Chapter Text
The sunlight burned on her face. The heat felt unbearable, even by Scottish standards. She winced as she tumbled out of bed. Her feet dragged over to the packed trunk. The neat black leather case had been stuffed to the brim less than twenty-four hours ago, each item placed meticulously.
Her hands skimmed over the top layer, brushing the soft wool of her sweater. She pulled it free, only to drop it onto the floor. Then the next item. Then another.
Soon the room was littered with school shirts, capes, her pointed hat—which she never bothered wearing—and assorted trinkets. It was a beautiful mosaic of mess.
Rose refused to dwell on the items scattered on the floor. She gathered as much clothes as she could before dumping them all on the bed. Quickly she sorted through the them, finding a white button-up shirt, her usual grey skirt and the gold and red tie. She failed to find any stockings, but the professors probably wouldn’t notice.
The dormitory was unusually quiet.
Rose looked over her shoulder. Both of the other beds had their curtains open. Neither could she hear the usual drip of their dormitory shower. That meant she was alone.
Her eyes glanced at the clock on her nightstand.
Breakfast would be over in thirty minutes so if she wanted her schedule and a bite of food in her stomach before the first class she needed to hurry up.
Next to her alarm-clock she spotted it, the reply.
Immediately she grabbed it, sitting down among the cluttered bed. Her fingers tore the envelope open before she carefully pulled it out. Her movement slowed down as she handled the letter. Her thumb lifted the folded paper.
The words were all blurry.
Rose shook her head before reaching for the reading glasses next on the nightstand. The adrenaline of it all had gotten the best of her. She still needed her glasses to read.
Dear Matilda,
I am fine, summer was busy. I am glad to be back.
Q: I don’t know.
-H
Rose threw the letter into the pile of clothes in frustration.
That’s it, she thought as she sighed heavily.
She pulled on her button-up. They had not spoken for months. The buttons were frustratingly difficult to do up. He didn’t give her more than three lines.
As she pulled on her skirt the zipper got stuck.
Did he not care?
She made a grab for her book bag, slamming it as violently as one could into the fluffy bed. He hadn’t acted like this in years, she thought.
She began stuffing the bag.
She had written every week.
Every single week.
Rose added three rolls of parchment. She put immense effort into each letter. A quill and bottle of ink went in next. And all he would give her was three measly lines.
She shoved in her textbooks.
What if something was wrong?
She paused.
Perhaps it was.
But why would he not say?
Gently she placed her scarf at the top of the already full bag.
There couldn’t be anything wrong with Hyperion, he would have told her.
A smile crept up on her face.
He would have told her.
As she lifted the bag her smile faded quickly.
Underneath the heavy satchel was the letter. It was riddled with creases that spread out like tree branches, etching its way into the paper forever. In a futile attempt she grabbed the note and attempted to brush out the wrinkles to no avail.
Carefully Rose put the note in her bag before heading out of the dorm room.
It was a fine autumn day.
There was a certain chill to the stone-clad castle, but the sun was still shining. Summer only ended two days ago, but in Scotland you never knew when you would see the sun or have a full on thunderstorm, it could all happen in the same day.
Rose brushed her fingers over the woollen fabric of her grey skirt. It had some fuss on it from being stored in her trunk, nothing that magic couldn’t fix. Her shirt had wrinkles in it which made her look really unprofessional, her mother would be very disappointed if she could have seen her now.
She resisted the urge to run back upstairs.
There wasn't time to change, even if she desperately wanted to.
Though it was merely fifteen minutes till nine, not everyone seemed to be rushing towards the Great Hall for breakfast. Rose could hear chatter of students discussing food as she made her way through the common room.
James attempted to stop her, asking if she had any dung bombs left over from her secret stash. She did not have a secret stash, and if she did she would not have any left.
She climbed through the portrait hole and made her way towards the Great Hall, she still had fifteen minutes left of breakfast.
