Disclaimer: The HP world and characters belong to J.K Rowling, and I'm not her! (Unfortunatley)
The library was as good as empty when Rose – a rainy night in the middle of September - put down her bag on the table and sat down. The rain was pattering hard against the window behind her, making the only sound her ears could detect. She picked up her transfigurations book and began reading about their latest subject. Vanishing spells was just something she had trouble with. Probably the only thing she'd ever had trouble with during all her time at Hogwarts.
Rose was a lucky girl; she had inherited her mother's ambition and desire for knowledge – brains, as her dad put it – but also her father's wit and strategic abilities as well as his Weasley temper, although that wasn't always exactly a good thing. Rose was always in for a challenge, which was why she actually, at some point, was glad she didn't immediately understand vanishing spells. It gave her something to focus on, a goal to achieve.
She wasn't sure what it was that made the library into her favourite place. It was kind of dark, so old you could actually smell it, pretty dusty, not nearly as warm and welcoming as the Gryffindor common room, and the seats by the tables were definitely not the most comfortable in the world, or in the castle. But still, Rose found her self strangely attracted to the library.
Sometimes she blamed it on the quietness, because really, it was much easier to study in the library then in the common room, where her cousins James and Fred always seemed to be up to something – it was even worse now when it was raining, because then everyone was gathered in the common room, everyone.
At other times, she blamed it on the books, because when you're writing an essay on something, it's much easier to be seated in the library, so that you easily can find the book with the information you're looking for.
And there were those rare occasions when she blamed it on him. And how he always seemed to find her – even if she was so sitting in the Ancient Runes section, and no one ever went there, except for her - and then sat down with her, because he always ended up making her loose her concentration, no matter how hard she fought to keep her eyes on her work.
Sometimes she wondered if he knew she used to glance up from her book to look at him – and if he know did know he was probably laughing about it with his Slytherin friends - because it often happened that he looked up to, meeting her gaze, and she would quickly look down in whatever book she was reading again.
Rose stared down in her transfigurations book, and her brow furrowed in concentration. But suddenly, there was a loud BANG when someone dropped down their book bag on the table with great force, and Rose quickly looked up to meet a pair of grey eyes. His grey eyes.
"Hey, Rose," Scorpius Malfoy said. "Mind I if join you?"
"Be my guest," Rose replied and Scorpius sat down on the opposite side of her. There was no awkward tension between – despite the butterflies that were beginning to fly around in the pit of Rose's stomach – they were just two friends sitting in the library together. Because that was exactly what Scorpius was, a friend. He was her and Al's best friend - although she often fantasised about becoming more then just friends.
"Vanishing spells, huh?" Scorpius asked. "Could it possibly be that Rose Weasley has trouble understanding something?"
"Perhaps," She replied and looked back down in her book. She heard how Scorpius picked up a book of his own, and tried her best not to look up at him.
She picked up her quill and tugged a little at the end of it. Her cousin Al didn't like it when she did that. 'It's not a sugar quill you know.' He always said. 'It has got to taste disgusting.' But her cousin wasn't there; he had chosen to stay in the common room and study, although Rose knew he only stayed there and studied so that he could take the opportunity to stare at Jessica Finnegan. She shook her head; she would have never picked the common room over the library, even if her huge crush was there – although she could of course never be sure, since Scorpius was in Slytherin.
She still wasn't sure how her inflation with Scorpius had begun, but she knew exactly when, on the train ride to their third year. She and Al had decided not to ride in the same compartment as Lily, Hugo, James, Fred and Roxanne. Partly because it would have been very crowded, and partly because they simply didn't want to listen to more of James's and Fred's stories about Hogwarts, stories they had made up just to scare Lily and Hugo, the same stories that had been used when Rose and Al themselves had been first years. Roxanne had promised she wouldn't let her brother and cousin go to over hand with the stories; she didn't want poor Lily and Hugo to get so scared their knees were literally shaking, either.
And so Rose and Al had searched for an empty compartment, but, just their luck, there had been none, but in the very last compartment in the train, they had found just one person seated, gazing out the window as the landscape flew by, and that was Scorpius Malfoy.
Al had politely asked if they could sit down, and Scorpius had given them a short nod, before returning to staring out through the window. After heaving their trunks up on the shelf, Al and Rose had sat down, and after several minutes of nothing but an awkward silence – Rose hated an awkward silence, she really did – she had simply blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.
