"Will you all just shut up!" Professor Yom yelled over the roar of sixth year students. She was the professor of potions at Hogwarts, and even though she'd been teaching for nearly ten years, she had never met such a loud class of students.
"Lola! Quiet down," Rose Weasley whispered to her best friend, the daughter of Neville Longbottom. Lola continued chatting with Albus Potter, Rose's cousin. She'd been trying to get with him for years now, and it finally seemed that he was reacting to her affections.
On the other side of the class room, Scorpius Malfoy and some of his Slytherin cronies were fooling around, and laughing and flirting with a group of pretty Ravenclaws.
Because Rose couldn't get her two best friends to shut up, she took her anger out on them. "God, Malfoy! Will you shut up?!"
"What's the matter, Weasley?" he asked her, in his drawling voice. Most girls thought it was sexy, but to Rose it was simply the most annoying thing. "Something got in your knickers?"
Rose huffed, and turned around, facing Professor Yom, who was still trying to control the class.
"Fifty points from EACH of your houses!" Yom yelled. That shut them up.
After class, Rose complained about the situation to Lola and Al. "I can't believe it! And I was the only well behaved one."
Both of her friends ignored her.
Rose walked into her next potions class, still upset with Lola, Al, and Professor Yom. Nevertheless, she faithfully sat in her seat next Lola, and waited for the class to began. She watched patiently as Professor Yom strolled into the classroom. Yom walked to her desk, and sat down.
"Students," she said. "I have come to a decision. After yesterdays, er, incident, shall we say, I have come to one solution. I'm assigning partners for our next project, and you will sit next to these partners for the amount of time it take for this project."
Moans came from every corner of the room.
"But Professor," a student started. "You can't do that!"
"Yeah," another added. "We aren't first years."
Yom held her hand up to silence them. "As I said, I have come to a conclusion. Now I shall read off the names of the partners that I have come up with. Lena Cunningham and Leo Jordan..."
"I think she'll let me work with somebody good," Rose whispered to Lola as Yom continued listing partners. "'Cause she likes me a lot."
"Lola Longbottom and Gene Gambrel," Yom said, interrupting them.
"Ugh," Lola whispered to Rose in disgust, as she gathered her things and made her way to the Goyle's table.
"Albus Potter and Elizabeth Patil-Zabini."
Elizabeth Patil-Zabini made her way to Al, and sat next to him, taking Lola's seat.
"Rose Weasley," Yom began. Rose held her breath. It would probably be Lindsay Jones, a Ravenclaw who was a friendly acquaintance of Rose's. "Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy."
Rose let out a gasp. "But, Professor!"
"Miss Weasley, I am surprised! You of all people. Now, Mr. Malfoy is an extremely capable potion maker, perhaps even above your own level!" Many people giggled as she said this, turning Rose red. "You are quite lucky to have the privilege of working with him. Now, go sit down."
Yom made her way through the rest of the class, as Rose grabbed her things and started walking to Scorpius's table. She plopped down next to him, and sighed.
"Hey, Weasley. Something wrong?" Scorpius Malfoy smirked.
"Shut up, Malfoy," Rose muttered.
"What's that?" he said, with a smug smile.
"I said, SHUT UP MALFOY!" Rose yelled at him, perhaps a little too loudly.
"Woah, woah, Weasley. Will you quiet down for a second? She's giving the assignment."
"... You should know by now what your project will be; it's a Hogwart's tradition. You'll be making Amortentia!"
This was meet with mixed reactions from the class.
"Yes! I've been waiting all year!" one Hufflepuff cheered, and of her friends cheered with her.
"Please let this be a joke," one of Al's roommates, Johann Vikander muttered.
"Oh, come on!" Yom said. "Get your cauldrons, and turn to page 730 in your textbooks! Get potion making!"
Despite her horror and disgust at being paired with Scorpius Malfoy of all people, Rose loved learning, and obediently opened her book. Scorpius took more time, lazily pulling it out of his bag. Rose quickly got a caldron, and Scorpius stopped to talk with his friends while he was supposed to be getting ingredients. By the time he had gathered everything, nearly ten minutes had passed.
"Well?" Rose asked, annoyed. "Is the great Scorpius Malfoy ready now?"
"You said it, Weasley, not me."
"Please, Malfoy. Let's just get to work."
To Rose's surprise, he did.
"First we need to chop up that asphodel. Can you handle that, Rose? While you do that, I'll grind the gedanite."
"But we that is supposed to be added last... shouldn't you get the Unicorn's blood prepared? It's supposed to sit for a day, according to the book."
"Gedanite is better having sat for a day, and you should know that Unicorn's blood get less powerful the longer it is a away from proper storage."
Rose looked up, surprised. "How should I trust you, Malfoy?"
"My father's the greatest potioner of the last century," he said in his normal drawling voice.
