The news of Rose's attack was to be kept strictly secret, so of course the whole school knew about it by dinner the next day. No trace of the attacker was found. Albus looked incredibly guilty as he handed the Marauder's Map back to James.
"If you guys had had this...you would have known who did it..."
James shrugged. "It's ok, Albus."
"Anyway, the important thing is that Rose is okay," Wren said earnestly.
During dinner, Professor McGonagall seemed to decide that letting the students know the true story would be better than wild rumors (some involving an escapee from Azkaban, or an angry goblin, or even the return of Lord Voldemort!) flying around the school. She stood up and clapped her hands for attention.
Immediately, all talking in the hall ceased. Everyone stared expectantly at the teacher's table, waiting for McGonagall to begin speaking. We all knew what this was about, and everyone wanted to know the whole story.
"Students, some rumors have been circling about a Gryffindor first year, Rose Weasley. The rumors are that she was out past curfew, and an unknown assailant used the Cruciatus Curse on her. These rumors are, regrettably, true." Everyone gasped, and people started whispering immediately. The headmistress glared sternly out at the assembly until silence prevailed once again. "The attacker was not caught, and we found no evidence that anyone snuck into the school. That does not make it impossible, of course. If we find that any of you aided, or indeed performed, this attack, you will be faced with more than expulsion. The Ministry of Magic has been called into investigate this. If you know anything at all, please step forward now." Again, excited whispers filled the Great Hall. "Students, I advise you to be cautious. Do not leave your common rooms after curfew. Do not explore the grounds alone. Do not be paranoid, but take precautions, please."
Professor McGonagall sat down, and immediately everyone was talking. I noticed she didn't mention that the attacker had demanded information. That, at least, had remained a secret.
Rose looked like she wanted to melt into the table, but the Gryffindors surrounding us asked about a million questions. Of course, the news that James and I had witnessed it had also seemed to leak out, so both of us were bombarded with questions when it turned out Rose refused to speak of her ordeal.
The talking at our table was cut short as a boy slid into the seat on the other side of Rose. He looked genuinely concerned, which was not how I would ever picture a Malfoy. At least, not concerned about Rose.
"Rose, I'm so sorry," Scorpius said earnestly. "I should have stayed, and maybe this wouldn't have happened, and are you all right?"
Rose nodded, managing a smile. "Don't worry, Scorpius. I'm fine. Don't blame yourself. If you had stayed, it would have happened to you, and then where would we be?"
Everyone stared at the pair in shocked silence. A Malfoy, a Slytherin, talking civilly with a Gryffindor Weasley. More than civilly, actually; they seemed to be good friends.
Albus was the first to break the silence. "You're talking to a Malfoy?"
Scorpius's cheeks flamed red, but Rose just glared at Albus. Wow, shy Rose glaring at one of her cousins twice in two days. "Malfoy is just a name, Albus. It doesn't dictate who he is."
"He's just like Ciara, though!" James protested. He and I had both apologized to Rose last night, and now we definitely didn't want her hanging around a Malfoy.
"I am not!" Scorpius said hotly.
Rose raised her voice a bit. "I don't see why any of you would even care. None of you cared about me at all until I became 'interesting.' What business is it of yours who my friends are?"
I shook my head in disbelief. "Rose, he's-"
"You. Shut up. You're just as bad as them," she accused, pointing at James and Albus. I opened my mouth to retort, but found I couldn't get the words out. I was too astonished by her outburst to react. I ended up just opening and closing my mouth like a fish, and probably looking incredibly stupid.
"Stop fighting!" Wren commanded adamantly. "Rose, you're just upset. Calm down a bit. James and Albus and Astra, she's perfectly right. You've been avoiding her all year. Don't think she can't tell."
"So have you," James said weakly.
"No she hasn't!" Rose countered.
Wren shook her head. "I haven't, actually. In fact, I've made friends with everyone in first year in our House." How did she do that? My only friends were our roommates and the Potters.
"Listen, we can't judge someone based solely on their name. We should at least give Scorpius a chance, all right?" The three of us grudgingly agreed.
Scorpius smiled gratefully at Wren. "I really am sorry about Ciara. She's a nightmare. I mean, I love her, of course, but I don't really like terrorizing my classmates." He shrugged apologetically. "I can't excuse her actions. But I'm not like her."
I focused on my bowl of beef stew, which suddenly seemed a great deal less appetizing. Can we trust him? I asked myself. Well, he had been a good friend to Rose, better than any of us, in fact. At it was true, people could be different than their families. Professor Potter often told us stories of his godfather, Sirius Black. From what I could tell, Sirius had been nothing like his fully Slytherin family. Though, judging from Scorpius, perhaps not all Slytherins were...bad?
I glanced at James. Albus was watching the two of us, waiting for our verdict, apparently. James frowned at me, and I gave an imperceptible nod. He grinned.
"Welcome to the pack," he declared, stretching his hand over the table for Scorpius to shake. Rose beamed proudly. Scorpius displayed mild surprise, but I believe he was pleased.
