I walked into the quiet library and shot a small smile at Madam Prince. She presses her lips together in a thin, line-like smile in return. I slipped into the back corner and settled down at a desk with a thick text on mythical beasts. As I skimmed the chapter on dragons, I heard the rustle of robes around the corner and froze. Within seconds, I was under the table and listening for the scraping of fingernails on bookshelves that told me who was coming around the corner. Lily always gave herself away.
"Rose? Rose, we need to talk." I curled up just a little bit tighter under the desk. Lily had always acted older than I was. It fit, after all. She was the outgoing one, the loud one, the one who went and did things "because they were there". And then there was me.
I could hear her nearing my area. My only comfort was that the desk was old, made of two slabs of mahogany per side and one on top. It kept me covered from prying eyes. The footsteps paused next to my isle. Slowly, I tried to even my breathing and stared at the rows of books in front of me. A pair of silver eyes stared back and my body tensed with shock. My eyes slid shut again, slowly, and I breathed in and out once. Slowly, they slid open again to reveal… nothing. Just a figment of your imagination, Rose. In the back of my mind, I heard footsteps tapping away and fingernails running over old wood and relaxed the muscles I had tensed.
Slowly, I began to uncurl my limbs from the fetal position they had been in. Tap. Tap. Tap. A new set of steps echoed into my ears and I tightened my arms around my legs once more. These steps were new to me, not Hugo's, James's, or Albus's. Tap. Tap. Tap. They were getting close, headed in my direction. Tap. Tap. Tap. My heart began to race. This is too close, too close. A pair of black shoes stopped directly in front of my desk. The fluid motion of the robes caught my eye and I noted, green, just before a new face popped down in front of mine. Scorpius Malfoy.
His motions were quick as he squatted in front of me and, in fear, I scrabbled backwards. My back was pressed against the rows of books and I could feel bits of age-old paper rubbing against my hair. Silver-grey eyes caught and held my gaze and he smiled. It wasn't unkind or manipulative, or boisterous and loud like his usual personality, but a soft smile. Moving quickly, he scooted over to the opposite corner and wrapped his hands around his knees. My gaze followed him the entire time, my fear clear through widened eyes and white knuckles. Slowly, I brought my knees higher up and hid half my face behind their caps.
"So what're you down here for?" He spoke in a half-whisper to me. My eyes darted to the direction Lily had left in and back to his. He tilted his head slightly. "You always have talked without words, haven't you?" I let myself slip out a slight nod and a slight twitch of the shoulders. "Well, I'd hide from Lily, too, if she had it out for me," he quipped, humor lacing the statement. I couldn't help myself but to stare at him. Why was he here?
Somehow, he saw my unspoken question. "You looked like you needed company," Scorpius stated, his tone matter-of-fact and blatant. I immediately tensed. Okay, people were good, but they usually weren't that good. My brow furrowed, but before he could say anything I poked my head out from behind the slab for a half-second, then pulled it back down to the hiding position I had been in before. Slowly, I uncurled myself and slipped out from under the table, watching the boy's every move. I grasped the top of the desk and pulled myself up, keeping an eye on the feet poking just outside of the enclosure of the desk. As I stood up fully, he swung himself up in one clean move to stand in front of me. Wow, he's tall. My head bent back a bit so that I could look at him in the eye. He must have been at least four or five inches taller than me. His eyes met mine again and something inside me squirmed. Quickly, I grabbed my book and headed towards the exit, a soft red flooding my face.
A call of "See you again?" followed me out.
The next class was History of Magic, and was as boring as ever. With the entire class in a stupor, I couldn't help but to shoot occasional glances at Malfoy. Today's interaction had me slightly curious. Why would he notice me? And even if he noticed me, why would he talk to me?
He had always been kind of loud, not insanely popular but enough so that he was always on good terms with everyone. He was always smiling and open, but never loud and rambunctious like my cousins were. I knew that he was an only child, but besides that, I had no idea who he was. I tried to stay away from people's lives.
His grey eyes swept up to catch mine and he gave me a grin before I flamed red and quickly turned my gaze to the textbook again.
After class, I could feel him staring at me as I shoved my books into my bag and headed for the lake. As the crowds around me thinned, one set of footsteps remained constant behind me. In a sudden spurt, they sped up and I saw Scorpius trot up beside me, adjusting the strap of his book-bag on his shoulder.
"Hey," he breathed. I barely dipped my head and pushed open the door in front of me. It closed behind us and I felt myself begin to push myself to walk a bit faster. He matched my pace as I made my way around the lake and to the base of the largest tree on the campus. I glanced over at his easy smile as he watched me carefully. I increased my pace again and finally made it to the base of the tree. Carefully, I settled my book-bag into its place among the roots and pulled out my book on dragons. I was considering working with Uncle Charlie when I left Hogwarts, though any job with magical creatures sounded appealing. Settling myself into the nest of roots, I flipped to my bookmark and tried to read. However, Scorpius's presence wasn't helping. He put his bag next to mine and then, as I pretended to read, sat down next to me.
