This story mostly takes place in Scorpius' fifth year at Hogwarts, but I felt that a prologue was needed. This is to clarify what house Scorpius is in and what people originally thought of him. The latter will change, so I thought people's initial reactions would be interesting. The prologue is not as good as the rest of the story. It picks up the pace around Chapter 2. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy it!

Prologue: A Different Type of Malfoy

The air was filled with fog and sounds of people talking excitedly. A great scarlet engine had just pulled into the station and the murmuring got louder. It was almost impossible to hear anyone speak, let alone hear yourself think. But, despite this, Scorpius Malfoy found himself growing more and more excited as the moments dragged on. Today was the day. Today he was going to Hogwarts.

Every feature in Scorpius’ faced marked him as a Malfoy. He had the pale complexion, pointed chin, hair so blonde it was almost white, and grey eyes. Unlike his father, Scorpius eyes were normally full of blazing excitement where as Draco’s held cold hatred in their depths. Well, not always. Sometimes those eyes sparkled, sparkled so much that he could hardly be a Malfoy. But, this didn’t happen enough. Mostly Draco hated everything around him, as he was one of those people who were obsessed with being pureblood and he approved of nothing less.

Scorpius, however, was different. He just couldn’t understand why being a pureblood was so great. He didn’t think that he should be treated like royalty, though Draco obviously thought so. What’s wrong with muggle-borns? he found himself thinking time and time again. An answer never came and Scorpius wouldn’t dare ask his father about it.

So absorbed in his thoughts, Scorpius hardly noticed that his feet had carried him onto the Hogwarts express. Suddenly, he was faced with a frightening prospect. Who in the world should he sit with? He didn’t have any friends in his year, at least not yet. After walking through the corridors for a mere minute, Scorpius became very aware of that fact that lots of people were staring at him. They obviously recognized him as a Malfoy, which, unfortunately, caused him to receive lots of contemptuous looks.

Suddenly, Scorpius came across a compartment with two nice looking people sitting in it. One of them was a rather pretty girl with long, straight, light brown hair and startling blue eyes. Many freckles were visible on her face, the kind of freckles that all Weasleys have. The other was a boy with shaggy black hair, and vivid green eyes. He bore a striking resemblance to Harry Potter. That must be his son, Scorpius thought to himself. He was about to enter the compartment when his dad’s words suddenly screamed out in his mind.

“Make sure, whatever you do, do not, and I repeat do not, become friends with Harry Potter’s son. True, Harry saved me once or twice in the final battle, but I will not tolerate it if you form a friendship with his son,” he had said. “You’ll make us proud Scorpius, you’ll be our perfect little Slytherin.” These words repeated themselves over and over in Scorpius’ head. He turned away and went to find another compartment.

There was nothing. Every compartment was either full or the people sitting in it didn’t appeal to Scorpius. Finally, he was forced to sit alone, lost in his thoughts. I agreed with Dad, he realized, I agreed not to be friends with any Potters or Weasleys. I agreed that I would be a perfect little Slytherin. But is that what I really want?

* * *

The train ride seemed to last forever, but at last it was over. Now it was time for the Sorting. Scorpius was positively dreading this event. He waited, so nervous he could have sworn he was shaking, for Professor McGonagall to call his name. The seconds dragged into minute and those minutes seemed to last for an eternity. What if his name was never called? Then, all of the sudden, he heard his named shouted out for the whole school to hear.

Scorpius walked up to Sorting Hat cautiously, surprised that his legs would actually carry him there, as they were shaking so badly. The sorting hat was placed on his head and a clear, low voice sounded. Scorpius was terrified. This was the moment. The moment he would find out what house he will be in for seven whole years. This was the moment that would shape his future.

“Interesting, very interesting,” the Sorting Hat said, “Yes, plenty of courage, yet you’re cunning, and there is a fierce desire to prove yourself. You’re pretty smart, eh, and a hard worker too. So, where to put you?” Scorpius sat still, his body rigid. What if there wasn’t a house for him. Would them send him back home and force him to be a muggle?

After a minute or so the Sorting Hat spoke again, “You are one of the hardest students I’ve ever had to sort. I know where you belong… finally.” There was a moment of dead silence. Then the hat shouted, “GRYFFINDOR!” for all the school to hear.

Gryffindor? Scorpius thought to himself, I’m in Gryffindor? He couldn’t figure out why. He was a Malfoy and Malfoys were never in Gryffindor. But, did he really want to be a Malfoy? Wasn’t he different from all the rest? Yes, I am different, Scorpius thought, and I don’t really care. But what will my father say?

After Scorpius settled himself at the Gryffindor table, he could relax enough to watch the rest of the Sorting. It turned out that the black haired kid he had seen on the train was Harry Potter’s son, Albus. So, it was no surprise that he was sorted into Gryffindor, too. By the time it was the last person’s turn to be sorted, Scorpius’ stomach was growling. When the person was sorted into Gryffindor also, he looked up and did a double take. It was the girl who had been sitting on the train with Albus.

“Hi Rose,” Albus greeted her. “Glad to see you decided to join me here.”

"Yeah, I’m glad I was sorted here, too. I mean, what if I was in Slytherin?” Rose replied. “That would be awful.”

"Yup,” Albus agreed, “Did you hear that Malfoy’s son was sorted into this house too?”

“Well, duh,” Rose said, “I was here, remember? It’s kind of weird though. Malfoy’s are always in Slytherin. I guess he was just destined to break the tradition. I wonder what he’s like?”

“I don’t care what he’s like. I just know I don’t want to be friends with him. The Sorting Hat probably made a mistake,” Albus said.

“I guess so…” Rose said slowly. “But, that still doesn’t stop it from being weird.”

They spoke every word of this conversation without thinking that, maybe, just maybe, a certain Scorpius Malfoy might be able to hear. Upon hearing those words, Scorpius’ hunger vanished, being replaced by a sickening feeling. Is everyone going to judge me for who my father was? he thought. Will they ever respect me for who I am?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a link the the feedback thread: A Different Kind of Malfoy Please try to leave feedback, even if it's not so great. I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing. Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying it so far!

Hey guys! Here is the first chapter of the story! I had some troubles setting up the beginning but it is finally here! The story picks up the pace around the next chapter. Oh, and for the nice people who like to leave feedback the link is here. I hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 1: In Which Scorpius Ponders Over Two Different Letters

The sun was high in the sky, shining light all over the town. The sky was the clear blue of watered down ink and hardly a cloud was visible. But, despite the cheery atmosphere, happiness was almost the last thing on Scorpius Malfoy’s mind. He was, once again, sitting in his room at the Malfoy house. This was Scorpius’ least favorite place in the world, but every year, would school was over, he was forced to return.

Last year, he had become good friends with Albus Potter, or Al, as everyone called him. Ever since first year the two of them had been enemies, but last year it had changed. The two had gotten to know each other and had a lot more in common than they originally had thought. Albus had invited Scorpius to come over during the summer, but when Draco had seen the letter, he ripped it up, took Scorpius’ owl away, and locked the boy in his room.

So there Scorpius sat, bored out of his wits, with absolutely nothing to do. Slowly, he got off of his bed and walked over to his school trunk. Well, since I have nothing better to do, I guess I’ll clean it out, he thought to himself. The cover creaked when he opened it and some dust flew out at his face. Coughing, Scorpius delved into the contents. A letter floated out onto the floor. It was slightly yellow and very wrinkled up. Gingerly, Scorpius picked it up and began to read:

Scorpius-
I got your letter and I can’t believe that you’re in Gryffindor. Of all houses, it had to be my least favorite. You promised that you would be our perfect little Slytherin. But, you’re not. Your mother and I are very disappointed. Something will have to be done about this. I will not tolerate you being in the hated house, the one house that I despised most. I still can’t believe this. Are you really my son or is it just pretend?
-Draco

This one piece of parchment triggered many memories. Draco’s face distorted with anger when Scorpius had come home for the summer holidays the first time. Draco yelling at him when he realized that Scorpius was friends with Potter’s and Weasley’s. And worst of all, Draco’s rage and hate when he learned that Scorpius didn’t care, that he didn’t want to be his father’s son. “I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care…” Scorpius found himself repeating those words over and over in his head. But, a part of him, just one small part knew that it wasn’t true. He longed for his father to treat him normally despite his differences. What difference does it make? He thought, Gryffindor or Slytherin, whatever. We’re all the same deep inside, aren’t we?

* * *

The next few weeks passed in the same fashion: Scorpius stuck in his room, with almost nothing to do, and pondering over old memories. After what seemed like forever, Scorpius’ Hogwarts letter came and with it, it brought a surprise. He had been made Gryffindor prefect! The badge was gorgeous, flashing red and gold all over the room. Scorpius picked it up, stared at it for a second, and then placed it onto his black robes, as if to see the effect of gold on them.

Even though this news would make most people delighted that they had been chosen for such an honor, Scorpius found his thoughts traveling to the less than pleasant grounds again. Just another way I’m like my father, he thought miserably to himself. And who might the other prefect be? Only one name came into his mind.

Rose. Rose Weasley. Even though her cousin, Al, was his friend now, Rose still ignored Scorpius most of the time. Apparently, she had taken her father’s words to heart. Al had tried to convince her on numerous occasions that Scorpius was all right but she wouldn’t hear a word of it. It will just be wonderful having to do all prefect duties with her, wont it? Scorpius thought to himself. Somehow, he couldn’t see how fifth year would be any better than the rest of his school years.

* * *

The scarlet steam engine had just pulled into the station and Scorpius eagerly boarded, completely ignoring his father. His eyes scanned the crowd for a certain Albus Potter and after a minute, Scorpius located him.

“Hey Al!” Scorpius said. “Good holidays?”

“Yeah! How ‘bout you?” Al replied excitedly.

“They weren’t so good. Dad shut me in my room for almost the whole time, just because you wanted me to go over your place. Well, and because I’m friends with my Dad’s enemies son.”

“That stinks. But, guess what?”

“What?” Scorpius asked, sounded somewhat apprehensive.

Al laughed. “It’s nothing bad! Dad hinted that something big is going on at Hogwarts this year. Something that’s never happened before! I wonder what it is.”

“I don’t know. I’ll think about it though. Maybe there’s going to be… never mind. I forgot. Anyways, I have to go to the prefect compartment. I’ll see you later.” Scorpius said, positively dreading it.

“Wait, you’re a prefect??!?” Al said, sounding shocked.

“Yeah… so?”

“That’s cool. Me and Rose were wondering who the other one was.”

Scorpius gave him a very queer look.

“What?” Al said. “Didn’t I tell you that Rose is a prefect too?”

“Um… I would have to say no, you didn’t.” Scorpius said, trying to disguise his real feelings about the matter. Why couldn’t the other prefect be someone who actually talked to him? Why?

* * *

The prefect’s compartment was considerably nicer than the rest of the train. The seats were covered in dark red leather and they were extremely comfortable. The rest of the prefects were already there. Rose gave Scorpius a cold look when he entered.

Just then a tall girl with long, strawberry-blonde hair and bright blue eyes entered the compartment. Scorpius recognized her immediately. She was Bill and Fluer’s second eldest daughter, Dominique. That explained her beauty; she was one eighth-veela.

“Hey everyone. I’m the new Head Girl. I’ll be instructing you of your duties, which will begin shortly. Does anyone have any questions?” No response. “Good. Okay, I want all of you to patrol the corridors. If you see anyone misbehaving, report it to me or Thomas, the Head Boy.” She gestured toward a boy standing in the corner. He had dark brown hair that fell into his eyes, which were a hazel color and he didn’t look particularly enthused about his new position.

Scorpius left the compartment hesitantly, consciously aware that he was the only one walking alone.

So there it is! I encourage you to leave feedback even if it's negative. The next chapter will be up soon... I hope!

Hey guys! I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in so long, but I've been really busy. Finally, I finished the second chapter. This is the last expostion-y chapter. Then it starts to really pick up the pace. Anyway, I hope you like it.

Chapter 2: In Which a Certain Type of Tournament is Announced

Stars twinkled in the black sky as the students filed into the Great Hall. Scanning the hall, Scorpius caught sight of Albus, sitting with Rose, James, Lily, and Hugo. Hesitantly, Scorpius proceeded over, sitting himself down next to Al and making sure to ignore Rose. True, he would rather be friends with her than tune her out, but now wasn’t really the time to make friends. The feast was about to start.

Headmistress McGonagall stood up and clapped her hands together to gain the students’ attention.

“Now, normally I make announcements first, but today is an exception. They will be coming after you are all fed and watered, so dig in.”

And the food appeared, instantly. Scorpius piled his gold plate with everything in sight. Malfoy hadn’t exactly been generous with food rations back at home.

“So, Al,” he said, through a mouthful of baked chicken, “What were you saying about something big happening at Hogwarts? ‘Cos, I heard other people talking about it while I was patrolling the corridors.”

“Oh, that.” Al said. “Well, dad just hinted that it was some sort of competition. Hey, it couldn’t be the Triwizard Tournament, could it?”

“Nah… I thought that they weren’t going to continue that again after what happened during your father’s year.”

“Yeah… I guess you’re right. Still, what other competitions could there be?”

“No idea…” Scorpius replied.

The rest of the feast seemed to pass by in mere minutes. Pretty soon the desserts were cleared, the plates shined golden again, and McGonagall stood up to make the announcements.

“There is a reason I saved this announcement for last,” she said and every student’s attention turned instantly to her. “If I had told you before, you would have been too excited to even eat the feast. Now I guess it is time to tell you. This year Hogwarts will be hosting a legendary event-“

“Not the Triwizard Tournament?!!??” James Potter yelled out in disbelief.

“No, Mr. Potter. Not the Triwizard Tournament. The House Cup.”

The students stared at each other in disbelief. The house cup? Wasn’t that held every year in order to see which house could gather the most points? There was nothing special about it. Seeing the looks on the student’s face, McGonagall clapped her hands together and
began to speak again.

“It’s not what you guys think. Here to explain the rules is Mr. Harry Potter from the Auror department at the Ministry.

Harry stepped up to the podium and began to explain: “The House Cup is a brand new tournament devised for this year. Yes, it is kind of like the Triwizard Tournament, but with a lot of different components. No one from another magic school will be coming to Hogwarts to compete; the tournament is simply between the four Hogwarts houses. A champion will be chosen to represent each of the houses. In order to make sure that the champion is picked fairly, we have hoodwinked the Goblet of Fire into thinking that it has to pick four champions from the different houses. And, I’m sorry to say, but there has to be an age restriction. No one of the age 14 or younger may compete in the tournament.”

“Wicked,” Albus whispered to Scorpius, “I am so entering. This is going to be awesome.”

“Yeah. I’m sure you’d do great,” Scorpius whispered back, “I don’t think I’m going to enter, though. I might… I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. It depends.”

Meanwhile, Harry was attempting to get the students attention back. Eventually succeeding in doing this he said, “Once you are picked for the Cup, there is no turning back. You have to compete. I will set up the Goblet of Fire here, in the Great Hall. All names are to be submitted in two days time. Three days from now, the champions will be picked. Now, I’m sure you’re sick of listening to me by now, so I’ll turn it over to our Headmistress.”

“Okay everyone. Now you have the details and you have two days to decide whether or not you want to represent your house,” she said. “I’m sure you’re all tired from the ride here, so off to bed!”

All of the students got up in one big mass and proceeded
to their dormitories. The chatter was deafening and the excitement was clear. Everyone couldn’t wait until the House Cup began.

* * *

Rose Weasley stood up from the Gryffindor table and walked to the dormitories alone. Albus, James, and Hugo were walking with Scorpius and her other friends were way ahead. She couldn’t understand why Albus was such good friends with the Malfoy kid. He seemed like a snob, just like his father, and he was never particularly nice to her. She didn’t see why anyone, except for the Slytherins, would even want to be friends with him. He’s in Gryffindor, though, she thought, there must have been a reason for that. Maybe he isn’t exactly like his father. But, there was no time to worry about that now. She had other things on her mind. Well, one other thing. The House Cup.

Without realizing her feet had carried her that far, Rose arrived at the girl’s dormitory. She pushed open the door and collapsed onto her bed dramatically.

“Hey, Rose!” Christina Daniels shouted out. Christina was a tall girl with dark brown, wavy hair that came to her shoulders and striking green eyes. She was one of the most popular girls in the year and Rose’s best girl friend. “How was your summer?”

“Oh, it was fine,” Rose replied. “It almost wasn’t, though. Al invited Scorpius to come over his house for the summer, but thankfully Malfoy wouldn’t let him. I mean, I’m always at the Potter’s house, so if Scorpius was there, it would have been a nightmare.”

“That’s right,” Annie Thomas said, “He’s so annoying. That would have been the worst.”

Annie was the kind of girl who thought that she was someone’s best friend, but really wasn’t. Last year her “friend” has been Rose and this year it looked like it would stay the same. Annie was nice enough, but it was rather annoying to have her following you around and agreeing with every little thing that you say.

“So,” Rose said, eager to change the subject, “Are any of you going for the House Cup?”

A loud chorus of “no!” rang through the room.

“Oh,” said Rose, “Well, I think I’m gunna go for it. Sounds fun, eh?”

“I’m sure you’ll do great, Rose,” Annie said.

“Yeah,” said Christina. “Do you know anyone else who’s going for it?”

“Well, Al is. Definitely James, too. And Scorpius might. But, I hope not. Imagine if he got picked over me? That would just be embarrassing.” Rose replied, pulling the covers over herself. “Well, I’m going to bed. See you guys tomorrow.”

The four other girls got in bed too, turned off the lights, and all was silent.