'I've never liked Cauldron Cakes.'
It wasn't the best way to start a conversation, but it was the first sentence she could think of, and Scorpius had looked pretty dumbstruck as he had replied 'I'm more of a Pumpkin Pastries man myself,'
After that it was like everything they had been told about each other had never been said, and they had talked until the train had stopped and it was time to get of. And that's how their friendship had started. But a new friendship building wasn't the only thing Rose had noticed that day, no, it was then that she for the first time really saw Scorpius Malfoy. Not the guy who always sat in the back of class and used to talk back to the teachers, not the guy who was always followed by a posse of other Slytherins, even some that were older then him, and definitely not the guy that she had always enjoyed beating at tests, always enjoyed getting a higher graded essay then – mostly because her dad had told her to make sure to beat him. No, Rose had seen the guy who – probably for the first time – told a couple of friends about what it was really like to grow up in the Malfoy family, not knowing your grandfather because he was locked up in Azkaban and with a father who would always have his sleeves down, because of that barely visible mark on his left arm, the guy who joked and loved and really lived, even though the prejudices against him.
Rose had always known that some people still looked down on so called mudbloods and half bloods, but had never really thought about how almost everyone looked at death eaters and their families.
She looked up from her book and at Scorpius, unable to keep her self form stealing a glance of him. She watched him closely, taking in every single detail. The strong structures of his chin and cheeks. The straight nose. The grey eyes that were surrounded by long lashes. His lips that looked so soft, not really seeming to fit in with his other hard features. The lips that she dreamed about touching, kissing…
The two top buttons on his shirt were unbuttoned, the silver and green tie hanging loosely around his neck, and the sleeves were rolled up over his elbows, exposing his toned forearms. When ever Al or Hugo wore their school uniforms like that she'd call them sloppy, but it was different with Scorpius. He looked – dared she even think it? – Hot, and that was with a capital H.
He moved his hand up to his head and used the long, slender fingers to swiftly move away the blond bangs a little, although they very quickly fell back into their original place. Then he leaned his head in his left hand and used his right to tap his quill against the parchment before him.
"Hey Rose?" He suddenly asked and looked up, but froze as he saw that she was already looking at him. "What are you looking at?" He then asked.
"Um…" Rose replied. "You have a little something on your nose." She placed a finger on her own nose and Scorpius carefully placed his finger on the same spot on his own nose, and then rubbed it.
"Better?" He asked.
"Gone," Rose replied, glad that he had believed her excuse. "What were you about to say?" She then asked.
"Oh, I was just wondering if you could help me with this essay." He replied.
"What subject?"
"History of magic," Scorpius answered. "You know," His voice became quieter. "The Blood Wars."
Rose pushed out her chair and got up on her feet, and then she walked around the table and leaned down next to Scorpius. "Well," She began and looked in the text book. "I've already finished my essay, and this book wasn't to a lot of help."
"I know," Scorpius replied. "Whoever wrote it clearly didn't want us to learn much about the war. I bet it was easy for you, wasn't it? Almost your entire family are war heroes; you probably know exactly what went on." He was quiet for a moment. "My dad has only talked about the war once, the day before I left for my first year at Hogwarts, he wanted to prepare me for that some people might not like me very much because of he and my grandfather did, and that time he didn't exactly go in on the details."
Rose looked up form the book and caught the sight of their reflections in the window. All though they were a bit blurred by all the water drops on the glass, you could still see the contrast between them. And she realized how awful she actually looked.
She was a bit tall for a girl, but luckily most boys were even taller. She looked kind of boyish too, with her flat chest and sort of lanky figure. Her long, red, wild, curly hair seemed larger then usual, and bushier, more like her mother's hair actually. The freckles that were spread across her cheeks and nose – which was a bit too long for her taste – could barely even be seen in the reflection, but she knew that they didn't really bring anything more to her looks; it didn't make her look better. Her uniform was a bit of a mess too, with the shirt collar a bit uneven, her tie was loosened and one sleeve foiled up a bit higher then the other.
She was a mess.
She turned her head towards Scorpius' face, to look at his perfect features and smooth, blonde hair, and first then she realized how close they were, and how good he smelled. She recognized the scent of his cologne; it wasn't very rare, her potions partner, a Ravenclaw named Conrad Huggins, wore it too. But somehow it seemed to smell much more appealing on Scorpius, because on him it mixed with the distinct scent of his hair, and his skin, and that smelled better then any cologne ever could, at least to Rose.
