Disclaimer: The characters are the property of the amazingly talented J.K Rowling. I'm only borrowing the characters and world that she has so brilliantly created.

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A/N: I've written this short story so that it can be read as a stand-alone story, but it is also a companion piece to my Next Gen James/OC chapter story "Game On." This short story is a more in-depth explanation of the Rose/Scorpius events described in that story.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Chapter One: Encounters in the Library

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Rose Weasley couldn't reach the top of the bookshelf. She stood on her tiptoes and stretched her arm towards the shelf, but the Encyclopedia of Herbs and Roots was still sadly out of reach.

She was about to pull out her wand and float the book down when from immediately next to her, a pale hand moved in front of her face and grasped the book with ease.

"I'm sorry, but that's mine," Rose protested. Turning to confront the book thief, she saw that it was Scorpius Malfoy. He was a fellow sixth year and in some of her lessons, but he was in Slytherin House while Rose was a member of Gryffindor House.

Just before her first year, immediately before she boarded the Hogwarts Express for the first time, her father had told her not to become too close to Scorpius Malfoy and told her to beat the blonde haired boy in every exam. Her mother had rolled her eyes and told her father not to set the children against each other. But Rose, being naturally competitive when it came to academics, had taken the bit about beating Scorpius Malfoy in every exam to heart. As a result, he was something of an academic rival to her whether he knew it or not.

He flipped the book open and glanced inside of the front cover. "I don't see your name on it."

"I was trying to reach it. I was just about to use my wand to get it down when you swooped in and stole it."

"You didn't have your hands on it yet," he drawled, clearly amused at her indignation. "I grabbed it first, I think that makes it mine."

"No, it doesn't!" insisted Rose. She felt herself growing exasperated at Malfoy's irritating manner. "I need that book to write my potions essay."

"So do I," Malfoy challenged.

Rose folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her blue eyes at him. "Yes, well, I'm sure you could find another book to help you."

Malfoy tossed the large book from one hand to the other in a carefree manner that suggested he was greatly enjoying this entire scene. "You could find a different book too, you know."

"No, actually, I can't. I've already done all of my other research. This is the last book I need to read through before I can begin my essay."

Malfoy seemed to consider this. "We could share it."

Share the book? What did he mean, share it?

"How would we do that?" Rose asked skeptically.

Malfoy gave her a critical look. "We each need to read out of it, so we can read out of it at the same time. Then we can work on our essays and refer back to it as needed."

Well, that didn't sound too bad, Rose thought. It was certainly a better alternative than not having the book at all. The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Roots was absolutely necessary for her to be able to write an O worthy essay; she simply couldn't do without it.

"I sit over there," Rose told him, motioning vaguely in the direction of the Charms section. There was a quiet, secluded nook tucked away where she found it easy to study.

"Seeing as I'm allowing you to share my book, I think I should choose where we sit."

"It is not your book!" Rose huffed angrily.

"Didn't have your name on it," he reminded her lightly.

"It didn't have yours on it either. Just because you're taller doesn't mean that you have the right to it. I saw it first!"

Malfoy shrugged. "Fine. We'll sit at your table."

A bit stunned at his easy capitulation, Rose led him over to her usual table. Sometimes she shared it with her cousin, Al, but right now he was in the Gryffindor common room. She sighed a bit. If Al had been here, he could have retrieved the book for her, and she would never have been in this situation in the first place.

Malfoy carefully set the Encyclopedia of Herbs and Roots down on the table and took a seat.

When Rose made to sit on the other side of the table, he instead pushed out the chair next to him.

"You know, if we're both going to read it, we're going to have to sit on the same side of the table."

She hadn't considered that. Sit so close to Malfoy? Someone she barely even knew? Rose wasn't certain how she felt about that. But she needed to read chapter ten, so she hesitantly lowered herself into the chair next to him. They were very close, she noticed. Their legs were almost brushing. She also noticed that he smelled very nice. Kind of a clean, fresh scent mixed with something that smelled a bit like pine.

They read in silence, and to her relief, he kept up a similar reading pace so that they were able to flip the pages at nearly the same time. When the time came to begin writing, he worked diligently on his essay, every now and then pausing briefly to refer back to the book resting between them. Rose supposed that perhaps she shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, Scorpius was one of the top students among of the sixth years and one didn't achieve that sort of academic record by being completely thick.

Rose lost track of the time as the pair of them worked on their respective essays. At last, he threw down his quill and stretched his arms above his head.

"That's me done," he yawned as he began packing up his bag.

"Me too," Rose agreed, carefully placing her completed essay, ink well, and quill inside of her rucksack.

"See?" he smirked slightly. "That wasn't so awful, now was it?"

"Thank you," she told him somewhat grudgingly. "The information in that book really did make all of

the difference to my essay. Without it, I'm certain that Professor Longbottom would only have given me an E."

"Swot."

Rose looked sharply up at Malfoy, but he didn't seem to have been insulting her. In fact, he appeared vaguely amused.

"Goodnight, Rose," he told her quietly.

Up until that moment, Rose hadn't been certain that he actually knew her name. It turned out that he did.

