Scorpius and Rose FanFic: Chapter 1
Had you been in the Hogwarts library one particular spring afternoon, you would have seen a red-headed girl sat at an unusual desk than spanned across one entire wall so up to ten or fifteen people could use it at once. The red-headed girl was sat on the bench that accompanied this strange desk, in the spot closest to the window. Little diamonds in an array of colours graced the many papers that were in front of the girl, along with the usual colours of the welcome sunlight. She was nearly fifteen, and in her fourth year at this legendary school. The young girl, like many others that chose to stay in the library on a Saturday morning, was very intelligent, and was often told so by her teachers. She did not take her education for granted like many of her classmates did, and her time was mostly divided between being in lessons and preparing for them. On this occasion, she was preparing for Potions class. It wasn't the girl's favourite subject, but tried hard in it nonetheless. The teacher of Potions class, Professor Flint, had known the girl's mother and would often tell her how similar they were to the point that it was annoying.
"Miss Weasley, you really are your mother's daughter." he'd say.
Rose would never know how to respond to such an observation. This was one of the flaws of burying yourself in books: when you were forced to surface, talking to any-one other than close family or trusted friends was difficult. The usual response was, "I get that a lot.". But on days in which Rose was less tolerant, an answer along the lines of "I know." was all that could be expected.
At the moment, Professor Flint was one of Rose's least favourite teachers because he had tied her hands into disobeying her father's only wish, "Just stay away from the purebloods, particularly the Malfoys.". Because of her professor's rushed decisions, Rose would have to go against both of her dad's wishes. The class was assigned a project to study on a potion of their choice, which would have been no trouble for Rose, if Flint hadn't instructed them to do it in the pairs he had selected. As luck would have it, Flint had chosen Scorpius Malfoy to complete the assignment with Rose Weasley.
"Fantastic." she spat, not even realising she had said it until the Slytherin boy next to her dug his elbow into Rose's side, laughing.
So now, Rose Weasley was researching Polyjuice Potion, mostly because in the unlikely case that she was stuck, her mother was sure to know plenty about this particular potion, having brewed it several times in her stay at Hogwarts. She had come up with a plan; to do exactly half of the project, then greet Malfoy with several pieces of parchment with the instruction to do the rest himself. she would have as little interaction with Malfoy as possible, and hopefully achieve a reasonable mark for it.
"Should have known you'd be in here," came a voice disturbingly close to Rose. She turned around sharply, and found him sitting beside her, and Rose wondered if she needed to look up some spells on spacial awareness. Scorpius Malfoy was so similar in looks to his father; grey eyes, white blond hair and pale skin (Rose had seen a picture of him once in a very old glass cabinet of achievements), but according to what Rose's father had told her about Draco, he seemed to be a lot less eager to fulfil the typical Slytherin qualities.
"Were you looking for me?" she asked, sounding more insulted than curious.
"Well, yes. We need to do that potions project. But it looks like you've already made a start," he said, gesturing towards the pile of books.
Rose sat up straighter, not knowing how to reply. "Yes. But I was thinking that, to make sure we each complete a fair amount of work, we will each do one half of the project each."
"What, separately?"
"Yes. Separately. I'll complete questions one to seven, and you can complete questions eight to fourteen. To be perfectly honest, you get the lighter load of work, so don't go complaining."
"But we're marked on co-operation! I know you can't stand to get a lower mark than you could have, so I guess you're stuck with me." he smirked.
What annoyed Rose even more than that arrogant smirk was that he was telling the truth. To get a low mark could lead to a fail in the entire module, and then her mother would be so disappointed, and she might be punished by her and the school, and her average could be dropped! This was a disaster!
"So, Polyjuice Potion is it?" asked Scorpius, already taking the most illustrated book and studying it.
Rose bit her lip, torn between achieving good grades and obeying orders. Scorpius looked up at her and held her gaze for some time.
"Um, yeah, Polyjuice. Best book's this one," she stuttered, slamming the thickest book within reach down in front of him.
He laughed. "Of course, the one that takes two years to read is the best,"
Rose laughed too, but nervously. "That's my style." she admitted.
Scorpius began reading, his grey eyes flickering across the pages at tremendous speed.
"You read awfully quickly. You do know you have to absorb all of this?"
He looked up, giving Rose a quick glare, before reciting every he had read, word for word. Scorpius reminded her that she wasn't the only nerd in the school.
"You're not a nerd! And are you implying that I'm a nerd, too?"
"I don't think you'd deny it, though, would you?" he asked. Once again, he proved he knew Rose better than she thought. Scorpius returned to his book, still reading impossibly fast. Well, he had a photographic memory and seemed to have no qualms about working with a half-blood. Perhaps this project wouldn't be as torturous as Rose had first anticipated.