Written for the LGBTQ event at Caesar's Palace.
Written for Challenges by the Dozen at Caesar's Palace (prompt: Write about ten different pairings.)
Written for Rose (prompts: Quidditch game, fifth year).
WC: 514
"Merlin. What are you doing?"
"Wrong name, but try again."
"Scorpia."
"Also wrong name." Scorpius quickly pulled on a shirt. "I told you to call me Scorpius."
Rose bit her tongue, massaging her wrists as she thought of something to say. In the silence, tears of hurt collected in the corner of Scorpia's eyes, and Rose floundered even more.
"Why are you using ace bandages? It...it seems detrimental to...your body." Rose managed eventually.
Scorpia scoffed. "I appreciate the sentiment, but my body is detrimental to me, so…" She trailed off with a nonchalant shrug, though Rose could see that she was trembling.
"Do you have something to tell me? You know you can tell me anything."
Scorpia threw herself onto the bed that was in the room they shared in the Gryffindor tower. "Oh, Merlin, you're so…"
"I'm so?" Rose asked defensively, crossing her arms.
Scorpia screamed into her bedsheets.
"Scorpia, stop that!" Rose rushed over to the bed and pat her friend's shoulder.
"I knew hiding something from someone who lives with you would be hard. Just go to the library. The dewey decimal is around 305."
"Fine."
The door clicked closed behind Rose as she tried to wrap her head around what had just happened. "Scorpia has been acting strange lately," she murmured aloud, thinking back to the first haircut.
Rose sweeped into the library with a determined expression. She was just as good as her mother at researching, and with the dewey decimal number already in hand, she was ready to read all of the books in that section. Whatever Scorpia had told her to do, it must have been important.
When Rose stopped in front of the measly selection of books in that section, she pulled out the three that were there.
As she read, her eyebrows inching towards her hairline with each turned page, she tried to gain an understanding.
She closed her eyes when she finished the final page of the final book. Hours of reading had passed, yet she still did not truly understand Scorpius's feelings.
Quickly, she decided she didn't need to understand Scorpius's identity to understand that it was real. He'd always been this way, but now Rose hadn't always known. Nothing about Scorpius had changed.
"You missed dinner," Scorpius said sullenly, hunched under his bed covers. "And the Quidditch game."
"I was reading," Rose said. "I'm glad to be back in my dorm, though. The hallways were so busy! Not unusual."
Scorpius slid deeper under the covers, so his voice came out muffled. "I guess not. Fifth year is a nightmare for OWLs."
"You really shouldn't bind with ace bandages," Rose said with some hesitation. "Scorpius, I can get you a proper binder if you don't want your parents to know." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry you were outed to me like that," she said, testing the new terminology on her tongue. "I'm sorry I didn't see your hints sooner."
He flung the covers him, and Rose was afraid that he might be angry before she saw his teary grin.
A/N: I used female pronouns in the first section of the story to reflect Rose's understanding at the time, since the story is told from her point of view.