Authors Note: Hello fellow fandom people! This is the first fanfic that I have written so please review and don't be too harsh. Let me know what I need to work on and what I have done well so I can continue to make things better. This will most likely consist of three or four chapters so keep waiting until I release them!
But for now, Ciao!
Reporter Z
Flying blurs of green and silver zipped around the pitch and passed Rose Weasley-Granger, ruffling her vibrant hair and fluttering her quidditch robes. She had come down early to the Quidditch Pitch to practise flying before she joined her fellow Gryffindor players at practice. What she didn't count on was that the opposing team, Slytherin, were also practising for the upcoming Quidditch match.
The match in question was supposed to be the most important of the Quidditch season at Hogwarts - the winner would advance to the final against Hufflepuff. Unspoken rivalries between the two houses hung around the halls like a thick fog, choking the two houses into a bitter resentment of their opposition.
Rose was one of these people, and although her Mother, as Minister, encouraged her towards inter-house unity, she failed to see Quidditch as just a game. This was war and emotions were running high.
Her caramel brown eyes darted from player to player in an attempt to distinguish them. Then she saw him, above the stadium, above the rest. His shock of platinum blond hair and slightly tanned skin - a momento from his long summer in Egypt - made him easily identifiable as he flipped and flitted above the clouds, having the time of his life. A prefect and the seeker on the quidditch team just like her. The anchor of her rage and frustration on a daily basis. Scorpius Malfoy.
It wasn't as if he had done anything personally to deserve her rage. He was actually a sweet boy. Kind, sweet, handsome…
Rose shook her head, she couldn't be thinking about the enemy. He had slanted her family's name by befriending Albus, in turn making him the laughing stock of the school. The way she saw it, if Albus hadn't befriended him on the Hogwarts Express, he wouldn't have even wanted to go into Slytherin! It was all just a state of mind.
Suddenly, the emerald coloured speck began advancing closer towards her. He was coming this way she realized. He seemed to have spotted her. Damn his seeker eyes! Tightening her hold on her broom, she swung it over her shoulder, trying to appear nonchalant. Her heart began to quicken pace and the frantic thumping didn't stop.
"Hey Rose!" he exclaimed excitedly, his deep admiral eyes lighting up at the sight of her. "What are you doing here?"
"I was going to get some extra practise before the team came, but I realized that your team was playing here." she responded curtly, "Sorry to have bothered you."
She turned to head back to the Gryffindor Change Rooms when his hand encompassed her arm. Warmth tingled up her arm everywhere he touched, travelling through her body and making her neck heat up with a taffy hue. She turned to see Scorpius looking sheepish, quickly dropping her arm, seeming to know that he crossed a line. She somewhat wished that he hadn't stopped, the satisfying flutters were dying away.
His face was flushed red as he opened his mouth to speak. He isn't blushing Rose told herself, he just came off his broom, he was more than 20 feet high in the air for goodness sake! She was so preoccupied forcefully convincing herself of this, she missed what he had to say.
"Sorry, could you repeat that please?" Rose asked.
"I was just asking if you want to come and watch our practice. There's only about ten minutes left and since we've finished all of our strategies and plays I'm sure that the captain will be fine. Albus is watching and I am sure he won't mind you sitting with him," he said rather excitedly with a giddy smile. Then his expression changed.
"If you don't want to that's fine, I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to sit alone," he murmured sadly, his happy expression wilting.
Rose wanted to wipe off that unhappy face so she said what would be sure to cheer him up.
"That would be wonderful, Scorpius."
"Of course, I understand that you don't-" he started.
Then he looked up and stared at her as if she had grown two heads.
"Wait, what did you say?"
"I said that would be wonderful, I don't really want to be alone in the changerooms and I could use the time to catch up with Albus."
What she failed to mention was the real reason, the fact that she wanted to see him play. After all, he was a superb seeker. That's what she told herself anyway.
Scorpius' face sparkled with delight as he pointed towards where a figure clothed in emerald green sat in a nearby stand.
"That's Albus over there. I better get back to training or the captain will have my head!"
He grinned quickly, gave her a two finger mock salute and scurried back to where the rest of the Slytherin team was training.
Once he left, Rose bounded up to the stands where Albus Potter sat. When he was first sorted as a Slytherin back in First Year, Rose wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. At first, her parents asked her to get closer to him in the Fourth Year to make sure that he was alright, but after he and Scorpius came back from having to face You-Know-Whos daughter. She had made another effort to get closer to him in an attempt of them becoming best friends again.
"Wotcher Rose!" he called down to her.
"Albus!" she huffed after getting up the stair. You would have thought that constantly training for Quidditch as well as rushing to all of her extracurricular classes would keep her fit. Apparently not.