"The wars aren't exactly my family's favourite subject," She answered. "I used some information I got from them, and the rest basically came from my favourite book."
"Isn't your favourite book a muggle book?" Scorpius asked. "What's it called? Pride something…"
"Pride and prejudice." Rose filled in. "And that used to me my favourite book, until this summer, then I got this. She stretched over the table and grabbed her bag, dragging it across the surface, and almost pulling along her parchment too.
Then she opened the bag and picked up a quite thick book. "What's that?" Scorpius asked.
"Blood Wars by Cho Chang Forrester," Rose replied. "It actually came out about twelve years ago, when we were three, but I found it in the back of the book store one day when I had my lunch break from my summer job at Uncle George's shop, and I just had to buy it."
"Really?" Scorpius asked and snatched the book out of her hands. He flipped through the first blank pages until he found the dedication. "This book is dedicated to my friends and family," He read. "To my loyal muggle husband Ryan. To Harry Potter, our saviour and hero. But mostly, this book is dedicated to all of those who lost their lives, their health or their loved ones to the hands of Voldemort. I honour you all." He looked up at Rose. "Sounds pretty serious." He then said.
"Do you want to borrow it or not?" Rose asked.
"Sure," He said and then flipped to the first page with actual text. "Just so I won't copy you, what free Blood Wars related subject did you write about?"
"I wrote about the wizard society before and during the war, compared to the one we have now, it made a good two scrolls."
"Wow," Scorpius said." You must have really gotten in to it." Rose just shrugged and then walked back to her seat, where she tired to fix her shirt collar.
The following five minutes or so they stayed quiet, the only sounds where the rain hitting the windows, the occasional scribbling sound of a quill brushing against parchment or a page being turned, and their breathing.
Rose had just stroked away a curl that had fallen into her face when she heard how Scorpius cursed under his breath.
"Fuck!"
Curious she looked up. Scorpius had his index finger in his mouth, sucking on it. He noticed her gaze. "Paper cut," He said simply, still with his finger in his mouth. His hand quickly went down to his lap after that, and in the quite weak light Rose thought she could see how the colour in his cheeks darkened.
"Will you be alright, or should I take you to the hospital wing?" Rose asked jokingly.
"I think I'll survive," Scorpius answered.
"Alright then," Rose said. "I could kiss if it you want" She then added. "You know, to take the pain away," She grinned up at Scorpius who just looked back at her, a strange look upon his face, one that she had never seen before. Perhaps he didn't get the joke.
She looked back down in her book and began rereading the page she just finished, a study tip from her mother.
"Aren't you going to do it?" Scorpius suddenly asked and she looked at him surprised.
"Do what?" She asked.
"Kiss it." He answered, and Rose wasn't sure if she was supposed to laugh or not. If it had been Al, she would have just walked up to him and kissed his 'wounded' finger, and then perhaps replied with 'There baby, mommy made it all better,', and then they would have both just laughed. But this wasn't Al, this was Scorpius. This wasn't a guy who'd grown up in the big and rowdy Weasley clan, this was a guy who grew up in a manor, and who wore fancy tailored clothes and considered it casual.
So, not really knowing what else to do, she just stared at him.
Scorpius held up his finger, the cut was small, but like most paper cuts it was probably deep, and the fact that the deep red blood was almost sipping out made it even more visible against his pale skin. He pouted slightly with his lips, those soft lips, looking more childlike.
"Please…mommy," He said, and then the corner of his mouth twisted upwards, just a little bit. Rose raised her brow and Scorpius smile widened, until the point where he actually showed of a row of straight, white teeth, to the point when that little something appeared in his left cheek, his dimple.
The dimple was probably one of her favourite things about Scorpius; it just made him look so… cute. Yes, that was exactly the right word. Cute.
Scorpius him self didn't like the dimple, or so he'd said when Rose first pointed out he had one on that first train ride they spent together. 'I'm a perfect image of a Malfoy,' He'd said. 'I've got the hair, the eyes, the jaw, the nose, and then of course that darned dimple that had to come and ruin it!'
The dimple came from his mother, Rose had noticed when she and Al had visited Scorpius' house – well it wasn't exactly a house, considering the size of it – the previous summer. Asteria Malfoy was beautiful and honey blonde, and each time she smiled a dimple, deeper and more visible then Scorpius', appeared in each cheek.
