Hi guys! Sorry for the wait- I've been in a show, and rehearsals have taken up most of my time. But it's finished now, so here's the next chapter!
But, just before you read, I'd just like to say something else: I've set this fic in Rose and Scorpius' 4th year, as I thought it was the most likely year for the Challenge to take place. 5th and 7th years have exams, and even Hermione would have given up on Inter-House ties by 6th year. This does mean that Rose and Scorpius are quite young to embark on a 'serious relationship', as a reader commented. Personally, I kind of agree, but in a lot of books that I read, serious relationships start at 13. These books tend to be American, and as the majority of readers are American, I figured 14/15 is an acceptable age for Rose and Scorpius to start out.
So, if anyone was thinking along similar a line, that's my reasoning ;) Anyway, enjoy!
"Rose?" asked a voice. "Are you ok?" It was Molly.
Rose sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Not precisely. But why do you care?"
"Rose." Said Tracey's voice, clearly warning her to be polite.
"Because I'm your best friend, you idiot! And I care about you, no matter what you think."
Rose lifted her head out of her arms to see the two girls crouched on the floor with her. "Roxanne told us everything." Tracey said gently.
"Everything?"
"Everything from why you told James to ask Molly out, to you liking Scorpius."
There was no point in denying it. "Oh."
"So it's true?" Molly asked.
"Yep."
Molly let out a squeal of excitement. "Then it's time for me to do some match-making!"
Tracey laughed, and even Rose did, albeit half-heartedly. "Does this mean you aren't angry with me anymore?"
"Erm... Yeah, I guess I'm not. I know you thought I liked James, I suppose it was my fault for leading you to believe that. I'm still not sure who I like, to be honest, so I shouldn't have reacted like that. You may be smart, but you're so blind to emotions it's unreal." Molly laughed. "Anyway, mates before dates, eh, Rosie?" the pair laughed at the inside joke, whilst Tracey looked at them in confusion.
Rose wiped her face and sat on the bed. "But you should be ignoring me, now you know who I actually like. Not that I'm complaining, of course."
"Rose, we're your friends! We're not going to judge you on who you like!" Tracey exclaimed, before her and Rose glanced at Molly.
"Unless we like them too, that is." Molly added, with a laugh. "What we mean is, you expect us to be all 'Oh, I'm disowning you! You're bringing shame on us!' But you aren't! Why would we be upset over you and Malfoy?"
"First of all, there isn't a 'me and Malfoy', and I doubt there will ever be, if Potions today was anything to go by. And second, I thought you'd be annoyed that I was going against House tradition. Gryffindor/Slytherin relationships just aren't done. And you've both made it clear that you intensely dislike Scorpius."
"That may be true, but if he makes you happy, then we're fine with it. What we aren't fine with is him acting like the dick that he is and insulting our House, families or friends." Tracey coughed, indicating for Molly to shut up. "And what's this about Potions this morning?
Rose began to tell her friends about everything that had occurred between herself and the Slytherin since the beginning of the year, and how they had been getting closer, until this morning, when it had seemed as though the past few months had never happened.
During this time, Molly's expression changed from the awkwardly giggling, trying-to-regain-Rose's-friendship face, to one that was clearly pondering, and hadn't yet come to a conclusion.
"What?" Rose asked her, with more than a little urgency. "What are you thinking?"
"Nothing much..." Molly muttered, "Just... Just let me think..."
The morning of the second task came around with mixed emotions for Rose. On what hand she had recovered from her low, having made friends with Molly, but on the other, she was not looking forward to having to work with Scorpius, who hated her, and Lucy, who would be a terribly bossy group leader.
After breakfast (which Rose had only picked at), the 4th years were again led to the 7th floor, and entered the room in which the first task had taken place. It looked the exact same as before, with one corridor parallel to the corridor of the 7th floor, and several door leading off the corridor inside the room.
Rose had looked for this room every time she'd been on the 7th floor, but it had simply not been there. So, being Rose, she had researched the room in the library, and discovered that it was none other than the Room of Requirement, also known as the Come-and-Go Room. She had decided that she would ask her mother about it at a later date, as there was simply no chance that Hermione had spent 6 years at Hogwarts as the best friend of two of the most adventurous wizards Rose knew, without discovering this Room.
Rose found the rest of her group waiting nervously outside the same door they had entered for the Challenge last time.
"It had better not be the same as the first task." Scorpius was drawling. "I've had enough of those slimy water-bastards to last me a lifetime."
"It won't. The last task was Slytherin-based, if you recall, but this one is for the Ravenclaw's." Lucy literally tossed her hair and Rose cringed at the sight of her cousin humiliating herself so much. "Anyway, at least we'll know the layout of the room this time." Lucy was saying. "It will give us a split second advantage, should the task be based on speed. Although, so will all the other groups."
"Not necessarily." Rose said, surprising the others, as none had seen her arrive. She began to explain about the Room of Requirement and how it worked, whilst Scorpius made yawning noises, Thomas looked confused, and Lucy hung onto her every word.
