A/N: This fic is dedicated to the lovely Alice [felines], because she's a wonderful person who's helped me through some tough times and can always put a smile on my face, and RoseScorpius Fans won't be the same without her. Hope you enjoy it :D

(also, note: Gryffindor!Rose, Gryffindor!Scorpius and Slytherin!Lily.)

Rose climbed the stone steps and went through the castle doors into the Entrance Hall, refreshed from her early morning walk. It was strange; usually Rose would be the last person to get up in her dormitory, staying in bed for as long as possible and sometimes even missing breakfast because of it. But at times like this, when she was feeling stressed, she liked to have breakfast before anyone else was up and then take a walk to clear her head.

Normally when she arrived back at the castle, everyone would be eating in the Great Hall already, which was why Rose was surprised to see some people still emerging from the dungeons. She spotted her cousin Lily amongst them. She looked, well, awful. Normally, Lily seemed to spring from bed, hair and make-up pristine, but today she looked a mess, frankly.

"Hi Lily," Rose called, unable to keep the curious note from her voice.

She received nothing more than a groan in response. That only furthered Rose's curiosity - granted, she and Lily had never had the best of relationships, but Lily wasn't generally downright rude to her without reason. Rose cast her mind around for something she'd done. She couldn't think of anything, although that didn't necessarily mean that nothing existed. Then she looked at Lily again, and the answer came to her.

"How was the party last night?" Rose asked knowingly.

"Wild," Lily told her, grinning for a second, but the grin quickly slid off her face. "And I'm suffering for it now. I have a killer hangover."

Rose smirked. "I can tell," she said as they entered the Great Hall.

"What? How?" Lily demanded, sending a panicked glance up to the teachers' table.

"Because I know you. From your general appearance," Rose told her innocently, and Lily's expression changed quickly to relieved and then to offended. "You look like you've just been through a hedge backwards."

"Well you're one to talk," Lily said crossly, tugging at one of Rose's wild red curls. "Where were you last night, anyway? The party wasn't just for Slytherins, you know - it was in the Room of Requirement."

"Yes," Rose sighed, "but you know - NEWTs are coming up and I had loads of work to do, and besides, I hardly even know Connor. I didn't feel like I could just turn up to his birthday party."

Lily snorted. "You're so boring, Rose. And you know him better than me - I've never even spoken to him, and I still went."

"Hang on a minute," Rose ordered, waving her arms around. They'd been standing in the doorway for ages now whilst they continued their conversation. "Are you calling me boring?" she demanded, scandalised that Lily would make such an accusation.

"Well, obviously, I just said the words: You. Are. Boring," Lily retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Rude."

"But true."

"Is there a problem, girls?" Professor McGonagall enquired, apparently deciding that the heated discussion between the girls merited her intervention as she passed.

"Not at all, Professor," Lily told her smoothly, taking her seat at the Slytherin table and leaving Rose to stand there gaping at her.

"Miss Weasley," Professor McGonagall said, looking pointedly at the queue of impatient-looking students who were waiting to exit the hall.

"Sorry," Rose muttered, blushing furiously and moving out of the way so that people could leave. She collapsed into a chair next to some of her classmates at the Gryffindor table.

"Running late as usual?" Alice Longbottom asked, grinning as she spread butter onto her toast.

Rose scowled at her. "No. I've already had breakfast; I've just been for a walk. I... needed some fresh air."

"Oh. Stressed about the NEWTs?" Scorpius asked her quietly. Rose almost smiled; there was nobody else in the world who could have known that from that throwaway comment. Scorpius had been her best friend since second year, and they really did know each other inside-out.

"A little," she admitted, "but I'm fine. I just need to keep my focus and get lots of sleep."

Scorpius nodded. "You'll do brilliantly," he promised her, giving her hand an encouraging squeeze.

"Thanks," Rose said vaguely, her mind starting to wander. Rose was competitive by nature, which was the main reason she was feeling the pressure for the exams. She'd always had this burning desire to stand out from her mass of (very successful) cousins, to be noticed. And that was why Lily's comment had stung so much.

Kate Thomas was saying something about plans for after the NEWTs which Rose wasn't quite tuned in to. "Does that sound good? Hey, are you even listening to me?" she asked indignantly.

"Of course I am," Rose said hastily. "Yeah, that sounds fine."

Scorpius looked at her strangely. "Rose, are you okay?" he asked concernedly, dropping his voice slightly as the others continued the conversation. "You seem... distant. It's not like you to stop every thought that comes into your head from arriving at your mouth," he teased.

