Hello everyone! This is my first fanfic (but don't let that stop you from reading!) and I would really love reviews. I don't want to be one of the authors that begs for them, but I would really appreciate feedback and constructive criticism (because I promise I have never said anything mean about you!). I will try to be quick about updating (I'm in the editing stage of the next nine chapters).

Enjoy :)

Chapter One

"Rose, come on! We're gonna miss the train!" Albus yelled at her as she was saying her last goodbyes in King Cross Station.

"Now, be good sweetheart. Sixth year can get very stressful, so try not to be too hard on yourself." Her mother's kind eyes looked down on her as she gave her one last hug. Her Dad smiled at her.

"Now, I know it hard but try to watch over Hugo. We don't want as many letters from McGonagall as we got last year. He's starting to give Harry and I a run for our money." Ron's mischievous smirk started to creep onto his face.

"I'll try Dad, I promise." Rose said as she quickly gathered up her things.

"ROSE! Come on!" Albus whined as she rushed over to the doors.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." She loaded onto the train only to get body slammed from every direction as she tried to find a compartment. She attempted to maneuver her way through the crowd and follow Al's quickly disappearing head. The sounds of parents yelling their last goodbyes mingled with the sound of the train beginning to move creating chaos. She must have banged into at least half of Hufflepuff house had her foot stepped on numerous times while she weaved her way through the horde of people. At last she squeezed her way into the compartment that held her fellow Gryffindors.

"Rose!" She heard a girl squeal before she was quickly engulfed in a massive hug.

"Mackenzie Finnegan let me go! I can't breathe!" Rose wiggled out of the bone-crushing embrace, trying to catch her breath. "God, is this my punishment for not seeing you over the summer?"

"No, it's your punishment for not writing enough!" Now that Rose stepped back, she saw that Mackenzie had gotten a little taller and a little tanner over the summer. Her freckles were more pronounced and her brown hair seemed lighter after spending most of her days outside. Her blue eyes were still full of joy as she sat down next to Rose. Albus was already sitting across from them with his girlfriend Olivia, who looked like her long blonde hair had gotten even longer and more beautiful over the summer.

"Congratulations on making prefect! We all knew you would though, of course." Olivia was really one of the sweetest girls Rose had ever met, and so she had to wonder why on earth she was dating her git cousin.

"Thanks! I thought it would have been you!" Rose said as she settled in for the journey.

"Me? Merlin no, my grades aren't high enough. Besides, you're a clear leader. You'll be great."

"Thanks! How was your summer, good?"

"Yes, very. I spent most of it in Italy; it was wonderful! I ate far too much food." This made Rose laugh. Olivia was tiny; to suggest she had actually gained any weight at all would be ridiculous.

At that moment Roxanne popped into the compartment. "Hullo everyone! Has anyone seen Lucy? I know she was with Molly trying to help her meet some other first years, but I'm not really sure where she went."

"Sorry Rox, but I haven't seen her since I saw Molly boarding the train," Mackenzie said. Roxanne rolled her eyes and said, "Great, now I have to go searching through the first year compartments."

"You know you're only two years old than them right?" Al reminded her.

"Yeah yeah," she yelled over her shoulder as she walked out.

"Hey", Al piped up "Have you seen Henry anywhere? He told me he would meet me here."

"That's weird, where else would he be sitting? Oh my god! The prefect meeting!" Rose quickly bolted from her seat and ran down the hall. How on earth could she be late? She wasn't late for anything! Anything! And her mind chooses to be late for this! How could she had forgotten that the time to meet in the prefects cabin was extremely close to the departure! She should have written it down or something!

In her flustered state she wasn't paying attention to where she was going when she was looking at her watch and ran smack into someone.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." She looked up to see whom it was only to find Scorpious Malfoy looking back at her.

It wasn't that she loathed Scorpious, she really didn't have a reason to, she just knew him from reputation alone.

The Malfoys' were probably the wizarding family that her father hated the most, and therefore the things he said about Scorpious' father Draco were absolutely dreadful. Even her mother, who tried to be nice to everyone, hated him. According to Ron, the entire family is horrible and that means all children Draco had will be just as bad. So you couldn't blame her for disliking him on the spot.

But it wasn't like he had ever been mean to her, or really anyone for that matter. She rarely saw him smile, even when surrounded by his friends, and she never saw him laugh. Ever. He kept to himself mostly, with a few Slytherins for friends. Of course, all the girls found his reclusive behavior as another thing that made him even more attractive, as if being extremely hot and a star Quidditch player wasn't enough.

"Why in such a hurry Weasley?" He asked as he got up from the floor.

