Harry Potter : the next generation

chapter 16

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea, Al," Artemisia Lupin said. "Rose coming into Gryffindor Tower—"

"She really wants to see what our common room looks like. And she's not going to bring Scorpius with her."

"It's against the rules for members of one House to be in another House's common room," Missy began. "That's why there are passwords in the first place, to keep members of other Houses out. It's been hundreds of years since another student's managed to get into a common room that wasn't their own."

"No, it hasn't. Dad did it. Haven't you ever heard about the time that Uncle Ron and Dad snuck into the Slytherin common room?"

"Well, officially, nobody's been in the common room of another House in hundreds of years," Missy amended. "Besides, they broke about a thousand school rules in the process – and a few laws besides. Impersonating someone using Polyjuice Potion, knocking out two of their fellow classmates using drugged food, stealing a password...if they ever should have been expelled, it wasn't for flying a Ford Anglia into the Whomping Willow, it was for that."

"But we're not going to do any of that. I just want to let Rose in for a look around. She wants to see what it looks like. It'll be just this once, Missy, and you don't have to tell anyone. I'm sure nobody will even notice."

"Nobody? Including your brother?"

"Which is why I wanted to tell you first," he said. "You can make sure that James doesn't try to hex Rose. Or me."

Missy sighed. "If I don't agree with you, you're going to try it some night when I'm not around, aren't you?"

"Of course we—"

"Of course you would," Missy finished, although Al had been about to protest. "You're Harry Potter's son, all right, you and James both. I'm glad I'll graduate before Lily gets here – I'd hate to have to try to deal with all three of you at once." She sighed. "I'll cover for you. Nobody should really notice another Weasley in the Gryffindor common room, anyway, especially not if you don't stay too long."

"What about James?"

"That won't be a problem."

"Won't be a problem? You don't think James will have a problem with it?" Al couldn't help staring at Missy; he knew she was a natural optimist, but even Al thought that was stretching things.

"No, it won't be a problem because James won't be around to see it. I should've told you that first – James has detention tonight, along with Fabian and Gideon. They tried to skive off Professor Wilkes's class, and she found out." She ran a hand through her hair. "At least Rommy stayed out of it this time. He's too smart to even think about skiving off History of Magic – and besides, I think he actually likes the subject, unlike the rest of them. Now, if they'd talked about missing Astronomy, he might have done. If there's one thing he hates, it's star charts." She gave a little half-smile. "Nobody inherited Dad's lycanthropy, but Teddy and Rommy both inherited his aversion to Astronomy."

"But if everybody else is in detention, it should be fine. I don't think Rommy will do anything to Rose," Al said, feeling optimistic.

"Oh, I'll make sure he won't," Missy promised. "I'll make sure I'm in the common room all night, though, just in case the rest of them come back a little earlier than expected. I'm fully expecting Professor Wilkes to keep them until near-curfew, though. Fabian and Gideon already got in trouble in her class last week for setting off a Weasleys' Wild-Fire Whiz-Bang while she was trying to lecture on Pepin the Portentous. I don't even want to know how she's punishing them."