"Weasley!" Rose was just about to finish off her night flight out on the quidditch pitch when she heard someone call her name. She turned Al's Nimbus 3000 back around and looked down at the ground. It was dark outside, so she had problem seeing whom the voice belonged to. Her name was called out again, and this time she saw someone by the entrance of the pitch. The moonlight lit up just enough so that Rose was able to see who it was from her position over the hoops on the other side of the pitch. I should have seen it coming. He was the only one calling her by her last name, but the shaggy blond hair gave her no doubts about who it was.
"Well, well, Weasley, out after curfew?" Malfoy kept strolling on to the pitch. She could see him walking with his hands in his pockets, and with his relaxed posture he oozed of confidence. The moonlight caught his hair, and she had to admit that in that moment he actually looked like the Slytherin God he thought he was.
Rose sighed. Of course that jerk had to be out after curfew the same night as her, and he just had to take a walk by the quidditch pitch and spot her flying. Lucky me. She angled the broom down and pulled it towards the place Malfoy was standing. Rose didn't stop before she was right in front of him, with the top of the broom almost touching his chest.
"And unfortunately not the only one" Their faces were so close that she could see patches of blue in his grey eyes. There was something different with his eyes tonight. They didn't seem to show the same amount of determination like they usually did when he teased her or argued with her.
Rose climbed off the broom. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?" She was tired and a little cold, the only thing she wanted right now was to crawl under the warm covers in her scarlet four-poster bed and have a good night's sleep. She didn't have time to fight with Malfoy right now.
"Oh, just taking a stroll. I didn't know you were one to break the rules?"
"There are a lot of things you don't know about me. But based on all the detentions I've had because of you, I would say I am." She sent him a glare most of her family would have taken as a sign to just piss of. But he just stood there, smirking.
She wasn't a tall girl, barely five foot three, but she had inherited her father's hair and his temper. So with her curly ginger hair and blue eyes, that turned a darker shade when she was pissed, she could intimidate most of her family and peers. But Scorpius Malfoy never seemed to be affected. So towering six feet, he stood there just as sure of himself as always.
"But I thought that was you making exceptions for me?" How she wished she could just wipe that smirk of his face. And at some occasions she had, but tonight she knew it wasn't the time.
Rose just raised an eyebrow as to say, 'well, you thought wrong'.
He changed the subject, "I didn't know you could fly, Weasley?"
"Impressed, Malfoy?" Rose smirked back at him. It was a trait she had picked up from him over the years fighting and arguing.
"You just surprised me. But with your cousin being the captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team and the team being almost all Weasleys, I would think that it would be easy for you to get a spot on the team."
He was partly right. The Gryffindor team consisted of mostly Weasleys, but it had nothing to do with James being unfair. The Weasleys just happened to excel at quidditch. James was chaser together with Roxanne. While Roxy's twin brother Fred was beater. How the team would manage when all three of them graduate this year was a problem Rose's cousin Lily, who is the teams seeker, couldn't seem to contemplate. And the rest of Rose's cousins played on their house teams. Hugo was keeper and Dominique was beater on Ravenclaw. Molly was chaser on Hufflepuff. And the first years Lucy and Louis were aspiring quidditch players, and sure to follow in their big sisters footsteps when they were old enough. As lone slytherin Albus was seeker on the Slytherin team and he just happened to be best friends with the jerk standing here accusing James of favouritism.
Rose didn't bother to start a fight with him now over her family, she knew that he was perfectly aware of that the Weasleys got their spots on the teams fair and square. He being chaser and captain on the Slytherin team, and just last week loosing against 'team Weasley'.
She sighed. "They know I'm afraid of heights so they have just assumed that I'm also afraid of flying, just like my mum, and I have never bothered to correct them" She had never told anybody about this, except Al. And by the way Malfoy was looking between Al's broom and Rose, he was wondering how she got his broom. "Al knows, and he has always been happy to loan it to me when I want to take a flight. Telling me I should 'come clean' and try out for the team, but I have other things to focus on."
In a family as big as Rose's and with mutual interest in the family with quidditch she had in a young age found it easier to just let the others quarrel about who wanted to play which position under the family matches rather than joining in, and when she never asked to play they had just started to assume she didn't want to. If they had asked her she would probably just said no thanks, but deep down she had always wanted to be a chaser. Just like her aunt Ginny.
While speaking of Al, Rose had been looking down at his broom. So when she looked up at Malfoy again, she was surprised to find him staring at her, without a smirk.
"Well, I think the Slytherin team has enough trouble beating Gryffingdor as it is, wouldn't want it to be impossible." Rose was glad it was dark, because if not he would have seen her blushing the typical Weasley-red. But little did she know that that also kept her from seeing the pink tingle on Malfoy's cheeks.
"Was that a compliment, Mr Malfoy?" A small smile crept up on her face.
"Don't let it go to your head" He turned his head towards the hoops for a second, before looking back at Rose. It was a tender look in his eyes, and caught Rose off guard.
"Do you often go come out here alone after curfew to fly?" He asked her with the same tenderness in his voice.
Rose wasn't sure what to think. First Malfoy had surprised her while she was out flying, with his usual comments and smirk. And know they were having a conversation that was kind of nice, in a weird way.
"Once or twice a week, usually on Sundays, because that's the night people seems to be most tired. And all the girls in my room are usually asleep quite early that night. I'm guessing is has something to do with the parties on Saturdays." Rose wasn't sure what made her tell him, but it was something about his eyes tonight. They just made her answer truthfully about everything. I just hope he doesn't ask me if I like him, she thought to her self.
"Do you always go flying alone?" By now they were standing by the benches outside of the locker rooms, she hadn't noticed when they had started moving, but she didn't contemplate on it. He sat down on the bench and gestured for her to do the same, and she did. It felt nice. And in a weird way it felt right.
"Yeah, Al has offered to come with me, but since I borrow his broom we are two on one broom and that's just not the same. We did use one of the school brooms back in first year, but after that experience I'm more inclined to jump of the astronomy tower" At that Malfoy chuckled and agreed.
Malfoy didn't say anything more, and Rose didn't either. They just sat like that for a little while. It didn't feel weird or awkward, and they sat like that until Rose shuddered slightly. Malfoy saw it and began to stand up.
"We should go back. It's late, and you're cold." He offered her his hand to pull her up. Rose looked at it, but she decided to take it. She was surprised of its warmth, and when he let go after she was up she missed it and felt even colder.
They walked in silence all the way to the entrance hall, where they were supposed to go in different directions. They just stood there, not knowing what to say to each other. It was Malfoy who broke the silence.
"If you ever want someone to practice with just tell me" He looked her in the eyes while saying this, and Rose didn't know what to say, she just nodded.
Then he leaned down and planted a kiss on her cheek. His warm lips were like fire on her skin, and when he whispered in her ear she could feel his breath tickling her behind her ear. "Good night, Rose"
She just stood there with here mouth slightly open and stared at his retreating back. When he was almost all the way to the bottom of the stairs, Rose seemed to get back the ability to speak.
"Good night, Scorpius" It was so low that she thought he couldn't have heard her, but he turned around and smiled at her. Not smirking, but smiling. And Rose thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. And as he turned back around and continued walking away, Rose turned and started walking back to her room. Flying will never be the same again, she said to her self, and smiled.
