“Rose!” a familiar voice yelled from the end of the hall.
I picked up the pace. I was in no mood to talk to him of all people.
“Rose!” he shouted again, with a pause after like he was waiting for me to turn around and come flying back to him. Yeah right. “Oi!”
I cut the corner quickly, almost colliding with Mellody. She hugged her transfiguration book to her chest and spun around to let me zoom past her. She opened her mouth to speak to me, but I sped up again. I felt a pang of guilt as she looked taken aback, but ignored it. Now wasn’t the time.
I could see my potions class ahead. Just a sprint away…
“ROSE!”
So close…
I heard him grumbling angrily to himself, something that sounded a lot like, ‘Merlinfreakinggoddamnit…’ And then I was being tugged back by an invisible force, away from my welcoming potions door, my feet flying out from under me and my breath knocked out, like a giant had kicked me. I landed in a heap on the floor in front of his feet.
Merlinfreakinggoddamnit Malfoy. I looked up at him angrily and told him, “Mazie hates you as a father. And I’m divorcing.”
Scorpius must have learned to ignore my nonsensical comments because he lifted me to my feet without saying anything but, “You know, if you’d listen to me the first time I called your name this wouldn’t have happened.” He put away his wand, tucking in his inner pocket of his robe. I noticed his robe had silver lining and the pocket was outlined in green. I wrinkled my nose. Could he get anymore Slytherin?
“I didn’t hear you,” I said stubbornly. “And I won the custody court meeting thing. Your bags will be on the front step in the morning.”
Again he ignored me. “What did Lily say?”
I was caught off guard. “Huh?”
“Al told me he saw you going to Lily. You looked upset.”
“Worried about me, ferret?”
He rolled his eyes. “No. I just wanted to know what she said about Robert. Is she okay?”
I’m an awful liar. It’s weird because I’m brilliant at pranks, but I can’t lie. It’s just… I think a lie in my mind, but when it comes out, it’s garbled and uncomprehensible. Okay. Here’s the story: Devastated about Robert, will be staying in room for a while, wearing comfy clothes (aka pregnancy clothes). Do have permission to punch Robert. That’s for getting her pregnant, jerk! Okay. I got this. “My toothpaste is rocking it out with my jello,” I said suddenly instead.
His eyebrows raised.
“They’re doing the shuffle out in the, um… in the… pancake… freezer.” My voice grew uncertain and weak. “And, er, my hippopotamus is eating… bananas.”
Scorpius nodded. “The pancake freezer. Interesting. I simply must get one of those. Ideal for freezing pancakes.” A hint of a smile was tugging on his lips.
Just tell him. Stop babbling. TELL THE LIE. “My monkey is eating bananas too! It’s eating it with my hippo! In the pancake freezer! IT’S ALL RELATED!” I shrieked, running off in embarrassment and to get my stupid mouth to start corresponding with my mind. I heard him laughing in the distance. Shake it off, Rose. Shake it off. I opened the door to potions. They were all staring at me with gaping mouths, before they started cracking up, tears rolling down their cheeks. Even the professor was hiding his laugh behind his hand.
Merlin. My life really sucks.
____________________________________---
After banging on my head the whole period and receiving balled notes thrown at me with their favorite parts of my amazing lie-telling episode in the hall, I got another detention for being late to class because the professor hates me.
Probably because of the time I turned his very normal colored sandy hair bright orange with blue tips. That was some freaking awesome hair, let me tell you. I should become a hair stylist as a job for muggles. They wouldn’t know what hit them.
The day flew by. An ordinary day. Boring classes, boring people. I’m a bit tempted to turn all of their hair exotic colors just to exciten things up a bit. And then came the last part of the day, and the part I’d been dreading.
Dinner.
Would Lily be there? Probably not. So me against Al, Scorpius, and James. All making fun of me, taunting me, demanding information about Lily. How am I going to respond under three times the pressure I had earlier with Scorpius to relay what I know about Lily? A bad feeling was tossing and turning in the pit of my stomach.
I took a deep breath and stared at the open doors, students milling in, a couple struggling against the currents to get out. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a brown bobbing head I instantly recognized. I pushed my way to the girl, not caring if I shoved people in the face to get to her. “Lily!” I exclaimed, latching on to her arm. “You’re out! Thank Merlin. Please don’t let me get interrogated in any way by them.”
She shot me a strange look, then laughed. “Oh. Yeah. I heard about your hallway incident with the monkeys and hippos and all that.”
I looked at her curiously, waiting for her to explain.
