This was supposed to be a very long one-shot, but that would be painful for all you amazing readers out there. It's Rose and Scorpius' story, as told by me, with the concepts of Something About Me. It would just feel weird if I changed the setting and what people do just for this story, or my stories won't make sense. Well… to me anyway. Haha!! Anyway, this story is for my amazing friends bday…

Happy Birthday, Dee!!

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Above All Things

By: LittleLauren :]

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One: Exchanging Honest Opinions

Ever since I could remember, my father taught my brother and I to never trust a Malfoy. I never really understood what he meant or why he said it, but I always promised him. I remember performing the old-fashioned "pinky swear" with him on the subject, thinking that whatever he said was golden. My mother, of course, felt this kind of agreement between a father and his children was unethical and uncivilized. However, my father would always point out, "True, but Hermione, when have you ever known me to be ethical and civilized?" So since we were so young and innocent, she dismissed this.

Not long after, I had to put this code to practice when I first saw the Malfoys. I was nine and we were shopping for my mother's birthday. I spotted a certain book she's been eyeing ever since it came out in Flourish and Blotts. Hugo got her yet another planner (he reasoned that mum's current planner was stuffed to the point it might explode). And dad bought mum a beautiful necklace with her sapphire birthstone on it. After a successful day, dad bought us ice cream from Florean Fortescue's. We saw them as we were walking out of Diagon Alley… the infamous Malfoys.

There were three Malfoys I gathered quickly. One was a man, looking pompous and dignified, with bleach-blonde hair and icy grey eyes, which were starting down at my father. There was a woman next to him with dirty blonde hair, but unlike the man, she had a calm demeanor about her. She held a boy by the shoulder, who looked about my age and he had the man's hair and eyes, but the woman's face structure. They were walking from the entrance, as if they had just arrived in Diagon Alley.

Obviously, dad wasn't at all thrilled to have to pass them, since we were walking out of the village. It was not a very long glimpse, but it was enough to make my father squint his eyes, take me and Hugo by the shoulders, and hold his head up high. It was quite awkward when both my father and the man looked at each other in the bustling streets of Diagon Alley. As we exited the village, I glanced back at the boy who stared back at me. I could tell he was thinking the exact same thing I was by the way he looked at me. What is so wrong with out families?

Honestly, whenever I asked this question, dad would always say, "There are just some things you wouldn't understand, Rosie."

And I would smile and reason, "I'll understand daddy."

But he would just pat my red head and reply, "You'll understand when you're older," and he left it at that.

However, my father didn't realize that I would have to deal with a Malfoy for the most part of the Hogwarts years. We saw the secluded-looking family again, and I guessed that my dad got a bit nervous and intimidated by the Malfoys because he told me to beat the Malfoy boy in every test. Like I wasn't anxious enough! My mum calmed me down before the train was to leave. She said, "Follow what you want to do, Rose, not what your father wants. It's your decision." Her words gave me the confidence I needed to survive my Hogwarts years.

I sat with my cousins Albus and Lucy. Lucy and I weren't particularly close… well, not as much as me, Al and Lily. However Lucy and I had the same ideals about books and keeping to a schedule. Al thought it was horrifying to listen about study tactics we were to use this year, so he continued to look out the window in a stiff daze. I gathered, his state of being could either be because of Lucy and I talking about studying before we even got to the castle, or something more. What made it worse was when James, Fred, and Louis came in to "check in" on us.

Fred and Louis came in to tease Al and I about the sorting, but James wasn't at all into it. He still looked a bit taken aback by Ted snogging Victoire, our oldest cousin. It was a pretty sad sight to witness James so down, considering he was Ted's favorite… well, in his own mind at least. Yet, James was practically the only one in the family who didn't realize Vic and Teddy have been an item for sometime.

After giving up on trying to cheer James up, the three left us, but Al looked a bit less nervous, oddly enough.

"What are you so happy about?" I asked him. "You looked sick not a moment ago."

He shrugged and glanced out the window again, this time with an air of confidence. "I'm just happy to be going to Hogwarts is all." I knew there was something to the explanation, but I didn't pressure him into telling. After all, I'm horrible at keeping secrets to myself. Don't get me wrong, I can keep a secret, but it usually slips out sometime after I'm told not to tell anyone. It's a curse of my father, being completely oblivious at the best of times.

