DISCLAIMER: I keep forgetting to write this, but no, Harry Potter does not belong to me. It's all Queen Rowling's work. Romione is hers, too, no matter how much she regrets it. She can't change it now. Thank goodness.
I know this first bit of the chapter is cliché, but I've realised that I have a thing for them. Clichés, that is. Don't know why, though...
Anyway, enjoy
Then there were voices, the others exclaiming, and arms around her, pulling her up.
Scorpius' arms.
Pulling her to the surface.
Pulling her out of the water.
Holding her from behind.
Whispering into her ear.
It would have been a romantic moment, had she not been choking, and Scorpius not whispering survival tips.
"I'm ok," she managed to pant at last. "I'm fine."
Scorpius half-swam, half-carried her to the other wall, and lifted her onto it. He then pulled himself out, and sat next to her.
"Rose! What the heck did you think you were doing? That was dangerous!" He raged.
"So what? I love a bit of danger- no, don't look at me like that, I'm not my mother! Unlike her, I think that a bit of risk is fun. And I thought you liked it too!"
"Rose, there's a difference between 'risk', and jumping into a 10 foot deep pool of an unidentified, possibly dangerous, liquid!"
"Well, it wasn't dangerous, was it? I only choked because you scared me by grabbing my wrist!"
"Don't turn this on me! It was-"
"If I could interrupt this little domestic," Lucy butted in, "I have to agree with Malfoy, which makes a change. There was something in the water which confused you when you swallowed it, Rose. Last time I checked, you could swim."
Thinking back, Rose realised that her arrogant cousin was probably correct. She hated this feeling of ignorance and stupidity. "Well, if it only affects a person if they swallow it, you two can swim across and join us."
"What's on the other side?" Thomas asked nervously.
Rose, realising she hadn't yet discovered this herself, peered over the side, as did Scorpius, and found a carpet of orange, dancing flames at the bottom. "Fire." She announced calmly, trying to appear unafraid of it. Rose didn't have a fear of fire- not any more than the next person, but she wasn't particularly comfortable sat on a wall above it.
Thomas looked terrified, but Lucy was confident. "Ok, so, Thomas and I swim across; we all use the Feather-Light Charm on our selves; remove the wall, and the water will put out the flames. It's not Fiendfyre, is it?"
"Don't be ridiculous." Scorpius snapped. "As if we would have to combat something that dangerous!"
Lucy and Thomas exchanged glances. "Whatever. C'mon, Tom, we need to go over."
The two of them lowered themselves into the water, taking great care not to swallow any, as they swam the short distance between themselves and their team-mates. Rose and Scorpius begrudgingly helped them out, and the four of them sat shivering.
"It pains me to ask, but does anyone know a spell to dry out our clothes?" Scorpius asked, as politely as he knew how, Rose thought grumpily, yet still noticing that she found this sophisticated air that the Slytherin had was quite attractive...
"Only the Drought Charm, but I don't know if that works on clothes. There probably is one, but I can't think of it." Rose responded. "Lucy?" The Ravenclaw made a series of mumbling noises, trying to deflect the question, which clearly meant that she didn't know either. "Never mind, then. Now, the Feather-Light Charm?"
"Oh, yes, of course." Lucy said, waving her wand several times, whilst Rose felt herself losing weight. She looked the same, but felt as though gravity was lessening. It was an eerie feeling, floating. She didn't particularly like it, as she wasn't in full control of herself. Rose held onto the ceiling to keep herself still.
If she was in control, she was safe.
"Ok," Lucy said. "Everyone try to keep out of the way, I'm going to destroy this wall. 3, 2, 1- Bombarda!" There was a crash as the wall exploded and dissolved to rubble, and the water flowed over onto the fire. The flames were out in a split second, making a satisfying hissing noise as they did so. "It's a good job that we're already drenched, because I'm going to lift the spell now." Lucy announced, shaking her wand. In a second, gravity returned to Rose. She curled up so she didn't slam her legs into the floor with momentum, as she was now taller than the remaining water, and remembered to hold her breath this time.
Once Rose returned to the surface, and the others had done the same, they headed over to the next wall. It was the exact same size, shape, colour, texture, material and height as the others had been. Scorpius voiced everyone's opinion when he said that the task was getting a bit repetitive. He pulled his wand out of his pocket, and, treading water to keep afloat, cast a Grip Charm onto the wall. He then began to climb it with ease, followed by Rose, (who wanted to appear skilled at this, as it was the sort of task that Gryffindors were expected to be good at,) with an unsure Lucy and Thomas bringing up the rear.
Once they had reached the top, which didn't take them long with Scorpius' excellent Grip Charm, the team surveyed the other side of the wall.
"Lethal-looking spikes - very retro." Scorpius muttered sarcastically. He was correct, though; the floor on the other side was littered with 10 inch long metal knives, dagger, spears and spikes sticking out of the floor. The random assortment seemed to make them even more threatening. Rose had long since discarded the theory that her mother had designed this task – it was far too dangerous for a woman who was so much like Lucy. Rose herself, however, was actually enjoying the tournament. It gave her a bit of an adrenaline rush, and she enjoyed proving her abilities to both herself and her group. Above all, she enjoyed seeing Lucy's ego taking a blow or two when the brunette discovered that she wasn't fantastic at everything, and the arguments that took place amongst the group were often amusing, especially when Rose was just an onlooker.
