Blood of The Birds (~Gabrielle)

Chapter 3 - Shunpike and Filch

Albus was hunched over, staring down at the black and white board as one of his pawns was destroyed by Scorpius's white knight. Rose watched the game as she walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, heading toward her two best friends. It was the first day of classes, and she still hadn't had the chance to talk to them since the feast from the day before."And, check mate," Scorpius said lazily, as if it had been the easiest game he had ever played. He then sat back and started to clean up the board with a charms spell."Blimey," Albus said in surprise and frustration. "Am I ever going to be able to win against you?"Scorpius laughed and said, "Well, you have other talents. I guess you'll just have to leave the chess playing to me.""How about I just leave everything to you then?" Albus muttered under his breath, though Rose could tell that Scorpius had heard based on his expression.She was just sitting down now, next to Scorpius on the long bench, and said reluctantly, "Hi".Scorpius turned toward her and said, "Hey." They both then looked to Al, who didn't speak."We haven't seen you in a while," Scorpius said to Rose, choosing to ignore Albus's lack of interest in the conversation. "Where'd you go off to last night?""What do you mean? I just went back to the common room, like everybody else. I was busy trying to fix Hugo's wand. He broke it on the train," Rose rambled, showing Scorpius the cracked piece of wood."Oh, is that why he looks so put out?" Scorpius asked, leaning forward to look at Hugo, who was sitting toward the end of the table.

He had a pile of crumpled paper in front of him, with ink splattered all around. His fire-red hair looked like it was in flames as he started to repeatedly bang his head against the table. "He does, doesn't he?" Rose said.

As Rose and Scorpius turned back toward Albus, who had still not sat up once more, a loud hooing sound was heard, and the Great Hall was quickly filled with barn, snowy white, and miniature owls, all flying toward students to hand over the first letters of the year.

Rose looked up at them just as Pigwidgeon was darting toward her. The old, tiny bird slowed down in time to slide across the table and into Rose's lap. He then looked up at the familiar face and spat out the letter he was holding.

"Thanks Pig," Rose said, taking the letter and placing the family owl back onto the table, where he started nibbling on her bowl of muesli. She then opened up the letter from her parents and started reading:

Dear Rose,

Hope you had a great first day at school. We heard word that you were chosen to be prefect for Gryffindor. Congratulations! We're both so proud (we were prefects in our 5th year as well).

Your uncle Harry also informed us that Stan Shunpike will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry used to know him when we were in school, but I never realized he had become a teacher. Let me know how you like him!

Send our love to your grandfather, as well as Neville of course. We hope that both you and Hugo are doing well, and will write again soon.

Love from,

Mum and Dad

Hugo was standing behind Rose when she finished reading, and as she looked up at him he asked, "Is that from Mum?" He then swallowed hard, clearly nervous.

"Yes," Rose answered. "But don't worry, she hasn't heard about your wand. Not yet, anyway."

At that, Hugo sighed with relief, but still looked slightly worried. "So you didn't fix it then?"

"No, not yet, but I am trying," Rose said apologetically.

"Rose, how am I going to tell her? Especially after you got prefect. It'll just make me seem even more disappointing."