This was true. After having served some time in Azkaban, Draco Malfoy had gone on to become one of the greatest potion makers since Severus Snape. Because of this, Rose huffed, and went back to work. By the end of class, Rose and Scorpius had a totally different arrangement of ingredients than the rest of the class.
That afternoon, Lola and Rose sat in the library working on homework assignments.
"I think I've done as much of the charms essay as I can. I guess that I'll work on that potions paper," Lola said, sighing.
"Speaking of potions, what do you think about the new partner thing?" Rose asked. She had been waiting for a good moment to rant ever after they had been assigned their partners.
"I don't know... Gene's pretty cute, isn't he?" Lola said, dreamily.
"Gene Gambrel?! I thought you liked Al!"
"Oh. Al," she said dismissively.
"Yes, Al! What happened to him? This morning you were in love with him, and now you like Gene Gambrel of all people!"
Lola ignored Rose. "His hair's so swoopy. And Rose! Have you ever seen such be-a-u-tiful blue eyes? They're so gorgeous."
"Lola, Gene Goyle is a player, and you know it! Maybe he slipped you some of that love potion that you two are making."
"Oh, so that's what you think?" Lola asked, angrily.
"Yes, that is!" Rose yelled.
"Well, if that's how you feel, you can just leave!"
"Alright, I will."
Rose stormed out of the library. There was only one place where she felt comfortable enough at a moment like this, the tree by the lake. She had always loved the outdoors. Some of her favorite memories were of her hiking with her father in the woods behind their house. She smiled. She was already feeling better than before. All of the happiness was lost when she arrived a her tree. Scorpius Malfoy was sitting underneath it, asleep. Rose gave a loud moan of dissatisfaction, and of anger. Malfoy again! He kept on ruining her plans for. Before he could wake up and see her, she ran back to the castle. As she rounded to corner towards the Gryffindor tower, she bumped right into Gene Gambrel.
"Oh, sorry about that, Rose," he apologized. Rose felt like slapping him in the face.
"You better be," she said before she could think of anything else to say. The words had simply slipped through her lips.
"Always the unique sense of humor, Rose," he answered good-naturedly. "Have you seen Lola?"
"No, Gambrel. Stay away from her." Rose stormed off into the common room. What had Gambrel even been doing by the Gryffindor tower, anyway? He was a Ravenclaw, and had no business around there. Probably just there to try to find Lola and seduce the poor thing, Rose bitterly thought, before remembering that she and Lola were currently fighting.
After sulking in her bedroom for an hour, Rose went down to dinner, and ate quickly by herself. When she had eaten, she went back to her dorm, took a shower, and closed the curtains around bed so that Lola could tell that she wasn't ready to talk. She then went to bed.
The next day in potions, Rose and Scorpius continued working on their potion. They were much farther along in the process than the rest of their class, and also working better together. Lola and Gene were continuously flirting, and many of the groups weren't working together because of their dislike of each other. Although Rose told herself that she still hated Scorpius, he was quickly becoming close to her. While they worked on the potion, she absently told him about her fight with Lola, and instead snorting, "That's not my problem, Weasley," or simply laughing, like he would have just days before, he nodded along with what she said, and comfortingly told her, "You're right. Gene Gambrel is just trying to get into her pants." Rose walked out of potions class that day with a huge smile on her face.
She walked down the hallway, with her chin up, and her red curls bouncing. Then Al caught up with her.
"Would I have your blessing if I asked Elizabeth out?" he asked quickly, catching his breath.
"Elizabeth?" Rose asked. "Who's that?"
"Oh, you know. Elizabeth Patil-Zabini?"
Rose stood stopped, and stood in the middle of the hallway silently. She didn't know what to think.
"Come on, Rosie. Say something," Albus said. "She's really, really, nice, and so smart too!"
"ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER." Rose bellowed. "Do you know how long I have been trying to get you and Lola together? You ungrateful thing, I worked so hard!" Rose stormed away. Seconds later, she wished that she hadn't let her temper get in the way. Why, oh, why had Yum decided to partner them up? "I knew it was an awful idea from the beginning," Rose said to herself as she walked down the corridor.
That evening, Rose skipped dinner, and stayed in the back corner of the common room and in her bed in the dorm studying and doing homework.
The next morning, Rose was sure to be up early to avoid Lola and Albus as much as she could. Unfortunately, Al may have been an early riser, but it seemed that Elizabeth Patil-Zabini wasn't. Rose tried to ignore her, and go on eating breakfast, but when Elizabeth got up and plopped down next to her, it was hard to.
"Have you seen Al?" Elizabeth asked, cheerfully.
"Mmmph," Rose grunted, half shaking her head.
"Oh, that's too bad. Well, if you see him, tell him that I said hi!" Elizabeth said, jumping up from the table, and grabbing her books. "See you later, Rose!"
Rose sighed, and continued eating. Someone sat next to her. She didn't notice who it was, but she assumed that it would be one of her cousins, so she decided to talk to them. "My life is so awful," she said, continued to stir her bowl of cereal.
