[AN:] So it seems someone has clicked fast-forward on this story and skipped an entire year. Can you blame me? It was dragging on a bit. This chapter and the next one are the final ones in their CURRENT age. After that, they grow up and get messed with. Stay tuned!
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Chapter Nine: Summer Flowers
POV: Rose
It has been eight months since the incident with Marcus Macnair and Vincent Flint. Of course, those two were expelled immediately, but it took one long hearing with the Wizengamot for it to be decided that Flint would be on a five year probation and Macnair's wand was to be snapped. The Minister of Magic had made that decree himself; Dark magic from anyone was not to be tolerated and would have severe consequences.
"It's because he comes from a Death Eater family," Louis had said, repeating the same rumor the rest of the school was passing along. "The Ministry isn't going to risk any more dark magic from them."
Although Flint and Macnair had been the brawn of this, Abel and Darren Greengrass were still responsible for giving the order against their younger cousin. They were threatened with expulsion, but in the end the Headmistress assigned them a year's worth of detention with the Care of Magical Creature's professor and Filch. They were scarred (mentally and physically)from their time in the Forbidden Forest and the maintenance on the animals' cages, but that was hardly enough punishment. We all agreed, but it was Liam's father, Alec Greengrass, who pushed for more.
"What'd he do?" Freddie pressed for the thousand time, trying to get Liam to reveal what his father had done to Abel and Darren.
Liam shrugged. "He didn't say."
"All we really know," said Malfoy, "is our Aunt Daphne cried to my mother and begged her to have Uncle Alec change his mind."
Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny had been more than relieved that James and Louis only had a few bumps and scrapes from the altercation. Once Aunt Ginny had finished inspecting them thoroughly (to make sure neither had any gaping holes, although Louis kept complaining he'll have a scar from the bite Flint took), she then threatened to curse them into the next century. We all knew she was not bluffing, so Uncle Harry and Professor Longbottom had to hold her down long enough for Louis and James to flee the office.
After she was sedated, she and Uncle Harry were allowed to go to the Hospital Wing to meet Emily. They thanked her over and over again for what she had done. They even apologized, hearts on their hands, like it had been them who cursed her.
James and his parents were Emily's most frequent visitors the week she remained in the Hospital Wing. Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry stuck around so long not just because they had grown to like Emily, but because they expected to meet her parents to apologize over the incident. They never showed. An owl was sent to the Headmistress to excuse them from not attending, but they assured her Emily would be just fine.
"It's okay, Mrs. Potter," Emily had said to my aunt. She smiled, but she did not fool anyone with it. "I'm okay. Really."
Aunt Ginny had given her a smile back, but the apprehension was loud in her brown eyes. She took it upon herself to owl Emily every weekend for the rest of the school term.
Once James stopped being thick, he and Albus went back to treat each other like proper brothers. They were extra teasing to one another, but the other took it with stride. It was nothing but laughter, petty arguments, and pranks from those two.
James had even accepted Al being in Slytherin and being friends with Malfoy and Zabini.
"Best mates," Lucas had huffed at James. "Don't try to undermine our importance."
"How does your fat head fit through doors?" Al returned, laughing as Scorpius just rolled his eyes at the two.
Our group from the very first day at Hogwarts was still intact, too. We had all become closer than what any of us thought we would. Nia and Emily quickly became my best friends, people I could say and do anything with. They were both opposites in so many ways, with myself included, but it worked. Our group worked. We didn't go anywhere without anyone else. We belonged together (even Nia and Malfoy, though you will never get them to admit it).
"Don't say that," Nia had hissed. "People might hear you."
"Hear what? That you don't actually hate him?"
"I have a reputation to maintain," she huffed at me before we took our seats at the Gryffindor table. It was our last lunch in the Great Hall as First Years. In a few hours we would climb on to carriages and part from Hogwarts for summer holidays.
"Look at you, Rosie," said Dominique when I sat by her side. "Aunt Hermione is going to be shocked when she sees you. You've grown at least four inches."
I turned away from Emily laughing at whatever story James and Freddie were telling her. I was grinning at Dominique, about to agree that Dad's genes were dominate, but Liam let out a loud hiss. I found Nia smacking him beside the head.
"Oi," said Freddie, "what happened?"
Oh, it was a mistake. Freddie must have seen that, too, because he blanched when Nia narrowed her blue eyes at him.
"All of you happened," she snarled, pointing a finger at him and James.
"What did we do?" James returned, seemingly oblivious, but we all knew better. He had the mischievous glint in his eyes again.
"I don't know which one of you suggested it, but Liam thought it was a brilliant idea to hover Mrs. Norris over the Astronomy Tower."
I frowned now. "Liam," I began, "don't tell me you really did mess with that man's cat."
