Title: Perfect opposites
Rating:T for only language, I think.
Word count this chapter: 3,262 (not including author notes)
Disclaimer: I by no means own the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in the universe J.K.R has created. I simply write about her world and some of the characters in it :). I also don't own any sort of references to actual existing companies, songs, et al out there.
Summary: Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy learned to hate the other from their first year at Hogwarts. So why is it that they always find themselves talking, always find themselves drawn to each other like moths to a flame? -Scorpius and Rose's journey from hate in year one to love in year seven.
A/N: So I'm excited to be posting this as it's my first story on this account (see profile), and I'm excited to see what sort of reaction it gets. It's Rose x Scorpius, so two characters who haven't really been introduced. I'll try my best to keep them in character from what I was given in the epilogue. That brings me to my next point- this chapter, the prologue, takes place in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows and there is a lot of 'setting the stage', so to speak, in this chapter. I'm guessing chapters will be around this long or occasionally a bit shorter. As a side note, the character Caitir Finnigan's name is pronounced KAH-tcheer (It's a Gaelic name). I think that's all for now! I love reviews, more than life itself, so if you were to drop me one or add me to your favourites/follows list that would make my life. I accept constructive criticism! Thanks guys!

..Prologue..

When Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy locked eyes for the first time, they were sure that they were going to be enemies.

It was obvious why. Rose was a Weasley, and Scorpius was a Malfoy.

They wouldn't mix. They wouldn't talk.

Simple.

Only, it wasn't that simple.

Thick clouds issue from a scarlet steam engine and stressed mothers make sure that their children have all of the clothing and equipment they need. Friends find each other after a long summer with cries of delight. Owls hoot and cats meow. Toads croak. Rats sit dully, their owners prodding them with wands in the hopes that they'll do something interesting. Families bustle around and children load their trunks onto the train.

After a quiet summer, the Hogwarts Express is ready to take hundreds of students back to school. Back to Transfiguration, Herbology, and Potions, back to Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Divination, (Merlin forbid) History of Magic, Astronomy, Muggle Studies and Arithmacy (if anyone has signed up for it). Back to lavish dinners and four-poster beds, fireplaces and Quidditch practices.

You can feel the excitement in the air.

Rose Weasley can, at least. After years and years of waiting, after James's and Teddy's and Victoire's exciting stories about Hogwarts and its magical classes, the anticipation has been killing her. She's waited years and years for a glimpse of Hogwarts, and now she's going to get one. Rose is, in fact, so eager that she's already got her brand-new robes on.

"Rose, Hugo, come on!" Mum tugs at Rose's sleeve, looking rather melancholy or maybe a little nostalgic. "This way to get on the train, hurry up."

"Hermione!" Dad says. "Aren't we waiting for Harry and Ginny?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I want to see James and Al and Lily!" Exclaims Hugo.

"Well, Ron, if you can tell me where they are in all this chaos, I'll happily meet up with them," Replies Hermione cuttingly, craning her neck around.

"No, wait… yes, I think that's them," Ron says suddenly, pointing to four figures towards the front of the train.

"No, there's only four of them, it can't be!" Rose argues, but the Potter family emerges from the mist ahead. James isn't anywhere to be seen.

"Hi," Albus grins.

"Nervous?" Rose asks. "I know I am."

"Excited," He says, "But nervous... There's so much pressure, like. Especially about this whole sorting business."

"I know," Rose agrees wholeheartedly, relieved that someone shares her feelings.

Lily and Hugo are chatting excitedly about the houses they'll be sorted into when they go to Hogwarts. Upon hearing them, dad says, "If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you. But no pressure."

Although Rose's younger brother and cousin giggle, she doesn't say anything, out of sheer nerves. She knows dad's words are supposed to be a joke but they don't make her laugh.

"Look who it is," Dad says suddenly, and the eight people turn to face a family of three, whose faces are barely visible in the thinning mist. A man with a pointed chin and white-blonde hair stands with his son and wife. "So that's little Scorpius," Dad continues. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Ron," Mum says exasperatedly. "Don't turn them against each other before they've even started school!"

