The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

My enthusiasm for the practice had spread to my relatives and Olivia as soon as we stepped onto the Quidditch Pitch.

“It’s been too long!” Lily cried, exaggerating a bit as she swung one leg over her broom effortlessly and zoomed off into the air with a whoop of delight.

“Yes!” Hugh cried, also leaping on with as much gusto as Lily. Zachary Zabini mounted with a cheerful expression, which was amusing to me, but Scorpius nodded with approval. He was, after all, used to it, being on the same team as Zabini for years.

“Let’s do ten laps,” I suggested to Scorpius as Lily, Hugo, and Zabini chased each other around the pitch, laughing. “Does that sound good?”

“We’ll increase the speed each time we get back to these goal posts. The tenth and final lap should be as fat as our brooms can go, even if we have to temporarily break ranks,” Scorpius added. I nodded, and Olivia, who was mounting her broom nearby, voiced agreement. Martha, the shy Hufflepuff, agreed when I asked her for her opinion.

“Get back here, fifth years!” I shouted, my voice echoing kind of eerily through the pitch as the three shot towards where the rest of us had mounted and were hovering, near the goalposts. They were all three practicing their evasion skills and techniques, dodging and rolling around each other at breakneck speeds. When they reached the rest of us, they only came to a halt after they’d each shot around us in a wide circle.

“Good,” Scorpius observed, “you’ve already got the beginnings of teamwork in the bag.”

“I agree, you’re doing excellent already!” I praised them, spotting an ill-concealed sliver of glee at the compliment from Zabini.

“Now we’re going ten laps around the pitch,” Scorpius told them. “Each time we reach these goalposts, we’ll speed up a little. We don’t break ranks for the first nine laps, does everyone understand?”

There were murmurs of acknowledgement.

“And the tenth lap?” Zabini asked.

“You catch on quick,” I said, spotting another glow of pride from the Slytherin. “The tenth lap will be a free-for-all. Each of us will push our brooms as fast as they’ll go, breaking ranks if need be.”

“Yes!” Hugh did a fist-pump giddily, sending himself spinning in a circle.

“V-formation,” Scorpius said, once Hugh had stopped spinning. “Rose, you take the lead.”

“Why me?!” I asked indignantly.

“Because I said,” Scorpius said after a moment, then added, “I mean, it’s not like you don’t do the same thing in your Gryffindor practices.”

“Yeah, but this is different!”

“Rosie, get up there already! I wanna fly!” Hugh cut in. I sighed and shot a pretend glare at Scorpius.

“Fine,” I huffed playfully, “you win this round, Scorp.”

I pulled my broom around and slowly started leading our team of inter-House Quidditch players around the pitch.

The practice went smoothly, with no botching up or anything. We were a bit muddy when we came back inside, but it was nothing serious. Scorpius had showed us a charm that removed the biggest part of the mud, and it was easy enough for even a first year to get the hang of.

We had dinner together at the table sat aside for Prefects and the foreign delegations to go over strategies and share other useful Quidditch tips and tricks.

No, sitting at other tables was not nearly as frowned upon as it had once been. Inter-House unity is more important than ever, in order to prevent the rise of another witch or wizard as dark as Voldemort himself. So no, we were not in any danger whatsoever of being reprimanded for sitting together. Besides, five of us (Olivia, Lily, Zack, Scorpius, and I) were prefects, anyway, and the other Hogwarts team was sitting together at the Ravenclaw table, anyway.

And yeah, I called Zachary Zabini Zack. After spending an afternoon with him, it became very clear that he isn’t nearly as arrogant as he lets on. He just wants his family to be proud of him, it seems, and Quidditch, he says, is his best chance for that. He’s looking to go professional. I think I’d like to play on the same team as him, if we both go for it. And actually, Lily already called him Zack before the Exhibition. It seemed as though they were on the road to one of the previously scorned - by Lily, in regards to Zack - Gryffindor/Slytherin friendships. And surprise, surprise - Zabini really does make a good seeker. Lily, having inherited a few of the seeking genes from Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry (but who chose to be a chaser, like Aunt Ginny), couldn’t even spot the snitch until Zack was already shooting towards it.

Scorpius agreed with me when we made it back to the dorm - we were confident that we had a fighting chance against the other Hogwarts team.

“Y’know, though,” Scorpius said, with an ‘I-told-you-so’ expression, “half of the Hogwarts players are Potters and Weasleys.”

I rolled my eyes, replying with, “I don’t know whether to be flattered or ashamed.”
Scorpius cracked a grin at my joking tone.

“Perhaps a bit of both?” he suggested.

“Perhaps.” I agreed, grinning.

I’d finished my essays already, so I had picked Eldest back up, but hadn’t been reading it much because Scorpius and I were keeping up a conversation. I finally put it down so I could be a little less distracted from the conversation, and also to help Scorpius with the question he’d had about Defense Against the Dark Arts.
It was about two hours later when I decided I ought to get to bed.

“I think I’m going to turn in,” I told Scorpius as I stood from the couch. “See you in the morning.”

“Wait a minute,” Scorpius put down his quill after finishing a sentence, and looked at me. I sat on the arm of the couch and gestured for him to continue. He did so, starting with, “Rose, I…um, did you actually want to be picked for the Triwizard, too? I realize it may have been - may be - selfish to want to be in both the Exhibition and the Tournament…but I do want to.”

“Don’t worry,” I stood back up. “I guess I’m quite a bit selfish, too.”

It was cryptic, but I saw the understanding immediately flash across his eyes. I smiled at him and turned to make my way up the stairs.

It made me feel better that we both wanted to be in the Triwizard.