Unmasked (A Scorily/Scorlily Fanfic)[post-cursed child]

Chapter Eleven: Schemes and Backfire

I KNOW I haven't updated in forever. I'm terribly sorry, and I'm afraid I have no excuse other than that I've been out of town and quite busy. This chapter is actually two chapters, and was written some time ago; it was only a matter of copy-pasting it in. It's very long, as penance.

Thank you for being understanding!

Love you all,

Lily

P.S. The pic at the top is Rose

P.S.S. Anyone know of someone who would be Rose's perfect match?

Rose Granger-Weasley did not understand what was going on. Not only had her secret boyfriend dumped her for her younger cousin, but she had somehow managed to humiliate herself in front of the whole school. She'd only meant to show Scorpius that she could be public if he wanted it. But before the day was out, all of Gryffindor House knew that Rose Granger-Weasley had been crossed in love for once in her life- and that she had most likely called Lily Luna Potter a slut and a cow, going off of something Scorpius had said. Before the week was out, everyone else in the school knew as well.

The first piece of information might have garnered her pity, had the second piece not been so incriminating. Calling Lily Luna Potter, juvenile Quidditch star, Rose's own cousin, and stellar student, a slut? Unheard of, not to mention cruel and bratty. The students of Hogwarts began to regard Rose as a stuck-up, prissy girl, and her beauty did not seem quite so stunning anymore.

Rose hated this. She hated the sneers and the cold shoulders and the whispers. It did not occur to her that her cousin Albus had endured something very similar, only ten times more intense, for years and that she had dismissed it.

How dare they treat a Granger-Weasley this way, she seethed. Lily hadn't even been popular until this year, and Rose for the life of her could not see what made Lily so attractive to her classmates. So what if she'd thrown some names around? Lily had stolen her boyfriend! She'd nearly kissed him when he'd still been in a relationship!

And Scorpius? What on earth had made him abandon her for Lily? She was Rose Granger-Weasley. She was someone effing important!

But then again, so was Lily. Daughter of Harry Potter and all that.

Ugh.

Rose placed her head in her hands and sighed, eying the back of Scorpius's head out of the corner of her eye. Potions class wasn't nearly as interesting now that she couldn't shoot covert smouldering glances his way and have them returned.

In the hallway she shouldered her way through the crowds of people shooting her curious and distasteful glances, heading towards Charms. She happened to pass through the corridor where Lily had sprung that goo-trap on her, and paused to look at the light blue stain which still stubbornly clung to the floor.

Lily.

Rose smiled suddenly. She knew how to get Scorpius back! How to recover her reputation! How to get so even with Lily that Lily would be loathed forever! And it all came down to one word.

Nix.

---

The Great Hall was already crowded with people when Rose arrived, just the way Rose had wanted it. She looked around to make sure Lily was present.

Yes, there she was, sitting with Scorpius at the Slytherin table, chatting and laughing with Al, who seemed to have come to terms with the weirdness of this situation- and who had broken things off with Polly after she declared herself a loyal supporter of Rose's actions and moreover thoroughly disgusted with Lily.

Rose gritted her teeth at the sight of Lily's small smirk and at Scorpius's arm flung casually around the petite girl's shoulders. 

Let's see if that smirk is still there after this, she thought, and pulled her wand from an inner pocket. "Sonorus."

"Excuse me!" she said, her magically magnified voice cutting through the conversation and hubbub. Eyes turned towards her. Chatter ceased. Everyone wondered what Rose Granger-Weasley had to say.

"I have an announcement to make," Rose said, casting a smug look at Lily, who smiled sweetly at her and waved a hand to signal for her to continue. Lily knew exactly what was going on. And though she didn't understand how Rose could be so stupid as to not understand the self-incrimination involved in outing her, she also knew that her careful behaviour protected her from blame. She would be just fine. Outwardly.

Emotionally? Not so much. When would the hatred, the humiliation, the disdain, end? The sorrow this was causing her was beginning to snowball inside her into something ugly, something debilitating and horrible.

Rose was nominally in the right. Lily had broken rules. But Rose wasn't doing this to do the right thing. She was doing this to hurt Lily. And it was working.

"It's about Lily Potter."

There were audible gasps now, and from the professor's podium Headmistress McGonagall eyed Rose narrowly. She had heard rumors about a coolness between Rose and many of the other students, but this was unprecedented. To address the entire school about her cousin? She magically magnified her own voice.

"Miss Granger-Weasley, I hardly think this is the time to-"

"I promise, Professor. It's important." Rose turned to the student body hurriedly before McGonagall could answer her. "Lily Potter is the one who's been behind all of the pranks that have been going on for the past months. She's been deliberately breaking school rules. She's unruly. And I don't think she should get away with it." She gave a sanctimonious little nod reminiscent of her uncle Percy.

Headmistress McGonagall stared at Rose. "This is a weighty accusation to make, Miss Granger-Weasley. Do you have any evidence to support your claim?"

Rose nodded brazenly. "She told me so a couple of months ago. And I saw her in action once."

Professor McGonagall stiffened. "Then why come forward only now, Miss Granger-Weasley? As a school prefect, would it not have been your duty to come forwards when the breach of school rules occurred?"

Rose blanched. She'd felt herself so clever, outing Lily in front of the school. But this was making her look worse than before.

"I- er- she forced me not to!"

"How, Miss Weasley?"

Rose shrugged, blushing. "Could I tell you in- in private?"

"I hardly think that fair, Miss Granger-Weasley," McGonagall said icily, "since you have publicly humiliated your cousin. You will tell me now, or not at all."

"I was- I was dating Scorpius Malfoy," Rose muttered, but the sonorus charm ensured everyone heard. "She found out. We didn't want anyone to know, and-"

"No." A third magically magnified voice cut in. Scorpius Malfoy stood up. "You didn't want anyone to know." He turned to Professor McGonagall. "And actually, Ma'am, as Rose's patrol partner I can tell you that Rose actually never saw Lily prank anyone. She doesn't have any proof that Lily's done anything. Her supposed dishonesty actually makes it so that no one can take her word for anything."

"Very well, then," Professor McGonagall said sternly. "Miss Granger-Weasley, if you do not retract your claims the office of prefect will be stripped from you, since you claim to have allegedly behaved so dishonestly. If you do retract your claims you will be given six detentions and ten points will be taken from Gryffindor. Either way, Miss Lily Potter has not been proven to have done anything wrong and will not be disciplined, and a note will be sent to your parents. Choose."

Rose gulped. How had this gone so horribly wrong? Lily was now more of a martyr than before, while she, Rose, looked even more heartless and cruel than previously. Should she continue to antagonize Lily and lose her badge? Or give in and be punished both publicly and privately?

"I-"

Even with her sonorus charm, her voice sounded pathetically small.

"I retract my claims."