She caught on. “I wanted to get out because I’m not showing and won’t be for a while, and I have that time to think about what will happen when I do. And I feel a bit bad for Robert,” she admitted. “He had a black eye and almost got a broken arm today.”
I have no sympathy. He got my best friend pregnant.
Lily must have seen my expression because she exasperatedly said, “It’s not all his fault! It’s mine too. We’re both equally responsible.”
“Meh,” was all I said.
She smiled and shook her head. “If it makes you feel better, I’m planning a prank on the boys for dinner tonight.”
I stared at her in shock. “Lily? Lily Evans planning a prank? Unheard of!”
Lily laughed. “I need a booster, and seeing their shocked faces will give me one. And they’ll get distracted from Robert or whatever is going through their minds.”
“A boy’s mind,” I mused. “Who knows…?”
We linked arms and walked in together. We seated ourselves in our usual spots, meeting the boys’ inquisitive gazes head on. “Hey Al,” Lily said to break the silence as we waited for the food to appear.
“Lily,” Al said stiffly, “as your brother, older than you by one year, I have a duty…”
“Nine months,” she huffed.
“A duty,” he continued, “to protect-”
“My grandma has a pancake freezer,” I interrupted brightly. “We should use it!” Lily sent me a grateful look.
“Pancake freezer?” Al questioned, temporarily distracted.
“Yum. Frozen pancakes,” Scorpius said sarcastically.
I clapped my hands over my mouth and whispered through my fingers, “Holy Merlin.”
They all spun to face me, worried expressions drawn on their faces. Lily’s was mixed with the relief that the spotlight was no longer on her. “What?” James demanded. “What’s wrong?”
“Are you okay?”
“Oh my god,” I said quietly, my fingers leaving my face slowly.
“Rose? Are you okay?” Scorpius repeated.
“Oh my god,” I said again.
“What is it?”
“I lied!” I said in wonder, excitement seeping into my voice. “I thought I couldn’t lie! But I’ve been lying! I lied when I said I had a hippo! I lied when I said my grandma had a pancake freezer!”
“What the hell is a pancake freezer?” Al exploded.
Great sighs of relief whooshed out of all of them. “You are the worst liar I’ve ever heard,” Scorpius grinned, shaking his head in disbelief. “Those aren’t even lies. They’re random statements that pop out of your mouth.”
“Don’t you dare burst my bubble, ferret.” I glared at him.
He pretended to pop a bubble.
I chose to do what any brave Gryffindor would do and stuck my tongue out at him.
“Can we all be mature here?” Lily sighed.
We all fell into silence.
McGonagall entered the room gracefully, her black robes swooshing behind her like flags in the wind. Her heels clacked against the wooden floor loudly in the suddenly deathly quiet room, like the beat to a song, until the beats died when she stood behind the podium. “Students of Hogwarts,” she greeted. “I will try to make this quick.” Her face was drawn, but then again, it usually was so I couldn’t tell if this was going to be a good announcement or not. “The dementors have finally succeeded in breaking into Hogwarts.”
Gasps echoed around the room, along with a group of girls shrieking. I had completely forgotten about the dementors- they’d been trying to get in the school for the last few months, and no one knew why. The Ministry claimed that they were just guarding the place. From what, though? Oldy Voldy was dead. I wasn’t too worried. My dad was an Auror and my mum a Healer, not to mention went on the crusades with Uncle Harry. I knew how to defend myself.
“Calm yourselves. They are all gone now. The only thing they touched was Professor Jordan’s closet. Now, we need three volunteers to clean it up.” So basically, volunteering for detention.
“I’ll have brownies!” Professor Jordan piped desperately, her hair a mess. I wrinkled my nose. If there was one thing to avoid in Hogwarts at all costs, it was Professor Jordan’s brownies.
“It will probably take around a week to two weeks,” the headmistress continued. That must be a huge mess, then. Professor Jordan was the Dangerous Creatures teacher. DC was a new subject they added after the death of Moldy Voldy.
“Why would anyone volunteer to do this?” a male voice shouted from Ravenclaw.
“That sucks!” a Slytherin girl agreed.
“Brownies!” Jordan repeated eagerly.
McGonagall held up her hand, and I thought I almost saw her shudder at the mention of the professor’s homebaked goods. Her brownies are a dangerous creature all by themselves.
I made a funny.
“One would volunteer,” McGonagall said, her voice raising, “to help our community of Hogwarts. To selflessly help a teacher, one of the building blocks of Hogwarts. To show how much you care.” I saw some repulsed looks from boys at the words ‘care’ and ‘selflessly help’. Lily was smirking.
Why was she smirking?
“To eat brownies!” Professor Jordan chimed in.
