Author's Notes: Much love to my betas Libby, Mags and Shannon who turned this into something worth reading!
This was written for the Scorpius/Rose fest (lj comm"smrwficafest") for Lunalovepotter! And of course, I own nothing and JKR owns everything. This is just for fun, not for profit.
As expected for a Friday afternoon, the Leaky Cauldron was crowded with shoppers looking for a bite to eat, commuters coming from and going to Muggle London, and blokes looking to ogle the barmaids. Like the two at the table next to Scorpius'.
"You think she looks good now?" the heavyset man - someone Scorpius vaguely recognized as a former Hufflepuff who'd been a few years ahead of him - asked his friend. "You should have seen her ten years ago. Always had her hair in pigtails and favored these off-the-shoulder, low-cut blouses that showed off her fantastic--"
Scorpius shook his head and inched further into his booth. It wasn't what they were saying about the barmaid. Most blokes at school had a crush on Mrs. Longbottom so he was well past being scandalized by such talk. His problem was he wasn't picturing her or any of the other barmaids but his best friend, auburn hair in two messy pigtails and barely wearing a tartier version of the blouses the barmaids wore.
"Oi! Malfoy!"
"Rose!" And there she was in the flesh. Tendrils of curly hair coming free from the loose bun she had it in, dressed in denims and that damned too-big-for-her Chudley Cannons shirt she seemed to love and holding a small tower of boxes that looked like they came from local stores. No signs of make-up or glamour charms and the summer humidity was clearly wreaking havoc on her hair, yet still he had to remind himself not to stare. Rose had caught him shooting enough moony-eyed looks her way as it was. "I didn't--"
She didn't let him finish, instead nudging him further into the booth with the box tower in her hands. "I'm knackered. Budge over. Dominique dragged me to no less than seven robe shops today."
Doing as she asked, he made room for her and her boxes in the booth. "Why the new robes?"
The moment the question passed his lips, Scorpius regretted it.
"I told you! The party the Cannons are throwing." Slumping back in the booth, Rose sighed. "I never should have asked Dominique to go with me. She's a shopping fiend. All I wanted was a new dress but she dragged me into store after store, first for the dress, then shoes, then potions and cosmetics, then I needed new underwear. I don't know what's wrong with what I already have."
Scorpius winced, valiantly pushing the image of Rose wearing nothing but pigtails, knickers and a smile out of his mind.
"Like anyone is going to see my knickers ... and don't make that face."
"I wasn't making a face."
"You were so," she insisted, screwing up her face and hunching her shoulders in an exaggerated imitation of him. "All evidence to the contrary, I am a girl and do have girl bits."
"I've noticed." He couldn't stop noticing, that was the problem.
Waving her hand as if she were brushing away a doxy, Rose asked, "Have you ordered yet? I haven't eaten since noon and I'm famished."
"No, I was waiting for you. Didn't think you'd be here this early."
"You said five, it's..." Rose looked around before spotting the granddad clock in the corner. "A little before five, actually."
"Right. With you, 'five' tends to mean 'twenty after'. Hence my surprise," he drawled, enjoying the look on her face.
Rose rolled her eyes and sighed, though a grin was playing on her mouth as she replied, "Is that why you wanted to meet me? To talk about your compulsive need to be punctual? I really think that's something best left for a Heal--"
"I was wondering," Scorpius interrupted, knowing that if he didn't, she could just go on and on, "what you wanted to do this year. For the prank."
"The prank! I'm so sorry, Scorpius, I completely forgot about that. I've just been so busy with everything..."
While that was to be expected, he hadn't seen her in over a month between his parents dragging him all over Asia and Rose spending most of her summer wasting away in the Ministry basement as part of her internship, and Scorpius couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. "It's not like we ihave/i to do something..."
"Yes, we do. I'll be damned if I let Fred and James best us in this," she insisted, slapping the table for emphasis. This rivalry was as much hers as it was his. Maybe more so. "Are we planning on involving good ol' Corny in this, or is it just a general school-wide prank? Do we know who the Head Girl is? Or are we playing it by ear? Oh, I should have brought a quill and notebook with me."
"Depends on what we come up with, Imogen Dogberry, looks like it for now, and," he reached into his messenger bag to produce a notebook and one self-inking quill, "already done."
Leaning back in the booth, she gave an appreciative nod. "Not bad, Malfoy."
"Why thank you, Weasley."
"Any chance you're hiding a sandwich in there?" She teased, her smile making him wish for all the world that he was.
"I could try to flag down a barmaid, if you want," he offered. The crowd had picked up and Scorpius had a feeling that because he had waved off the barmaids earlier when waiting for Rose, most of them were ignoring their table now.