Liam gave us a sheepish grin. "How was I supposed to know the cat didn't know how to swim? She's been alive for a hundred years. She should've picked up a thing or two."
"Swim?" Emily gasped. "I thought you had her over the Astronomy Tower?"
"She started off there," Liam mumbled.
"What do you mean?" I demanded.
"He means," interjected Scorpius Malfoy, flashing those silver eyes like bursts of moonlight, Al and Lucas right behind him, "Molly had to stun a group of mere-people that were dragging Mrs. Norris down."
"I thought she could swim!" exclaimed Liam at the people gaping at him. "I can't be held responsible for that!"
Al snorted. "You're lucky Filch panicked and dived in for the blasted cat. It gave you a chance to run for it."
"You're a menace, Greengrass," said Lucas with a smirk.
"I can drink to that," said Dominique, raising her glass of Pumpkin Juice.
"Shit, Liam," Freddie sighed, shaking his head.
"We said levitate her over the tower, not drown her!" James shouted. "Now Filch will be coming after us, you bloody Cat Slayer!"
I'm surrounded by idiots.
X
Nia was fidgeting. Again.
"Quit it," I grunted.
She pulled on the white dress she had put on when we went back to the dormitories to collect our things. Emily and I were shocked to see the floral white garment on her instead of her ragged jeans and Holy Head Harpies jersey, but before either of us could express it, she glared at us with a look that said 'one word and I'll kill you'.
"Grandmother's a complete..." she ended that sentence with a colorful curse word.
Despite my initial (and growing) annoyance, I laughed at her uneasiness. She looked quite beautiful, but mentioning it would certainly earn me more of her ire. "Not looking forward to the holiday, are you?"
She tugged harshly at her dress again, gripping the fabric between her thighs when the wind threatened to pull it up. "I rather be having a slumber party with Peeves," she ground out. "I hate summer lessons."
"Summer lessons?" I beamed. "Oh! Are you attending the seminar Professor McGonagall is giving on—"
"Etiquette lessons, Weasley. Blimey," she huffed at me. "No need to ask what you'll be doing over the holidays."
"You know by now that I enjoy learning," I rolled my eyes at her. "Anyway, what's this about etiquette lessons? Who's medieval idea is that?"
"Grandmother Brocklehurst," she muttered like it was a curse. "She's my maternal grandmother who's obsessed with turning me into a proper lady." She kicked a pebble with her sparkly flats, then stomped on a patch of grass. "Torturing me is what she's achieving."
"Well," I started, "you can't be one of the lads forever, can you?"
"What, then?" she said, frowning. "Am I supposed to be dainty and soft-spoken because some sexist tosser assumed all women should be that way? I'm twelve, Rose, but I'll be damned if I become what my grandmother thinks is proper. There is no proper way to be a woman. If I do get married, I'll be a strong, not easily-manipulated wife who calls all the shots. And if a boy has a problem with that, then he can kiss my—Oh, for Merlin's sake!"
I looked away from her pinking cheeks and narrowed blue eyes to see Liam being pulled by Freddie and Louis while James had a hand inside a suspicious paper-bag.
"They have that look again," I said, shaking my head.
Nia whipped out her wand from somewhere underneath her dress. "I warned them, didn't I?" She pulled her long, blonde hair up now, tying it quickly. "They better run. I learnt the Oppugno charm and my birds are anything but gentle."
"Don't do anything—" My protest went on to deaf ears because Nia was already sprinting toward them. I sighed. Chaos was going to ensue because as Nia did not consider herself a girl, neither did my cousins. If she hexed them, they'd hex back.
Before I could assume I was going to be spending the next few minutes alone, I saw the shadow of a figure stop next to mine. Both shadows of body blended together.
"Hello, Rose," Lorcan Scamander said. "Why so alone?"
"I can say the same thing, Lorcan," I gave him a playful nudge. "Where's Lysander, huh?"
Lorcan and I had reacquainted in our lessons together. It reminded us how different we were from others and why when we were toddlers we tended to gravitate to each other. We were impossibly intelligent, more so than the students in our year. Because of that, we often had study sessions at the library for hours on end. We never ran out of things to debate about (although his eccentric, far-fetched ideas did annoy me).
"'San is helping Saar Finnegan clean up a botched experiment," he said. "They told me it was better if I met them on the train."
After we both huffed at the thought of what mess Finnegan had caused, we laughed.
"Al and Lucas are busy chatting up Belinda Rookwood," I explained, "and Nia ran off to murder my cousins."
"Harper's sort of amazing, isn't she?" I did not miss the way he blushed.
I smirked, but had no opportunity to say anything about the subject when the sound of someone giggling drift with the wind. I recognized who it was before I saw them coming.