Rose rolled her eyes, "I'm late for a prefect meeting, and I have no time for you Malfoy." She continued racing down the hall.

He called after her, "You don't wear a watch, do you Weasley?"

She pivoted to face him, "No, why?"

"Because the prefect's meeting doesn't start for another five minutes." And then he did the most peculiar thing. He smiled. Scorpious Malfoy smiled at her. Of all people, why would he waste his once-a-year smile on her?

Rose felt herself going extremely red in the face. "Well then, I guess I'll take my time then." She set off again down the hall, Scorpious behind her. She turned around again to face him, "Let me guess, you're a prefect too?"

"Yeah. Why, surprised?" He asked, as if inviting her to challenge him. She had no idea how to respond to this. Why she surprised? No, he was smart. There was no denying that. Would she admit that? Never.

"Maybe." She smiled back and cocked an eyebrow at him. They carried out the last few feet of the journey in silence as they searched for the compartment. As they walked in she saw Henry, who appeared to have saved her a seat.

"Rose! How was your summer?" He asked as she sat down.

"Good, yours?"

"Fantastic! I've been working on my beating skills all summer; I think the team will be so much better this year. I know Albus has been working hard too. I've been working on this one move, where you hit the ball between the two chasers and then the…" Rose started to tune him out, like she did every time the boys started talking Quidditch. Really, you would think the world revolved around it the way they just went on and on and on about it. Her attention was snapped back when she heard the head boy starting to make announcements. Abut not long after he had started his speech she felt herself dozing off from a lack of sleep the night before. But when he started picking patrol partners she immediately became nervous. She did not want to be with that awful Slytherin girl who looked like she could murder you just with her eyes if she tried hard enough. Luckily, she was paired with a Ravenclaw boy who looked like he wanted to puke. But the others were quickly getting paired off: Henry and Katie, Jessica and Dan, Rose and… no. You had got to be kidding me.

"Rose and Scorpious. Yep, that covers everyone. So remember, you must report here 5 minutes before your shift starts. No exceptions." The head girl looked down at her piece of parchment one last time. "I think that's it. You all are free to go."

Rose walked down the hall in a sort of daze. How on earth did she get paired with Malfoy of all people? Better than the Slytherin girl though. She finally reached her compartment and sat down with Mackenzie.

"You look like you just saw a boggart, are you ok?" Mackenzie asked.

"Ugh, I have to patrol with Malfoy." She threw her head back in desperation.

"Oh come on, its not so bad." She turned to see that in her absence her other friend Rebecca Wood had joined the group.

"Becca, just because you think he's hot doesn't mean it will be fun patrolling with him." She said, frustrated that none of her friends were seeing the horror that had become her first day.

"So? Just stare at that body for a few hours, you'll change your mind." She said dreamily, staring off into the distance.

"Becca, you don't just stare at guys for hours on end, its stalkerish." Mackenzie said.

"Can we please change the conversation!" Albus pleaded.

"What, so we can talk about stupid Quidditch?" Rose replied

"Hey!" Albus, Becca, Mackenzie, and Henry said in unison.

"Sorry! Jeez." Rose rested her head back against the seat and closed her eyes, the hum of conversation in her ears. Slowly she found herself drifting off to sleep.

"Rose? Rose? Rose! Wake up!" She groaned and blinked her eyes to try and get rid of her foggy vision.

"Are we there yet?" She asked.

"No, but its time for your shift with Malfoy." Henry responded as she began to sit up. She began straightening herself out, running her fingers through her wavy deep auburn hair. Luckily she hadn't inherited the volume in her mother's hair, so it took her no time at all to flatten it out and get going. She met Scorpious in the prefect's compartment like planned and they headed out into the hall to begin their shift. They walked in silence, both not really sure what to say to one another. Normally, Rose would have done what she did to all Slytherins and start to argue with him. However, seeing Malfoy smile earlier caught her off her guard. Was this some sort of trap she was falling into? It seemed too strange to be nice to him. After all, wasn't it obvious that Gryffindors and Slytherins don't, and never will, get along? So she continued her walk in silence. Finally Scorpious decided to speak.

"So has your cousin been working on his quidditch plays all summer?"

"Yeah, non-stop. It looks like you've got some stiff competition. Al has done nothing but talk, breathe, eat, play, and live quidditch." Rose said with a smirk. For all the things she hated about quidditch, she loved being able to brag to the Slytherins about how good Al was. That was something they just couldn't deny, the entire Potter family were natural Quidditch players. It makes sense when your mother played for the Hollyhead Harpies and your father was Hogwarts quidditch legend that you are amazing at the game. Al was a chaser and Lily was a seeker, two of the best players on the team. James was a chaser too when he was on the team. But he'd graduated last year after being a very beloved captain.

