It was a hot day in London, and as Rosie Weasley made her way down Diagon Alley, it felt like it was only getting hotter. She hauled herself from shop to shop, getting the equipment that was on her list for this year at Hogwarts. She was deliberately trying to avoid walking past any shops her grandmother could try and fuss her into. She sped past Madame Malkin's robe store, and almost threw herself into Flourish and Blott's book store in a violent attempt to avoid her family (she was at the point of teenage angst, where all relatives ceased to be interesting and got on her nerves instantaneously).
Rosie turned round to see her grandmother, aunt and youngest cousin stood outside the robes shop, observing a blue dress. The three red headed women, old and young, stood out against the powder blue fabric of the dress like a sore thumb. Making sure all three of them were thoroughly distracted she turned round into the book store with a swoop of her mahogany, mid-length, bushy hair; she plunged herself into the smell of books. Thousands upon thousands of pages were in this room, old and new, and covered with millions upon millions of words. Words that Rosie could find some sort of escape in. She pulled her wand out of her boot, she wore cowboy boots during the summer; not only were they comfortable, fashionable and practical, they were great for concealing a wand. She walked around the book shop reading the list of books she needed for the next year of study at Hogwarts.
She flicked her wand every now and again when she thought she may have passed a book on her list, it would prise itself from the shelf and float behind her in a pile of books that was quickly increasing in size. She found a nice, comfortable window seat and let her pile of books plonk down next to her, and burrowed her nose into a book that she was pretty sure would come in useful at some random point in her life. She simply couldn't get enough knowledge of the wizarding world; the more she knew, the more she could find solitude in her mind when the whole world is too loud. She must have been lost to the world, buried in that leather bound book, for a good half an hour, and decided to try and find that one book that had eluded her while she prowled around the store. She closed her book, placed it on top of the pile and began hunting through the shelves once again.
She ran her hand over the yellowing pages of books, and over white crisp pages, skin reading the author's names as she walked. She saw a relatively familiar name and stopped abruptly in front of it. It was a history book, a history of magical law enforcement.
"There you are! You crafty little thing you!" she gave an excited whisper, and plunged her hand into the bookshelf, bending to get a better look at the heavy bound book. She ducked down and greedily starred at it, wanting to devour every word with her eyes. She saw in the gap of the bookshelf, between one layer and the other, a pair of uncomfortably familiar blue-grey tint eyes. She almost jumped back in fright when she met their gaze.
"Hey there, Weasley" said the voice that matched the eyes all too well. Rosie jumped a little, but contained it enough so as to not provoke some snide remarks from the blonde boy who stood on the other side of the bookshelf.
"Malfoy," Rosie acknowledged him curtly, and tried to avoid anymore interaction with him; he was the reason her years in Hogwarts had been made so painfully uncomfortable. It was a long and awkward tale that had clearly occurred between their parents, but had left the children scarred against each other; the house rivalry probably wouldn't help anything between the children either. Many inter-house tiffs had occurred between Slytherin and Gryffindor because of the Potter-Weasley and Malfoy feud, all of them ugly and all of them totally unnecessary.
She continued looking for her books and walked away from the shelf, book in hand and tried to talk herself into believing that Malfoy's footsteps weren't rounding the bookshelf and perched herself on the edge of the window seat.
Scorpius Malfoy, tall blonde and athletic, sauntered over to where Rosie sat, who was trying her best to ignore the urge to start a duel in the middle of Flourish and Blott's. Malfoy leaned against a bookshelf, his black turtleneck shirt and black jeans gave him a silhouette feel as he propped himself against the wall.
"Weasley, I never managed to congratulate you at the end of the year." He smirked and flicked his eyebrows, trying to egg Rosie on. She glared at him with the fury of a blast ended skrewt.
"Congratulate me? Congratulate me, for what?" she snapped. Malfoy had picked the wrong Weasley to goad. He smirked at her.
