A/n: This story is set some nine-ten years after the epilogue, where Draco holds quite a bit of political power within the Ministry and Ron is still the Deputy Auror.
This is written for Finals Round 1 of QLFC. As Player 5, I had to use an example of personification AND a metaphor in my story. I've used the storm for both.
My prompt was to write the OTP of the previous player, WrenWintersong, which is Scorpius and Rose. This one's for you, R2D2 xx
Let The Storm Abate
The first kiss tasted of rain. The last kiss tasted of rust.
"I heard his father got him in by threatening the higher ups."
"Well, her father just had to give the order and she's good to go."
The hushed words drifted to the duo standing by the little coffee shop, carried by the chilly December winds, falling on their ears like snow and melting away into nothingness.
Rose Weasley held out a tall paper cup filled to the brim with steaming coffee and said, "I wonder if it would make a difference if we walked around with our entrance exam ranks stuck to our foreheads."
Scorpius Malfoy snorted as he took the cup from her and sipped from it, long and slow. Sighing as the warmth spread through him, he said, "I couldn't be bothered. They're far too stupid to do more than gossip about baseless rumours, anyway. They needed someone to blame for their incompetence, and they found us." He shrugged, nonchalant. "I suppose it is our fault for possessing actual talent and half a brain."
Rolling her eyes, Rose leant against the wall beside him. "I see your narcissistic attitude is still the same as always."
"And your sharp tongue hasn't lost its edge in the least, has it?"
They grinned at each other, easily slipping back into the familiar banter. Lapsing into comfortable silence, they sipped on their coffee and watched their fellow trainees fool around in the snow.
After a time, Rose said, "Weren't you going to follow in your mother's footsteps and become an acclaimed Potions Master?"
Scorpius exhaled, watching his breath form a cloud and disappear before he answered. "What about you? Weren't you hell-bent on walking down the scholarly path?"
"That was the plan, yeah," Rose said.
When she didn't say more, he glanced sideways at her. "Well, what changed?"
She shrugged. "Lots of things. What about you?" Deep brown eyes turned to meet his own silver ones, and he shivered at the familiarity of being pinned under her intense gaze. "What changed?"
Scorpius looked away, watching as someone lost their footing and went sprawling face-first into the snow, the rest laughing as the fellow struggled to his feet. "Lots of things," Scorpius said in the same unconcerned tone of voice as her, sipping on his coffee.
He saw her nod out of the corner of his eye, a small smile on her face. "Fair enough."
Just as they finished their coffee, the Auror in charge of the trainees hollered for them to gather around and began grouping them at random. Rose was placed in the surveillance team while Scorpius was put in the first scouting team.
As his group began to move out, he glanced back at Rose, only to find her already looking at him. She shot him a quick smile before turning away, and he lost sight of her as he rounded a corner.
What are the odds? he found himself thinking. Despite vowing to take completely different paths and never see each other again, we inevitably ended up meeting.
Was fate really just a myth?
The wind whispered in response, picking up speed, promising a storm to come.
-oOo-
"How was it?"
He looked up from the exam reading material, smiling as Rose handed him a cup of coffee and sat down beside him. "This has become a habit, huh?" he said, holding up the cup.
She shrugged, sipping from her own. "Small mercies." Nodding towards the heavy book in his lap, she asked, "Re-checking to make sure you got them all right?"
Scorpius snorted. "Please, I'm not you." When she shot him a withering look, he grinned and said, "I was just doing some light reading."
"Right," she said sarcastically, looking away from him. "You didn't answer my question."
"How do you think I did?" he said, curious as to why she had bothered to ask him in the first place.
When she hid her smile behind her cup, sipping noisily, he knew.
"People complaining about how hard it was, huh?" he said, flipping through the pages.
"How they got through the first time remains a mystery."
"You're too smart for your own good, Rosie," he said as he finished his coffee and balanced the empty cup on his knee with one hand, shutting the book with the other.
When she didn't retort with her usual, sharp sarcasm, he looked up, surprised to see her wide-eyed and red-cheeked. He flushed too, embarrassed by her embarrassment.
She looked away, and he noticed that even the tips of her ears had gone red. "Don't call me that, you idiot," she whispered, rising to her feet and walking away.
"Wow, that was one helluva weak response," he called after her, a slow grin spreading across his face. "Hey, Rosie! Wait up!" he yelled as he grabbed the cup and book and ran after her.
"Don't call me that!" she snapped as he fell into step beside her.
"Why? It's cute."
"That's precisely why!"
"Aww, is ickle Rosie embarrassed?"
She grabbed the book from him and hit him with it, swearing the whole time, her face matching the colour of her flaming hair. He laughed and dodged, grabbing her wrist with one hand and pulling her close with the other.
"You know I only tease you because your reactions are priceless, right?" he asked, tightening his grip around her waist as she struggled to push him away. I'd forgotten how petite she was.
