DISCLAIMER: nothing you recognise is mine. I wish I could write characters like JK or lyrics like Billie Joe.

This was the kind of party Rose liked. There was alcohol, yes, but only just enough to take the edge off, to make everything softer – not enough to get anyone really drunk. The music wasn't too loud, the people weren't too grabby, and since it wasn't a post-Quidditch-match party, no one was feeling particularly angry towards a certain house. It was a nice kind of party, on a nice kind of summer night at the end of her sixth year, just after exams. Her cousin James, who was graduating that year, had decided to throw a party in celebration of the fact, all houses invited. He'd considered the Room of Requirement at first, but upon realising that the situation could get very... funky if someone realised all they had to do was want something and it'd appear, he'd had Louis Weasley talk McGonagall into letting them use a classroom. Because Louis Weasley, cousin to both of them and great-grandson of a Veela, could talk the ass off anyone he wanted when he was in the mood, and after sixth-year exams – the most gruelling yet – he was in the mood.

The classroom was a good thing, Rose mused. It had a large window to let the sunlight in, and once the desks were pushed to the walls it was really quite roomy. One of the desks, however, had been left out. Rose eyed it distastefully. As if she was going to get drunk enough to stand up on tables and sing again. She had learned from the first time, thank you very much... although she couldn't deny the first time had been quite entertaining.

–––––

-THREE MONTHS AGO-

Rose chugged back another swig of her Butterbeer. Her head was beginning to swim pleasantly, and the red and blue masses of people began to blend into each other. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, which meant that Ravenclaw was in second place for the Cup, which in turn meant that both Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were very happy. Which in turn meant that James, Captain of the Quidditch team like his father before him (and his father before him) immediately threw a party in the Gryffindor common room. Because it was match day, everyone was decked out in their house colours, regardless of who was actually playing. Which led to Rose seeing blurry red-and-blue masses – Gryffindors were celebrating their victory, Ravenclaws were celebrating the fact that Hufflepuff didn't gain enough points to surpass them, Hufflepuffs were off somewhere mourning their loss and Slytherins were too bitter about the fact that they were currently last to attend any sort of parties. So it was mainly only Gryffindors and Ravenclaws at the party. Them, and a lot of alcohol. Muggle music from the turn of the century was playing from a stereo somewhere, and no one really cared that it was exclusively Muggle.

"Hey there, Rose," a voice slurred somewhere to her left.

"Hey, Shcorpius," she greeted her fellow Ravenclaw prefect, enemy-turned-best-friend Scorpius Malfoy. "What's up?"

"Why, the shky, Rosie dear," Scorpius replied. "Hadn't you noticed?"

"Verrry funny," Rose said, putting her hand on his shoulder and looking into his eyes. "I'm dyyyyying of laughter here." Scorpius looked offended and opened his mouth to say something, but Rose shushed him as what she recognised to be the opening bars of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams filled the room. "I love this song!" she told Scorpius, bouncing in excitement.

"Do you now?" he asked.

She nodded happily and started singing the first lines. "I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known..."

Scorpius had looked up in surprise at Rose's surprisingly on-key singing. During the first instrumental, he'd looked at her very seriously and said, "Rosie, I think you should get up on a table." Rose hadn't really seen the point, but she hadn't seen a reason not to either, so she complied, and didn't protest when Scorpius sent a Sonorous Charm her way, actually managing not to miss. As the singing started up again, so did she, using her wand as a makeshift microphone even though her voice was already being amplified – she wanted something to hold on to.

And when the song ended a few minutes later, the fun didn't.

–––––

But she wasn't nearly as smashed now as she had been then, and anyway, the music they were playing now was some horrible... thing that Muggles called techno and she called utter shit. It's not like she could sing along to that. It's not like she actually wanted to get up on that table and be the centre of attention, for once because of her own achievements and not her parents' or Uncle Harry's or someone equally famous and annoying. Just her, Rose Weasley, doing something she was good at.

No, that didn't sound appealing at all.

"Hey, Rose," a voice said somewhere to her left, considerably more sober than it had been last time they were in a situation like this.

"Hey, Scorpius," she said, turning around with a smile. Scorpius was standing there looking the same as ever , with his blonde hair falling all over the place and his grey eyes looking faintly amused. Scorpius tended to be good company at parties – providing he himself was sober, he was good keeping Rose from drinking too much. Say, enough to dance on tabletops. Not that she was dancing... but still.

"So," he said with a sideways glance at the solitary table. "Planning on an encore tonight?"

"I'm not planning on anything," she said, "but you know, plans change."