Rose thinks the adults are talking about Draco Malfoy and his son. She wants to point out that dad has already fed her plenty of stories about how Scorpius Malfoy's father tried to kill her mum nineteen years ago; how he used to be evil, before he left the school, started a family and settled down and how he was rivals with uncle Harry. She's learned from a young age that when she and Scorpius end up in school together, they won't be friends. In fact, if mum and dad have their way, the two will be enemies. She can't help resenting Scorpius already, fueled by the hate of their parent's past rivalries.

"You're right, sorry. Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood," Dad adds.

Before Rose or mum has a chance to say anything, James comes running up, trunk and owl nowhere to be seen.

"Hey!" He says. "Teddy's back there. Just seen him! And guess what he's doing?" James asks, staring at the adults. "He's snogging Victoire!"

When the adults don't say anything, James repeats himself. "Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing-"

"You interrupted them?" Aunt Ginny asks incredulously. "You are so like Ron-"

"-and he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away," James adds in an offhand tone. "He's snogging her!"

"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married!" Lily whispers, excitement coursing through her voice. "Teddy would really be part of the family then!"

While uncle Harry points out that Teddy comes round for dinner about four times a week anyways, Rose tries to hold in her giggles, glancing back at Albus, who looks equally amused. Teddy Lupin, she thinks, snogging my cousin! Sure, she's always known he's sort of keen on her, but still! Snogging her! At a train station on the busiest day of the year!

"It's nearly eleven," Uncle Harry says suddenly. "You had better get on board."

Rose looks at her parents and hugs them both tightly, saying, "I'll miss you."

"Don't be silly, you'll be home for Christmas. And you'll write to us every week, won't you?" Mum asks, looking sad. "You can always use the school owls, we'll get you one of your own when you're a bit older."

"I was kidding about disinheriting you if you don't get into Gryffindor," Dad adds.

"I know. I love you. See you soon, then," Rose replies, permitting her mum to kiss her and then standing to wait for Albus.

"I'll meet you in a minute," He says, motioning for her to board. "By the way, d'you know why everyone's looking at our parents?"

"No idea," Rose replies, having wondered the exact same thing but not thinking much of it. She files onto the train with all the other excited students, searching for an empty compartment; upon finding one, she opens the window, sticks her head out, and waves to Hugo, mum and dad.

When Albus asks uncle Harry why, in fact, everyone is glancing their way, dad says, "Don't mind them. It's me. I'm extremely famous." Rose gives a laugh.

Albus boards the train; Rose's stomach clenches into a knot of nervousness and excitement as the doors close and it starts to move. She has officially begun her journey to Hogwarts.

All too soon, the train goes around a bend. King's Cross station vanishes and Rose stops waving. She slumps down, clutching her leather book bag. Staring at Albus, she asks, "Al, are you as scared as me?"

"Course. I don't want to get into Slytherin," Albus mutters.

"None of us do," Rose replies, fingering her red hair and suddenly feeling less excited than she did. "I feel like I have a lot to live up to."

"Don't worry, Rosie," Albus says reassuringly. "You're smart and pretty and nice and funny and lots of people will like you. Besides, dad says that the Sorting Hat takes your choice into consideration."

This is news to Rose. "The Sorting Hat? You've got to be joking."

"Dad just told me!" He exclaims. "He said you can tell the Hat what house you want and it takes your choice into considers this before sorting you. He said that's what he did."

"Crikey," Rose replies. "No one ever told me that."

"Me neither, not until a few minutes ago," Albus says excitedly. "But I'm glad to hear it, I am!"

Rose, fueled with new excitement, is about to reply, but a girl with sandy brown hair and a lost look steps into their compartment.

"Are you alright if I sit with you?" The girl asks with a thick Irish accent. "Only I don't know anyone here and all the compartments are full."

"Yeah, course," Rose beams. "I'm Rose and this is Al, who are you? We're going into first year. You look like a first year, too. What's your name? I guess I just asked that when I said 'who are you'." She realises that she says this far too quickly and then blushes.

"Er...What?" The girl asks.

"Rose has a lot to say," Albus explains. "She's my cousin. You can ignore most of the things that come out of her mouth."

"Hey!" Replies Rose indignantly.

The girl gives a little laugh, but a shaky one, a timid one. "I'm Caitir Finnigan."

"Albus Potter." (Caitir raises her eyebrows at this and Rose is not sure why.)

