A/N: Welcome to the first published portion of a Rose/Scorpius fic I'm working on. This excerpt takes place after Rose, suspicious of Scorpius for some strange happenings at school, follows him one night to the Astronomy tower, where she is shaken by a rather embarrassing event that she witnesses. No, nothing like that, get your mind out of the gutter. The M is for safety's sake and later chapters. Would appreciate any reviews, positive or negative, especially regarding characterization and pacing, as this is my first attempt at doing one of these things.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to it except copies of the books and movies.
First Kiss
In a huff, Rose Weasley began a silent walk down the staircase in the Astronomy tower, Albus' invisibility cloak draped over her tall frame, barely able to cover her whole body. Her mind was raging, the events of the night, what she had just witnessed, all of it made her feel tired, strange, and extremely confused. Scorpius Malfoy, archenemy and ne'er-do-well extraordinaire, was not the person she thought he was. Seeing him in such a state, weak, exposed, vulnerable, had upset the delicate balance of her mind.
He was evil, just like his father, just like his grandfather; he had to be, or else her carefully constructed reality would come crashing down around her. How could she justify her behavior towards him for the past six years if he wasn't a bad person? It was infuriating. But she had witnessed the most heart-wrenching moment of her life so far; when he kneeled at the edge of the wall and listed his failures, his family's shortcomings, what he has done to make up for them, and begged those they wronged for their forgiveness, she felt a slight chink form in her armor. The things she had done, the things she had said, the things she had thought, all came crashing into her mind in an instant, causing her to panic. She had been a positively awful person to him these past years, for no good reason. Oh she could find little things, excuses really; "he was acting suspicious", "it wasn't just me that thought that he did it", "he's a Malfoy". All are just little lies to make her feel better.
Their rivalry had always been fierce, it had to be; she was honor bound to make her mother and father proud, he was driven to prove his worth; such were they, each the archetypical Gryffindor or Slytherin. But she had always laced it with something more, her father made sure of that. It was no secret that Scorpius' father Draco had been deep in Voldemort's camp during the war and that was more than enough for all of British wizarding society to behave with animosity towards the Malfoy name. And it was also no secret that her parents and Uncle Harry had been Draco Malfoy's school rivals. So it was personal; she held little regard for the Malfoy name, even after Uncle Harry publicly forgave Draco and his mother, who were actually victims of circumstance due to the bad choices of Lucius Malfoy. It was about survival. But so was what Harry and her parents did, but they actually fought him and had the courage of their convictions. What was Draco's excuse?
So when her father encouraged the rivalry, she obliged, knowing the history. Then when she had been older and was given more private details of their ordeal, one situation stuck out in her head: what Bellatrix Lestrange did to her mother. It changed her rivalry with Scorpius into a downright brawl for the top spot. Familial dislike became a burning hatred. She knew it was irrational, she knew it wasn't his fault or even his father's fault. But something primal had burned in her, that Weasley temper mixed with Granger stubbornness; such a bad, bad combination that had gotten her into trouble more than once at school. Damn him and his looks, that platinum blonde hair, that pointy little chin, and that insufferable smirk – so much like his father; maddening was he.
It was just then that Rose slipped on an enchanted stair she had forgotten due to her racing mind and lost her balance, teetering to her left and tipping over the railing. She yelled as she hung on for dear life, the cloak slipping off her, her wand and the deactivated Marauder's Map, which she had been carrying, falling down the center of the tower staircase, an open cylinder where the floor was at least a hundred feet down. Then she realized that she was dangling over the edge, her slick palms the only thing between her and a most distressing fall to the hard stone below. She could feel her grip slipping but kept trying to pull herself up. With nowhere to plant her feet she just couldn't get leverage. It was at that moment she wished she were a beater instead of a keeper; swinging that bat would do her upper body strength a lot of good.