"Goodnight…Scorpius," she replied. His named sounded foreign on her tongue, but not in unpleasant way, she decided.

He strolled away, his rucksack slung across his shoulders and that was the end of that.

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Or so Rose thought. To her great surprise Malfoy approached her library table in the Charms nook a week later.

"How did you do on that essay?" he asked, his voice casual. Just that morning in lessons, Professor Longbottom had returned their Herbology assignments.

Rose blinked in surprise at seeing him standing in front of her. "Fine. Very well, actually."

"See? I told you sharing the book would help both of us," he smirked, obviously pleased with himself.

"Yes," Rose allowed. What was he still doing here? "And I was correct about needing the supplemental information that was located in the Encyclopedia of Herbs and Roots."

Malfoy – or should she think of him as Scorpius? – inclined his head to her. "And to think if we hadn't shared it you would have only received an E. Good job I let you share my book."

Rose wrinkled her nose. "I think you're mistaken. It wasn't your book."

"Of course it was."

"It wasn't your book!" she said a loud whisper to avoid being told off by Madam Pince. She had made it to her sixth year without the librarian telling her to be quiet, and she fully intended to keep her perfect record.

"See you around, Rose," he said with a slight smirk before strolling away.

And she did. See him again, that was. Rose couldn't remember ever bumping into Scorpius Malfoy in the library so often, but suddenly within the span of a week it seemed as though he was everywhere. He was always by himself, and he always said hello to her before moving on to his usual study area.

"Hello, Rose."

She didn't even have to look up to see who was speaking to her. Scorpius had a rather distinctive voice. He had a rather posh accent and spoke with very clear diction. His voice also had almost a cool quality to it. Not cold and unfriendly, just…calm and collected at all times.

"Scorpius," she greeted him.

He nodded at the stack of books resting next to her on the table. "Been busy stealing other people's library books, I see."

"Ah ha!" Rose cried triumphantly. "Library books. They're library books, so they belong to the library, not individual students."

His mouth quirked up a bit as he regarded her. "Sounds like a rather pedantic argument to me."

"Using words like pedantic. Now who's the swot?" Rose asked teasingly.

"Still you," was his quick reply.

There was a brief pause in which Rose felt a bit awkward.

"Er… did you need something?" she finally asked.

He started a bit, seeming taken back by her question, but then recovered himself quickly.

"As usual, you have one of the books I need." He gestured to her rather large column of books.

"But I need these!" Rose protested. She had gone to the shelves and found them fair and square. It wasn't her fault that she had (yet again) been quicker than him. And all of the other sixth years.

"Well, I'd like to refer to that one in my essay," he pointed to the green book resting on the very top of her stack.

Rose glanced at the cover, then looked back at the blonde Slytherin with suspicion. "You need to use Fascinating Potions Experiments of the Middle Egyptian Kingdom?"

"Yes," he replied evenly. His face was completely impassive and Rose couldn't tell if he was being serious or just taking the mickey.

"But I have it for supplemental information. It wasn't assigned."

He shrugged casually. "So you can do supplemental reading but I can't?"

Bugger. Rose had to concede that he made a valid point. Also, he was never going to convince her that he wasn't a secret swot now.

With a resigned sign, she picked up the book and held it out for him. "Here. I did want to take it out, but I suppose I have a few other free reading options."

He paused for a moment, but then said in his typically calm voice, "I could read it here at your table. You know, so that when I'm done with it for the night I can give it back."

A fluttery feeling was suddenly swooping around in Rose's stomach. Kind of like a feeling of anticipation.

"That would be… fine."

"Brilliant," he said. "Let me just go fetch my rucksack. I left it at my usual table."

He disappeared around the corner of the bookshelves, his stride confident. Rose stared at the book laying open in front of her, a small smile slowly stretching across her face.

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Rose hadn't seen Scorpius in the library this particular evening. It was strange and she had no reason to feel his way, but she almost missed him. For some reason, she had begun to look forward to seeing the flash of white blonde hair that meant he was nearby. She had seen him in lessons, and they had briefly made eye contact, but it just wasn't the same.

One stormy evening two days later, he appeared in front of her table in the library holding a book in his hands, which he extended to her.

"I came across this book in the Herbology section, and I thought you might like it since you seemed interested in ancient Egypt."

Rose actually knew all about the book in question but as she opened her mouth to say as much the words caught in her throat. His cool, grey eyes looked almost hopeful as he regarded her and she found that she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"Thank you, it looks fascinating," she told him instead as she reached to take the book. As she did so, their hands brushed ever so slightly. Because he was so pale, she half expected his skin to feel cool to the touch, but his hands were warm. To her intense mortification, Rose felt her face and ears growing warm at the contact.

"Rose?"

Jerking her head sharply upwards, she saw that speaker was her cousin, Al. He was standing at the end of the bookshelf nearest their usual table with his hands nervously clutching the strap of his rucksack.

"Is everything…what's… "Al paused as he struggled to find the proper words. It seemed that finding her speaking her Scorpius Malfoy was one of the last things he'd expected to encounter.

"Don't worry, I'm not trying to hex your cousin, Potter. I thought Rose might enjoy this book." Scorpius replied easily, not missing a beat, his calm exterior unruffled.

