Rose's eyes shot open. Her pupils dodged back and forth, taking in the environment. Yellow curtains surrounded her. Rose could feel a mattress beneath her. She was in bed. Her bed. She breathed a sigh of relief.

No sooner had she begun to relax, but her body tensed up again as the memories from that night flooded back to her. Had it been real?

She rubbed her eyes, and pushed herself up. Pulling the curtains open on her left side, Rose saw the unkempt bed next to her was empty. She kicked the sheets back and lifted her legs out of bed. The clock on her nightstand gleamed a golden 10:45.

"Shit!" she exclaimed as panic struck her for an instant, but then she remember that it was Saturday. Rose had missed breakfast, but thankfully none of her classes.

She stood up, grabbed the black towel that was folded over the end of the bed, and headed into the adjoining bathroom.

Thirty minutes later, she had exited the Hufflepuff common room and was headed to the great hall. She was the only member of the Weasley/Potter clan that hadn't made it into Gryffindor. To some degree she liked being on her own, the first Weasley to get into Hufflepuff, but mostly she missed being with her family. She was eight floors below them at the school, the Hufflepuff dorm being located in the dungeons like Slytherin, and she felt the distance.

When she turned the corner she reached the staircase that the Hufflepuffs shared with the Slytherins. She stopped for a moment, and reached into the pocket of her skirt. Her hands clenched around a small folded piece of parchment. She pulled it out, and as she looked at it her heart immediately sunk. Sure enough, there was Scorpius' long elegant handwriting. 'Damn, it wasn't a dream after all,' she thought.

She sighed, and shoved the letter back into her pocket. Looking towards the Slytherin hall, she half expected to see him emerge with that stupid smirk still glued on his face. She bit her lip in anxiety and quickly dashed up the stairs. All she wanted was to find Albus, or even her annoying little brother.

When she reached the great hall, she saw neither of her family members so she decided to head up to the 7th floor in hopes to find Albus, Hugo, or Lily near the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was practically running through the corridors as her mind attempted to comprehend the night before. 'I can't believe I let Malfoy take control over me like that. I'm so stupid, stupid, stupid!'

Rose was so lost in thought, that she hadn't seen a long pants leg extend out into her pathway. When her foot connected with it, she came crashing down onto the cold stone floor.

Pain slammed into her knees and quickly drowned the rest of her body. She felt a warm stream of blood pool from the puncture wound on her lips, caused by her teeth when they clenched as her jaw hit the hard ground.

She laid there on the floor for a moment waiting for the pain to subside a bit before pushing herself up into a sitting position. Rose looked up to see who her assailant had been.

A group of five Slytherin boys were standing in the hallway. The tallest of the boys was leaning against the window, his white-blonde hair illuminated by the winter sun, a look of horror on his face. "Malfoy!" she exclaimed in an infuriated breath.

"Knight!" he scolded, punching the boy standing next to him in the shoulder. "What the hell did you do that for?"

Rufus Knight, a short 4th year with mousy brown hair and a skeleton like frame, looked at Scorpius in disbelief. "W'at? Itsa Weasley," he smirked.

"'It is a lady, and you do not trip a lady no matter what her surname is," Scorpius chided.

"But, I thought we 'ated 'er," Rufus replied, dumbfounded.

Rufus wasn't the only one puzzled by Scorpius' behavior. Rose watched in amazement as Scorpius slapped Rufus on the back of the head and gave him a dirty look. He then took a step to her.

"Here," he said, holding his hand out to help her up.

Rose looked up at him in disbelief. There was no way she was going to take his hand, even if he was being sincere about it. She ignored it, and pushed herself up. Her knees stung, and she looked down to see that they were scrapped up pretty badly.

Scorpius noticed as well. "Let me take you to the infirmary," he offered.

"No, I got it," Rose insisted. She knew that this was just the more positive side of Scorpius' sexist attitudes. "You want to save the damsel in distress, because I'm just a weak female, and you're a strong powerful male. Yeah, right," she rolled her eyes. 'If he really was concerned about my well being he would have told Knight to apologize,' she thought.