"Oh, Rose, if you're going to hang out with us, that means you can't be an insufferable know-it-all," James casually added.
Rose's eyes widened. "Wha-"
"I'm teasing, relax." James chuckled. "First years."
"You were a first year last year," I pointed out.
He didn't have an answer for that, so we dropped the subject.
Strangely enough, I didn't start wondering about who Rose's assailant could be until that night, in bed. I couldn't fall asleep, try as I might. My mind was clicking a mile a minute, bouncing from one potential suspect to the next. Of course, all I had to lead me was a cloaked shadow. It had appeared about the size of Rose, but I was certain there were multiple spells and potions to make a person's appearance change, even if I couldn't name any of them. After all, this was a world of wizards and witches.
In all my deductions, one name kept coming back, clear as a bell. And it made sense, too. Who would be upset that Scorpius was spending his time with a Weasley, and want to get back at him? Who wouldn't want to hurt him, but would have no qualms about using one of the Unforgivable Curses on Rose? I finally drifted to sleep, convinced I was correct.
~~~~
"It only makes sense!" I argued. I had broached the topic of Rose's attacker's identity the next morning before we traipsed down to the hall.
James shook his head. "How would a first year learn the Cruciatus Curse? It's not like you can just walk down to the library and find it in a book. Don't get me wrong, I don't like her any more than you, but you have to be reasonable."
Albus raised his eyebrows. "Never thought I'd see the day when you wanted someone to be reasonable."
Shrugging, James added, "This is a serious crime. You can't just accuse Ciara Malfoy of it without proof."
"But you said yourself her father was a Death Eater!" I declared. "Who's to say he didn't teach her?"
James was still unconvinced.
"Think about it!" I continued. "Who would be upset that her beloved brother was hanging out with a Weasley? Ciara! Of course she'd try to retaliate."
"But that much?" Rose frowned. "She's mean, but not that cruel."
James nodded slowly. "But...maybe she is..."
"Scorpius would know. He said she had no clue that we were friends."
"Maybe that's what she wanted him to believe..." James guessed. I could see the cogs turning in his head, and smiled with relief. At least I'd won James over. Wren might be hard...wait, where was Wren? I glanced around, but she wasn't in the common room. Strange...I could have sworn she was with us five minutes before.
James had been talking the whole time, gradually growing more excited as he began to realize the brilliance of my idea. "Of course it was her! Who else would it be!"
"You're forgetting something, though!" Rose cried. "The person was asking me 'Where is it?' and 'Where did he hide it?' What would Ciara be looking for?"
James waved his hand dismissively. "Minor setback. We'll find that out later. What we need now is proof."
"How are we going to get proof?"
"By getting Ciara to confess, of course."
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
"She won't know she's confessing," James said, his tone suggesting he was explaining an incredibly simple math concept.
Rose rolled her eyes. "Count me out. I don't care how much you hate her, I am not going to try to get Scorpius's sister sent to Azkaban." She rose from her seat and briskly walked to the portrait hole.
"Well, Albus?" I asked. He looked incredibly nervous.
"What if we get in trouble?"
"Technically, we aren't doing anything wrong," I said firmly. James nodded his agreement.
"Well...ok, I'll help. What do we do first?"
"Find Wren so she can tell us if there's any way to magically trick a confession out of someone."
~~~~
Four days passed with no luck. Wren scoured the library for any books on spells or potions to imitate truth serum, pull memories from people's heads unwillingly, or even change your appearance. The only thing she came up with was Polyjuice Potion, and she couldn't find any recipes or directions on how to make it.
"I suppose that'd be in the Restricted Section," she said forlornly on Monday night. I sighed.
"Guess we'll need a Plan B, then."
"Not necessarily..." James grinned, a twinkle in his eye. Wait, what? Ok, no, I didn't notice things like that. Nope. He grinned...that's it. He grinned.
The next morning, I barely paid attention in Charms. I was too busy thinking of ways to sneak into the Restricted Section. Of course, that meant I didn't master Wingardium Leviosa, but that was perfectly all right with me. I was so out of it that I didn't notice when class ended. It took Wren five minutes of clapping her hands in front of my face for me to snap out of it. By then, we were in danger of being late to our next class.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was my favorite. Other than Flying Lessons, it was our only class which had all four Houses taught at the same time. Don't ask me why. Maybe because Professor Potter was an auror, so he couldn't have as many classes taking up his time as the other teachers. In any case, Professor Potter was more than able to handle 50 or so rowdy first years.
Wren and I practically flew through the corridors, and were almost late to class. Almost, but not quite. There were two open seats, no where near each other. Wren took the one in the front, next to a Ravenclaw, Astoria Celene. I found myself in the very back of the room, seated beside an odd, dreamy girl who I vaguely remembered from the Sorting. Perhaps the strangest thing about her were the orange turnips she was wearing for earrings.
"Um...hi," I whispered.
She looked startled, and turned her large blue eyes from the front of the room to face me. "You're talking to me?"
"Well...yeah?"
"Oh, all right. I'm not very used to that, you see."
