MAY 2024
"You know Scorpius, you're not that bad." Well that's one way to start a conversation.
"In that case, I guess you're not too bad as well, Rose."
"Too bad?" Rose had a devilish sort of smirk on her face. "You see I've been hearing in the information capital that is the girls' bathroom that you may have taken a bit of a fancy to me. You know what with all the close quarters we share and all."
"This side of you personality, while refreshing, is definitely not as desirable as the awkwardly hilarious Rose that I am used to."
"I hope you didn't mean to say that out load, because you are rapidly losing points."
"Fair enough, but no matter how many points I had would it have really mattered? I am not exactly the favorite for the win in anything."
"Maybe not now exactly." Now what exactly does something like that even mean? I loved how adorably oblivious Rose was to everything. It was actually quite endearing, despite what I might say in front of others. But this conversation was frighteningly enough lacking even an ounce of that Rose. "Think of yourself as more of a dark horse candidate. You have a lot of work cut out for you to catch up, but the victory will only be that much sweeter."
"And this is in whatever game I am apparently playing…for points. This all seems a bit too serious."
"No one is keeping track of the points."
"Then what's the point?" I have this awful feeling that the purpose of this conversation had completely gone over my head. As head boy there are few things that I fail to understand at such a basic level. To have the equally booksmart but otherwise awkward head girl best me in an emotionally charged conversation was to say a bit discomforting.
Rose just shrugged and continued to read her book. Light reading obviously. I don't know what all this about games and points is about.
But the fact that Rose is under the impression that I fancy her a bit is worrying to say the least. Not because it isn't true. I do somewhat fancy her. I mean I find her attractive enough and her awkwardness can be quite cute and all, but that's it. Honestly have the blokes in our year feel that way. It's worrying because I far as I knew Rose would never notice something like that. And really, I was never intending to do anything serious about it. I mean I would have to be insane to want to go through what Adam Thomas went through to be her boyfriend. And as a Malfoy it would only be about a thousand, no million, times worse. Not that I wanted that anyway.
My overactive brain is cut short when Rose speaks again. "Stop worrying about it. I was just messing around. You'll get it when you get it." She's right though. I have plenty to worry about. I mean I am starting auror training after graduation, and that is nothing to be taken lightly. Especially considering that I will be surrounded by Rose's family, who as far as I can tell can't tell me apart from my father. "And don't worry about my dad." She continues as if somehow perceiving my train of thought. "I had a chat with him about fairness. I thought your sorry ass needed some protecting."
" Why thank you. I have always thought you would make a fine knight in shining armor." But really I don't know whether to feel grateful or embarrassed. I mean we are barely even friends. We are friendly. We share the odd laugh here and there, but we are in different houses and different circles. The only thing keeping us together is this common room and the duties that come along with our positions. On the other hand, there is the obvious fact that a girl is protecting me which only proves to take away from my manly manness. That is not how one desires to start auror training, as the pansy who need protection. Fuck, I'm losing more points.
Wait, what?
Points Achieved: negative a lot