The halls were filled with students walking to their first classes already. She passed Lily who exclaimed,
"Can you come help in the library this afternoon."
She promised she would, her younger cousin was starting her electives, Rose knew how difficult Magic Runes could be.
A first year followed her from the sixth floor all the way to the fourth floor before she turned around and asked where the poor boy was going. She pointed him towards the greenhouses before continuing on to the Great Hall.
On the second floor the corridors were more crowded. She felt her bag snag at multiple students passing her. Like a sea of fish she was walking against the stream.
A voice called out.
"Rose!"
She could barely turn around without suffocating.
"Later!"
She could only see the back of the person’s head. All she caught was a flash of red hair.
Sibling or cousin?
She could figure it out later.
"Rose!"
"Find me at dinner!" She called out, pushing her way through the mass.
She squeezed her way into a hidden corridor, a shortcut she knew would take her directly towards the Great Hall. The corridor was narrow. There were no lanterns or torches guiding her way, only the little light that shone from the main corridor, and had managed to creep its way into the passage.
She had nearly made it without incident before she ran into Scorpius Malfoy.
Sprawled on the cold stone floor she was only able to glare at him.
“Watch where you’re going” he said with venom. His bag had spilled out its contents.
“Me! You ran me over, walking so fast,” Rose managed to get up from the floor, with no help from Malfoy of course.
She could already hear the insult forming.
Ferret.
Weasel.
Something childish.
They always fought like this. Even Rose had to admit that most of their arguments were quite trivial, but he always riled her up. There was no way of avoiding confrontation when it came to Scorpius Malfoy.
She looked down at him, struggling to collect his belongings. Books, parchment, letters and quills.
For a moment she almost bent to help him, the lack of light made it difficult to gather it all.
She shrugged.
He could manage.
“Just leave me alone, Weasley,” He said simply before wandering off.
Rose stood and watched him. Quickly he was but a shadow.
He never left an argument.
They always fought.
That was their thing.
It was just part of normal life at Hogwarts.
He was just having a bad day.
Tomorrow he'd probably call her insufferable and she'd hex him.
Everything would go back to normal.
“I just don’t understand why he wrote that,” Rose flopped down in a seat next to Genevieve, exclaiming loudly her recent distain for her writing partner.
Like always, Genevieve Finnigan was the unlucky recipient of Rose’s frustrations. She was attempting to read her Witch Weekly magazine in peace while stuffing a spoonful of scrambled eggs in her mouth.
“Are you sure he meant it like that,” She lazily flipped the page of her magazine.
Rose glanced over the pages. The special of the week was a full spread on how ‘they are all like us’ with photos of Wizarding World celebrities.
One of the photos was of Victorie and Teddy at a restaurant.
Gene studied the image closely.
She gasped.
“You didn’t tell me your cousin’s getting married,” She exclaimed in joy.
Really it was none of Gene’s business that her cousin was getting married.
Rose blinked.
"What?"
"Victoire."
"Oh. Yeah. Next summer."
Rose rummaged through her bag looking for the letter.
“You’ll have to invite me! I can already picture the dress in my mind,”
Rose tuned her out.
Gene kept talking.
Dresses.
Flowers.
Invitations.
Rose barely heard any of it as she pulled out her satchel.
“Sure. Gene I’m gonna find the letter and you can tell me what you think,” Rose dug deeper in her bag.
Albus walked up to her.
“Rosie,” he said, a bite of toast still unchewed.
“Al, don’t speak with food in your mouth.”
She stuffed her hand into the bag and pulled out a slightly crumpled letter.
“I’ll try and get the creases out,” she shrugged and handed it to Gene.
While she read over the letter Rose straightened out Al’s tie.
“It really isn’t that bad, on paper things always seems worse,” she reassured.
“What is it,” Al said after taking another bite of his marmite toast.
Al looked over Gene’s shoulder, skimming the letter.