"I think it would be easier to just order at the bar. Do you want anything?"
With a wave of his hand towards the tower of boxes blocking her exit from the booth, Scorpius told her, "Might be better if I go, seeing as how you're currently boxed in."
Rose let out a whoop of laughter. "That was awful."
"I know."
"Would you get me a bacon sandwich? With chips? Oh, and a pint?"
He smirked. "Sure that will be enough?"
"I could always steal off your plate."
"You do anyway," Scorpius said before making his way towards the bar. As he had expected, it took several minutes before the bartender noticed him so he could place the order. Time he spent half-listening to two American businessmen discuss bringing Quodpot to the UK (an absurd idea but he was still tempted to mention his dad to them anyway) and thinking about Rose. Predictably enough. In their time apart they'd only exchanged three letters, the trip too far for either owl to make in under a week and no Floo calls thanks to the time difference. Even though he had been kept busy with the parties and the sight-seeing and the fifteen Quidditch games, he couldn't stop wondering what Rose was doing, what she was thinking, what she would say if she was there with him, and who she was with. All her letters had been short with one completely devoted to a row between her and Hugo, a fact that hadn't stopped him from reading it again and again.
Not for the first time, Scorpius realized how completely pathetic he'd become.
Juggling their tray of food, he made his way through the crowd. It was pointless to dwell on the past. She was here now and they'd have at least an hour or two to spend together before she'd have to leave.
(And some part of his mind was already hoping he could convince her to skip the party.)
A laugh rang out over the din of the bar - Rose's laugh. As he approached the table, he still couldn't quite spot her through all the people but he could hear her talking to someone. "You'll find out tonight!"
"I don't want to wait until tonight," a distinctly male voice responded. One that Scorpius knew though he hoped he was wrong.
He wasn't.
The crowds parted and sitting just where Scorpius had been was Duncan Finnigan: son of two former DA members, adored by both Hermione and Ron Weasley (especially Mr. Weasley), one of James Potter's closest friends since infancy, former captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons's newest player as well as their great hope for the coming season and Rose Weasley's boyfriend of several months.
From the looks of it, they were playing some disgustingly cutesy game of keep-away where Finnigan tried to grab the boxes behind Rose and she kept blocking him. Rose squealed when Finnigan tickled her in some ploy to get her to move away from the boxes (or grope her in public) and Scorpius was struck with the urge to Disapparate on the spot.
Instead he cleared his throat and set the tray down on the table.
"I was about to send a search party for you!"
"Oh, hey, mate!"
He gave a curt nod, barely glancing at Finnigan and making no moves to sit down. It didn't look like Finnigan was leaving any time soon and Scorpius was in no mood to play third-wheel.
Apparently, his refusal to sit down had not gone unnoticed. Rose gave him a curious look. "Is something... wrong?"
"I can't stay," Scorpius told her, surprised at how neutral his voice sounded. "I just remembered, my dad asked me to go the bank for him."
"Well, you have a half-hour till it closes --" Finnigan interjected.
A small, tight smile plastered itself onto Scorpius' face. "More like ten minutes, you know how the goblins are." Turning to Rose, he added, "I'll see you at school, yeah?"
He had just turned to leave when Rose called, "What about your food?"
"Already paid for, you can split it!"
The last thing Scorpius saw before disappearing into the crowd was Finnigan digging into his sandwich and the frown on Rose's face.
"Don't slouch, Scorpius."
Straightening up but still leaning against the wall, he gave a mumbled, "Yes, sir."
Pointing his wand at his face, Scorpius did a Cooling Charm on himself. It was oppressively hot in the aviary today; the only reason there wasn't more of a smell was because his grandfather had asked Sneezy and Flopsy to come in before them to do the necessary charms. Watching his grandfather stand amidst an ostentation of newly-hatched peachicks as he set up their small feeding pens, Scorpius supposed he shouldn't be that surprised that he had decided to do this himself rather than giving it to the house-elves. Dad had often said (always with that tone of annoyance) that his grandfather treated his peafowl more like pets than anything else.
"So, er..." Scorpius moved his foot away from one curious peachick that had begun to peck at his boot. "How do we know which ones are the boys and which ones are the girls?"
"We don't. White peafowl are notoriously difficult to sex." His grandfather stood in the midst of the small pens he'd created, reinforcing the wire that separated two pens. It was odd seeing him do even simple carpentry spells. "Most wait until their peafowl grow tails, but I've asked a specialist to come by next week to do the necessary genetic testing."
Lucius stepped out of the pens, admiring his handiwork. "Are all the bowls ready?"