Rose laughed. "I'm fine," she insisted. "Although... Scorpius, do you think I'm boring?" she asked slowly. She couldn't stand not saying it for any longer.

"What? Why would you think that?" Scorpius asked, confused.

"Just something Lily said a minute ago," Rose muttered.

Scorpius snorted. "Oh, I meant to ask you what that was about. Lily? What would she know? Rose Weasley, I've been best friends with you for near enough six years, and I never know what you're going to do next. That's a compliment," he added at Rose's uncertain expression.

"Thank you," Rose beamed, relieved. "Wish I could show her that, though."

"Who cares what she thinks?" Scorpius said, shrugging. "But if it means that much to you, come up with a plan. Prove to her that you're not boring."

Rose was distracted in lessons all day racking her brains for ways to show Lily she wasn't boring. The only idea that kept coming back to her was so ridiculous it was untrue... but it was all she had.

"Scorpius," she said to him urgently after lunch. "I need you to do something for me."

"What?" he asked, taken aback. "Oh, is this to do with Lily?"

"Er, yeah," Rose told him. "I need..." She couldn't say it. She took a deep breath. "I need you to kiss me. Somewhere where Lily will see."

The words took a moment to sink in. Then-

"What?"

"So let me just clarify - this is definitely the only way to show Lily you're an interesting person?" Scorpius asked as they made their way along the corridor, checking behind them for teachers all the way.

"Yes," Rose replied immediately. "Lily often mixes up the words 'interesting' and 'slutty'."

Scorpius seemed unsure how to react to this. "Er, right," he settled for.

"You are still up for this, right?" Rose checked, feeling guilty about how uncomfortable he looked. "You can say no."

"No - I'll do it," he assured her, "but I'm just checking you really want to."

"Of course I do; I suggested it," Rose reminded him. There was an awkward silence as they continued walking, and when their destination arrived, Rose was relieved.

Scorpius opened the door of the dusty broom cupboard. "Ladies first," he said, gesturing for Rose to go in before him.

"You're sure Lily will be here?" Rose asked for what must have been the five-hundredth time when Scorpius had closed the door behind him, plunging both of them into darkness. "Lumos," she said quickly, and her wand ignited, adding some light and diffusing the tension a little.

"Positive," Scorpius told her confidently. "I wanted to book a Quidditch practice for tonight, but the Slytherins snapped up the pitch first. Merlin knows how we'll survive when they slaughter us on Saturday," he added under his breath. Although Rose had never really had the time for Quidditch, Scorpius was in his second year as Gryffindor Chaser and captain, and Lily was Seeker on the Slytherin team.

The awkwardness descended on them again, and again Rose asked herself why she was doing this. Why did she want to prove herself to Lily anyway? And why did it have to be Scorpius rather than any other boy in her year? Deeply buried feelings she had for Scorpius threatened to surface, but she managed to stop them - no, he's your friend. That's all.

Then Scorpius spoke.

"Rose?"

"Mm?"

"You don't suppose we could, er, have a... practice run?" he asked tentatively. Rose looked at him strangely. Why on Earth would he ask that? "You know," he carried on hastily, "so it looks more... realistic, when Lily gets here."

Rose considered. It wouldn't hurt, she supposed. (And she was definitely indifferent to the prospect. Definitely.) "Okay," she said slowly.

She set her wand down on the side carefully. Rose hadn't had many kisses in her life, and the last one had been a long time ago, in her fourth year, so she was rusty. She tried to relive the moment; how were they supposed to go about it? She crossed the room so that she was standing right up close to Scorpius, directly in front of the door. Feeling utterly ridiculous, she avoided Scorpius's eyes as they got nearer and nearer until their lips finally met.

And then, suddenly, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. It was only meant to be a quick peck, a tester, but somehow the kiss was deepening and sending jolts of electricity down Rose's body. She pulled him in closer and wrapped her arms around his neck; she felt his hands running through her hair and her brain couldn't quite compute the fact that this was Scorpius, her best friend, and she was snogging him in a broom cupboard. He's a much better kisser than Lorcan, she thought as they explored each other in this new way, and they were so immersed in each other that they failed to notice the footsteps approaching the door...

The door opened suddenly, revealing the entire Slytherin Quidditch team. Rose and Scorpius sprang apart in horror as Lily recoiled, shielding her eyes.

