Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
This is my first fic. Rated T for mild language. Rose x Scorpius. (Even though I usually don't like to write popular pairings, this appealed to me for some reason.)
Enjoy!
Rose Weasley scowled at her cauldron, screwing up her nose slightly in annoyance. She was surprised it hadn't been reduced to a lump of lead by now with the force of her glare.
"Ten minutes to go, everyone!" chimed Professor Slughorn, sweeping past Candice Calpro's potion, which had now turned an inky blue colour.
The colour it was supposed to be, Rose grumpily noted. Potions was the only subject that Rose Weasley had any difficulty at all with- Something which her father often sympathised with. Rose sometimes liked to amuse him by quoting,
"This indirect approach to magic really isn't my style."
Her mother had often insisted that Rose could probably get better with practice, but Rose just seemed to always get something wrong, no matter what potion she was making. Rose glanced surreptitiously around the Dungeon. Everybody else seemed to be doing reasonably well...
Particularly...
Scorpius Malfoy was smiling slightly to himself as he fastened the cork on his flask of potion, the liquid a dark, twilight blue. Rose scowled, rubbing angrily at her nose. When she took her fingers away, Rose saw with surprise that her pads were covered in what looked like black soot. With a sigh, Rose vaguely remembered her potion letting out a cloud of smoke when she added too many crushed dragon claws. She sneaked another glance at Scorpius.
Slughorn was praising him on his potion, and Scorpius was smiling that vague, smirky smile that made Rose's insides squirm. Sighing, Rose waved her wand over her vibrant green potion, muttering "Evanesco." somewhat sourly under her breath. The potion vanished, and Rose practically slammed her things back into her bag as the class noisily began to file out.
"Miss Weasley! A moment, please!"
"Damn." Rose muttered under her breath.
She paused, turning so that her long reddish-brown hair swished as her head moved. Candice paused, but Rose waved at her to go on. Candice shrugged and walked ahead with a gang of her friends, tossing back her long blonde hair like a ballerina. Rose stifled a giggle, then turned her attention back to the dungeons.
"Yes, Professor?" asked Rose nonchalantly, slouching slightly under the weight of her books.
She could tell it was probably something to do with her gloopy, bright green potion. Rose crinkled her nose in irritation.
"Now, Miss Weasley, we both know that you and potions don't mix particularly well together..." Professor Slughorn started, looking at Rose, who was struggling to keep her face quite blank.
"But your latest potions...well, it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to call them catastrophe's, my dear. Do you remember the Freezing Potion last Thursday?"
Rose did remember. Her potion had exploded.
"-And the Babbling Brew..."
That one had ended up like a clammy, squishy grey custard skin that took Rose hours to get off the bottom of her cauldron, even with using the Scurgify spell.
"-And...Well, you get my point."
"Yes." Answered Rose stiffly, fighting not to cringe. Or storm out of the room. Or both.
"Anyway, you're by no means a poor student. In fact, you're very good in most of your other lessons, if I understand correctly. But with Potions dragging your average down...Now, not to beat around the bush...Miss Weasley, how does getting someone to tutor you strike you?"
Rose looked at him in surprise, too surprised to feel indignant.
"Tutor, sir?" Rose asked, scratching her cheek.
Her mother wouldn't be too pleased- After all, Hermione Granger had been practically famous for once using a time-turner to get to extra lessons. Rose was not looking forward to seeing her reaction over that. But then again...
Several of Rose's failed potions ran past her mind. But then again, it would probably be easier to concentrate if she were alone in the dungeons with a tutor. Rose always found a certain amount of pressure when in potions- Watching her fellow classmates working easily away, potions turning the right colour and smelling correctly always made her nervous, paranoid that she was about to screw up at any moment, which was usually inevitable.
Plus, Rose often found it harder to pay attention with blonde-haired, blue/grey-eyed boys wondering around.
Rose sighed, and then nodded.
"Who will be tutoring me?" she asked eventually, looking at Professor Slughorn, who smiled in an almost coy manner at her.
"But you already know him." smiled Slughorn. Rose blinked at him, perplexed. "Just come down here tomorrow night at 5'O'clock, alright?"
Feeling even more perplexed, Rose nodded and left quickly.