* * *

It was everything but silent in the boys dormitory. Everyone was running around, eating candy, screaming that they’re going to be picked for the tournament, and just being plain loud. Well, all except one; Scorpius. He just didn’t want to enter the competition. He was no good at sports or anything of that sort and he knew it. In second year he had tried out for the Quidditch and managed to stay airborne for about five seconds.

He was just glad to be at Hogwarts. Here, he actually had friends and he wasn’t being yelled at every couple of minutes for things he didn’t even do. The House Cup would sure be something to remember and he was looking forward to cheering on the Gryffindor champion and enjoying his time while he could.

~~~~~~~~~~

So... there it is. I hope you liked it. The next chappie will hopefully be up soon. And while you're here feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Okie-dokie. I have finally written the third chapter I rather like this one, as it picks up the pace a lot. There are some mild surprises in this one and one of them will play a major part in a future plot-line. Not telling you which one, though. So, yeah, enjoy the chappie!

Chapter Three: In Which Rose Becomes Quite Angry

The following day, the Great Hall was booming with excitement and chatter and it was almost impossible to hear yourself think. Almost deafened from the noise, Scorpius sat himself down between Albus and Jordan Reilly. Jordan was a tall boy with light brown hair and chocolate brown eyes and he had been one of the first Gryffindors to actually talk to Scorpius once he was sorted into that house.

“Hey Scorpius!” Jordan said loudly, “Entering the tournament?”

“Nope,” Scorpius sighed, “I thought that we had already established that fact.”

“Well, yeah, but, hey! It’s worth asking, isn’t it?” Jordan replied.

“Guys, I heard that Rosie is entering,” Albus whispered.

“Rose?!?” Jordan said, apparently shocked, “You mean your cousin, right? I never knew that she would want to do something like that. It might, you know, mess up her hair or makeup or whatever else girls these days are worried about.”

“Yup. My little cousin Rose.” Albus liked to call Rose his “little cousin” even though he was only four days older than her. “She’s braver than you think.”

“Well, I’m not that worried about it. We, as in you and me, Al, have a much better chance of making it. Dude, we’re totally going to rock this thing!”

Nobody noticed that Scorpius remained mysteriously quiet throughout the whole conversation. It’s true, he thought, Rose would make a good champion. She’s brave. I mean, she wouldn’t be in Gryffindor if she wasn’t, but she’s braver than most. Still, it would be a lot more fun if the champion were someone who actually liked me.

Just then the post owls arrived, bringing the Daily Prophet to Albus. He opened it up eagerly, hoping for news about the House Cup, but the excitement in his face quickly faded, turning into a look of pure horror.

“Listen to this guys,” Albus said. “Is a new Dark Lord possibly among us? Last night, three muggles were found murdered in their houses. All of the evidence led the Ministry officials to believe that this was caused by magic. Upon further investigation, the officials were able to conclude that one Viktor Krum, a famous seeker, former Durmstrang student, and a Triwizard Tournament contestant committed this murder. The officials were unable to track down Krum and he is now at large. We warn you to be on your guard for he is particularly dangerous. We only hope that he is caught soon and that the wizarding world will not be in as much danger as it was twenty-three years ago when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tortured countless people and caused a huge number of deaths.” When Albus was done reading the article, Scorpius and Jordan were in shock.

“No! This can’t be happening,” Jordan yelled out. “I thought we would never have to deal with anything like this.”

“No one did,” Scorpius said solemnly.

“I know,” said Jordan, rather forcefully. “So there’s only one solution.”

“And what would that be?” Albus asked.

“We go after him, of course.”

This statement was met with very disapproving faces.

“What?!?” Jordan asked. “I think it’s a good idea.”

* * *

Meanwhile Rose and Christina were walking down the hallway toward the Goblet of Fire. It was an exciting prospect; neither of them had ever seen it before although they had heard tell of it quite a lot.

“Whoa…” Christina said once they had arrived at their destination.

“Yeah,” Rose said. “It’s so, I don’t know, fire-y.”

And it was true. Blue flames were spurting out of a large wooden goblet with ornate designs carved into it. A glowing circle surrounded the Goblet, acting as an age line to keep younger students from entering. Rose was about to put her piece of parchment, specifying her name and house, when someone spoke coldly into her ear.

“So, if it isn’t little Rose Weasley,” the voice said. It belonged to Theodore Zabini, a Slytherin in Roses’ year whom she had heartily disliked ever since she met him. “You’re entering the tournament?” he snorted. “Like you’ll ever make it.”

“Oh. And you think you’d do any better,” Rose snapped back. “Because you won’t.”

“Such snappy retorts, Weasley,” Theodore said nastily. “How did you ever come up with them?”

“You think you’re so funny, don’t you?” Rose retorted. She drew out her wand and was about to curse him when Headmistress McGonagall showed up.

“Miss Weasley, what ever are you doing?” she said sternly.

“Oh, um, nothing,” she said, stowing her wand away. “It’s just the minor fact that Theodore here was torturing me,” she spat out.

“Whatever he said, don’t let me see you do that again,” McGonagall replied. “Next time it’ll be detention.” And she walked away, most likely heading towards her office.

“The Headmistress won’t be here to save your neck next time Weasley,” Theodore said.
“Think that through. You know I could beat you in a duel.”

“Oh, yeah. Wanna bet on that?” Rose said, firing up again.

“Yeah. I do,” Theodore replied. “Tomorrow night. Right here. If you don’t chicken out.”

“I’m NOT a coward,” Rose shouted, causing many heads to turn around and stare at her. “I’ll be there. And you better be prepared to lose.”

“Me? Lose? I never lose at anything. Especially not to a weak, little girl.” With that he walked away, muttering nasty things to himself.

“Ah, Rose. What did you get yourself into?” Christina sighed.

“What? Even you don’t think I can beat him?” Rose snapped back.

“I never said--” Christina began, but Rose interrupted her.

“Fine,” she said. “Fine. I’ll show you guys. I’ll prove that I’m not just a ‘weak little girl’. I’m going to win the duel tomorrow no matter what it takes.” She threw her name into the Goblet of Fire, flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder and stormed away.

* * *

Albus, Scorpius, and Jordan were about to enter the room that the Goblet of Fire was in when they saw Rose storming away from the place, looking quite upset.

“I wonder what’s wrong with her,” Albus said.

“No idea. Is she in trouble or something?” Jordan asked.

“Not that I know of,” Albus replied. “Oh, well. I’ll just ask her later.

The three boys entered the room cautiously, not sure of what they’d find inside. Scorpius found the Goblet to be rather intimidating, but the other two boys only felt pure excitement. They rushed toward it, with their parchment held high, as if they were already holding the House Cup and were showing it off for all to see. Albus was about to put his name in when Jordan grabbed his hand to stop him.

“We should do it together,” he said. “You know, maybe if we put our names in at the same time it’ll be a good omen or something.”

“Okay. Sure,” Albus said. “One… two… three… GO!”

The two boys dropped their pieces of parchment into the Goblet and watched the blues flames dance around them, each strongly hoping that they were the ones picked in two days time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, there you go! I introduced some new characters into it. I think that Jordan is pretty cool, but that's just me And, while you wonderful people are here, I encourage you to leave me some feedback.

Well, here it is! The lovely, wonderful, fantabulous Chapter Four!

Chapter Four: In Which the Champions Stand

Rose Weasley woke with a start. She vaguely recalled having a nightmare about losing to Zabini, but she wasn’t sure if that was what had woken her up. Oh well, she thought. It’s morning anyways. Might as well be up.

“Christina!” she yelled, shaking her friend to wake her up, forgetting about their little disagreement yesterday.

“Wha-a-a-t?” Christina moaned. “For goodness sake, Rose. It’s only 7:30. Another hour, please?”

“Sorry,” Rose said. “But, I’m hungry and I didn’t want to look like a complete freak walking to breakfast all alone.”

“Okay, okay, okay… I’m coming,” Christina said, miserably getting out of bed. “I thought you weren’t talking to me.”

“Oh. Well, I changed my mind. It was no fun. And I know that you know that I’m going to beat that little slimeball.”

“Yep,” said Christina, yawning and not really paying attention to what she was agreeing to.

“He’s going to regret that he ever messed with me.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And he better bring some tissues. And bandages. And-“

“Rose!”

“Yes?”

“You’re getting rather violent here.”

“Well, sor-ry.” Rose said. “C’mon! Hurry up! All the food will be gone by the time that we get there.”

“I doubt it,” Christina muttered to herself and the two girls left the room.

* * *

If one was to walk into the Great Hall at this moment, they would sense a definite sense of excitement. But, underneath that, they would sense fear and confusion. The knowledge of a possible new Dark Lord being at large definitely was not having a positive effect on the student body. But, then again, why would it? Many of the students had relatives who were wither killed or tortured my Lord Voldemort and they were not eager for that kind of thing to happen again. And although most students would never want to cross paths with Viktor, Jordan Reilly was making plans to capture him, which Albus and Scorpius being forced to listen to.

“So, get this,” Jordan said excitedly. “I corner him. You guys, who are hiding when I corner him, jump out and launch a surprise attack. He’ll never see it coming.”

“Jordan, we’ve been over this a thousand times,” said Scorpius, who had indeed heard this same idea a great amount of instances. “There is no way that us three teenagers can beat Viktor Krum. It’s not possible.”

“Who says?” Jordan asked. “We’re all powerful.”

“Jordan, just give up already,” Albus said. “We seriously would never be able to do it.”

“Why not? Your dad defeated Voldemort when he was only seventeen. And we’re fifteen. It isn’t not that much younger.”

“I know what my dad did,” Albus said. “But, I’m not him.”

“Guys, seriously, can’t we just worry about the House Cup for now? I mean, aren’t you two anxious to see if you are going to represent the house?” Scorpius said.

“Oh all right,” said Jordan. “But, I still think that if we find a really high cliff, then lure him near the edge, and then fight him that he wouldn’t stand a--”

“Jordan!” Albus yelled.

“Chance…” Jordan concluded quietly as Rose and Christina joined them at the table.

“Hey guys!” Rose said brightly. “Glad to see that you didn’t eat all of the food.”

“Just because we’re boys doesn’t mean we’re pigs,” Jordan said.

“Sure…. I believe you,” Rose said and Jordan didn’t seem to catch the sarcasm.

Rose had just piled food on her plate and had begun to eat when Albus said, “Hey, Rose. What was bothering you yesterday? I saw you storming out of the Goblet room, looking really mad.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Rose said.

“Are you sure? Because I don’t like seeing my little cousin upset.” Albus replied.

“Just drop it. It’s none of your business,” Rose snapped. “And I’m not your little cousin!”
The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, everyone seeming to be annoyed with each other. Finally Rose stood up and said, “Gotta go! I have a pile of homework to do and I’m not really in the mood for detention.” Then she left without another word.

“Christina,” Albus said. “What was Rose upset about? I know you were there.”

“Oh, um, I’m not sure if I should tell you. Rosie would probably kill me if I did,” Christina muttered.

“C’mon. I’m sure she won’t really care. And I won’t bug her about it. I promise,” Albus pleaded.

“All right, all right,” Christina said. “Just don’t tell her.”

“Okay.”

“Well she had a bit of an argument with Theodore Zabini. They’re having a duel tonight,” Christina managed to say.

“Oh gosh,” Albus said. “We’ve got to stop her.”

“No. You promised you’d leave her alone.”

“Yeah, well I didn’t think that it was this serious. What if her kills her?”

“I doubt it…”

“He could. Anything’s possible. And Zabini doesn’t play fair.”

“I have and idea,” Jordan piped in. “How about using one of my famous rescue schemes?”

“No!” Albus, Scorpius, and Christina all said simultaneously.

* * *

Later that day, Rose was in the girl’s dormitory, preparing herself for the duel. She put on a pair of black sweats and a pink t-shirt, then put her light brown hair into a long braid. Now, she had to put the next part of her plan into action. She walked out of the room and carefully crept into the boy’s dormitory, praying that no one was in there. Cautiously, she walked over to Albus’ trunk and opened it without a sound. There, right on the top, was what she was looking for. The Invisibility Cloak. Rose put it on, then proceeded to walk to the room where the Goblet was kept.

Come to think of it, this was a rather risky place to duel as a student who wished to submit their name could easily enter. But, Rose didn’t care. She was too focused on beating Zabini. Lost in battle plans, she didn’t realize how far her feet had carried her, but before she knew it she was right at the door. She reached out and attempted to open it silently, but a small creak was emitted.

“Weasley,” a nasty voice said.

“Zabini,” Rose sneered back.

“Glad to see you didn’t chicken out. Now lets see how long you last.” He pulled out his wand so fast that Rose barely noticed it. “Expeliarmus!”

Rose, having good reflexes from Quidditch, whipped out her own wand and yelled,

“Protego!” The spell was backfired at Zabini who successfully dodged it.

“Pathetic Weasley. Is that the best you can do?”

“Levicorpus!” Rose shouted and Zabini was lifted into the air, upside down.

Rose could tell that Theodore was not very happy and that he was struggling to figure out a way to get down. She didn’t even know how to get him down as she had, thankfully, forgotten the counter curse. And this must have distracted her for a few seconds because Zabini pulled out his wand and yelled, “Crucio!” Pure shock held Rose back for another second, but she managed to avoid the spell by half an inch.

“You can’t do that!” Rose yelled. “That’s cheating. And it’s illegal. I could get you in huge trouble for that!”

“Oh, yeah?” Zabini yelled back. “Well you’d have to admit that you were out of bed and breaking the school rules and you’d get in trouble too.”

“Not as much as you. They could arrest you for that!”

“And will anyone believe you when you tell them? They know that you hate me. They’ll just think--”

“Shut up!”

“No! I will not!”

“Seriously, shut up! I hear someone,” Rose said, trying to remain clam.

“Fine,” Zabini said, and sure enough, footsteps were indeed approaching.

“Quick! Hide!” Rose said.

“Where?”

“Anywhere. It doesn’t matter.” Rose said, running toward the nearest closet. She had almost gotten there when the Headmistress walked into the room.

“What the heck is going on here?” McGonagall said.

“Um, nothing,” Rose lied. “I was just putting my name into the Goblet of Fire.”

“You’re lying Miss Weasley. I saw you put it in yesterday.” McGonagall replied.

“Well, um, I just, uh…” Rose started to mumble before she was interrupted by a huge clatter. The suit of armor Zabini had been hiding behind had fallen to the ground. McGonagall turned around, enraged.

“Zabini! You’re here too?” she hissed. “Someone tell me what in the world is going on, right now.”

There was dead silence. You could have heard a pin drop.

“Come with me,” McGonagall said sternly. She walked out the door. Rose and Theodore followed, their heads down. Quietly, they all walked to the Headmistress’ office, the only sound being their shoes hitting the floor. McGonagall opened the door and beckoned them inside.

“Sit down,” she said. “Now, I am very disappointed in you both especially since I made you prefects. And since you refuse to tell me why you were out of bed after hours and making a huge racket, you will both receive three nights worth of detention. I expect this matter to be settled soon. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes,” Rose said very quietly.

“Yes,” Zabini echoed.

“Now, both of you head back to your respective dormitories and never let this happen again,” McGonagall said. “As for your detentions, a note will be sent out to you in the near future. Probably after tomorrow when this whole House Cup business will be over for a couple of weeks.” She waved her hand as a signal of dismissal, and the two fifth years left the room.

* * *

The next day seemed to drag on for an eternity. Albus, Jordan, and Scorpius were so excited for night to come that they could barely focus on anything. And, unfortunately for them, they hadn’t done their homework the day before, and it wasn’t looking like it would be completed any time soon.

There was a feast before the champions were picked and even that had lost some of its novelty. Even Scorpius, who hadn’t entered the tournament, was feeling a little queasy.

“Can’t they just pick the champions already?” he asked.

“What’s the point? We all know it’s going to be me,” Jordan said, obviously joking.

“No, you’re wrong there,” Albus said. “Gryffindor House Champion has my name written all over it.”

Scorpius glanced over at Rose, wondering if she would say something, and he was surprised to see how upset she looked.

“Hey, Al,” he whispered. “Did something happen to Rose?”

“What…?” Al said.

“Did something happen to Rose?” Scorpius repeated.

“I dunno. She does look rather upset. But, I didn’t really talk to her today,” Albus replied.

“Christina told me that she got in big trouble yesterday,” Jordan pitched in. “She wouldn’t tell me what it was for, though.”

“Oh. Okay. I was just wondering,” Scorpius said. Just then the desserts vanished from the table and Headmistress McGonagall stood up.

“Now, the rules of the competition were never explained thoroughly, so Mr. Harry Potter is here again to tell you,” she said and Harry stood up.

“So, I know that you are all excited and can’t wait to know which of you will be crowned champions, but you’re going to have to listen to me for a couple of minutes,” Harry said.

“During the House Cup, there will be four tasks. The champions will compete in these tasks and the judges will award them points depending on how well they did. In the end, the person with the most points will be the winner and they will receive the House Cup, a really huge, shiny trophy that probably cost a fortune. I want to make it very clear that cheating is not allowed although in the Triwizard Tournament everyone did it anyways.” He sat back down and let McGonagall speak again.

“The champions will be chosen in a matter of moments. If chosen, please go through this door,” she pointed to her right, “sit down, and wait for further instruction. Now if Mr. Filch could please bring up the Goblet of Fire.”

Argus Filch, although very old, was still the caretaker at Hogwarts and he gave no signs that he would ever retire. He carefully rolled the Goblet up to the front of the Great Hall. The students sat staring at it for a minute of two, while the blue flames danced inside, then, all of the sudden, the flames turned red and a piece of parchment flew out. McGonagall caught it with the tips of her fingers.

“And the champion for Ravenclaw is… Anthony Wickham!”

Anthony, a sixth year with sandy colored hair, stood up and walked out of the Great Hall, not looking nervous at all. The flames were blue for a mere second then another parchment flew out.

“The Slytherin champion,” McGonagall said, “is Theodore Zabini!”

Zabini looked shocked for a few seconds, then he too stood up and walked out of the room. This time, the Goblet took a few minutes to shoot the next name out.

“For Hufflepuff house, the champion will be Zachary Fiddlesworth!”

“I love his last name,” Jordan snorted as Zachary, a very tall, muscular boy, also exited the room. Now there was only one champion was left to be chosen and the Goblet of Fire seemed to be taking its sweet time. Finally, after a truly agonizing wait, the last name flew into the air and McGonagall caught it.

“The Gryffindor champion will be…” she paused, trying to be dramatic.

“C’mon! Read it already!” Jordan shouted, then realizing that he had spoken aloud, sat back down very embarrassed.

McGonagall cleared her throat then said, “Rose Weasley!”

Rose was shocked. Very, very slowly she stood up and walked out of the room, hardly daring to believe that she was actually the one who was chosen.