The fingers on her left hand felt like they were on fire and she involuntarily relaxed them and lost her grip. As she swung there, hanging by one arm, she futilely attempted to regain her grip. She could feel the tension squeezing her right arm and hand so tightly. In seconds she wouldn't be able to hold on any longer. Oh well, nice life, and with the bonus of not having to atone for her behavior towards Scorpius. She hoped that her parents would forgive her for her stupidity. Her fingers started letting go one by one and she shut her eyes, awaiting the sickening feeling of free-fall before the end.
Just as she was about to let go completely, she felt strong arms take hold of her hand. Her eyes shot open to reveal Scorpius standing above her, holding out his other hand and shaking it wildly with an incredulous look on his face. She snapped back to her senses and swung herself so her left arm could reach his. They grabbed each other's forearms as he pulled; he was so strong. He heaved her over the rail and they fell to the floor in a most unceremonious heap, both panting from the exertion. She just looked at him, and he at her.
After a moment, he picked himself up and held out his hand. She accepted it and was nearly pulled off of her feet. She momentarily leaned into him trying to regain her balance; his chest was tight, hard, and muscular, which she could feel even beneath his shirt, a perfect match for his big arms. How did he do that? Hogwarts doesn't have a gym. After a second too long, she quickly stepped back to a more socially acceptable distance. With a sheepish look on her face, she looked to his, decidedly neutral.
"Thank you," she said quietly, "for saving my life, I mean." He just stared back at her before his eyes narrowed.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voiced laced with suspicion. For a second, she felt like she had been sucker punched. The prat couldn't even muster up the courtesy of a 'You're welcome'.
"I could ask you the same thing," she hissed back.
"Look Weasley," he said with a sneer, "I couldn't care less why you might want to off yourself, just makes it a sure bet for me to top the class this year. What does interest me is why here, now?" He crossed his arms across his chest and frowned, looking at her with thinly veiled distrust. Then his eyes narrowed again, his right hand raising up and pointing at her. "You were following me!" he whispered. "How typical, the great Rose Weasley follows sinister Scorpius Malfoy on what can only be a mission of evil for Voldemort," he sneered, sarcasm dripping off of every last word.
"I should have known that you of all people would follow me one night. I can't do a damn thing at this school without you watching my every move, waiting for me to make a mistake." He drew up to his full height, towering over her, which was impressive considering that she wasn't all that short to begin with. A menacing look crossed his face and his volume increased. "What is it with you? What have I ever done to earn this treatment? Why do you hate my family and me so much when I have only ever been respectful towards you and yours? What did I do to gain your displeasure besides be the only intellectual challenge you've had in your entire life? What!" His chest was heaving and his face turned a slightly less pale shade of death as he built up.
She simply stood there, her gaze and mind going fuzzy at his words. She looked down toward the ground, the shame making her whole body feel dirty and making her sick to her stomach. She tentatively reached out to his shoulder, delicately laying her fingers upon it. She felt him tense for a moment, but he soon began to soften and his breathing slowed. She could feel the heat radiating from him, his blood nearly boiling with anger. She then spoke quietly; "I don't have a reason, not a good one anyway. I know it will never be satisfactory, but I am sorry." He just stared back at her with fire in his eyes, not convinced. She decided to bring up what she saw earlier. "Malf – I mean Scorpius – I did follow you here, and for all the reasons you listed. I've been an ignorant, selfish bint towards you, but I never realized that until I witnessed your, I guess I would call it, ritual, up there," she gestured to the top of the tower above them. "I never realized it because I conveniently refused to treat you as a person, rather, you were just a Malfoy."
"What does that even mean?" he asked with a pained anger in his voice. "I know what my father and his father did, and I know that I will never escape their legacy completely. But you should know something," he said, pointing at me again. "My father has paid dearly for his mistakes and still does. He tries to hide it, but I've seen it, the shame; the horrible, gut wrenching shame. Harry Potter may have forgiven him, but he hasn't nor will he ever forgive himself." He turned toward the wall and leaned his left arm against it, his head pressed to his wrist.
