Chapter 1: January
"Scorpius Malfoy are you honestly going to tell me that you rather stand out here in the hall of this train instead of go into the last available compartment simply because your cousin is in there?" Rose Weasley argued crossing her arms as she stared down her friend.
"That is exactly what I am saying." He countered giving her the same expression.
Rose sighed as she tugged on her burlap back pack that hung off one of her shoulders. Scorpius was being ridiculous and as much as his stubbornness bothered her she remained still. "You are acting like a child." Looking through the window of the compartment she saw as her friend Cathleen noticed the pair standing outside and gave an odd expression. Rose motioned one moment with her finger before turning back to the pale haired blue eyed boy "Don't tell me that this has to do with the fact that Marcus made you eat dirt when you were five."
"No," Scorpius quickly sighing said "I just don't like him."
"Fine," she stated simply as if it was the end of the discussion, reaching her hand out she lifter her finger on the clutch that opened the door "You can stand out here and not like him all you want I however am going to go inside and sit with my friend who I have not seen all break."
"I'm a friend that you haven't seen all break either," Scorpius argued.
"True, but you are also a friend that is being completely and unrealistically unreasonable." And with those last words she opened the door and walked inside leaving Scorpius to brood.
Once inside the compartment she gave a kind nod to Cathleen's twin brother Clark and Scorpius' cousin Marcus who kept his eyes closed. Taking the seat beside her friend Rose smiled as she situated herself.
"What is he doing out there?" Cathleen asked leaning her head into Rose.
"He's in a stubborn mood today." She said turning her head to look through the compartment window watching as Scorpius leaned against the door with his arms crossed. A few seconds later his shoulders sagged as the boy turned around and unlatched the door to walk in, which gave Rose a very pleased look.
"I knew you wouldn't be far behind," Marcus stated still with his eyes shut "Not with her in here," He opened his eyes and looked to Rose giving her a curt nod before focusing his attention to Scorpius. "That is unless you just missed me,"
"No, Christmas was enough to last me a while," Scorpius bluntly said taking the seat beside Rose heaving a loud breath.
"Now is that the any way to treat your favorite cousin," Marcus said in that arrogant way of his.
"You're my only cousin," Scorpius mumbled as he shoved his bag under his seat. Which caused Rose to pinch Scorpius in the arm. "Ouch," he said giving her a dirty look.
"Be polite," she mouthed silently never one to accept any form of rude behavior from anyone. Marcus catching onto Scorpius' scolding gave a light humph and rolled his eyes.
The silence was awkwardly dry as the five sixth years sat. "So Clark," Rose said to relieve the tension "Cathleen told me that you got that Science of Mystery Creatures book that you wanted, is it any good?"
Clark relaxed his eyes becoming wide "Oh it's absolutely amazing did you know that there is this Lizard in the Amazon that can catch its prey simply by looking it in the eye and twisting its stomach inside out killing it instantly."
"That's disgusting," Both Marcus and Scorpius said at the same time each giving one another an awkward glance and then looking back to Clark.
"I thought I wrote not to mention that book," Cathleen said through gritted teeth as she plastered on a fake smile that Clark saw right through making him laugh.
Rose gave a light laugh to Cathleen "I thought that it sounded rather interesting,"
"Sure it was interesting before I spent two full weeks listening to him talk about nothing else besides that book." Cathleen's face had become dead set and serious.
Rose smiled "Still I would love to barrow it when you are finished." Clark gave a grateful smirk that at least someone seemed interested.
Being her usual chipper self, Rose reached into her back pack which was sitting in her lap and pulling out a rectangular metal tin box that had two carved stars on the cover. Opening it up there was a small stack of triangular cut cucumber sandwiches with no crust, and carrot sticks which had been chopped into perfect long squires. There was a thin divider line between the sandwiches and the carrots so that they couldn't mix together.
Marcus eyed the case "Nice box," he said sarcastically "I haven't had one of those since I was five."
Rose looked at him not seeming hurt or even the slightest bit embarrassed by his comment, instead she just extended the box to him "Would you like one?"
Marcus narrowed his eyes slightly taken off guard by her response "I'll pass," he said.
Accepting his refusal Rose turned to Clark who didn't hesitate to grab one of the sandwiches.
"I'll have one," Cathleen said about to pick up one.
"Of course you would," Marcus said looking at Cathleen's hand with disgust.
Rose's eyes went wide as Cathleen lowered her hand averting her gaze to a spot on the floor hoping to cover the bright red spots that were covering her face.
