A/N: This story is also published on Archive of Our Own at /works/2045451/chapters/4441965.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Harry Potter. I only own the plot of this story and my original characters.
She was used to feeling as though someone had drawn a curtain over her. The rest of her family was loud, dramatic. Not Rose. She much preferred the quiet of the library or the soft feeling of sitting on her closed-off bed. It wasn't that she didn't like people, Rose didn't much mind people, she just didn't like the commotion. It was something her mother, at least, seemed to half understand.
Today, Rose was sitting on her bed, her hair tied up in one of her spare Ravenclaw ties, and leaning over a book. The sunlight attempted to filter and play on her face but the thick curtains pushed most of it away. A hand stuck through the parting of the curtains surrounding her bed then, "Rosie?" the hand waved, "Rose, can I come in?"
There were really only two people Rose communicated with on a daily basis. The one who belonged to the hand currently waving at her was Piper Clearwater. "Yeah," Rose said, "come on in."
Piper climbed in and onto the bed, looking around, "I like the new pillows," she said. Rose had placed an undetectable extension charm on her bed last year, their fourth year, and had been in a constant state of "redecorating" since then.
Rose looked up from her book and glanced at the pillows as if only just realizing they were there, "Oh, thanks," she wrinkled her nose, "I think they'd look better in a lighter blue though, no?"
Piper shrugged, "I suppose," she gestured to Rose's book, "What are you reading today?"
Rose picked up the book and showed the cover, "It's called Storming Fall, it's a muggle love story."
Piper groaned, "Rosie, why don't you go find real romance instead of reading muggle romances. Wizarding romance is so much more exciting, don't you think? How are you even getting these muggle books anyway?"
"Okay, one," Rose started, holding up a finger, "I'm pretty sure you know nothing about wizarding romance considering your only boyfriend was a muggle. Two," she popped up another finger, "Flourish & Blotts picks them up from a muggle bookstore and they owl them to me."
Piper threw up her hands, "Fine, you caught me, I know nothing of wizarding romance but it seems exciting. I, for one, want to have a relationship this year, don't you?"
Rose shrugged, "I guess, maybe."
Piper beamed at her, "Great, now hopefully I can convince you to come to a party tonight?" She rushed on when she saw Rose raise her eyebrows, "You don't even have to go far, it's in our common room."
"Piper…" Rose said, her voice leaked doubtfulness.
"Please, Rosie? If you hate it, you can come right back up here. Though I recommend a muffliato charm if you're up in your bed because I'm pretty sure I heard Gemma say she wants to get Will Acker up here tonight," Piper rambled.
"Fine," Rose held up a hand to silence her, "I'll check it out," Piper started to smile, "but I am going dressed however I want."
"Yeah, okay, maybe I can pick out an outfit for you next time?" Piper asked hopefully.
Rose smiled slightly, it was Piper's dream to 'bring style to the wizarding world', as she put it, "Keep wishing."
Piper leaned across the magically large bed and wrapped her arms around Rose, "You're the best. Really, you are."
Rose smiled into Piper's shoulder, "I know."
When Piper let go she started moving out of Rose's bed, "Okay, the party starts at 19:00 which I know is only an hour away but don't flip, it's still enough time to change or read another chapter or whatever."
Rose tossed a pillow at Piper, "You're the worst," she said, grinning.
"We both know that's not true," called Piper's sing-song voice as she finally ducked out of the bed.
Rose sighed, a piece of her hair floating up from her breath. She knew how the party would go, she would get bored, have no one to talk to, and eventually retreat up here. At least she'd get a free butterbeer out of it, she supposed.
Rose climbed out of her bed, spotting Piper tugging on a yellow sundress, and turned to her own trunk. She threw it open and rummaged inside. She settled on a pair of jeans and a dark blue long-sleeve shirt. Rose tugged her school shirt off and then put on the blue shirt and then did the same with her skirt, replacing it with the jeans.
As she turned she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and paused. Rose would like to be able to say she was plain looking but really she wasn't. Her burning red hair curled towards every direction and her eyes were such a shocking blue that they made her hair seem even more ridiculously vibrant. Sometimes she didn't mind how she looked but other times, like now, she simply looked too bright.
