Letting Go – Chapter 1

A new wizarding family moved into the house next door the summer before my third year.

My mother had come back from inviting them to dinner when she announced that Holly Davis – the recently retired Chaser of the Chudley Cannons – was living next door. And being that Hugo and I were raised by Ronald Weasley, we began jumping up and down – ecstatic.

But when they came over later that day, it wasn't Holly Davis that took my breath away and got my heart pounding, but her son – Patrick Davis.

Being thirteen at the time, I didn't know much about love, but I was sure what I felt was it or at least something closely resembling it.

Time had slowed down and he seemed to glow about him. By the time dinner was served, I was smitten.

Over the years, we talked somewhat frequently – polite hellos and the occasional conversation, but we never became close until the summer before my sixth year.

xxxxxx

Patrick Davis was the ideal man.

When I told Scorpius this he scoffed. "I doubt that."

"He is!" I said.

He shook his head, "No."

"Yes!"

"No, Rose, he isn't."

"Yes, Scorpius, he is!"

He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair. "How is he the ideal man?"

"First," I said, counting off on my fingers, "he's smart. Second, he's good-looking. Third, he plays Quidditch and he's amazing at it. Fourth, he's funny. Fifth, he's charming. Sixth, he's filthy rich. Seventh, his mother is a legend – Chaser of the Cannons."

"His mother is not a legend," Scorpius cut in, "The Chudley Cannons are not that great – at all."

I glared, "You dare to interrupt me and to insult my Quidditch team?"

"The Cannons are not your Quidditch team. You have to like Quidditch in order to have a Quidditch team," he said, "and you don't like Quidditch."

I crossed my arms. "That's not relevant," I said.

"Fine," he said. "Continue with your list."

"Eighth, he's extremely tall."

"Which is good since you're such a giant," Scorpius said.

I chucked the quill I was holding at him.

"No need for violence," he smirked, leaning easily to the left to avoid contact.

I glared. "Ninth, he's polite. Tenth, he's nice. Lastly and most importantly, he likes me."

"And you know that how?"

"I just do," I said, "…girls have an intuition for these kinds of things."

"But you, Rose, cannot really be considered a girl," he said, "You know, with all your Doc Martens and strange distaste for anything girly at all."

I leaned over the table and smacked him – hard – on the arm.

"Again with the violence," he said, rubbing his arm. "You really do need to control your urges to hit and throw things at people."

I would have smacked him again, but I then remembered why I was telling him about Patrick Davis and why he was the ideal man.

"No smack?" He asked, surprised. "I'm impressed."

"Shut up."

He smirked, and then asked, "So, Rose Weasley, what do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?"

"I know you well enough, Rose, to know that you didn't make a list of why Patrick Davis is the ideal man then recite the list to me for no reason."

"Fine," I said. "I have a favor to ask of you."

"Shoot," he said, "I'm all ears."

xxxxxx

Scorpius and I became friends after my break up with my first boyfriend – James Danielson.

Sarah Landon, my best friend, started suspecting something was up two weeks before he broke up with me. So, when he had pulled me aside after Transfiguration and said that 'we needed to talk', I knew it was over. He had said that he wasn't ready for a serious commitment yet and that we should break up.

He was one year older than me, a sixth year at the time, and I thought that he was wonderful, new, exciting, so when he broke up with me I was crushed.

The following day, at lunch, he had a new girlfriend – a girl who clung to his arm and twirled her too-long, too-manicured fingers into his perfect hair. He didn't even do so as to glance at me.

"He's an arse," Sarah had said. "Don't pay any attention to him."

Albus had glared. "Definitely an arse."

James had sympathetically patted my hand. "I'm glad he's gone, now there's only one James again and that's me," he smiled lightly, "the way it should be."

James's jokes didn't help as much they usually did, so I had skipped following class, Herbology (I could apologize to Uncle Neville later) and ran to the library instead. Once inside my own, personal sanctuary, I had sunk to the ground, leaning against the door, full out bawling.

Only a few moments had passed before the doors were opened again, resulting in me falling backwards.

A very surprised Scorpius stood there, holding a stack of books and a handful of new quills.

I quickly stood up.

"Sorry," he had quietly mumbled.

And I wasn't sure why, but the entire situation fell to my shoulders again with that simple 'sorry' and I started bawling again.

Alarmed and still shocked, Scorpius had stood there, completely dumbfounded and frozen. After a minute, he regained movement and moved to open the library doors open again, dropping his books to the ground, before helping me back inside.

Once inside, I again sank to the floor. After I had finished crying, I looked back up. Scorpius was sitting on the ground across from me. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I had nodded. "Sorry for crying."

"You don't have to apologize," he replied. He reached into his robes, pulling a handkerchief and handing it to me.

"You carry a handkerchief?" I asked, taking it.

A light pink tinge appeared on his cheeks as he nodded. "Don't judge."

"I won't," I smiled, blowing my nose into it. It was edged with green and had an embroidered serpent in the corner. I never really understood the pride that Slytherins seemed to have toward their House.

"Good," he replied.

And for a while, you could hear nothing but my sniffling and hiccups. Finally, my sniffling had stopped and my hiccupping had seized.

"Here," I stuck the handkerchief out for him to take back. We both looked at it, the handkerchief that I had spent the last ten minutes or so crying and sneezing into and we both started to laugh, and suddenly I felt relief, not burdened by a boy and the end of my first relationship, and it was wonderful. "I'll keep it," I said, once our laughing had stopped (or rather, my laughs and his mild chuckles).

He nodded, also smiling, "Yeah, that's a good idea." He stood up, sticking his hand out to help me up. I took it and he pulled me up.

