"Let me get this straight," Scorpius glared at her. "You think that we should organize a ball? Who even says 'ball' anymore? It's called a dance." He leaned his forearms on the back of the red couch, propping his head up on his hands. He shot her a condescending look just for good measure.

"I was thinking something a little bit more classy than skimpy dresses and tasteless dancing." Rose argued, throwing her bag onto the red and silver ottoman. "Professor McGonagall said we should organize something nice. Something that students will appreciate-"

"They would appreciate a dance… with firewhiskey." He grinned at the look of disgust on her face. She stuck her chin in the air defiantly.

"Then it could only be seventh years. The ball should be for fourth years and up. We'll do something else for the younger years, but I think this would be excellent for the older students. As of now, the only time students really have for themselves is at Hogsmeade and a ball would be a great opportunity-"

"To get a date?" He cut her off. She flushed bright red.

"Of course not, just to let loose." She bit the inside of her cheeks. "But now that you mention it, it would be a great opportunity for a date." She said casually turning away from him, because she always got the feeling he could see her soul in her eyes.

"And the motive is revealed!" He said loudly, throwing his arms up dramatically. Rose opened her mouth to argue but he just plowed on. "And I imagine all the girls want an opportunity to dress up. Alright, I'll go along with it, but I do not want to plan-"

"As Heads, we are both obligated to plan and organize the event. And if you don't help… I'll tell McGonagall." She threatened but she was too giddy to sound really harsh. She thought about Joshua Brunt and how he had been too shy to ask her to Hogsmeade. This provided him the perfect opportunity for him to ask her without it being awkward.

Everyone would be getting dates for the ball, unlike Hogsmeade which was a friend excursion. This would provide the perfect opportunity to get the quaffle rolling and then they could go to Hogsmeade together as a couple and not as a first date where everyone was analyzing them.

"Fine, but the prefects are helping as well. You go tell McGonagall and I'll go take a nap." He smirked and walked off. Rose huffed and stomped out of the Head's common room.

"Bonbon wands." Rose said to the portrait, which swung open. She bit the inside of her cheeks at the thought of the password, which was a combination of their favorite sweets. She entered the silver and red coloured common, another combination - of their houses. Obviously red and green would look horrible together, and silver and gold was just too much, so silver and red had been their compromise.

She stomped up the stairs where their bathrooms and bedrooms were. At first Rose and been worried about Scorpius being only twenty feet from where she slept, but there were wards up so she could get into his room and she couldn't get into his. Also there were bathrooms separating them.

She knocked on his heavy wooden door. She heard some cursing and then a loud thud, more cursing and then the door swung open.

She quickly slapped a hand over her eyes, letting out a little squeal. She heard him let out a short breathy laugh. She could imagine him shaking his head.

"Honestly, have you never seen a man's naked chest before. You're lucky I had the sense to put on sweatpants." He chuckled and she peaked out from her hand. Scorpius was shaking his head, his platinum blonde hair falling in his eyes.

She dropped her hand and stuck up her chin, forcing herself to meet his eyes that matched the silver in their common room.

"I wouldn't call you a man." She pursed her lips and sounded much more confident than she felt.

He scowled. "What did McGonagall say about the dance?" He came out and shut his door behind him. She resisted the urge to tell him to call her Professor McGonagall.

"You don't want to put a shirt on?" She stuttered, taking a few steps back as he took a few steps forward.

"Why? Does it make you uncomfortable?" He stared down at her, daring her to say yes.

"No." She turned and made sure her hair swung into his face. When he jerked back, she knew the red strands had whipped him. "Let's go. We've got things to do." She marched down the stone staircase, without looking back, knowing that he would follow her.

"So what did McGonagall say?"

"She thought it was a good idea. She was a little hesitant, but I convinced her it would be an excellent way of forcing the houses to co-mingle." She bit her lip and Scorpius grinned.

"Aw, look at you using manipulation to get want you want." He nudged her playfully and then pretended to wipe away a tear. "I'm so proud." He sniffled and she scooted away. "I don't know why you keep pretending you don't like me." He followed her as she moved away.

"Can we just focus on the ball?" She sat down on the couch and he sat down next to her. She moved away but he just followed her. "I know this might come as a shock, but not every girl wants to be another notch in your bedpost." She snapped, feeling her face warm.

He just laughed. "Who said anything about taking you to bed?" She opened her mouth. "I just want you to stop treating me like I'm the reincarnation of Voldemort." She gasped a little at his blatant use of that name.

"That's not how I treat you." She argued, shaking her head.