"All filled." Scorpius waved his hand towards the table where twenty bowls sat, half filled with water and the other with feed, each containing one ordinary marble. He'd been rather confused why his grandfather had brought a bag of marbles with them until he explained that most young chicks had to be taught how to peck or else they wouldn't be able to feed themselves. The marble - or any shiny object - would help them learn to feed themselves, the idea being they'd peck at the marble and take in some food or water while they were at it.
At that explanation the unbidden memory of his dad stating peacocks were "too stupid to live" came to mind.
"Good. Bring the bowls over to the pens while I gather up the chicks."
They worked in silence for a while. Once Scorpius had finished setting down the bowls, he helped divvy up the chicks into their pens. Several of them were crowded together into one large fuzzy yellow ball in the corner and they all began to squawk excitedly when he grabbed two of them.
"Your father tells me you weren't chosen as Head Boy."
He knew this was coming. "I didn't expect to be."
"You didn't? And why not? You're on the Quidditch team, involved in several clubs and your father assures me your grades are excellent."
"I know but the Headmistress has this whole system. She likes to choose two from different Houses each year to make sure they all receive a fair representation. A Slytherin was chosen last year, so I knew I was out of the running."
"Of all the idiot Hufflepuff notions--"
"It's not a big deal." He knew it was impertinent to interrupt but he didn't want to go through this again.
"You don't have a problem with this?"
"I didn't say that." Truthfully, he could see the logic in Sprout's arrangement even if he didn't agree. However, after a similar conversation with his dad he knew it wasn't prudent to try to argue the point. "But what's done is done."
Another silence fell over them. When they finished and all the chicks were in their pens, the two stepped outside. It was cooler but still too warm and Scorpius had the urge to throw himself in the lake. He settled for leaning against the house and looking out at the water. Again, it was Lucius who broke the silence. "Your father's been worried about you. Said you seemed a bit melancholy this summer. Spending a lot of time at home, not as interested in Quidditch--"
"I've been to over thirty games this summer." He liked the game as much as the next bloke but even he had his limits. "It's just tiring after a while."
Raising an eyebrow at him, his grandfather was quiet for a few moments before finally saying, "I see."
Neither said anything for several minutes and then, for some mad reason Scorpius would wonder about later, he said, "There's this girl. I've liked her for months, maybe longer but I haven't told her how I feel."
"Is that all?" Before Scorpius could respond, he continued," Is she from a good family?"
Scorpius knew exactly what his grandfather was asking and doubted very much that the Weasleys would ever meet his standard of a 'good family'. But they were. "I -- yeah, yeah she is."
"We know them?"
"Yes."
Mercifully, he gave Scorpius some privacy and didn't ask who they were. Instead, he asked, "Does this girl care for you?"
"We're friends. We've been friends for ages." And he knew Rose thought he was attractive, she had said as much when asking him why he wasn't seeing anyone. "You're a good-looking bloke, you just need more confidence."
"Then what is the problem?"
"Well, she's dating someone. Has been for several months."
"So?"
"What... isn't it... wouldn't it," Scorpius sputtered, trying to find the words even though he knew, he knew, what his grandfather would say, "isn't that... inappropriate?"
Lucius gave him an indulgent smile and Scorpius felt like a peachick that had just done something particularly amusing. "My dear boy, dating isn't married."
"So I should just ask her out?"
"Well, I'd hope you would have more finesse than that. And more sense," he added, after a moment's consideration. "You know this girl, you know what she likes, what she doesn't. Use that knowledge. Impress her. Woo her."
"Woo her," Scorpius repeated slowly.
"If she feels the same way, you should have no trouble prying her away from this other wizard."
Leaning forward, Scorpius focused on the text again, willing his mind not to wander this time.
Touch is one way to let your witch know your intentions towards her. Don't be too forward, now! First, gauge her interest by her body language. When you sit together, does she mimic your movements? Cross her legs towards you? Even move into your personal space? Any of these signs can be evidence of her interest in you!
Rose did all that; sitting right next to him on the couch so her thigh was against his, playfully bumping his feet with hers when they sat across from each other in the library, even taking his arm in hers when they were walking. He always wanted to initiate that movement but never did, fearing it would be too forward or unwanted. Thinking about it, he rarely made the first move. Every hug they'd ever shared, Rose had initiated.
It was a daunting prospect to change that now.
Your first touches should be casual: a gentle touch to the arm when you laugh at her jokes or a light touch to her hand when you're deep in conversation. If these go over well and you're feeling bold, trying placing your hand at the small of her back as you guide along the street...