Cathleen had always been somewhat overweight, reaching her heaviest point back in third year and very few people back then would let her forget it. Unable to take the nasty things that the other students would say she began to exercise and watch what she ate and it was with Rose's help and encouragement that she stuck with it believing that she could do it. Even though she was now half the size that she used to be she still couldn't forget how mean people were or their judgmental eyes every time she would reach for something to eat. Taking a shaky breath Cathleen stood up "Excuse me," she whispered walking out of the compartment.
Rose stared at the sandwich in the tin box listening as Scorpius said "Congratulations we aren't even back to Hogwarts yet and you have already made a girl cry, that might be a new record for you."
"Seriously mate did you have to do that?" Clark asked.
Marcus not seeming the slightest bit bothered shrugged his shoulders "For merlin's sake it was a joke." And he laughed. Clark was silent for second before he started to laugh weakly with Marcus, not willing to stand up to his friend.
Slowly putting the lid on the box Rose stood from her seat and narrowed her eyes at the boy with dark brown hair and eyes so deep they could have been black. Marcus stopped laughing and met Rose's glare. Clearing her throat she began to say "You know if you ever took the time to care about someone besides yourself…"
But Marcus interrupted rolling his eyes to her "Oh are you going to give me a lecture now?"
Rose rarely said anything that could be viewed as impolite or rude but there was something about seeing her friend, who had spent the past two years working hard on being fit, walk away in tears that made her make an exception "No I'm not going to lecture you Marcus because you're not worth the time it would take to do it." Marcus' face went hard, his lips in a scowl and his eyes wide as he watched Rose silently leave the compartment.
Now that may not seem like such a horrible comment but Rose Weasley was the type of person who never got angry and Scorpius had never once heard her speak ill of anyone. She was one of the rare few who had the ability to forgive someone unconditionally and believe in their best even if they couldn't. So for her to make a comment like that it was the equivalent of telling someone to rot in hell.
Marcus remained still if anyone else had said something like that to him he would have thought nothing about it but having the one person who could hate no one say that to him… well it did tug at him slightly.
"Let me rephrase now you have out done yourself." Scorpius stated.
Marcus gave a snarky laugh as he attempted to cover up the fact that Rose had actually insulted him. "Oh your little friend is annoying anyways," pausing he spat "Please tell me that you are getting sort of perks out of that."
"First of all don't talk about her like that." Scorpius warned darkly. She would have gotten on to him if she knew that he had just defended her always saying that people were entitled to their own opinions no matter how bad they were, but she wasn't here to find out. "And second just because I'm friends with a girl doesn't mean that I have to be sleeping with her, unlike you who shags just about every girl you see."
Returning back to his usual state Marcus wagged his eyebrows "Only the attractive ones." There was silence as Scorpius was not about to respond to the statement. "Not that you would know about shagging or hell even talking to a girl that is unless her name happens to be the same as a very clichéd flower."
"Marcus I'm not completely ignorant I have had a girlfriend before." Mentioned Scorpius.
Giving a come on look Marcus said "Yeah a girlfriend who you broke up with because she didn't like Rose,"
"No I broke up with her because she was mental," Scorpius corrected.
"She was mental because you spent more time with Rose than with her." Marcus finished daring Scorpius to prove him wrong.
"My personal life is really none of your business." Scorpius said hoping to put the conversation to rest.
Marcus "I bet that you couldn't get one girl in this school,"
"I can't believe we are actually having this conversations," Scorpius groaned out uncrossing his arms "I guarantee that I could get any girl in this school," he said matter of factly.
"Oh really?" Marcus said doubtfully.
Scorpius seemed to think the question over "If I wanted to yes," Scorpius wasn't shy but he was more reserved than his fellow classmates and things that they thought were fun he often times found to be rather childish and silly for that reason he tended to stick mainly with Rose.
"What about twelve?" Marcus had a questioning look in his eye.
"Twelve what?" Scorpius asked about ready to punch Marcus in the face out of frustration.
"Twelve girls, in twelve months." Marcus said clearly.
Scorpius had a disgusted look on his face "Merlin, you truly are unbelievable,"
"No I'm not," he said quickly, his eyes sparkling with excitement at his own idea "You charm your way into the hearts of twelve girls, one for every month. I pick the girl at the beginning of each month and assign you a small task that you must accomplish in order to move on. Every month the girls will get pickier and the task will become more difficult to accomplish."
"And what makes you think that I would go along with something as barbaric as that?" Scorpius scoffed turning his eyes to the window, watching as the trees flashed by.
Marcus was quiet before getting a sinister grin upon his face "Because I have something that you desperately want, something that you would stop at nothing to get."