~~~~~~

Well, there you have it. The four champions are officially chosen! Were you surprised? Happy? Dissapointed? Anyways, this was the longest chapter yet! YAY!!! Oh, while you are here, would you do me a huge favor and leave some feedback? Thanks...

Chapter Five: In Which Jordan Over Reacts to a Simple Situation

Slowly Rose walked out of the Great Hall, very aware of the fact that everyone was staring at her. She still couldn’t believe it. She, Rose Weasley, was to represent all of Gryffindor in a legendary tournament, one that had never taken place before. It was like a dream come true; the one chance to prove herself that she had never been given before.

After a few moments, Rose’s feet carried her to the room in which the champions were supposed to be meeting. She pulled open the door and entered.

“And here we have our last champion,” Harry Potter said, winking at his niece. The heads of the other champions turned slowly toward her and looked a bit surprised to see a girl in their midst.

“Weasley?” Zabini said, with a hint of disgust in his voice.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Rose said casually.

“I don’t believe it,” Zabini said. “There must be some mistake.”

“Well, believe it or not, there wasn’t one, you freak,” Rose spat.

“Guys, guys, calm down!” Harry said. “Theodore, it wasn’t a mistake and Rose, there is no need to call him a freak no matter how much you think that he is.”

Rose gave Zabini an evil glare, then sat down in an armchair.

“Now that you are all here,” Harry said, “I can tell you about the first task. This task is meant to test your daring and quick thinking. You will be provided with a broomstick. Your own broomstick may be used only if we have it a couple of days before hand so that no charms, curses, or jinxes will be placed on it. The task will take place in about a month and a half from now. You will be notified of the exact date shortly. Now, all of you head back to your house common rooms. I’m sure that they’ll be wanting to celebrate.”

Carefully, Rose stood up and walked toward Gryffindor Tower, wondering what the other house members would think.

* * *

Albus, Jordan, and Scorpius were in the Gryffindor common room, sitting on the comfortable red armchairs and discussing the results.

“Well, I can’t say that I was expecting it to be Rosie, but I’m sure she’ll do fine,” Albus said, trying to look in the bright side.

“Yeah, I suppose that she will,” Scorpius said. “I just think that it’ll be hard rooting on someone who hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you, Scorpius,” Albus said.

“Oh, really? Then why does she ignore me every single day and give me dirty looks all of the time?”

“She’s just… I don’t know how to explain it,” Albus said. “Sorry, mate.”

“Okay, enough of this mushy stuff,” Jordan interrupted.

“Hey!” Scorpius said. “It’s not mushy stuff. We are simply discussing someone who hates me and someone whom I don’t particularly like either.”

“Sure,” Jordan said sarcastically, “I believe you. You know you like her.”

“No I don’t. Anyways,” Scorpius said, rather loudly, “What do you guys think of Zabini as a champion?”

“Not cool, dude, not cool. I hate that guy,” Jordan said.

“Yeah. Why couldn’t someone, um, nicer have gotten it?” Scorpius asked.

“Uh, Scorpius, when are you going to learn? There’s no such thing as a nice Slytherin,”
Jordan said in an obnoxious voice.
Just then the portrait hole opened and Rose entered the common room. It was a complete mixed reaction. Half of the students cheered and wolf-whistled and the other half just sat there with blank stares on their faces.

“Yeah Rose!” Jordan yelled, doing a series of spastic movements that he called a victory dance. “Good job! I can’t say I thought it would be you, but, well…”

“Congratulations,” Albus said, cutting across Jordan.

“Thanks guys,” Rose said beaming. “I didn’t really expect it to be me either.”

“So,” Albus said, “What’s the first task about? What do you have to do?”

“I dunno,” Rose replied. “They told us that it was designed to test daring and quick thinking. And we get to have a broomstick and our wands.”

“Sweetness,” Jordan said dreamily.

“Hey guys,” Christina said, joining them. “Rose, this is awesome! This is so cool! You’re going to win the whole thing, I know it!”

“Um… Christina? You’re sounding kind of like Jordan,” Rose said. “It’s not a good thing,” she added, seeing Christina’s blank stare.

“Hey!” Jordan said, “That’s not very nice.” He put on his sad, pleading face and made big puppy dog eyes.

“I was kidding!” Rose said, laughing.

“Oh,” Jordan replied quietly.

“Anyways,” Rose said, “It’s been a long day and I’m going to bed.” She turned around and walked up towards the dormitories.

“I better go too,” Christina sighed and she left the three boys alone.

The second Rose and Christina were gone Jordan said, “Listen Scorpius. If you want to be friends with Rose, you actually have to talk to her.”

“Shut up Jordan,” Scorpius said. “She hates me and if I talk to her she’ll hate me even more.”

“That’s not true,” Jordan replied, “not true at all.”

“Yeah,” Scorpius said, “it is.”

“Nope,” Jordan insisted.

“Guys!” Albus said. “Just drop it already!”

“Fine,” Jordan grumbled. “Whatever. But, I am totally great at giving out advice and I have a feeling Scorpius here is going to need it one day.”

“Um… no,” Scorpius replied. “I don’t think so.”

* * *

The next few days seemed to pass like a couple of minutes. Even the most boring lesson didn’t appear to drag on and on. Rose was doing everything she could to prepare for the task (which was to take place in two weeks) and unfortunately, this involved flying practice with Jordan. It had been his idea, and Rose had said yes before she had given any thought to the matter.

“C’mon!” Jordan shouted. “You can dodge that better!”

“I dodged it perfectly fine,” Rose snapped. “And I play Quidditch, a fact that you very well know, so I don’t need all of this basic stuff.”

“Yes you do,” Jordan said. “Even I need basic training once in a while.”

Rose groaned. Jordan was an extremely good Quidditch player (he was a chaser) and he was very aware of this fact.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Jordan said. “Now, fly over there! Quickly, faster now!”

And so the practice went. When it was finally over, Rose was immensely aggravated and Jordan was quite pleased.

“So, we’ll do it again tomorrow?” he asked.

“Um, no. Sorry, but I’m busy,” Rose lied. She was not eager to resume this part of her task preparation any time soon. Jordan, being the youngest team captain in quite a long time, was overly serious and expected nothing less than perfection.

“Oh, okay,” Jordan said, sounding disappointed.

“It’s not that you’re a bad trainer,” Rose said. “It’s just that I have a bunch of other things to do and I prefer to practice flying alone.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s fine,” Jordan sighed, still looking rather downcast.

“I’m sorry,” Rose began but Jordan interrupted.

“It’s fine!” Jordan said rather loudly. But, no matter what he said, Rose knew that it wasn’t fine and that thought made her feel rather uncomfortable.

* * *

Jordan wasn’t happy. He stormed back to the common room, not daring to believe that Rose, of all people, didn’t seem to appreciate his talent on the Quidditch field. Grumpily, he climbed through the portrait hole and threw himself down on one of the couches not realizing that Albus and Scorpius were both there.

“Jordan, what’s up?” Albus asked. “You seem mad about something.”

“Really Al, how did you ever guess?” Jordan said sarcastically.

“What’s wrong?” Albus said.

“Oh nothing. It’s just the flying practice with Rose went terribly,” Jordan replied.

“What happened?” Scorpius inquired.

“She, um, she never wants to do flying practice with me again,” Jordan mumbled.

“Oh,” Scorpius and Albus said simultaneously.

“Yeah. She doesn’t seem to appreciate my extreme talents on the field,” Jordan said.

“Jordan, listen. She’s under a lot of pressure. I mean, she’s the only girl in the competition and I’m sure that she wants to kick Zabini’s butt,” Albus said wisely.

“I know,” Jordan sighed. “I guess that I over reacted--”

“Just a little,” Scorpius interrupted, winking.

“And if she doesn’t want to get any better at flying, that’s her problem,” Jordan concluded.

“That’s the spirit,” Albus said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Yup,” Jordan said, laughing. “Now, who’s up for some wizard’s chess?”

~~~~~~~~~~~

And there's Chapter 5! I hope that you guys enjoyed reading it. The next chapter will contain the first task! YAY! And, because you guys are the coolest, nicest, awesomest people ever, you can leave me some feedback here!

Chapter Six: In Which Rose Goes Mildly Insane

The next couple of weeks seemed to fly past and before she knew it, Rose was in her dormitory getting ready for the first task. Her nerves were building up but she felt confident that she could possibly win this thing. She had practiced flying with Jordan and Christina had helped her with spell work. Now, the only thing left was the task itself.

Rose put her hair into two long braids, grabbed her wand, and proceeded down to the Quidditch Pitch where the task was set to start. The other champions were already there, Anthony Wickham looking sick, Zachary Fiddlesworth wearing an expression of excitement and anxiety, and Theodore Zabini sneering as usual.

“All our champions are now here,” Headmistress McGonagall said, her voice booming across the stadium. “Mr. Filch, please give the champions their broomsticks.”

Filch walked over to them, stumbling under the weight of four broomsticks, and grumbled, “Take the one that’s yours.” The champions did, all of them feeling a bit more comfortable. To Rose, having her broom back was like being reacquainted with a long lost friend.

McGonagall’s voice rang out again. “Champions over here,” she said, signaling a painted white line on the field. “When the whistle blows, you are to mount your brooms and then take off. I assume that you see the rings floating in the air.” The champions nodded. “Each of these will be lit with fire. Before flying through them, you must put it out. They are four different colors, as you can see. Blue will be for Mr. Wickham, yellow for Mr. Fiddlesworth, green for Mr. Zabini and red for Miss Weasley. Keep in mind that you must fly through every ring of your color. The first one to reach the end will be the winner of the task.”

I can’t believe the first task is something so simple, Rose thought. I mean, seriously, we have to put out fire and fly through rings. How much easier could it get?

“On my whistle,” McGonagall said, “3…2…1… GO!” She blew the whistle as loud a she could and Rose quickly took off. The first ring was coming up soon. “Aguamenti!” she yelled. The fire disappeared and she flew through the ring with ease. She got through the next few rings in this fashion and was feeling pretty good about the task when she noticed that the rings led into the Forbidden Forest. Oh, great, she thought. Rose had only been in the forest once and she had promptly been knocked unconscious.

For a few minutes, she flew through the forest with ease, then suddenly, something jumped out in her path. It was a huge, eight-eyed spider with giant pincers that could tear a human apart. Rose screamed, the yelled, “Stupify!” The spell missed. “Stupify, stupify, STUPIFY!” she shouted, and finally the spell made contact and the spider fell backwards. It had been enough of a distraction, though, to make her forget where the next ring was. Frantically, she flew around, trying to find it when she ran into Zabini.

“Oi! Wealsey!” he yelled. “Lost, are you?”

“You wish,” she said nastily. Just then, she spotted the next ring. She turned around and flew toward it. This was a mistake.

“Stupify!” he yelled, noticing her distraction.

Rose managed to dodge the spell by an inch, but she was forced to hang on the underside of her broom. She struggled to pull herself back on top and Zabini flew away, laughing.
After several more seconds, she finally managed to get back up, but it had lost her valuable time. She was almost positive that she was in last place now. She flew faster and faster, hoping to make up her time, but she only succeeded in crashing into one Anthony Wickham.

“Hey, what’s your problem?” he groaned. “That hurt.”

“Well, sor-ry,” Rose said in an obnoxious voice and she flew away taking pleasure in the fact that she was no longer last. She flew on through the next couple of rings then came across a highly colorful bird-like thing.

“WOOOHOOOO!” it sang. “WOOOOHOOOOOOO!”

“That’s an interesting song,” Rose said.

“WOOOOHOOO!”

“Very catchy,” she mumbled.

“WOOOHOOOWOOOHOOOOOOO!”

“Ah HA! This song should be marketed. It would make lots of money.”

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!”

“Yes, yes, yes, very nice,” she said, then a sudden realization struck her. “Wait… this is a Fwooper. Oh, great.” She groaned. “The Fwooper’s song, although pleasant at first will eventually drive the listener insane,” Rose recited. “I’ve got to get out of here.” And she flew away without another glance at the creature.

* * *

“Well, this is exiting,” Jordan said sarcastically. It had been about fifteen minutes since the champions had all entered the forest and the spectators couldn’t see a thing.

“Yeah,” Albus said. “At least it was cool toward the beginning.”

“Sorta,” Jordan replied. “I can’t believe how easy the task is, though. I mean, I could have aced this thing.”

“But, they are going into the forest,” Scorpius put in. “You never know what they will encounter in there.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever,” Jordan said.

“I’m sure Rose will be fine,” Albus said. “She’s been in there before.”

“Wasn’t that the time when she was knocked unconscious?” Jordan asked.

“Well, yeah, it was. But, she’s doing great. I know it,” Albus insisted.

“Okay,” Jordan said, smirking. “Whatever you say.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Rose wasn’t doing too great. She had no idea where the next ring was and she was still shocked that she fell for something as stupid as a Fwooper. Even a first year should know not to be tricked by them. But, no matter how much she cursed herself for being so stupid, it didn’t help her gain back what lead she had had. She flew forward at an accelerated speed, hoping that this time she wouldn’t crash into anything.

And for a while things actually went pretty smoothly. She found several rings, performed the correct counter curse on them, and flew through as quickly as she could. Just then, Zachary Fiddlesworth flew past her yelling, “Watch out! There are Jarveys around here!”

“I’ll keep that in mind!” she yelled back. A Jarvey was not high on her list of magical creatures to meet. Rose flew higher so that the creatures couldn’t reach her feet, but she was forced to go back down to get through the next ring. At first, she didn’t see any sign of danger but then something jumped up and bit her ankle.

“Ow!” she said, her ankle throbbing. She raised her wand and cried, “Stupify!” The thing fell flat on its back and Rose flew away before she could see what her attacker was. In the distance, she could see the finish line and, thankfully, none of the other champions had made it back yet. She sped up and was almost out of the forest when she collided with a tree branch. Slowly, she fell off of her broom, hit the ground hard, and everything went black.

* * *

Groggily, Rose opened her eyes and the faces of Albus, Jordan, and Christina came into focus. “What are you doing here?” Rose asked. “You’re not in the tournament.”

“Rose, the task is over,” Albus said.

“Wha – what happened?” she said, clearly very confused about the matter.

“You fainted,” Jordan said simply. “Crashed into a tree branch or something.”

“Oh,” Rose said quietly. “So I didn’t win?”

“No,” Christina said. “Unfortunately you didn’t. But, there’s still three more tasks.”

“So, who did win?” Rose inquired.

“The guy with the funny last name,” Jordan said. “Wigglebottom or something like that.”

“It’s Fiddlesworth,” Rose said, laughing.

“Then it was the Ravenclaw guy, then Zabini, then you,” Albus said.

“Thank Godric Zabini didn’t win,” Rose said. “I would die of embarrassment if a little slimeball like him beat me.”

The rest of them nodded silently. It was quiet for a couple minutes then Rose said,

“Where’s Scorpius. He’s always with you guys.”

“He went back to the common room after the task. Said he didn’t feel good or something,” Albus said.

“Oh. Well, it’s better that he isn’t here. He’s always so… ugh,” Rose said.

“Um, Rose,” said Jordan. “I’m pretty sure that a person can’t be ugh.”

“Shut up,” she told him, promptly whacking the boy with a pillow.

Madame Pomfrey stormed into the room and said quite firmly, “Get out! This poor girl needs rest and here you are, encouraging her to whack you with pillows, which, in case you didn’t know, is not good for recovery.” She waved her hand towards the door and the three fifth years left.

“I don’t like that one,” Jordan said the second they had left the hospital wing.

Albus and Christina burst out laughing. Jordan looked at them questioningly.

“What?” he said. “What’s so funny?”

This only made them laugh harder.

* * *
“Scorpius, dude! Where have you been? You totally missed the party,” Jordan said as soon as he entered the boy’s dormitory.

“Party? What party?” Scorpius asked.

“There wasn’t one,” Albus said. “Jordan was making another one of his super great jokes that he thinks are funny but really aren’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jordan asked.

“Oh, um, nothing,” Albus replied.

“Oh, yeah?” Jordan said challengingly. He picked up a pillow and threw it at Albus.

“Hey! What was that for?” Albus asked.

“Why do you care? Are you afraid of pillows?”

“You bet I’m not!” And pretty soon pillows were flying everywhere, all three boys laughing their heads off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, there you have it. The first task. It was kind of lame, but I like it anyways. I encourage you to telll me your opinion here. Thank you.

Chapter Seven: In Which the Fifth Years Go Into the Village

The weather outside was dark and dismal, rain pouring down hard and the clouds an ugly gray color. Nevertheless, the three fifth year boys were almost as perky as you could get. Or at least Albus and Jordan were. Scorpius, on the other hand was still fast asleep, snoring rather loudly.

“SCORPIUS!” Jordan yelled.

“Wha-a-a-“ Scorpius yawned, his eyes barely open.

“Wake up! It’s 8 o’clock!” Jordan replied.

“Dude, it’s a Sunday,” Scorpius groaned. “Can’t I get a tad bit more sleep?”

“Nope,” Jordan insisted, shaking his head. “We’ve got big plans for today.”

“Like what?” Scorpius asked.

“Oh, well we could go to Hogsmeade or play Quidditch,” Jordan said.

“Jordan, it’s raining out,” Albus said.

“So what? Maybe it’ll stop in a few minutes,” Jordan replied.

“Yup. I’m sure it will,” Albus said sarcastically.

“Definitely, Jordan,” Scorpius said.

“Yeah, I know. Let’s go get breakfast,” Jordan said rather forcefully.

Albus and Scorpius started laughing like mad men, Jordan gave them a rather peculiar look and all three boys proceeded to walk toward the Great Hall.

* * *

Meanwhile, Christina and Rose were already eating breakfast as Rose had insisted on getting there before the boys. She wasn’t in a fabulous mood and she wasn’t really looking forward to talking to them. Especially not Scorpius.

“Rose, what’s the matter?” Christina asked.

“What do you think?” Rose snapped.

“Don’t get all mad,” Christina said. “I know you’re upset about yesterday, but there are still three more tasks.”

“Yeah, I know,” Rose replied. “It’s just that I can’t believe that I was stupid enough to crash into a tree branch. It was right in front of my face.”

“You were just too eager to get to the finish,” Christina said.

“I guess,” Rose sighed. “I still feel stupid. I’ve only been in the Forbidden Forest twice and both times I managed to get knocked out.”

Just then, Albus, Jordan, and Scorpius arrived and sat down next to the two girls. Scorpius distinctively heard Rose groan.

“Sounds like someone’s unhappy,” Jordan said. “Do you need some expert advice from me, Jordan, the master of… um…”

“Jordan, shut up,” Rose said.

“Why?” Jordan said, making huge puppy dog eyes.

“Because, well, because I said so,” Rose replied, sticking out her tongue.

“So, do you know what the second task is about?” Albus asked Rose, quickly changing the subject.

“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “They only said to bring a wand. Which is rather obvious.”

“Yup,” Albus and Jordan agreed simultaneously.

“I just hope it’s not as, um, stupid as the last one,” Rose said.

“You only think it was stupid because you--” Jordan began.

“Jordan!” Albus said sharply.

“Because, um, your hair got messed up,” Jordan concluded.

“Do you honestly think that I care about that?” Rose asked.

“Um, well, probably not, but I wasn’t sure because a lot of girls seem to be obsessed with their hair and I wasn’t sure if you were any different but I didn’t want to ask you if you were concerned about what your hair looked like after the task because that would be a rather awkward question and you all know that I never, ever, ever, ever say anything remotely awkward or weird or--”

“JORDAN!” Rose yelled.

“Or annoying or ridiculous…” Jordan continued.

“Shut up!” Rose said rather loudly, but her tone was light hearted and it was obvious that she wasn’t really annoyed.

“Hey, guys,” Scorpius interrupted. “It stopped raining.”

“Whoa… it did,” Albus said. “Didn’t see that one coming.”

“What did I tell you?” Jordan asked smugly.

“Um… something, perhaps?” Albus replied.

“Duh,” Jordan said, whacking Albus’ shoulder semi-lightly. “So, do you guys want to go to Hogsmeade?”

“Sure,” Christina said.

“Why not?” Rose agreed.

“Whatever,” Albus said.

“Um… yeah,” Scorpius replied.

“Then what are you waiting for?” Jordan said, not realizing exactly how loud he really was. “Let’s get going!”

* * *

Hogsmeade truly was a beautiful village and even a preceding rainstorm couldn’t detract from it. It was true that many puddles lined the street, but the five teenagers didn’t seem to care; Jordan went as far as to actually jump in them and splash the astonished passerby with murky water.

They had been at the village for a couple of hours and were running out of things to do. Jordan, Albus, and Rose had bought a great amount of merchandise at Zonko’s, all five of them had purchased heaps of candy (including, but not limited to, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, sugar quills, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, pumpkin pasties, and cauldron cakes), and Scorpius had even bought himself a new quill.

“Why don’t we go to Three Broomsticks?” Albus asked. “It’ll be warm in there.” Sure enough, the wind had just picked up and it was threatening to pour again.

“Yeah. Good idea,” Rose said, wrapping her scarf around her neck.

The five Gryffindors proceeded to walk toward the building in the question, the sky turning darker and darker, and the wind growing louder.

“If we’re trapped here,” Rose said, “it’s you’re fault, Jordan.”

“Is not,” Jordan said, sticking out his tongue.

After a matter of moments, the five arrived at Three Broomsticks. Although it wasn’t really that warm inside, it felt like a tropical island compared to the bitter exterior. Albus headed up to the counter and ordered each of them a Butterbeer.

“Thanks Al,” Scorpius said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Christina agreed, sipping her drink with an interesting expression on her face.

“Thanks,” Rose and Jordan mumbled.

“No problem,” Albus said. “Cheers!” All of them were silent for a few minutes, all sipping their beverages, until the silence was broken by an unwanted visitor.

“Well, if it isn’t the loser of the first challenge,” came the person’s voice, cold and full of hatred.

“Zabini,” Rose said, eyeing him evilly.

“Weasley,” Zabini spat. “Supreme loser.”

“There’s still three more tasks you little--” Rose snapped back.

“Go away, Zabini,” Scorpius said, looking a bit surprised at his own daring. “Leave her alone.”

“Like I’m going to listen to anything you say,” Zabini said icily.

“No one wants you here,” Scorpius said. “Why don’t you just hang out with your own friends?”

“Cuz he doesn’t have any,” Jordan said under his breath.

Zabini stamped his foot, yelled, “You haven’t seen the last of me!” and stormed away without a second glance.

“That was… weird,” Jordan said. “He’s such a chicken. No offense or anything, Scorpius, but you’re not very scary.” Scorpius just smirked. At that moment Rose turned around, her expression livid.

“You don’t think I could have handled that on my own?” she said nastily. “Well, in case it’s news to you, I could have and I don’t need some Malfoy kid sticking up for me. I’m not pathetic!”

“I never said--” Scorpius began.

“Shut up!” Rose said angrily. “You’re not my friend. Just leave me alone!” And she stormed out of the place, leaving Scorpius gaping at her.

“An excellent temper that one has,” Jordan said wisely. Even Scorpius managed to crack a smile.