Scorpius had done this once, last spring. They had been walking back to their respective dorms after a late Astronomy lesson. Since Gryffindor was closer, they'd gone there first. When the staircase had shifted and moved beneath them, he had instinctively put his hand on Rose's back to steady her. It was a simple action that he'd seen between his parents thousands of times before so he hadn't thought much of it in that moment. When he did it, Rose hadn't moved away, but she did giggle nervously and look over at him in surprise.
He hadn't tried it since.
...or placing your hand on her knee as you sit together and discuss one of her favorite topics.
Her knee. He could probably do that. All he had to do was wait for the right moment like when she was worrying about what she was going to do after Hogwarts or was feeling insecure about her writing. Just a delicate pat, not lingering too much. Certainly not straying any further than her knee...
And he could definitely think about doing this without imagining some scenario that lead to his hand finding its way up her skirt while they had some wild snogging session.
Shifting on the couch, Scorpius sighed and wondered if it might be best to skip the chapter on flirting and touching for the time being. It certainly wasn't doing him any good to read and re-read the same page.
Before he could decide, a familiar female voice brought him out of his reverie, "Long time, no see."
At the sound of Rose's voice, his fight-or-flight instinct took over and he immediately hid the book between the arm of the couch and his own body. A particularly stupid move since Rose could see him try to hide the book and she definitely wasn't going to let that one go. Hoping to distract her, he asked, "How did you get in here?"
"Al let me in." Judging from the smirk on her face, she had seen everything. Knocking her knee against his, she inclined her head towards the arm of the couch. "What's the book?"
"It's nothing."
Rose only looked more amused. "Is it a dirty book?"
"No!" He hated himself for turning pink at those words as his fantasy came back to mind.
In a sing-song tone, she pressed, "Then why did you hide it?"
"It's nothing."
"Then let me see." She made a grab for it but he was faster, moving to the side to block her. She paused. "If I ask nicely will you let me see?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because."
"Fine," she said, backing up and crossing her arms. He felt a bit bad about this but still he relaxed.
At which point Rose pounced, nearly pinning him against the couch as she did. Again, he managed to block her by moving to the side. Rose was undeterred by this, almost straddling him at one point as she moved onto the couch. He couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of his current situation, which only spurred her on.
"If I had naughty books, I would share with you." She said into his ear, practically on top of his back as he curled protectively over the book.
So many things ran through his mind, so many things he wanted to ask, but he merely said, "It's not a naughty book."
"Then show it to me? Please?"
Now she was on his back and he wondered how he could get out from under her without letting her have the book or risk her falling onto the floor. Also of importance: how long he could ignore her breath on his neck and the feel of her breasts pressed up against him. "No."
"Pretty please?"
Before he could answer her, a small group of fourth-year boys passed, whispering to each other. One called out, "Other way around, mate," then they all burst into snickers and hurried away.
Both he and Rose parted and straightened up instantly, Scorpius flipping them off and wishing he was still a Prefect and Rose yelling "Sod off, you little wazzocks!"
Fixing her robe and still looking flushed, Rose muttered, "Be nice if we could still dock them house points, wouldn't it?"
He didn't have time to agree, Rose grabbed the book and jumped off the couch.
"Hey!"
"Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches?" she squealed, incredulous.
Scorpius hid his face in his hands.
"Oh, Malfoy," she chuckled, flipping through the book. "My dad has the same book. Had it for years."
"What?"
"He tried to use it on my mum back when they were in school."
"Does that mean you've read it?"
"Not really, but I've looked through it. Same tosh as you'd see in Witch Weekly: compliment her often, touch her arm when you talk, show that you listen by repeating key phrases. Stuff any idiot would know already."
That made two Galleons he just wasted. "Right."
Maybe it was the sound of dejection in his voice but a look of dawning realization came over her face. In a sorry attempt at being soothing, Rose quickly stated, "Not that it's a bad idea or anything! I'm sure it's worked for loads of wizards, just look at all the testimonials on the back!"
Elbows resting on his knees, he looked up at her in disbelief.
She handed the book back to him and he took it, shoving it between the couch cushion and the arm with half a mind to leave it there. Still not saying anything, Rose gingerly sat down next to him. In a quieter voice than before, she asked, "So who is she?"
"Who's who?"
A wave towards the hidden book. "The witch you're trying to charm."
Of course. "No one, it's... there's no one. I don't even know why I bought it."
A brief glance told him she didn't quite believe that but she didn't press the matter. "Look, I'm sorry if--"
"Don't worry about it." Anxious to change the subject, he plunged ahead with the question that had been on his mind for days. "What are you doing this weekend?"
