I promise after this chapter it gets a lot better and fluffier.
Enjoy!
Mismatched
Chapter Two
ooo
During dinner, that same day, Rose was slowly nibbling on a celery stick reading Scorpius' paper somewhat ignoring Olives nervous chatter. She was prepping herself for tryouts that night and was eating as much as she could out of anxiety. Rose really did try to stop her but Olive ignored her since she was suggesting restricting energy she needed for the tryouts.
"Suit yourself." Rose muttered, taking another bit of her celery stick and reading the last of Scorpius paper.
"Are you really going? Or are you going to waste your time reading something as stupid as that paper?" Olive whined, "I need my friend."
Rose smiled, "I said I was gonna be there!"
"Yeah, well… doesn't seem like it." Olive muttered.
"I don't want to stay up late just to finish this assignment off." Rose shrugged, "What about you? Haven't you read your scroll?"
Olive made a face, "I did. I finished."
Rose's mouth dropped, "What do you mean you finished? I was with you all day! I never saw yo-"
"During class." Olive explained, "I wasn't paying attention. Even Bryne's paper was more interesting than the Binns."
Rose pouted, why didn't she think of that? She spent the entire class time trying not to go to sleep since the lecture was over trolls and elves during the first war. It's not that Rose didn't think their role wasn't important but did Professor Binns have to go into depth? Rose should have thought of that as well. She could have had a free night to practice spells for Charms class.
"Why didn't I think of that…" Rose muttered.
"Anyways, just put down whatever pops into your mind first." Olive sighed, rising to her feet, shoving an apple in her mouth, "It's not like you have to put what you really think. Just write something along the lines of well written, your point of view is completely fascinating and the topic you chose to discuss really shines light on your interest…"
"Is that what you wrote for Byrne's paper?" Rose asked, rolling up the scroll and shoving it into her robe pocket.
"No, but don't use it." Olive waged a finger at her making her way out of the great hall, "I might add it on to Byrne's paper."
Rose laughed and followed Olive out.
By the time Rose saw Olive walk out onto the quidditch pitch she had reread through half of Scorpius' scroll. The sun was low in the sky and the pitch nearly glowed in gold from the dying rays of the sun. She set the scroll down on her lap and watched as her friend joined a small group of guys huddled around. In comparison she looked tiny, but strangely enough it was her stature that seemed to intimidate them. Most of the boys trying out eyed her down trying to figure out what position she may be trying out for.
Although Rose couldn't hear what they were say she could pinpoint the exact moment when Olive declare she was trying out for Keeper due to the teasing and laughter she suddenly heard. Before Olive got to give them a piece of her mind, they were suddenly all in the air running simple drills. Rose was fascinated. It's not that she actually like quidditch she just enjoyed watching it. There were times she honestly wished she was a decent flier because the way her Uncle Potter would explain the feeling seemed exhilarating. Even her mother would agree. But what's the point when she had a small fear of it and ultimately sucked at it?
"Why aren't you out there Rosie?"
Rose perked up at the voice mentioning her name. She turned to her right and to her surprise Damian McCoy was lounging out a couple of feet from her in the stands. Rose was almost speechless until she reminded herself that she can't look like an absolute idiot in front of him. Word might get back to James, her cousin, and that was taunting she rather avoid.
Damian raised his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.
The gesture made Rose blush and she looked away.
"Oh, I'm terrible at flying…" She admitted.
"All girls say that." Damian said.
Rose heard a shuffle and a second later he was settling himself right next to her. Rose cleared her throat and tried to concentrate her view out on the pitch.
"I nearly failed flying last year." Rose sighed, "The only reason I got top marks was because I help clean out the brooms stalls for extra credit."
Damian McCoy let out a laugh. He laughed. Rose suddenly had a surge of confidence she never had. They talked about the try-outs mostly but still, it was enough to gloat about later to Olive who would be dying of jealousy. Rose nearly floated off the stand in happiness. She felt giddy and light-headed. It was almost surreal the way she felt that she concluded Damian was the boy she was going to marry once they were all older.
"Looks like they're done…" Damian announced, squinting into the distance.
Rose look in the direction he was and saw that everyone was dispersing. Damian rose to his feet and stood there. Rose, unsure of what to do, did the same. Except, now, her curiosity was now on Olive and how she did. Feeling torn to part from Damian, Rose decided it was better to leave before she did anything stupid that would ruin her perfect evening with Damian. She waved at him as she climbed down the flights of stairs down to the pitch. Rose immediately found Olive who was heading towards the locker rooms, alone.
She didn't look to beaten down, but she didn't look very happy either. Rose rushed to her side to find out exactly what happened.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked, "How did you think you ranked?"
Olive sighed and cocked her head to the side, "I was bloody brilliant. Didn't you see?"
Rose cleared her throat, deciding to avoid the question, "Why are you upset then?"
Olive pouted, "They're announcing who made the team tomorrow. Tomorrow! I thought after seeing my superlative skills they would just tell me right after try-outs I was in."
Rose had to listen to Olive complain about try-out for the rest of the night, which to be clear, wasn't that long. The moment they settled in their dormitories Olive headed straight for her bed and collapsed into a deep sleep. Rose rolled her eyes. She spent the rest of her night down in the common room chatting with Albus over a game of wizard's chess. It was a nice way to end the day, that is, until Rose suddenly remembered of a certain assignment she forgot to attend to and spend the following hours reading Draco's paper.
The following day, Rose walked up to Scorpius before class started and stood by his desk. She cleared her throat to make her presence known. She never really gotten to know him so it seemed the best way to approach him. Scorpius looked up and gave her a small smile. Rose hadn't expected to see him smile so she merely gawked at him.