~~~~~

Okay, I know this chapter wasn't the most exciting but, hey, we need some down time before the second task. Which will be coming in the next chapter! Yay! And while you lovely people are here, you might want to go to this page to leave me some feedback. Thanks

Chapter Eight: In Which Zabini Isn’t a Freak For a Few Seconds

The autumn weather quickly turned colder and before long snow began to fall, covering the grounds in a white blanket. The second task had crept up stealthily and Rose found herself frantically trying to get some last minute preparation in. She didn’t want to screw this one up and she was determined to win the whole thing.

“C’mon! Try the stunning spell once more!” Jordan shouted. Since everyone else seemed to be busy tonight, Jordan was the only one with whom Rose could practice with. Even though she wasn’t particularly enthused about this, the second task was tomorrow and wanted to make sure that she knew every spell perfectly.

“Jordan, we’ve done this one, like, a hundred times,” Rose complained.

“So what. You’ll do it again anyways,” Jordan insisted.

“Fine,” Rose sighed, then straightened up and shouted, “Stupify!”

Jordan was promptly sent flying across the room and when he landed, he was unconscious. Like he should be. Rose seriously debated about reviving him, as he had the tendency of being quite annoying after these little drills, but she waved her wand anyways, and he was back on his feet.

“Good, good,” Jordan grumbled, brushing the dirt off of his robes. “I think that we’re done for tonight.”

“Yeah,” Rose said. “I’m pretty sure that I’m ready for tomorrow. I’m gunna blow the other champions away.”

“Yep,” Jordan mumbled, not really aware of what he was agreeing to. “I’m going to go back to the common room now.” And with that, he left, leaving Rose in the empty classroom all by herself.

Jordan walked down the hallways quickly, eager to get back to the dormitory. In a matter of minutes, he had arrived and was greeted by a rather hyper Albus.

“Yo! Jordan,” Albus said.

“Um, yo?” Jordan replied.

“So,” Albus said. “How was your date with my cousin?”

“It wasn’t a date,” Jordan said forcefully, his face turning red.

“Sure, it wasn’t,” Albus replied, a wicked smile spreading across his face.

Jordan raised one eyebrow at him, attempting (but not succeeding) to look evil and menacing.

“Oh guys, just drop it,” Scorpius said.

“Yeah, great idea,” Jordan said cheerfully, patting Scorpius on the back. “How ever did you think of it?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Scorpius said sarcastically. “Must’ve heard I somewhere.”

All of the sudden the lights went out and everything was pitch black.

“What the heck?” Jordan said loudly. A semi-evil chuckling was heard in the corner.

“Albus!” Scorpius said.

“You’ll pay for this, man,” Jordan said maliciously.

“Yeah, right,” Albus said jokingly. “What are you gunna do? Sneer at me? Raise an eyebrow at me?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Jordan sighed, obviously pretending to be defeated. “Maybe I’ll attack you with an evil spell that I learned from Rose.”

“I’m scared now,” Albus teased.

“Right,” Jordan said. “Now, I’m going to bed.”

* * *

The morning came much earlier than Rose expected. It seemed that only a few minutes ago she was practicing spell work with Jordan. But, now there was no more time for practice; now was the real deal. If she made a mistake, she couldn’t go back and fix it. There was only one chance to get this thing right.

Rose grabbed her wand, stashed it in her back pocket, and walked quickly toward the Quidditch field. The task was set to start here for the second time and, again, what was in store for the champions was a complete surprise. She could hardly say that she had butterflies in her stomach; saying that she had a whole colony of insects in there would have been an understatement. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, but it could possibly be the fact that she didn’t want to humiliate herself in front of the whole school again. She made a silent vow that she would not end up in the hospital wing this time.

This time, Rose found that she wasn’t the last champion to arrive in the champion’s tent. In fact, there was only one other: Zabini. His facial expression seemed to convey that he was exited and not the least bit nervous about the upcoming task, but his eyes told differently. They held a certain anxiety in their depths and Rose couldn’t help but suppress a slight smile.

“Nervous, Weasley?” Zabini sneered.

“You wish,” Rose said icily.

They glared at each other for a few moments until Zachary Fiddlesworth and Anthony Wickham showed up. All four of the champions sat down, their bodies slightly rigid, trying to remember every thing that they had prepared over the last few weeks. This was a time when none of them could afford to make a mistake; they could either go down in history or make a complete fool of themselves in front of the whole school.

McGonagall entered the tent, announcing her presence. “Champions,” she said, glancing at each of them in turn. “You may now enter the Quidditch Pitch where you will be given further instruction.” Slowly, the champions stood up, each of them growing more and more nervous by the second. Even some of the excitement in Zabini’s face seemed to have died.
When she entered the arena, Rose’s jaw literally dropped to the ground. A huge tunnel was planted right in the middle of the field and she couldn’t see into its depths. There was only pitch darkness and a wave of fear suddenly gripped her.

“Welcome everyone,” McGonagall’s voice rang out loud and clear over the hundreds of chattering students, “to the second task!” A loud cheering was heard, tons of people whooping and hollering, calling out the names of their favored champion. Rose saw that Jordan had made a huge sign that flashed her name in various different colors and featured a picture of Zabini being eaten by a dragon. For a spilt second, her mood lightened up a bit, but then McGonagall signaled for silence and her fear crept right back.

“As many of you might have noticed, the Quidditch field has a huge tunnel in the center of it. I assure you that the field will be back to normal once the task is over, but for now, it is of vital importance. Our four champions,” there were more screams for the audience, “are going to enter this tunnel with a certain goal in mind. Fake gems have been scattered everywhere in four different colors. The colors are yellow, blue, green, and red and they represent each of the four houses. Each house champion has to find all ten gems of their house color and then successfully return back here to amass full credit for the task.” She turned towards the four champions. “Do you understand?” They all nodded rather hesitantly. “Then you may begin when the whistle blows.”

The mere seconds leading up to it seemed to last an eternity but, eventually, the whistle blow sounded and the champions raced into the tunnel. It was dark. So dark that you couldn’t see anything, not even the outline of yourself. Rose reached into her back pocket and pulled out her wand. Or at least what she thought was her wand. There was no way to know for sure at this point. She muttered, “Lumos,” and, slightly to her surprise, a small spark of light was visible. It didn’t really penetrate the darkness, but it helped. Any source of light was an instant source of comfort.

Her heart racing faster than the speed of light, Rose walked forward, searching the darkness for a faint red glow. She didn’t know what to expect. Was the darkness the only obstacle or was there something else? A huge monster? Maybe something even worse. Right now, there was not way to know.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dull red glow. Picking up the pace, she walked to toward and reached down to pick it up, receiving a shock in the process. Apparently, she couldn’t just pick it up; there was some sort of barrier surrounding it. Thinking hard, Rose pointed her wand at the gem and muttered random incantations. Carefully, she reached down to pick it up and to her immense surprise, the barrier was gone. She grabbed the gem and stashed it in her leather bag and hurried along, hoping and praying that the other gems were just as easy to find.

And the next seven were. She didn’t run into any of the other contestants and the barrier around the gems proved easy to break. Looking around in the darkness, she spotted many different glows, but none of them being red. Cautiously, she proceeded forward, glancing over her shoulder every now and then for unwanted visitors. All of the sudden, she stumbled across a room that contained the last two red gems. Rose ran forward, performing the proper spell on both of them. She grabbed the first one and bent down to get the other one, feeling a definite sense of triumph.

She had picked up the last gem when a loud noise was heard in the distance. It came closer and closer, growing increasingly louder. Rose dropped the gem in surprise and was bending over to pick it back up when the sound entered the same room as her. Slowly, she turned around, facing whatever it was that was making the racket. Since the room was practically pitch black, she didn’t know for sure what exactly the creature was, but she could have sworn that she saw the vague outline of a Hippogriff. An enraged Hippogriff to be precise.

Rose picked up the gem, shoved it in her bag, and ran as fast as she could. An enraged Hippogriff was not something that you would want to meet when you’re surrounded by darkness. She held up wand up, trying to project the light as much as she could. It was then when she realized that she had absolutely no idea where she was going. Out of pure nervousness and anxiety to complete the task successfully, she had completely forgotten to pay attention to where she was going. The Hippogriff was getting closer by the second and Rose couldn’t run that much faster.

Randomly, she picked a pathway, hoping that it was the right one. A growing fear was building up inside her. She knew that a Hippogriff could inflict a fatal wound and that wasn’t a very comforting thought. Her chosen pathway seemed to be the right one, but there was no way that she could know for sure. She was quickly running out of stamina and wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up. It wasn’t looking good.

It was about to get slightly worse. Not noticing where she was running, Rose crashed right into Zabini who did not take to this kindly.

“What are you doing?” he sneered.

“Running,” Rose said, panting.

“Why--” Zabini began, but the Hippogriff interrupted him with a loud screech. “Oh,” Zabini muttered and then started running like a madman.

Zabini was fast. He played on the Quidditch team so he was very in shape and it showed. But, Rose had to be faster. There was no way that she would allow Zabini, of all people, to win the task over her. She was positive that he had found all of his gems. So, it all came down to this; a showdown between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

“Oi! Over there,” Rose shouted, trying to distract Zabini.

“Shut up,” the boy said, not falling for the trick. The two of them continued running, the Hippogriff getting increasingly closer. In the distance, Rose could see light. They were almost at the finish. Zabini, also noticing the light, sped up, pulling ahead of Rose. She willed her legs to go faster, but her energy was dying down. She’d been running at top speed for several moments now and she could probably only keep it up for another minute or two.

