The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

When I awoke, it was to the door closing gently. I yawned as I sat up.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” Scorpius asked concernedly.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Why were you out so late, anyway?” I asked him, catching a glimpse of the windows in the hall outside before he closed the door.

“Rounds.” he said simply.

I bolted up, crying as I did, “Then why didn’t you wake me?!”

I regretted this quick movement as I grew dizzy and flopped on my butt again, holding my head in my hands.

“That’s why,” he sighed, conjuring a damp-looking rag. “Now lay back down. We didn’t wake you because you were running a fever. We figured that letting you try to sleep it off would be for the best.”

“Wha - but, I--” I struggled against the hand he was using to push me back onto the couch.

“Just lay back down,” Scorpius ordered so firmly and with such a fire in his eyes that I obeyed instantly. “Good.” he placed the cool, damp rag on my forehead and next, he conjured up a thermometer.

I waited it out until he announced, “You’ve still got a slight fever. If it’s not gone by the time classes start tomorrow, I’m taking you to the hospital wing. No ifs, ands, or buts, got it?”

I chuckled, and replied, “Sure thing, Dad! Whatever you say goes.”

Scorpius chuckled as well, and I guess that’s about when I dozed off again.

When I next woke, the first thing I saw was a clock boldly proclaiming ‘4:27’. I groaned, but then I heard I soft, tell-tale snore from nearby.

I rolled over to see what the noise was. My eyes found Scorpius in one of the armchairs, slumped over with his head barely staying propped up on his hand (his elbow was resting on the arm of the chair). For a few moments, I let myself watch him sleep, before I let myself drift back off.

I was forced to the hospital wing the next morning, where Madam Pomfrey (the daughter of the nurse from my Dad and Mum’s school days, who was just in her early twenties) said a bit more rest and one of her draughts would help. She bullied me into one of the beds and forced the icy-cold liquid down my throat.

I immediately grew drowsy and the last thing I heard was Madam Pomfrey telling Scorpius to collect my work for me until I showed up in classes.

After that incident, the remainder of September passed uneventfully and then, Halloween was nearly upon us. Professor Collins had asked us three or four more times if we were alright with entering the tournament, and every time we answered it the same way: it was fine with us, and it sounded fun if we were to actually make it in.

“Why is it,” I asked Scorpius suddenly, “that the last two time they’ve tried to reinstate this tournament, it’s been held here at Hogwarts?”

He laughed as we headed up to drop our bags off before going to greet the visitors at the front doors. “I don’t know, Rose,” was his reply, accompanied by a grin and shake of his head.

I laughed with him as we reached the corridor to our dorms. We rushed to drop off our bags, and hurried back downstairs to where we stood a step down and to Professor Collins’ left side on the front steps. The teachers were either behind us or in the same spot but to the headmaster’s right.

The heads of houses - Slytherin and Gryffindor to the headmaster’s left, and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to his right - were standing by their respective houses.

Scorpius and I kept glancing nervously at our own housemates, as we were unsure of the outcome of the entire Gryffindor house next to the entire Slytherin house. All attention, however, was now focused on the giant, powder-blue carriage coming in for a landing. I recognized it from the descriptions of my parents and my Aunts and Uncles as the one belonging to Beauxbatons.

Just moments later, a mast arose from the center of the lake, and when the Durmstrang students reached land I deduced that they and the Beauxbatons delegations would reach the steps at nearly the same time.

I was right, for Madame Maxime, still head of Beauxbatons, reached the steps at the same time as Viktor Krum, the head of Durmstrang. Uncle Viktor, as the younger of the Potter/Weasley clan knew him, bowed politely to Madame Maxime and gestured for her to go first. We could hear her thank him profusely in her French accent as she and her students began to ascend the steps. I noticed stares directed at Scorpius and I, so I leaned over to whisper, “D’you think they all saw that Prophet article about me, you, and Al last year?”

He snorted and replied, “Maybe…”

“Welcome!” Professor Collins greeted cheerfully. “Please, do come in!” he stepped aside to allow Madame Maxime to enter first.

“Thank you,” she said, then added, “’Agrid, you do remember zat ze horses--”

“Drink on’y single malt whiskey, yah,” Hagrid grinned toothily at her, and she bowed her head in acknowledgement as she turned to enter Hogwarts.

“Viktor!” the headmaster greeted as the Durmstrang party stepped up behind the Beauxbatons delegation. “Welcome!”

“Thank you, Professor,” Uncle Viktor said, his accent just as heavy as ever. Then he turned to continue up the stairs, spotted me, and grinned. He stepped over and swept me quickly into a hug, and I hugged him back. “It’s good to see you again, Rose.”

“You too, Uncle Viktor!” I grinned, stepping back beside Scorpius. Uncle Viktor nodded to him and continued into the school at the request of Professor Collins. Then, as had been planned, all of Hogwarts re-entered the school in an orderly fashion.

As there had been twelve possible candidates for the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang Triwizard Champions last time, there were twelve pairs this time. That mean that there were twenty-four students from each of the visiting schools now at Hogwarts. Therefore, to accommodate them all better, there was a new table added in the center of the Great Hall for these forty-eight students, as well as the Head Boy and Girl and all the prefects (who also total up to twenty-four in number). It was a perfect way to create unity between these young witches and wizards, Rose thought - and it had been Scorpius who had suggested it. The headmaster had owled the visiting heads and the plan was met with unanimous agreement.

This leads us all to be seated in the Great Hall, the prefects and foreign students all sitting at their new temporary table in the center, waiting for whatever Professor Collins was going to say next.