Disclaimer: Harry Potter © J.K. Rowling. c:
-*-*-*-
"So…who did you kiss for New Years, Rose?" Lily asked cheekily.
"Aren't you a little young to be asking those kind of questions?" Rose replied as she tried to doge the question.
"I'm seventeen for your information! Besides, I don't want to know all the details! Just some." She said flippantly as a bluff. "Just enough so that I know that you actually kissed someone. That's all."
"I'm not going to tell you." Rose said evenly.
"Oh, so you didn't kiss anyone."
"I did I'm just not going to tell you."
"Which means you didn't kiss anyone at all!" Lily said triumphantly.
"No, I'm just not telling you."
As a matter of fact she had kissed someone but she wasn't going to tell her little cousin, Lily. Who by now had built a very respectable position in the family as "The All Mighty Gossiper".
-*-*-*-
She had been working on a rather easy-to-deal with curse placed upon an Egyptian pharaoh headdress that had just been brought in the other day. Her job description had wacky hours but she always put up with them just because there were promises of delightfully odd puzzles to solve with each new item that came into her tiny office.
She had decided to be a curse-breaker like Uncle Bill and was one of the few women to work in that sector.
Uncle Bill had always thought Victoire would have made an excellent curse-breaker but she decided that she wanted to work as in the Ministry of Magic as one of the charm-nullifiers. Uncle Bill was pleased as punch about that job choice.
She had just gotten past a particularly poorly cast triple-curse-protection curse set on the headdress when the clock in the office chimed ten o'clock. So she decided to leave. She had grabbed her cloak and stumbled out of Gringotts, into the cold. Then promptly headed toward the nearest coffee shop. When she walked in, it was full of people who were full of holiday cheer. Beer glasses clanked against each other and cups of tea were grasped tightly so as not to be spilled by the jostling people. Paper cups full of hot chocolate or coffee or some other hot beverage were clutched with two hands in an attempt to keep warm.
She had pushed her way to the counter, ordered a cup of steaming black coffee, and sat in a corner to watch the couples walking by with a strange feeling of detachment.
Rose felt content to just watch people pass her by and she sat there for some time.
Someone plopped into the empty chair opposite her and she had looked up from her coffee to see none other than Scorpius Malfoy.
"What are you doing here?" She asked numbly. Rose was feeling lethargic from the warm coffee she had finished and the dense atmosphere that was filling the little shop.
She hadn't seen him since July when Albus had insisted for the sake of their old friendship to visit the Malfoy mansion.
"Well don't you look sad?" He said with a smirk. "I'm sitting in front of you breathing."
"Explain to me why you're sitting in front of me then."
"I was just walking by when I saw bight red hair that just had be a Weasley's so I dropped by to say a polite 'hello'. I didn't expect it to be you. Now that you've heard me ramble on about my comings and goings, let's here something about what you've been doing lately." Scorpius laced his fingers under his chin and smiled at her from under half lidded eyes.
His lashes seemed to become more defined, and his sharp cheekbones were shadowed. The gold ring in his ear glittered from the lamps that lit the coffee shop. Rose shivered but whether that was from the cold, or the caffeine, or his presence was indistinguishable. She really wasn't sure so she just clamped down on the part of her that was doubting and squished it into a dark corner of her mind.
"Nothing interesting. Just getting some late night work done on an old Egyptian headdress. You?"
"Now, now. We've already heard about me. I was just passing by. After work stroll and all. Tell me more about the headdress." Scorpius chided.
Ah, that's right…he's working at one of the local magical creature shelters…
"Not much to tell. It was poorly made and the protection spells were horrible. The only reason we're keeping it is because it came from such a rare era that we're doubtful we'll find something even close to the historical value that that particular headdress has."
The rest of the conversation seemed to blend in with the chattering of the others in that small shop. Rose had even managed to coax out a few things that Scorpius had been doing since they had last met. A problem with a local fwooper owner was what had caused Scorpius come personally to the house. The silencing charm that the owner's daughter was supposed to be performing monthly had been ill cast and the fwooper ended up only partially silent. Problems for the neighbor's wife who happened to stay at home most days.
In a lull in the conversation, the bell at a nearby clock tower began to chime and quiet settled over everything. It seems like time had frozen as each person counted each chime.
One. Two. Three. Four.
"How about a New Years kiss? For luck, between friends?" Scorpius suddenly asked. His voice was sincere.
Rose thought about it and even though she wasn't drunk herself the atmosphere around her simply enticed her to be reckless just this once.
Five. Six. Seven.
Between friends… it's not like we're together or anything he said between friends…
Eight.
Certainly wouldn't hurt to have some luck for the New Year either…
Nine. Ten. Eleven.
"Alright. But what an interesting offer between friends." She muttered before placing a hand on his cheek and kissing him on the lips.
Twelve.
-*-*-*-
"I did kiss someone on New Years. But I know better than to tell you of all people" Rose said.
"Oh, that's fine. I'll just keep saying names until I make you blush!" Lily said without even a mock air of hurt.
"You do that."
Lily gave an exaggerated sigh and tried hard to look thoughtful. Rose just grimaced and prepared herself for the on slaughter of names.
"Is it…Scorpius?"
"Why do you all assume that I do things with Scorpius?"
"Because you do! It was Scorpius wasn't it?"
"…"
"I'm going to go tell Uncle Ron!"
"Lily Tonks Potter get you sorry soon-to-be-hexed bum over here!"
A/N: It's a little late for New Years but it got stuck in my head so now it's on paper/ ink/ pixels? :D