"Okay, not quite that bad, but you're not friendly either." He looked at her, trying to meet her gaze, but she avoided his eyes.

"We're colleagues of a sort, not friends." She bit her lip. That sounded bad. There was no reason they shouldn't be friends. Except for the fact that he was a Malfoy, their families hated each other, and her father had warned her away from him.

"So tell me what I did to not deserve your friendship." He smiled tightly and his head was no longer tilting towards hers.

"Nothing, I suppose, I just didn't think you were interested in being friends." Rose looked down at her hands that were neatly folded in her lap. Scorpius chuckled and leaned away, throwing his arm casually over the back of the couch. But there was nothing casual or funny about the way he was looking at her.

He looked incredible serious. "So why do you assume I don't want to be friends?"

"You've never wanted to be friends before." She felt ashamed of her assumptions.

"That's because we didn't talk. Now that we talk and share a common room why shouldn't we be friends?"

Rose thought about that for a moment, then looked back at him. He looked like he didn't particularly care about what she decided, but it was convenient for them to be friends.

"Oh, alright. Friends," She put her hand out to him. He looked at it then laughed.

Scorpius slid his hand into hers. She bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Alright," Her voice sounded so airy. She wasn't sure how to be friends with him. "So we need a theme for the ball." She pulled out a piece of parchment from her bag and a quill.

"Why?"

"Why?" She repeated and Scorpius nodded. "I think it'll made it easier to decorate if we have a theme to stick to."

"If it'll make this easier, I'm all in." He grinned and she shook her head. He propped his feet up on the ottoman and she moved her bag out of the way. "Sorry."

"It's nothing." said Rose. "So what do you think for a theme?"

"You're the 'ball' expert."

Rose sighed, "I'm not an expert. What about Winter Wonderland?"

"Cliche." He scoffed and she gave him a reproachful look.

"Oh, so you're the expert?"

"I know enough to know that it's cliche. What about a masquerade?" He picked at his nails and she was about to scoff… when she realized that was a good idea.

"That's really good." She nodded vigorously and wrote it down.

He looked surprised. "Seriously?"

"Yes, I like it. But we might need something more. That doesn't help much with decorations." Her shoulders slumped. She had thought about this so much, and yet really didn't have any ideas.

"What if we had the 'ball'," She had hated how he had to use quotation marks when he said 'ball', "in classrooms instead of the Great Hall." He suggested.

"How would that work? There's no way we could fit everyone into a classroom." She told him.

"Well, we could have a dance classroom, a food classroom, a games classroom... stuff like that." He shrugged, but looked up at her through his eyelashes like he was waiting for her approval. She smiled back at him.

"That's a great idea. We could use the DADA room for the dance since that's definitely the biggest classroom." She said excitedly, writing it down on the parchment.

"And then we wouldn't have to choose one theme. Each classroom would have its own theme. Winter Wonderland would probably be good for the dance room." He nodded, looking at what she had written. She smiled at the back of his head, while he bent over and read.

So he does care. She mused.

"When is it going to be?" He looked up from the paper and he was dangerously close to her face. She bit her lip.

"I don't know. Maybe on the twenty first? As a last hurrah before everyone leaves for Christmas break." Rose looked down at the things she had written while Scorpius said nothing.

"That's perfect, but it hardly leaves us any time to plan." He rested his chin on his palm and his elbow on his knee. "It's two weeks away." Rose nodded and tapped her fingers on his knee.

"So we better get started."

He grinned in response.

"Scorpius!" He turned around, grabbing his bag to keep it from swinging and hitting other students in the mass, who were also on their way to class.

"Morgana," He greeted her and then kept walking. He knew she would keep up with him.

"Hey, so I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me." She smiled coyly.

"It's a ball." He replied automatically and then cursed Wea- Rose for drilling that ridiculous word into his head.

"Er… right. I wanted to ask you before the Hogsmeade weekend so that if you said yes we could colour coordinate." She was breathing a bit harder because he started to walk quicker.

"Morgie, I would go with you but I'm going alone." He told her taking a quick right turn.

She waded through a group of students to catch up with him.

"Okay, just thought I'd ask." She smiled and then disappeared into the rest of the crowd.

After transfiguration, the last class of the day, he went back to the common room to wait for Rose. Rose came back ten minutes later with a shit-eating grin on her face that made him want to deck someone.

"Guess what?" She bounced on the couch jostling his book.

"You got asked to the ball?" He gave her a deadpan look. Her excitement dimmed a little.

"How did you know?" She frowned.

"Isn't this the reason you wanted to have the ball in the first place?" He leaned back against the arm of the couch propping in feet up on her lap. She didn't even blink before she pushed him off.