"Fascinating..." she murmured reverently. "Why didn't I think to research it?" Rose was stopped from making a snide replay by the blowing of a whistle and her mother's voice, magnified by the Sonorous charm, explaining that all they had to do was 'get over the walls' using a variety of different Charms, and that 'the same Charm or method cannot be used more than once'. Rose didn't have time to think this over before Hermione cried "Begin!" and the doors simultaneously flew open.
Once the team were inside the room, the door locked itself shut, and the four were left to take in the room. It was brightly lit, with white reflective walls, so the light seemed to be coming from everywhere, despite the Muggle electric bars on the ceiling being the only logical source of light. The room was tiny, only around 1 metre squared, yet the roof was extremely high. But the walls were the strange part. 3 of them reached the ceiling, like any normal wall would (except from the fact that the ceiling was about 15 feet up), but the fourth wall was shorter. Yes, it was still 10 feet tall, but there was a gap between it and the ceiling that a person could climb through.
"Ohhh." Breathed Rose, realisation dawning on her face. "Well, it's a bit of a weird task, but my guess is that there's a series of rooms like this, each with a wall we have to get over, but we have to use a different method each time. That's basically what Mu- Professor Weasley said, anyway."
"Ok." Lucy said. "Well, as I'm Team Leader"-Rose groaned inwardly- "I say that we save the easy spells such as Reduc-"
"Reducto!" cried Thomas, pointing his wand at the wall, which promptly shattered. A few inches of water that had been held behind the wall, ran over the teams' feet as the wall collapsed into dust.
"-until last." Lucy finished sarcastically. "Tom, any other time I would have been proud of you for that Charm, it was very impressive, but- Oh, my goodness!"
Rose was already next to Scorpius, and checking his pulse, as he was in the corner of the 'room', breathing scarily fast and shaking. He was sweating, too, but repeating "It's fine; I'm fine, I'm just not keen on small spaces. Get off me! I'm not ill!"
"Oh fantastic." Lucy said. "The great Scorpius Malfoy is seriously claustrophobic, and now we all have wet feet. Great."
"Lucy!" exclaimed Rose and Thomas together, shocked at her insensitivity, although both annoyed at the water around all their ankles. Thomas continued to chastise the Ravenclaw, which Rose considered very brave of him, whilst she tried to calm Scorpius down.
"Scorpius, listen to me. You've nothing to be scared about, ok? Concentrate on your breathing. No, don't push me away; I'm trying to help you. Right, ok, look me in the eye. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Good. Keep doing that. Ok, the sooner your calm, the sooner we can get out of here. Look, the room's bigger now."
The room was double the size it had been since Thomas had removed the wall, but that wasn't saying much. The sight didn't seem to help Scorpius at all. Maybe he was scared of water too. His breathing sped up again.
"No, don't do that!" Rose was beginning to panic now. She wasn't any good at First Aid- wizard or Muggle- so she desperately wanted to get Scorpius professional help. But that would mean forfeiting the entire tournament, and there was no way that was going to happen. None at all. She could do this. She had to. "Scorpius, think of it this way. I know you're a competitive little sod, and if you don't calm down very soon, then whoever is monitoring this task will have to send in help, meaning we'll be disqualified. So, no pressure, but this is affecting all of us."
That's not going to work. Rose thought. He's a Slytherin, not a Hufflepuff... Wait, he's a Slytherin, so he hates people thinking that Gryffindors can do stuff he can't. That's his Achilles Heel. Got it.
"Scorpius, if I was in your position right now, I'd take a hold of myself-" she grabbed his shoulders- "and tell myself to get a grip. Because I'm a Gryffindor." She stepped closer. "So I'm not a wimp." Another step towards him. "I'm not an attention seeker." Closer again. "And I'm not a coward."
She was so close that he could feel her breath on his face, and Scorpius knew that his was every bit as fast as it had been when he was hyperventilating, but now his pulse was racing for an entirely different reason.
Wait, 'as fast as it had been'?
He'd stopped breathing so quickly. He was calm.
Well, as calm as he could be in a room that was smaller than his arm span. Rose had done it.
"Thanks." He muttered, his cheeks crimson with embarrassment. "And... I'm sorry, everyone. Really."
Lucy opened her mouth, but Thomas shot her a death stare, and she shut it. "Don't worry," the Hufflepuff said. "It's not your fault."
Lucy contented herself with kicking the water, causing a ripple to cross the room and hit the opposite wall.
There was an awkward silence in which everyone looked at each other, as if expecting someone else to have a fit. Rose cleared her throat, and said: "I'd say that this water was a warning for what's over the next wall. Don't freak out, Scorpius, but it's only logical to assume that there's another small room, identical to what this one looked like before, over that wall."
Lucy decided to interrupt. "Yes, that would make sense. Because, if we think like whoever designed this; obviously they wouldn't have expected us to use Reducto first-" cue side glance at Thomas. "-it's more likely that we would have climbed the wall. Therefore, they couldn't have a 10 foot pool of water for us to fall into on the other side, without some warning. Do you understand?"
"Yes, we aren't stupid." Scorpius snapped with as much irritation as he could muster. "So we need to climb over now, yes? Any sort of Charm that would maybe stop us from getting too wet?"
