A Most Unwelcome Interruption
By Molly the Monster
Setting: sometime during the school year, 2023
Prompt: an almost kiss
"Hey," came the voice of Scorpius Malfoy somewhere behind her.
Rose Weasley turned up and smiled at him. "Hey," she said shyly, turning away from him, her fingers trailing down to the edge of her skirt, picking at a loose thread. She wasn't sure how she felt about Scorpius coming out to talk to her. She didn't want his pity. There were worse things in the world than the boy you like choosing your younger cousin over you. Like being forced to be a fan of the worst Quidditch team in the world just because your dad is obsessed with the Cannons...
"Everything all right?" asked Scorpius, taking a seat beside her at the edge of the Black Lake. His voice suggested that he thought everything was not all right. Rose couldn't imagine how Scorpius would have known that something was wrong. Or that she would be out here.
"Everything's fine," said Rose with a shrug, her arms wrapped around her bent knees. Truth be told, she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the whole thing. So really, what she was saying wasn't exactly a lie.
Scorpius cleared his throat. "So everything's all right with you and Lily?" Scorpius asked, raising an eyebrow at Rose. Rose turned to fully face her Potions partner and looked at him curiously. How could he possibly know about that? "And you know, a certain Head Boy...?"
Rose felt her jaw fall open slightly before shoving Scorpius in a half-annoyed, but half-friendly manner. "Scorpius Malfoy! How in the world do you know about that?" she asked loudly. It was ridiculous. Her fight with Lily had only happened that morning for crying out loud.
Scorpius laughed. "Word travels fast around here," said Scorpius with a grin. "And you know how much Slytherins love to gossip about Gryffindors," Scorpius teased, nudging Rose with his elbow, clearly trying to poke fun at the red head sitting next to him.
"This is so embarrassing," Rose whined, burying her face in her hands and dropping her hands and face to her bent knees. "Does everyone think I'm really pathetic?" came her muffled voice from beneath her hands.
The boy sitting next to her chuckled again as he placed a sympathetic hand on her back, patting her gently. "No, it's okay," he said kindly, but Rose could still hear him laughing a little bit. "No one thinks you're pathetic. In fact, none of us seems to be able to figure out why in the world Scott Lipinski would choose Lily over you."
Rose peaked up at Scorpius, her cheek still resting on her knee. "Really?" she asked hopefully.
There was nothing wrong with Scott liking Lily over her. But still, the idea that people thought that he was crazy for doing it made Rose feel a lot better. Especially because it hopefully made her look a lot less pathetic.
"Well, no," said Scorpius honestly, causing Rose to roll her eyes. "But I was thinking it," he added helpfully, continuing to rub her back in what Rose assumed was supposed to be a soothing manner. She had to admit, it was rather comforting. "So, what happened?"
"Don't you already know?" Rose replied, her voice once again muffled because her face was back in her hands.
"I know what people are saying," said Scorpius, implying that he didn't always believe everything he heard.
Rose lifted her head from her knees and placed her arms behind her, leaning back slightly. She stretched her legs out and turned toward Scorpius who looked at her patiently.
The relationship she had with Scorpius was rather odd. They spent the first five years of their schooling competing with each other at anything and everything. Everything they did was a competition: who could successfully transfigure a watch into a whistle first, who had a better potion, who learned a new charm first. They could turn anything into a competition. Rose so badly wanted to beat Scorpius at everything, just like her father had told her to do the very first day of Hogwarts. She was sure her father had been half-joking, but she knew that he was still proud every time she did better than Scorpius.
As for Scorpius, Rose was certain that it was much more good natured on his side. Sure, he enjoyed beating her as much as she enjoyed beating him, but normally she was furious when he beat her at anything. Scorpius, on the other hand, usually just grinned and beared it.
Then Professor Tumulett thought it would be a brilliant idea to partner the two of them up in Potions. Apparently he thought their talents would be put to better use together rather than apart. Things had started off rocky, to put it lightly. There had been a number of spilled potions, explosions and other accidents, but eventually the Slytherin and the Gryffindor were able to put their differences aside and become one of the best Potions partners Professor Tumulett had ever seen. According to him anyway.
Rose knew her brother and her cousins thought it was weird that she was getting along with Scorpius Malfoy, a boy who she had disliked for so long. Although Rose was a lot like her father, she wasn't quite as stubborn as he and she was able to put her previous opinions aside. Scorpius really wasn't as bad as she had always thought he was. She had gotten Al to see reason, and it hadn't even been that hard. In fact, Albus and Scorpius were starting to become all buddy-buddy. Even James was starting to come around to realize that Scorpius wasn't as bad as they had all thought...
"You really want to know?" Rose asked the blond boy sitting next to her.
"Only if you want to tell," said Scorpius with a smirk.