"So Rose," Scorpius suddenly said. "Are you beginning to understand those spells any better?"
Rose searched her mind to see if anything popped up, to see if any dictionary like explanation appeared, just like it did with about everything else she'd ever learned, but no.
"Not really," She answered. "I don't know why, but my mind's all blank when it comes to this." Actually, she wondered if she would have understood it better by now if it wasn't for the fact that he was sitting there, distracting her.
"Well, maybe I could help you?" He suggested, already using his feet to push out his chair. "You've helped me a lot, so I'll just be returning the favour." He got up from his chair and walked to stand right by her side, crouching down a bit so that their faces where right next to each other. He was so close that their cheeks almost brushed, something that Rose was very aware of. "Well," He began after looking at the text for a while. "The thing is-" As he spoke, he moved his arm a little bit – he'd previously been using his finger to trace the text in the book – and accidentally tilted over Rose's ink.
The dark fluid spread quickly across the table, and over Rose's few notes. "Shit!" Scorpius said and out of reflex retraced his arm so that it wouldn't get covered in ink. But as he noticed how Rose's parchment got ruined, his hand went back towards the table.
"Don't," Rose said and grabbed a hold of his hand. She could hear the catch in his breath as her fingers gripped his wrist, and for a moment, it was as if they were both frozen. "Don't." Rose repeated. "It's alright, really."
"Are you sure?" Scorpius asked as turned his head so that he was facing her, they were so close she could almost feel his breath on her face. She couldn't get a word out, she realized. So she just gave him a slow nod. She looked into his grey eyes, and caught a glimpse of something, something new. And as his gaze fell down to her lips, she wondered if he was going to kiss her.
Did he want to kiss her?
Was that what that new thing in his eyes had been? Could it really be that he liked her too? Could it possibly be true that he saw her as more then just a friend? He only had to move his head a couple of inches forward for their lips to meet, and Rose felt her heart beating like a sledge hammer in her chest. Did his heart do the same?
His eyes locked with hers again, that something was still there, and Rose's eyelids automatically began to close. This is it, she thought, and took one final breath.
"Rose!" The loud voice broke the spell she was under, and Scorpius face, which had been so, so close to hers became just a blur as he quickly straightened up.She looked away from him, and towards the owner of the voice, her little brother. Hugo wasn't alone where he stood, making a kind of weird face. Al was there too, and he had a sort of apologizing expression. Rose couldn't understand why.
"Hi, Al, Hugo." Scorpius said and cleared his throat. "What are you doing here?"
"What were you two doing?" Hugo asked, ignoring him completely.
"Nothing," Rose answered quickly.
"I was just helping Rose with her homework," Scorpius continued.
"She needs help?" Hugo asked, as if he'd never heard anything as strange in his entrie life. "From you?"
"What are you doing here Hugo?" Rose asked, beginning to become very annoyed with her brother.
"Well, the library closes in fifteen minutes, and you said you'd play wizard chess with me after you finished studying" Hugo answered. ". So I asked Al to follow me here to come and help tear you away from your books."
"Fine," Rose replied, and then grabbed her Transfiguration book and put it in her bag. "I'll come with you." She corked her almost empty ink bottle and then preformed a cleaning spell on the ruined parchment – which removed all ink, including her notes – and then put it in her book bag along with her quill.
While she did that, Scorpius preformed a cleaning spell on the table and then began packing together his things. "Rose," He said and she looked at him.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Is it alright if I keep this?" He held up Blood Wars and she nodded.
"Fine," She answered. "Just return it when you're finished with it, okay?"
Scorpius smiled at her as Al walked up to him and whispered something in such a low voice, Rose, who was just standing on the other side of the table, couldn't even hear him. As she passed them both, she caught Scorpius eyes again and bit her lip.
They had almost kissed, or, at least she thought they almost had. She wasn't sure if he was going to kiss her or not, but now when she thought it about it, it seemed most unlikely. So she left the library with Hugo, leaving Scorpius and Al alone, and busy with their whispering conversation.
I've been working on this story for a while now, and I finally got it posted. There might be some speeling or grammar errors, but it's late and I'm too tired to fix that right now.
This piece is connected to my other RosexScorpius story Take a Deep Breath, so if you liked this one, perhaps you could check out that one too.
Anyway, with that out of the way it's time for the usual written statement:
Reviews are appreciated!