"Woah. Woah. Of all people, Rose Weasley, I did not expect to see you here snogging the face off your supposed best friend," she said loudly, overdramatic as always. "And a Malfoy! I may be a Slytherin, but I've still retained some sense of family pride. And your dad may be reluctantly happy with you being friends, but lovers? I don't think so. So how long have you been going at it behind everyone's backs?"

Rose said nothing in response, trying hard to look dignified as she passed, but unable to stop herself from blushing bright red.

"Just because you're not getting any action these days," Scorpius retorted. "I hear Finnigan got rid of you after the first date?"

Rose snorted and now it was Lily's turn to blush. "Have a good night!" Rose told her cousin innocently, grabbing Scorpius by the hand and steering him around the corner before Lily could respond.

As they began to ascend the spiral staircase, Rose became hyper-aware of their close proximity; she'd planned to let go of his hand as soon as they were out of Lily's sight, but Scorpius made no move to let go so she held on awkwardly.

What the hell just happened? The events kept repeating themselves over and over in Rose's muddled head, and she struggled to make sense of them. Although she supposed that she'd had feelings for Scorpius for a while, she'd vowed to keep them to herself - and she'd never expected them to surface like that. But... she'd asked for this to happen. She'd asked Scorpius to kiss her (and she couldn't lie to herself and pretend that proving herself to Lily was the only reason), and she'd been a fool to imagine that she could detach her emotions from it.

Cautiously, she took a sideways glance at Scorpius's face. His expression was unreadable. She wished she knew what was going through his head at that moment.

He caught her looking and smiled awkwardly. "Well... I guess we'll have to brace ourselves for the gossip now."

"Oh, don't worry. There won't be any gossip," Rose told him immediately, smirking proudly.

Scorpius looked at her curiously. "How can you be so sure?" he asked.

"Lily and I kind of have an unspoken agreement," Rose explained. "She knows that if she does anything that I don't like, I won't hesitate to send an owl to her parents informing them of what she was doing last night, the fact that she does it fairly often, and not to mention the four boys she's been with over the last three weeks. I'm sure she'll be certain to keep the rest of the team quiet, as well."

Scorpius chuckled. "You had it all planned out, didn't you?"

Rose's eyes dropped immediately to their joined hands. "Well... no, actually," she admitted. "It didn't go at all how I'd planned."

"Ah," Scorpius said, dropping Rose's hand as if it had burnt him. "I suppose we'd better talk about that."

Rose looked away, feeling herself clamming up. She was generally quite a bubbly person, and there were a lot of people who she got on with and could call friends, but she didn't naturally open up to people. Scorpius was the one person she could talk about feelings with, and yet she'd never been able to talk about her feelings towards him. And she didn't want to make a fool of herself: honestly, she had no idea what he had made of the situation, and she didn't want to make any assumptions. "I... I don't know what to say," she confessed.

"Fine. I'll go first, then," Scorpius offered hesitantly. Sighing, he paused for a second. "I know it wasn't meant to go that far, but I couldn't help it - kissing you... it felt right." Rose could feel her heart hammering in her chest. "I never thought I saw you as anything other than my best friend," he continued, "but this has made me realise that you could be so much more than that."

The words rang in Rose's head, and it was as if she'd gone numb. She didn't know what she felt, least of all how to tell Scorpius.

"If you don't feel the same way, you can just say," Scorpius said tentatively.

Rose shook her head hastily. "No, it's not that," she assured him. "It's not that at all. It's just... Scorpius, you're the best friend I've ever had, and I'm scared. Part of me doesn't want to change how things are between us, because I don't want to lose what we have," she admitted, and it was the truth; this was why she'd kept her feelings a secret for so long.

Scorpius was quiet for a moment. "I can see where you're coming from," he told her, "but Rose... I think we should give it a try. If we don't, we'll never know."

Rose considered. Surely their friendship was strong enough to survive a break-up. Not all relationships ended badly. And she'd dreamed of this for so long...

She nodded, and before she knew it, his lips were on hers once more. The kiss was gentler, more contained, than last time, but Rose could still feel the fireworks in her belly. It felt just as good, if not better.

Because this time, it was for real.

A/N: This was for a challenge on the RoseScorpius Fans Forum, where I was given the lines "Are you calling me boring?" "Well, obviously, I just said the words: You. Are. Boring." to include in a fic. (Which, may I point out, was basically an insult aimed at me from Vicky and I managed to work it into a story, so TAKE THAT. :P)

Also being entered into Divination (the nextgen category) for the School Subjects Competition on HPFC.

I'm not JKR, unfortunately.