They were neck to neck, about twelve feet away from the finish, when the Hippogriff caught up to them. It lashed out with its front claws, slashing a deep cut in Rose’s shoulder. The pain was incredible; she felt like she was going to die any second now. Zabini was now a couple feet away from the finish when he turned around and yelled, “Stupify!” The force of his spell was so strong that the Hippogriff was thrown backwards, unconscious. Rose, doing all she could to prevent herself from fainting, rushed forward with all the energy she could muster. And even though Zabini crossed to finish line several moments before she did, she could have sworn that he hesitated before doing so.

~~~~~

Yay! The second task. Did you like it? There isn't going to be another task for about three or four chapters. This is because, well, you'll find out later, won't you Haha. Anyways the feedback thread is located here. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Nine: In Which Jordan Thinks He Can Dance

Two days had passed since the second task and Rose was finally discharged from the Hospital Wing. Despite the vow she had made to stay out, fate had said differently and unfortunately, the Hippogriff had wounded her quite badly. Her right arm was bandaged up and in a sling.

“This is not cool,” she said, exasperated. Having her right arm in a sling and being right handed didn’t really go over well and she was having immense difficulties eating her food.

“Its only for a few more days,” Christina said.

“A few day too many,” Rose sighed. “Why do I always have to end up in these situations?”

“Because you’re Rose Weasley,” Jordan said. “Its as simple as that.”

“Sure. Thanks Jordan. That was really helpful,” Rose said sarcastically.

“Hey. Guys,” Albus interrupted. “There’s a new article about Viktor Krum in the Prophet. They’ve got some leads as to why he suddenly turned into a meanie-head.”

“And what would they be?” Jordan asked.

“Well, its actually kind of weird,” Albus said. “Apparently, his mother was killed earlier in the year in a car crash. Then several months back, his dad got murdered by wizards. So, Krum was maddened by grief and decided to take it out on both wizards and muggles alike. A lot more people have died recently.”

“I guess that its time to put my brilliant plan into action,” Jordan said.

“No Jordan,” Scorpius said, “I don’t think that it is.”

“Yeah, it is. So, ha!” Jordan said, sticking out his tongue. Suddenly, Albus gasped.

“What is it?” Christina asked.

“Oh, um, nothing,” Albus said hesitantly. “Only the fact the Krum has been spotted,” he paused for a few seconds. “Near Hogsmeade,” he concluded.

“Are you SERIOUS?” Jordan yelled.

“Would he lie?” Rose said.

“Probably not, but that is totally not the point,” Jordan replied.

“What if he comes here?” Scorpius inquired.

“Way to look on the bright side, Scorpius. Great job,” Jordan said.

* * *

The five Gryffindors along with the Slytherins were sitting in the Herbology greenhouse, waiting for the class to be over. Jordan and Albus were having a sword fight with their wands while Scorpius watched, entertained. Rose and Christine were discussing the latest gossip and Theodore Zabini was talking to his friends about something. He didn’t appear to be very happy and they seemed almost angry with him.

“What’s up with Zabini?” she asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” Christina whispered back. “And why do you care?”

“I dunno,” Rose said.

“Attention!” Professor Longbottom’s voice rang through the classroom, startling most of the class. “Before you leave the class, there is something that I’m supposed tell you. During the Triwizard Tournament, it is tradition to hold a ball. Yes, I know that the House Cup is not the same thing, but it has been decided that a Yule Ball will be held the day before Christmas holidays. And now you guys may leave.”

Everyone left the classroom quickly, the girls with huge smiles on their faces and the guys looking rather grumpy.

“Why in the world does there have to be a ball?” Scorpius asked. “Everyone knows that I don’t dance.”

“You don’t have to go,” Jordan said.

“I don’t want to look like an idiot,” Scorpius insisted.

“You won’t,” Albus said. “Me and Jordan aren’t very great dancers either.”

“Hey!” Jordan said, sounding slightly annoyed. “I’m one of the best dancers in the school.”

“Sure you are, Jordan. Sure you are,” Albus said jokingly.

* * *

The next day, it seemed that everyone in the school was discussing the upcoming ball. The girls were obsessing over what they were going to wear, makeup, hairstyles and all that girly stuff and the boys were doing a lot of groaning. Honestly, they couldn’t care less about how they dressed or if their hair looked sloppy or not.

“I really don’t see what this hype is about,” Jordan said. “It’s just a ball, for Godric’s sake!”

“We’ve never been to a ball before,” Rose replied. “Its exciting.”

“No, its not,” Albus said. “Its stupid. I just know that I’m going to trip over my own feet and make a huge fool of myself.”

“I’m sure that you won’t,” Christina said. “Besides, most of the people here don’t know how to dance.”

“Well, except for me,” Jordan said proudly.

“Jordan Reilly, you know that you can’t dance so just drop it,” Rose said obnoxiously. Jordan pretended to be mortally offended.

“I was kidding,” she said, slapping his shoulder.

“Owie-kapowie!” Jordan said loudly.

“Um, okay…? What was that?” Scorpius asked.

“Its only the coolest way ever to indicate that something hurt. Only the awesometasticalest people say it,” Jordan replied smugly. “C’mon! We don’t want to be late for Potions class.”

“It starts twenty minutes from now,” Rose sighed.

“So? We could still be super-uber late,” Jordan said. “Well, at least if we took little, teeny, tiny baby steps the whole entire way there and then we--”

“That’s great, Jordan,” Christina interrupted. “But, um, why in the world would we walk in baby steps?”

“Good point,” Jordan said. “Would you rather skip to class?”

“No!” Rose, Christina, Albus, and Scorpius said simultaneously.

* * *

A couple of weeks later, Scorpius, Albus, and Jordan were sitting in the boy’s dormitory discussing the ball, which was due to take place in a week. All three boys were getting rather nervous, as none of them had actually asked a girl to be their date for it.

“So, Scorpius, who are you going with?” Jordan asked.

“You know that I haven’t asked anybody,” Scorpius replied.

“But, who are you going to ask?” Albus said.

Scorpius didn’t reply. He knew whom he would like to go with, but he was fairly certain that she would turn him down.

“C’mon, tell us!” Jordan insisted.

“Nope,” Scorpius said, shaking his head. “I will not.”

“Does her name happen to start with an ‘R’ and end with an ‘E’?” Albus asked.

“Um, I can’t tell you that. I’m not giving you any hints,” Scorpius said. “Who are you guys going with then?” he said, eager to change the subject.

“Well, I can’t tell you that,” Jordan said mockingly.

“Nope, sorry. I can’t give any hints,” Albus joked.

“Seriously guys,” Scorpius said.

“Seriously, what?” Jordan asked annoyingly.

“Are you going to ask anyone?”

“And why should we tell you that?” Jordan said.

“Yeah, why Scorpius?” Albus said.

“Because, um, uh, I, uh, think that you should?” Scorpius replied.

“Great reason. Congrats,” said Jordan. “Anyways, there is someone who I plan on asking, but I haven’t done so yet.”

“Same here,” Albus said.

“Who is it?” Scorpius pried.

“Not telling,” Albus and Jordan said in unison.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Jordan said mysteriously.

All three boys climbed into bed, Scorpius wondering what the ball would be like. He knew that he didn’t have to guts to ask anyone to accompany him, yet he didn’t want to show up all alone. It was a difficult situation and he wasn’t sure how to get out of it.

~~~~

Ta-da! I'm sorry that this chapter was so short, but its really a trasition chapter. The next one is going to be the ball! I'm quite excited about posting it. So, who do you think will go together? C'mon, I want to hear your predictions! You can leave them here along with any other comments that you might have. Thanks.

Okay. I know that I originally said that this chapter would contain romance, but I changed my mind. Sorry. Don't worry, though. There will be romance later on. Now on with the chapter...

Chapter Ten: In Which Scorpius Feels Rather Stupid

Snow was falling down hard covering the Hogwarts grounds in a thick, white, fluffy blanket and contributing a certain beauty to the overall appearance. Inside, things weren’t going quite so smoothly, though. None of the three fifth year Gryffindor boys had asked anyone to the ball and the tension was running high. Scorpius, in particular, was nervous. There was one person who he wanted to ask but he was positive that she would turn him down upon a single glance. The two of them didn’t exactly talk much. In fact, the last time he had talked to her, she had ended up yelling and getting pretty annoyed. Asking her to the ball might not be the best ides.

“Okay guys,” Albus said, “by the time the day is over, we’ll all have partners for the ball. Agreed?”

“Sure,” Jordan said, sighing. Scorpius remained silent.

“Scorpius?” Albus asked.

“Oh! Yeah, uh, sure. I guess. Maybe. You know, if all goes well and, uh, I, um--”

“You’re rambling,” Jordan pointed out. Scorpius stuck his tongue out at him.

“Oooooo… real threatening,” Jordan joked.

“Guys, seriously. This is serious. We don’t want to look like complete idiots, do we?” Albus said.

“Of course not,” Jordan replied. “Duh.” And all three boys proceeded out of the dormitory to go find the girls in question. Even Jordan was nervous which was very rare, as he didn’t have a shy bone in his body.

* * *

Jordan walked cautiously toward the library, where he figured that he would find her. He wasn’t particularly enthused about this as the library was one of his least favorite places in the school. Part of the reason for this was that there was a strict “talk only in a whisper” policy, something that Jordan wasn’t very good at.

He was several yards away from the library when she came out, her light brown hair tied up in a high ponytail. She was carrying a thick, heavy spell book with a peeling cover and she looked quite pleased with herself.

“Oi!” Jordan called out. She jumped, then turned to face him, her bright blue eyes startled.

“Oh. Hi Jordan,” she said, surprised.

“Hey,” the boy replied. Really, he had no idea what to do next and (knowing him) he would probably start rambling about giraffes wearing leather miniskirts or something else just as stupid.

“So, what do you want?” she asked.

“I was just, uh, wondering if maybe you, um, want to, you know, uh--” he managed to stutter.

“Spit it out already!” she said, anxious to see what he had to say.

“Do-you-want-to-go-to-the-ball-with-me?” Jordan said all in one breath.

“Come again?” she said, clearly confused by what poor Jordan had said.

“The ball,” Jordan said, more calmly this time, “do you want to go with me?” She looked at him for several seconds, and then said “Of course.” She smiled at him, and then ran off to go tell Christina. Jordan chuckled to himself. He’d accomplished what he had meant to: asking Rose Weasley to the ball.

* * *

Albus had absolutely no idea where he was to find Christina. So, he decided to randomly wander the hallways, hoping for the best. Vaguely, he wondered how Jordan and Scorpius were doing. Certainly better than me, he thought. Even though his concentration was only diverted for a few seconds, he still managed to walk right into something. Or someone to be more exact.

It was rather awkward. Both of them landed on the ground, their faces mere inches apart. Quickly, they both jumped up, banging heads in the process. Albus could have sworn that little, multi-colored stars were floating around his head.

Quickly, he straightened up and brushed the dirt off of his robes. He looked her in the eyes and realized for the first time how much they resembled his own, both a startling shade of green.

“Look, sorry I crashed into you,” Albus said. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“That,” Christina said, “is obvious.”

“So, um, are you going to the ball with anyone?” Albus asked.

“Nope,” she replied. “What about you?”

“Nah. Would you maybe was to go with me?”

“Oh. I don’t know,” she said sarcastically. Seeing Albus’ expression, she quickly added, “I wasn’t serious. Of course I’ll go with you.”

“Cool,” Albus said. Christina giggled and together her and Albus walked back to the common room.

* * *

I must be crazy, Scorpius thought. He was actually going to attempt to ask someone to go to the ball with him and he wasn’t quite sure where the sudden surge of bravery had come from. Carefully, he walked down the halls, trying to locate her. He’d been wandering around for half an hour and had so far been unsuccessful. He decided to go back to the common room and see if she was there.

[indent]It took maybe ten minutes to get there. He climbed through the portrait hole and sure enough he immediately spotted her sitting in an armchair, talking to her friend, Christina. Scorpius walked over, trying to look innocent, but stopped when he overheard what they were talking about.

“Al asked me to go to the ball with him,” Christina was saying.

“Cool. I take it you said yes,” the other girl said.

“Yeah,” Christina replied. “So, who are you going with?”

“Oh, that. Well, I’m going with Jordan. Jordan Reilly,” Rose said.

Jordan? She was going with Jordan? He couldn’t believe it at first. After a second, though, Scorpius realized that there was no chance at all that she would have gone with him. What the heck was he thinking? He walked away and climbed the stairs up to the dormitory, feeling stupid.

“Yo, Scorpius!” Jordan yelled, the second the boy had walked through the door.

“Yo,” said Scorpius unenthusiastically.

“What’s up?” Albus asked. “Did you get turned down?”

“Not exactly,” Scorpius replied, “Its just that she was already going with someone else.” He was careful to avoid looking at Jordan.

“Who did you ask?” Jordan said, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

“I’m not telling,” Scorpius said forcefully.

“Why not?” Jordan said.

“Jordan, just leave him alone,” Albus interrupted.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fine,” Jordan said in an annoying voice. All three of them got into bed, Scorpius now positively dreading the upcoming ball. He couldn’t help but think that he would be the only one in attendance without a partner.

* * *

The ball was due to start in an hour and Rose and Christina were in the dormitory, getting ready. They had laid their outfits out carefully on their beds, filled up an entire countertop with all the makeup they owned, and were now in front of the mirror doing their hair.

“C’mon Rose! Cooperate with me,” Christina said.

“Why can’t I just wear it in a ponytail?” Rose complained.

“Because you always do. I can’t remember the last time I saw your hair down,” Christina insisted.

“Fine,” Rose said, “Just make sure that it looks good.”

“Christina turned Rose’s chair away from the mirror so that she couldn’t see herself and began to work. The two girls didn’t talk for the fifteen minutes until Christina was done. Rose stood up and looked at her reflection.

“Wow,” she said. “It looks nice.”

“What did I tell you?” Christina said. Rose laughed and reached up to touch her hair. The usual straight, light brown, boring hair was now way and quite shiny and she was wearing a light blue headband with little rhinestones that matched her dress perfectly.

“No, no, NO!” Christina said loudly. “Don’t touch it! It’ll get all messed up” Rose rolled her eyes and Christina sighed. “When are you going to learn?”

“Never,” Rose said stubbornly as Christina began to put her own dark brown hair into a perfect bun. They then applied makeup (Christina forcing Rose to wear more than just blush), pulled their dresses one, and went over to the mirror.

“I’d have to say that we’re a pretty good looking bunch,” Christina said and Rose had to agree. She, herself, was wearing a light blue dress that came to her knees and really brought out the color of her eyes. Christina was dressed in a beautiful white dress with a bright floral pattern and was wearing white high heels on her feet.

“Shall we go meet the boys?” Christina asked.

“I’d say that that’s a good idea,’ Rose said, smiling.

* * *

Jordan, Scorpius, and Albus were waiting rather impatiently for Rose and Christina to arrive. Despite not having a date, Scorpius was going to the ball simply because he couldn’t think of anything better to do. The three of them had dressed up slightly, but it was quite obvious that they only spent about ten minutes or less getting ready. At least Jordan had combed his hair, something that he regularly forgot to do.

“How long are they going to take?” Jordan complained. “We’ve been waiting here for, like, five minutes.”

“Girls like to take forever,” Albus said wisely. “They want to make sure that they look perfect.”

“Perfect, schmerfect,” Jordan sighed. “Does it really matter?”

“Yeah, it does,” said Rose, overhearing their conversation as she walked into the room.” Jordan’s jaw dropped and Scorpius forced himself to not look at her.

“You look… nice,” Jordan said, sounding rather stupid.

“You too,” Rose replied. “I see that you brushed your for once.”

“Is that all anyone’s going to comment on?” Jordan said, half to himself.

“Shall we go?” Albus asked.

“Sure.”

“Yeah.”

“Yup.”

“Um… duh.” All five of them proceeded to walk towards the Great Hall, Scorpius trailing behind. His jaw almost became quite friendly with the floor when they finally arrived. The Great Hall had been given a complete makeover. The four long house tables had been replaced with round glass tables that could seat six. There was a huge dance floor, made of shiny oak wood and a giant disco ball hung from the enchanted ceiling. Numerous tables were set up and each of them had various different foods and drinks on them. The second they entered, McGonagall ran over, flustered.

“Miss Weasley, will you and Mr. Reilly please head over there,” she said, pointing. “The four champions will be opening the dance.”

“Do we have to?” Jordan complained.

“Yes, Mr. Reilly,” McGonagall said sternly. “It’s the rule.” Jordan rolled his eyes at Albus who didn’t feel at all sympathetic.

“I thought you were a great dancer,” Albus mouthed. Jordan rolled his eyes again and Albus chuckled. This was going to be fun.

Rose and Jordan walked over to where all of the other champions were. Out of the corner of his eye, Jordan noticed Zabini glance at Rose then quickly turn away. Weird, very weird, he thought but decided not to point this out to Rose. It would most likely make her angry and Jordan didn’t fancy being yelled at tonight.

“Welcome everyone to the Yule Ball,” McGonagall’s voice rang out through the crowd. “Refreshments can be found at the tables along the edges of the room if you want them. Now, to open the ball, our four champions will be dancing with their partners.” There was a large applause while the champions walked out onto the dance floor and then the music started.

“Jordan,” Rose whispered, “what are you doing?”

“Um, I don’t know. What am I supposed to do?” he whispered back.

“I thought you knew how to dance,” Rose said.

“Well, I do. You know, like the chicken dance and stuff,” he said.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Everyone else is dancing. We look like idiots.”

“Oh,” Jordan said quietly and the two of them began to dance. It was kind of awkward. Jordan tripped over his own feet twice and Rose was forced to steer. Pretty soon, other people began to dance and Jordan immediately felt better about the whole thing. There were oodles of people who were worse at dancing than him. Albus and Christina were dancing wildly and people were seen to be slowly backing away from them, afraid of being injured.

After fifteen minutes or so, the band struck a slow song and Jordan immediately stopped dancing. Slow dances were not his thing.

“C’mon,” he said. “Let’s go get something to eat.”

“But, I like this song,” Rose said.

“I don’t. And I’m hungry,” Jordan insisted.

“Fine,” Rose sighed. “Maybe they’ll play it again.”

The two of them walked over to a table, grabbed some food, and sat down to eat. Shortly afterwards, Albus and Christina joined them. Scorpius was nowhere to be seen.

“Its hot in here, isn’t it?” Christina said.

“Heck yeah,” replied Rose.

“Uh-huh.” This was all Jordan was capable of saying as his mouth was stuffed with food.

“That’s nasty,” Christina said. “You know that you should really swallow before you talk.”

“I know,” Jordan said, swallowing his food. “I just didn’t feel like it.”

“Hey, Al,” Christina said, “Do you want to dance again?”

“Sure,” Albus replied and the two of them wandered onto the dance floor.

Rose and Jordan sat silently for a minute then Rose said, “Do you wanna go outside? You know, get some fresh air.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Jordan replied. Rose stood up, starting walking towards the grounds and Jordan followed her. It was gorgeous outside. Snow was covering almost everything, but it seemed to enhance the beauty rather than detract from it. It was a perfect night and Jordan was sure that nothing could go wrong.

