XV: Defence Against The Dark Arts

*WARNING: THIS CHAPTER MAY BE (AND PROBABLY IS) PRETTY SHORT. I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE!*

Rose woke the next morning with a throbbing headache. She groaned and rolled over, away from the sun. 

"Rise and shine sleepy head. Half the school is almost dead!" The loud and unbelievably chirpy voice of Scorpius sang as the curtains were pulled apart, letting sunshine illuminate the room. Rose muttered profanities under her breath (which tasted horrible) but sat up. Too fast. Her head spun and seemed to explode. Scorpius came close to her and said, "Roooose?" 

"Sco---" she was cut off by her stomach lurching. She made a wild dash for her bathroom and landed in front of the toilet, emptying all the alcohol into it. It tasted even worse coming up that it had going down. And now that her stomach was empty, her headache had worsened ten-fold. Scorpius was holding her hair back, watching her pitifully. He said, "Do you need some---" 

"Please stop talking so loud." Rose whispered, holding her hand up. Her other hand clutching her head as if pressure would reduse the pain.

"Sorry." Scorpius whispered back and Rose stood up, her head spinning and she grabbed Scorpius just as she was about to fall. He held her and she looked at him. It could have been an intimate moment if Scorpius hadn't said, "You really need to brush your teeth. Your mouth smells like the inside of a hippogriff's arse."

"Nice to know that you know what that smells like." Rose said, rolling her eyes at him and pulling away. He laughed but let her go and exited the bathroom to leave her to get ready.

After brushing her teeth and taking a long, hot shower, Rose felt much better. When she finally went downstairs, she noticed that Scorpius was staring at the fireplace, clearly thinking deeply. So she decided to scare him. She snuck up on him from behind and whispered in his ear, in a hissing voice, "Kill." Scorpius emitted a loud, very girlish shriek and fell off the sofa he was sitting on. Although the shriek sent a new wave of explosion in Rose's head, she couldn't help but laugh and had to use the sofa for support so that she didn't fall down from laughing too hard. Scorpius turned around and glared at her and said, "That wasn't funny, Rose."

"It was hilarious, Scorpius." She said, still unable to stop from laughing.

"Stooop!" Scorpius whined, only making her laugh harder. He just watched her helplessly until her laughter died out. She occasionally chuckled but didn't laugh again. Also, her headache was back so she couldn't actually laugh without it hurting too much.

"Are you done?" Scorpius asked, coming to her. She nodded, a huge grin on her face. He nodded, an evil smile appearing on his face, "GREAT!" He shouted and Rose nearly fell over from the shock but her hold on the sofa prevented her from falling over.

"Softly, Scor. I still have a headache, you know." She said, glaring at him.

"DO YOU?! WELL I'M TERRIBLY SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN FOR MY VOICE TO BE AN INCONVENIENCE!" He shouted at her, making her head throb.

"Fine fine! I'm sorry for scaring you and then laughing at you! Okay?! Can we just let it go now?" Rose said, holding her hands up in defeat.

"Yeah okay. We're even." Scorpius said, grinning at her. She rolled his eyes at him and gave him a light peck before walking around him and going to the door. She said, "Coming?"

"Where?"

"You know how that thing called breakfast still exists?" She said, widening her eyes and nodding her head as if he was seriously stupid. He rolled his eyes too and said, "Shut up. Let's go."

"Aw...are you offended? I'm sorry. You're really handsome?" She said the last part with a nervous smile and the words 'please forgive me' written all over her face. Scorpius pretended to think about it, leading Rose to hit his chest. He laughed and said, "Just as beautiful as you are." And bent down to give her a kiss. The kiss lasted longer than it normally would have. Finally Rose broke it and breathlessly said, "We should go for breakfast."

"Sure. Walk together?"

"Walk together." Rose confirmed with a smile. Scorpius returned the smile and they walked out.

"We have no one to fear." Rose said, grinning at him.

"Rose?"

The second the voice came, Rose pushed Scorpius sideways into a nearby armour and exclaimed, "Daddy!" Ron didn't get a very good look at what she had done and so, before he could, she ran to him with her arms outstretched and gave him a hug, completely distracting him. She hoped that she had bought Scorpius enough time to get out of there. He hugged her back and said, "Hey. I missed you."

"I missed you too." She mumbled into his chest. Scorpius must have gotten out of there by then. She pulled away, quickly glanced over her shoulder to see a deserted corridor and sighed slightly with relief. Then she turned her attention back to him and said, "How come you're here?! Not that it's not great to see you but don't you have to be at the Ministry with Uncle Harry?"

"Oh yeah. Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, your mother and I came to Hogwarts today. Uncle Harry and I are planning to give a Defence Against The Dark Arts lesson and your mother and Aunt Ginny just missed the school so we all came."

"That's... great! Have you met Hugo yet?"

"Well no. I went to the Gryffindor common room first and didn't find him. He's probably already gone for breakfast so I figured I would go with you."

"Great! Shall we go then?"

"Oh definitely. I'm starving." Ron said and Rose laughed.

The second they entered the Great Hall, all eyes turned to look at them. Some students climbed onto their benches to see them and everyone was trying to get a good look. Rose spotted Hermione, Ginny and Harry sitting at the Gryffindor table with their children, eating breakfast. They looked like a normal family. Well except for the fact that the entirety of the Great Hall was staring at them. Al passed Harry the Daily Prophet and Lily was talking to Ginny about something animatedly. Rose approached them and grinned at them. Immediately they stood up and Hermione hugged her, giving her a kiss on her cheek. Then Harry and Ginny took turns in hugging her. She joined the table and began an animated conversation with her mother about the NEWTs while Ron had a conversation with Hugo about Quidditch.