Every student who looked pleased with the idea of themselves doing ‘selfless’ community work shook their heads. Oh Prof. Jordan. You would have had volunteers if not for your dangerous creatures.
“Do we have any volunteers?” McGonagall looked skeptical.
Al, James, and Scorpius rolled their eyes. Then, suddenly, when McGonagall was just about to speak again and Professor Jordan looked downcast, the three boys’ hands shot up into the air, pencil straight. I stared in shock. They looked surprised too, then frantic. They tried to tug their arms down, but they stayed up. Lily looked very pleased with herself.
“Rose!” Scorpius whispered as McGonagall spied them. “Rose, stop it!”
I grinned. “It’s not me.”
“I mean it, Weasley!” he yelped.
“Not me,” I repeated. “I wouldn’t waste my cards on a trick like this.” I glanced at Lily. “No offense, Lily.”
“Potter?” he said in surprise, his eyes darting to her as if seeing her for the first time.
“We have our volunteers!” McGonagall smiled. “Mr. Malfoy, and the two male Potters!”
Lily and I snickered together about the ‘two male Potters’.
Lily focused a mischievous gaze at Al and whispered something.
“A pleasure!” Al shouted. “An honor!” The words seemed unfamiliar in his mouth, like he didn’t know how to pronounce them.
McGonagall looked taken aback. “Good… Potter. I’m glad you see it that way.” Then she walked back to where her chair was, and the food appeared with a pop.
Their hands dropped limply to their sides and they all stared at them in betrayal. Al raised his glare to Lily. “Lily, what the hell was that?”
“Yeah,” James said, looking hurt, “what did I ever do to you?”
“Nothing except give Robert a black eye,” Lily said, a smile tugging on her lips.
“That’s a favor!” he exclaimed. “I’m only forgiving you for this because this must be your way of getting rid of negative post-break up energy.”
Scorpius grinned. “Where’d you find a spell like that?” I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah,” Al agreed, looking hurt but slightly curious. “How’d you make me talk?”
Lily pretended to zip her lips.
“Enjoy the meal, boys,” I said happily, scooping up some peas. “You might get hungry later cleaning out Jordan’s closets. Oh, and don’t get anything yummy on your fingers. I bet some Whippers are hiding in there, and they’re known for biting fingers. Wouldn’t want to tempt them.”
They all groaned.
______________________________---
I had just returned from double detention and thrown myself on my bed, not wanting to even think about the six page Transfiguration essay I was supposed to write. My mattress was soft and bouncy- a Christmas present from a Muggle boyfriend last year. I had dumped him, but kept the mattress. It’s not like we did anything on it.
“ROSE!” Lily shrieked.
“No,” I groaned. “No more. No talking. No yelling. Just… sleep.”
Lily flopped on my bed. “I’ve got the most brilliant idea ever.”
“I’m sure you do,” I said drowsily.
“Seriously! Look at me,” she commanded. I looked up, not bothering to sit up to face her. “Ballroom dancing,” she enunciated.
I laughed. “Okay, crazy-head. You go do that.”
“Both of us will!” she said excitedly.
“I have two left feet,” I told her.
“So? It’s classes so that we learn how to have regular feet!”
I sat up. “Why in the world would I want to ballroom dance?” I rubbed my eyes.
“Because… here comes the good part… you get out of detention!”
“What?” I asked, suddenly interested. My hands had blisters from scrubbing trophies. Blisters on blisters on blisters. No detention… that must be what Heaven looks like.
“Yeah,” she said eagerly. “Because it takes place at the same time as detention and since it’s listed as an extracurricular activity within Hogwarts curriculum- like taking an extra elective at the end of the day- it overrides detention!” Her words were running into each other because she was talking so fast.
“I’ll do it,” I said quickly, before I could change my mind. “But why do you want to do it?”
“Well, Robert wants to do it with me,” she said shyly. “And I want you to do it with me, so I’ll have my two favorite people with me!”
“Don’t you mean three?” I asked, pointing to little Juliette in her tummy. “Will she agree with all this vigorous dancing?”
Lily rolled her eyes. “It’s not like it’s aerobic dancing. It’s slow movement. It’ll be fine.”
“Well, then. How do we sign up?”
Author’s Note: Thanks for reading! Next chapter has first ballroom dancing lesson and a prank! Yay! And I wonder who else signed up for this dance lesson…? Guess(;
Again, thanks for reading (and hopefully reviewing:D)! And I have yet to dedicate a chapter, so if someone wants to do a special review or something unusual… -CharmedWand<3
Printer Friendly Version