"Congratulate you on that duel at the end of the year. That was some pretty complicated magic you tried there, and I'm impressed you lost so graciously." He gave a lopsided smile as he provoked the matter. It was about as safe to provoke Rosie Weasley as it was to poke a Hungarian Horntail.
"I think you'll find the magic I performed wasn't illegal. Your friend Zabini, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure his court case for trying to use an unforgivable curse is still underway." Rosie gave a proud little flick of her head, putting her nose up a little. She was right. She knew she was right, and so did Scorpius, but their problems were that neither of them liked to lose. Ever. Scorpius chuckled, a low chuckle that always did odd things to Rosie's stomach.
"Rosie. That was a total misunderstanding." He laughed. Rosie's face was beginning to flush crimson with anger.
"What could possibly be misunderstood by having the killing curse shot in my direction?" she nearly yelled.
"It could be misunderstood that he wasn't actually aiming at you." He had an overly calm note in his voice.
"So, because he was aiming at my cousins or my brother, a first year, it makes it all just a tiny misunderstanding?"
Scorpius' face faltered a little. His smile was quite as easy and self assured as it has been a matter of seconds before.
"You'd better leave me alone Scorpius, before Albus and James get her." Rosie warned. Scorpius' eyes narrowed a little,
"Is that a threat Weasley?" Scorpius asked his eyes narrow and desperately trying to beg for a staring match. There was a tinkle of bells at the front door of Flourish and Blotts', and Albus and James potter came through, glancing this way and that looking for Rosie, their cousin.
"Nothing of the kind Scorpius," Rosie gave a sarcastic smile, "it's just Albus and James are much more likely to hold a grudge than I am, and are much more likely to draw their wand out at you in public. Just some useful information for you. Oh. Here they are now!" she smiled and gave a little nod in her cousin's direction. Scorpius turned.
"Fine. I'll see you at school Weasley." He gave a crooked smile and walked away. She watched the blonde, tall figure saunter away, he was picking up books as he left, going to the till where a dark haired witch (most probably his mother) waited with another pile of books. Rosie was beginning to stare at the way his shirt moulded over the lean shape of this shoulders and back. She blinked rapidly. What on earth was that for? They were just shoulders. It was just a back. It was only Malfoy.
She turned back to her huge pile of books. She was sure she had more shopping to do, but she was content with the list she had managed to tick off in this shop alone. She'd be on the train to Hogwarts in two days and only had a few hours before she had to meet her mother and father back at the muggle hotel they were staying in for the weekend. Her brother, Hugo, would probably be around somewhere, most probably entertaining himself at their uncle's joke shop; leaving his important shopping till the last minute. Typical.
She charmed the books to fly next to her again and made her way to the till, pulling her purse out of her bag as they walked. Albus and James had finally spotted her, and almost flew to her.
Her cousins, on a good two years older than the other, jumped in front of her. James, the oldest, stood just a few inches taller than Albus, and had his mother's eyes, his dad's unruly hair and his uncle's humour. James was the first to break the blissful momentary silence,
"Rosie," his deep friendly voice slid itself through this mouth, "I wouldn't look now, but Malfoy's here." He warned. His voice and stance gave this impression that he thought Rosie was going to explode in a nuclear reaction, as though someone had cast a measly incendio charm on a million barrels of napalm.
"I know," she said calmly, her wand was in her hand, she couldn't afford to get angry, "the ferret already stopped by to say hello." She finished and nodded to Albus, "You got everything on your list yet, Al?" she asked, desperately trying to change the subject, she could feel her ears going red (a sign she inherited from her father, and a sign that everyone knew meant she was getting incredibly angry) and her stomach still felt odd.
Not one of the three of them had any clue why they referred to Malfoy as 'the ferret', they'd all just heard their fathers call Malfoy a ferret, and they all just supposed they might as well let it stick. He'd only ever heard them call him that once, or at least once that they had known he'd heard them. That was when they had their first duel in their third year. Many detentions were given that day.
Albus just nodded, "Yeah got everything. You know you shouldn't be using magic outside school." He winked.