"A tutor?" Candice asked, flicking her long blonde hair out of her face, looking confused. "But you're-"
"It's for Potions." elaborated Rose, twirling her fork repeatedly around her strands of pasta. For some reason, she didn't feel like eating anymore.
"Ah." sighed the girl sitting on Rose's opposite side, shooting Rose a mischievous smile through a curtain of sleek dark brown hair. "That explains it, then. Can't be as bad as last week's, though."
"Amelia, really!" Candice chastised, mock-pompously, reaching over for a cream tart. "It's not Rose's fault that the label on the powdered Fire Crab shell was worn off!"
"We weren't meant to add powdered fire crab shell, though." giggled Amelia, miming some kind of bursting motion with her hands, black nails glittering in the feeble sunlight.
"I thought that it might make my potion darker." Rose admitted, a grin finally appearing on her face. "It made the classroom darker, anyway."
The three girls erupted with tittering, remembering with amusement how Rose's potion had started to bubble ominously a few seconds after she had hastily added in a few spoonfuls of the dark black powder, and then her potion had exploded, splattering the ceiling and coating the dungeon in a thick dark grey fog.
"Well, nobody's perfect." amended Amelia, her eyes still sparkling mischievously as she spoke.
Rose nodded, waving distractedly to her younger brother Hugo as he waved to his sister as he entered, before seating himself at the Gryffindor table. Lily and James entered a few minutes after that, James laughing and Lily bickering. She spotted Rose looking over and smiled broadly at her before seating herself beside Hugo.
"He's not bad looking is he, that James Potter?" Candice suddenly said, staring over at the said boy and tossing back her mane of long blonde hair.
"Candice!" Rose protested, sounding half-amused, half-exasperated. "Just look at who you're asking! James is like my brother!"
"Oh, don't mind Candice." Amelia put in, fluttering her eyelashes in an accurate impression of Candice, who pouted. "She likes guys with muscles."
"Well, Gryffindor boys have those in plenty." Candice answered simply, a coy smile edging onto her porcelain face. Rose rolled her eyes to the enchanted ceiling.
"Not really my type." answered Amelia dismissively, her eyes darting to James' back for a moment before shrugging and turning away.
Candice simply shrugged and smiled mysteriously, taking a delicate bite of her cream tart.
"Hmm..." Rose muttered, finally putting down her fork. She glanced furtively over at the Slytherin table, before turning back. Candice and Amelia were both looking at her.
"What?" Rose asked, looking up at her friends.
"Looking for anybody?" asked Candice lightly, picking up her goblet and taking a sip.
"I was just looking for Albus." answered Rose, putting on a similar, haughty voice that her mother used when her father had said something thoughtless. Candice smiled, twisting a strand of her hair around her finger.
"Of course you were." Amelia put in, nudging Candice with her elbow.
"I was!" Rose snapped, her cheeks and the bridge of her nose turning a shade of dark red. Candice giggled, but dropped the subject under Rose's fierce glare. Amelia stretched.
"So, what time do you have to be down there, anyway?"
"Five tomorrow." Rose sighed. "But Slughorn didn't say who would be helping me."
"Well, you'd better get a good night's sleep, then." Candice told Rose, standing up and swinging her bag over her shoulder, Rose and Amelia following suit. "You'll need it."
The following day, Rose headed swiftly down the silent dungeons, with the air of someone who is due to do something very boring and unpleasant. The dungeons loomed into view, glowing a soft green with the pale lights dotted around the halls. There weren't many people around, as they were all still at the feast, which Rose had left early.
Rose paused outside the potions room, mentally preparing herself for a moment on two. When she was satisfied, she placed a hand on the door and pushed it open. The room was empty. Rose saw what she presumed was her equipment sat on one of the long wooden tables. rose put her bag down, looking vaguely around as if she expected a manual of what she was supposed to do to pop up in front of her.
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"EEEK!"
"Ah!"
Rose yelped and spun around, then went totally silent with shock.
"Did I scare you?"
Scorpius frowned at Rose, who was staring at him, her blue eyes widened slightly, her pupils dilating like olives. Then the moment passed and
Rose cleared her throat.
"A bit. You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Rose blustered, flicking her reddish-brown fringe discreetly over her face in order to hide her slowly reddening face. Scorpius simply performed his smirk/smile at her and Rose felt a weird flittering sensation in her stomach, as though butterflies were colliding in her stomach.