I was glad I was sorted in Ravenclaw with Dominique and Molly, and Al was more than relieved to be sorted as a Gryffindor (Shortly after the sorting, he told me what uncle Harry had told him about the sorting hat which calmed his nerves… and that James wasn't as big-headed on the train). As expected, the Malfoy boy was sorted as a Slytherin, which was one reason I was destined to be as far away from him as possible.

Oddly enough, Malfoy was in half of my classes, and he was directly in front of me in two of them. I first talked to him in my third class, which was potions. Before class started, I remember seeing the blonde-haired Slytherin plop his potions book on his desk and huff out an exhausted-like sound, as if this type of schooling was too mediocre for his standards. It was annoying, really, because we haven't even begun learning anything yet. After he slumped into his seat noisily, I rolled my eyes.

"Can you believe him?" I whispered to my newly claimed friend, Ellie, who sat down next to me.

She looked at who I was talking about. "Who is he? Do you know him?" she whispered back.

"Not really, but my dad-"

This time, Malfoy turned around. "Tell us, Red," he whispered jokingly, obviously mocking us. "What did your daddy say about me?" I glanced at him, and his face broke into a cool smile. "I didn't think so. You Weasleys are all the same, judging a dragon by their scales."

I squinted at him. "You have some nerve."

"I reckon I do," said Malfoy. Despite my infamous Weasley flare, he took a daring chance to hold out his hand and say, "I don't think we've formally met." He grabbed my hand almost against my will. "I'm Scorpius Malfoy."

"What's that?" laughed Ellie. "A disease?"

Malfoy's eyes widened and his eyebrows raised, but he was still buoyant in his mannerisms. "Well, well… we are a bit cranky in the morning, aren't we?"

I rolled my eyes at him again, this time I didn't care if he saw or not. "Oh, shove off."

He just gave me a curt nod, and turned around to face front. I could barely hear his last remark when he murmured, "You don't know what your missing, Rose."

We never had a conversation with more than two words after that until my third year. My cousin, Lily, was surprisingly sorted as a Slytherin, which kind of bothered me for a while. Yet, she was one of my dearest friends. I knew there must've been a reason why she wanted that house, and I soon found out from her that she just didn't want anyone "protecting" her. To me, that sounded selfish, but I couldn't argue because I wasn't really mollycoddled that much. After all, I was the oldest in my small family, and if I was smothered, it must've been before Hugo was born. All in all, I had a decent amount of space to myself. Since Lily was in Slytherin, it was as if Malfoy thought it was alright to talk to me… as if Lily was a bridge to my life.

Usually, I'd walk with Al and Ellie to my next classes, but I only shared two classes with both of them, and one with just Al. So I would walk to my next few classes alone… that was until Malfoy would trail behind me because of our almost identical schedules. On occasion he would try to spark up a conversation, but it would always be cut short due to my quick wit of clever come-backs.

However, after getting used to his constant badgering about homework and lessons, I thought it wouldn't have felt right if he wasn't there… but only if Al or Ellie weren't with me. It was almost like a game when we fought (or as Scorpius put it "exchanging honest opinions"), and I guess that's when I began realizing him as Scorpius… not as the Malfoy boy. He was really sweet and clever (although his cleverness could be mistaken for slyness). He also had clear blue eyes: they looked icy at times, but usually, they'd look calm and serene. I'm not sure when he began to walk next to me instead of behind me, but I didn't seem to mind. I didn't feel any different, so what was the problem?

"The problem is our families," Scorpius pointed out in Herbology. We were working on how to properly feed a mandrake without hurting it or making it wail. Ellie has Transfiguration when I'm in Herbology, so Al would usually be my partner, but unfortunately he was in the hospital wing, nursing a hit to head by a bludger. Scorpius happened to be the odd man out, so we were paired together. "Something happened between them to make them tick."

I scribbled down some observations while saying, "I don't know what it is though. Whenever I get close to the answer, dad just changes the subject."

"Same with my dad," huffed Scorpius. We sat there in silence for a moment until Scorpius an epiphany. "I know how we could find out," he said, a mischievous smile etched on his face. "But you're gonna have to feel alright with getting into trouble."

I rolled my eyes, but replied hesitantly, "Go on, then."

