A/N: This was written for the "I Dare You" challenge, created by You're Amyzing on the Next-Gen Fanatics forum. Updates on this fic will be sporadic on this but they will definitely come.
Breakups were a big deal to the gossipers of Hogwarts. There were reasons that would sufficiently explain themselves as to why breakups were such a "big deal", but there were few that were all that satisfactory. Much to the discontent of the fervent lovers of gossip, nothing particularly interesting had happened recently to warrant such attention. Gossiper's eyes remained constantly vigilant for the even the littlest of things that could potentially be considered even remotely interesting. The information they would seek would have to be enough so they could prey upon it and latch their pointed teeth onto it.
Rose, however, couldn't begin to care about gossip. She preferred to live in the moment with her mind open to possibilities. The here and the now seemed like a much better place to keep your thoughts. The thought of constantly looking back on what could have happened and what could have been said depressed her. She didn't want to think of the past at the moment, because her day had actually gone well for the first time in a long, long time, despite the frigidly cold, pouring rain. She had gotten all of her homework in a week before they were due and was even confident about their completion. Even completing the nearly impossible Charms homework of analyzing the importance of five interconnected charms wasn't as torturous as Rose vividly imagined it would turn out to be. She took advantage of being a prefect and turned on a bubble bath.
Although her day was nothing to complain about, Rose decided that she needed time for herself to mull over a recent decision she made. The biggest decision she made was dumping Scorpius Malfoy, her boyfriend of nearly a year. Scorpius and Rose got together at the beginning of their fourth year, more nervous than they could ever articulate. They mutually agreed upon the idea of dating after spending much of their third year bickering constantly. Scorpius and Rose were the same two people who spent much of their first and second years being best of friends to the point where they were practically inseparable.
Rose sighed at the sound of Scorpius's name. The two shared so much together, from small things like how they spent their days to huge things like secrets they never told anyone else. Rose's favorite memory of her relationship with Scorpius was harder to pin down that she thought possible. He cared about her and his caring was unfalteringly genuine. She constantly wondered how he managed that miraculous feat, because Merlin knows Rose wasn't as consistently caring Scorpius could. She found his patience and tolerance towards her respectable. However, he had his angry moments, however few they were.
But when he got angry, he transformed into a sulky, brooding boy who isolated himself from Rose for days at a time. It was infuriating, trying to pull Scorpius out of his isolated little bubble. Her anger, unlike his, lasted for an hour or two at most. She would always come back to him and explain her side of the story. She noticed that Scorpius had become more and more broody during their last days of dating. It was terrifying to see him retreat into this rigid little world inside his mind.
It also showed a side of Scorpius Rose rarely say but learned to hate with all of her heart. Rose ended the relationship after two and a half weeks of dealing with Scorpius's brooding. She sobbed for the longest time alone in her dorm, unwilling to face anyone for two full days.
She stopped herself from reminiscing about past events, especially one event in particular that she would have rather forgotten. Not only was thinking of Scorpius making her feel unnecessarily anxious, but she was becoming someone she couldn't stand: someone who dwelt on useless things she couldn't change. Rose cleared her mind of any thoughts and let herself be submerged into the warm water. After ten full, relaxing minutes of soaking in the scalding hot water, Rose felt refreshed and as if she was an entirely different person. She stepped out of the bath, dried off and padded to her dorm room with a grin. Rose felt as if she could own the world and nothing would try to stop her. She slept deeply that night.
The next day, she wrote to Teddy like she always did. It was a newly formed habit to write lengthy letters for Teddy. Mainly, they were meaningless in their content. These letters simply told stories of her day and he would respond appropriately, also telling an anecdote related to his own day. Rose simply loved their miniature exchanges. The therapeutic affects of ranting to a trusted person was immediate. Teddy was like the big brother Rose never had. Venting to the unbiased third party of Teddy was relaxing, in a morbidly angry kind of way. Rose mentally put "writing to Teddy" as a reliable way to lift anger or sadness off of her chest, after "scalding hot baths".
"How's life going for you?" He started casually and that's all he said. It was odd that was the only sentence on the page, because she, in her lengthy letters, would somehow lead to that specific question. She had as little to say as he did, and refused to elaborate any longer because if she elaborated, she'd probably have to lie about things and Merlin knew she was a terrible liar.
"Something wrong?" She asked.
"No, I'm fine." She wasn't sure if he was hesitant but there was something out of character in this admittance. He was the one to let others talk about your life, which would eventually lead to what he wanted to talk about.
"You sure?"
"Positive." They didn't speak to each other for almost two and a half weeks