Weasley and a Malfoy were friends. And that could simply not be. Therefore, Scorpius had no choice but to avoid Rose. If he saw her in the corridor, he would change direction and take a longer route, to avoid having to make the choice between offending Rose or his family honour. Now it had come to this, Scorpius realised he could not have any feelings for Rose, romantically or otherwise, as he simply did not have the courage to go against his family. And although it was hard - no, it was near impossible – Scorpius knew that he must end way he felt about Rose, and the only way he could think of to do that was avoid her.
That was his reasoning, anyway.
But as half term finished, and the second task drew ever closer, Scorpius realised that he would, and very soon, have to work with Rose, and would therefore have to think up a different tactic for squashing his feelings for her.
Breakfast time on the first day back in lessons brought information on the next task: "Ok, students, I hope you enjoyed your week free from lessons, but now you must begin to work hard again, as for 5th and 7th years you have exams coming up, as you know all too well, and 4th years have the next task in the Inter-House Challenge fast approaching!" There was an instant reaction at the mention of the next task from the 4th years, as the majority were hungry for information on the topic. It was as if Hermione had read their minds, as she continued with: "As I have mentioned previously, the second task will be designed for Ravenclaw house." There were whoops from the said table at this point, before the Headmistress gestured for silence. "This means that the Ravenclaw member of each team will be the group leader until the task is up. So, you must start practising Charms, as that is typically the subject that Ravenclaws are best at, although this is not always the case. Anyway, as I mentioned after the first task, there were far too many injuries! You must be prepared! And the four of you must learn to get along and work together, as that is the only way you'll be able to succeed, let alone win. If any member of the group is injured during the task, or the team ends up in danger, there will be older students and members of staff on hand to rescue you, but if it does get to this stage, your group will be eliminated from the tournament!" Instantly there were cries of outrage from the fourth years. "I'm sorry, students, but I cannot allow students to but themselves in danger repeatedly! This rule is merely a precaution to encourage you to practise, and therefore reduce the chance of landing yourself in enough danger to be rescued!" the shouting lessened to an angry murmur. "Ok, now hurry off to your lessons, everyone, breakfast is almost over."
Rose finished her pumpkin juice and stood up to head to Potions. In better days she would have waited for Molly, who would leave it until the last possible minute before skipping to their next lesson, in order to keep up with a speed-walking Rose. Rose would be fretting about being late, whilst Molly told her to loosen up, laughing about how uptight she was, and pointing out amusing portraits that lined the corridors.
And as annoying as Molly could be, Rose missed her. She missed having someone to laugh and joke with. She missed Molly reminding her that it wasn't OWL year yet, and she should relax more, even when she didn't want to. She even missed Molly insisting that she needed a boyfriend, despite the fact that Rose hadn't believed that she needed anyone.
Until now.
But Rose's last attempt at apologising had failed dramatically, she thought, as she headed down the main corridor, so what should she do? She knew she needed to talk to someone, and whilst she had thought that Roxanne would be been the perfect solution, it turned out that she wasn't. Roxy wouldn't accept that Rose had feelings for a Malfoy- she saw it as traitorous to their family. And Rose had a terrible feeling that her brother and the rest of their cousins would react the same way. Even if they wouldn't, Rose couldn't talk to Hugo or Al - they were too immature. James wasn't on speaking terms with her anyway, and she didn't trust the others enough. There was always Tracey, but she was already burdened enough with having to split herself between Rose and Molly, and she wouldn't know what to do even if Rose did confide in her about Scorpius. Rose sighed. She was on her own, unless she could make it up with Molly.
Rose discovered that she was the first one to reach the Potions classroom, and set down her books and equipment on the desk which she shared with Scorpius Malfoy. At least she would get to talk to him this lesson, she thought, with mixed emotions. Pleased for obvious reasons: she liked him, and enjoyed spending time with him as a result, but unhappy because she preferred to ignore her feelings for him in the hope that they would disappear should she not acknowledge them.
However, she knew it wouldn't be that easy.
The door creaked open and a handful of Slytherin girls entered, throwing Rose a contemptuous glance as they sat down, giggling. "Hey, Weasel!" one of them called out. Her name was Sophie Bennet. "Where are your so-called friends? The fat slut and the skinny wimp? And all your ugly ginger family too?" Rose bit down a response and instead turned to face her book on the desk. Sophie moved towards her, until her mouth was next to Rose's ear, and her voice lowered to a snarling whisper, full of loathing. "Have they all abandoned you? Have they finally seen what an awful show off you are, and that you don't deserve the friendship even of someone as pathetic as them?"