Rose sighed. "I–I told Lily that I...oh, I don't want to tell you. This is so embarrassing," said Rose, shaking her head and laughing. How was she going to explain this to Scorpius Malfoy of all people? She had barely been able to explain it to her own mother when she wrote her.
Scorpius laughed, too. "I won't laugh! I promise!"
"You're laughing right now!" said Rose, pushing him lightly, still laughing a little.
"Because you're acting like a weirdo!" Scorpius accused playfully. "Not because of what you said!"
"Okay. Okay," said Rose, taking a deep breath. "Seriously, promise you won't laugh."
"Promise."
Rose took another deep breath. "Okay. So...okay. I told Lily that I...well, that I had a crush on...Scott," Rose began. Scorpius watched her patiently, listening carefully. But Rose wasn't sure how to continue.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Rose," said Scorpius with a raised brow. "I thought all the girls had a crush on Perfect Scott Lipinski. You know, he's got the hair and the smile and he's Head Boy and he's good at Quidditch."
Rose raised her eyebrows and smirked at Scorpius. "Do you have a crush on Scott Lipinski, too?" she teased her friend.
This time it was Scorpius's turn to push the red head. "I'm just repeating what all the girls say," said Scorpius, though he was laughing. "Come on, just tell me what happened."
"Well, I told her a few weeks ago and what do I see when I'm walking down the hall to breakfast this morning?" asked Rose rhetorically. "There's Lily snogging Scott Lipinski right there in the middle of the corridor. How was I supposed to react? It was like I tell her and she makes it her mission to go out and get him."
"You know, I'm sure it wasn't like that," said Scorpius reasonably.
"I know it wasn't," admitted Rose. "We worked it all out."
After Rose and Lily had had their little shouting match in the common room, the cousins had gone their separate ways. Rose had been fuming. She wrote to her mother in a fit of rage, expressing that she was never speaking to Lily again and how Lily was officially dead in Rose's eyes.
Rose Weasley, like her father, had a tendency to overreact.
Not long after Rose sent the letter, Albus found her in the Owlery and had convinced her to talk to Lily. Rose had been extremely embarrassed at how badly she had overreacted, so Rose decided that perhaps she should give Lily a chance to explain.
When Rose and Lily found each other, they worked everything out. Lily had a crush on Scott, too—could Rose really blame her? And Scott obviously liked Lily. Rose told Lily she liked Scott, but that didn't mean Rose had some sort of claim on him. Lily and Scott were both free to do whatever they liked. But that didn't mean Rose didn't feel weird about the whole situation.
"Then why are you out here moping?" asked Scorpius, a hint of mischief in his voice.
"I am not moping!" exclaimed Rose. "I just needed to think. I mean…I don't know. It's embarrassing. I mean, apparently everyone knows Scott chose Lily over me. And they all know I had a meltdown in the common room over it."
Scorpius shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal," he assured her. "It'll all blow over soon. It hurts to see a person you like with someone else, but you'll move on."
"I don't know. I don't even really care all that much that he doesn't like me," confessed Rose honestly. It was true. When she saw Lily with Scott, she didn't even care that much that Scott was with another girl. She just felt betrayed that Lily would go off and snog him when Rose had told Lily she liked him.
"Well, he's an idiot," said Scorpius, looking away from Rose and out over the lake, absentmindedly picking at the grass beneath his fingers.
"Gee, thanks," said Rose sarcastically with a laugh. That's what everyone said when you got rejected. 'He's a fool. You could do so much better.' Yadda yadda. She knew he was only trying to be nice.
Scorpius bit the corner of his lip, something Rose noticed he did when he was unsure about something. When he wasn't sure about a Potion ingredient or the correct way to stir, he always did that. "No, I—I really mean it," said Scorpius, stealing a glance at Rose before quickly bringing his gaze back to the grass.
"Do you?" asked Rose, still slightly sarcastic, but a hint of curiosity in her voice. She eyed the boy next to her, who continued to look down at the grass he was playing with.
"Well, I mean…you know," said Scorpius, shrugging noncommittally. "Lily's great, you know. But you're also…you know."
Rose couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Scorpius. "So tell me, have you always been this articulate, or just since we became friends?" Rose teased. For as long as she had known him, Scorpius always had something to say. He always had a witty comeback. It was good for Rose; it always kept her on her toes.
Scorpius laughed. "Sorry. I'm good at arguing, but I'm not very good at this," Scorpius said, gesturing between the two of them.
"What do you mean, 'this?'" asked Rose, poking fun at him as she mimicked his gesture.
"I'm trying to flatter you," said Scorpius impatiently, finally turning to look at Rose.
Rose giggled. "Well, you're not doing a very good job," she said with a smile, leaning toward him a nudging him lightly with her shoulder.