"And that is exactly why I can't stand you," she spat, succeeding in pulling out of his grasp.
She stormed away, leaving him grinning from ear-to-ear, long-forgotten memories resurfacing and making his heart ache with anticipation and nostalgia. He discarded the empty cup and tightened his grip on the book as he chased after her once again, a sense of déjà vu settling over him at the sight of her tight braid and small form.
The storm whistled outside, making the windows shudder from its force, promising to prevent any brave soul from venturing out from their safe havens and into its icy maw.
-oOo-
"How is it that I somehow always end up on the same team as you?" Scorpius asked as he came to stand beside Rose, holding a cup of coffee out to her.
"Thanks," she said as she took it from him and folded her fingers around it, leeching off of its warmth. "And I'm the one who should be asking that."
They bowed their heads against the crisp wind, shuddering as it coated them with a fresh layer of snow. "This sucks," Rose muttered, moving closer to him.
He involuntarily put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him, more out of habit than intention, and she huddled closer, sighing as she sipped on her coffee. "Why're we the only group out here? That's completely unfair," she continued, crushing her cup once she was done and shoving it into her coat pocket.
"That's because the two of us were unfortunate enough to end up with the worst of the lot," Scorpius said, glancing at the loose group of six standing a little way off.
Rose glared at them. "Bloody incompetent fools," she grumbled, rubbing her hands together. "The rest of us have to suffer because of their stupidity."
The group leader motioned to them that it was time to head back, and the duo nodded. Rose stepped away, leaving Scorpius's arm hanging in mid-air. He let it fall to his side, following after her as they made their way back to camp.
Halfway there, the weather suddenly turned, and the wafting snowflakes were replaced by heavy drops of rain that battered down on them, forcing them to run for cover.
"Bloody hell," Scorpius muttered as he ruffled his hair free of water. "Nobody should be out in this storm. It's madness."
"That sadistic bastard doesn't give a damn," the group leader, Flaghorn, said. "He's all warm and dry at home while we're out here, freezing to death."
"Can't we please just light a fire?" somebody asked, and after some deliberation, the bespectacled fellow nodded.
"What Buxley doesn't know won't hurt us," he said as they made their way into the abandoned building, where they went about putting up warming wards and lit a fire.
"You two." The second-in-command gestured to Rose and Scorpius. "Go scope out the perimeter."
"What for?" Rose snapped, her irritation peaking. "No sane person would be out in this storm!"
He shrugged, his dislike for them obvious in his sneer. "I didn't make the rules, babycakes. Just following protocol."
Nobody said anything in support of them, much too wary of Morrison's quick temper and big build to argue against him. Before Rose could go off on the bloke, Scorpius grabbed her and dragged her outside.
"Why does he hate us so much?" she shrieked, throwing her hands up in the air. "We're perfectly nice people!"
"With powerful fathers who no one wants to go against," Scorpius said as they made their way down the road.
"All Morrison has is his violence. He could hardly topple a bin over with his jinx."
"Nobody really cares how good your spellwork is when you can head-lock someone and choke them half to death," Scorpius said matter-of-factly.
They came to a stop, their way having been blocked by an uprooted tree, and they glanced at each other.
"What say we hang around here for twenty minutes and then go back?" Rose said, cocking an eyebrow.
Scorpius grinned. "Sounds good."
They took shelter under a narrow parapet, neither speaking as they listened to the sound of the rain. "Remember the last time we were caught in a storm this bad?" Scorpius ventured after a time, keeping himself from looking at Rose, too afraid to see her reaction.
She didn't respond for a long while. When she finally spoke, he wasn't expecting it. "We were stupid then, and it doesn't seem like that's changed one bit now, either."
He finally looked down at her. Her face was turned skyward, moisture clinging to her freckled cheeks, the light from the sole streetlamp dancing in her dark eyes. She glanced at him after a moment, her lips parted, as though she wanted to say something but was hesitant to.
They stared at one another, neither moving nor speaking. The answer to his question hung in the air around them, forging some sort of understanding between them, the roar of the storm quieting their jumbled thoughts. She shifted so she was facing him, and he reacted before he could think things through.
Before either of them could fully process what was happening, they were kissing, her arms wound tight around his neck and his holding her close against him. The memories of their first kiss were quickly replaced by the sound of the storm, the icy raindrops splattering against their skin as they clung to each other, desperate, something within them having finally broken free of its lengthy confinement and bursting to the surface.
When they pulled away, the rain had slowed to snow, the howling wind having calmed and turned to a soothing lull. The change was sudden and unexpected, but the comfort of the familiarity of what had been was a welcome one.
He could see that change in her glittering eyes and in his own reflected in them, and he relished it.
-oOo-
"It's funny how time slows in the worst of situations," Rose whispered as they sat huddled behind a dumpster.
Scorpius grunted in response, having caught sight of their target. Rose hadn't seen the witch yet, and Scorpius touched her arm, jerking his chin sideways. She nodded, and they slowly made their way down the dark alley, thankful for the snow that masked their approach.