Rose jerked away, and slammed her hands on the desk. "Don't you dare call my friends pathetic."
All the Slytherins burst out laughing. "Ooh, have I struck a nerve with poor Rosie-Posie?" Sophie mocked as all her friends surrounded the Gryffindor. "But what are you going to do, Weasel? You may be the smartest witch in the year, apparently, but you can't even fight me! C'mon!" Sophie pulled her wand from her pocket. "Aren't you angry? Don't you want to hurt me?" She taunted.
Rose was about to reach for her wand too, when she realised that should she respond the way Sophie wanted her to, she would end up being subjected to several curses from all the Slytherins present. They had no sense of decency, and had probably pre-planned to all hex Rose the second she made an attempt to inflict any sort of curse upon any of them. It wouldn't be a fair one-on-one duel; it would be a cowardly assault, of which Rose would come out worst.
"No, I don't. Because you're the pathetic one, Bennet, unable to challenge me without a herd of friends to back you up! That's ridiculously cowardly, and weak."
Once Sophie had overcome the shock of Rose's reply, she snarled: "Whatever. But quite often, not acting like a stupid Gryffindor and being all 'noble' can just save your neck, as you're going to find out!" All the Slytherins raised their wands so they were pointing at Rose. She couldn't help but laugh. "What?" Sophie asked, confused. "Why are you laughing? You could end up in the hospital wing if you're not careful! What's funny?"
"You are!" Rose spluttered. "This is ridiculous! Do you not have enough brain cells between you to know that if you jinx me so badly that I'm unconscious on the floor, or something equally violent, that you won't be able to get out of the trouble you'll be in when Slughorne arrives, and you lot are the only ones present?" The girls didn't seem to have considered this, and a few lowered their wands. "We'll leave." Sophie decided, giving death stares to her friends who seemed to be having second thoughts. "Then there'll be no-one here with you when your found, so we'll be no more guilty than anyone else in the school."
"Until they trace the spells to your wands, and you're expelled for assaulting a fellow student."
"C'mon, Soph, it's not worth it." One of her friends muttered.
Sophie made a noise that seemed to speak of her annoyance and irritation. "You haven't heard the last of this, Weasel." She snapped, before sweeping to her seat on the other side of the classroom and giving Rose a death stare.
Rose sighed and sat down, pretending the incident hadn't rattled her at all, when in fact she was shaking, although trying to cover it up. Al and some friends entered, laughing and joking as they took their allocated seats, followed by Molly and Tracey, the former refusing to even glance in Rose's direction, although Tracey gave her a supportive smile. Then Scorpius swaggered in, his blonde hair quiffed, shirt un-tucked, and hands in his pockets. He looked the definition of cool.
"Morning, Scorpius." She said, as he unpacked his bag next to her.
He nodded in response.
Confused, Rose decided he must just be having a bad day, and decided to leave him alone until their work required them to talk. If he responded in a way that indicated he was over his bad mood then, she would attempt conversation again.
Slughorne entered and gave out the task: to make a Beautification Potion with your partner before the lesson was over. Rose rolled her eyes at the prospect of making something as pointless as that concoction, but went along with it anyway. After all, time spent learning was time well spent, no matter how unlikely she was to use the knowledge in the future.
"Ok, we need some unicorn hair, rose petals, morning dew-" Rose began, before noticing that Scorpius had already left to collect the ingredients. Once he returned, he began to brew the Potion without so much as glancing at his workmate. "Scorpius!" Rose exclaimed angrily.
"Yes?" he asked, without looking up.
"Are we going to work together on this, or do you intend to act as if I'm not present?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not stopping you from taking part."
"Not technically, but your negative attitude towards myself discourages me from assisting, or even making an equal contribution, to this Potions class!"
Scorpius had to hide a smile. No-one other than Rose would have responded like that in her situation. Anyone else would've just moaned at him, but Rose converted her anger and irritation into polysyllabic words, and he loved that about her.
Whoa. Since when did he love Rose? Yes, he liked her, he liked her a lot, and the purpose of this 'ignoring her' thing, was to reverse that. However, it didn't seem to be working if he loved her now... Oh great.