I squinted past the rays of sun to find Scorpius and Emily slowly walking in my direction. They did that often, linger behind the rest of us like they had all the time to waste. Maybe it wasn't a waste when they enjoyed each other's company far more than anyone else's.
"I'm serious," I could hear Emily say to him. "I'm going to spend most of my holiday reading. You'll see, I'll best you in Transfiguration when we return."
"Anyone can best me in Transfiguration at this point," Malfoy laughed. "Really, though, Em; I hope you don't spend all of summer with your nose buried in a book. Go have an adventure. Even if it's with your parents."
Emily's smile slowly eased off her face. Her green eyes looked down at the ground. "I wish I could talk to them." As quickly as her gloom had come, she shook her head to push it away. I don't know if Malfoy noticed it, but I did. She always grew sad and distant when speaking about her family. She was someone so dear to us, but we hardly knew much about her life outside of Hogwarts. It was only what was inside that seemed to matter to her.
Malfoy bent down, yanking a daisy from its roots. The bright yellow of the petals intensified when the sun shone down on it. He looked up at her, smiling. "I'll ask my mother if you can spend some days at the manor with me."
My breath caught in my throat.
"What?" Emily breathed, taken aback as much as I felt.
He chuckled at her surprise. "Well, I spend the first two weeks on holiday with my parents. After that, Father has to return to the company and Mother has her charity work. It gets lonely around the manor, especially since Liam tends to alternate time between his father and Harper. It'd be nice to have you around. You are my best friend, after all."
Emily flushed a pretty shade of pink. "You are mine, too, Scor."
"Then think about it and owl me," he said to her, handing her the yellow flower. I did not know why a part of me felt like sobbing. There was this way Malfoy looked at Emily that did not settle right with me. He looked at her with a different set of eyes, something kind and caring that was rare to see on him when he spoke to others.
He did not look at me like that.
When he was around me, his eyes were unfocused and distant. A year of sharing classes, friends, and free time had not changed the way he acted towards me. I tried so hard to fill the void between us, but he never budged. I was lucky if he even looked at me when answering one of my questions.
Emily and him shared a hug just as I told myself to stop being petty. She was my friend and he was...
"Sorry, Lorcan. I—" I was alone. Well, that was rude of him.
I tried to pretend like I had not been watching them, but it seemed like neither had zeroed in on me to begin with. After they pulled away from their hug, Emily walked off ahead of Malfoy, not looking back. She did not spare me a glance when I called out her name. I had noticed her tears, however.
I was set on walking after her, but another shadow appeared and blended with mine.
"Weasley," Malfoy's voice rung.
"Malfoy," I returned in the same tone, although I felt my heart kick up in pace. "Looking forward to summer holidays?"
"Yeah," he mumbled. "I'll be going to Rome with my parents."
"You didn't go home for Christmas," I said, remembering Al mentioned that the Malfoys had an emergency business meeting to attend to. Rather than intruding on Liam and his father, he had decided to stay at Hogwarts. "I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do."
He turned to me, raising a brow. He remained that way for forty-seven seconds (yes, I counted). With a small clearing of his throat he said, "I suppose so. Father feels terrible about the Christmas thing. I'm sure he'll want to hear every boring detail."
I stared at him, shifting uncomfortably on my feet as I watched the air blow through his white-blonde hair. "Will you be seeing Al during the summer?"
"It'd be brilliant, but I first have to speak to my father about it. He just knows I made friends with Al, not that we're best mates now." He stuffed his hand inside his pocket. "But I'm sure I'll be able to. "
"Uncle Harry's going to shocked when Mister Malfoy schedules a play date," I managed to tease.
To my surprise, Malfoy laughed. "That'll be a sight to see, right?"
"I wish I could."
He smiled at me. Genuinely smiled. "I'll ask my father to schedule another play date, then. I would like to meet Ron and Hermione Weasley. "
My heart leaped. "You'd want to see me over the summer?"
"Why not? We Malfoys must patch up old wounds with every Wizarding family."
"Don't do it out of obligation," I frowned, the moment dying.
"I'm not," he blurted before I could walk away. "I actually...I wanted to ask if I could owl you over the summer."
I gawked back at him. "I'm sorry...what?"
"I'd like to write to you over the holiday....If you wanted."
Holy mother of Merlin. What the hell's my heart doing right about now? Oh, God. I hope I don't look like an idiot.
"Sure," I gave him a tiny smile, trying to settle the commotion happening inside of me right at that moment. "I would like that."
When I thought it could not get any better, he pulled his hand out of his pocket to reveal a small, red rose. "I got this for you," he said, extending it to me. "I saw it and thought of you. A beautiful rose for the beautiful Rose."
I couldn't help myself. I felt a strange happiness flow around me that made me throw my arms around his neck, giving him a tight hug for the first time ever.