I nodded slowly. This girl was strange...
"I like your earrings..." I lied, for lack of anything better to say.
She smiled. "They're Dirigible Plums." I stared at her blankly, so she lowered her voice and whispered, "My mum says they keep the Nargles away."
I stared at her. "Right..."
Before she could respond, Professor Potter called for attention. "Class, today we will be learning the disarming spell. Some of you," he glanced at me, "already seem to know this spell, but for the sake of those who don't, we will be practicing it today. Now, let's see, who would like to come to the front and demonstrate?"
No one moved.
"All right...Astra, would you and Luna be our volunteers?"
I sighed. McGonagall must have told him about James' and my little "adventure."
Luna glided to the front with me trudging behind her. Professor Potter had us stand on opposite sides of the room and face each other. Before he could give us more instructions, Ciara Malfoy's hand shot into the air.
"Miss Malfoy, do you have a question?"
"What does this have to do with the Dark Arts?"
"What do you mean?" he inquired quizzically.
"Well, disarming someone isn't incredibly useful, is it? Shouldn't we be learning how to petrify someone, or knock them out?"
"Miss Malfoy, who is the teacher here?" Quietly, Ciara muttered something that sounded like "You, sir." Professor Potter nodded. "That's right. Expelliarmus is one of the most useful spells any of you will learn. It saved my life multiple times. In fact, it is the spell I cast when Voldemort tried to kill me for the last time. His curse rebounded and killed him instead. Any more thoughts, Miss Malfoy?" Ciara stared at her lap. "All right then. Astra, when I say, please point your wand at your partner, and say 'Expelliarmus.'"
I held my wand up and waited for the signal. Luna watched as I said clearly, "Expelliarmus!"
Luna's wand flew out of her hand and into the air. Professor Potter caught it on the way down. "Very nice. Luna, would you please give it a try?" He handed her wand back to her.
Five minutes later, all the desks had been pushed back against the walls and we were all paired off, practicing the disarming spell. It wasn't hard for me, but I saw that most of my classmates struggled with it. A few of the exceptions to that rule were Luna, Albus, Arthur, and Rose. What was so special about them? I knew Albus and Rose's parents fought Voldemort. Did Arthur and Luna's fight him as well? I decided I'd ask Professor Potter after class.
After about half an hour, Nico and Ciara seemed to give up. "This is stupid."
"Especially since Looney over there is a pro. We obviously don't need to learn this," Nico added.
Luna didn't seem to mind the insult, but I felt anger building up in me. "What'd you say?"
Nico smirked. "Oh, look at you, Noble Astra, protecting Looney Scamander."
"She's not looney." My voice was low and cold. The partners around us stopped practicing to watch.
Ciara rolled her eyes. "She's wearing turnips for jewelry."
"They're Dirigible Plums, actually," Luna piped up. "They keep the Nargles away."
"What even is a Nargle?" asked Ciara, her voice dripping with contempt.
"Leave her alone!" I shouted. Luna seemed surprised.
Professor Potter noticed the situation. "Students, what is going on?"
"She said Luna was crazy!" I said quickly.
"Well, Astra said that Ciara and I were terrible at disarming," Nico lied. That was definitely true, but I would never say that to someone's face.
"I did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did no-"
"Enough!" Professor Potter frowned at us. "Unless you want detention, I'd advise you to stop."
Immediately, Nico and I fell silent. That didn't stop the murderous glares we continued to send each other.
We went back to disarming, and most of the students improved. As soon as class was over, though, almost everyone rushed out. Luna stopped me before I could follow.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Stand up for me?"
"Oh." Why did I do that? I didn't really know. I had to admit, Luna did seem a little crazy. And if her mum was the one who told her to wear those earrings, her mum must have been mental. But why did I stand up for her? "I don't know. It just seemed like the right thing to do."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wren and Albus, who I suppose had been waiting for me, slip out the door.
"Oh. Well, thank you. It was very kind."
I shrugged. "Anyone would have."
"I don't really think so." She smiled. "Goodbye!" Luna glided towards the door. What did she mean, she didn't think so?
"Wait!"
Luna turned slowly.
"Luna, what do you mean? Your friends would have, surely..."
"Oh, friends," she laughed, "I don't have any of those. But that's all right. You being nice was almost like having friends." She waved. "Goodbye!"
I stared after her as her blonde head disappeared from the doorway. She didn't have friends? I couldn't help but pity her. I quickly became lost in thought, and forgot I wasn't alone. When I heard someone cough behind me, I must have jumped a mile into the air.
"She's a lot like her mother." I turned to see Professor Potter watching me.
"She is?"
He nodded. "I think Luna, her mother, must have taught her a few defensive spells. Her brothers were good at disarming as well."
I fidgeted. "Um...is she...well...is she really...sane?"
Professor Potter chuckled. "Yes, I think she's very sane. Just different. It would be worth your while to try to break through that dreamy shell of hers."
I couldn't think of anything to say to that, so I simply nodded and bolted.
~~~~
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~Ellie