Disclaimer: The entire universe of Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling.
Scorpius Malfoy hated Potions class.
As he stared at the black abomination forming in his cauldron, he briefly wondered if there was any way he could convince Professor Graeme that the rising lump of goo was Blood-Replenishing Potion. Perhaps if he cast a Confundus charm on the professor…
"Mr. Malfoy!"
Too late. Like a hawk swooping on its prey, the overzealous Potions teacher was already next to him, inspecting his work and showing obvious signs of displeasure.
"Did I not tell you to stir only counter clockwise?" Professor Graeme demanded, glaring at Scorpius over his spectacles.
Scorpius nodded, only now remembering the instruction given at the beginning of their lesson. He shrunk under the withering gaze of the Ravenclaw's Head of House. Professor Graeme was a perfectionist and always demanded precise work from his students. It was no secret that he was hard to please; he often said that students under his own house did mediocre work while students from all other houses did a sloppy job.
The Potions professor sighed and then loudly clapped his hands to capture the attention of the rest of his students. "Class! May I remind you once again that you must only stir counter clockwise when you reach the third stage. Otherwise, you will end up with a horrible mess. Please do not make the same mistake as Mr. Malfoy here!"
A few boys from Slytherin snickered and some Ravenclaw girls began giggling. Scorpius could feel his cheeks warming with embarrassment. He wasn't normally a bad student. In fact, he quite excelled in all other classes and even got top marks in DADA and Transfiguration. He was just bad at following instructions to the letter, which was turning out to be one of the keys to successfully passing this class.
"It's too late for you to start over," the professor informed him. "You'll have to work on it after class hours. In the meantime, join Ms. Weasley at her bench and observe her work. She's almost at the final stage."
Scorpius gathered his things and then made his way to the front of the class. The redhead occupying the table was alternating between peering intently at the contents of her cauldron and scribbling notes on a parchment. He stood next to her table for a whole minute before she finally noticed his presence.
"Oh!" she gasped when she saw him. "Did you want something, Scorpius?"
"I, um, messed up my potion so, uh, Professor Graeme told me to, um, just watch your work for the rest of the class," he explained.
He always felt nervous around Rose Weasley for reasons he couldn't fathom. He didn't share too many classes with her but he often saw her around the castle, usually in the Great Hall, in the library, or in prefect meetings. Her untamed, flaming red hair made it relatively easy to spot her in a crowd.
She had always caught his eye. In fact, she was the very first student he had properly noticed on the first day of school. He had been standing at Platform 9¾, awash with anticipation and dread at the reality of going to Hogwarts. His eyes had been fixed on the train that would take him away from his parents, when his father began to speak to him about avoiding Potters and Weasleys, causing him to turn his head towards the large group congregating not far from where his family was standing.
He first noticed the wild hair and wide eyes. Her expressive face and body, radiating nervous excitement, jumped out to him even in the crowd of striking personalities. She was a foreign creature to him, who had grown up knowing only the cold mask of high society.
Six years later, his fixation with the redhead had not abated. The girl before him now had learned spells to make her head of curls less voluminous and her eyes had softened and calmed, but she captivated him still.
She seemed to be blushing, though Scorpius could not really be sure in the bad light of the dungeons. "Oh, well, why don't you sit here then?" She scooted over to the farther side of the bench.
Scorpius nodded his thanks and settled next to her. He stared at her as she went back to work. Her fingers were tightly gripping her quill and she began to absent-mindedly tap her mouth with the end of it, her face scrunched up.
"I'm sorry if I interrupted your work," Scorpius said. "Did I make you lose your place?"
Her face cleared as she turned to look at him and shake her head. "No, I was just thinking of something else."
This time, Scorpius was close enough to her to see that she was indeed blushing. He briefly wondered if it was because of him but his brain quickly squashed the thought. It was impossible.
They were quiet for several minutes. Scorpius observed Rose as she began adding the final ingredients to the cauldron. He tried to peer discreetly at her notes. Most of the parchment was covered with observations taken from the different stages of brewing but there were surprisingly a few doodles there as well. He saw about a dozen "RWM" scribbled at the edges of her parchment. He wondered what it could mean.
"There!" she breathed out softly, breaking through his reverie. He leaned forward to take a better look at her cauldron. The finished potion looked just like in the textbook.
"I see you're done, Ms. Weasley."
The two of them jumped at the sudden sound of Professor Graeme's voice behind them. He came closer and took a look at Rose's work. "The consistency is good, the color is acceptable, the smell is," he took a whiff, "lacking in iron but should be acceptable." He took out his quill and began scrawling notes on a piece of parchment. "So far, this is the only passable one I've seen. All other cauldron in this classroom is churning out something that I wouldn't dream of testing on a live creature."
He then turned his attention to Scorpius. "Mr. Malfoy, I'll see you Friday afternoon for your second attempt. Now, help Ms. Weasley pack up. Both of you can leave."
As they began clearing up the table, Scorpius ventured to say, "I thought it looked perfect. You should have gotten an outstanding mark."
She smiled. "Professor Graeme is hard to please, so I'm happy with 'passable'. But thank you."
As they were preparing to leave, Rose suddenly cleared her throat. "I've found it best to learn new potions by researching and discussing it with other people first before brewing it in class. My cousin Al and I used to do it before, when I still had class with Gryffindor. He's not the best at Potions but our preparations really helped him out."
Scorpius nodded. He wasn't familiar with Albus Potter's potion-making abilities. Up until last year, Slytherins had taken Potions with Hufflepuffs while Ravenclaws were with Gryffindors. It was only this year that they put Slytherins with Ravenclaws, so he was finally in the same Potions class as Rose.
Rose began to shift around, as if she was grappling with indecision. "I've seen you a lot in the library. We seem to have the same study hours."
Again, Scorpius nodded in response. He normally hung out in the library because he knew that was where he would most likely see her. He was familiar with her favorite corner and he always positioned himself so she was within his line of sight. Of course, he wasn't going to tell her that.
"If you wish, you can, um, study the potion for the next class with me." Her voice wavered at the end, as if unsure as to whether she should be suggesting this at all.
Scorpius suddenly felt lightheaded. His hands were sweaty and his heart was pounding faster than usual. He was afraid he was going to faint. The possibilities for the future suddenly flooded through his mind. He had visions of himself with Rose in different settings: sitting closely to her in the library as they read through a textbook together; talking with her as he walks her to Ravenclaw tower; eating dinner with her at the Great Hall; laughing with her at the Three Broomsticks; kissing her underneath the midnight sky, on top of the Astronomy tower.
The images suddenly disappeared and he focused on the young woman in front of him, whose face was beginning to match the color of her hair.
"Rose, I would really love to study with you, " Scorpius finally managed to say. As Rose beamed at him in response, he felt overwhelming euphoria.
Scorpius Malfoy loved Potions class.
A/N: I couldn't find any more Rose/Scorpius stories to read so I decided to add one. :) I apologize for any grammatical errors or misspelled words. Reviews are welcome.