The Music Still Plays On

Part 2: And it Bleeds (Second Year)

Chapter 6: Fun?

Just as I had been nervous when leaving for Hogwarts last year, my brother, Hugo, and cousin, Lily, were wrecks. And I had to look out for both of them while at the same time trying to find Scorpius and explain what had happened that day before finals. Technically, Al and James were told to watch over Hugo and Lily as well, but of course they didn't listen, wanting instead to hang out with their friends. Lily in particular was especially nervous, reminding me of a fluttering hummingbird as she continually pestered me with questions.

"Rosie? Do you think I'm going to be sorted into Gryffindor like you?" she asked.

"Probably, but it's all up to the hat, you know. You shouldn't worry about that stuff, though- it's not like we'll be mad if you're not a Gryffindor," I replied.

"Rosie? Do you think James will let me try out his Nimbus Infinity broom when we're there?" Hugo questioned.

"Definitely not, Hugo, you know that. He won't even let me use it- he guards that thing with his life." Both of them seemed unsatisfied with my answers. Before they could open their mouths again, though, I spoke to both of them once more.

"Both of you need to calm down- the train's almost here. You're both going to do fine. This is supposed to be fun, remember?" I reassured.

"Fun? But what if I can't do any spells and everyone laughs at me and I get sorted into Slytherin and..." Lily pattered on. I sighed. It was hopeless. As I saw the Hogwarts Express pull into the station, Hugo and I said goodbye to our mother and father. I almost had to force Hugo on the train because he was so nervous.

Soon after Hugo, Lily, and I stepped onto the train, we found places in a compartment with Liam Finnegan, Nellie, and two first-year girls who looked as scared a Hugo and Lily did. I barely recognized Nellie when I first saw her- she seemed to have completely transformed her appearance. Her once silky, straight, waist-length chocolate brown hair was now black, curly, and cut at her neck. She also had caked a huge amount of makeup onto her face. When I first saw her, her nose was in a book, and she barely looked up when I came in.

"Nellie? Hi!" I exclaimed. Nellie, surprised, jumped up, losing her place in the book.

"Oh. Hello, Rosie," she said, returning to her book.

"You certainly look...different," I commented.

"Me and my parents had a fight," was all she would say as an explanation. I don't know exactly how this led to her new look, but I could tell that she didn't want to elaborate. Liam didn't seem to want to talk either- he just stared at me, looking almost as nervous as Hugo and Lily did. I still couldn't figure out why he was always so nervous around me. Hugo and Lily were now talking animatedly with the two other girls in our compartment. Because there wasn't anything else better to do, I decided to try to find Scorpius and talk to him. As I went to leave the compartment, I was unaware that Hugo was following me.

Soon, I found Scorpius, sitting in between Blaine and Blair Carrow. Tamika Bletchley and Bertha Higgs were seated across from them. At that moment, Scorpius was attempting to count the number of Chocoballs that Blaine and Blair could stuff into their mouths at one time. Tamika and Bertha were eating their way through their own pile of Chocoballs as well, albeit much more slowly than Blaine and Blair were. As soon as the eating contest was over (Blaine was determined the winner, after Blair started turning a bright shade of purple) I walked over to Scorpius.

"What do you want?" he asked sourly. I knew this was going to be hard.

"Listen, about what happened before finals, I..."

"GET YOUR GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS OFF MY SWEETS!" shrieked Tamika, slapping Hugo's hand.

Now, normally, Hugo and I have what one would call a typical brother-sister relationship. At home, we often fight about trivial things, but always make up in the end. I don't like it when he joins forces with James and Al to put spiders in my slippers, when he knows I'm afraid of them, and he doesn't like when I spend too much time in the bathroom in the morning. A girl has to take time on her appearance, no? Alas, Victoire seems to be the only member of my family who agrees with me on that, so I often lose those battles.

Anyway, Hugo and I aren't usually the best of friends. But when Tamika yelled at him on the train, I quickly acted.

"HEY!" I shouted. "Don't talk to my brother that way!"

"I just wondered if I could have one..." Hugo tried to apologize, but Tamika cut him off.

"Well, you can't. I bought them with my own money. What, can you not afford to buy them yourself? If my mum was about to be fired over certain remarks that she said at a certain trial, I'd be careful about stealing sweets off other people."