"Here, chop this." Was all Scorpius said, handing Rose some herbs. She made a noise that was a combination between a sigh and groan of frustration, and began to chop the herbs aggressively. She was perfectly capable of brewing this potion single handedly, yet Scorpius refused to let her. Why was he so determined to annoy her today? They had been getting on really well recently, and then she'd fallen for him. It was safe to say, if one could choose who they fell for; Rose would definitely not have picked a Malfoy.
The lesson continued with Scorpius handing Rose items to prepare, whilst he did all the actual mixing and brewing of the potion. 'All the useful parts.' she thought angrily. 'Any old fool can crush a petal.' She'd had enough. As Scorpius turned to pick up another ingredient, Rose took his place in front of the cauldron and began to stir. She checked the instructions, which were telling her to pop the bubbles on the surface of the concoction, so she did, and continued to do, even when Scorpius exclaimed "Hey!" angrily. Well, he'd ignored her, so it was time to give him a taste of his own medicine. "Hey!" he said again. "What do you think you're doing?"
Rose began to hum.
"Oh, I see. Weasel is trying to be funny. Well don't. It doesn't suit you."
"I assure you, if I was attempting to amuse you, you would notice. I'm merely taking an active role in this Potions class. Have you a problem with that?"
"I have a problem with half-bloods undermining me."
Rose felt herself draining of colour. He'd played the 'I'm-a-pureblood' card. Rose reminded herself that her situation was better than her mother's, as she had been a Muggleborn, thus being even further down the social ladder than Rose, and apparently blood status didn't matter anymore. Technically it didn't, as there were no laws benefitting pure-bloods over other wizards now, but there was still the old fashioned 'I'm a pureblood, so I'm better than you' thing going on. It would be many years before that was gone completely. Rose took a deep breath.
"I fail to see what my blood status has to do with anything. As for 'undermining' you, I'm simply trying to help!"
"Help me? Ha! I don't need your help! You're just pissed off because I haven't let you take part!"
"Oh, so you admit it now?"
"I never denied it. But you shouldn't get so worked up over a stupid little potion!"
"It's not stupid! Potion making is an extremely useful talent, as we found out in the first task! What's happened to you, Scorpius? We got along so well then!"
"Maybe I've seen sense. Maybe I've realised that someone like me shouldn't be friends with someone like you."
"Oh, well maybe I've been feeling the same way! I'm far superior to you, and no, don't even mention blood-status! That sort of prejudice is really last season."
Scorpius shut his mouth and satisfied himself with throwing a contemptuous glance towards Rose, who turned towards the potion, to see that it had become a brown sludge whilst they argued, instead of the pale blue, runny liquid that it was supposed to.
"Oh dear, oh dear!" exclaimed Slughorne, approaching the glowering pair. "What ever happened here? You've simply got to pay attention, Weasley, Malfoy! Otherwise this will happen! 5 points from both your Houses for failing to pay attention."
Slughorne ignored Rose's noises of protest, and moved on to the next pair.
Rose had had a terrible day.
Potions had only been the tip of the ice-berg.
After having got into the argument with the Slytherin girls, falling out with Scorpius, ruining her potion and losing her House points, she had then gone on to fail to master the Charm in Transfiguration, tripped and fallen over in front everyone in the Great Hall at lunch, her bag split on the way to Herbology and had to pick all her books up out of the mud.
So when it was time to eat, Rose just wanted to go to bed. Instead, she sat down amongst the second years (including the Longbottom twins who were still desperate to befriend her), as there was no space with her cousins, and began picking at the curry. Lamb curry. She hated lamb.
"See you tomorrow, Weasel!" called Sophie Bennet, as she passed the Gryffindor table on the way to her Common Room. Her entourage laughed and flicked their hair as they passed. It looked ridiculous but had the desired effect on Rose.
She ran out of the Great Hall, leaving her food barely touched and headed straight up to her dorm where she curled up and cried. Sophie's taunting was only a tiny thing, but it was also 'the straw that broke the camels' back'. Every bad thing that had happened that day (and there had been quite a few) just all hit Rose at once, and she'd just got to the really ugly sniffling stage when the door opened and two sets of footsteps entered.
Sorry to leave it here, but it was getting a bit long. Nearly on 3,000 words in this chapter O.o Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you're enjoying it! I'll update the next chapter as soon as revision and homework allows ;)
As always, reviews, favourites and follows are much appreciated ;D
Lucy x