"Hello…" Scorpius awkwardly waved.
Rose closed her eyes, "Sorry 'bout that. Still a bit sleepy… Um anyways, I got to read your scroll. I really enjoyed it."
Rose placed his scroll on his desk. Scorpius eyed the scrolls before looking up at her, confused.
"You enjoyed reading it?" He questioned.
"Uh… what I meant was…" Rose looked around wondering what to say, "It was well written. Your point of view is completely fascinating and the topic you chose to discuss really shines light on your interest."
Rose nearly kicked herself after blabbing that out.
"Oh… thank you." Scorpius said.
Rose forced a smile out and pivoted around to head back to her desk, mentally scolding herself.
"Wait." Scorpius called, stopping her, "I got your scroll here."
Rose bit her lip as Scorpius looked through his book bag. He took out a scroll and handed it to Rose, who quietly thanked him and nearly ran off to her desk. Olive was reading her edited scroll, agitated with the fact that she still needed to wait 6 more hours to find out if she made the team or not.
"Torture…" She sighed, "And I still have to go through History of Magic. I rather be dead. By the way, did you use what I told you yesterday for the paper?"
Rose chuckled and sat down next to her, "No, not really."
"Oh, I was going to tell you could have used my ingenious piece of mind." Olive grinned, "I was so anxious yesterday, I fell right asleep once we got to our dorm."
Rose questioned Olive sometimes. It seemed like she was the extreme opposite of the norm. Usually when Rose was extremely nervous or excited for something she had trouble falling asleep. To her, Olive defied logic.
"Ah, what scum!" Olive mumbled, "Listen to what Byrne wrote on mine, ahem. The paper was informative but lacked personality to have reader engage in her topic… It's a bloody paper dimwit not a witch weekly article!"
Rose smirked, rolling her open. Her eyes scanned down her scroll and her mouth dropped.
Nearly every single available space was crammed with red handwriting. Rose knew she hadn't done her best but the amount of complaints Scorpius had jotted down was insane.
Not enough information to support this obvious opinion…
Perhaps use more vocabulary to hide the fact this paper is by a 12 year old girl…
Interesting point of view, although it is obvious it is heavily influenced by her family's involvement with the two wars…
Rose laid her paper calmly on her desk and tried her best not to storm over to Scorpius and hex him to the next century.
ooo
Rose watched as Hogwarts became smaller and smaller as the boat's continued to travel across the Black Lake. Olive was unusually quiet. In fact, the entire trip no one spoke a word. They merely, looked over their shoulders constantly to remind themselves they were leaving Hogwarts for good. Rose gulped and with on last look over the shoulder she turned back around.
"Don't be upset." Olive whispered.
By then, Rose was letting out a few tears to trail down her cheeks.
"We'll be traveling around world the second we get out of here." Olive rubbed her hand up and down Rose's back to comfort her. "Remember? You're excited about visiting Japan and Egypt."
Rose sniffed, "Don't forget about America."
Olive nudged her, "That's my Rose."
The trip down the lake was longer than expected, but it was fulfilling. The second the boats hit the other side no one stood up. Rose lingered in her seat for a pause before standing up. It was the end of their journey. Olive was at her side and as the entire 7th year class began to make their way towards the Hogwarts express. Rose reached out for Olivia who was racing up the small hill to be able to say she got there first.
It was very childish of her but then again, Olive was just a kid. They were all kids. Just as Rose decided to run after Olive, a piercing voice called her name.
"Rose Bud!"
She thought it was her imagination for but still, she reacted to that nickname and turned around to find Scorpius weaving in and out of people to reach her. She had no idea what was going through his head or why she felt an urgency to run but she stayed. The desire to hear him say that name again overpowered her will to run.
"Hey, stranger." Scorpius breathed out, "Haven't seen you in a while."
Rose gulped, "Well you know… things… came up. How've you been?"
They led a steady walk up to the Hogwarts Express.
"Great." He smiled, "Ruthie and I are going to intern for the Ministry of Magic together. We start at the end of the summer. Honestly, she's is amazing. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't realize my true passion of administration. I could become Minister one day. Wouldn't that be a laugh?"
Rose forced a smile, "That's great…"
"What about you?" He politely asked.
Rose looked around, secretly wishing Olive wouldn't have ran off so quickly to help her out.
"Umm just traveling for the summer." She shrugged.
"What about after the summer?"
Rose stayed quiet, she felt extremely uncomfortable explaining to Scorpius the reason she wasn't doing great things like he was, was because of him. All of her years at Hogwarts she had been on top of her class, except for their 7th year. Slowly but surely, their falling out had affected Rose and Scorpius finally gained the upper hand. He was award the only thing Rose was fighting for at the end but he won.
He won and he was completely happy with taking everything she lived for. Rose even feared that he had taken a part of her heart.
"More traveling…" Rose sighed out, "I suppose I need to breath. Figure out somethings…"
Rose contemplated spilling everything out to him despite the amount of people around them. It just felt wrong having everything bottled up inside. She realized that because she was unable to speak out, she had landed herself in this difficult situation that only appeared to be a situation to her.
"Oh that's great..." Scorpius, for a split second, looked crestfallen, "Good luck then. See you around."
Disappointment surged through her limbs as she slowed down. It was the first time they've spoken since She stood there, pathetically as the classmates continued up the trail to the Hogwarts express, leaving her dwelling on the past.
I hope nobody is confused between the past and present!
-n