Rose pushed past Scorpius and began to limp slowly down the hallway. Her whole body ached, but she could manage. Thankfully, she hadn't gotten very far from the great hall, which was just down the flight of stairs at the end of the hallway. The infirmary wouldn't be far from there.

"Rose, wait!" she heard Scorpius yell when she reached the staircase. She didn't stop.

She could hear his footsteps dashing down the hall and knew that he would catch up with her soon. She sighed with annoyance.

"Rose, please let me help you," Scorpius pleaded when he reached her, he grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to stop. Rose winced.

Now that it was daylight and they were in public, it was easier for Rose to ignore the tingling sensation she felt when he touched her.

"Scorpius, I realize that this is all part of your plan to tame me. News flash: it isn't working. Now let me go."

The concern on Scorpius' face morphed into hurt, and, to Rose's surprise, he did just that.

"I'm sorry, Rose," he apologized in practically a whisper. "I know you don't believe me, but I don't like to see you hurt like this." Scorpius' cold grey eyes met hers, and for a flicker of time, Rose believed him.

Se shook the feeling from herself and began the arduous task of climbing down the stairs. "Physically maybe, but when it comes to the other departments, you have a grand old time trying to inflict pain."

Scorpius quickly took two steps down, and stood in front of her, forcing Rose to stop once more. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

She didn't want to deal with this right now. All she wanted to do was get cleaned up and lie down. But although she was physically weak, she knew she had the upper hand mentally. She had an idea.

"Fine, Scorpius," she pretended to give in. "I can barely walk, I admit I need your help."

Scorpius smiled as Rose put her arm around him, leaning on him for support. The smile seemed so genuine and she almost felt bad for what she was about to do. Almost.

When they reached the first landing, they turned towards the last flight of stairs that led right to the big oak doors that were opened to reveal the great hall. This part of the school was fairly busy. There would be quite a number of witnesses.

They began to make their way down, when Rose let go of Scorpius and threw herself down the stairs.

"Ah!" she screamed as she hit the ground. It wasn't entirely fake though since, even though she made sure to fall on her butt, so as to minimize the damage, she still felt a wave of shock through her body. She rolled down a few more steps to make it seem more believable, before she brought herself to a stop near the bottom of the stairs. She was careful not to damage herself anymore, thanking her mother for the stag combat classes she had let her take the summer of her third year. Despite this, her already broken body screamed out against the this new physical collision.

"Owwwwwww!" she moaned in pain. Again, she didn't really have to fake it much, but the discomfort was worth the consequences Scorpius would have to undergo.

"Someone get the nurse!" a young female voice shouted.

"What happened?" Rose heard another female student ask.

"That bloke pushed her down the stairs!" someone else cried.

Rose shot a quick glance up the stairs to see Scorpius. His grey eyes were wide. He looked like a deer in the headlights as he stood there, before he dashed back up the stairs.

'A scorpion is no longer dangerous once his stinger has been removed' she thought to herself with a smile.

The playing field was even once more.

A crowd had gathered around Rose. "Are you alright?" several students seem to ask at once.

"What a jerk," someone commented.

It wasn't long before Madame Blackwater was on the scene.

"Move aside, move aside!" she commanded. Rose turned onto her back to see the young nurse now at her side. The nurse helped her sit up. "Goodness me, what happened?" she cried.

"I-I fell" Rose stammered.

"Bah!" a student from the crowd cried. "It was that Malfoy bloke, he pushed her!"

"Is this true?" Madame Blackwater asked Rose.

"Yeah!" came another voice. "I saw it. We all saw it."

A murmur of agreement washed over the crowd.

Madame Blackwater sighed and waved her wand. In a flash, a wheelchair appeared next to her. "Can you manage to stand up?" she asked Rose in a quiet voice.

"I think so," Rose replied, and with the help of Madame Blackwater's steady hand, she was able to get up and into the wheel chair.