In Which the Assignments are Received

Rose

"Excuse me," Rose Weasley said politely. The 5th year Ravenclaw prefect, Samantha Corner, moved her legs to allow the ginger to pass by. Rose plopped unceremoniously into the unoccupied seat beside her.

"Hey Rose", said the boy sitting in the next seat over. A sideways smile donned his face.

Rose looked up from the quill, ink, and parchment she had just taken from her bag. They balanced precariously on her lap as her brown eyes met green ones. She smiled.

"Hello Cody."

Cody Finnegan looked the same as always: a Gryffindor tie loosely knotted around his neck, stains on his robes from flying around the pitch, a rip in his pants undoubtedly within an unknown back story. He was casual, confident. Rose had harbored a crush on the now seventh year when they were little, but the "love" had dwindled in their years at Hogwarts.

"Hey Rosie!" A boy sitting on the other side of Cody said.

"Hi Al," Rose turned her attention to her fellow Gryffindor prefect, who was smirking in her direction.

Before either could make another comment, another familial voice rang through the room

"Hello prefects, we are about to start our second to last meeting of the year," said Head Girl Roxanne Weasley.

"There are a few issues we need to discuss regarding Seventh Year graduation," continued Head Boy Will Jorkins. "As well as issues with students entering the Forbidden Forest at night. So if you are patrolling the Entrance Hall, please keep a look out for those sneaking out towards the forest."

Will continued on, discussing some end of year issues. Roxy interjected every few minutes to add something in. Rose watched them, noticing not the first time, that they made quite a power duo.

Rose also noticed how they would look at each other rather intensely and longer than necessary when the other was speaking. When Will was droning on about the importance of wearing your prefects badge while on duty, Roxy was listening with rapt attention. As though this was all new, interesting information.

"Today, Roxy and I will give you your round assignment for the month. This will be your assignments for the remainder of the year. To make this go a little faster, will the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws please go with Roxy for their assignments and Hufflepuffs and Slytherins with me."

Rose stood to go and see her older cousin for her duties. Though it paying attention, she stood up too fast, knocking the ink bottle in her hand onto the floor in front of her.

"Bugger," she cursed under her breath as she reached down to clear up the broken glass that now littered the floor. Looking up briefly, she saw that Cody and Al where already across the room with Roxy.

Cursing again under her breath, she bent her head back down, pulling out her wand, ready to cast a repairing charm. But before the words could leave her lips, the ink bottle was back together. It had been magically repaired by another's wand.

"Thanks," Rose said, picking up the bottle.

She stood up, looking to see who had been so kind to help her. A small smile spread across her face when she saw who it was.

He was tall, forcing Rose to look up toward his face, which was easily a head above her own. When her eyes reached his face they were met with grey ones. His lips pulled up into a small smile as he looked down at the pink-tinged Weasley.

"…Scorpius,"

"Anytime Rose," said the Six Year Slytherin.

Without waiting for a response, Scorpit's turned on his heel, heading over to Will for assignments, leaving Rose standing alone looking at him. She shook her head as if to clear it and walked to the other side of the room.

There was only a small group left waiting for Roxy.

"Sam," Roxy's blue eyes turned to the short, black haired, Fifth Year Ravenclaw, "You will be patrolling with Mac McManus Saturdays on the fourth and fifth floors." Sam's brown eyes widened at the thought of patrolling at night with the Fifth Year beater for Hufflepuff. "And Michael Lee Sundays on the 2nd and 3rd floors." Sam narrowed her eyes when the Slytherins name was said and walked off in a huff toward her tall brunette friend (Madison Finch-Fletchley, Fifth Year Hufflepuff).

Next to talk to Roxy was Sydney Vane, a Ravenclaw. She was tall, she was blonde, she was smart and wasn't afraid to do what it took to get ahead. Nice enough, Rose thought she rather looked like an alien with her thin face and high cheekbones. She glances down at the dark, curly hair of the Weasley girl with disdain; it was no secret she had wanted to hold the Head Girl title in her final year at Hogwarts.

"You are patrolling on the second and third floors on Thursdays with Ben Samford-" a tall, skinny, annoying Slytherin. Roxy continued on, not giving Sydney a chance to interject "-and Fridays on the sixth and seventh floors with Harrison Campbell." A Hufflepuff that always smelled like moldy cheese. Sydney scrunched up her nose in disgust bur agreed to the unfortunate partnerships with a huff.