"Yeah, yeah. Your cousins are good, and so is your brother. But I'm captain this year, so it goes without saying that we are going to win the cup." He said with smirk.

She snorted, "Oh please, if you were a little less cocky you might realize that you should be working your arse off before the Gryffindor game or you won't even get to see your precious cup."

"Since when do you care about quidditch Weasley?" He asked, still smirking.

"Since I grew up with a family who does. It wears off on you, it's like a disease." She clutched at her heart before beginning to laugh. "Personally, I don't get what all the fuss is about. Flying is terrifying, I don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to do it with balls being hurled at them in freezing temperatures. But hey, what do I know?"

They were laughing talking about how Rose's childhood memories of attempting flying (and almost dying in the processes) with James when they were interrupted by Goyle and another dark haired boy who Rose didn't recognize.

"Hey look who it is! It's Malfoy and the half mudblood. What a happy couple we have here!" Goyle taunted. "Say, what if see what her dueling skills are really like? I'd say a few minutes under the cruciatus curse ought to remind her where she belongs. What do you think Malfoy?"

"Get the hell out of here Goyle." Scorpious said, taking a step in front of Rose. "Did I stutter?" he snapped. "I said get the hell out of here. Go back to your compartment, and if I see you doing anything else on this train ride I'll take 50 points from Slytherin."

Goyle sneered, "You wouldn't take 50 points from your own house."

He glared back, "Watch me."

"Oh, so you've decided to be a blood traitor like her father? Fine, enjoy your dirt Malfoy. See you around Weasley." The two of them strutted away down the corridor and into their compartment, Scorpious not breaking his glare the whole time.

"I'm sorry about that," he mumbled while they finally lost of Goyle and his friend.

Rose was shocked, "Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault Goyle is so vile. I would expect nothing less from him." She took a deep sigh; she hadn't even realized she had been holding her breath. "Thank you for, well…" she mumbled and went red in the face.

"What?" He asked.

"Thank you for not joining their side. I mean, thank you for defending me. Not that I need someone to defend me, I'm perfectly fine by myself. But…" She started babbling. Damn, she always did this when she was nervous. Wait, why was she nervous? This is Malfoy we're talking about! But, this is Malfoy who just saved you from whatever Goyle was planning, which couldn't be good. "Just, thank you."

"You really thought I would join their side?" He sounded genuinely hurt. Who was this guy and what did he do with Scorpious? You know, the guy who never talked, never smiled, and never talked to anyone in Gryffindor house. What happened to him?

"I don't know. I know it probably not a fair thing to say, but you're a Slytherin. They don't exactly have the best reputation among muggle borns or blood traitors. And well… you are a Malfoy. Which again, I'm sorry, but my father doesn't have the most glowing reviews of your father." Well, that was the understatement of a century.

"If he did I would be shocked. My father was responsible for Snape killing Dumbledore. And played a pretty big part in killing Sirius Black, who I know was Harry's godfather. He was also a death eater. I don't know why your father would even say mediocre things about him. I don't even like my father, and he's my family."

"You don't?" Rose was stunned.

"How could I? He never spent any time with me growing up, and when he did it was only to talk about how I should view the world. Why should someone else tell you that? He raised me surrounded by lies. The only reason I'm not as horrible as my father is because I had a house elf to tell me what really happened during the war. My mother wasn't much better. We've never been close. If anything I think they will be happy when I leave at the end of the year, they won't have to think about me any more."

"That's awful." Rose whispered.

"That's life. You don't get to pick your family. It's ok though; I think I'll be a lot happier once I leave. I'll play their little games till the end of the year, and then go off and do something on my own." He finished, clearly wrapped up in his thoughts.

"Well, I'm sorry. About judging you on your family. It makes me no better than Goyle." Rose said.

"That doesn't make you a bad person Rose, everyone judges me based on my family. It's fine."

"No, it's not. I hate that people judge me because my mother is muggle born and my father is a 'blood traitor'. I couldn't think of a better family, and I hate that some people won't look past that to see who they really are. I'm sure it must be even worse for you. That makes me a hypocrite, and I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Really." He glanced at his watch. "Our shift is up."

"Oh," she said, disappointed. As strange as it was, she liked spending time with Scorpious. "Well, I guess I'll see you at the feast." She said, trying to fill the awkward silence.

"Yeah, ok. I'll see you then." Scorpious said before turning around and going back to him compartment. Rose walked towards her own and leaned against the wall before going in.

"What was that?"