AN: Okay this is for the Your OTP With a Twist Challenge. The twist is... it's not your OTP at all; you match them up with someone else. So my beautiful Rose/Scorpius has tragically broken up (or in the case of this story, just never gotten together). I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it!
There's a certain type of symmetry to the two of us, Lorcan muses as he looks through the latest batch of photos, smiling at the little Rose Weasleys that reside in each picture. Or something like that at least. He had never been particularly good with words. He takes out a pair of scissors and slowly began cutting out Rose from each photo, stripping away the unworthy background.
I'm a Gryffindor and she's a Slytherin. People say I'm eccentric and she's practical. She's smart and I'm failing Potions. It's like darkness and light, yin and yang, push and pull. We complete each other. Satisfied, he tapes the picture to his wall with the others and smiles at the hundreds (maybe thousands) of Roses staring at him. Yes, Rose Weasley, we are made for each other.
"You fancy Rose, don't you?" Lorcan stares at his twin, horrified that someone would use such an ordinary, common word as fancy to describe his passion for Rose.
"No," he says slowly, "of course I don't."
And he's telling the truth. Lorcan is not a liar.
"I was thinking maybe we could repaint your room," his mother says dreamily, "white is such a dreary color…"
"NO!" he shouts and his head turns suddenly to the wall of photos, enchanted so only he can see them.
His mother is surprised at his outburst, "Why not?"
He blushes and stares at his feet sheepishly.
"I just really like white."
He knows that he'll have to talk to her eventually. He can't spend the rest of his life taping up pictures to his giant collage and soon enough he finds himself following her around at school. Eventually, he'll work up the courage. Eventually, he'll talk to her.
Her favorite vegetable is carrots. She loves the Weird Sisters. She supports the Chudley Canons. Charms is her favorite class. She was the third one to successfully transfigure a match stick into a needle in her first year… Whenever he's bored, Lorcan finds himself reciting facts about her in his head, some of which he knows that he has no right to know. But it's not creepy and it's not strange and he's not stalking her—he's observing. And anyways, once he talks to her, he can just pretend that she told him and it won't seem odd anymore.
But it's her that talks to him first, not the other way around.
"It's creepy, you know."
Lorcan's eyes widen, "Wh-what is?"
"You following me around with that camera of yours. Don't pretend you're not, I've seen you. You know, if you like a girl, you really should just tell her." And she walks away, leaving a stunned Lorcan behind her.
"So about what you were saying earlier…"
She looks up from her book, "What about it?"
"I fancy you."
She raises her perfect, red eyebrows, "So I figured."
Lorcan shakes his head, "No, that's not what I meant. I love you. With a passion. I love you more than anyone's ever loved anyone ever before."
Her eyebrows rise even higher, "I somehow doubt that."
He doesn't bother correcting her, she'll find out for herself if all goes according to plan. "So I was wondering if you would go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend."
She seems to consider. "No."
"Why not?"
She smiles a little. "Because, I barely know you and I think you loving me without even having had a proper conversation is unhealthy." And she gets up and walks away.
"How about now?" It's after a Quidditch match, and Rose has just caught the Snitch for Slytherin. It was Gryffindor she beat, but Lorcan finds that he doesn't care.
She doesn't even bother looking behind her to see who it is. "No."
"When will you then?"
She pauses for a moment and Lorcan can see her scratching the back of her head like she always does when she contemplates something. "Once you get over me."
It doesn't make much sense to Lorcan, but he nods and wonders how he'll ever get over a girl like Rose Weasley.
First, he tries burning the photos, stripping them off the wall of his room and burning them in the backyard while the rest of his family sleeps. But it hurts so much, too much to watch Rose go up in flames, so he casts a hasty Aguamenti and salvages what he can from the flames. He puts the photos in a box underneath his bed and takes them out to look at each night.
Next, he tries to find another girl to love. He starts flirting with Roxanne Weasley but it just feels so wrong, flirting with Rose's cousin, so finally he stops and just ignores Roxanne when she tries to talk to him. Then he tries Talia Longbottom but it seems that Roxanne has already spread the word that he's a heartbreaker ("Leading poor Roxi on like that— how could you?"). He gives up on ever finding another girl like Rose.
