Scorpius looked up at Rose. Her red hair had fallen over her face, creating a barrier that kept Scorpius from trying to talk to her. Scorpius knew Rose well enough to know this was intentional.

Rose had been avoiding him ever since school had started, doing things like ducking into the girl's bathroom every time she saw him, not sitting next to him, never making eye contact, and flat out refusing to be alone with him. The only reason they had wound up alone in the library today was because Albus had suddenly remembered "a previous engagement with his lady love," whatever that meant. Albus was not a good liar.

Scorpius scratched at his paper with his quill. It seemed like one of his biggest fears was being realized: Rose liked him and was avoiding him because she was afraid she was going to accidentally tell him. Scorpius frowned, both because he couldn't remember what unicorn horns were used for and because he didn't know how to let Rose down easy. Maybe the horns were used in some sort of beautification potion?

"Do you have a problem?" Rose had looked up now. Her blue eyes were big. Merlin, she had it bad.

"Uh, just trying to remember what unicorn horns are used for," Scorpius said, gesturing at his parchment.

"Unicorn horns are in most antidotes to common poisons, along with

Bezoar and mistletoe berries," Rose recited almost mechanically.

"Merlin, Rosie, you're a genius," Scorpius said while writing that down on his parchment. "I love you so much for this."

The two froze, and Rose's eyes grew even bigger. Neither spoke for at least a minute.

Then Rose burst into laughter.

What?

"Oh, thank god." Rose pushed her hair out of her face and wiped tears from her eyes.

"What?" Scorpius said, aloud this time.

"God, I am so glad you said that."

Oh, Merlin, she would not take this well.

"Look, Rose, I didn't mean it like I, you know, love you-"

"God, Merlin, no!" Rose said. "I don't love you like that, either."

"Then why are you glad I said it?"

"Cause I was afraid one of would swoon or something if that happened, and look, we're both fine!"

"Is that why you have been acting so weird? You've been avoiding me." Scorpius held up a hand to keep Rose quiet before she could even start to protest. "You have. It's not all in my head, Rose. Albus noticed, too."

Rose started picking at her skirt. "Well… You know how Albus and Alice started dating? And Erin and Quagmire? And pretty much all the rest of the third years? I was worried that would happen to us."

"What? Why?"

"Well, a lot of them have been friends even longer than we have, and with everyone else is paired off, everyone kind of just expects us to date, too." Rose looked up from her skirt and began rubbing at her temples with one hand. "But I didn't want that, and I started to worry that you did, or you would, so I thought it would be easier to just, you know, not tempt you or whatever."

"Rose, I do not want to date you. I will never want to date you," Scorpius said.

Rose looked him in the eye and gave him a small smile. "Am I that awful?"

Scorpius raised his eyebrows.

"I don't ever want to date you, either, Scorp."

"Good. We're over this now?"

"Yeah," Rose said. "Friends?"

"Yeah, whatever." Scorpius smiled sheepishly at her.

"Good." Rose cleared her throat. "Now that all that's behind us, can we please talk about how gross Albus and Alice are?"

Scorpius smiled, and, at least for now, all his worries were gone.

Author's Note: What's more cliched than a Five Times fic? Pretty much nothing. But after years of awkwardly writing crappy fics, I have finally decided to post something. More updates to come, and if you would favorite, follow, or review it would be appreciated.