“Yeah, I think you’re overreacting Rose,”
Professor Longbottom strolled past them, handing out class schedules to all the Gryffindors.
“Uncle Neville,”
Professor Longbottom turned on his heel.
“Albus, you got to remember we’re at school,” he said with a small smile.
“Sorry,” Al mumbled, “Professor Longbottom. Have you seen Alice anywhere,” He asked, shuffling his feet.
Gene's hand had suspiciously stopped flipping her magazine.
“She said she was catching up on some school work in the library,” He said with a wink before leaving the teens alone.
Albus’ head whipped around.
“What’s the schedule.”
Gene handed Rose a piece of parchment.
Rose stared down at the schedule, at least there was only one class with Slytherin that day.
“Umm…Charms with the Ravenclaws,” she answered.
“Cool,” Al started walking away.
“Wait Al,” Rose got up of her seat, reclaiming the letter from Gene.
The two of them walked out of the Great Hall together.
“Do you mean it, that I’m overreacting.”
Al took the last bite of his toast.
“You kinda always do,” he laughed. “You know, you could like, figure out who this H guy is. Tell him who you are, then you won’t have to solve some puzzle every time you get a letter–,”
“Absolutely not,” she folded her arms.
Al shrugged at her.
“Suit yourself.” He said walking away in the direction of the library.
She felt her stomach growl.
She had totally forgotten about the breakfast.
Her eyes glanced at her watch.
One minute till nine.
Class didn’t start until a quarter past and the breakfast wouldn’t vanish from the golden trays until nine.
She sprinted back through the doors of the Great Hall.
Just as she reached her hand towards the french toast, it disappeared.
Great.
Her stomach growled.
It was going to be a long day.
Her first class of the day was Charms with the Ravenclaws. Dominique was quick to grab the seat next to Rose.
“Did you see the Witch Weekly spread,” Dominique gushed.
Rose rolled her eyes at the girl. “Yes, don’t you think it is a bit over the top,” Rose searched her bag for parchment and a quill. “Bugger,” she said, grabbing a broken quill from her bag. “Have you got a spare.”
Dominique silently handed her another one.
“Thanks,” She mumbled, the balanced the quill between her lips while she concentrated on pulling her hair into a pony tail.
“I think it was a rather nice scene they captured of the two of them,” Dominique shrugged. “Mama can’t stop talking about the wedding of course, even though it isn’t for months. You don’t mind helping with the planning do you, I know Victorie would appreciate your skills,” Dominique scrunched up her nose in a smile, her eyes nearly disappearing.
Rose watched as the other Gryffindors and Ravenclaws piled into the room. Saira and Gene moved towards her. She spotted Alice, but she was talking intensely with Jordan without so much as glancing Rose’s way.
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Professor Flitwick was rather distracted that morning. He wouldn’t quite get to the point of the lesson until it was nearly over. They were supposed to have a revision on last year’s curriculum, mostly the Summoning charm, but by the end of the lesson Rose had only written down three sentences. Three measly lines.
Her mind drifted to the letter from that morning, which was still securely in her satchel. She wondered if Hyperion was in the room with them now. Perhaps the boy she had been writing since first year was Phillip Smith.
She cringed.
“Are you okay,” Dominique whispered while Flitwick wasn’t looking.
Rose nodded. No she really hoped it wasn’t Phillip Smith, he gave her the creeps and in third year she had watched him dig out a booger and eat it.
Jordan he was nice, and funny. You had to be with a name like Jordan Jordan. Rose didn’t really know him though, only from a few Christmas parties their families had attended together.
Dominique bumped Rose’s shoulder.
“Huh,” Rose’s eyes shot up at Dominique.
“Lesson’s over,” she smiled and the two of them walked out of the classroom.
The four girls walked together for as long as they could. Dominique was off to DADA with the Hufflepuffs, but talked adamantly with Saira about the upcoming Gobstones meeting until their paths drifted off into separate directions.