That seemed to spark Scorpius' attention as he raised his head to meet his cousin's eyes. "You know," he said straightening himself up as if the prospect of the deal was becoming more enticing "We both are turning seventeen soon and this time next year our grandfather Hubert Greengrass will be retiring." Marcus began to strum his fingers on his knee "As you know the board has named me the heir to Greengrass Clockworks." He said in a superior way
Scorpius couldn't deny the fact that his heart was pounding at the mention of his grandfather's legacy. Remaining quiet he listened to Marcus' every word
"They're like heartbeats," Scorpius commented remembering that day over summer two years ago. His grandfather smiled in agreement as the two entered into his workshop. Scorpius was the only one in the family who had inherited the same passion for clocks as his grandfather. He had been inside the workshop dozens of times but that never stopped his heart from racing the slightest bit when his grandfather opened the door revealing the room.
Inside were hundreds of clocks no two exactly alike. There were old ones and new ones, ones which his grandfather had invented and ones that were created by astronomers, some with magical charms enlaced within them and others that only knew how to tell the time.
Scorpius could never get over how many different types of clocks that were in the room and how he was one of the few people who were ever allowed into Hubert Greengrass' private collection. Dozens hung along the wall, while Skeleton and Mantel clocks were aligned on rows of shelves, grandfather clocks with their baritone pendulum were along the east wall, and grandmother clocks with their tea time callings along the west, pocket watches sat on display restored to their original beauty, and of course there were the wrist watches. The wrist watches that nearly every witch or wizard traditionally received on the arrival of their seventeenth birthday.
"There has been a lot of debate over who the heir of the company should be," Hubert said slowly watching as the boy shifted his eyes down to the ground. "As you know there were contracts made by investors who helped me build the company when I was young and didn't have any money to my name." He remained still as his grandson began to fidget and move about the room.
Scorpius bent down to the case of pocket watches immediately catching onto the tick that was a half beat behind "This one's off," he pointed out attempting to avoid the subject. Waiting until he had his grandfather's nod of approval Scorpius carefully reached down and picked up the watch.
Opening the face he began to tweak with the gears until the ticking was in perfect unison with the rest. "Scorpius," he heard his grandfather say in a voice that adults only used when they had to give bad news to a kid, not bearing to look up he remained still. "Unfortunately those contracts do give the investors a certain amount of control in the company which I am legally bound to abide by."
He didn't need to hear the rest knowing why his grandfather brought him down here "This is all I have wanted since I was five."
His grandfather sighed, knowing that Scorpius was being honest and if he had it his way there would have been no debate. "I'm sorry, but the company is going to Marcus."
Scorpius held the watch in his hand feeling as it beat against his palm matching the pace of his heart "It's my name right? It's because I'm a Malfoy." Hubert didn't say yes but he most certainly did not say no. Scorpius sighed as he tenderly placed the pocket watch back on the velvet pillow that it sat. Looking to his grandfather's eyes they seemed as if they hated telling him the news, "It's the reason for everything."
"You win this bet," Marcus said pulling Scorpius out of his thoughts "And I'll give you the company," his words meant to seduce him and they were.
Scorpius releasing a breath he hadn't realized that he had been holding "And what's in it for you?" he almost whispered his face emotionless.
Marcus gave a look that only villains had ever accomplished. A look that said he knew he had gotten to Scorpius. "Besides the entertainment factor," he suggested pretending that he hadn't already thought of what his benefit would be "When the day comes that Grandfather Greengrass signs the company over to me you don't say a word, you remain silent and still as you watch me take your dreams."
Scorpius' jaw fell, as he thought. He knew that the only chance he would have of getting the company was to appeal the board on the day of the signing. Plea with them that he was the rightful choice and give them a valid reason as to why he was better than Marcus, prove that his name would not affect the company… then he might have a chance. It was a very small chance but it was the only chance he had, that was until now.
It was as if the air had been sucked out of the room waiting for his response, Clark and Marcus both on the edge of their seats.
"Deal," and he breathed.
A/N: Alright so this is something way different than any Scorpius/Rose thing that I have done on the site, so I hope that it is not awful. At the same time I hope that it is realistic I know that the concept is slightly weird but I hope that it doesn't come across as Random or unbelievable. Also what do you think of Rose, in my other stories I have always written her as a bit sassy and with this one I have taken an extremely opposite role with her.
So my plan is to have about 1-3 chapter per each month, because some months aren't going to have as much going on as others. I am taking the story throughout the entire twelve months. Please Review and tell me if this story works I really am curious because it is so different from what I have done in the past. Anyways thank you for reading and giving the first chapter a chance and once again please review.
I'll be back soon with an update.