"Earth to Rose?" Lucy looked to her left to see Thomas' previously light brown hair dripping wet, and sticking to his childlike face, his kind eyes nervous, yet determined. "Any ideas on how to get over this?"
Rose looked past Thomas to her cousin, whose hair was jet black after the influence of water. Lucy was wearing a disgruntled expression, not making eye contact with Rose and muttering to herself. Clearly she hadn't been able to think up a way to get past. The Gryffindor knew she shouldn't be happy about that, yet she was. On her other side was Scorpius, who was watching her intently. Rose felt his eyes on the back of her head, and turned to face him. His face was full of- well, it was hard to read, but there was definitely hope of some form in there.
Clearly her team mates were stuck for ideas. Isn't it a good job they have me? She thought, sarcastically. Otherwise they might be stuck for a while...
"Actually, I do. You see these lights?" she gestured to the Muggle electric lights on the ceiling, the long, thin sort. "Well, they clearly can't be real. Muggle electricity doesn't work around Hogwarts, there's too much magic for them, they just go haywire. Anyone whose read Hogwarts: A History would know that." Rose saw realisation dawn on her cousin's face. "So, the 'lights' are there to help us. We can Transfigure them into bars – the sort you see on children's playgrounds – to help us cross."
"Well done, Rose, that's an excellent idea. Obviously I'd already thought of it, and was just testing you, but congratulations all the same." Rose bit her tongue and just rolled her eyes at Lucy's lie.
Rose raised her wand and performed the Switching Spell on the 'lights', so that in their place were 3 metal bars, running parallel to the group and stretching across the 1 metre squared room. "I hope everyone's upper body strength is up to scratch." Rose declared jokingly, before grabbing hold of the first bar with both hands and pushing herself off the wall.
Scorpius smiled approvingly at the obstacle (or it could have been Rose's enthusiasm, it was hard to tell,) before doing some over-dramatic arm stretches, and following the red-head's lead. He was naturally strong, so this was no trouble for him. He swung from the first to the second bar, with no hitches, but, whilst trying to get a grip on the middle bar, he placed his hand on top of Rose's. Even the simple contact sent shivers up his arm. He moved it away as quickly as he had placed it there, muttering a 'sorry' under his breath, before hurrying on. Wow, Scorpius, you've got it bad. He thought miserably.
They pair made it to the other side with no problems, other than sore arm muscles and blushing slightly. Rose gasped when she realised that they were on the floor. It wasn't a wall, and there was a door just metres away from them. She conveyed this information to her team mates, cheering Lucy and Thomas up, who were having a lot more difficulty crossing the spikes. Neither were natural athletes, nor was it in their nature to enjoy this sort of thing. Lucy had dubbed it 'dangerous', yet wanted didn't want to appear untalented at something, and Thomas was just scared, yet did it anyway, as he didn't want to let the team down. That's one of the great things about true Hufflepuff's. Rose thought. You can always rely on them to try their best, and not to let you down.
She wasn't thinking that a second later when Thomas' hand slipped and he was left hanging on with one arm. Rose shrieked, and Lucy gasped, but kept her concentration on getting herself across.
It was Scorpius who was the quick thinker this time.
It was the Slytherin who saved his fellow team-mate.
"Rose, sit on my legs." He commanded, as he flattened himself, face-first, against the floor, half his torso hanging over the side. Rose obliged, feeling more than slightly awkward, but understood why it was necessary. "Thomas, swing your arm forwards and backwards. Ok, now swing it is forwards as far as you can on 'one'. Three, two, one-" Scorpius grabbed the Hufflepuff's arm; Rose then pulled the Slytherin back from over the side, and he stood up, not giving a thought to Thomas' comfort, as he was still holding the Hufflepuff's arm, and yanked it up so it was on the bar.
Scorpius stepped away and attempted to ruffle his hair, which didn't work as it was still drenched, as though it had been no big deal. Thomas then landed on the floor, shaking his strained arm gently, followed shortly by Lucy, who looked very shaky, but was trying to compose herself.
"Erm... Is everyone ok?" Rose asked apprehensively.
"Yeah, but my arms aren't used to anything remotely this active." Thomas laughed.
Scorpius nodded in reply, seeming to have returned to his old, sulky self, but Lucy was fine to air her views.
"Yes, but no thanks to you." she muttered.
Scorpius opened his mouth, but caught Rose's eye, and she shook her head at him. "Well, we should probably go then. We've been quite a while."
"That might be a problem. There's no door handle." Lucy pointed out smugly, pleased to have beaten Rose to something. Rose headed to the door, followed by Scorpius and her cousin, searching for something other than a key-less key hole to open it with.
They were so well occupied with this, that they didn't notice Thomas wasn't with them, until he said: "Guys... You should probably hurry up with opening that door."
