Rose woke up the next morning, predictably hating herself. She lay in bed, her head pounding, grateful to all the wizarding gods that it was Sunday. She sat up and pulled her curtains aside to see that she was not the only one despising themselves this morning.

Jacqueline Spinnet was sitting on the edge of her bed, her head between her knees. Rose rummaged through her trunk before finding some potion she had wrapped in a sock. She took a shot of it before gingerly walking towards Jackie.

"Here," she said, handing the golden liquid to the tall, blonde girl.

Jackie, not even looking at the potion, took a huge swig of it and handed it back to Rose. She straightened up slightly. "Thanks," she managed to say, rubbing her eyes. "Ugh, I hate James's stupid parties."

"Not so loud!" came a hiss from the bed next to Jackie's. It was Regina Sawyer's groggy voice. Rose pulled back the curtain and offered some of the potion to her but was batted away angrily.

"Rude," Rose said loudly, earning her another angry exclamation. She grinned and drew the curtains around Reg's bed. "I'm going down to breakfast. Want anything?"

"I'm coming," Jackie whispered, getting to her feet gingerly. "And if I see James on the way, I'm going to kick him right in the balls."

"It's not his fault you drank so much," Rose said, as they entered the deserted Gryffindor common room.

"It is," she said, "he challenged me to a shot drinking contest. And you know I can't turn down any sort of competition." Rose rolled her eyes, which caused her head to pound in vengeance.

"Did you win at least?"

Jackie gave her a righteous glare. "Of course. Do you know me at all?"

The Great Hall was almost as deserted as the common room, and Rose supposed everyone was trying to sleep off their hangovers. Rose sat down, pulling a plate of eggs and sausage towards her. Jackie pulled a face, took a piece of toast, and began picking at it. They ate for a while, before Rose noticed that her friend kept giving her covert glances.

"What's up?" Rose asked, frowning. "Something you want to tell me?"

"I saw you last night," she said quietly. Rose froze. She arranged her features into one of ignorance.

"Yeah, I was there too," she said, trying to sound casual.

"No. I saw you leave with Mal—"

"Shh," Rose said quickly, covering her friend's mouth. "Don't even say it."

"Okay, okay," Jackie said, her voice muffled. Rose dropped her hand. "I'm not judging," Jackie said, shrugging. "Just wanted to know some details. I thought you hated each other, so I was just curious…" She gave Rose a sidelong glance, taking another nibble of toast. Rose sighed. It was hard to keep things from Jackie.

"We made out in a supply closet and then he stopped and stormed off."

"What?" Jackie asked, her eyes wide, "why?"

"No clue. Probably remembered how much he can't stand me. We were both really drunk." Rose looked up to see Al walking towards their table, looking as tired as she felt. She turned to Jackie, feeling a little nauseous, and it wasn't because of her hangover. "Don't tell anyone," she said in a rush, "especially not Al." Jackie nodded subtly, and continued to nibble her toast.

Al sat down across from them, taking some sausage for himself. "You are not supposed to be at this table," said Jackie, in a haughty voice.

Al rolled his eyes. "You didn't care so much about segregation last night, when you were all over Marianne. She's in my house, if I remember correctly." Jackie threw her toast at him, and he caught it deftly. He took a rather large bite of it, ignoring her scowl.

"Marianne Alietta?" gasped Rose, "I didn't know you liked her!"

"We can talk about who you like instead," Jackie said, giving Rose a challenging look. Rose shut up, but the damage was partly done.

"Who do you like?" Al asked, perking up.

"No one," Rose said, shooting Jackie a glare.

"You know Rose," said Jackie quickly, her voice high, "she's just waiting for Prince Charming to drop out of nowhere. None of these Hogwartians interest her." Al still looked suspicious, but didn't have a chance to press on, as a first year had run up to Rose, a note in hand.

"Rose Weasley?" she chirped, holding the note out. Rose took it, thanking the girl, and unfurled it.

"Why?" Rose groaned. "There's a prefect meeting today at 2pm."

"On a Sunday?"

"It's the new Head Girl, Veronica. She's too intense. We still haven't gotten prefect schedules yet because the Head Boy Ricky is too laid back and didn't get them done."

Al yawned pointedly, standing up. "Have fun with that. I'm going back to bed." He left, and Rose let out a nervous breath she hadn't even realized she was holding.

"I'm going to bed too," Jackie said, standing up and stretching.

"No you aren't!"

They turned to see James reaching their table, looking annoyingly fresh.

"Excuse me?" Jackie asked, glaring at him.

"Quidditch practice, my love," he said, snatching a sausage from the table. "I scheduled it for ten. I've just gotten the rest of the team up."