"Same book as before," he observed. I glanced up at him and gave a small nod. He was barely three inches from me, so eye contact was a little bit nerve-wrecking. I didn't usually get so close to other people, though it didn't stop Lily from trying to shove me closer to any random guy she could find.
"Why…" I whispered, then cleared my throat a little. "Why are you here?" His head tilted a little bit.
"Because I wanted to be." He answered, looking down at his feet, splayed in the reds and oranges of fall leaves. My brow scrunched a little bit, but I made myself turn back to the book.
When the sun began to set, I reached to put my book back into the bag as Scorpius stood. When I glanced up again, he was holding out a hand. Tentatively, I took it. It was thin and cold, but strong. He then proceeded to pull me up, but accidentally with more force than expected. I ended up stumbling into his arms, where he caught me. I froze, wrapped up in his arms. Gently, he steadied me and let me go, but not before I felt a hand brush my red locks. He was blushing slightly. I hefted my bag over my shoulder, whispered a quick "thanks," and hurried towards the castle.
I only glanced back once, and saw him watching me go.
I made it to Ravenclaw tower six minutes before curfew and answered the question ("What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every race?") in a mere minute (the letter "e"). I changed into my pajamas and curled up in bed with Circe. The small black kitten loved to curl up in my hair while I slept, and in whatever fold of my robe she could find during the day. Teachers had tried for years to get her out, but she was both well-behaved and sneaky when getting back into the classroom, so she was eventually allowed in as a special exception. Once or twice every month she'd head off to the forbidden forest for reasons still unknown to me. Thankfully, one of those days was today. I didn't want to see what she'd make of Scorpius.
Quickly casting a silencing charm around my bed, I whispered the events of the day to her. So what if she couldn't speak back? It calmed me, and made me feel safer knowing that somebody else knew. After I recounted the day, she kneaded a bed into my hair and fell asleep. My brain kept racing late into the night, though, and I fell asleep wondering what to make of today.
In the days that followed, I kept noticing his glances in my direction. He would catch my eye in class after class, and no matter what, would always meet me under the tree after class. Some days he would bring a book, others he would just sit there. He didn't show up only once, but I could see the emerald robes flying around the Quidditch field that day.
Four or five days after that, I couldn't help but to glance his way during Transfiguration. While trying to turn my poor kitten into a bat, I watched his owl turn into a kitten with as much fluff as his owl had plumage. I couldn't help but to let out a tiny smile at the poor thing wobbling around the desk, trying to get the feel of four legs. Scorpius then glanced up to look at me and I jerked my gaze away immediately, trying not to be too obvious. I looked back at my kitten, who I turned into a black owl with a flick of a wand. She flew up on to my shoulder and perched there for the rest of the lesson, letting out occasional 'who' noises.
During the break, I headed out to the tree again. Scorpius showed up mere minutes after, and settled down next to me. Circe made a muffled 'mrrph' from inside my sleeve as he settled down next to me.
"Hey sweetie," he said, and I jumped in surprise and edged away until I realized he had been addressing the cat. Letting out a breath, I settled back in place as Circe hopped out and began to sniff her way around Malfoy. She then began to climb his robes, making her way up onto his shoulder and nosing his hair. At that point I gave up on reading and smiled as she climbed up his head and began to ruffle a nest in his hair. When she was finished, she curled up in a little ball and fell asleep amongst the tangled strands.
"Well, I certainly have the cat's approval," he joked, his eyes meeting mine. I gave a small nod in response. I reached up and scratched Circe behind the ears a bit, starting her purring. "And now I have a head masseuse, too!" We laughed a bit, and I gently removed the cat and placed her on my lap. Scorpius began to sort out his hair and I went back to reading about Hungarian Horntails.
"You know," Scorpius said a few minutes later, "that's the first time I've seen you laugh." I looked up at him. His silver eyes were fixed on me, and were a bit unnerving. His head tilted slightly. "Why do you so rarely smile?"
I let my shoulders drop a bit and looked out at the lake. "What's there to smile at?" My voice was a whisper in the wind.
"Plenty, if you think about it." I looked up at him again. "You have your family, right?" I shifted a little and stared at the ground. I could feel his mental pause. "Right?" he repeated, his voice softer.
"Um, a bit." I replied softly. An emotional, flighty feeling surfaced in me and I buried myself in the book again.
"Rose?" I looked up at him again. "Are you okay?" I nodded quickly and ducked back towards the book. He didn't pry, but I felt him moving closer to me, and I felt warm with his presence.
We kept meeting up every day to sit under the tree. On weekends, we would each go and do our own activities, but every school day he would come and sit under the tree with me. Sometimes, he would talk while I would sit and listen. He would tell me stories about when he and his friends had gone into the Forbidden Forest and met a wild car, or when he was a child and his broom would only go up. Other times we would read our own books, or sometimes even read over each other's shoulders. It was nice, and I felt a friendship with him. He never tried to force me to talk, like my cousins had. He would just accept that I didn't like to and move on.