"Rose Weasley."

Surprise flashes in Caitir's eyes again but she doesn't comment. "Good to meet you," she grins. "What house d'you expect you'll be sorted into?"

Rose is tempted to huff, annoyed, and change the conversation. Why does everyone have to talk about the sorting ceremony so frequently? It only adds to her nerves, and frankly, she's scared enough as it is. Still, she figures Caitir probably hasn't had anyone to talk to, so she engages in conversation.

"Well, I'm hoping for Gryffindor, me," Rose explains. "My mum and dad-my whole family, actually-were in that house and there seems to be pressure for me to live up to those standards. I know there are lovely qualities in the other houses but Gryffindor just… I don't know…" she trails off. "Mum would be equally pleased with Ravenclaw, but everyone says Gryffindor is the best house and if I'm not the best, my parents might be disappointed." She sighs and hopes that Caitir noticed her effort to slow down her words.

"Mine were in that house, too," Caitir adds eagerly. "Mam says she'll always be proud of me, and dad says that as long as I learn to blow things up he'll know he raised me properly. I'm not sure what he meant by that. But Gryffindor being the 'brave' house and all, I think I'm expected to be sorted there, in a way."

Rose and Albus nod sympathetically and Caitir continues, "But you must have the most pressure on you, Albus. Your dad being the most famous Gryffindor of all time."

"What?" Albus and Rose demand in unison. Rose wants to laugh. Uncle Harry? The most famous Gryffindor of all time?

"What do you mean what?" Caitir asks. "I thought you'd know for certain. The whole story of Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter and the Horcruxes? It's been published in all sorts of books, but none of them written by Harry himself, I suppose."

"I'm really, really confused," Albus says, echoing Rose's thoughts perfectly.

"Maybe Harry didn't want to tell you," Caitir replies. "I shouldn't have said anything. Me mam'll be upset if she knows I've been saying things I'm not supposed to."

"Well you can't not tell us now," says Rose matter-of-factly, curiosity getting the best of her.

Heaving a sigh, Caitir says, "Well, I suppose there's no going back, is there?"

Rose shakes her head vigorously.

"I'm going to tell the short version," she informs them. "Mind you, it's not very short. There's all this stuff about Hallows and wands that I didn't really understand when mam and dad told me."

"Well, hurry up, then!" Albus exclaims. Rose shushes him.

"It started many, many years ago with an evil wizard called Voldemort," Caitir begins. "Lord Voldemort killed people just for the sake of killing them and inflicted fear upon everyone he met. Everyone was so scared of him that they couldn't speak his name; they called him You-Know-Who-but there was one thing Voldemort was scared of himself, and that was death. To get around this, Voldemort made these things called Horcruxes. I don't really understand this bit, but to make a Horcrux, you have to kill someone, and then a part of your soul latches onto a special object. These objects are virtually indestructible and hold little bits of people's souls in them. So if someone were to die, they would exist as this bodiless creature inside a Horcrux until they found another human to host their body. Or there's some sort of potion you can make to return to your former body. It costs a great deal to split your soul in two, but Voldemort, he split his into seven. Seven pieces of his soul lying around the world! He was seemingly immortal."

"Blimey," Albus says. "But what does that have to with my dad?"

"I'm getting to that part. See, Voldemort got this warning sign, like a prophecy or something, that said a boy born in the summer would defeat him. He knew of one; a baby named Harry Potter. So Harry's parents, who had an inside source, who told them Voldemort was hunting them and their baby down, and they figured they had best go into hiding. They did; but someone tipped off their place to Voldemort." Caitir's voice has taken on a hushed tone. "Voldemort entered the house one night, planning to kill the baby. This is the part I really, really, don't understand, but basically, when Voldemort tried to kill baby Harry, the one destined to destroy him, the killing curse rebounded. Harry's mam's profoundly powerful love for him protected him from the curse and she was killed instead. So instead of killing Harry, the curse shot back at Voldemort and hit him. But then, this is where the Horcruxes come in. Voldemort's soul latched onto the closest living thing it could find, which was Harry. Voldemort disappeared and many thought he was dead, but Harry Potter lived. The first one to withstand a killing curse from the bloke. Harry, for banishing You-Know-Who, became an instant hero. But there was a price: he had become Voldemort's last, unintentional, Horcrux."

