"Knut for your thoughts, Rose?"
Rose Weasley leaned back on the couch, curling up into a ball and yawning. "I can't believe the train snowed in. Would you believe, we've got a castle full of wizards and witches and yet we can't get home for Christmas because the Hogwarts Express is bloody stuck."
Scorpius Malfoy groaned, exhausted, and flopped down next to her, wrapping his arms around her lazily. "I know, it's ridiculous. C'mon, Rose, budge over; how can someone as skinny as you take up so much space?"
She blushed slightly at hearing him call her skinny. Thankfully, Scorpius's attention was diverted by Al, who had entered through the portrait hole and sat down on the other side of Scorpius, his face and ears bright red from the cold. Scorpius moved up the sofa to make room for him, edging closer to Rose in the process.
They were incredibly close to each other, their legs touching and her head resting on his shoulder. Rose was still getting used to the idea of them being a couple; she'd spent practically her whole Hogwarts life wanting him to ask her out and then finally he did, just this year, but they still hadn't kissed yet. The opportunity just hadn't presented itself, because Rose wanted her first kiss with Scorpius to be special, and it just hadn't happened yet. But this was neither the time nor the place for that.
"Right," said Scorpius, his grey eyes twinkling mischievously, "what're we going to do?"
"What d'you mean?"
"Well, we've now got a whole week of nothing to do, seeing as we can't get back home."
"It'll be a bloody good Christmas, though- the whole school's here!" Rose gestured around to the noisy, packed common room that the house-elves had decorated with ornaments, wreaths, ribbons, and even mistletoe. Little scented cinnamon candles in jars lined the windowsills, the air was warm and toasty and smelled like gingerbread, and everyone was gathered around the fireplace, immersed in impromptu games of Exploding Snap, chess, or Gobstones, bursting with holiday excitement.
"Yeah, but that means we've got to put up with all the kissing now, especially since all the mistletoe's up," said Al, making a face and gesturing to where his older cousins- James, Fred, Roxanne, and Dominique- were wrapped up in their girlfriends and boyfriends, either kissing fiercely or holding hands and staring dreamily into each other's eyes.
Rose snickered, playing with her teardrop-shaped earring and watching the sparkles dance across the ceiling. "C'mon, Al, you're just jealous that you're single. Admit it, you've been staring at Lisette Finch-Fletchley for half an hour hoping she'll kiss you under the mistletoe or something. I mean, I wouldn't bet a Knut on you two getting together."
Scorpius snickered, high-fiving Rose, who giggled.
"Point taken, Al," said Scorpius, his eyes twinkling again.
"You're no better. You two are pathetic; you haven't even snogged yet, disgusting though the thought is."
Scorpius sighed. "Relax, you guys, we've got to focus. We've got to think of something absolutely brilliant to do this holiday."
"Like what?"
"Well, we need something exciting to do, don't we? Besides James' and Fred's party."
"Right. Any brilliant ideas?"
"Hmmm… we could try jinxing everyone's shampoo to make their hair turn bright pink…"
"James and Fred did that to us last year, it's not original, don't be boring," muttered Al. Rose leaned across Scorpius and punched him. Al groaned.
"We could work on that, though!" said Rose, suddenly excited. "We could put something in their drinks or something… oh, I know! Euphoria, without the peppermint, and James will be stuck singing and nose-tweaking all day…" She sank back into the couch, looking rather pleased with herself.
Al and Scorpius looked rather alarmed. "Where do you come up with this stuff, Rose? I swear, sometimes it's rather creepy."
"Creepy, but brilliant," said Rose, grinning diabolically.
"Sure, Rose. So are we doing it? Euphoria in James' drink?
"Let's do this."
*** … (one day later)…***
Al, Scorpius, and Rose dashed back down the dormitory stairs, exploding with laughter and tossing the empty Euphoria potion jar into a nearby wastebasket . Al ran away to the safety of his dorm, apparently forgetting that James could easily find him there.