"I see how it is," Scorpius said, tossing an orange from one hand to the other. "Would you perhaps like another drink?"

"Dear Merlin, no," Rose replied. "If I end up going up, I'm going up sober. Or, you know, merely tipsy instead of completely plastered. Probably too late for sober now." She downed the rest of her Butterbeer. "What's with the orange?"

"Huh? Oh, orange." It changed hands again. "I don't actually know... I picked it up at breakfast and put it in my pocket, intending to eat it at some point, but I couldn't bring myself to, for some reason."

"Scorpius, mate... how drunk are you again?" Rose asked, tittering.

"I'm not, actually! I've had, like, one Butterbeer. That doesn't even count as tipsy. I just mean... oranges are wonderful, aren't they?"

"Mm, sure. They taste wonderful. When you eat them. Like you're supposed to."

"I know, I know... but think about it for a minute! I mean, you have the word orange, right? And it doesn't rhyme with anything. Anything! How many words can you say that about?"

"It rhymes with door hinge," Rose pointed out.

"Yes, but that doesn't count. Moving on, don't you just love the way the word orange sounds? It's so... orange." Rose gave him a worried look. "Not to mention the actual colour orange. It's just so bright, you know? I love the colour orange, in everything. Ink, furniture, leaves, hair... everything."

Something in that sentence rang an alarm bell in Rose's brain. Orange in hair... she twirled her own ginger hair around her finger absently. "Are you done?" she asked Scorpius, amused by his rant.

"I think so," he said, pocketing the orange again. "But don't you think oranges are wonderful?"

"Sure," Rose said, not bothered to argue it out with Scorpius. He got weird like this sometimes, and it was best to just hear him out and leave it.

"So are you going to sing today?" Scorpius asked again.

"You're persistent, aren't you?" Rose laughed. "I might. If I feel like it. If this infernal music changes."

She thought she saw Scorpius nod slightly, but it could have just been a figment of her imagination. Could have been, until the music changed. She looked at him accusingly. "You sneaky little..."

"You love me for it," he said with a wink. "Now get up there."

She sighed and acquiesced, climbing onto the table and muttering a Sonorous Charm. Most of the people had stopped whatever they had been doing when the music had changed, so it wasn't too hard to get peoples' attention. Rose felt ridiculous, to be honest – the last time it had come naturally, and it had been fun, and plus they'd all been too drunk to care. Now it was all too artificial, and she felt like a fake. Nevertheless, when the song started, she sang. It was Muggle music again, another old favourite of hers, but completely different... "I heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the Lord, but you don't really care for music, do you...?" Once she'd started, she didn't really mind the unnaturalness of the situation that much. Singing was something she'd always loved. It made things better. But not better enough for Rose to stand on that table for longer than it took to sing that one (admittedly long song). Once she'd finished, she took a short bow and said, "I apologise for interrupting your evening, folks. You can all blame Scorpius over there." She pointed in his general direction. "So... I'm going to be going now. Have a good night."

"You totally enjoyed that," Scorpius said when she got back to him.

"A little bit, maybe... to be totally honest and all that... I can't help it if I like singing, now can I?"

"Singing... and public attention... mhmm."

"Shut it, Scorpius," Rose said, hitting him on the arm. "Why did you make me do it?"

"What do you mean?" Scorpius asked, confused by the sudden change in the conversation.

"Why did you make me? I mean, I would probably have ended up there eventually anyway, but why make me do it now?"

"Oh. Um." He took out his orange again. "Would it be weird if I said I love listening to you sing?"

"Why would it be weird? You're my best friend, Scorpius."

"Ah. On the topic of that... would it be weird if I said I loved you?" The orange changed hands.

"And I repeat... why would it be weird? You're my best friend." Rose tried to ignore the feeling rising inside of her – the feeling of hope. Of what if... what if Scorpius didn't mean it like that? If he meant...

The orange went back into Scorpius's pocket. "No, Rose, I... I love you. Is that weird?"

Rose grinned. "No, I don't really think it is."

He grinned, too. "Would it be weird if I kissed you now?"

"On the contrary, I think it would be rather weird if you didn't kiss me now," Rose replied as she wound her arms around his neck. She started to say something else, too, but didn't get further than opening her mouth before it was covered by Scorpius's.

–––––

A/N: Say hello to the random Rose/Scorpius fluff that spews from my brain once it's past midnight... I dunno, I kind of like it ^_^ and just by the way, the orange is in there because my friend and I were talking about how weird Scorange is and how Scorosange would be awesome do I decided to write it in.
Also, reviews make me almost as happy as cookies do. And that's saying something.