"Thank you," I said.

He waved his hand in a 'no problem' motion and said, "Contrary to what some people believe, I am a decent guy," he paused for a moment before adding, "occasionally."

I smiled. "Well, again, thank you."

He nodded. "You're welcome."

I walked out of the library, turning back to wave. He gave a small, half-smile and nod in response and we both turned and went our separate ways.

I was sure that things after that were going to go back to normal – he would continue hanging out with his Slytherin friends and I with my Gryffindor ones, and we would probably never talk ever again. At least, that was what I thought until the next day.

I had been studying in the library when he appeared again. He gestured toward the empty seat across from me. "Mind if I sit?"

"Go ahead," I had replied.

"Thanks," He sat down.

"Are we friends now?" I asked, after a moment, looking up at him.

He smiled. "Sure we are," he said, then paused before adding, "but if my father, like, goes after you or something you were warned."

I laughed. "Same goes with my father."

He chuckled. "Okay, then it's settled. We're friends."

I nodded. "Friends."

And the hatred my parents (or more specifically, my father) had towards his father, didn't seem to matter so much anymore, and the small piece of resentment my father had taught me toward the Malfoy family was gone and replaced with gratitude for what he had done for me the previous day.

And that's how Scorpius Malfoy and I became friends.

xxxxxx

"You asked him?" Sarah asked, surprised. "I mean, you actually asked him."

"You told me to!" I said. "And I'm also going to take this time to point out that this was your plan to begin with."

"Don't blame me for this," she said, "and I didn't actually think you would go through with it!" She paused, "What did he say?"

"He looked at me like I was crazy and then after about a minute of silence, he left."

"He left?"

"He left."

"What do you think that meant?"

"What do you think what meant?" James asked, as he and Albus sat down.

"Rose asked Scorpius Malfoy to be her boyfriend today," Sarah replied.

Traitor.

Albus and James stared at me in complete shock. "What?!"

xxxxxx

"You have gone barmy," Scorpius said later that day. As usual, we were in the library. I had been studying for my Potions exam later that week when he interrupted me. "Really, Rose, you should get it checked out."

"I have not gone barmy," I said, closing my Potions book, folding down the corner of the page to mark my spot.

"You have," he said.

"I have not."

"You have."

"Have not!"

Sometimes, we went on for hours, but in this case Scorpius just wanted to get straight to the point. "Asking me to be your … boyfriend," He said, "is just not normal."

"You didn't even give me a chance to explain myself," I said. "I don't want you to actually be my boyfriend."

"Really?" He smiled, looking mildly pleased.

"I want you to pretend that you're my boyfriend."

His face dropped. "What?"

"You know how much I like Patrick Davis, right?" I asked.

"Very, very, very, very much?" He guessed.

I nodded, "Exactly. So I like him, and I know that he likes me, and frankly, if we're not together by the end of the year, I'll be depressed."

"I'm not sure if I like the girly side of Rose that I've been seeing so much of lately," he said.

I ignored him. "Well, two days ago he started dating that Hufflepuff – Theresa something-or-another."

"So you want me to pretend to be your boyfriend to make him jealous?"

"Yes," I nodded. "I'm Rose Weasley, Scorpius. I fight for my man."

"Your man?" He asked. "So you are fighting for your man by trying to make him jealous by pretending to date me."

I nodded. "Yes."

He stared at me.

I stared back. "Will you do it?"

Finally, he said. "How do you know he'll get jealous?"

"Oh," I said. "Believe me, he'll get jealous."

"Rose, I don't know if he even likes you," he said truthfully.

"Scorpius, believe me, he does."

"I've never seen him talk to you, though," he said.

"Scorpius," I said. "He likes me."

He adjusted in his seat and stared at me again, crossing his arms. "Why do you want him so badly?"

The real reason was too hard to explain, so I simply said, "It's complicated."

"So you're not going to tell me?"

"I'm not not going to tell you," I said. "I'm just not going to tell you right now."

He didn't pry, just shifted in his seat again and asked, "Why me?"

"Because the only males I hang out with on a regular basis are you, Albus and James, and well, I don't really want to pretend to date my cousins."

He paused again. "What's in it for me?"

"Um," I said, thinking, "… shiny money?" I flashed him a smile.

"I have plenty of shiny money," he replied, lightheartedly. "I'm a Malfoy."

"Fine," I said. "What about just the comfort and happiness of helping a friend?"

"That's not good enough," he said. "You're going to have to give me something wonderful, because if I do this, I'll be taking this," he gestured toward his body, "off the market."

I smacked him, "Stop being conceited."

He smiled.

"What about," I started slowly, "What about that thing you've been after for a long time now – ever since you found out about it."

"What?"

"That thing."

His eyes brightened as he got it. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Your Chocolate Frog cards?"

"Yes."

He grinned widely. "You're going to give your extremely rare, wonderful collection of Chocolate Frog cards?"

I never really understood his love toward my collection. "Yes."

"Then I'm in," he said. "Rose Weasley, I will pretend to be your boyfriend to make what's-his-face jealous in exchange for your wonderfully rare collection of your Chocolate Frog cards and also, you'll also be pretty much in debt to me for the rest of your life."

"Deal," I said, sticking my hand out for him to shake.

He shook it. "Deal."

Author's Note: I know that this is an extremely overused clichéd plot, but I simply couldn't resist! Though the idea of the plot is definitely less than original, I am definitely hoping to take my own turn and spin on things. Hopefully you enjoyed, and don't forget to leave a review! Thanks! :)

Also, this is around mid-November 2022, Rose's 6th year. :)

Disclaimer: Don't own anything in/relating to the Harry Potter Universe (sadly)