"Maybe, but I think it's best if we grit our teeth, as we need to save as many spells as possible until we desperately need them, as we can only use them once." Thomas interceded. The others stared at him, surprised at his addition.
Rose cleared her throat. "Thomas is right. We should probably hurry up. I think we should use the Muggle method for getting over the wall. Scorpius?"
"What?"
"You're probably strongest, so I hope you don't mind if we... Well, we're going to have to climb on you."
"What?"
"Oh, stop moaning and get on with it." Lucy snapped, dragging him over to the next wall, forcing him into a position to give her a leg up. "No, link your hands like this!" she grabbed his hands and interlinked then fiercely, impatience getting the better of her.
"Careful, Lucy!" Rose exclaimed from next to Scorpius, as he winced when Lucy stepped onto his hands, before she put a foot on each of his shoulders, and reached up for the top of the wall. It was still about a foot away, so Lucy had nothing to hold onto and fell backwards with a squeal.
If it hadn't been for Rose's quick thinking and a fantastic Arresto Momentum spell, the task would have ended there and then. As it was, no-one was injured.
"Your Muggle method isn't going to work, Rose." Lucy snarled, climbing to her feet.
Rose swallowed the urge to yell at her irritating cousin, and instead just said: "Try it slowly. Scorpius, would you mind?"
Scorpius repositioned himself against the wall, looking very unsure about the situation. He hadn't exactly enjoyed having Lucy use him as a climbing frame, but he had a feeling that Rose wouldn't be quite as rough. Rose stepped onto Scorpius' knees, before awkwardly climbing onto his shoulders, one foot on each.
"Scorpius, try standing up." Rose suggested, once she had her balance. The Slytherin did so, unsure why he was taking orders from a Weasley, his knees shaking under Rose's weight. She wasn't in the slightest bit fat, but that didn't mean that she was easy to balance on one's shoulders. When Scorpius was fully stood up, Rose was able to pull herself up onto the wall, which was about a foot thick, and sit on top of it.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, thankful for the strong arms that Quidditch had given her.
"Well done, Rose. You're on the wall, but what about us?" Lucy asked sarcastically.
"That bit's easy. Carpe Retractum!" Rose cried, pointing her wand at her cousin. Immediately a supernatural rope shot out of the Gryffindor's wand, wrapped itself around Lucy, and retracted, dragging the Ravenclaw up towards Rose. Once Lucy was next to Rose, she shook her wand, and Lucy was released from the grip of the rope. The Ravenclaw looked shocked and offended, presumably because she hadn't thought of that spell first and because of the indignity of the situation.
Scorpius was rubbing his shoulder, and Thomas just cheered. Rose repeated the spell twice for each of the boys, and within a minute the team were all sat on the wall, looking over into a very deep pool of water on the other side. "As I predicted." Lucy said smugly, not noticing Rose and Scorpius rolling their eyes to each other. "Malfoy, you're ok with this, aren't you? There's no fear of water we should know about?"
"I'm perfectly comfortable in the water, and if you're referring to my claustrophobia, then you're mistaken. It's a medical condition as opposed to an irrational fear, which seems to be what you're implying."
"Now, now, everyone. Let's all calm down and figure out what's next." Thomas interceded.
"How about this?" Rose was just taking a deep breath to jump into the water, when she felt a grip round her wrist, which made her gasp, thus ruining the breath she was intending to take. She still fell into the water, but dragged whoever had her wrist with her, coughing at the same time. She had intended to look like a care-free daredevil, but instead ended up a wet-through teenager, coughing up a lung.
"Rose, what were you thinking?" snapped a voice, angrily. Scorpius. He still had hold of her arm, which she was grateful for. Partly because she was still coughing, and needed to be held above the water, but also because his touch was sending tingles up her arm. He still managed to look really hot whilst soaked to the skin- his hair was an unruly nest of dark blonde strands, which framed his chiselled features and grey eyes. Somehow his eyes weren't boring like grey eyes were thought to be. Maybe it was that green tint by the pupil that turned grey the closer you got to the whites of his eyes, or maybe it was that glint to them that made him seem dangerous, made him seem exciting. "Rose?"
She'd been staring.
Shit.
She couldn't think of a reply, so began coughing again.
It was quite hard to tred water with just your feet.
Was it her imagination, or was she sinking?
She took a breath, but only succeeded in swallowing more water.
Shit. She was sinking.
Water surrounded her. She couldn't tell which way was up or which way was down. She needed to take a breath, but there was no air to breathe.
Was she going up or down? Left or right?
Rose couldn't open her eyes, and panic took over. She tried to scream, but only bubbles came out of her open mouth.
Help! She thought desperately, as if the notion was enough to save her. Anybody, please!
Sorry to end there, I know it's kind of in the middle of something, but the chapter was getting pretty long. ;) Anyway, thanks for reading, and, as always, favourites, follows and reviews are much appreciated ;)
Also, I researched claustrophobia, and Scorpius attack was accurate, but definitely at the severe end of the spectrum. And Carpe Retractum is a spell. Well, it's on the Harry Potter Wiki, anyway. ;)
Lucy x