"Is that so, Weasley?" the drawling voice of Scorpius Malfoy responded.
"Malfoy!" Rose yelped. "What are you doing here?"
"None of my friends are here, and I needed someone to sit with," Scorpius said innocently.
Rose couldn't argue with that, so she silently allowed Scorpius Malfoy to sit next to her.
"So, Weasley," Scorpius started.
Rose didn't respond. She wasn't in the mood.
"What do you think you'll be smelling in your Amortentia?"
Rose frowned. She'd thought about it the year before when her cousin James had made it, but after realizing that any boy that she could think of being possibly interested in smelled awful, she'd given up on it. Because she was stuck on this fact, she rudely asked Scorpius, "Why are you even talking to me, anyway? You aren't my friend."
Scorpius looked genuinely offended when he asked her, "Really?"
Rose didn't say anything else, but continued stirring the milk in her bowl sadly.
"Got to go, Rose. See you around," Scorpius said suddenly, jumping up. Before Rose could stop him and apologize, he was gone.
Rose sighed, and got up. Back to the library.
After some other classes, it was once again time for potions. Rose, still without her normal crowd of best friends, made her way to the dungeons. For one of the first times ever, she was one of the last students to arrive in class.
"Why so late, Weasley?" Malfoy asked her. He was already standing at their potions, slowly stirring it. It seemed that after their meeting that morning at breakfast they were back to being acquaintances at best.
"I felt like it," Rose said in a very nonchalant tone.
"Well, I'm waiting for you. After we put this ukuthanda in, the potions's done."
Rose gathered the final ingredient, and waited.
"Come on, put it in now," Malfoy said, after three more minutes of stirring.
Rose slowly purred the ukuthanda into the potion, and waited. Suddenly, she could smell a scent lurking into her nose. She could recognize her lavender perfume, and dark chocolate. The other smell in the potion was less familiar to her. It smelled woody, like the outdoors. It was almost like the smell of her favorite tree by the lake. She took a deep sniff, suddenly wishing that she had a better nose.
"What do you smell?" Scorpius asked, sniffing.
"Um, I recognize my smell, but I can't place the other one."
"Me too! Smells like someone that I know, but I really can't remember."
"Well?" Rose asked, sniffing. "What do you smell?"
"Um... I smell me, for sure. And then I smell chocolate, really good chocolate. And there's also some... sage, maybe? No, I think it's probably something else. Maybe lavender?"
Suddenly Rose and Scorpius came to the right conclusion. Rose let out a little yelp, and ran out of the classroom. She ran towards the Gryffindor Tower, and once there, sprinted up the step to her dorm. She jumped on to her bed, and screamed into her pillow.
"Rose?" a voice asked.
Rose jumped. She hadn't known that anyone else was in the room with her.
"It's just me, Rose," the voice said. "Lola."
Rose realized that she hadn't seen Lola in Potions. Curiously, she asked, "Why weren't you in class today?"
"I... I didn't feel like it," Lola said looking down. "You know, you were right."
"Right about what?" Rose asked, confused.
"Right about Gene."
"Oh."
"I really really liked him," Lola sobbed. "So I asked him out. And he refused me, and now I hate him so so much." She was crying, so Rose came to her bed, and started comforting her.
"Oh, Lola," Rose whispered to her best friend. "What did he say?"
"I don't want to tell you. Some awful things. But don't worry, Rosie. I won't be talking to him again."
The two friends sat like this for a while. After some time, Lola sat up, and began drying her tears.
"So, Rosie," she hiccuped. "How were your classes? You smelled you Amortentia today, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Rose muttered, looking down.
"So? What did you smell?"
"I smelled Scorpius, okay?" Rose said, defensively.
"Rose!" Lola gave her first genuine smile of the day. "I've always wanted you two to end up together."
"Well," Rose said, her temper rising. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Oh Rosie, you know."
Both girls laughed together. Lola crawled over to Rose and hugged her.
"Does he know that he smelled you?" Lola whispered into Rose's arm.
"I think so..."
"Well then," Lola said, drawing away from Rose. "Go get your man."
Both girls giggled. Rose stood up, and asked Lola, "Do I look okay?"
"Do you think he cares? Go!"
Rose ran out of the tower, and instinctively ran towards her favorite tree. Her instincts proved to be right. Scorpius Malfoy was leaning on the tree, pensively looking at the sun setting on the lake.
"Mal - Scorpius?" Rose asked, suddenly apprehensive.
Scorpius slowly turned to face her. For the first time, Rose realized how attractive he was. "Scorpius - " Rose began again.
Scorpius looked at her like no one else had before. Rose was soaring over the clouds as she realized that this was what it felt like to be in love. As much as she tried, for once, she had nothing to say. She sat down on the grass next to him, and the easy silence between them said more than their words ever could. He put his arm around her, and Rose naturally rested her head on his shoulder. They watched the sun set, and once the stars began to rise, he kissed her, and they walked inside, hand in hand.