Sighing to herself, she tugged her tie from her hair and looked around for a regular ponytail holder. Not seeing one, Rose decided to just shove her hair back into a ponytail with her tie. It had barely been back up for a minute and already pieces were wriggling out of the tie. Giving up on her hair, she tucked the strands behind her ears and hoped they'd stay.
She glanced at the small watch on her wrist, 18:32. Deciding that was enough time for another chapter or two, Rose climbed back into her bed and flipped open her book. She didn't like to tell anyone but sometimes, when the book was really good, she got rather jealous of the muggles. So happy, so in love, so simple. There were days she wished she were studying sciences and English, two subjects Hogwarts didn't bother with. After far too many books to count, she still couldn't get over how odd things were in the muggle world. They wrote with sticks filled with something called graphite. They had pink rectangles that made words disappear. In her opinion, some parts of muggle life seemed really rather magical.
After quite a few page turns she glanced at her watch again, 18:57. Rose folded the corner of the page and closed the book, setting it on the table beside her bed. She climbed through the curtains to enter an empty dormitory and the sound of music, now unrestrained by her muffliato charm. With quiet reluctance she slipped on her trainers and made her way downstairs.
The common room was far more full than usual, people spilling over the plush couches and chairs. Non-Ravenclaws explored the different facets of the common room and Rose dearly hoped they wouldn't mess with the private library. Music rang from the bust of Rowena Ravenclaw, a stupid enchantment someone must have cast. A table in the corner held sweets and bottles of beer, crowded by people trying to grab a drink. Rose settled on getting a butterbeer from the table so she pushed through the people, managing to snatch a bottle and a chocolate frog. She shoved the chocolate frog box in her pocket and quickly moved away from the throngs of people.
Open beer in hand, she walked towards the entrance the Ravenclaw's private library, simply hoping to check all the books were still organized. The library was empty. Nearly. A Hufflepuff boy stood in the corner, only a book in his hand, and he looked up when she entered.
"Hello," he said, smiling.
"Hi," Rose replied. She felt like she'd seen him before, possibly they'd had classes together? She wasn't sure.
"I was just seeing what books you lot have," his voice was gentle and quiet, "I didn't know Ravenclaw had a private library."
Rose nodded, "It's quite a bit smaller than the school's library but it's nice to have around. Plus we've got a muggle book section." She didn't mention almost all the muggle books had been contributed by her.
He raised an eyebrow, "Really? That's neat, where is it?"
Rose pointed towards a shelf and watched him close his book and move over there, "I didn't catch your name," she said to his back.
"I didn't give you it," he said, turning to smile at her. Despite the snappy remark, his smile felt kind. A few moments passed, him looking at the books while Rose waited to see if he would speak again. He did. "It's Scorpius, by the way. My name, that is." Scorpius did not turn away from the books.
She was glad he didn't, she didn't want him to see the surprise on her face. So she did know him, vaguely, from King's Cross before their first year. She hadn't known he'd been sorted into Hufflepuff.
"I'm Rose," she said.
She saw the back of his head nod, "I know," he whispered, so quiet she almost thought she'd imagined it. Scorpius turned around and looked at her, "Why aren't you outside, at the party?"
Rose shrugged, "I don't much like parties. My friend, Piper, convinced me to come."
"If you don't like parties, why did you come?" he asked.
"I like Piper," Rose said simply, "She's a good friend."
"I don't like parties either," Scorpius said, almost as an afterthought.
"Then why are you here?" Rose asked.
"I don't really know, something to do, I suppose?" he said.
Rose took a final sip of her beer and considered Scorpius, "Do you want a butterbeer? I'm going to get another"
He smiled at her, "Sure, thanks."
Rose left the library, her eyes searching the crowd, she wasn't sure for whom. Outside of the quieted library, everything seemed like the volume had been turned all the way up, the noise was positively obnoxious. She snatched two beers off the table and, after a thought, shoved two more chocolate frogs in her pocket.