This really sent me over the edge. Tamika was referring to a trial that Mum was present at concerning house-elf rights. Tamika's father, Miles Bletchley, was a member of the Wizengamot, (a position that he got mainly through bribery, Dad said) and didn't take too kindly to Mum saying that house-elves should stand up for themselves. While it wasn't true that Mum was going to get fired for her words- she was one of the most respected members of the Ministry, after all- it did make me angry when she said those things. I raised my wand to make Tamika think that I was going to curse her or something, when in reality I had absolutely no idea what would happen if we both started yelling spells on the train. Fortunately, the witch with the cart happened to come into the compartment at that very moment, obviously startled by the commotion.

"Boys! Girls! My, my, we're getting rowdy in here, aren't we? Anything off the cart?" The presence of more food seemed to calm all of us down, and after I paid for a bag of every flavor beans, I made my way back to my compartment, catching a look at Scorpius as I left. He didn't even meet my eyes, looking more interested at a cloud that was passing by out the window than the almost-fight that just occurred. It was going to be harder than I thought to go back to the way we were last year.

When we went back to our compartment with Liam, Lily, and Nellie, I related our run-in with Tamika to them- minus the part about me trying to talk to Scorpius, of course.

"That Tamika is such a brat!" Nellie remarked. "She never should have said that thing about your Mum."

"You should've called for me, Rosie- I would've punched her square in the jaw!" Liam exclaimed. Nellie and I looked at him with a weird expression on our faces.

"I mean...not like I'd ever hit a girl, but...if she was being mean to you, I'd...never mind," Liam shrugged.

"Why were you talking to all those mean kids, anyway?" Lily asked.

"Oh, I was trying to find your brothers," I lied. "I haven't seen them the whole time."

"They were just here," Liam said. "They said they were looking for you."

"Oh...we must have missed each other, then. I'll see them once we get to school."

"Speaking of school...Rosie, when will we be there?" Lily asked. I sighed.

"First you don't want to leave, and now you can't wait to get there? I can't believe you, Lily...we'll be there soon, I promise." As I talked to my brother and cousin about Hogwarts, I remembered how excited I was last year on the train. That was when Scorpius and I first met. Before, I couldn't believe the things Dad told me about him. But considering what had just occurred- how he had refused to acknowledge my existence- I was beginning to think that Dad had a point.

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"Payne, Theodora!" A very short, lean girl with silky crimson hair slowly placed the hat on her head. So far, nothing had gone amiss after we arrived at Hogwarts. Now we just had the sorting to get through. After the hat made Theodora a Ravenclaw, it was Lily's turn. Trembling, she put the hat on her head. Almost instantly, it proclaimed her to be a Gryffindor. We all cheered as she headed to our table.

"I'm so excited!" she exclaimed as "Quince, Evan" joined the Gryffindor table right after. "I was so nervous when I tried on the hat, I thought for sure I would be in another house and not be with all of you guys!"

"We're proud of you, Lily," James said. "Now hopefully Hugo will be made a Gryffindor as well, and then we'll be golden." Meanwhile, Lily was talking to some of her new friends: Nan Fernandez and Mellisa MacDonald, both of whom we met on the train. Conveniently, they were also both sorted into Gryffindor, so Lily continued talking to them at our table. After several minutes passed, it was about to be Hugo's turn. As soon as "Wagstaff, Arleen" headed over to the Slytherin table, Hugo set the hat on his head. It took a bit longer for him than it did for Lily, but eventually he was made a Gryffindor, like Lily. He joined us at the table soon after. If I craned my neck just so, I could see Scorpius at the Slytherin table. He was grinning and laughing with his friends. I sighed. I wished that I could sit at a table with just him, so that I could finally tell him that I honestly didn't mean what I said all those months ago about being in love with him. But now, it seemed like it was too late. After Professor McGonagall made her obligatory start-of-term speech, I started conversing with my cousins.

"What's this I hear about you and Tamika Bletchley on the train, Rosie?" James asked. News sure traveled fast around here.

"We got into a fight. She was saying some pretty bad things about my Mum- it really made me mad," I explained.

"Don't pay attention to her- she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about. Aunt Hermione's position in the Ministry is very much secure- you know that," James reminded me. "In the meantime, I don't want you hanging out with those Slytherins anymore. You have much more important things to do."

"It's not like I hang out with them voluntarily," I lied. "I just happened to bump into them on the train this one time." I didn't sound very convincing, but James seemed to take my explanation as fact and continued eating.

As of now, it seemed like I would have to wait until we were in the full swing of things before I would get a chance to talk to Scorpius alone. I just hope that, when I do finally talk to him, he will remember what fun we had during our first year.