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Scorpius took a moment to understand what had happened and then scrambled down the nearby staircase to go for breakfast without getting caught by Ron Weasley. Of course, that wasn't particularly difficult considering that he was having a reunion with his daughter.

So he snuck away to the Great Hall and still arrived before Rose did. When he entered, Harry Potter looked at the door, gave him a slight nod and then went back to talking to Hugo. Scorpius felt incredibly awkward. But he joined the Slytherin table, sliding in beside Charles and said, "Morning."

"Well well well. Finally decided to start talking to me again, have you?" Charles said, putting his newspaper down and turning to face Scorpius rather dramatically.

"What… are you talking about?"

"You know what? It's fine. I get it. You're in a relationship and you're going through your honeymoon phase where you only see each other. I get it and I forgive you, Scorpius. Seriously, I do. And on that happy note, I want to know how you feel about her family being here. Does it remind you of the fact that your family—"

"Shut up, Charles." Scorpius said, rolling his eyes and making Charles laugh. Once he had sobered up, Charles said, "No but in all seriousness. Is this going to be when you meet the family?"

"Of course not. Are you mental? It's her family Charles. She hasn't even met my friends yet. And I haven't met hers either. Heck, Potter only invited me because she was inviting Rose. But we haven't even touched friends. How the hell are we going to touch family?"

"Nice to know you think about touching Weasley's friends and family."

"Shut up you dirty minded pervert." Scorpius said, rolling his eyes at Charles. Charles laughed again and said, "Did you know that they were going to take a Defence Against The Dark Arts class and that's why they're here?"

"Okay how did you find out?"

"Well its pretty obvious considering they're both aurors and they basically saved the world."

"Right. And how do you really know this?"

"Gerald told me." He admitted. Gerald was the one person who knew everything about everyone. He was an expert at weaseling information out of a person and at eavesdropping. Scorpius nodded, knowing that Gerald could be trusted. Then he and Charles went back to eating breakfast and covering various topics in each of their lives.

DADA finally came after breakfast and, out of habit, Rose and Scorpius sat together. Something they only realised was a mistake when Harry and Ron cast them a look and frowned. Rose looked down at the floor guiltily and Scorpius just looked at the board behind them. Then Harry began the lecture, "Hello. I'm Harry Potter and this is Ron Weasley and we have come to talk to you about the importance of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Now, how many of you are planning to pursue a career in the Auror Department?" A few hands went into the air, including Scorpius'. He cast a sideways glance at Rose who gave him a slight smile without turning her head to look at him. Harry and Ron seemed pleased. Then Ron continued, "Well, the most important thing about being an auror is knowing as many defensive spells as possible. Sure, you'll want to play offence but offence is hard to play and can tire you out. And it isn't like in school where you can just petrify a person and then disappear from the common room in the middle of the night only to nearly be killed by a giant chess set." Harry grinned at Ron and a few students (including Rose) who knew what had happened also grinned at him.

"Anyway, so DADA is important because it teaches you defence. Which is much more important than offence. Because if you let your opponent play offence and tire them out, then you can play offence and defeat them." Harry said.

"One of the funniest defence spells we learnt at Hogwarts was the one to save a person from a boggart. To this day, nobody knows what a boggart looks like but the spell to get rid of it is very funny. I'm sure all of you know what it is. Riddikulus. And the spell was taught to us by the best DADA teacher we had ever had: Remus Lupin." Ron continued. There were a few murmurs at the mention of this name.

"Also one of the toughest defensive charms you will ever learn is the Patronus Charm. Used to get rid off dementors. Now, a Patronus Charm does not usually change form. Only the strongest of strong emotions can actually change it. So if your dementor begins as a, say, platypus," there were a few giggles, "it can change into a wolf due to the strong emotion. It's been proven." Harry said.

"Yeah. For example, a huge change for someone would be if a Gryffindor, who is expected to sit with another Gryffindor, or a member of any house other than Slytherin, sits with a Slytherin instead. It's mind boggling and—"

"Ron." Harry cut him off but Rose could feel herself going red. So could Scorpius and he was desperately trying to hide his face from embarrassment and (only a little) guilt. The discussion went on and Rose answered a few questions and got them all right. Albus answered a few questions and got a proud smile from Harry. Finally the class ended and there was massive scampering as everyone tried to grab quill and parchment and rush to get autographs. Both Harry and Ron were busy signing and Rose and Albus waited at the door to meet their parents. While they were waiting, Hermione showed up with Ginny and Rose and Albus exchanged hugs and greetings before their fathers came out. Harry grinned at Albus and Ginny and Ron grinned at Rose and Hermione. And Rose almost believed that her father wouldn't make a comment on her sitting next to Scorpius.

Almost.

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I honestly don't know how long this is. I seriously don't. Because I typed pretty much the entire chapter on my phone. But I don't think it's very long. Hopefully it's at least three pages :/

ERMAHGERD THE PARENTS ARE IN SCHOOL!!! WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NEXT!!! HYPERVENTILATE MY LOVELIES! XD

It was SO WEIRD typing "Uncle Harry" and "Aunt Ginny" I was just like NO. So it was much better when I was talking about them in third person and could refer to them as Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron. Good times...

Anywhoo!! So there's gonna be some serious parenting stuff in the next one!!!

So...yeah... VOTE FOLLOW AND COMMENT!! :D THANKS FOR READING!! :D ILYSM<4 (geddit?) :D

~RFM