Rose and Scorpius, who darted into the empty common room, heard James' distant yell from upstairs. "Al! Rose! Scorpius! Get up here and fix thi- argh!" Rose looked at Scorpius, wide-eyed, stifling a giggle as she heard the unmistakable sound of James suddenly singing in a falsetto, undoubtedly caused by the Euphoria that they had slipped in his pumpkin juice earlier. Scorpius grabbed her hand and pulled her behind the armchair near the fireplace. "Hide!" he mouthed, trying to look serious at their predicament but failing miserably every time he heard James tweak his girlfriend's nose and then curse in exasperation. Rose glanced quickly around the room, looking for a place to hide, and Scorpius disappeared somewhere, because of course he was absolutely brilliant at everything, even this deranged version of hide-and-seek.
They heard another yell from James upstairs. "I'm going to murder you!" His dormitory door slammed loudly. Rose knew that he would have a good laugh about it later, but right now she wasn't quite sure what he was about to do.
She froze in the middle of the common room, panicked. Scorpius was nowhere to be seen. She heard James' footsteps thundering down the stairs, and dashed madly to the curtains, muttering a few choice curse words that James was apparently echoing as he searched for the culprits.
An arm reached out of nowhere and grabbed her around the waist, yanking her behind the curtains. She was about to shriek in surprise, but she felt a hand over her mouth and heard Scorpius's voice. "Shh, Rose, it's me, don't make a sound or he'll find us!"
Rose relaxed, trying to stay as still as possible behind the heavy red and gold drapery. Scorpius's arm was still around her waist, and he was clutching her tightly. She could feel the tickle of his blonde hair against her neck and smell his crisp, clean scent. Evidently, he actually bothered to use soap, unlike Al, who had unfortunately picked up a habit of not showering after Quidditch practice, claiming he was too overworked to do anything but sleep and eat.
They heard James enter the common room. "I don't know where you bloody fifth years have gone, but when I find out I'm going to- bloody hell!" he yelled as the jinx took effect again, causing his arm to reach out and, finding no one else's nose to tweak, grab his own nose and twist sharply. "Ow!"
Rose nearly laughed out loud. Scorpius shushed her quickly, but looked as though he was shaking with silent mirth. The two of them lay squished together behind the curtains, barely daring to breathe.
Finally, James seemed to give up, and went back up to his dorm with the apparent intention of waiting until the jinx wore off before attempting to exact his revenge. Scorpius and Rose tumbled out from behind the curtains, laughing hysterically.
"That was brilliant," Scorpius chortled. Rose nodded, laughing so hard that she couldn't form words. She doubled over, a stitch beginning to form in her side from all the giggling.
"Easy there, Rose," Scorpius said, looking at her with a mixture of amusement and genuine care.
She smiled, standing up and brushing herself off. He stood up too, and they waited there quietly for a few moments.
They heard a faint tinkle from above them, and they both looked up to see two miniscule bells jingling amongst a sprig of mistletoe. Neither of them knew quite how to react, staring awkwardly first at the wreath and then each other.
The bells rang again, louder and more insistently this time, as if it was waiting for the two people under it to snog or something.
"You reckon this is James' idea of a prank? Planting mistletoe where he knows we'll end up under it?" asked Scorpius softly, breaking the silence.
Rose chuckled quietly, feeling strangely reserved. "He's not that smart. More like the castle just trying to cheer us all up. I doubt James minded, though; Savannah Thomas seemed to like the idea of kissing under it..." Rose trailed off, realizing that she was babbling. But Scorpius wasn't looking at her with disgust and boredom; rather, he was moving closer and closer towards her... His lips were inches away from hers...
She closed her eyes and kissed him back under the mistletoe. He wrapped his arms around her, and they were breathing in and out together, her hands on the back of his shirt, and everything was sparkling because the sun was reflecting off the beautiful teardrop ornaments in the common room, and Rose's first kiss was even better than she could ever have imagined it to be. Cliché, maybe, but perfect.
That is, until James finally reached the common room and found them and Rose was laughing and shrieking and running away from James while holding hands with Scorpius and then they managed to throw him off and escape to an empty classroom, and they kept kissing, and Rose was reminded again of the fact that you don't know what you're missing out on until it arrives. And finally, hers and Scorpius's moment had arrived.
A/N: I love Christmasness, but this one wasn't too great… I might write a better Christmas story later on, though. Also, the grammar on the last sentence might be wrong and I'm terribly sorry for that but if you know a better way to phrase it please let me know :) hope you liked! Reviews make me happy!