She was halfway across the room when she noticed Piper. Piper was sat on one of the couches, other people surrounding her, all of their legs overlapping. She seemed to be telling some grand story, everyone else laughing at appropriate moments. Rose rolled her eyes and silently wished Piper good luck at finding her romance. When she re-entered the library, Scorpius was sat on the floor, a book propped in his crossed legs.
He looked up at her and smiled when she handed him the beer, "Thank you," he said.
"No problem, what are you reading?" she asked, sitting on the floor across from him.
Scorpius held up the cover, "Sleeping Beauty. Odd, isn't it? How muggles are so opposed to the belief of magic yet they tell their children stories of it."
Rose nodded excitedly, "Oh I think of that all the time! Did you know they have these things that look like notebooks except they can search the whole world inside the notebook? And it's not even magic!"
Scorpius blinked disbelievingly, "Really? That's incredible, what else have they got?"
"They purposefully put gnomes in their gardens, isn't that mental? They think they're good luck or something of that sort," Rose accio'd a muggle book from the shelf and opened it between them, "This book has all sorts of images and descriptions of how they see the world. They call it an encyclopedia."
Scorpius stared in wonder the book in front of him before tentatively reaching forward and flipping through the pages, "This is unbelievable," he muttered to himself. He stopped on a page showing a vehicle called a 'moped'. "What on earth is this?"
Rose leaned over to look at the page, the top of her head brushing his, "It looks like a motorcycle," she said.
Scorpius nodded, "That's the thing that brought your uncle to the Dursley family, right?"
"Yeah," Rose said, "That's it."
Scorpius flipped the pages a bit more, "Look at this, is this that notebook you were talking of? It's called a netbook here."
Rose nodded, "Yeah, that's it, see how strange it looks?"
He looked up at her and nodded and Rose looked up to meet his eyes, their noses an inch apart. "It's really quite stunning," he said, his voice a soft hum in the quiet air.
"Yeah," she whispered, "It is."
Scorpius stared at her a bit more, his eyes flicking to her lips occasionally.
"I like your tie," he said, "in your hair."
She reached up to touch it, "Thanks," she mumbled before her eyes flitted across his face, pausing when they stared at his lips.
The door to the library swung open and they both were startled away from each other, blushing.
"Rosie, you did come!" Alice Longbottom said as she swung into the room.
Rose nodded, "Yeah, er, yeah I did."
"Piper said you were but you haven't been to a party in absolutely ages so I-," she paused as if just noticing Scorpius, "Who are you?"
"Scorpius," he said.
Alice smiled kindly, "I'm Alice, it's good to meet you. I'm sorry for interrupting, I'll be going now." She swept out of the door and back into the common room.
"Er, that was Alice," Rose said, fighting the urge to run out and tell Alice she hadn't interrupted anything.
"She seems nice," Scorpius said with a faint smile.
"Yeah, she is," Rose said, unsure what to say now, "I collect chocolate frog cards," slipped from her mouth.
Scorpius' smile grew, "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, I've got half of them all set up on my wall upstairs, the other half is at home," Rose said, her face lighting up.
"How many have you got in total?" Scorpius asked her.
"About seven-hundred," Rose said proudly.
"Holy hell, that's a lot of chocolate," Scorpius laughed.
She shrugged, "About three-hundred are from my dad's collection, he gave me his duplicates, and the rest are from myself or family or friends."
"Still," he said, "That's a lot to have up on a wall. How do you manage to fit so many on the Hogwarts dorm walls?"
"Oh, well, I used an undetectable extension charm on my bed last year so it's more a bedroom than a bed now," Rose said.
"That's completely brilliant," he said.
"Thank you," Rose said, a tiny smile perched on her lips.
"How long have you been collecting?" Scorpius asked, taking a sip of his beer.
"About since when I was nine."
"Wow," Scorpius said, "I can only imagine how wicked your collection must be."
"Why imagine? I can show you," Rose said, standing up.
"Really?" Scorpius asked in wonder, standing up as well.
"Sure, I don't see why not. Plus, it's much more comfortable on my bed than on the library floor," Rose said before realizing how it sounded and blushing, "I mean, for sitting, it's more comfortable to sit on a bed. Nevermind. Here, follow me." She pushed open the door and they walked outside into the noise.