(4am and I'm still awake, writing a oneshot. If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me)

So, literally, the idea for this story just jumped into my head right as I was going to bed. It wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to get back up and start writing. This fluffy bit of nonsense is the result.

Scorpius had come to the conclusion that the worst part about detention wasn't the physical labor. It was the boredom. He stared around dismally at the pile of trophies and awards that needed to be polished. Groaning, Scorpius cursed himself for getting involved with Blaire in the first place. It was something about her eyes, he decided; they were so beautiful, so incredibly mesmerizing, that he hadn't been able to tell her no.

The door to the Trophy Room suddenly slammed opened, and Filch came stomping in, dragging a girl behind him. Shoving her forward, he snarled, "Get in there. Any more problems and you'll be polishing silver in the kitchen with the house elves!"

Muttering curses under his breath, Filch stormed back out of the room, leaving Scorpius alone with the girl. He looked at her curiously, realizing that it was Rose Weasley.

"What are you doing here?" he asked incredulously.

Rose just glared at his and shook heavy red curls out of her face. "None of your business." Looking sour, she snatched up a shield and started rubbing its surface vigorously with a rag.

Scorpius turned back to his own work, but his mind was spinning from the fact that somehow, the most straitlaced girl in his year was in detention.

"Wait," he said slowly, a thought occurring to him, "yesterday at lunch, Nott said that someone sent a bunch of Gryffindors to the Hospital Wing." Rose flushed scarlet but didn't answer. Scorpius laughed, more from astonishment than anything else, and asked, "What did you do to them?"

"Nothing," Rose said stiffly. After a moment, she added, "Nothing that they didn't deserve, anyway." When Scorpius looked at her expectantly, she sighed and said, "They were teasing me. Which isn't unusual, really, because I have so many cousins. I mean, I'm used to it. Except . . ." Her face grew red again, and she fell silent.

"Except what?" prompted Scorpius. Although he'd never admit it to any of his Slytherin friends, he was keenly interested in what had exactly gotten Rose Weasley sent to detention.

"Well, I'm not going to repeat what they said, okay?" she said hotly. "The only thing anyone seems to care about is the fact that I hexed the lot of them."

"But how did you—"

"Like I said, I have a lot of cousins. You kind of learn to fend for yourself." Rose gave him a small smile and said, "Except the spell I used was one I learned from my Aunt Ginny. Not that I told them that."

"Were there really four of them? Because that's what Nott said, but I didn't believe him."

Rose shook her head. "Only three. There was a fourth boy in the Hospital Wing, but I didn't put him there."

Scorpius looked at her, impressed. "And to think I thought you were stuffy."

"What do you mean, 'stuffy'?" Rose narrowed her eyes.

"Not stuffy, exactly," Scorpius said quickly. "Just . . . studious."

"By which you mean stuffy."

"Um . . . no?"

Rose just rolled her eyes and went back to polishing. "Well, you never struck me much as an arsonist yourself."

"Excuse me?" To his horror, Scorpius's voice shot up two octaves and probably cracked the glass in the windows.

"The fireworks in Professor Flitwick's fireplace? Come on, everyone heard about that. My cousin said that Flitwick's beard was almost burned entirely off. Not smart, Malfoy."

Now it was Scorpius's turn to blush. "I didn't . . . that wasn't . . ."

"It wasn't you?"

"No, it was," he admitted, somewhat shamefacedly. "But not just me."

"Oh, is there someone else in here?" Rose looked around the room, as if another Slytherin was lurking behind the towering piles of tarnished trophies and awards.

"No."

"Ah," said Rose, nodding in understanding. "So you're basically a patsy. A fall guy."

"I am not!"

"From where I'm standing, I have to disagree."

Scorpius jumped to his feet, suddenly furious. "You don't know what you're talking about," he yelled. "Just because I won't rat out my friends doesn't make me some gullible idiot."

"So, Blaire Zabini gloating about how easily persuaded you are shouldn't bother you. Because you're . . . friends," said Rose doubtfully.

"What?" Scorpius blinked, slowly sitting back down.

Rose looked at him almost pityingly. "She was in the library earlier, telling—what's his name, the one with the funky ears?"

"Nott," said Scorpius absentmindedly.

"Yeah, him. She was telling Nott all about it."

Scorpius was silent, staring at the wall behind Rose's head. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that made him believe she was telling the truth. Face it. He'd gotten played by a pair of sparkly eyes and a tinkling laugh. Merlin, he was an idiot.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it," said Rose, waving her hand dismissively. "I've got three part-Veela cousins, and you wouldn't believe what they can get people to do."

Scorpius just looked at her glumly. "Is that supposed to make me feel better about not having any real friends?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Aren't we feeling melodramatic tonight?"

"You know, for a Gryffindor, you're not a very nice person."

"Um, duh. What part of sent-three-people-to-the-Hospital-Wing didn't you understand? What do you think I am, a Hufflepuff?"

"Still, you're in Gryffindor," said Scorpius stubbornly. "Aren't you all supposed to be the protectors of the weak and downtrodden or something?"

"And you're in Slytherin. But I don't see you talking to snakes."

Scorpius made a face. "Thank god. I hate snakes."

"Really? That's kind of ironic." Rose leaned back against the wall and stretched out her legs, pulling a large trophy onto her lap.

"Tell me about it," said Scorpius glumly. "My grandfather actually wanted to get me a pet python before I left for school."

"Ew. Did he?"

"No. My mom had already gotten me an owl," said Scorpius, shrugging. "And we're only allowed one pet."

Rose frowned. "No one really pays attention to that rule. I have an owl and a cat."

"But my grandfather doesn't know that," said Scorpius, flashing her a grin.

"That's terrible," said Rose, laughing. "I love it."

Scorpius's heart skipped a beat, and he laughed too. Her smile was infectious, he realized, but in the good way.

Detention passes a thousand times faster when there's someone you can talk and joke with. As they left the Trophy Room, Scorpius realized to his chagrin that he'd had more fun in detention than he'd ever had just hanging out with his Slytherin friends.

"The Halloween feast is tomorrow, and my parents said that the decorations are incredible," Rose was saying as they headed for the Grand Staircase. "Apparently, all the candles get put inside floating Jack-O-Lanterns, and they have whole clouds of bats just flying around the ceiling."

Scorpius made a face. "I hope they're not real bats."

"Why not?"

"One word: guano."

Rose squeezed her eyes shut. "That's so gross!" she squealed.

"But so true," Scorpius pointed out.

"Ick, ick, ickety ickety ick." Rose was still chanting when they came to the stairs. They paused, awkward for the first time since Filch has tossed Rose into the Trophy Room.

"Well . . . night, then," said Scorpius, started to head down to the dungeons.

"Yeah, night," replied Rose, sounding slightly disappointed.

Scorpius was halfway down the first flight of stairs before he stopped. "Uh, Weasley?" Cringing internally, he turned back around.

"Yeah?" Even from a distance, Scorpius could see how blue her eye were.

"Do you think you could help me with the Transfiguration homework? I heard someone say you're really good at it." It was a lame excuse, but hey, he was eleven. And she was definitely more fun than any of his other friends.

"Funny," said Rose, tilting her head slightly. "I heard someone say the same thing about you."

I'm still kind of feeling my way around Scorpius and Rose's relationship, and I just love the idea of them being friends from their first year. Sometimes I can't figure out what I like more; Rose and Scorpius hating each other, then falling in love, or them just being friends from the start and falling in love eventually. Argh! I can't decide. What do guys think?

Also, props to anyone who got my Anna Nalick reference :)