"I see that he worries about me too, and what his bad choices have done to my life. He understands prejudice, having been an excellent practitioner in his youth," at this he chuckles for a moment, then continues, "He knows that the world will hold his sins against me, maybe unfairly so, but it will happen nonetheless, and it just makes him sad. That's why I work every day of my life to not live up to the family name and be something my father wasn't at school: fair, honest, kind. And an excellent student to boot." He repressed a sniffle; "But none of that will matter; my friends and not-friends alike see what you see when you look at me: a Malfoy. The only person who doesn't is that prat of a cousin of yours. Why does he have to do that, be so damn noble, such a damn Potter?"
She quickly let out a little sigh and took a cautious step towards him. With his back turned, she slowly slipped her arms around his middle and hugged him as his body was wracked by a sob. After a few minutes of just standing there, he turned towards her, a pathetic look on his face. She looked back before opening her mouth.
"I want you to know that I don't see you as a Malfoy anymore," she said. "What I saw before and now proves that. You have nothing to be ashamed of. The world may have prejudged you, and I may have believed it, but now I see something else, something beautiful, a tortured soul trying to atone for the evils of every person Voldemort ever led. No one should ever have to bear a cross like the one you have had to. It isn't fair. It isn't right. And I want you to know that I am here for you, if you want me to be, because the only way I can ever atone for my mistakes is to earn your forgiveness for my disgusting actions."
They stood there, each looking at the other for some time. She noticed his tight frame and sculpted arms. She placed a hand on his shirt again, feeling his hard muscle somewhat relaxed, a good deal of the tension released. She had never noticed before that his eyes were a most enticing shade of green, that his pointed nose had an air of mischief behind it, that his lips were full and less pale than the rest of him. And his skin; girls would surely kill for his complexion. Her hand ran up to his shoulder and down his arm feeling every bit of his powerful biceps. Again she was clueless as to how he managed it. Her other hand soon joined her first on his chest before slipping around to his back. She noticed that he was holding his breath as she explored him, the rest of his pent up tension being gathered as she worked his back to relax him. His eyes were tightly shut, but loosened when he slowly exhaled, the breath blowing over her head.
He brought his arms to hers and slipped up them to her shoulders before reaching the crook of her neck where he began massaging a tension she didn't even know she had out of her. That's what nearly falling to your death will do to you. When she looked up at him, she saw an entirely different fire burning in his now open eyes. Was it suddenly hot in here? Her breath hitched when his hands drifted down to her hips and rested there. Yes, it was entirely too hot. And her clothes were suffocating her. If she could just take her shirt off… Wait, what? She looked at him again and felt as if a coiled snake had settled in her gut. Without hesitation she reached up to his neck and pulled him in for the most intense and emotional kiss she had ever experienced.
Surprised only for a moment, he quickly responded by drawing her to him fiercely and deepening the kiss. She pulled away for a breath before diving right back in and probing his mouth with her tongue. He let her in and their tongues swirled against each other, exploring. She let out a little whimper when his entered her mouth. Though the suffocating effect was gone, the heat had tripled to new levels of boiling. She felt the tension in the pit of her stomach shift lower, and her appendages started to tingle just a little. It felt amazing. No one had ever made her feel like Scorpius did, not one of the slew of pathetic losers she dated had ever done this to her. In truth they weren't pathetic losers until the moment her lips met his; he put them to shame. As they moved against one another she pressed her hips into his and felt something poke her in the thigh. In an instant she opened her eyes and pulled away from him, panting, fear in her eyes, her mind coming back to reality.
"Oh my god," she said, "oh my god, oh my god. What just happened?" She turned to leave.
He grabbed her hand; "Rose, wait…"
She slipped out of his grip and kept going, first walking then running down the stairs. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!" she yelled to him. And with that she was gone. He stood there, confused and concerned, but also content.
