Because love comes in strange places…
To say that you expected Rose Weasley, the daughter of Ron Weasley, to fall in love with Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Draco Malfoy, is like saying you expected Amelie and Oliver to be together from the very beginning of Morganville Vampires: it. Simply. Isn't. possible!
Chalk and cheese, one may describe them as on the surface, with one being a Gryffindor, the other a Slytherin. One was petite and brown haired, curved angles with no pointy edges, whilst one was platinum blond, right angled points wherever you looked. It didn't seem as if they had any common ground in which to stand.
But they found some.
"Excuse me, but are you finished with that book?" Rose asked the instantly recognisable Scorpius as he sat in the library. She hovered over his shoulder as she waited for him to answer, hoping desperately he would comply with her request for she wanted to reread that book with all her heart.
"Yes, I am," he replied, much warmer than she would have thought he would speak – apart from when he was Sorted, she had never heard him speak, and that night was shrewd with confusion for her. "I was wondering, however, why you seem to like it so much?" he questioned her as she reached out to take the book from her fellow first year student.
She stopped midway and turned to look at him with a calculating expression, as if she was sizing him up as to whether or not she could tell him why she loved the fairytale book so much. Evidently she found she could tell him, because she opened her mouth, just to realise that she didn't know how to explain to it.
"Because… because it has a happy ending, always," she finally said, smiling slightly as she processed the stories again in her head. "I mean, no matter what happens at the beginning, or even in the middle, you know that the ending will be happy and that everyone will be with their partners," she smiled at the memory of the book and how, even though she memorised the endings years ago, she still enjoyed to read the book to be reminded of the happily ever after even wizards believe in. But then a thought struck her. "Hey, how do you know I like it? Barely anyone does," she questioned him, wondering if he had been spying on her. If she was Uncle Ron or probably even James, she would have been outraged at the concept of a Slytheron, much less the an ex-Death Eater, spying on her but she was strangely flattered. Something in her snapped when she heard this, the barrier between Gryffindor and Slytherin in her mind breaking down to allow the fruit of friendship to blossom...
"Just when I've been in the library, I seem to see you always reading it," he grinned back, thankful to see she wasn't mad at him – yet. "I mean, you always sit at the same table and it's pretty hard not to notice you as I pass… so, yeah, anyway. I'm Scorpius, you're Rose?" he confirmed, knowing her name already but wanting to make it seem more spontaneous, more as if he didn't already have something for her.
She smiled back at him and sat down opposite him, deciding that her best friend Jennie could wait on her own in the library for a few more minutes – it wouldn't hurt her.
"Yeah, it's Rose, but I'm Rose: I'm not the family member of all the wonderful people in my family at Hogwarts, I'm just me," she stressed the fact that she was her own person, not just the latest poster girl for the Weasley clan.
"I know, I sort of got that from the way you yelled at that dude last week for basically asking you out so that he could go home and meet the 'famous' family you have," Scorpius laughed at her, watching in amusement as she blushed slightly. Something stirred in his chest and he realised that he wanted to be friends with her… or more… who knew?
"Wanna go and have a proper look around the grounds?" Rose suggested once they had worn the conversation of being related to people that everyone wanted to know.
"Sure," Scorpius replied, packing away his stuff and being ready to go by the time she came back.
So they hung out, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor – an unusual match but by no means the first: her Great Aunt Lily was the first. Time passed but nobody seemed to care that she was spending an increasing amount of time with Scorp, though James told her more than once to be careful around him.
They walked around the corner in the grounds, retracing the steps they took on their first tentative walk together on the way to becoming friends, now better friends than either of them could have imagined. It didn't matter to them about the differences between them, but simply the similarities; the way that they both cracked up at the entirely not funny jokes in the Quibbler; the way that they both loved Transfiguration and DADA but hated Herbology; the way that no matter how one of them was feeling, if the other was a little down, they would always do everything they could to cheer them up.
"Hey, Scorp," Rose said in her tinkling voice, turning closer to him with a smile.
"Yup, Rose?" he responded, shifting his body to look at her, them being the same height for now.
She did something he didn't expect: her lips pressed against his cheek softly for a moment or two, her arms extending sideways around his body, before suddenly releasing him and sprinting away.
"Race ya back to the castle!" she called behind her, already halfway there. Scorpius stood and watched her for a moment, his hand raising to his cheek in surprise, before sprinting after her, rugby tackling a screaming and squealing preteen…
They were too young to be dating!
First ever attempt at a Rose/Scorpius… in fact, I'm a pretty new novice to HP Next Gen fics as well… espec after MV took over my writing life... I EVEN GOT MV IN HERE THO!
Reviews, as always, are appreciated…
Vicky xx