"So...where's my tutor?" Rose eventually asked, fighting to keep her voice at a normal pitch.
Scorpius looked at her, a quizzical expression on his porcelain face.
"I am." he answered, with the air of someone explaining something very simply to an over-emotional five-year-old.
"I- Oh." Rose faltered, shrugging. "So- What am I making?"
"Dizzying Juice." Scorpius answered, his dark blue-grey eyes seeming to scrutinise Rose. She turned away, biting down on her lip. Looking at the board, she saw instructions written up on the board.
Reaching over, Rose slowly picked up the cauldron, feeling its smooth, cold surface. Muttering under her breath, Rose conjured up a fire, feeling like her heart was about to leapt out of her mouth.
Rose was sure that Scorpius could hear it pounding loudly. Swallowing, she accepted the vial of pomegranate juice that Scorpius silently passed her. She poured it very slowly into the potion, watching the pinkish orange liquid fill the cauldron.
Scorpius reached over and picked up a small jar of pickled lizard eyes. Equally as slow as Rose, he placed them on a cutting board and slowly started to peel the eyes, his eyes fixed on the board. Rose, meanwhile, was silently panicking. She had finished stirring the Pomegrante juice, and now was supposed to leave it to simmer. She had no choice but to help shell the eyes, as the other ingredients weren't supposed to be added until the eyes.
Picking up a small white-handled knife, she began to shell an eye, her hands shaking. It was a difficult job- The eyes were small and fiddly, not to mention difficult to keep in place as they were rather slimy.
"There's a better way of doing that,"
Rose looked over at Scorpius. Well, actually, she looked up at Scorpius, since he was somewhat taller then her.
"Better?" repeated Rose, feeling like her mouth was on fire.
"Here-" Scorpius said, reaching across. Rose suddenly felt something warm on her hand.
She and Scorpius both blushed, and the Malfoy drew his hand back. Rose, trying not to look at him in the eye. Rose watched Scorpius cutting the eye, her eyes more fixed on his hand then the knife or the newt eyes. He had nice hands, Rose noted. Big. Strong-looking.
"I see. It makes a better cut when you hold the blade sideways." Rose said, then went pink at that statement.
I sound like such a swot! Rose cringed, internally.
"Yeah, that's right." Scorpius answered quietly.
He tipped the eyes into the potion, which hissed softly and turned a shade of cool pink. Rose hurriedly brought out a chunk of carnation roots, pushing them onto the chopping board and picking up the knife again.
"Is there a special way of cutting this, too?" Rose teased, surprising herself as she twirled the knife in her hands. Scorpius smirked and shook
his head. Rose, smiling to herself, lay the roots onto the board and held up the knife slightly above them.
"Though, you are holding the knife crooked."
"Show me how to hold it, then." Rose replied, slightly irritably, forgetting for a moment that she was alone in the dungeons with Scorpius Malfoy.
Scorpius took his own knife, pulling the roots toward him and pointing the blade, in a much straighter line hen Rose had been doing.
Rose didn't know what made her do it. But she suddenly reached over, putting her smaller hand over Scorpius'. His head jerked back, startled. Rose bit her lip, thinking she had gone too far.
"Sorry, I-" she started to say.
But she didn't get very far with the sentence.
Rose's normally fast-moving mind took a surprisingly long amount of time to register that she and Scorpius Malfoy- Slytherin, pureblood- were kissing.
Their heads suddenly jerked back, as though they had only just realised what they had been doing.
"Um..." both of them began, eloquently.
"Maybe we should just forget the Dizzying Juice?" suggested Rose, pulling out her wand and extinguishing the fire.
"What about your extra credit?" Scorpius Malfoy asked her, a mocking smirk on his achingly lovely mouth.
"I'll just need some more help from my tutor, won't I?" replied Rose.
They looked at each other for a moment, almost as though they were seeing each other for the first time and trying to work each other out.
As they drew together again, the rest of the world seemed to evaporated, the still-simmering potion was left forgotten.
Rose never complained about Potions again.
I don't think that went too badly for my first attempt. Plus, I really wanted to post something on Februaury 29th!
Reviews would be magical. (I know, bad joke. Hands up who spotted the pun in the title, by the way!)