Blinking in confusion, Rose sputtered for a moment. "Er, hanging around the castle? Probably blowing off my homework. Why?"
"Want to go to Hogsmeade with me? We could go to your uncle's shop, maybe get a few ideas for the prank." That's not why he had asked but he supposed it was a start. If one ignored the dozens upon dozens of prior trips to Hogsmeade they'd already shared.
"Like you need to ask." Smiling at him, Rose bumped her shoulder against his. "We could ask my uncle for ideas, I know he helped Fred and James with a few pranks."
"Good idea."
With a cheeky grin she added, "And we could stop by Botwid's Bevy of Books and pick out better reading material."
"Very funny."
With one last look, Scorpius chucked the box of Weasley Whiz-Bangs back onto the shelf. As much fun as a fireworks display was, it had been done before. He didn't even spare a second look to the Canary Creams or Farting Fudge, there was no way they'd be able to slip it into everyone's food or even just the staff's.
George Weasley wasn't in the shop today, having been called away to Dublin to look at the future site of their first shop in Ireland. Rose and he had spent half their time here debating whether or not they should use Fred, who was minding shop for his dad, to get ideas for their prank. She felt it would "ruin the integrity" of the idea and wouldn't mean as much if they had his help, whereas he had argued that it only made sense to use all the resources available, and what would be better than using James and Fred's ideas (without them realizing it, naturally) to best them?
For now, they were at an impasse.
He glanced over at Rose, brow furrowed as she stared at the shelves, legs crossed with one bobbing to some imaginary beat, idly twirling the end of her quill between her parted lips in a way that was slowly driving him insane.
"When you look back at all our best pranks," Rose began suddenly, "both together and separately, what characteristics do they all share?"
Scorpius blinked. "They were all funny?"
"Not that," she said, slamming the quill down on her notebook and glaring at him. "What elements in them made them work? Was it the ones where we relied on physical humor? The ones where which were just mind-games? If we can figure that out, then maybe we can get ideas for this prank."
It made a weird sort of sense he supposed. "I think we first need to figure out what our best pranks were before we try to figure out what made them work."
Without skipping a beat, Rose said, "Your third-year prank on James and Fred. Where you paid everyone in Gryffindor to call them 'John' and 'Frank' for a day."
Scorpius smiled, puffing out his chest a bit. He'd always been proud of that one. "Best seventy-four galleons I ever spent."
"It required little effort, a lot of the humor was found in their reactions but," Rose said out loud, writing furiously in her notebook, "it was dependent on everyone playing along. What else?"
"Your fifth-year prank on Corny. Where you spent a week convincing him he was shrinking!" He smiled at the memory of Rose borrowing Scorpius' robe and shoes to imitate Corny running through the Dining Hall in a mad panic.
"Labor intensive," Rose said, writing again, "and time intensive. Humor found in Corny's reaction."
"My werewolf prank on Corny in sixth-year."
"Which you were completely insane to do."
"You were the one who gave me the idea! You told me how your mum turned herself into some cat-like thing when she grabbed the wrong hair for her Polyjuice Potion!"
"You spent a week in the hospital wing." Unfortunately, neither he nor Rose had known that using Polyjuice Potion to transform into an animal took longer to reverse. Madame Pomfrey had not been impressed and he had spent a month in detention for it.
"It wasn't that bad."
"You're lucky he didn't kill you and drag your half-formed carcass into Defense Against Dark Arts as an extra credit project."
"It worked."
Frowning, Rose wrote something down in her notebook. She didn't repeat it out loud, so he could only assume it was something along the lines of, "Scorpius Malfoy is a stupid gitface who shouldn't be allowed around Polyjuice Potion." Shaking his head, he continued down the aisle. The Magical Mirage could be promising, if only he could think of something clever to do with it.
"Do you think we're too mean to Corny?"
"He always starts it."
And that was truth as far as Scorpius was concerned. Cornelius Fenton was the current Head Boy and the biggest prat in all of Gryffindor seven years running. Quite the feat since he spent six of those years competing with James Potter for the title. He was the sort of bloke who treated Quidditch as if it was a holy war for the soul of Hogwarts, displaying a fanatical ruthlessness one would expect from Slytherins as he knocked people off their brooms while racing for the Quaffle. The grandstanding bastard even hit Bludgers at people and twice had caught the Snitch even though he was just a Chaser! People on his own team found him as annoying as everyone else did; Rose had even told him there was a deep division in the Gryffindor team over whether to keep him on or boot him. An officious, toadying know-it-all, he boasted twelve O.W.L.s their fifth year and was involved in eighteen clubs and organizations. Scorpius hadn't even been aware that Hogwarts had that many clubs and organizations till he heard Corny talking about it.