"How does it feel, James?" Jackie grumbled.

"How does what feel?"

"To be the most hated person in Gryffindor?"

James grinned widely. "That's fine with me, as long as we win the cup."

Jackie rolled her eyes and stepped out of the tables. "Don't go back to bed Jackie! I'll make Rose drag you out!" he called as she started to walk away.

"You can't make me do anything," Rose shot at her cousin, annoyed.

"I'm just going to get my broom," Jackie said angrily, "and another shot of Rose's hangover potion."

"Weak!" James yelled, before tousling Rose's hair and heading towards the entrance hall.

Rose got up herself. Nothing was stopping her from going back to bed. She yawned widely and started to leave her table, when she caught sight of Scorpius Malfoy walking into the great hall. He saw her immediately, and they both froze in place. She was considering running up to him. To say… something? She wasn't sure what. But before she could make up her mind, he had hurried back out of the great hall, obviously rushing to get away from her.

Well that was fine with her.

Scorpius walked into the Great Hall at 1:45 pm, hoping to get there early enough so he wouldn't be stuck sitting next to Weasley. He saw Vicky Desai sitting by herself at the end of the meeting table and hurried to sit with her. She smiled at his approach, and moved her bag out of the seat next to her.

"Hey Scorp, how are you?"

"Good," he said, taking a seat and throwing his bag down at his feet. "Wish I wasn't here on a Sunday, but can't complain." She swept her thick, black hair up into a ponytail, her golden bangles shimmering on her arms. "I hope they schedule us together," he said hopefully.

"They never put us with people in our own house," she said. Scorpius scowled, suddenly remembering this. Last year, he was paired with Margaret Kensington from Ravenclaw. He wouldn't have minded being paired with her again, or Hufflepuff Jenny Pierce. But there was a one in three chance he would be paired up with Weasley. He did not like those odds.

Rose Weasley walked in at that moment, glanced at him, and hurried to the other end of the table where the other five Gryffindors were already seated. She looked a lot more rested than she had earlier that morning, when Scorpius had ran like a coward upon seeing her. He just hadn't been ready yet.

It was funny. He had known about his feelings for Rose Weasley for a few weeks now, but it was different now. Now that he had kissed her in that closet, knew the feeling of her hands on his chest, it was all he could think of when he looked at her. That feeling was always punctuated by a knife like pain when he remembered that it wouldn't ever work out. Not only did she hate him, her entire family hated him. He couldn't really blame them either. His dad and grandfather had really screwed him out of any sort of respectable future. He had to physically shake the thoughts out of his head, like shaking water out of his ears. Veronica stood up at the head of the table, her Head Girl badge glittering on her chest.

"Hello prefects," she said, brightly. "I'm glad to see you all made it, despite the hangovers I know you all have thanks to Potter and Weasley." There were some guilty mutters through the table, but Veronica cleared her throat and continued. "Ricky has finally put the schedules together –" she took a moment to shoot a glare in the Head Boy's direction. Ricky was slouched in the chair beside her, and winked at being addressed, earning appreciative laughter and a scowl from Veronica. Papers were floating down the table, and Scorpius watched as Rose grabbed hers. Her eyes narrowed at the paper, and his heart sank. He didn't have to look at his own paper to know who his partner was. "There are no partner swaps, so don't bother asking."

Gryff 6y R Weasley w. Slyth 6y S Malfoy

Veronica continued to make announcements, but Scorpius had stopped listening. There had to be a way out of this. He knew that he was probably being dramatic, but he couldn't stand the thought of being near to her so many times a week. For so many hours a week. Being a sixth year prefect came with more round hours than the year before.

He glanced up and saw Rose staring down the table at him. She quickly looked back up at Veronica, who had just finished the meeting and was dismissing them all. Scorpius stood up and hurried over to the front, where she was arranging some of her papers.

"Veronica," he whispered, aware that Weasley wasn't too far away, "listen can you please just make an exception? To the partner swap?"

Veronica looked up at him, harassed. "Absolutely not, Malfoy. Deal with who you've got." She put her papers in her bag and walked away, with Ricky following closely behind. Groaning, Scorpius turned to see Rose watching him. She frowned and walked towards him, an angry look on her face.

"We're stuck together," she said, "I get that you don't want that. I don't either. So we're just going to get through the rounds and we'll be civil. But the civility ends when rounds end."

"Fine with me," Scorpius said.

"Fine," she agreed. She glanced down at her paper. "I'll see you tomorrow night then. 8 pm."

"8 pm," he repeated, trying to muster as much venom in his voice that she had. She turned and left, and he watched her free hair bounce behind her like flames and felt a confusing mix of frustration, longing, and anger.