A/N: Ah, I love Scorose. My favorite ship of all time. Have fun!

If You Dare Challenge - #582 (Hopeful Song)

Are You Crazy Enough To Do It Challenge - #498 (You and Me)

Favorite Character Boot Camp - #3 (grey), Rose Weasley

Character Diversity Boot Camp - #30 (ethereal), Rose Weasley

Build A Zoo Challenge - Lions (Rose Weasley)

Disclaimer: Her Majesty JK Rowling owns everything.

Rose was a bit terrified of the Hogwarts Express. Not of the train itself, but of what could happen on it. Her mum and dad had told her that they had sat with Uncle Harry on their first day, and were best friends ever since (except for a few mild fights, her mum had added, glaring slightly at Dad). Rose didn't want to make such an incredible decision like that just by sitting down. Couldn't she just stand in the hallway for the whole ride? Would that be alright?

Due to her indecisiveness, she stood in the hallway for a solid ten minutes, unable to choose where to go. James always sat with his friends, and their compartment was full. Anyway, she didn't want to sit with her family. No offense to them, but she didn't really want her new best friends to be the ones who pranked her by turning her hair blue or farting into her face. She loved Albus, she really did, but...

What if no one liked her enough to sit with her? The horrible thought flitted through Rose's mind for a second, and then she grabbed onto it and held fast. What if she found an empty compartment and sat there, alone, for the whole ride? Rose's heart was pounding now, and she slid down the wall, more nervous than ever. She slid down the wall of the train until she was sitting on the floor, her back flat against the wall, her head beneath the window, her legs outstretched. She didn't—

Someone was singing and snapping their fingers to a song she knew. The funny part wasn't that this person was singing (they had a nice voice), but that they were singing a Muggle song. A Muggle tune. On the Hogwarts Express, that was unheard of! She wondered—

"Whoa!" The humming stopped and something definitely human tripped over her outstretched legs. A boy with platinum blonde hair was now sprawled across her jeans-clad calves, and she quickly withdrew them.

"I—oh!" she said, struggling to her feet and then grabbing his hand. "Are you—are you okay?"

He waved his hand in dismissal, climbing to his feet. "Yeah, fine—don't worry about it," he replied.

As he looked up (he was slightly shorter than her) at her (actually, a lot shorter than her), Rose gave a gasp at his eyes. They were an ethereal, icy blue-grey shrouded by light lashes that looked like snow.

He dusted off his jeans. "What?" he asked, referring to her strange stare. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

She blushed. "No," she answered quickly. "Just you have" —You idiot, Rose, she thought. Don't say it, don't say it— "nice eyes."

Now it was the pale boy's turn to blush. "Thanks."

An awkward silence followed, in which the boy slid down to sit beside her. "What were you doing in the hallway?"

Er, Rose thought.

"And on the floor?"

She shrugged.

"Couldn't make a decision?" he suggested.

She nodded. "How'd you..." She couldn't seem to finish her sentence.

"My mum and dad told me that they met their best friends on this bloody train," he said, giving a slight shrug. "It seemed a bit irrational to just launch myself into one of the compartments and say, 'Hey, wanna be my best friend?'"

Rose laughed, and realized that this boy was taking away the ball of tension in her chest. She continued talking, hopeful. "Same here! You know the Golden Trio." She raised her hands to make some mock quotation marks. "'Friendship is love,' and 'love saves the world' and all that."

Scorpius laughed. She liked his laugh. "Yeah, you're Rose, right?"

"Yep. What gave it away: the red hair or the hand-me-down robes?" Unlike when her father had told her this story, she was making it her own, with a playful tone.

"I just saw you on the platform, that's all," he replied. "Your family sure does call out your name a whole lot."

"Nah, there's just a lot of them. My dad has five siblings, you know."

"Five..." In awe, he stared at her. "How many cousins?"

"Twelve, I think."

"Merlin's beard," he said quietly. "I've only got one. And a sister. But... wow. That's a lot."

"Yeah." A comfortable silence came this time, in which Rose interrupted, "Hey, were you singing back there?"

He looked down. "Yeah. Sorry about that. I was just bored, you know, and I—"

"No, no, it was great, it's just... that was Muggle music." She knew every Beatles song by heart; her mother played their songs nonstop.

The boy brushed his platinum blonde hair out of his face. "What, can Malfoys not listen to Muggle music? Is that it?"

It seemed like she'd accidentally pressed a button making him close up to her. "No, no," she assured him. Then she remembered who she was talking to. The Malfoy boy. The Malfoys' son: Scorpius. "Of course not." Scorpius relaxed, and she smiled. "It's just... I love that song! Hello Goodbye, right? By the Beatles?"

"You don't think it's stupid?"

She shook her head. "No, no! No. I don't. I love the Beatles."

"Yeah?" He leaned his head back against the wall, relieved. "Me, too."

Rose sighed. All her anxiety... it was gone. She'd made a friend. Someone who, it seemed, thought a lot like her. She smiled, and then looked at him. "You wanna find a compartment?"

"Sure," he said, and then they stood up.

"We could listen to Muggle music," she suggested, her eyes lighting up. "You know any spells yet?"

"Any soundproofing spells?" He shook his head. "No. I guess the rest of the school's going to have to get used to it, though."

She grinned. "Okay."

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please favorite, follow, and review!