Zach Larson (Seventh Year heartthrob) was next. He was a beater for the Ravenclaw quidditch team, and it showed. He was not incredibly tall, but he was strong. The veins in his arms showed whenever he flexed them slightly. He was tan from days spent in the sun and his hair was a light brown that was long enough that he had to flip it away from his handsome face every so often. With light brown eyes -except for about a quarter of his right one, which was a baby blue– it was impossible not to find him attractive. And while Rose, and the majority of the girls in the room where staring at him, Roxy looked up at him, showing no more interest in him than if he was any other boy at the school.

"You will be patrolling with Beth Rock Sundays in the dungeons and first floor," the Seventh Year Slytherin was talking quietly to house mate Veronica Goyle, looking up in the direction of Zach every few minutes, before she would giggle falsely and flip her long, dark hair over her shoulder. "And on Tuesdays on the second and third floors with Jordan Samuels." The Hufflepuff was in a corner of the room doodling on a spare piece of parchment. She, like Roxy, was unfazed by the attractive boy.

"Thanks, love," Zach said with a wink, before walking to his seat in the back of the room next his quidditch teammate, Lysander Scamander.

"Hey Rosie!" Roxy addressed her cousin in the way her family always did, with the pet name she had been given by her father sixteen years previous. "You're going to be patrolling on Thursdays with Scorpius on the sixth and seventh floors." Rose smiled, she liked Scorpius, he was someone she could actually hold a conversation with. "And Tuesdays in the dungeon and first floor with Adam Carmichael." Rose's eyes widened, she looked as though she would murder her cousin. Roxy must have sensed this because she smiled nervously and went back to the front of the room to continue the meeting.

Rose slowly went back to the vacated seat next to Cody, her eyes wide. She could murder Roxy. Adam Carmichael? Roxy knew how much Rose despised the Ravenclaw, ever since First Year when he had "accidentally" spilled all of his pumpkin juice down the back of her robes in the middle of breakfast. He was a bully, and though he would never physically hurt her, he would mentally do so, by taunting her and making fun of her.

Rose had been so preoccupied by the thought of spending two hours with him for the next four weeks that she did not even realize that the meeting was over until Al poked her in the side, causing her to jump slightly. She looked around the room to see that it was practically empty. The only people left where Al, herself, Hufflepuff Sixth Year Ryan Smith, Gryffindor Fifth Year Meghan Finnegan(Cody's little sister), Scorpius, and the Heads.

Rose's eyes narrowed as she stood up from her seat, completely ignoring Al's look of confusion. She walked right up to her cousin and said, "Why, in Merlin's pants, did you have to put me with him? You know how much I despise the nitwit!"

Roxy at least had the decency to look ashamed as she said quietly, "I know Rosie and I'm really sorry, but that is just how the system worked out! I know everyone hates him, but you're my cousin and I knew you'd eventually forgive me, 'cause you have to or Gran would kill you."

Whoever said that having an in with the person in charge can give you benefits clearly had never been the cousin of Roxanne Weasley; she was a people pleaser through and through, except when those "people" where her family.

Rose sighed and rolled her eyes, "You owe me."

Roxy smiled at her cousin.

"Just add it to the list," the Head Girl said. "I got to go; I'll see you later."

With that, Roxy picked up her bag, and she and Will walked out of the room through a door leading into the Heads common room, standing much closer together than any two normal friends would.

Rose raised her eyebrows before turning to see where Al had gone off to. She rolled her eyes when she saw him flirting with Meghan. She decided to be a nice cousin and let him flirt for a while longer.

Outside the room, Rose checked her watch; it was almost eight, which meant she had nearly an hour before curfew. However, the common room did not seem to have much appeal to the homework swamped girl. So, with a flick of her red hair, she turned to head towards the library.

Rose made her way down towards the old wooden entrance of the library. She quietly opened the door because, despite the fact that Madame Pince was quite old, she still had ears like a bat. Walking swiftly through the aisles, she ignored the open-concept study areas packed with students cramming in as much work as they could accomplish in the amount of time before the library closed. Instead, Rose walked down the aisles toward a table she had discovered about halfway into her Second Year. It wasn't all the way in the back of the library, but somewhere that one would easily get lost to if they did not know the way, which is actually how Rose had found the secluded table in the first place

When she reached her target, she was unsurprised to see a blonde head bent over a book, grey eyes scanning the page quickly, every few seconds his gaze would turn to the parchment his quill was hovering over to jot down a note or two.

"Scorpius," Rose said quietly. She sat down in chair down opposite him.

