The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

Technically, Theresa’s announcement that a “Weasley’s” water war was beginning was false, because it wasn’t just the Weasleys. It was the Potter/Weasleys and assorted friends. One leader was me, a Weasley, and the other was a Potter…but I digress.

I got splashed in the face by my younger brother almost immediately, and in revenge I tackled him into the water, holding him under for as long as safely possible. I was tackled off of him by Molly and held under, in turn, by Al, who I managed to splash square in the face. I was rescued by Olivia and Andy, who each tackled one of my two assailants.

I think Al might have liked it when Andy tackled him…

Theresa soon retreated farther back on the bank after having gotten splashed when Zack lifted a squealing Lily and tossed her back into the water. After swearing at us in a few different languages, she settled out of splashing range and continued her commentary of the match, laughing when Joe was taken down by my youngest team member, Martha, with ease. I saw Fred tackle my boyfriend, and snorted even as Al escaped Andy and tackled me again. I let out a little shriek before I hit the water, and came up gasping but laughing as I tried to escape my cousin.

“Back up!” I yelled, and Demitri came to my rescue even as I waded off to save Olivia from Louis.

It went much the same, with Al repeatedly coming after me, for the next ten or fifteen minutes. Finally, the teams kind of broke off and it became sort of an every-person-for-themselves water war.

Then it became an everyone-team-up-on-Rose water war, and I was running for my life…or at least for my partially dried hair.

I fell into the water, though, with at least four other bodies falling on top of me.

I felt the weight lift as I held my breath, until I myself was lifted out of the water with a startled shriek.

“Gotcha!” a familiar voice said, and I craned my neck enough to spy pale skin. Scorpius. Of course.

“Hold her there, Scorp!” Al hollered.

“Why can’t you be on my side?” I whined, wriggling in his grasp. He threw his head back, flinging droplets of water from his platinum blonde hair, and laughed. As a result of my struggling, he only held me tighter…not that I particularly minded, mind.

After being thoroughly dipped under water, splashed, soaked, saturated, and whatever other words mean the same things as being completely covered in water, they grew tired of tormenting me and we all climbed back onto the bank of the lake. Just as we all collapsed, breathing heavily, a huge tentacle came out of the water and doused us all in some more water which was colder now that we’d been out of it for a few moments. After that we were shivering in the cool breeze, but we all just lay there, laughing. It was good to get out and forget everything for a while. Forget schoolwork, the Triwizard Tournament, my visions, the Quidditch season, and whatever else could be plaguing the seventeen year old girl’s mind.

Theresa sighed then, and in a second my clothes were charmed dry. I opened my eyes a crack to see the girl administering the same treatment to all the others.

“Come on,” she said, her accent slightly thicker than I was used to hearing from her. “Let’s get into the castle before you all catch cold.”

I sighed and looked up at the sky for a few minutes as the others rose around me, until Scorpius stooped over me and held his hand out. I took the offer and stood with his help, stretching my aching muscles. Scorpius’s arm dropped over my shoulders comfortingly, and we joined the tail end of the group heading back up to the castle. I smiled a little to myself when I saw Zack and Lily roughhousing nearer to the front of our little army.

Perhaps they’d be able to see past family prejudices and the separation of houses earlier than Scorpius and I had? In the context of a romantic relationship, that is. I thought the two of them would be cute together, and every time I saw them together it just increased my approval.

“Rose!”

I was brought out of my musings by the voice of Louis, who fell back in step with Scorpius and I.

“What, Lou?” I asked, too lazy to finish saying his name.

“Dad told me to tell you that your parents aren’t going to tell you that everyone’s gonna be here for the third task of the tournament and he thought you needed to be warned,” Louis said easily all in one breath, and I took a moment to process it.

“That was a mouthful,” Scorpius said intelligently.

“The whole family?” I reiterated.

Louis nodded.

“The whole family?” I repeated yet again. “Potters, too? All the Weasleys? And the cousins? And the aunts and uncles and grandparents and great aunts and Grangers and…all of them?”

“Yup. And Uncle Ron and Aunt ‘Mione weren’t going to tell you, so Dad told me that he thought you needed to know. ‘Cause that’s a helluva lot of people, and I wouldn’t wanna be surprised with so many of them at once, either.”

Scorpius laughed, and I chuckled.

“Tell Uncle Bill thanks, then,” I said, glancing at Scorpius, “that helps me know how many people will try to sneakily kill my partner…”

“Hey!” Scorpius elbowed me. Louis snickered, and returned up to continue whatever conversation he’d been having with my little brother.

“That’s going to be wonderful,” I said aside to Scorpius sarcastically. “The whole Potter/Weasley clan, not to mention the muggle Grangers…I bet Gram and Gramps will freak out about some of the things. Hell, I bet they’re fretting about it now.”

“You’re their granddaughter,” Scorpius said, “it’s only natural that they’d be worried, isn’t it? They don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“Nothing bad can happen to me, Scorpius,” I rolled my eyes. “I have a foreboding sense that you’ll make sure of that.”

He snorted a bit as we started to climb the stairs in the Entrance Hall. The others seemed to be leading the way back to the Head dormitories, so I could only assume that we were going to have another night of little sleep ahead of us. It was fun to have this group around, talking and laughing and messing around and just hanging out. Andy, Demitri, Joe, and Theresa made great additions to the normal group, and I was really thankful that we’d had this awesome chance to meet them.

“I want a shower,” I groaned as we approached the door to our dorm. “But I don’t wanna take it with everyone here.”

“Go on,” Scorpius said, “I’ll be a good host and keep them occupied until you’re done.”

“Are you sure?” I asked tentatively. I’d hate to ask it of him, but I didn’t want to smell like lake water all night.

“Yeah,” he grinned, kissing my temple. “Run upstairs and grab some clothes.”

“Thanks,” I said, edging around our crowd of ‘guests’ as we piled into the Head common room. I bolted up the stairs and grabbed some comfy muggle pajama pants and a t-shirt and undergarments before slipping back downstairs and sliding in the unoccupied bathroom. I closed and locked the door manually, then used a few charms to lock it, before I got into the shower and washed the lake’s grime and smell away.