Scorpius bit the corner of his mouth again and then laughed. "Thanks," he said with light sarcasm. He turned slightly toward Rose again. "Really, though. Any guy would be lucky to have a girl like you."
Rose wasn't quite sure why, but suddenly she felt her heart speed up in her chest. Scorpius was just being nice. He was just saying the things you always say to someone to console them after they've been rejected. But still, Rose couldn't quite help the fact that her throat and mouth dried.
"You think?" Rose asked, and she was surprised to hear that her voice cracked slightly as she spoke.
The boy next to her didn't seem to notice. Or if he did, he didn't seem to care. "You're smart. And you're funny. And you're nice, except, you know, when you're annoyed, which is usually my fault," he added playfully which made Rose giggle. "And you know, you're pretty."
"You think I'm pretty?" asked Rose, a red blush creeping up on her cheeks.
"Did I say that?" asked Scorpius with a sly grin.
"I think you did," said the redhead, her heart pounding hard in her chest. Rose couldn't believe what was happening to her. There she was, sitting by the edge of the lake with Scorpius Malfoy no less. A boy who she had spent hating her first five years of Hogwarts. But he was complimenting her. And she was, to her great surprise, enjoying it.
"Well, I don't lie," said Scorpius, leaning in even closer.
Rose could barely believe it was happening, but she closed her eyes and leaned in closer. She could feel her heart practically slamming against her chest. She was going to kiss Scorpius Malfoy.She was going to kiss Scorpius Malfoy.
At least she was just about to.
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing, Malfoy?"
Rose jerked away quickly, turning to look toward the source of the voice. James Potter was practically stomping in their direction. And he certainly did not look happy. In fact, he looked positively deadly.
"I—um—" Rose stuttered, scooting away from Scorpius.
"She had something on her face," Scorpius interrupted, trying his best to sound believable.
"I'm sorry, was I born yesterday?" James shouted as he approached them. "I don't want your Slytherin hands all over my cousin!"
"What? James, I thought we were past this," said Scorpius, scrambling to his feet.
James stopped and his hand disappeared beneath his robes. "Where is my wand?" he asked himself absentmindedly, ignoring Scorpius. "Merlin, I left it upstairs. Fine. I'm just going to have to use my fists!"
"James, I thought we were on our way to being friends!" said Scorpius reasonably.
"That was until I saw you rubbing your hands all over my cousin!" shouted the quickly approaching James.
"I was doing no such thing!" cried Scorpius. "We were just–"
"I just found out Scott Lipinski was rubbing his grimy hands all over my sister. I can't deal with you feeling up my cousin in the same day!" shouted James wildly, and, despite the fact that James really looked like he could kill, Rose laughed.
"Merlin's broomstick!" whined Scorpius, turning and sprinting in the other direction.
"Oh, that's right! You better run!" shouted James, racing past Rose and after Scorpius.
"James, be reasonable, will you!" bellowed Scorpius who was running for his life. Rose found it highly amusing that Scorpius was actually running. James didn't have his wand on him. Scorpius presumably did. But apparently he was having a hard time thinking right now.
Rose couldn't blame him. James looked downright scary. "Come back here, Malfoy! Face me like a man!" James screamed.
In spite of it all, Rose couldn't help but laugh, crossing her legs and watching the scene before her. She shook her head as she watched James chase Scorpius around the edge of the lake. Her elbow rested on her knee and her forehead dropped to her hand, but she was still laughing. Whenever she was around her cousins, she only had one question on her mind: How the hell was she related to these people?
So this was written for HedwigBlack's weekly challenge. The prompt, as I mentioned up top, was an "almost kiss." I was reading one of my other stories titled Advice On A Hogwarts Rooftop with the almost kiss idea in mind and then this came to me! This story takes place sort of at the same time as that story. They kind of go together. You don't have to have read that one to understand this one, but the events leading up to this story are also the events leading up to that story, only from Lily's point of view.
Anyway, I'm just finishing up finals! Woo! I'll be done very soon! Can't wait for three months off! Yeaaaah! I have lots of stuff in the works. I just finished up a Teddy/Victoire one-shot that'll be up soonish. And I'm working on a Marauders chapter fic which I've been working on for and ever which I hope to get up this summer. Not to mention another Hunger Games story. Expect more Clato and Foxface stuff. Working on a multi-chaptered Clato. And I have a Charlie/Fleur/Bill love triangle fic that's pretty much done but I've kept in the vault. Idk if I'll ever post it. You might just see it though! Woop woop!
Anyway, this story is dedicated to Asellia Skyrunner, DreamingDementor, isntsheclovely, and slythern955 for reviewing my last one-shot, Dead Center. And special shout out to Emullz for reviewing my last story and for just being pretty freakin' awesome!