* * *

Scorpius was bored to death. He had nothing to do and almost wished that he had just stayed in the dormitory all by himself. Albus was yet again dancing with Christina and Jordan had disappeared so poor Scorpius had no one to talk to. He had received a fairly large amount of teasing and gibes from the Slytherins so he decided to go back to the common room. That was when he heard the scream. And it sounded suspiciously like Rose.

He changed his course of action immediately and ran at full speed towards the direction of the scream. It led straight to the Hogwarts grounds. Whatever could have happened? He passed Jordan on the way and was surprised to see that he was also running. Oh gosh, Scorpius thought. This is bad. Very bad.

Pushing open the doors leading out of the Great Hall with all his strength, Scorpius immediately saw what the problem was. It was worse than he had thought. Viktor Krum was on the grounds, torturing Rose, who was attempting to fight him off.

~~~~~~~

Dun dun duuuuuun! Suspense. Mwahahahaaa! Anyways, you can leave any feedback you have for me here. Thank you.

Chapter Eleven: In Which the Fight Against Krum Doesn't Go So Swell

Viktor Krum? On the Hogwarts grounds? And, even worse, he was torturing Rose. A sudden burst of energy washed over Scorpius and he ran as fast as he could toward her. But, even at his fastest, it didn�t look like he would make it in time. Rose wasn�t doing so swell and any second Krum could pull off the final blow.

This only made him go faster. Pretty soon, he would run out of stamina and Rose would be done for. There was no way that he would let that happen.

"Oi! Krum!" Scorpius yelled. This was just enough to cause a slight second distraction. Rose immediately dodged the spell that had been fired at her, stood up clumsily, and started to run away, crashing into Scorpius in the process.

"Oh, um, sorry," she said, not even noticing who she was talking to.

"Yeah, fine, whatever," Scorpius replied. Rose recognized his voice instantly and snarled, "What the heck are you doing here?" Only she didn�t say heck.

"Well--" Scorpius began, but Krum was back in action again, firing spells like mad. Scorpius just managed to dodge one of them while another missed Rose by an inch.

"Run!" Scorpius yelled to her. "I'll hold him off!"

"No!" Rose screamed back. "Do you think I'm a coward?" And she pointed her wand straight at Krum and fired a spell. It missed him by a foot.

"Pathetic," Krum muttered, a wicked sneer plastered across his face. "Is that the best you can do?"

"Stupify!" Rose yelled and this time the spell hit its target. Three seconds later, Krum was back on his feet. The spell seemed to have had no effect whatsoever on him. Scorpius felt a wave of fear threaten to engulf him. All of the sudden, he realized the seriousness of the situation. If he made a mistake, someone could die. He could be killed. There was no going back once it happened. These rather unpleasant thoughts made him panic. What in the world was he supposed to do?

Krum pointed his wand directly at Rose and fired a nasty spell that neither of the two fifth years had ever seen. It wasn't a killing curse, but it sure was something dark.

And all of the sudden, a surge of bravery came to Scorpius and he jumped in front of the spell, mere seconds before it hit Rose. He was knocked to the ground, unconscious, and bleeding in several places. Rose just stood there, stunned. Krum started to run away as Jordan was coming towards them, followed by several professors. Obviously, he was in no hurry to be caught and sent to Azkaban.

Rose stared down at Scorpius, with warmth in her eyes. He had just saved her life and she was beginning to see him in a new light. Maybe he wasn't a bad as she had originally thought he was.

"Rose!" Jordan yelled and she snapped out of her thoughts.

"What?" she said.

"What happened?" Jordan asked, sounding worried. "Where did Krum go?"

"I don't know," Rose replied. "But that's not important right now. We have to get him to the Hospital Wing." She indicated Scorpius. Jordan looked down and gasped loudly.

"Holy moly! Who did this to him?" Jordan said, shocked.

"Krum," Rose muttered. "But that's not important right now," she continued, her voice growing panicky, "We have to get him to Madame Pomfrey. Now."

"I kind of realized that," Jordan mumbled to himself. Together, the two of them managed to drag Scorpius all the way to the Hospital Wing while the teachers that Jordan had brought along with him ran into the forest to search for Krum.

* * *

Madame Pomfrey was in a state of shock when Jordan, Rose, and Scorpius arrived. Apparently she couldn't believe that Viktor Krum had actually been on the grounds, and that he had attacked a student was unthinkable in her mind. Immediately, she placed Scorpius on a bed and went to work, doing everything she knew to try to cure him.

"Now, dear, how did this happen?" she asked Rose in a gentle voice.

"Well, um, Krum kind of showed up. You know, out of nowhere. Jordan here was with me, but he ran off to get help and I stayed behind. I thought that I would only be there for a couple of seconds, but then Krum was all of the sudden by my side, his wand drawn out and pointing at my face. I kind of tried to, erm, fight him off, but it didn't really work. I was in trouble. The Scorpius came. Krum had fired a nasty spell at me, and Scorpius, well, he, he, he..." she looked like she was about to cry. Jordan took her hand and squeezed it, trying to comfort her. "He jumped in front of it. He saved me," Rose finished.

Madame Pomfrey seemed to consider that information for a moment and then she went back to work. Jordan and Rose stood there in silence for fifteen minutes. The smallest needle in the world could have been heard if it was dropped. Then a sigh broke the silence. Rose jumped violently.

"Guys," Madame Pomfrey said in a quiet voice, "I'm not sure if there is anything I can do for him. I've tried all that I know, but nothing seems to work. I'm going to have to keep him here for several days. We can only hope for the best." Rose and Jordan stared at her disbelievingly.

"What do you mean?" Jordan asked rather forcefully.

"There is nothing I can do. I have a suspicion that he will get better once time goes on," Madame Pomfrey replied.

"But he was hit with dark magic!" Jordan practically yelled.

"He will get better."

"How do you know? Can you be absolutely sure?"

Madame Pomfrey was lost for words. Finally she raised her hands and signaled that it was time for the two of them to leave. "You may check on him in two days time," she said as they were leaving. Jordan didn�t even turn around.

"Can you believe her?" he snarled once the Hospital Wing was out of sight. "She's not even trying to help him."

"I'm sure she's doing her best, Jordan," Rose said although she, herself, had some doubts about it.

"She better be. Or else I'll, I'll, I'll..." Jordan said, trailing off towards the end, as he couldn�t think of anything nasty enough to express what he was feeling. They walked the rest of the way without talking; the squeaking of their shoes the only sound that could be heard.

After approximately ten minutes, they arrived at the common room and the second they entered Albus and Christina ran up to them, worried expressions etched upon their faces.

"What happened?" Christina demanded. "We heard rumors and didn't know if they were true, but we were sooooo worried. We didn't know what had happened to you."

"Krum," Rose said. "On the grounds. He attacked me and Jordan ran to go get help and Scorpius showed up and, well, he saved me. Now he's in the Hospital Wing."

"Uh huh," Jordan agreed solemnly.

"Well, can we at least go see him or something?" Christina said, sounding frantic.

"Madame Pomfrey says that we can't see him for two more days," Jordan replied. He muttered something under his breath that sounded rather insulting.

"TWO days?" Albus said very loudly causing people to stare. "Two days?" he said again, this time in a softer voice.

"Yeah," said Rose. "Well, I guess that its because he, um, isn't doing so well."

Shock now contributed to the expressions on Albus� and Christina�s faces.

"We have to see him now," Christina insisted.

"Yeah. C�mon everyone. We're going to the Hospital Wing," Albus said.

"We can't," Jordan said. "She's already annoyed enough with us."

"And she's probably really stressed out," Rose added.

"Well, we're going," Christina and Albus insisted. And with that, they walked out of the common room, not realizing how bad of a mood Madame Pomfrey would be in when they arrived. Neither Rose nor Jordan said anything for a minute, but then Rose voiced something that had been on her mind all night.

"Its all my fault," she said, tears building up in her eyes.

"No its not," Jordan said. "If it's anyone's fault, its Krum's."

"You don't understand," Rose sighed. "If I hadn't been so stupid as to stay there alone when I knew that Krum was on the grounds, Scorpius never would have come outside, he never would have had to save me, and he wouldn't be in a critical condition." Tears slid down her face at a steady rate.

"No one blames you," Jordan said softly and he wrapped his arms around her in a comforting way as she sobbed onto his shoulder. He reached up and stroked her hair gently which seemed to clam her down a bit.

"Jordan," she said after a couple of minutes.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For everything." She kissed his cheek lightly and walked over to the stairs, leading up to the dormitory. She glanced back quickly and could have sworn that a small smile crossed Jordan's face.

~~~~~~~~

Ta-da! I know that its kind of short, but its a very, very, VERY important chapter. I'd had the scene with Krum, Rose, and Scorpius planned before I even began to write the story. And, despite what I said about this chapter not containing romance, I changed my mind and added a little touch at the end. As usual, you can leave me feedback here and I would like to thank you for reading! You guys are awesome.

Chapter Twelve: In Which News About Scorpius Is Received

By the next morning, the story of Rose and Scorpius’ encounter with Viktor Krum had spread all around the school and, naturally, it had been mutated and distorted in so many ways that it was impossible to know who was telling the truth. Rose was being bombarded with questions, something she was not particularly enthused about. Breakfast had been a torrid affair and she had been asked everything from “What was Krum wearing?” to “Why did the Malfoy kid save you?” and even “Can I have your autograph?” Finally, Rose got sick of the whole matter and she stood up then stalked away, her hair swinging violently behind her. Jordan cautiously followed her.

When she entered the common room, she found a mottled grey owl waiting for her. It must have come up here to deliver the letter since she had left breakfast so early. Gingerly, she reached up and grabbed it, not knowing what it would contain. After taking a quick glimpse, however, she let out a sigh of relief. It was merely a letter from her dad.

“What is it?” Jordan asked as he entered the room.

Rose jumped. “I didn’t know you were here,” she said, sounding a bit startled.

“Well, now you do,” Jordan said, helpfully.

“Oh, ha ha,” Rose said sarcastically, although she suppressed a giggle before turning back to the letter. “Its from my dad,” she added, realizing that she hadn’t answered Jordan’s original question. Carefully, she unfolded the piece of parchment.

Dear Rose,
I can’t believe that the school just let Krum attack you like that! And that Malfoy kid was the one to save you. This is just not right. Whatever you do, don’t go wandering into Krum’s path again. He’s dangerous, Rosie. He could kill you and we really don’t want that happening. On a different note, are you coming for Christmas? If so, send this letter back as quickly as possible. Hope to see you then.
Love,
Dad

Rose folded it back up and sighed. She couldn’t believe that her dad thought that she had just ‘wandered into Krum’s path’. Its not like she had left the ball, intending that to happen. Rose Weasley was many things and stupid was definitely not one of them.

“What’s wrong?” Jordan asked. “You sound upset.”

“Nothing,” Rose replied. “Nothing at all.” She turned over the parchment, scribbled the words: I can’t come. Sorry, on it and gave it to the owl who promptly flew out the window, into the snow.

Rose sighed again, and then said, “Jordan, am I stupid?”

He looked at her incredulously. “Of course not! Why would you even ask that?” he exclaimed.

“Just the way my dad wrote the letter,” she said vaguely. Jordan stared at her, confused. “It sounded like he thought that I left the ball looking for trouble. Like I was looking for Krum to find me.”

“Well, you certainly didn’t,” Jordan said. “I think that you just interpreted it wrong. He was probably just trying to tell you to stay safe. No parent wants their kids to get hurt. Your dad is no different. Even though he went on all sorts of crazy adventures when he was our age, I don’t think that he really wants you doing that.” He paused and added, “Even if you want to.”

“That was possibly the smartest thing you’ve ever said,” Rose said, laughing. She hugged him then walked toward the portrait hole. As she was just about to leave, she looked over her shoulder and said, rather loudly, “I’m off to find Christina! We’ve got to discuss our, erm, plans for tomorrow.” Jordan stared at her blankly.

“It’s Christmas,” Rose replied and with that, she left the room.

* * *

The morning came earlier than Jordan had expected. The sun peered over the clouds and cast light over the snow-covered grounds. Jordan blinked the sleep out of his eyes and stood up, immediately spotting a rather large pile of presents by his bedside.

“Albus! Wake up!” Jordan shouted. The boy in question merely turned over and groaned.

“Al!” Jordan yelled again.

“Wha-a-at?” Albus yawned. “Its 6:00 in the morning. Can’t I sleep?”

“Its Christmas, dude,” Jordan replied.

“Oh, yeah,” Albus said brightly and he leaped right out of his bed, looking less graceful than a huge elephant tripping over a rope. The two boys attacked their piles of gifts and within ten minutes, there was nothing left. Each of them had received a considerable amount of chocolate and various other sweets. Jordan had gotten several Chuddley Cannons products (as he supported them viciously) and, to his dismay, Albus had received several heavy books from his Aunt Hermione.

Just then, there was a soft knock on the door and they heard Christina say, “Can we come in?”

“Yeah, sure,” Albus said, stumbling over to the door, not realizing that it was unlocked and the girls were fully capable of opening it for themselves.

Hey,” Rose said, waving for no apparent reason. “So… did you guys get anything good?”

“Candy,” Albus and Jordan responded simultaneously.

“Is that all boys ever think about?” Christina said, halfway to herself. “Eating.” she added when she saw the looks on confusion on everyone’s faces.

Albus stuck his tongue out at her then walked over to his trunk unexpectedly. Carefully, he bent over and pulled out a small package, wrapped in gold paper.

“Here,” he said, handing it to Christina. “I got you this.” She took the package and slowly took off the paper, as if she didn’t want to tear any inch of it. She opened the box gently and gasped.

“Its… beautiful,” she said softly. “Thank you.”

“Your welcome,” Albus said as Christina took a gorgeous necklace out of the box and put it on. The pendant was heart shaped and contained a couple small diamonds and several, slightly larger, emeralds that matched her eyes perfectly.

“You didn’t have to spend this much on me,” she said, taking a step closer to him.

“Pssst, Rose,” Jordan whispered. “Maybe we should leave now.”

Rose looked at him for a second and then understanding dawned upon her. “Good idea,” she whispered back and the two of them left the room, being a careful as they could to remain silent.

“So, um, what did you get for Christmas?” Jordan asked as soon as they were down in the common room.

“Well, mum sent me a bunch of books, I got stuff from my uncle’s joke shop, a bunch of candy, and some clothes-ish type things,” Rose replied.

“Cool,” Jordan said.

“Oh!” Rose said suddenly. “Thanks for the gift you gave me.”

“No problem,” Jordan said.

“It was very niiiice,” she added in an outrageous French accent.

“That was… interesting,” Jordan said and both of them burst out laughing, Jordan sounding uncannily like a dying loon. Until that moment, Rose had been fairly certain that laughs like that only existed in fairy tales.

* * *

Afternoon came quicker than expected and Albus, Christina, Jordan, and Rose were found walking down the corridors towards the Hospital Wing. It had been two days since Scorpius was injured and they were now allowed to visit him. Albus pushed open the door with enthusiasm when they arrived and practically bolted through. He was rather hyper today and no one was quite sure why. He didn’t even know himself.

“What are you doing?” Madame Pomfrey said sternly. “My patients need rest.”

“We came to see Scorpius,” Albus said firmly.

“You can’t,” Madame Pomfrey replied.

“And WHY would that be?” Jordan asked sounding slightly exasperated. “Last time you said that we could see him after two days. And it most certainly has been two days.”

“Fine,” she said. “Over this way.” She led them over to a bed near the back of the room, where Scorpius lay. He didn’t look very good.

“What’s wrong with him?” Christina insisted.

“I’m not sure,” Madame Pomfrey confessed. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. He’s getting better, though.”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Jordan muttered.

“Has he woken up yet?” Rose asked nervously.

“Once,” came the answer. “And it was only for a couple of minutes.” All four Gryffindors sighed. They stood in silence for almost five minutes. Finally, Albus voiced the question that was on all of their minds: “Will he live?”

“I don’t know, dear. I don’t know,” Madame Pomfrey said solemnly. The cheery mood that had been floating around before automatically turned dark and dismal. None of them could believe it.

“I guess we’ll be leaving then,” Albus sighed and Jordan, Christina, and him turned around to leave.

Jordan glanced back. “Rose,” he said tentatively. “Are you coming?”

“Just go without me,” she replied. “I’ll be there soon.” He turned around and left with the other two, his head down.

Rose walked cautiously over to the side of Scorpius’ bed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It should be me lying there. You shouldn’t have saved me.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes. “Merry Christmas,” she said softly and then turned around to leave.

Once in the hallway, she spotted Jordan and ran like a wild-woman toward him, calling out his name.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jordan said, slightly shocked. “Slow down. What do you want?”

“Oh, well, remember your plan to hunt down Viktor Krum?” she replied, panting.

“Yeah,” Jordan said slowly.

“I think that its time to put it into action,” Rose said smugly.

“What?” Jordan said.

“We have to hunt him down. I mean, look what he did to Scorpius,” she pointed out matter-of-factly.

“But, he could do the same thing to us!”

“You’re the one who thought of the original idea.”

“That was before I knew what he was capable of,” Jordan insisted.

“If Albus and Christina join us, we could beat him,” Rose said fiercely.

“No,” said Jordan simple. “That is not a good idea.”

“You thought that it was when you thought of it.”

“I was delusional then.”

“Fine,” Rose said. “Fine. I’ll do it myself.

“No!” Jordan practically yelled. “Why don’t we just wait a week or so and see if Scorpius recovers. Then, maybe then, we can think of a plan to beat Krum. Maybe.”

“Okay,” Rose agreed. “If he isn’t better in a week, we take action.”