The one good thing he could say about Corny was that he was partly the reason Scorpius and Rose were friends now. Both had entered Hogwarts expecting to compete with each other only to find their true competition was Cornelius. He bested them in every single subject, leaving Rose and Scorpius to fight over second place. Not that they did. Instead, they bonded over their mutual dislike of Corny. But it wasn't till their fifth year when they had to deal with Corny during patrols and Prefect meetings that the pranks began. Without Al there to restrain them (he had buried himself in his books, furiously studying for his O.W.L.s) they spent a good portion of the next two years trying to drive Corny mad. All self-defense as far as Scorpius was concerned, Corny was trying to drive everyone mental by being himself so they had to fight back.
"I know. Still, it's been two weeks into the school year and he hasn't bothered us yet."
"A new record."
"Yeah," Rose said quietly, staring ahead as she worried the end of her quill.
"Like I said before, we don't have to get him involved. Most of our ideas don't include him at all."
"I think that would be better. It should be about the whole school anyway."
"Works for me," Scorpius said with a nod. "Do you want to head over to Botwid's? Fred mentioned there were some good books there on pranks and practical jokes. Magical and Muggle."
"When did you talk to Fred?"
"When you were in the little witches' room."
"You didn't ask him about the prank did you?"
Turning and strolling towards the door, pausing only for Rose to catch up, he said over his shoulder, "No, I didn't ask."
"But it just came up in conversation, right?"
"Given that we were in a joke shop where your cousin works and this same cousin knows our fondness for pranks I don't see how that is so hard to believe."
Storming past him, Rose reached the entrance to Botwid's first and paused in the doorway, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "I told you not to."
"You told me?" he laughed. "Since when do you get to tell me to do anything? Why do you have a bug up your bum about this?"
"It's the principle of the thing!" Rose grumbled, turning her back on him as she entered the store.
Scorpius rolled his eyes. "You know that only makes sense to Gryffindors, right?"
He wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or relieved that she hadn't seemed to hear that. Unlike him, Rose had no qualms about brawling in public if she was angry enough and that was really not he wanted this trip to go. Following her, he soon found himself in front of a small shelf of books on practical jokes. While realistically he had known there wouldn't be that large of a selection, he had been hoping for something more substantial. Rose, however, seemed to know exactly what to look for, pulling out two large wizarding tomes.
"How--"
Still scowling, she gave an impatient flick of her hand, "I asked James."
"About the prank."
"Yes."
"After 'telling' me not to?"
She crossed her arms. "It was before. Which is why I didn't want you to ask. He started gloating about how we'd never top them but oh, he'd 'be happy to help the younger generation'. He's such a prat."
Lifting up the books in his arms, he tried not to sound to smug when he said, "So, I guess you could say we're using their ideas against them, yeah?"
Rose pulled a face and headed towards another row of books. "It's not the same."
"It's exactly the same!"
In a maddeningly calm voice, she picked up a book, barely pausing to glance at him. "Is not."
"Because you say so?"
A broad smile now. "Yes. And here," she put another book on the pile in his arms, "this might be up your alley."
Luck in Love: How To Lure Your Soulmate!
"Yeah, you're a real crack-up. Why don't we go look in that aisle now?" He made a waving gesture, intending to point towards the wall of Muggle books but fell short when the books he'd shifted to one arm started to slip.
"Oh, these?" Knowing full well what he had meant, she only moved down a foot. "Kind of putting the carriage before the aethonon but all right." Making a grand show of looking, Rose grabbed one book from the shelf. "Here's a good one, Sin & Seduction."
Bloody hell, she'd gone for the romance novels.
Giggling, Rose began reading in a breathy tone, "Hume Regan is a notorious thief and Lena Morgan is the Auror determined to bring him down." In a voice closer to her normal one, she snorted, "I'll bet."
"Rose."
She ignored him, flipping through the book. "Let's see if the action is any good."
Scorpius shuffled his feet, looking around the store, expecting at any minute for the manager to pop out of nowhere and yell at them.
"She laughed at the thought. Even the dowdy clothes she wore to go undercover could not conceal her generous curves. Why do they never think to use Polyjuice Potion? Those curves had not gone unnoticed. Hume stepped forward and boldly wrapped one arm around her tiny waist, her full breasts heaving against his broad chest. Blah, blah. Both perfect specimens of wizardom. Boring."
Determined not to think about curves or heaving breasts, Scorpius took a deep breath and tried again. "Rose, I think we should--"
Flipping a few pages further, she held up a hand. "Hold on, I just want to see..." she broke into a loud guffaw that caused the few other patrons in the book store to turn and stare.
