Hi everyone !

Next chapter's ready ! Thanks so much Avanell for writing the first review – I'm happy you liked it !

The title of the chapters are lyrics from songs I've been listening to while thinking of this story. This is also an tribute to Hyacinthian, one of my favorite fanfic authors here. You can guess which songs they're taken from – I'll dedicate later chapters to you if you find out ;)

This is Rose and Scorpius's sixth year at Hogwarts and this chapter is Rose's POV.

Disclaimer : as usual, I own nothing.


"You walked into the room

The sun hit my eyes"

The train wristled loudly, and I snapped back to reality. I had been staring at the landscape changing, becoming greener and cloudier as the Hogwarts Express progressed north, forehead stuck to the window, lost in a daydream I couldn't remember.

I looked around me at the compartment : it was empty, the others had probably left when I wasn't paying attention. I sat up unwillingly. I would rather have stayed there all by myself, reading the first chapters of this Muggle book my mum had advised me to read – Jane Eyre, that's what it was called – but I was quite sure that if my cousins and my little brother spotted me reading again instead of having fun – meaning using the latest, untested devices of our Uncle George's joke shop – in the corridors, they would come over here and test them on me. Instead of waiting for it to happen, it would be wiser to go look for them and make them feel oh, just a little guilty for abandoning me. And even if that was a reason I wasn't willing to admit, I had to find them because I didn't want to arrive at Hogwarts alone. I knew that, as a sixth year, I should have been above all this social nonsense, but I wasn't. This social nonsense had been the core of my existence for the past years : Rose Weasley the best – or second best – student of Hogwarts, Rose Weasley the prefect in her fifth year, Rose Weasley the perfect girl that all the teachers loved and all the Gryffindors admired, just couldn't come to Hogwarts without being surrounded by her gang of funny, noisy, cocky cousins.

I slid the door open and I started walking up the corridor. I had only taken a few steps when a horrible exploding sound was heard somewhere in the train, startling me. Disoriented and truly scared, I couldn't make out the source of the explosion – and it kept exploding, over and over. In doubt, covering my hears to shield them from the noise, I decided to run to the front of the train.

I was half running, half turning to check if the explosions weren't coming closer, when I ran into someone who was coming from the opposite direction. Shocked by the collision, I gasped. Everything seemed blurred around me – maybe it was the panic, maybe the smoke coming from the explosions – and I didn't cross my mind to fight the stranger when he grabbed my elbow and pulled me inside the closest compartment.

Once inside, he pinned me to the wall and turned his back to me, looking outside the compartment window, probably to see if the coast was clear. But then I heard him chuckle softly and the blur evaporated : nobody would laugh if there was real danger out there.

I pulled myself together and looked up at my savior. I gasped. I didn't need to see his face to recognize who he was. Tall, thin, a spotless white shirt perfectly cut for his large shoulders, and sleek, unruly hair so blond it looked almost silver in the northern light : Scorpius Malfoy.

I felt my throat tightnen when I recognized him. It was the first time I was seeing him from such a short distance. I could have recognized him in a crowd – he was recognizable in a crowd – but I had never come close to him, physically or even to talk to him, since my father's warning, six years earlier. I felt strangely embarrassed to be in his presence, like a nice little girl caught red-handed disobeing. And I felt slightly ashamed : first time in my life I would actually meet Scorpius Malfoy, and he had caught me running like an idiot away from something that was obviously, to him at least, not dangerous at all. I sat down on the compartment seat, looking at my feet, waiting for him to turn around and talk to me, because I couldn't find anything to say.

He threw a last glance out the window, laughed quietly and finally turned around. My heart almost stopped beating : his pale, light-featured face was unbelievably beautiful, the force with which my heart responded to his grey eyes scared me. But I immediatly calmed down when I saw the shock on his face : he obviously didn't realize who he had tried to protect.

We stared at each other for a few seconds until the shock wore off. An awkward silence settled in the compartment.

'Hi', I managed to say timidely after what seemed ages. My voice was almost inaudible – this was so unlike me, Rose Weasley, strong personality of the Weasley gang.

'Hi', he answered, and I thought I sensed the same emotion in his voice.

'Wha-what happened ? Outside ?' I asked.

'James Potter and Edward Jordan tested their last acquisition from Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes', he said. 'The commotion it caused in the new prefects' compartment was simply hilarious in the beginning, but then sparks started to escape the compartment doors and it was safer not to be around.' He chuckled again.

I nodded, not knowing what to say next. My brain had frozen.

He seemed to understand my need for him to keep talking and he added :

'That's why I took you here – I saw that someone was in the corridor, there was so much smoke, I thought it was safer for you to be inside – I didn't know you were-'

He stopped, fearing he had said too much. But I perfectly understood what he was about to say : if he had known I was Rose Weasley, he wouldn't have pulled me inside this compartment and in this very awkward situation – awkward for both of us, I could tell.

I looked up at him, my eyes in his. An amused spark lit his eyes when I said with an obvious half-smile :

'Well, thanks for saving my life… I guess.'

'You're welcome', he laughed, his head tilted to the left, his eyes scrutinizing me. With his ruffled hair falling in his left eye, he looked slightly less impressive – but all the most handsome. He seemed astonished that the world hadn't crumbled down as soon as we had stood together in the same room. To be true, it astonished me a little, too. I only realized now how much I had been influenced by my father's warning. Scorpius had certainly heard the same things about me before entering Hogwarts.

'Well then, see you later', he sighed. I nodded, smiling. He smiled back at me, a smile that reached his eyes, dazzling me. He slid the door open and left.

I sighed, and I noticed I had been holding my breath a little longer than usual. I sat down, looked up, and stared at the ceiling until the train arrived in Hogsmeade. It was all the time I actually needed for my heart to slow down and my brain to clear.

So, what did you think ? Comments, suggestions, mild criticism (and even praise if you feel like it) appreciated ! Next chapter coming soon…