"Admittedly, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for Joshua to ask-"

"Joshua the Puff?"

Rose shook her head, "Why do people call him that?" She groaned.

"Because he puffed his eyebrows off first year and he's a Hufflepuff." Scorpius replied, shutting his textbook, because he clearly wasn't going to get any studying done.

"We've all had spelled go arey." She muttered.

"Not that arey." Scorpius shot back. "Didn't realize he was the guy you liked."

Rose breathed deeply. "Well, who are you going with?" She bit her lip. She really did that a lot. That or bite her cheeks. She had quite a few adorable nervous habits that she did a lot around him. For some reason it made him a little happy that he made her nervous.

That meant, for some reason, she cared about what he thought.

"No one."

"No one? You didn't ask anyone?" She looked shocked.

"Nope."

"And nobody asked you?"

He hesitated, "A few girls have asked…"

"A few? We only announced the ball two days ago." Rose mumbled. He really didn't understand why she couldn't understand how popular he was. He didn't mention that her cousin, Dominique, had been one of the girls to ask him. He wondered if that would make her jealous.

"I know." He smirked and loved that that made her flush. "So are you going to get a dress tomorrow in Hogsmeade?" He asked, and shook his head. This is what I have been reduced to, asking about her about shopping.

"Yes, I'm going with my cousins." Her giddy grin was back.

"What colour dress do you want?" Shut up, before you say anything else stupid. He cursed himself.

"I'm not sure, yet. Dom's the expert." She shrugged. "Why didn't you say yes to one of those girls?" He looked at her, trying to meet her eyes, but she just avoided his.

"I figured that if you're going to be partying, I should man the party. Got to make sure no one sneaks in alcohol or any products from your Uncle's shop." He chuckled. Truly, that stuff was a gift from Merlin on days when you didn't want to go to class.

Rose frowned deeply. "That's not fair. You should be able to enjoy the night as well." She demanded.

Scorpius shook his head. "Rose, it's alright. Balls aren't really my thing anyways."

Rose let out a dejected breath. He wondered why it would make her so upset that he didn't plan on enjoying the ball. She got the guy, so why would she care about what he was doing?

Scorpius stood in front of the mirror looking at his tuxedo. Most of his friends were wearing dress robes, but he prefered tuxedos. He put some gel on his hands and rubbed it into his hair, making sure it stayed out of his face.

He thought about Rose who was already down on the second floor, where the ball was being held.

"Well, this is as good as it's going to get." He mumbled to himself and strode out of the bedroom. Shoving his hands, in his pockets he walked down the stairs.

"Scorpius," He jumped at the sound of Rose's voice.

He clutched his chest, "Jeez, woman-" That was all he was able to say. He looked at Rose.

Her hair was pinned up, with a few curles delicately placed over her shoulder. She was wearing a gold dress that clung to every curve and a simple necklace grasped her throat. He took a few steps forward and then stopped.

"What are you doing here?" He asked and then cleared his throat.

"I told Joshua I couldn't go with him tonight." She took a few steps closer to him and smiled. She had artfully done makeup colouring her face and highlighting her eyes.

"Why? You were so excited…" He trailed off.

"Yea, but dates are overrated." Rose shrugged casually. He had never seen her dress so nice, yet he had also never seen her act so casual.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, still smiling. "What kind of partner would I be if I let you man the party alone?" She hit his arm teasingly and then looked him over. "A muggle tux?" Her brows decinded.

"I prefer them." He said simply. "So you're my partner?" Scorpius gave her a lopsided grin.

She pressed her lips together, he could tell she was trying not to smile. "I think so." She held her hand out to him. "Let's go. We should be there a few minutes early."

"Of course." He grinned and shook his head to keep himself from laughing. Scorpius took Rose's hand and felt a current slide through his arm. He looked at her for a minute, moving his thumb back and forth against her hand. She shivered slightly and he leaned in a fraction. She followed his lead.

"Scorpius," She whispered just before her lips pressed against his. The kiss last for two seconds, before Rose jerked back. Her eyes were wide and frantic. He didn't give her a chance to argue before kissing her again. She squeaked against his mouth and then groaned as he slid his arm around her back.

He kissed her so that she knew what he wanted. Then he pulled away.

"What was that?" She breathed heavily.

The corner of his mouth turned up. "A kiss. I've been wanting to do that for two weeks." He told her factually. Her lips parted in surprise and he was tempted to kiss her again. "We should get to the ball… before people think we're up to no good." Rose nodded, slightly in a daze.

"Are you my date then?" She asked.

"Hell yes."