Using the same breathy voice as earlier, Rose smirked as she read, "'Let me touch you,' she whispered, breathless with anticipation. Sliding her small white hand up his thigh, her fingers lingered over the hard ridge of his body as they trailed up towards his belt buckle."
Sweet Merlin, was she doing this on purpose? Scorpius flushed pink and tried to think about something else: his favorite pranks, Quidditch scores for Slytherin over the past seven years, the tragic plight of Muggleborn wizards in Prague. Anything but Rose Weasley on her knees, begging to touch him as she slid her hands all over his body.
"A small moan escaped Hume's lips as her fingers encased his love wand."
That did it. "What?"
Still giggling to herself, she placed the book back where she had found it. "Love wand. Though the best I've read was one book that had several unfortunate puns about 'riding his broom'."
"Wait a minute," Scorpius remembered what she had said earlier, "I thought you said you'd share your 'naughty books' with me? Have you been holding out on me?"
Not laughing any longer, Rose's face was flushed right up to the tips of her ears. "I was using it for research. For a story."
He raised an eyebrow. "What kind of stories are you writing?"
"Let's go look at the Muggle books."
Scorpius sunk his fingers into the dark soil, enjoying the feel of it against his skin. The bright green of a new plant against the black dirt made him think of summer and the return of life and warmth after months of cold gray silence. His dad didn't understand it. Why didn't he want to play Quidditch professionally? Go work at the Ministry? At the Daily Prophet? "Why spend your time playing in the dirt?" He didn't get that there was something solid and real about this work. If Scorpius did well in his History of Magic class, what did he have to show for it but a good mark on a test? Just writing on a piece of parchment that would be forgotten or invalidated by the next test. But in Herbology, if Scorpius did well he'd have something living to show for it, something that would continue to exist and thrive long after that test.
A rather soppy and even downright daft reason, which was why he never told his dad any of this.
Gently pressing the last bit of the soil into the new pot, he brushed off his hands and admired his handiwork. The miniature rose bush was sure to grow and thrive. However, it would be a several months before it could be replanted into the ground. Not wanting Rose to have to fuss with it too much, he'd timed its growth to ensure it wouldn't be too unwieldy when he gave it to her and now re-potted it so it had room to grow.
He'd spent the past few months trying to find the perfect gift for her this Christmas. They usually gave each other books, both having an almost endless "to-read" list. Last year, after realizing that his feelings for Rose went beyond friendship, he'd given her a book of Muggle poetry along with a book on a Muggle branch of science known as "physics" that he knew she had wanted. Looking through it, he found one poem that he thought fit his feelings for her and had considered maybe circling it or mentioning it in his card. After days of agonizing over the choice, he didn't.
(That same Christmas, Finnigan had been staying with the Potters. Rose spent as much time there as she did at her house. One thing lead to another, and she and Finnigan began seeing each other shortly after New Year's.)
Scorpius was still a coward, he knew that. The past few months had been great. He and Rose spent nearly every free minute they had together: working on the prank, talking about their post-Hogwarts plans, complaining about their parents, and wondering how they could pry Al away from his schoolwork. (All attempts at the latter had been unsuccessful.) She still had no problem taking his arm while they walked through Hogsmeade but - aside from once grabbing her arm to keep her from slipping on the ice - he'd made no progress. He certainly wasn't ready to tell her how he felt.
Instead he focused on getting the right gift, something that would hopefully hint towards his feelings. Scorpius thought about trying poetry again but worried it would seem unoriginal after last year. Perfume was out, he liked whatever it was she used that smelled of pumpkin and vanilla too much to change it. For a long time he considered jewelry. Not a ring, that was too obvious. Same thing with a necklace. Perhaps earrings or a bracelet?
After days of deliberation, he gave up on all jewelry as being too forward. If she was unattached, he'd go for it but she was involved with someone. Much as he'd like to pretend otherwise.
Eventually he got the idea of giving her something he made, which for him meant a plant. A lot of girls liked Dancing Daisies or Singing Gladiolas but Rose didn't. They actually had a long-running joke where he threatened to buy her Singing Gladiolas and charm them to sing Celestina Warbeck's entire oeuvre. For a while he considered a Flutterby Bush but they grew too large, too soon, and needed to be pruned regularly. Then he thought - roses.
Rose loved roses. Her dad gave her a bouquet of yellow and orange roses for every birthday. She once confided to him that when she was little, she thought every girl had their own flower like she and Lily did. She liked every color, especially the rarer lilac and orange ones and any cultivar. The only thing she didn't like was when they died. So he had spent the past several weeks on the miniature rose bush. Thanks to Professor Longbottom's help with the manipulation of its genes, the plant grew blooms of varying colors including lilac and orange along with the more common red, pink, yellow and white.