The three of them turned to see green leaves emerging from the edges and corners of the room, and advancing upon them rapidly. Although the plants had only appeared within the last minute, it was already impossible to see the bars that the team had crossed the spike-filled pit on. And it wasn't as if they were pretty, harmless plants. They were moving by themselves, they had jaws like Venus Fly Traps, which were snapping and snarling at the group.
Thomas backed away from the growing forest and pulled out his wand. "You lot hurry up with that door, whilst I try to hold this thing off."
"Thomas, how the heck are you supposed to do that?" Rose snapped.
"I'm pretty good at Herbology." He felt rather than saw Rose's shocked expression, as he still had his back to her, in order to keep an eye on the plants. "Yes, I know it's surprising, but just be thankful."
Rose turned and tried 'Alohamora', which she knew was too easy to work, but was worth a try all the same. She began running her hands over the door, searching for a hidden... well, a hidden anything. Lucy then ordered the other two to stand back whilst she blasted the door with spells ordering it to 'reveal the secrets it hides', with increasing frustration each time the previous spell didn't work.
"Erm, any time now would be good." Thomas said, with more than a hint of panic to his voice. Rose spun around to be greeted with the sight of a lethal-looking rainforest taking up the vast majority of the room. Thomas had clearly done it some damage, as there were heads of plants missing, and thick, black, viscous liquid oozing from different areas where Thomas had struck it with curses. However, the rest of it was still intact, and, if plants had emotions, (which this one appeared to,) it was very, very angry. "I've already used the actual 'kill-the-murderous-plant' spells, but I can't use them more than once, so now I'm just doing whatever I can, which really isn't a lot. Please open the door."
"We're trying, Thomas!" Lucy exclaimed. "Bombarda!" Nothing happened. "Reducto!" Still nothing.
"We've already used both of those, Lucy." Her cousin explained wearily.
"I know!" The Ravenclaw shrieked, "But do you have any better ideas?"
Rose was about to give this a smart response, when she suddenly realised that she hadn't actually thought this through yet. All she'd done was look at the door, whilst Scorpius and Lucy did all the real work. "I might do. Give me a minute."
"No pressure, Rose, but we don't really have a minute." Scorpius said, over Lucy's scream of frustration. The Ravenclaw threw herself into the door, as if that would get it to open.
"Rose, hurry up, please." It was Thomas. Rose turned to see that the plant was now inches away from him, and that the other two were flat against the wall. Any second now the task would be deemed 'too unsafe' and they would be disqualified. Or it wouldn't and they'd be killed. Think, Rose, think! That's what you're supposed to be good at! You have a keyhole with no key, and a door with no handle. It doesn't open you any spell you've tried so far, so... wait. What if it doesn't open to any spell? What if you have to have to use a Muggle method? Well, we can't force our way out, Lucy's already tried, but we have a key hole- that's clearly there for a reason. There's either a key hidden somewhere, or we're meant to-
Rose yanked a hair grip out of her hair, bent it so the previously parallel strips of metal were almost at 180 degrees to each other, and stuck it in the key hole.
"Rose, I would applaud your genius if we had longer, but we don't, so just get on with it." Lucy said, in form of congratulation.
"I'm trying! It won't budge!"
"Ro-ose, hurry u-up!" Thomas was half singing with terror. He was now pressed against the wall, the plant snarling and stretching to get to him.
"Merlin's beard!" Scorpius exclaimed, when the plant tore a rip in his robes whilst his back was turned. He had taken the hair grip off Rose, and was trying to open the door faster than you could say 'killer plant'.
Rose could feel the plant snapping at the back of her neck, as she crouched by the keyhole with Scorpius. "Any time now would be good, Scor!"
"Malfoy, hurry up, otherwise we'll be... well, I don't know what, but it won't be good."
"I'm... trying!" Scorpius panted, "But it won't-"
Click.
The four of them were out of room, anywhere other than around the door, as the rest of the space was taken by the plant. Rose's face was receiving scratches from the teeth of the plant as she backed up against the door and pushed against it.
It wouldn't budge. Panic rose in her chest as the plant assaulted her. Her lack of control was scary.
"It's a pull door!" Lucy shrieked. Rushing, the four pushed their way to the side of the door with the keyhole on, stuck their fingers in the gap and yanked it open.
Rose lost track of her surroundings as she fell through the door, after pushing her friends through, slammed it behind them and fell against it. She didn't have time for her eyes to adjust, or to catch her breath before Scorpius pulled her into a bone crushing hug, which she returned without a second thought. She caught his scent: mint... and chocolate... and what was that? Should she back away around now? Had they been hugging too long? He had hated her at the beginning of this task- what was he playing at? But she didn't really want to move...
"Well done, Rose." Scorpius murmured, his breath tickling her ear. "You were great today. We couldn't have done this without y-"
"Get your filthy hands off my cousin!" snapped a voice.
Hope you enjoyed it!
Mini cliff-hanger-y thing there, although I think we can all guess who's about to sass Scorpius ;) It should be an interesting intro into the next chapter...
Feel free to review (that means please do and the next chapter might come a bit sooner ;) ) :D
Lucy x