Dance Lessons - Scorose

Staircases, Ghosts and Tattoos

Rose's breath caught in her throat.

"Charlie, how? W-what are you doing here?" she stuttered.

"I came to give you your something new," he said, holding up the small box in his hand.

"No, I mean here, back," 

"Oh, well, um, Scorpius found me," he replied sheepishly.

"Where were you hiding?" she scoffed.

"New Zealand?" 

Rose let out a small laugh of disbelief. He had gone to the other side of the world. She tentatively stepped forward before pulling him into a hug.

"I would've gone for the present, love," he said. She laughed and pulled away from him to take the gift. Inside the box was a thin silver chain that held a tiny key.

"What's with the key?"

"Dunno, maybe it's the key to his heart," Charlie suggested. She rolled her eyes.

"He wouldn't be that cheesy. Wait - would he?"

"No idea, he's your fiance. Here, let me," he said, taking the necklace from the box and fastening it around her neck, "I didn't know people actually did the whole 'something new' thing,"

"Pretty much everyone in the wizarding world does, well, everyone in my extended family anyway,"

"So you've got two out of four," he pointed to the necklace and the blue brooch on her dress, "have you got the rest?"

She shook her head and bit her lip to indicate that she should have been a little better prepared.

"Well, how about something that's old and borrowed?" Charlie suggested, taking his leather tooth bracelet out from his pocket, "The leather snapped a few months back so its not exactly wearable but I still keep it close by,"

Rose took it from his hand, picked her wand up from the table and fixed it instantly.

"Ah, right, magic," 

She smiled and took her own bracelet off. She gave it to him and fastened his around her ankle so it would be hidden beneath her dress.

"So this is that boarding school you told me about on the day we met, eh? Care to show me around a little?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded. They left the room and went into the corridor when she stopped.

"Where did you come in from?" she asked. He pointed to a staircase to the left that led directly outside to a side entrance to the castle. She tugged at his sleeve lightly to get him to follow her. After walking down a few more corridors, Rose opened a door to reveal the staircases.

"Wow, that's a lot of staircases. And they're moving, of course they are, why wouldn't they be?" Charlie said, a little shocked, "wait, did that painting just move?"

"Ah, yeah. The paintings move. If we have time, I'll take you to the Fat Lady. She's the portrait to the Gryffindor common room,"

"Miss Weasley! I hear it's yours and Mr Malfoy's wedding day. My congratulations, of course," 

Rose turned around to see where the voice had come from and was greeted with the sight of Nearly Headless Nick.

"Thank you, Sir Nicholas. You're very welcome to attend if you have a moment," she told him.

"Of course I will, oh, I think Professor Longbottom was looking for you," Nick let her know.

"I'll go and find him now," she turned to go, but stopped, "Happy belated Death Day by the way,"

"Thank you. You know, you always livened up the party, no pun intended. It isn't the same without you, my dear,"

"Ah, I'm sorry, Sir Nicholas, I grew up and became too busy! Any luck with the Headless Hunt?" she asked.

"Ugh, nothing. Perhaps next year will be better. I always say that and it never comes true. If only they had managed to behead me properly. Anyway, you had better go and find Professor Longbottom. I'll pop down later, Miss Weasley,"

"Goodbye, Sir Nicholas," Rose said just as he disappeared into the floor. She turned to Charlie. "Oh, yeah, sorry, I probably should have given you a little warning. That was Sir Nicholas. Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington to be precise. He's a ghost. Everyone calls him Nearly Headless Nick because he wasn't beheaded properly and they never cut his head off fully and so he's only nearly headless. But he doesn't like that name. So if you run into him again, be sure to call him Sir Nicholas. Now, let's go and find Neville, he's probably in the greenhouses," 

She gently pulled him to get him to start walking and they set off towards the greenhouses.

In the greenhouses, Neville was standing by one of the flowerpots wearing grey checked dress robes, with his sleeves rolled up. He was trimming the leaves off a rather carnivorous looking plant when Rose and Charlie got into the room.

"Ah, Rose," Neville said, turning his back on the plant, "it looks like it's going to rain later so are you good to go in an hour instead of two?"

"Yeah, yeah, I don't mind, as long as everyone else knows and I don't look strangely early,"

Neville gave a small chuckle at his goddaughter and pulled one of his sleeves up that had started to fall down.

"Woah, wait, hang on a minute," Rose said, grabbing hold of Neville's arm and raising it so she could see it, "I never knew you had a tattoo, Professor,"

Neville's tattoo stretched the length of the inside of his forearm.

"That's because being around these all day means you don't normally want your sleeves rolled up," he replied, gesturing to all of the plants in the room, "if you must know, I got it years ago when Luna and her husband invited me on one of their expeditions to Africa. We climbed Kilimanjaro  and so I got this tattoo the next day. It's in ancient runes but it says 'Kilimanjaro 03-08-02' because that's the date we climbed it,"

"Okay, I'm just going to go before you tell me another story about how you're so active with your life and make me feel rubbish. It'll probably involve taming a lion or saving a Queen or something,"

"Actually, one time-" Neville began but Rose had already started humming loudly. She quickly left the room, pulling Charlie with her.

*          *          *

"How can you find your way around in this place?" Charlie asked as they walked down a corridor on the fifth floor that, in his opinion, looked exactly the same as every other one.

"You get used to it. Apparently they changed it a bit after the War which made it even more confusing for a while," Rose chuckled.

"The War?" 

"Yeah. The Second Wizarding War,"

"So that's not the Second World War then? It's something different?" he asked.

"Yeah, something else entirely. The Second Wizarding War technically started in 1995 and ended in '98. Basically, there was a bad guy and he was defeated. It ended with the Battle of Hogwarts and the school was half-destroyed. My parents, and my uncle, they - er - they're nicknamed the Golden Trio. Harry, my uncle, is the Boy Who Lived and, with the help of my folks, stopped Voldemort from taking over the world,"

"Wait, 1998? So, how old were they?"

"About eighteen. I know, at eighteen, I could barely cook myself dinner, let alone save the world," she said with a smile.

"So, you're pretty famous then. Daughter of some pretty important people. Do I need to bow?" he teased.

"Don't be silly, Charlie. A slight nod will suffice," she replied with a wink, "and since I'm so famous, we had better get out of the corridors. Lessons will change in a minute and we really don't want to be caught up in it. Especially since we stick out like a sore thumb. Particularly you,"

"What, why do I stick out more than you? You're wearing a bloody wedding dress," Charlie exclaimed.

"You're so obviously a muggle. You're wearing a suit and not dress robes. Believe me, people will know you don't belong," she replied.