"This is complicated," Rose remarks, trying her best to follow along.

"Well, Harry grew up normally, raised by his Muggle aunt and uncle," Caitir continues, ignoring Rose. "He found out he was a wizard on his eleventh birthday, and then he went to Hogwarts and had all sorts of adventures until his fourth year, when one of Voldemort's old followers resurrected him. Voldemort was back, and he was determined to kill Harry. Meanwhile, Harry's school Headmaster had given him a mission: destroy Voldemort's seven Horcruxes and then kill Lord Voldemort himself. So in his seventh year, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione-"

"Hey! That's my mum and dad!"

"I'm never going to finish the story if you keep interrupting!" Caitir exclaims. "Anyways…They went searching for Horcruxes and they destroyed a whole bunch. And then finally Harry found out that he was the last Horcrux, the accidental one, and he realised he had to die for Voldemort to be properly killed… so he went and handed himself over to Voldemort in the woods. And when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, he couldn't, because of something about Harry being a Horcrux or his mother's love or Voldemort using some of Harry's blood to resurrect himself, I don't know, mam and dad didn't describe that very well either. But anyways, Harry didn't die and then he and Voldemort had this epic battle that mam and dad always talk about and then Harry won and since all the Horcruxes had been destroyed, he killed Voldemort, the greatest Dark Wizard of all time, once and for all! Cool, huh?"

"Blimey," Repeats Al.

"Bloody hell," Rose says. "He must have gotten so much attention. And it's uncle Harry. He hates attention. No wonder he never told any of us that story."

"Still," Albus says. "That's my dad! And your parents helped him out! Isn't that a great story?"

"It's pretty cool, I suppose," replies Rose, impressed. After a second, she adds, "Wow! Caitir, I'm glad you told us that. I was wondering why people were staring at us on the platform!"

There's a sudden knock on the compartment door and Rose, being closest, stands up to open it. On the other side of the door is a boy with pale white hair and a pointed chin. He stands in between a boy and a girl whose eyes glitter malevolently.

"We came to meet the other first years," The boy with the pointed chin says, sizing Rose up. He speaks coldly and holds himself in a way that suggests him superior to everyone else. "Who're you all?"

"Albus Potter."

"Rose Weasley," she introduces herself, thinking that this boy looks oddly familiar.

"Caitir Finnigan."

"Are you the son of the famous Harry Potter, by any chance?" The boy asks, nodding at Albus, grin spreading over his face.

"Yes," Albus replies defensively.

"And you're a Weasley." The boy turns to gaze critically at Rose.

"What of it?" She asks defiantly, disliking the stranger already.

"My father's told me about your families. Never liked your parents much. I'm Malfoy, by the way. Scorpius Malfoy."

"You!" Rose exclaims. "You're the one whose father was Draco Malfoy! Who tried to kill my mum when she was in seventh year."

"The mudblood, yeah," Scorpius snickers, looking very pleased with himself. Albus, Caitir and Rose gasp as one. Malfoy's friends laugh.

"Don't call her that," Rose replies fiercely, wishing this Malfoy boy would leave the compartment.

"Why not? She is one," He replies, laughing. "Well, of course she is. She was a Gryffindor. If I'm sorted into Gryffindor I might just go home."

"So you're hoping to go to Slytherin, then?" Rose asks, having learned since she was little that Gryffindor and Slytherin are rival houses.

"I'm not hoping to go there. I know I'll go there. I suppose you half-bloods will have to settle for a different house, though. See, Slytherin only takes pure wizards."

Rose wants to point out that she is a pure-blood, but at the moment she's only interested in telling Scorpius the opposite of what he wants to hear. "My dad warned me about you, Scorpius Malfoy," she snaps. "Now I can see why."

Malfoy smirks. "I'll go, then, if you don't want me around. See you, Finnigan, Potter, Weasley. It's been a… pleasure."

The boy strides away.

"I do not like him," Rose fumes angrily. She slams the compartment door, sits back down, and vows to hate Scorpius Malfoy for all her years at Hogwarts.

(She doesn't know it, but she's going to go back on this vow a million times over.)