The dungeons were cold and damp as the three girls made their way down. Rose didn’t particularly enjoy the dungeons, though on the rare warm days in late spring she couldn’t deny that it wasn’t comfortable with the cooling air.
As they walked into the potions classroom Saira went straight up to Professor Patil. Padma wiped away some dirt Saira inevitably had managed to get on her face, and she cringed away from her mother. Rose and Gene grabbed the first table, and another one for Saira and Shaun.
However it didn’t last long.
Once all the Slytherins had entered Professor Patil announced, much to Rose’s dismay, that she had split the houses into pairs which would last both terms.
According to Professor Patil she had based them off of previous scores and merit, but Rose doubted that as she took a seat next to Malfoy.
She glared at him.
He didn’t even spare her a glance.
Nothing.
Fine then.
“What are you looking at,” he bit at her under his breath.
“So it does speak,” she humoured him.
Professor Patil had just read up the final pair and the others had situated themselves at the workstations.
“This upcoming year is the most important for you future,” Padma eyed the students, “I remember my own fifth year, the nerves of doing well on your O.W.L.S. If you want to continue into N.E.W.T level potions you will need to preform well this year.”
She flicked her wand and instructions appeared on the black board.
“This is the wit-sharpening potion, I thought we shall start off with something slightly easier to ease you into the semester. Very well, as you were,” she said and the other students began collecting the ingredients needed to brew the potion.
Malfoy wasn’t even looking at her. Was he still annoyed from that morning?
She watched as he walked back and forth to the supply closet, each time returning with a new ingredient.
She hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Aren’t you gonna do something,” he said, not even glancing up at her.
No, he was the one that had practically walked straight at her.
“You would like that wouldn’t you. I think you will benefit from this potion. Wit-sharpening, you could really use that,” she crossed her arms and looked up at the black board.
Malfoy had collected all the ingredients. Sometimes she couldn’t believe that git, did he thing she was useless.
She grabbed a hold of the ginger root before he could and started chopping it up.
He added the armadillo bile before she could, even though she had already prepared it. At least she managed to drop in the ground Scarab beetle.
He stirred it, still not saying a single word.
“You’re remixing it too much, it’s only supposed to yellow. Now it’s starting to look green,” she said.
He rolled his eyes at her and said, “perhaps you should add in the ginger then.”
As Rose added the last of the ginger, she thought that Professor Patil ought to split up the pairs as soon as possible.
Lunch was as uneventful as last years Quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Nobody seemed to want to start the conversation. Rose sat in silence nearly the entire meal.
At one point Hugo had come up to her, he wanted her old Gobstones so he could join the team. She had simply said that he would need to ask again later as they were somewhere in her trunk.
Shaun had inhaled a little too much fumes from Potions and began speaking so eloquently nobody could understand him. Dominique had sat next to Rose again and told her about the first Herbology lesson, Neville had made them start growing Gillyweed from seeds, which wouldn’t be ready until the start of October.
Albus rushed in, late for lunch, which Rose knew he hated. His eyes searched the Great Hall, in the end he sat down next to Malfoy. Malfoy was gleaming as he started talking to Al and the rest of his mates. Apparently he wanted to talk to everyone except for Rose.
Rose rolled her eyes at him before taking a big bite of her potato salad.
After lunch Rose had only one more class before she would be free to refamiliarise herself with the castle.
It was of course the worst possible class.
Professor Binns droned on and on about the 3rd Dwarf war for an hour and a half. Most of Rose’s classmates dipped off at various points throughout the lesson. Saira and Shaun were throwing a quaffle across the classroom for most of it. While Genevieve used the opportunity to paint her nails.
Rose looked at Professor Binns. Sometimes she wondered if he knew that he was a ghost. She knew it was a highly debated topic at Hogwarts. How could he not know? It was right in front of him. Every single day. Rose would definitely know if she was a ghost. She gathered he didn’t care. He got to stand at the front of the classroom every single day and bore every student that graced the Hogwarts grounds with his ridiculous History of Magic.