Al nodded faintly, his brilliant green eyes taking in the scene before him.

"We shared a book for an assignment one of the nights when you weren't here," Rose explained truthfully. "He just thought I might find this one interesting as well."

"Well, I'll be off then," Scorpius drawled before leaving her and Al alone.

Al settled into the chair across from her at the table and took out his Transfiguration book. "You studied with Scorpius Malfoy?" He didn't seem angry or upset. Merely confused, as well he might be.

Rose shrugged in attempt not to make more of the situation than was necessary. "We found the same book we both needed at the same time and it seemed like a good idea to share. It had loads of helpful information that I included in my essay. Professor Longbottom even gave me a bonus point."

Rose knew she wasn't telling Al the entire truth. Because the entire truth wasn't something that she was sure he wanted to hear. And considering he was a male cousin, she didn't exactly want Al knowing that she'd had a crush on Scorpius Malfoy ever since that first encounter in the Herbology section.

At first, Rose had found the revelation slightly unsettling. After all, she was a Weasley and he was Malfoy; she was a Gryffindor, and he was a Slytherin. But the more she thought about it, she realized that her only objections were to his last name and House. Her parents and other adult family members had certainly taught her better than that. Anyway, she didn't think of either of those things when they were studying together or talking. He was just Scorpius.

Al merely shrugged in acceptance. "Sounds reasonable."

Al wasn't the suspicious sort, something for which Rose now found herself extremely grateful. Now, if her cousins James or Fred, or worse her brother Hugo had found them, that would have been a different story all together. Nosy parkers, the lot of them.

Thankfully, the rest of the evening passed without any further mention of Scorpius Malfoy.

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The next time that Al was studying in the Gryffindor common room with James and Fred, Rose made her way to the library. She told herself that she just wanted to study in peace and quiet. After all, she nearly always studied in the library. And if she just so happened to run into Scorpius Malfoy while she was there… so much the better, yeah?

To her quiet delight, Rose was not disappointed. She hadn't been at her usual table more than a quarter of an hour when suddenly a shadow fell across her essay. Looking up, she couldn't help but give a small smile when she saw the tall, blonde Slytherin standing above her.

"Mind if I sit down?" he asked, and Rose could have sworn her heart skipped a beat.

"Yes," she said, then mentally kicked herself. "No. I mean, no, I don't mind. Yes, please sit down."

How terribly ineloquent of her.

His mouth quirked up in a small smile. "All right, then. I actually had a question for you."

"Oh?" Now she was curious. "You're asking me for help?"

His mouth twitched a bit. "Well, you are the cleverest witch in our year."

Rose felt her face grow warm at his compliment. Her ears were always the worst – it was a Weasley trait – so she subtly attempted to adjust her hair in order to shield the bright red features in question.

"Thanks," she responded, her voice a bit higher pitched than was typically normal. She cleared her throat and said in a more normal voice, "So, what did you need help with?"

"It's this Defense essay," he said, reaching into his black rucksack and pulling out a neatly rolled scroll of parchment. He carefully unfurled it and spread it out on the table in front of them. "I'm having trouble with my fifth point concerning resisting the Imperius Curse."

Scorpius reached out a pale hand and pointed to the paragraph in question. Rose quickly scanned the paragraph, but could truthfully find little fault with the content or presentation of his argument. Still, if she told him that his essay was fine as it was, he might leave, and Rose didn't want him to leave just yet. Or anytime soon, really.

"Well…" Thinking quickly, Rose tried to determine something to keep him at the table with her. "You could strengthen your analysis here," she pointed to a particular sentence.

He read the passage once more and then nodded. "Did you dedicate much space to that point in your essay?"

Rose nodded. "I actually owled my Dad and he gave me some pointers."

At the mention of her father, an odd expression passed over Scorpius's usually rather impassive face. But the moment that Rose looked closer, it wad gone. Still, she couldn't forget it. That look had made her think of what her dad would say if he knew that his only daughter was not only occasionally studying with Scorpius Malfoy, but that she fancied him.

She thought, not for the first time, of her dad's words to her about not becoming too close to Scorpius. Well, she had thoroughly stomped all over those instructions. Oh, Godric.

"What are you thinking?" he surprised her by asking.

Rose's started in surprise, but decided to answer honestly. "Just imagining the look on my dad's face if he knew we were studying together."

His face colored a very light pink. It was incredibly faint and difficult to see in the lighting of the library, but it was there all the same. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Do you mind what your dad would think?" Rose asked hesitantly, desperately hoping that his answer would be no.

"Of course not," he answered immediately. "Do you? Mind, that is."

"No," Rose said firmly. "I was raised to be open-minded. I don't care that you're in Slytherin or that your dad and my parents didn't get on at school. That's them, not us. Besides, I can be just as stubborn as my dad."

"Me too."

They smiled faintly at each other.

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Thanks for reading! And a special thanks to my beta, blue and gold, for the helpful suggestions and fabulous beta abilities.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Favorite quotes? I'd love to hear what you thought!

Next Chapter: Al spends more time studying with Rose and Scorpius, and some confessions are made.