The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

“Lighten up,” I chuckled as Scorpius and I sat at the table. “They probably won’t announce the Quidditch Exhibition teams until noon, and even then you won’t have anything to worry about.”

“I agree to the first part, but I’m still skeptical of the second.”

A few hours (and several teachers who gave up halfway through their lessons) later, we were among all of the students thronging to the Great Hall. We were speculating who would be on the teams - and we had been all morning. Professor Malin hadn’t even attempted to teach, knowing that we were all completely distracted by the upcoming team announcements.

“Hurry,” I heard a Hufflepuff Quidditch player behind me telling her friend. I shook my head to free it of the thought that she wasn’t quite good enough to make it. After all, even just thinking it is rather rude, right?

“I agree with her,” Scorpius said anxiously from my right, and the excited Al nodded enthusiastically to the right of Scorpius.

“Yeah,” I said, in full agreement.

We filed into the Great Hall together, only to split up to go to our two separate tables - Scorpius and I to the Prefects/Foreigners table, and Al to the Gryffindor table. There was a lot of hushed chattering throughout the room, speculations and such about which Hogwarts students were sure to make the cut, and which were the best. I heard “Weasley” this and that several times. I told Fred he was good! I think he and Scorpius are the best beaters at Hogwarts, frankly.

Randomly, a thought flitted across my mind: being a beater must help Scorpius in his dream to be an Auror. After all, beaters probably need the most upper body strenght of all of the players, even the chasers (who would, with a good team, throw the quaffle almost non-stop).

I took a seat towards the end of the table nearest the teachers, but not at the very end. Okay, so it was between the middle of our table and the teachers’ table. Anyway, Scorpius took the seat right beside me, as per usual, and slowly reached for an apple. I saw his fingers shaking slightly from his anticipation as the volume in the room increased with each person that filed in.

“Anxious?” I nudged him teasingly as I pulled my plate nearer, filling it with a bit of fried chicken, bouillabaisse, and also grabbing an apple of my own. Okay, so maybe it’s strange to have chicken and French fish soup on the same plate to you, but I like them both. My appetite, however, was being a little strange. To try to balance the meat intake out a little better, I put a scoop of potatoes on my plate.

“A bit nervous, yeah,” Scorpius said, taking a bite of his apple. He chewed slowly and deliberately and then swallowed, taking much more time than was really necessary.

“Eet is more than ‘a bit’,” Andy said as she plopped into the other seat beside me.

“I agree completely,” Demetri said as he took the seat across from his twin.

“You look nervous, Scorpius,” a Bulgarian accent came, and the twins and I started laughing at the look on Scorpius’ face as Joe took the seat across from him. A friend of his, Theresa, sat between Joe and Demitri. We’d met her - if only briefly - at the Halloween Ball.

“Yes, yes, I’m nervous!” Scorpius threw one hand up, taking a sulky bite of the apple that remained in the other hand.

“You’ll be fine,” I said, for what seemed like the millionth time that day, “after all, you are like, the best beater here at Hogwarts.”

“You’re just saying that,” Scorpius groaned. “Fred and Hugo are bloody excellent. And then there’s that Hufflepuff…”

He groaned again, and I slapped him in the back of the head - a little more than a friendly tap, but much, much weaker than if I had been angry.

“You. Will. Be. Fine.” I said slowly and clearly. “All right? And you can stop sulking now.”

He huffed, but remained silent.

“Seems like you’ve ‘ad that conversation before,” Theresa remarked, grinning at me.

“Too often,” I said, returning a grin, “d’you believe this is the fourth time in the last hour? Seriously. The boy has issues with his confidence.”

“ ‘The boy’ is sitting right here,” Scorpius waggled his fingers in my face. I pretended to bite at them, causing him to snatch them back pretty quickly.

“Oh, hello, Scorpius,” I said warmly, grinning, “How long have you been there?”

He groaned whilst everyone else in the area laughed.

The Great Hall got fuller and fuller as I chatted idly with those around me. Andy and I had an interesting conversation about her lilac pygmy puff, Stefan, and I think we basically planned on spending a week of our summer together - meeting the parents and exploring each other’s hometowns and such. I heard Scorpius finally falling into conversation with Joe, Theresa, and a Beauxbatons boy named Tyler (who had fortunately taken the seat beside Scorpius but was receiving death glares from Sandra and several other girls).

And the meal passed. I ate only two servings and a tiny portion of treacle tart, as compared to my usual three to four servings and a huge helping of treacle tart and some pie. I was afraid I might get sick if I were to eat any more than that. Scorpius had finally loosened up a little, however, and had sampled a few of the foreign dishes that he hadn’t tried yet.

When the plates finally cleared, I looked expectantly to the top table. Professor Collins and the other schools’ heads - Uncle Viktor and Madame Maxime - were talking softly together. I knew it was going to be a few more moments, at least, so I picked up my goblet and took a drink of pumpkin juice. I had just sat the drink down when the doors to the Great Hall opened.