When they came out onto the street, the witch was nowhere to be seen. Rose instantly cast a tracking spell, and within seconds, a trail of magic glittered across the cobble-stoned ground. "Good thinking," Scorpius whispered, and she shot him a triumphant smile before following the trail.
They had just turned into a side street when an ear-splitting scream sounded from up ahead. The duo shared a look of alarm before sprinting down the road and turning the corner, wands at the ready. They were too late, however, because their opponents had reached the witch first. Morrison had his wand pressed against her throat, Flaghorn standing before them with his wand pointed at Scorpius and Rose.
Rose hissed and shifted to a defensive stance, her wand arm angled away from the trio, and Scorpius followed suit. The four of them stared at each other, nobody moving, a taunting sneer on Morrison's face, daring them to try something.
It had been a long while since Scorpius had paired up with Rose in a duel, the last time he could remember being when they were Sixth Years, but he hardly needed a second to match her thought process when she angled her right foot sideways and shifted her left foot forward. It was a very discreet movement, one that their opponents couldn't have picked up from the distance between them, but Scorpius knew what it meant.
She was going to feint to the left, forcing Flaghorn to react to her, leaving Scorpius free to deal with a distracted Morrison. He barely had a moment to prepare himself before Rose lunged sideways, whipping her wand forward and sending a freezing spell along the ground, turning the snow to ice. Flaghorn had already jumped towards her, but he slipped on the ice and went sprawling down.
Morrison had stupidly moved his wand away from the target's neck, reacting to his fallen comrade. Scorpius used the opportunity to Disarm him and lashed a rope around the witch's waist, using the loss of traction to pull her across the ice, towards him.
Rose, meanwhile, had Disarmed Flaghorn and had Summoned both their wands to her, leaving the two staring slack-jawed at Scorpius and her, too stunned by the quick attack to respond.
A horn blared a moment later, and floodlights illuminated the empty streets, the sound of cheers echoing from the rooftops. Scorpius freed the witch, who immediately pulled out her wand and raised it high. Shimmering numbers appeared over their heads, showing a perfect score for Scorpius and Rose and a big zero for Flaghorn and Morrison.
Scorpius grinned, high-fiving Rose, and they stood laughing at their success, thrilled at having passed the practical part of their exam so successfully. The others joined them in their celebration, coming down from their vantage points, and in the confusion, Scorpius had taken his eyes off Rose for a few seconds.
There was a shriek, and he turned to see her on the ground, clutching her side, Morrison standing over her with his wand drawn. She had probably gone over to return their wands, and Morrison, being the sore loser that he was, must've hexed her. Flaghorn immediately Stunned the burly fellow and sent him to the ground.
His mistake was that he hadn't Disarmed Morrison first, the stunner barely jarring the hulk of a wizard, who bellowed in rage and waved his wand once again. Flaghorn was too busy helping Rose to her feet to defend himself, and the crowd was still confused about what was happening, leaving Scorpius to rush forward alone.
He Disarmed Morrison and whipped around to check to see if Rose was alright without first making sure Morrison's wand was out of his reach. Flaghorn shouted for him to look out, Rose jerking to the side in response, and Scorpius reacted instinctively, pulling her against him and shielding her with his body.
The curse caught him square in his lower back, sending them both to the ground. Scorpius shuddered, pain erupting in his spine, stars twinkling before his eyes, and he rolled off Rose with a groan, his strength failing him. By then there was commotion all around, and the Aurors must have reached them and taken care of Morrison because his enraged roars abruptly fell silent.
Scorpius gasped, coughing blood. Rose stopped in her examination of his limbs and quickly directed her attention to his chest. "Where the hell is the Healer squad?" somebody shouted, and Scorpius wheezed, his vision blurring as another wave of pain overwhelmed him.
"I think he broke his back! There may be damage to his spinal cord and maybe even a few broken ribs!" he heard Rose yell through the ringing in his ears.
He moved his lips, trying to tell her he was OK even as wave after wave of pain threatened to drown his consciousness. People were shouting everywhere, but the snow against his back was soothing as it slowly numbed his senses and mitigated the pain. Someone grabbed his hand and squeezed it, telling him something, but the ringing in his ears was too loud for him to make out the words.
The person was persistent, however, and with great effort, Scorpius pried open his eyes by a fraction, only to find that his vision was blocked by someone leaning over him. Flaming red curls dangled over him and tickled his nostrils. He coughed, shuddering as a fresh surge of pain wracked his body, tasting iron in his mouth. Then something soft and warm pressed against his frozen lips, and everything went black.
-oOo-
For weeks after, as he continued to slip in and out of consciousness, all he could hear was the roar of the storm in his ears and the sound of someone repeatedly calling his name resounding with every heartbeat. After a time, he wished they would be silent, both the storm and his heart.