He raised his eyes briefly to show that he acknowledged her presence before returning the DADA notes in front of him. This was a normal day in the library to the two students. When Rose had first discovered this table, she sat alone for the total of twenty minutes before Scorpius had arrived. The two twelve year olds were neither friends nor enemies at the time. Both had taken the advice their respective fathers had given them before boarding the train to Hogwarts: don't get too close. This request was surprisingly easy to follow, as neither made any effort to recognize the other. Scorpius had taken the seat on the far end of the table, saying nothing, and Rose said nothing in return. This quiet indifference lasted until the end of October of their Third Year. Rose was trying desperately to find the answer to a charms question on the worksheet Professor Lipped had given them but to no avail. She looked up from the paper to see that Scorpius (who was in the same class as her) was working on the same thing.

"Did you get the answer to number eight" She asked tentatively.

Startled slightly by the sound of her voice appearing so suddenly in the quiet of the library, it took Scorpius a minute to answer.

"Yah, it's 'swish, flick, jab'" he said, "It's on page fifty-two. Look, right here," With that Scorpius scooted one seat down so he sat across the table and one seat to the left of Rose and pointed to the answer in his book.

"Thanks. I could not find that anywhere and I must have looked at that page at least ten times," Rose exclaimed with a roll of her eyes.

"No problem," Scorpius said with a smile at the small girl's exaggeratory remark.

With that small exchange, Scorpius got a new seat and the entire atmosphere of the table towards the back of the library changed. It started with only questions about homework or (on very rare occasions) remarks on the weather, but soon conversation turned to more pressing matters, such as the outcome to a quidditch match (Hogwarts or professional) and to what exactly their muggle studies professor thought she was doing with her hair. By the end of the first semester of their Fourth Year, the two would even to say hi to each other in the hallways.

During Christmas vacation of that same year, Al asked her about it, at the Burrow, in front of the entire family, including Ron. If looks could kill Al would be six feet under. But Rose answered all of the questions calmly, stating that, "yes, yes we are friends," and "no dad, I am not imperiused," along with "I like him quite a lot, actually James," plus "Uncle George, it's not thatfunny," and also "will someone please make sure my father does not choke on his ham" and "you CANNOT tell me who I am allowed to be friends with," and finally "yes, I'm still beating him at every test."

After that awkward encounter over dinner, Ron finally came around with the idea off his precious Rosie befriending the boy. It also helped that Scorpius' mother was the owner of the Chudley Cannons and had promised Ron season tickets.

The years passed without incident, Rose had congratulated Scorpius when he had made keeper for Slytherin their Fifth Year, but assured him that she would still score on him when their houses played against each other. He had replied to her brash remark with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, as if to challenge her boldness. And when Gryffindor beat Slytherin by one goal later that year, Scorpius had only sat in stony silence for a few days before realizing that he had absolutely no idea what they had been learning in astronomy and had to ask Rose for help.

At the beginning of Sixth Year, Scorpius had applauded Rose for all of the OWLs she had received, and Rose returned the compliment, saying that his turtle was much cuter than hers had been during the transfiguration exam. Soon, Rose began to sit directly across from Scorpius at the table, a fact that did not go unnoticed, but did go unremarked upon, by both parties.

This day was no different as Rose pulled out a blank piece of parchment. As she reached into her bag to grab her Herbology book, the scratching of Scorpius' quill stopped and the page turning halted as well. Rose looked up at the sudden silence to see Scorpius' eyes staring into hers.

"What where you talking to your cousin about at the end of the meeting?" He asked, attempting to be casual.

"Roxy?" Rose asked and Scorpius nodded his head in affirmation.

She sighed as the memory came back to her.

"Well," This word was accompanied by an eye roll, "I'm to patrol with Adam Carmichael on Tuesdays."

Scorpius snorted in a very unattractive way before visibly relaxing. Rose felt a small smile coming onto her face.

"What? It's not funny!"

"I never said it was,"

Rose rolled her eyes again.

"Your eyes are going to get stuck like," he remarked.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"It's just funny because I know how much you hate him," Scorpius replied after a short pause in conversation, "Hell, it's funny because everyone hates him."

"No truer words have every been spoken. Who are you patrolling with, aside from me?"

"Catherine Summers, Mondays, second and third floors,"

"Lucky you, she is actually nice," Rose said.

"Yeah, but she can't have a conversation for more than five minutes without spontaneously giggling,"

"Well, yes, that is accurate," Rose replied with finality in her words. Both returned to their respective work. The two prefects sat in comfortable silence until Madame Pince came around to shoo them out of the library. At the staircase that would lead them their separate ways they said a quiet goodbye. Rose headed up to the towers and Scorpius went down into the dungeons. The castle quiet around them.