Rose ran out of the classroom. Had she been brave enough she would’ve left during class, Professor Binns didn’t seem to know the difference. She climbed up two flights of stairs before Binns could even float past her. The trick step on the third floor nearly got to her, but she got to the fourth floor just as the corridors began to fill with the rest of the students who had finished their classes for the day.
She bursted through the door to the library as she got in. The smell of parchment and paper overtook her senses. The peace and quiet was overwhelming.
She beelined for the back of the library. After years of experience she knew this to be the quietest part, the less distractions the better. Once her stuff was situated at the large mahogany table she pulled out the heaviest looking book she could find, a tired book of monsters which seemed to be at its best behaviour. She pulled out her crinkled letter before placing the heavy book on top of it.
Lily turned the corner into the little alcove, just as the letter was hidden out of view.
“Rose, thank Merlin you are here,” she slumped down into a chair opposite Rose. “I don’t understand a single word of these ancient runes.”
Lily pushed her homework in Rose’s direction.
It was child’s play.
Within twenty minutes Rose had explained the theory and the processes in the greatest detail possible. She did not notice that Lily looked slightly disappointed when Rose handed her back her unfinished work.
Lily stared at it blankly, “I think I get it, the Fwopper represents 0, and the unicorn 1 because of the horn–”
Rose made a grab for the parchment once more, scribbling in the margins of the assignment.
“No, the Demiguise is a 0, you are correct about the unicorn. But the Fwopper is–”
“I was thinking…that maybe… well if it isn’t too much, if you could help me with Scorpy,” a quiet whisper caught Rose’s attention.
She silently gave Lily her parchment back. The younger girl smirked and started ferociously noting down different words and phrases.
Rose had gotten up from her seat, moving closer and closer to the sound.
“Whatever could that be for,” Samantha Zabini responded in her typical drawl.
Rose watched the two girls through the bookshelf. Bella Nott was fiddling with her long black hair.
“So, Scorpy is just a bit down… if you hadn’t noticed. And well, I was thinking maybe we could host a party or something. Actually probably Vivi and Ori too, to be honest. Their summer was… Well. Something to lift their spirits, I guess,”
Rose could just barely spot Zabini’s face. Her features were distorted in its usual growl — though she looked almost as if she were to laugh.
“Why are you asking me? Can’t you host a party yourself,” She said with a mocking tone.
“I’m a Ravenclaw, and people listen to you. It would have to be in the dungeons anyway. Can you just do it, please.”
Rose leaned onto the bookshelf and in a moment of clumsiness a book fell off the shelf.
“What was that,” Samantha snapped.
In a panic of hurry Rose ran back to her spot. She couldn’t hear anything around her, the adrenaline from it all making her feel dizzy.
As speedy as she could, she picked up her bag, brushing her supplies into it. She muttered a quick goodbye to Lily before running off. Her cousin yelled something after her, but Rose was too busy escaping.
Unfortunately enough for Rose her day was not yet over. After the disaster at the library she had barely even wanted to go down for dinner, but she had to. She had handed over her old Gobstones to Hugo, while Lily had discreetly handed Rose back her crumbled letter. Lily had sworn she hadn’t read it, but Rose didn’t really trust the girl.
“You shouldn’t be eating that,” she slumped down in a seat across from Albus.
“Why…,” he said while spitting out microscopic pieces of food that Rose had to brush off.
“I read in the Quibbler that the Hobnotch is farmed in order to create the spice used in fire-bred eggs. And they are kept in tiny tiny cages, and horrible conditions—,”
“Rose, I stopped listening after Quibbler,” Albus rolled his eyes.
Rose spent the rest of the meal in silence, dreading her upcoming patrols with Malfoy.
“You could try and beg Molly to switch the patrols,” Albus said.