She sat next to him, giving him a side hug.
"So, how are things with Alice Longbottom?" she questioned, referring to his longtime crush. They met at Three Broomsticks a few years before, realizing that they were in many of the same classes.
"She great actually, I think she's starting to notice me. You know last week in potions she-" he paused. "Wait, what are you doing here?" he questioned, quirking his eyebrow in her direction.
"Well, I came down here to practise on my own before the Gryffindor Quidditch Team came down," she started, "but when I got here, the Slytherin team was already on the pitch and I had forgotten they booked it."
Albus gave her a look but stayed silent.
"Then Scorpius came down and asked me-"
"Hold on," interrupted Albus. "Since when do you call him Scorpius?"
"Isn't that his name?" inquired Rose, amusement lacing her tone.
"It's always been Malfoy with you, what has changed?"
"We grew up Al, that's what normal people do," she laughed
"You know what I mean," Albus snapped.
"No need to get annoyed. I guess I've just been seeing him more in Prefect meetings and we've been put together on patrol, and although he constantly asks me on dates, he's not that bad."
A gigantic grin plastered itself to his face.
"So what you are saying is that while you have been going out on patrol..."
"No, no nothing like that!" Rose interrupted waving her hands at him to stop. She felt her neck colour at what Albus was suggesting.
"Don't get me wrong, I still hate his guts and I am definitely not interested," she paused to look meaningfully at Albus. "I've just found him to be slightly more tolerable the last few months."
"'Slightly more tolerable', that's progress," he muttered under his breath.
Before she could scold him for jumping to conclusions, a sweaty but dazzling looking Scorpius flew up to them. Dismounting from his broom, he tumbled into a perfect somersault, hands still around his broom and landing perfectly on the bench next to Rose. Her jaw dropped and Albus scolded Scorpius for his stunt.
"One day you are going to get yourself killed by showing off!" he scolded mockingly, fighting off the smile that threatened to take over his stern facade.
"Never mind my stunting genius, what are you talking about?" asked Scorpius as he entered the now awkward conversation.
Albus shot a sly smirk at his cousin, " We were actually talking about-"
"The weather!" Rose blurted, "Yes, the weather," she nodded resolutely, before glaring at Albus.
"But-" Albus began.
"Isn't that right Albus," she sneered firmly as if daring him to continue.
Looking put out, he nodded along as well.
"Okay then…" put in Scorpius with uncertainty, before turning his full attention on Rose.
"So what did you think of the practice Rose, you ready to admit defeat?"
Despite not even watching the session, she pulled out a cocky grin.
"The only thing that you have made me sure of is to bring a dustpan and broom for all of your shattered egos' on game day. Do you think that three buckets will fit them all in."
"If you're wondering, you better make it five. But just like all of our egos, our chances of winning are huge!"
"You weren't even watc-"
Rose shut him up with a swift kick.
"Owww," he whined. "What was that for?"
She brought out the death glare.
Albus whimpered in his seat and shimmied back from her.
"What did Al say?" Scorpius inquired.
She turned her death glare on him. Scorpius seemed to curl up with fear.
"Merlin, you're scary Rosie!"
Her cheeks turned rosy, just as he said. He had a nickname? For her? Out of the corner of her eyes, he could see that Albus was questioning this too so she let this slide and changed the subject that would involve less embarrassment.
"If that's all that it takes to make a Slytherin quiver in their boots, this game will be a piece of treacle tart!" Rose chuckled.
"Are you that confident?" he challenged with a competitive glint in his eye.
Rose smirked and nodded her head.
"Prove it!" he said edging closer towards her, as though to make her feel intimidated.
"How about a bet?" piped up Albus, slicing the tension in the room.
"I don't want anything from him," stated Rose, confused.
"Ahh, but you do, Rosie," Albus simpered mockingly. " You said it yourself moments ago when we were talking."
What was he talking about she was just talking about- oh? Now, this was a deal she could get behind.
"If Gryffindor wins, Scorpius won't ask me out for a month," she said slowly as if sounding out the idea.
"Excellent, and if Slytherin wins?" Albus turned around.
"And if Slytherin wins," stated Scorpius, "I want a kiss."
Out of all the things he could have asked for, he just wanted a kiss? That was all? Surely he would use this as leverage over her. It was kind of sweet actually. She voiced her concerns to him.
"I would never force myself on you. I like you and you know that."
"So, are you in?" Rose smiled deviously.
Scorpius' eyes were now dangerously hard, swirling like liquid iron. Determination injected his voice as he stuck out his hand and shook it.
"It's game time."