First casting a protective charm over the plant to protect it from the wind, he picked it up and headed out into the cold and snow. It was a new moon tonight, leaving the sky completely black. If Scorpius had to guess, he'd say it was just after dinner. Upon entering the castle, he found the Dining Hall nearly empty aside from a few stragglers. Tomorrow Christmas vacation would begin and the night before was usually reserved for gift-exchanges and parties in the dorms. Rose had friends and family in every House so she could be anywhere.
Scorpius decided to start with Gryffindor.
Just as he reached the portrait, he realized he'd need someone from Gryffindor to allow him inside. The Fat Lady had been wary of Slytherins since the war and generally refused entrance even if they knew the password.
Luckily, Roxanne Weasley popped out of the portrait at that exact moment, a six-pack of butterbeer in her hand. "Hey Scorpius, what's up? Haven't been waiting there long have you?"
"No, I just arrived. Is Rose inside?"
"Ah, no. She's not," Roxanne said slowly, looking shifty. Quickly, she added, "Lily can tell you more. Here, I'll let you in."
"Yeah, okay." He followed her inside, though he didn't know why she couldn't tell him where Rose was. With his luck she was probably in Slytherin hanging out with Al and wondering where he was. He supposed she could be in Ravenclaw with Louis and Hugo but their parties were awful. Most Ravenclaws went to other Houses to party, not the other way around.
Which explained why the first thing he saw upon entering the Gryffindor Common Room was Louis and Hugo laughing at the idiot standing on the table loudly singing The Weird Sisters' classic, "I'm a Witch, Not your Bitch" while using his broom as an air-guitar.
That idiot being Cornelius Fenton.
"What--"
"Rose," Roxanne answered swiftly. "Corny was threatening to shut down the party because it promoted 'lewdness' and 'disorderly conduct' so she slipped some Uninhibition Potion in his pumpkin juice during dinner."
It was completely hypocritical and a bit cruel of her and still Scorpius couldn't stop smiling. "Brilliant."
"Lily's over by the fireplace."
"Thanks."
Sensing his approach, Lily looked up and smiled. "Hey, come for the party?"
"Actually, I was looking for Rose. Roxanne said I should ask you?"
"Yeah." Just like her cousin before her, she suddenly looked a bit nervous. Turning to her friends, she said, "I'll be right back" and stood up, taking Scorpius by the arm and guiding him to a quiet corner. "Rose isn't here."
"I noticed."
"No, I mean," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "she's not in Hogwarts. She skipped out to meet Duncan in Muggle London. They're spending the night there."
"Ah." He felt like he'd been slapped in the face. "Alone."
"Well, yeah."
"Right. Right." Of course she'd go off with her Quidditch-star boyfriend for the night. "Erm. Well."
"Is that for Rose?" she asked gently, gesturing towards the plant in his hands he'd somehow forgotten.
"This?" For a second he was tempted to lie, feeling more foolish than Corny at them moment. But he couldn't think of anything that made sense other than the truth. "Yeah. Well, she likes roses so I, er, grew roses for her."
"They're beautiful." Lily gave him a sympathetic smile; and Scorpius swore to himself that if Al told her, he would march right down to Slytherin and hex him into another dimension. "I could hold onto it if you want. Rose will be back in the morning."
He was tempted to keep the plant, knowing that if he did they'd likely wind up in the Slytherin fireplace. His better judgment won. "Yeah, sure. Thanks."
Lily nodded and he turned, wanting to get the hell away from here. "Scorpius?"
Scorpius glanced over his shoulder. "Yeah?"
"You won't ... tell anyone, right?"
He could, couldn't he? While she was of age, it was against Hogwarts' rules to leave school grounds without permission. It would cause a fair bit of scandal for Finnigan and he doubted very much that Rose's parents (especially her dad) would appreciate the Chudley Cannons's Golden Boy doing God knows what to their daughter during their stay in Muggle London. Overnight. What did a 19-year old Quidditch star want with a schoolgirl anyway? He probably had a few birds on the side. Quidditch players were treated like royalty, women threw themselves at them, and their wild parties and lurid affairs filled the gossip pages of the Daily Prophet. He would be doing Rose a favor if he told her parents what she was doing. Sure, she'd be mad at him now but he'd be saving her a lot of heartbreak down the road.
And if he tried hard enough, he could make himself believe that.
"No, I won't."
She visibly relaxed at this. "Have a Happy Christmas."
"Yeah, you too."