The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

The Author's Note will be important. Please read!

On with the story:

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As much as I hated to keep things from him, I managed to keep myself from becoming so emotional that I had to run to him every night, in the common room. I forced myself to become kind of cold towards the visions, trying to make them seem as nothing more than dreams although I knew the attempt was futile. I maintained the excuse that I was fine, it was nothing, I was just stressing over the upcoming second task - and so we began to train as well as we could beforehand.

We analyzed different ways to interpret poetry - and again came the sharp realization that Spunky was probably somehow involved in the whole matter. We brushed up on rhymes, familiar already and ones that we’d never heard before. We even ran through some muggle nursery rhymes, just for further understanding of different rhyming schemes.

A few weeks went by rather quickly, and before I knew it, Scorpius and I were working into the night, finding a few charms that might be useful and also brushing up on rhymes again, only two nights before the second task in the Triwizard Tournament.

“…bel Lee…seraphs of heav…her and me…” Scorpius mumbled nearly inaudibly, so I leaned over and took a peek at the poem he was poring over. It was by an American muggle from something like the eighteen hundreds - at least, I thought that’s when he lived. The poem was called “Annabel Lee”, and the poet was a man by the name of Edgar Allan Poe. I peered at the words, realizing the bits I’d overheard were probably, “But we loved with a love that was more than love - / I and my Annabel Lee; / A love that the winged seraphs of heaven / Coveted her and me.”

I turned back to my book of charms, reading the information on a spell that gave real life what muggles know as subtitles. I scribbled it down, adding the note that it was nonverbal, and moved on. So far I had three spells that might be useful - and this was with two weeks of research.

I sighed, staring blankly at the page and realizing that there wasn’t really much use for spells. This task was more of one that would have to do with intellect, and the ability to understand the message hidden in a rhyme. Giving in to my exhaustion - it was in the middle of the night, remember - I leaned and let my head drop onto Scorpius’ shoulder. He, too, sighed, but his was of relief, and he took my book and his poetry book and tossed them to the coffee table.

Adjusting our position to where we were comfortably snuggled together, he sighed again and said, “I was wondering how much longer you’d try to find spells.”

I snorted, and he chuckled, brushing his lips across my forehead just before I tucked it into the crook of his neck for comfort. He rested his arm around my waist, playing with my hair with his free hand. I swatted it away and yawned, enjoying his warmth. Even the blanket spread across us couldn’t keep the chill of the castle at bay completely.

“You know something?” I asked him drowsily as he started playing with my hair again.

“Hmm?”

“I think we’ve been wasting our time cramming poems into our heads. It’s not like we’ll be faced with anything we already know. I think it just has to do with how well we interpret the rhymes.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, sighing, “but it never hurts to try to be prepared, now does it?”

“I don’t suppose so,” I chuckled softly before breaking off into a yawn again. “At any rate, I need some sleep, so I’ll see you in the morning.”

I stood up and stretched, yawning again as I did so.

“I guess so,” he agreed, finally yawning as well, before struggling laboriously to his feet to trap me in a hug as I headed for the stairs. It was a warm, comfy bear hug, and it would be a lie if I said I didn’t like it.

Grinning softly, I stood on my tiptoes, placed my hands in his slightly disheveled but still silky platinum blonde hair, and pressed my lips against his. His hands fell into place at my waist, and I enjoyed this moment. It had been a while since we had pulled ourselves away from all the frantic, last-minute studying in order to share a simple, quiet moment like this.

I pulled away first, but Scorpius leaned down farther to kiss me again, holding it for a while before breaking it himself.

“We need to do that more often,” he said, chuckling, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

“That we do,” I agreed, catching my breath back. “But first, we need to sleep. And make it through the second task in two days.”

“A day and a half,” he corrected.

“A day and a half,” I agreed, pecking his cheek before sliding out of his grasp and telling him, “Good night!” over my shoulder.

“G’night, Rose,” he said after me, and I heard him start for his dorm a few seconds later. After closing my door behind me, what seemed like my hundredth yawn of the night fell from my lips, and I rubbed my eyes tiredly.

Without further ado, I climbed into my bed and snuggled into the warmth my covers offered me.

*

Class was hell the next day. Running on four hours of sleep, with a test in Transfiguration and in Potions? It was not the smartest thing that either of us had ever done, although I was fairly certain I’d managed to get at least a passing grade on each of them. When Scorpius and I slumped down at the table at dinner, Lily looked at me curiously, then rolled her eyes.

“You stayed up studying all night again, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Not all night,” Scorpius got to the reply first.

“Just most of it,” I added as an afterthought, piling a bit of the different foods on our plates as Scorpius poured the pumpkin juice.

“You two are like some sort of robot,” Al said, sliding into a spot across the table, although he wasn’t a prefect. It wasn’t like anyone shooed him away, though. “You work together like some sort of well-oiled machine. You kind of answer each other’s sentences sometimes, and where Rose excels in classes, Scorp’s just a little behind, and it’s the exact same for the ones that he excels in. Don’t you agree, Lils?” he addressed his sister.

“Totally,” she said, nodding vigorously.

“Robots…” I shook my head as I took my first bite. “Scor, apparently we’re robots.”

He laughed slightly, covering my hand that lay on the table with his larger, warm one for a moment before turning to his own food.

And as I sat eating, bantering playfully with my two Potter cousins, Scorpius, Andy, Joe, and Zack, I realized something else.

Tomorrow was the second task.