Gryffindor Princess

The Love Tree and a Crazy Slytherin

Rose and her three friends walked up to the Gryffindor Common Room, stopping at the portrait of the Fat Lady. She announced the password and stepped through the portrait hole. Rose quickly set her bookbag on her bed and turned to her friends.

"Do you want to go down to the grounds?" Rose asked. "I'm going to meet Al and his friends."

"Sure," was the resounding answer from the three Gryffindors. Rose noticed the way a small grin appeared on Em's face when she heard Al's name and suppressed a smile.

The girls walked down a staircase to the grounds, through the doors, and across the grounds. Rose immediately wished she had brought a thicker jumper, as the brisk autumn air ruffled her hair and blew across the leaf strewn grass.

"Hey, Rose!" Albus exclaimed grinning, lounging under a tree with the three other Slytherins. "You brought your friends?"

"Yup," replied Rose plopping down on the ground beside him.

"Well," Albus said. "Nice to see you. It's refreshing not to be stuck with these Slytherins and my lovely cousin."

Albus smirked as Rose, Farrah, Scorpius, and Alexander protested.

"You're a Slytherin too," Farrah reminded him, rolling her eyes and pushing her curly hair over her shoulders.

The rest of the group burst into laughter and gathered around the tall tree. Rose thought she saw a small carving of a heart and the engraving "J+L," but she couldn't be sure.

"I think it means James and Lily," Albus told her, as if reading her mind. "The first two, mind you. My grandparents."

"It looks like a lot of people carved those hearts," Rose said, squinting to see more. "Is that H+G? Harry and Ginny?"

Al made an exaggerated gagging noise and scanned the tree for more names that they recognized. Rose grinned at Al's childish reaction.

"Speaking of love or dating or whatever we're taking about, you'd better ask a certain girl to Hogsmeade," Rose said, winking. "I'll leave you to it."

Rose stood up from where she sat on the ground, brushing off whatever dirt had gathered on her legs. She was met by Scorpius, who appeared next to her.

"Want to go for a walk?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rose didn't find his kindness strange anymore, as they had grown close through Al and Head Duties. In fact, Rose had grown to enjoy his company.

"Sure," Rose said brightly, walking alongside Scorpius as they headed, for some reason, towards the Quidditch pitch.

The pair talked and strolled around the trees, getting to know each other better. After a while of talking, they decided to head back to the "Love Tree," as Al called it. Just as they were about to walk back to the rest of the group, they were cut off by a tall Slytherin girl with red hair.

"Katila," Scorpius greeted her halfheartedly. "What do you want?"

"I think you know," the girl - Katila - replied haughtily, throwing a disgusted glance at Rose.

"I don't," Scorpius replied calmly, but Rose noticed his hand curl into a fist. "Care to enlighten me?"

"What are you doing with the Gryffindor? Daughter of a blood traitor and a mudblood." Katila spat menacingly.

"Don't say that word ever again," Scorpius stepped forward, towards the girl.

"Stop," Rose said hurriedly, reaching for his hand. "It's not worth it."

"Look, your little girlfriend is worried," Katila said smugly, crossing her arms across her chest.

"What have I ever done to you?" Rose asked, staring at the Slytherin girl. "I've never even talked to you before."

"You're a problem because you're the daughter of a mudblood. People with dirty blood should never be allowed with us purebloods. It's a shame that Hogwarts allows this to happen."

"Shut up, you disgusting-" began Scorpius, narrowing his eyes at the girl in front of him.

"What?" Katila said, evidently satisfied. "You don't want to accept the truth?"

"And you don't want to accept that all this blood status rubbish was dropped years ago? Decades ago?" Replied Scorpius cooly. "Even though your brain is too slow to register that times have changed, it doesn't mean that it's the same for everyone else."

"Stup-" Katila pointed her wand at Scorpius furiously.

"Protego!" Rose cried, an invisible shield forming between the two furious Slytherins.

"You," Katila rounded on Rose. "Stop jumping in where you don't belong."

Katila prepared to shoot some kind of jinx at Rose, but Rose simply flicked her wand and another shield formed between the two girls.

"Back off," Rose said simply, turning on her heel and glancing at Scorpius.

He took her hand and walked next to her closely, away from the seemingly insane girl behind them. Even after almost being cursed - for no reason at all - Rose felt strangely happy that Scorpius had stood up for her. And that he was holding her hand. Since when had she cared this much. Why did she care this much.

Was it a bad thing that she almost wanted Katila to try to curse her again.

That sounded stupid. In fact, it sounded like absolute rubbish. But for the rest of the day, Rose couldn't keep the small smile off her face when she thought of the way that Scorpius Malfoy had stood up for her.