“Agreed,” Jordan said. He took her hand and together they walked back to the common room.

* * *

Later that night, Rose and Christina were sitting in the girl’s dormitory, getting ready for bed. Even though nothing had really happened to wear them out, both girls were exhausted and eager to get in bed.

“Hey, Christina,” Rose said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you this all day.” She paused and Christina looked at her questioningly. “What happened between you and Al this morning?” Rose finished.

“Oh, that,” Christina said, her face turning red. “Well, um, I’m tired. I’ll tell you tomorrow.” And with that, she climbed into bed, purposely facing away from Rose.

~~~~~~

I'm really sorry that it took so long to post. I was busy and the chapter wasn't working out the way that I wanted it to. I had to re-write a lot of it and, even though I can't figure out how to make it any better, I still don't like it. Definately my least favorite chapter. As usual, you can tell me what you think here.

Also, I have written a companion piece to this story which is located right here and was written partly to clear up confusion about certain things. I advise that you check it out. Thanks.

I'm back with a brand new, shiny chapter. I apologise greatly for the amount of time that it took to get this up. I, unfortunately, was very busy with dance class, tech crew for the play, homework, projects, auditions, shows, and other stuff. Not to mention the fact the the time in which I usually write is now taken up by something else and that I lost my notebook with the end of the chapter in it. Now, without further ado, I present to you the much anticipated chapter thirteen!

Chapter Thirteen: In Which Rose Climbs the Wall of Doom

Morning came fast and before they knew it, Rose and Christina were walking to breakfast in the Great Hall. They were having an avid discussion about the previous night’s dreams, when Rose suddenly remembered something.

“Christina!” Rose said.

“And then I was running through a forest of lollypops, being chased by an evil monster of doom, although it did have a fluffy tail, when…” Christina was saying. “What?”

“Well, you said that you would tell me about yesterday,” Rose said. Christina gave her a puzzled look. “Between you and Al,” Rose prompted.

“Oh,” Christina replied. “Now is that really more important than my dream?” Rose rolled her eyes and nodded. “Fine,” Christina sighed. “Wait… weren’t you there?”

“No,” Rose said. “Me and Jordan left. That’s why we were down in the common room several minutes before you guys.”

“You know how he gave me that necklace?” Christina began. Rose nodded. “Well, I told him that he shouldn’t have spent that much on me and he said that should of, blah, blah, blah, and then I kind of, um, you know…”

“What?”

“Um…”

“Did you snog him?”

“Sort of, I guess,” Christina said slowly. “And then he asked me to, you know, go out with him and I said yes, so, yeah. There you have it.”

“Niiiice,” Rose said and she burst out in giggles for no apparent reason.

* * *

The next few weeks seemed to fly by and Rose was soon facing the prospect of the third task, which was to take place in half an hour. She had no idea what to expect, as the champions were only allowed a wand and they had been given no other information besides to attempt to build up their strength. Their strength in what, though? Running? Flying? Climbing? Pizza serving? Ballet?

Stowing her wand in her pocket, Rose proceeded to walk down to the Quidditch Pitch where the orientation for the task would take place yet again. Her friends were already seated in the stadium and she felt herself wishing that they were right by her side, to provide support. For a reason unknown, she was more nervous for this task than any of the others before.

The other champions were already there when she arrived. Zabini completely ignored her, but Zachary Fiddlesworth and Anthony Wickham both waved at her and mumbled a greeting. Rose merely nodded in response. She didn’t want to risk opening her mouth in fear that something not so pleasant would come out.

The tent flaps opened and none other than Harry Potter himself entered.

“So, any minute now, the task will begin,” he began. “I suppose you’re wondering what you are to do.” All four champions nodded eagerly. “Well, its supposed to be a surprise, so I’ll tell you this: get to the top. And don’t get hurt.” After this rather ominous statement, a loud whistle blew and Mr. Potter ushered them outside.

Rose’s jaw dropped like she was a python unhinging its jaw to eat a rather large animal. Right on the Quidditch pitch was a huge rock-climbing wall, but it wasn’t going to be a straight up climb. The wall was set at an angle, but it was still extremely steep.

In her moment of shock, the other champions had already started climbing. Hurriedly, Rose began the long climb up to the top, having no problem getting up the wall. The only concern she had was falling. The champions weren’t attached to any kind of rope so if they fell, well, if they fell it wouldn’t be pretty.

She got up the next few feet with ease and was beginning to think that this task was stupid, that anyone in their right mind could do it, when the rock she was holding onto suddenly disappeared. She screamed and quickly grabbed onto another one that, thankfully, remained right where it was.

More cautiously, she proceeded upwards, testing each rock before she grabbed it. She passed Fiddlesworth and Wickham on the way, but Zabini was still ahead. He had just climbed onto a ledge, where he stopped for a second and caught his breath. Rose was just reaching up to climb onto the very same ledge when both the rocks she was standing on disappeared beneath her feet. Wildly, she grabbed the ledge and held on for dear life.

“Zabini!” she cried. “Help me!”

He turned around and looked at her, his expression cold, but his eyes were soft and looked slightly panicky. He hesitated for a second, and then reached out his hand. Rose grabbed it and, slowly, he pulled her up.

“Thank you,” Rose breathed, when she had regained her balance.

“No problem,” Zabini muttered. He then turned away and continued up the wall. The way he did it was flawless; it almost seemed unreal. It was then when Rose realized what she was up against and that if she wanted to have a remote chance at winning the tournament, she would have to try much harder. She reached up to the closest rock and pulled herself up, pushing aside all thoughts but getting to the top.

For the next several minutes, the climb was easy. Only a couple of rocks disappeared and Rose managed to grip onto another and continue normally. Fiddlesworth was catching up, though. He was a mere couple of feet behind her so there was no way that she could afford any dilemmas.

A sudden burst of energy seized her and she rushed ahead, bypassing Zabini. The top was minutes away when she felt a tremor. It took her a minute to realize that the wall was shaking, vibrating back and forth, faster and faster by the second. It was trying to throw the champions off.

It took all of her will power to not look down, to not think about the plummet to almost certain death if she fell off. She held on as tight as she could, hoping and praying that the rocks wouldn’t mysteriously vanish. The shaking got faster and pretty soon she felt like she could vomit. And then, as quick as it had begun, it stopped, leaving all the contestants dizzy and slightly disorientated.

Rose shook her head in attempt to clear her vision and continued onward at an accelerated rate. Her and Zabini were literally neck and neck, both of them desperately wanting to win. They were almost there. Just a few more feet.

“Owww!” Rose yelled out, suddenly. The rock that she had just grabbed was hot and, as a result, her hand was burned. Trying to ignore the immense pain, she grabbed another rock and pulled herself up. She had fallen behind in her few seconds of shock and Zabini was a foot or so away from the top. Bolting upward, she managed to get there a split second before the boy.

A look of triumph slowly spread across her face as she sat on top of the wall. Zabini looked absolutely murderous and Rose could tell that he was slightly regretting helping her out earlier on.

“One problem, though,” Rose commented, looking down at the crowd. “How on Earth do we get back down?” She could have sworn that she heard Zabini snicker.

* * *

“To the Hospital Wing, Miss Weasley,” McGonagall said sternly.

“I’m not badly injured,” Rose protested. “Can’t the burn just be fixed now?”

“Miss Weasley, please don’t argue with me. Just go down there.”

“No, no, no. I am NOT going down there. Madame Pomfrey can fix me up right here.”

“Fine,” McGonagall said. Rose merely smirked and made a face behind her back.
Madame Pomfrey came over after a few short minutes, waved her wand, muttered some incantations, wrapped up the wound, and Rose was free to go.

She walked back to the common room, hurriedly, wondering what her friends would say. This was the first task that she had actually won, although it wasn’t much of a victory. Zabini had finished about three seconds after her, so it had been pretty close.

In five or so minutes, she arrived at the common room, pushed the portrait hole open a little too eagerly, and was greeting with an uproar of cheering. People she had never spoken to in her life came up and shook her hand. She felt as if she had won the tournament already.

Christina’s voice sang out loud and clear, “Rose is the chaaaampion my fri-ends!” Jordan was wolf-whistling, but Albus was nowhere to be seen. Careful not to trip over anyone’s feet, Rose walked over to Christina, who stopped singing at once.

“Where’s Al?” Rose asked.

“I honestly have no idea,” came the reply.

“Oh well,” Rose sighed. “He’s missing the party, though.”

“Yup,” Christina agreed.

After a couple of hours, the party began to die down and the only ones left in the common room were Rose, Jordan, and Christina.

“Well, I guess I’ll be going up to bed soon,” Christina said. “Coming, Rose?” Rose began to nod, but Jordan signaled that he wanted her to stay.

“Just go without me,” Rose replied. “I’ll be up soon.” Christina eyed her curiously, then turned around and left.

“So, um, good job today,” Jordan said, sounding rather awkward.

“Oh, thanks,” Rose said. “It was nothing really, though. I won by a few seconds, it was nothing special.”

“I heard you got burned pretty bad,” Jordan said. Rose snorted. “Was it just a rumor?” he added, looking confused.

“No,” Rose replied, holding out her bandaged hand and subconsciously moving closer to him. “It hurt, but Madame Pomfrey fixed it up in no time.”

“Icky,” Jordan said, sounding rather intelligent. He was closer now. She could have counted every single freckle on his face, if she had cared to.

“Yeah,” Rose agreed. “Icky. Blech. Ewwww.” He was mere inches away from her now. She felt her heart rate accelerate, anticipating the coming moment.

* * *

Fifteen minutes late, Albus burst into the common room, looking extremely happy.

“Guess what?” he yelled. “Scorpius woke up today! He’s going to be all right! At least, that’s what the nurse said…” But, he trailed off as he realized that the common room was completely empty.

~~~~~~

YAAAAY! As usual, you can leave me any feedback you have for me here. Did you love it? Hate it? Want to marry it? Wait, scratch the last one. Haha. Anyways, thanks for reading.

Hey guys! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I couldn't think of anything so I eventually just sat down and started writing and, miracuously, the ideas just kept flowing. The dream the Jordan describes is actually a dream that I had myself a long, long time ago. It was quite strange. Hehe.

Chapter Fourteen: In Which Scorpius Talks and Is a Rebel

The sun hadn’t even come up yet and the four Gryffindor fifth years were already trudging down to the Hospital Wing to see Scorpius. Albus had woken them all up at an insane hour to tell them the news and, in spite of the earliness, they had all jumped out of bed in excitement.

The reached the Hospital Wing a couple of minutes sooner than they should have seeing as they were practically running down the hall. Albus pushed open the door with enthusiasm and the three others piled in, Rose a bit reluctantly. Although Scorpius had technically saved her life, she was slightly nervous about the prospect of seeing him. The two had never gotten along particularly well and she wasn’t sure what to think of him. Obviously, he wasn’t the jerk that she had thought he was, but she had no idea what would be the proper thing to say to him. It was bound to be an awkward meeting.

Madame Pomfrey led the four of them over to the bed where Scorpius lay.

“You can’t stay too long,” she said. “He’s going to be fine, but he still needs his rest.” The four Gryffindors nodded slowly and Madame Pomfrey walked away.

“Yo, Scorpius!” Albus said loudly.

“Yeah?” the boy in question mumbled.

“Dude, I haven’t talked to you in forever!” Jordan said.

“I know,” Scorpius muttered.

“Scorpius! You’re alive!” Christina squealed, not realizing how ridiculous she sounded.

“Yes. I think I figured that out,” Scorpius said lightheartedly. Everyone turned and looked at Rose who hadn’t said anything yet.

“Um, hi,” she said awkwardly.

“Hello,” Scorpius said, sitting up in his bed. “So, how have you all been?”

“Fine,” everyone muttered simultaneously.

“And, how was the third task? I can’t believe that I missed it. Stupid Krum.” He cursed under his breath.

“Well,” Albus began calmly, “the task went lovely.” He paused. “Rose WOOOON!” he belted out. “How spifftastic is that?”

Scorpius laughed at Albus’ strange absurdness. “Pretty cool, Al,” he said. For the next twenty minutes, the five fifth years just talked about whatever came to their minds be it the upcoming exams, peculiar dreams, the House Cup, clothes, etcetera.

“Its time for you to go,” Madame Pomfrey said sternly as Jordan was in the middle of describing a vivid dream involving a very colorful snake chasing him around at a huge party while he sprayed it with a huge fire-fighters hose.

“And why would that be?” Rose asked stubbornly.

“The boy needs rest,” Madame Pomfrey insisted. “If he wants to be able to watch the fourth task, he must recover completely. I’m not risking anything here.” Rose rolled her eyes, then left the Hospital Wing, leaving the others behind. Jordan, Albus, and Christina exchanged confused glances, said goodbye to Scorpius, and followed Rose’s lead.

* * *

A couple of weeks had passed and Madame Pomfrey had still refused to discharge Scorpius from the Hospital Wing. The poor kid was bored to death, although his friends visited him everyday in effort to cheer him up. At the present moment, Scorpius was sitting up in bed, working on a Charms assignment that Albus has brought him. It was insanely confusing and, quite frankly, Scorpius had no idea what in the world he was doing, but it was a decent time waster.

He was writing down the answer to one of the questions when he heard a noise at the window. Cautiously, he looked up from his work. The clear blue sky was now dark; nightfall had arisen. He stared out the window for a little while, wondering what the noise was, but didn’t see anything. Silently, he went back to work and found that he couldn’t concentrate. He decided that whatever the noise was couldn’t have been a good thing and he was curious as to what it actually was.

Carefully, as to not make a single noise, he climbed out of his bed, looked around for Madame Pomfrey and, not spotting her, proceeded to walk toward the Hospital Wing door. Scorpius was not typically one to break the rules, but he had a bad feeling about the situation and decided to trust his instincts.

He walked down the hallways as discreet as possible and came upon nothing strange or out of place. Slowly, he walked toward the front entrance, thinking that somehow he would be able to get outside. The doors were locked and it was a good thing, too as they would have made enough noise to wake the school. Feeling slightly defeated, Scorpius walked back toward the Hospital Wing, glancing out every window he came upon. Finally, he arrived back where he started and was immensely careful to sneak in. He climbed back in bed, surprised that Madame Pomfrey didn’t notice that he had disappeared for quite a while.

Feeling tired, he decided to actually try to sleep. He glanced out the window one more time and was shocked to see the shadow of two men, coming out of the Forbidden Forest.

* * *

Rose woke with a start from a vivid nightmare. In it, she was walking through the forest, searching for the last unicorn on earth. It was very important to her to find this creature because if she didn’t, something terrible would happen. On her way, she ran into two cloaked figures. She decided to bypass them, as cloaked figures are never really a good sign. She was running away when she stepped on a twig and it snapped loudly. I figures turned around, seized her and brought her back to their camp. The unicorn was there, in a cage, looking sickly and thin. The two people drew their wands, pointed them at the creature and fired a bright orange spell. The animal collapsed. Rose panicked and tried to run away, but they turned the wands on her and fired the exact same spell.

The pain was agony. Every bone in her body ached. She looked down and saw blood spurting from several wounds in her leg. Her lungs began to feel compressed until it came to the point when she could barely draw a breath. Then, everything went black and she woke, drenched in swear, heart pounding. She hoped desperately that it wasn’t a sign of something to come in the future.

She got out of bed, making sure not to wake Christina, and walked down to the Common Room. There, she sat down in her favorite armchair for several minutes, pondering the dream and wondering what it meant. But, she couldn’t figure it out and decided to take a walk around the castle in order to clear her head.

The silence in the corridors was eerie. Nevertheless, she walked down the hallways, not paying attention to where she was going. Subconsciously, her feet had carried her down to the entrance of Great Hall. She peered around the corner and, to her surprise, spotted a white-blonde person near the front doors. Scorpius.

What is he doing here? She wondered, suspicion growing. She turned around and walked as fast as she could while still remaining quiet toward the common room, thinking wildly. She wondered what in the world Scorpius was up to and why he was in the Great Hall when he was supposed to be recovering from his injuries.

She arrived at the entrance to the common room several minutes later. Before entering, she glanced quickly out the nearest window and nearly fainted. Two cloaked figures, very much the same as the two in her dream, were walking out of the Forbidden Forest. She hoped desperately that her nightmare wasn’t about to come true.

* * *

The sun came up several hours later and Rose decided to wake Christina up. She hasn’t been to sleep since her escapade around the castle and she needed to talk to someone. She walked over to Christina’s bed and shook her awake.

“What?” Christina asked, groggily.

“I need to talk to you,” Rose replied, sounding anxious. Christina was immediately wide-awake.

“Okay,” she said. “Tell me anything.”

“Well,” Rose began, “I had this dream last night. And it was really creepy.” She launched into the story of her dream, her walk around the castle, seeing Scorpius in the Great Hall, and finally the cloaked figures coming out of the forest.

“Oh my Godric,” Christina gasped. “Are you serious? What if your dream was prophetic or something?”

“Christina,” Rose said, “I’m trying not to think about that. But, what was Scorpius doing? After he saved me, I realized that he wasn’t, well, that he wasn’t a complete jerk. But, what if saving me was part of some evil plan?”

“Rose, I doubt that. He saved you out of the goodness of his heart,” Christina said, smiling.

“You don’t know how cheesy that sounded,” Rose snorted. Christina stuck out her tongue and insisted that her statement was not cheesy at all.

“C’mon, Rose. Let’s get something to eat,” she said.

“I’m not hungry,” Rose replied. “But, I’ll come anyways.” She paused then said,” Don’t tell anyone about my dream. Especially not Jordan. He’ll completely freak.”

“Okay,” Christina agreed and the two girls walked out the door and down the stairs into the common room. Jordan and Albus were waiting for them.