“I promise Al, I’ve already tried. She is not budging. She probably wants to prove something.”
“Prove what,” Al continued, his food still not chewed.
“The sexual tension between them,” Rose nearly spat out her drink when Gene interrupted.
“Absolutely not Gene.” Rose glared at her.
Saira was smirking at Rose. Those two were trouble.
"Rose, I know you hate the bloke, but you can't deny he's delicious."
Gene made Rose want to puke. Albus raised his eyebrows at Gene.
"Don't ever say those words to me again."
The three of them laughed loudly at her expense. Albus turned quiet the moment Alice sat down next to him. His gaze completely enthralled by her.
“How was Herbology,” Rose asked politely.
Alice went off on a tangent about the properties of Gillyweed, which she was was looking forward to trying once the plant had fully grown. Neville had apparently promised them they would do a lesson out in the Black Lake once it had matured. Neville was absolutely bonkers. Rose had no intensions of swimming in the Black Lake in the middle of October.
Rose spent the hours leading up to the patrol in the Gryffindor common room. Roxy gave her a sample of Uncle George’s newest product, a hair shining and straightening cream.
“You can have that one, I got so many,” she said as she handed the tube over.
She had managed to get Fred to play wizard chess with her, but he just kept on cheating.
She glanced at the time, it was nearly eleven. She sighed as she got up, thanked Fred for the rounds and started walking towards the dungeons. The cold dark corridors would be her home for the next two hours. The longest two hours of her life.
As she made her way down to where their patrols would start Bella’s words swirled around in her head. ‘Feeling down’ for Malfoy probably meant that his house-elf hadn’t made his favourite meal last week, or something equally ridiculous. Once she got to their agreed-upon meeting place Rose wondered if seeing himself in an apron was Scorpius Malfoy’s biggest fear. In Rose’s opinion he seemed just as arrogant as he had at the end of the last year.
She was honestly surprised to that Malfoy even managed to be late. Rose had to descend nine flights of stairs, most of which had difficult trip steps and narrow ledges. Malfoy was practically in his own backyard.
“Took you long enough,” she spit out as she saw his combed-back hair round the corner.
“Can we just get this over with, preferably in silence”.
Rose glared at him again. He really had the audacity to shut her up after making her wait for him.
She kept her mouth shut.
“Suits me well, just be on time next week, otherwise I’ll report you and get a decent partner.”
They walked a few more meters, he had taken to walking a fair bit in front of her.
“Nothing would please me more,”
She could practically see him roll his eyes.
Just as they had peeked into the first room on their patrol Rose spoke again.
“Especially since I’m hear you’re sooo down. Bet you it was cause you had to pack your trunk all by yourself,”
He turned to face her, she simply flashed him a smirk.
“Can’t you be a big boy Malfoy, or do you need your mommy to do everything for you–”
“I don’t need my mommy.”
Rose nearly fell over as Malfoy got right up in her face.
“Calm down Malfoy, can’t you take a fucking joke,” her eyes widened in surprise, Malfoy didn’t give her a second glance, already moving towards the next room.
Malfoy was still sulking, whatever his problem was he had to get over it.
He turned, already at the end of the corridor, “come on Weasley, or I’ll report you to you cousin.”
Rose gritted her teeth, but followed. This Merlin-forsaken patrol was about to last forever.
Just as Rose had predicted the patrol was some of the slowest moving hours of her life. However, Albus would be proud. The two of them had never gone that long without biting each others heads off. Somehow they had managed to stay quiet for the rest of the patrol. She wished she could’ve spent the time better, doing useful things, like quidditch practice or homework, writing Hyperion.
They had yet to encounter any misbehaviour in the corridors on the first proper night back to Hogwarts. There was only a few stray first years who didn’t know their ways to their common rooms just yet. Malfoy had cruelly wanted to punish the children and take away points, but Rose thought it ought to be much better to show them the way back home. However, nothing Malfoy said ever surprised her anymore.