"Well… don't freak out now…" he waited until I nodded. "We should go out."

"What?!" I yelled, which made our mandrake screech a horrible cry, which incidentally made every single other mandrake do the same.

"Hurry now!" advised Professor Longbottom, whizzing earmuffs to the class. "Put these on! Quickly!" The rest of the class was spent trying to get the mandrakes to settle down, so Professor Longbottom told us to repot them, since he already taught us how to do so in second year. He wistfully put them back in the next room and told us we could leave early. And he also told me personally that I should know better and I made him realize how old he was getting.

When I came out of the greenhouse, I saw Scorpius waiting for me, leaning against the wall. I went up to him, and in a hushed voice, I continued, "Do you realize how many times my father told me your family was scum and to stay away from you?! If he knew I was just talking to you-!"

"I told you not to freak out, Red," he whispered, his eyes looking more and more ice cold.

"Oh, this is way beyond freaking out, Blondie!" I argued. "This is stupidity! This is- this is-"

"This is a way to find out the truth, yeah? I was just trying to help out is all. Don't get your wand in a knot."

He didn't talk from then on all the way down to our next lesson, where I met up with Al and Ellie, but I really thought about his suggestion. His logic was off a bit, but I guessed I was too harsh on him. He meant well, so at the end of the day, I told him I'd go with his plan. "On one condition."

"Yeah?"

"This isn't a real relationship, so I don't want any funny business… got it?" We shook on it.

"And I have a condition as well," he said whispering in my ear. "You have to go with it."

I scrunched my face, but I reluctantly agreed.

We played this dating game for a few weeks, and in no time, people found out about us. I think Lily was a bit grateful that the attention in school was pointed away from her. It seemed that a Weasley and a Malfoy together was just as strange. I wasn't very good at lying, let alone keeping a secret, so I was pretty quiet about the whole thing. I didn't even tell Ellie the reason why, even though she slept in my dorm. The one who really proclaimed our relationship around was the attention seeker himself. I was really peeved by this, so at about a month that we were faking it, I finally took him aside.

As I went into that Great Hall, I heard him and his Slytherin mates laughing in the distance behind me. I was already angry at Scorpius, but I never had the time to speak my mind about the ordeal. So, I took this as an opportunity to do so.

Before he could get into the Great Hall for supper, I grabbed Scorpius' upper arm. "Hey, sweetheart!" he said, giddy with having already been laughing before. His remark made his friends snicker even more.

"We need to talk," I told him through clenched teeth. Not caring about his friends, I dragged him behind the Gargoyle in the Great Hall and slammed his back against it. "What the hell are you playing at?" I shot at him angrily.

"What are you talking about…" he paused, and replaced his innocent face with a mischievous lopsided grin. "…sweetheart."

I shook his shoulders, and pushed him again, dismissing the fact that he had quite broad shoulders. "Because of your proclamation to the whole school, Ellie is wondering if I've turned mental, and Al is simply confused, and my father is going to be absolutely furious when he finds out about all this!"

Scorpius smiled, one eyebrow raised. "So we're doing our job then," he pointed out calmly.

Although I was flaring with anger at him, I had to contemplate what he said. He had a point… we were doing this for the benefit of knowing why our families are the way they are. It wasn't long before Christmas anyway. My face softened. "Could you… just… tone it down a bit then?"

Scorpius saw my facial expression, and with that, his eyes softened as well, and he held my hand. "I'm sorry, Red. I wasn't thinking straight."

Well that couldn't have been any easier, I thought to myself, surprised.

He looked down at the hand he was still holding. He laughed lightly and muttered, "You have soft hands."

I don't know how it happened, but it did. All I remember is that we looked at each other, and then my lips were against his. It was just one kiss… my first kiss… and my stomach was full of butterflies and my mind went blank.

I backed away from him, making him stutter sheepishly, "Sorry- er- I didn't mean it… that is to say… if you- er- wanted it?"

After the initial shock of being kissed by Scorpius Malfoy, my face showed a calm demeanor, which was definitely the opposite of how I felt inside, and replied, "Well, you did tell me that I had to just go with it." With that, I walked away and entered the Great Hall, leaving a shocked Scorpius leaning against the back of the Gargoyle.

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LL:]