“Hey,” Albus said, giving Christina a hug.

“Yo, dude,” Jordan said to Rose, not noticing that something was obviously wrong. She didn’t reply, just simply stared at him. Christina, noticing the awkwardness, said loudly, “Come on, Al. I’m starving!” He smiled and the two of them left the room.

“What’s up?” Jordan said quietly.

“Nothing,” Rose said, turning her attention to the floor.

“Rose, I’m not blind,” Jordan said. “Obviously something is wrong.”

“Its nothing,” Rose insisted. “Nothing at all.

“Okay,” Jordan said slowly, still not convinced. “You know that I’m here if you need me, right?”

“Yes, Jordan,” she said, giving him a small smile. He hugged her tightly, in effort to comfort her. She felt as though she could stay there forever, but something made her pull away. Abruptly, she left the room, saying that she would be at breakfast if he needed her. If the dream really was prophetic, as Christina had suggested, she didn’t want to get any closer to Jordan than she already was.

~~~~~~~

And there you have it. I actually am really fond of this chapter. I hope that you guys liked it! Unfortunately, updates are going to be coming less frequently from now on because I'm not going to have my laptop. You see, I have it for school, and it gets taken away over the summer. And I'm not sure if my parents approve of my writing fanfics. I'll get the updates up as soon as I can, though.

As usual, please leave feedback here. Thank you.

Look, I know I haven't updated in a while, but please forgive me. I'm currently working on a novel and I'm juggling the weight of three fics (this one, my Voldy one, and another, non-HP one).

Chapter Fifteen: In Which Rose Makes a Friend and Gets Into a Fight

The fourth and final task was sneaking up fast and Rose Weasley found herself growing frantic. McGonagall had told the champions to know the school inside and out but no one was really sure what that meant. The school was huge. How could one person possibly know everything about it?

Nevertheless, Rose was doing everything she could to prepare for it. She had taken countless nighttime strolls around the castle within the fast few weeks but was still fairly certain that she hadn’t explored everything. It was going to be a tricky task and she would have to use everything she had to come out on top.

To make matters worse, the same types of dreams kept haunting her sleep. By now, she was almost positive that those two guys were completely real and up to something. She had taken it upon herself to find out what but had so far been unsuccessful. She had considered asking Jordan or Christina for help, but she knew that they would think she was crazy.

If she wanted any help with the situation, there was only one person to ask: Scorpius Malfoy. Even though he had technically saved her a few months beforehand, the two of them weren’t exactly friends. An occasional “hello” was as far as it went. But, on the other hand she was almost positive that he had seen those men too and he probably would be more than eager to assist her.

Rose walked down to the common room and was surprised to see Scorpius there already. It was an early hour and Rose was used to the boys sleeping in a pretty late.

“Hey Scorpius,” she said, rather awkwardly.

“Hi Rose,” he replied with equal awkwardness in his voice. “What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing much,” she said. “I was just bored and decided to come down here.”

“Oh,” Scorpius said, sounding slightly disappointed.

“Well, actually,” Rose began, “I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

“And that would be…” Scorpius prompted, sounding eager now.

“You know that night, a couple weeks ago, when you were supposed to be in the Hospital Wing, but you were out of bed?” Rose asked.

“How do you know about that?” Scorpius said, blushing slightly.

“I was up too. I saw you in the Great Hall,” she explained.

“Oh,” Scorpius muttered.

“Anyways,” said Rose, “that night, I had a really strange dream. There were two cloaked mean and they fired some orange spell at me and I ended up getting killed. So, I went for a walk to clear my thoughts and I saw you. After that, I was going back to the common room and I saw the very same two cloaked figures walking out of the forest. And I was wondering if, you know, you saw them too.”

Scorpius gasped. “I did. That night I heard a noise at my window and when I looked out, the two figures were there.” Rose turned chalk-white. “Do you think it means anything?” she asked him. He gripped her shoulder and said, “I don’t know, Rose. I really don’t know. But, whatever it is, it’s not good.”

“I think I realized that,” Rose said, flashing him a small smile. “So, um, will you help me find out who they are and what they want?”

“I’ll do my best,” Scorpius promised. He paused and then added, “Does this mean we’re friends now?”

“Friends,” Rose agreed, holding out her hand to shake his.

“Friends,” Scorpius repeated quietly.

* * *

Over the next couple of days, Rose was found glimpsing out the window at the Forbidden Forest numerous times. It appeared that she was looking for something, nut no one was really sure what and she wasn’t keen on giving out information about the subject. Christina had asked more times than she could count but never received a straight answer. It was all getting a tad bit frustrating.

“You’re not planning anything dangerous, are you?” Jordan finally asked one night in the common room.

“What makes you think that?” Rose asked stubbornly.

“Because,” Jordan said.

“Yeah, that’s helpful,” Rose snorted.

“It’s all rather suspicious,” Jordan said. “All of the sudden you and Scorpius are really good friends and won’t tell anyone what you’re talking about. I know you’re planning something. If you weren’t, then you’d actually tell me what’s going on.” He sounded really annoyed.

“I would like to tell you,” Rose said simply. Jordan’s expression brightened. “But, I can’t,” she added.

“Why not?” Jordan said loudly.

“Because I can’t,” Rose insisted.

“Just tell me. I can help you,” Jordan pleaded.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No,” Rose repeated, crossing her arms.

Jordan shook his head. “You’re impossible.”

“How so?” Rose asked, firing up instantly.

“I ask you to tell me one simple thing and you get all mad about it --”

“Excuse me? I’m not the one getting mad. I think that you would take that title.”

“Fine,” Jordan said, stamping his foot. “If that’s how you want it to be!” He stormed away from her then abruptly turned around and said, “I care about you, Rose. I don’t anything bad to happen to you. But, if you don’t want me, then I’m not going to bother trying!” With that, he left the common room, leaving Rose standing there, stunned.

“I never said that, Jordan,” she called after him. “I never meant it like that.” But, she knew that he couldn’t hear her. Tears slowly fell down her face as she turned around and walked up to the girl’s dormitory. Christina was there, working on some Charms homework. She looked up as Rose slammed the door.

“Rose, what’s wrong?” Christina asked, sounding worried.

“Jordan,” Rose muttered.

Christina gasped. “Did you get into a fight?”

“Yeah,” Rose said casually. “He wanted to know what I was up to and why Scorpius and I are such good friends all of the sudden.” She said this in such a dull, monotonic voice that a “Let’s Read College Textbooks All Day” party would have seemed super exciting compared to it.

“Where is he now?” Christina asked. Rose shrugged and mumbled something that vaguely resembled “I don’t know”.

“Oh, Rose,” Christina sighed, as she put her arms around her friend in a comforting hug. “I’m sure he’ll come around eventually. Don’t worry, tomorrow the whole thing will be forgotten.”

“I hope so,” Rose said. “I don’t think Jordan’s ever been mad at me before.”

“He’ll realize how stupid he’s being and be back to snogging you by tomorrow morning.”

“Erm, we’ve only kissed once,” Rose pointed out.

“Oh,” Christina said quietly.

* * *

It was clear, as Rose walked into the Great Hall the next morning, that Christina’s predictions were as far from the truth as humanly possible. Jordan was giving Rose the cold shoulder. He wouldn’t even look at her and sat as far away from her as he could/

“He doesn’t like me anymore,” Rose said as soon as she had left breakfast.

“Of course he does,” Christina assured her friend. “He’s just upset.” Rose gave her a skeptical glance. “Look,” Christina added, “I’ll talk to him later. Knock some sense into him, okay?”

“Sure,” Rose said.

Christina checked her watch and muttered, “Dang it! Sorry, Rose. I have to go. I’m going to Hogsmeade with Al.”

“Have fun,” Rose said, feigning cheerfulness. Christina waved and then ran off.

“I was supposed to go with Jordan,” Rose mumbled to herself, “but it looks like that isn’t going to happen.” She sighed and then headed back to Gryffindor Tower. Maybe Scorpius would have some new leads as to who the cloaked men really were.

She had barely walked fifteen feet when Scorpius practically crashed into her.

“Rose,” he said, sounding excited. “I figured something out!”

“What?” she asked, curiosity growing.

“Those men,” Scorpius said. “The ones in the forest.”

“Yeah?” Rose urged.

“One of them is Viktor Krum.” Rose jaw dropped.

“No way,” she muttered.

* * *

Between wandering the halls with Scorpius (in attempt to solve the mystery) and preparing for the final task, Rose didn’t know where the days had gone. Before she knew it, she was facing the prospect of the fourth task, a moment she had been anticipating yet dreading for weeks. This was the final moment to prove herself worthy.

Legs like jelly, Rose walked towards the champions’ tent on the Quidditch Pitch. She was going over the layout of the school mentally, trying not to forget a single detail.

“Pssst. Rose,” a voice said, making Rose jump about a mile. She turned around and spotted the guilty person.

“Scorpius? What are you doing here? Go away, I have to get to the task,” Rose said firmly.

“Sorry,” Scorpius said, looking hurt. “I just wanted to say good luck, but if you don’t want it then…” but, he trailed off, seeing her face.

“Thanks,” she said impatiently, then turned around and stalked away.

Scorpius stared after her until she was out of sight and then went to find Albus, Christina, and Jordan in the stands. He must have looked dismal because the second he appeared, Albus said, “What’s up? You don’t look too pleased.”

“It’s nothing,” Scorpius replied.

“Where were you?” Jordan asked.

“Well, I just wanted to wish Rose good luck but apparently she didn’t want it or something. She told me to go away,” Scorpius said, looking thoroughly downcast.

“Look Scorpius,” Christina said interjected, “she’s under a lot of stress with the House Cup and she probably wasn’t thinking straight. And we all know that Rose can be rather moody sometimes.”

“That’s right,” Jordan muttered. The subject of Rose was still rather touchy with him as the two still hadn’t rekindled their relationship.

A loud whistle blew all of the sudden and the spectators were instantly quiet. Mr. Harry Potter stepped out of the tent and announced grandly, “Welcome all of Hogwarts, to the fourth and final task of the House Cup!” There was a loud array of cheering from the crowd.

“Now, it is my great pleasure to announce the four champions,” Harry said. He raised his voice and yelled, “I give you Mr. Zachary Fiddlesworth of Hufflepuff house!” Zachary ran out of the tent, waving, as the crowd cheered. One girl, a blonde Hufflepuff named Claire Wilkinson, was holding up a sign that said “Fiddlesworth, I love you!” Zachary purposely ignored this fact and carried on waving.

“And now, Anthony Wickham of Ravenclaw!” Anthony ran out, almost tripping over his feet in the process.

“Introducing Theodore Zabini of Slytherin house!” Zabini was the first of the champions to be booed. This, of course, was the Gryffindors’ doing, but the Slytherins were trying hard to mask the sound with their cheers.

“And last, but certainly not least, Rose Weasley from Gryffindor!” Everyone was cheering too loudly to notice that Rose didn’t run out onto the field.

“Miss Weasley!” Mr. Potter called again, sounding worried. Nothing. There was absolutely no sign of her.

Frantically, Harry ran into the champions’ tent. He emerged a mere minute later, looking distraught. “She’s not there,” was all he managed to say.

“Where could she be?” Scorpius muttered, half to himself.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Christina replied solemnly.

~~~~~~

I'd like to apologize to all those who wanted a very exciting, action-packed fourth task. The next few chapters will be very action-filled, though. Oh! And Zachary Fiddlesworth is going to be an important character in them, so don't be surprised when he actually talks! As usual please leave me feedback here. Thank you very much.

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been kind of busy. I don't really like this chapter, but I couldn't seem to make it any better. I hope you guys like it, though.

Chapter Sixteen: In Which Scorpius Takes Leadership


“Where could she be?’ Scorpius repeated. “I saw her five minutes ago.”

“I don’t know,” Albus said. “She’s not the type to run away.”

At that moment, Professor McGonagall’s voice rang out through the crowd. “Everyone please report to your common rooms while us teachers try to figure out where Rose could be.” It was a mad house; everyone got up and scrambled away, running into each other, and knocking over small students. Scorpius, Christina, Albus, and Jordan, however, stayed where they were.

“Look Scorpius,” Christina said, “We all know that you and Rose are up to something. What was that about? Tell us everything.” He looked very reluctant, so Christine added, “Its very important. Knowing this might help us find her.”

“Fine,” said Scorpius. “But, don’t tell Rose. She’ll kill me.”

“We won’t,” the others replied simultaneously.

“Did Rose ever tell you about that dream she had a couple of weeks ago?” Scorpius asked. Christine nodded slowly but Jordan and Albus both shook their heads. “Oh,” Scorpius muttered and he immediately launched into and explanation.

“So, you think it means something?” Jordan asked, sounding worried.

“We’re not sure. We both saw the guys coming out of the forest, though.” He gasped suddenly. “That’s it!”

“What?” Albus asked.

“I know where Rose is,” Scorpius replied. “At least, I think I do. I’m not completely sure, but it makes sense. Kind of, I guess.”

“Lead the way then,” Christina said.

“Wait,” Scorpius said. “We can’t go so fast. If I’m right, it’ll be pretty dangerous. And we only have four people. Meet me back here in five minutes and bring people who are willing to help. I’ll be right here, trying to figure out the best way to go about this rescue.” The three other nodded and dashed off.

***

Jordan didn’t have to go far. Within two minutes, he had caught up with the two people whom he was looking for.

“Hey!” he yelled. The two boys turned around.

“Who are you?” the taller of the two, Anthony Wickham, asked.

“Jordan Reilly,” Jordan replied. “But, that’s not important right now. As you know, your fellow champion, Rose Weasley, has gone missing. We think we know where she is and need help.”

“Where is she?” Anthony said.

“Somoewhere in the Forbidden Forest,” Jordan responded. “It’ll be dangerous and we need as many people as we can get. Will you help?”

“Are you kidding me? No way,” Anthony said. “I’m not going into the forest and risking my life. Sorry, not gunna happen.”

“Okay,” Jordan said. He turned towards the other boy, Zachary Fiddlesworth. “What about you?”

“I shall help,” Zachary said in a very strong Scottish accent. “Rose was always a nice person. I am gald to accompany you on your heroic quest.”

“Well, then let’s go!” Jordan said, taking off in the directeion he had come from. Fiddlesworth followed close behind.

“They’re insane,” Anthony muttered, shaking his head.

***

At first, Albus didn’t know who to get, but he eventually decided on his cousin, Dominique Weasley. He didn’t talk to her very much, but from the times that he had, she seemed pretty nice. For several minutes, he scanned the crowd, wondering where to find her. Finally, he spotted her strawberry blonde head, ten feet away.

“Dominique!” Albus yelled, racing up to her side.

“Albus, my little cousin!” she said enthusiastically, turning to face him. Although Dominique was immensely beautiful, her wardrobe wasn’t. In fact, she was wearing the strangest array of clothing Albus had ever seen. Her bright red shirt said “Thing One” in huge letters across the front and it clashed terribly with her brithg teal capris that had pictures of cartoon puppies eating cupcakes on them. She was also sporting purple, green, and white striped leg warmers, earrings that had green frogs on them, and a charm bracelet with pictures of dogs.

“Nice outfit,” Albus muttered, not looking directly into her eyes.

“Oh, thank you!” Dominique replied brightly. “Its one of my favorites.” She paused, then added, “What’s up?”

“Well,” Albus began, “Rose is missing and we’re pretty sure we know where she is. But, we need help. And, um, I thought that you might be helpful.”

“Of course I will help! Rose is my cousin after all.” Dominique said. “Where do you think she is?”

“The forest.”

“Well, this should be fun!” Dominique said sarcastically. “The forest is just great.”

Albus blinked and looked at her like she was crazy. He hadn’t caught the sarcasm in her voice.

***

Walking through the halls, trying to find him, Christina tripped over something and fell down hard on the ground. She looked around for an object that could have caused this incident but was unable to find one.

“Oh my gosh,” said a guy’s voice. “I’m so sorry. Thought you were a Slytherin so I used a tripping jinx. But, well, you’re not a one. Oops.”

Christina turned around to find herself facing none other than James Potter, the seventh year student whom she had been looking for.

“Need help getting up?” James asked, holding out his hand. Christina took it and James pulled her off the ground.

“Thanks,” she muttered.

“No problem,” James replied, turning around to walk away.

“Wait!” Christina called out. “Are you up for a semi-dangerous task?”

“What?” James asked, sounding quite confused. Christina explained the situation they were in, James’ eyes growing brighter every second. By the time going into the forest was mentioned, he was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

“Of course I’ll come!” he said loudly. “I laugh in the face of danger!”

“You’re in,” Christina said, laughing. “Now, come on! We have to go meet Scorpius!”

***

It didn’t appear that Scorpius had moved an inch when everyone arrived. He was sitting in the exact same position as he had been five minutes before.

“Okay everyone,” he said as they all sat down. “We’re going into the forest. I don’t know where, but whatever. We’re going in.” Six heads, nodded slowly, five of them looking rather nervous. James Potter, on the other had, was bouncing up and down, his eyes alive with wild excitement.

“Uh, James,” Scorpius said. “You do know that Viktor Krum is probably in that forest and is perfectly capable of murder?”

“Way to be optimistic, dude,” James said, smirking. Scorpius ignored this comment and signaled the others to go towards the forest. As a whole, all seven students marched together into sure danger, wands held aloft and heads up high.

“Oi! Reckon you need another person?” a voice said from behind. Scorpius turned around, bewildered. He couldn’t believe who it was.

~~~~~~

I actually own everything that Dominique is wearing. I don't wear it all at once, though. Feedback would be nice. Thanks for reading.