Finally, he tries finding a hobby to distract himself. But he's horrible at Quidditch and Charms Club reminds him of Rose, so he ends up applying for a job on the school newspaper, The Hogwarts Gazette. He ends up as a reporter and he doesn't mind it, but it doesn't take his mind off Rose.
Strangely enough, it's after he's given up that he almost gets over her. The distraction comes in the form of Lucy Weasley, the editor and founder of the Gazette. She's no Rose, but he ends up taking her to Hogsmeade and the fact that she's Rose's cousin doesn't bother him too much.
Soon enough, he's asking her to be his girlfriend and she says yes. For the first time in as long as he can remember, Lorcan feels happy.
It's on a beautiful, sun kissed, summer day spent in Diagon Alley that the truth comes in a horrible, unexpected way. He and Lucy sit at one of the tables outside Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, eating ice cream and holding hands when she asks him.
"Do you still fancy Rose?"
And he wants to say no, he wants to laugh and say she's wrong, but Lorcan's not a liar.
"Not as much as I used to."
And to his surprise she doesn't get angry or cry like he's seen so many girls do when they find out that James or Louis or someone like that has been fancying some other girl.
"Good," she says, "Now I don't have to feel guilty. I fancy Scorpius Malfoy," she explains, "and the main reason I've been dating you is to make him jealous." She sees the hurt look on his face and hurries to remedy her statement. "Not that I don't like you; you're a good bloke, but this for the best, isn't it? If we work together, I can get Scor and you can get Rose and it's happily ever after from there on, see?"
Lorcan nods but though it makes sense to him, it feels wrong, scheming to get Rose, pretending to be in love with Lucy.
And once Christmastime rolls around, Lucy invites him to stay at the Burrow for the annual Weasley family Christmas gathering and whenever Rose walks into the room, he makes sure to kiss Lucy. Right on the lips.
Nothing lasts forever, though, and soon enough, Scorpius Malfoy finally does get jealous. He asks Lucy to come with him to some Ravenclaw's end of the year party ("Just as friends of course," he adds hastily, because Lucy's with Lorcan, but something in his eyes tells a different story) and Lucy breaks up with Lorcan, wishing him luck with Rose.
Years go by and Lorcan wonders how he survives, not daring to speak to Rose in case that counts as not being over her. His life seems to be moving in slow motion and soon enough he finds himself and his classmates dressed in gowns and tossing tasseled caps in the air.
Now that he's out of school, he applies for a job with the Prophet and asks Lucy Weasley (now Lucy Malfoy) to write a letter of recommendation.
"It's a horrible name," she says as she signs the letter, "but well worth the man who came with it."
Flash forward a few more years and Lorcan is covering a story on the Quidditch World Cup and he can see Rose there, sitting a few rows behind him. And like so many years before, after the match it's her who speaks to him first.
"You gotten over me yet?" she asks, smirking playfully.
And as usual, Lorcan won't lie, so he shakes his head.
"I tried," he admits.
She nods, "You sure did," she looks at the camera, "You weren't taking pictures of me again, were you?"
"No," he says, "I really wasn't."
There's a pause in the conversation and Lorcan is surprised to find that Rose is biting her lip, like she always does when she feels guilty.
"I really was trying to help, you know. I felt bad for you and I didn't want to lead you on by saying yes. I thought that if I rejected you, soon enough you were bound to get over me. But you never did."
"No," he says lamely, "I never did. I came close, though."
She nods, "With Lucy, I know. But she was just using you and that's part of why I feel so terrible. So I was thinking," she breathes in deeply, "so I was thinking that maybe I could make it up to you. How about that Hogsmeade trip, huh?"
And he says yes without hesitation.
He can't believe how perfect she is, as they sit in The Three Broomsticks laughing and sipping their drinks just as Lorcan had seen so many couples doing back in his Hogwarts days. He tells her that and before he even knows what's going on, they're leaning towards each other and the next moment they're kissing.
A few moments later, they break apart, and Rose giggles.
"You're not so bad, Scamander."
And the words are like music to his ears.