Inevitable

Chapter 1: At the End of the Day

…

Why life is the way it is depends on how you look at it.

If you have an open-mind, life seems a tad bit enjoyable. When life is easy, everything else seems to be as well. Easier to live in; easier to understand.

Rose Weasley, of course, had inherited her mother's intelligence.

Bypassing mostly every student, no matter the age, enrolled at Hogwarts was a fairly easy task for her. She surpassed their brains by eons. Rose was knowledgeable of this aspect, yet, it rarely fazed her. She was proud enough to always know she'd be guaranteed anything she wanted academically. Rose was her mother in every way possible-from the unruly wavy hair to the thin physique. It was hard to believe that she could be a carbon copy of her mother, and have the personality of her father. Just as her father was undeniably stubborn, Rose had inherited the trait too.

Rose sat silently at her own table, in the dimly lit athenaeum located within walls of her beloved school.

Her favorite place just happened to be this library for a number of reasons.

The first, being the books. She adored books.

Second, Hogwarts was her home away from home. It brought Rose joy to no end and this library especially brought familiarity of her family and fictional friends.

The last reason would no doubt be the quiet. When living with the noisy group of girls Rose was forced with, quiet time to yourself was a very rare occurrence. Being lonesome was level with perpetual happiness.

Much to her dismay, however, she wasn't particularly alone today.

He sat no more than fifteen feet away, sternly studying a Potions book for what seemed to be hours. His gaze never moved from the page, from what Rose could see, and it seemed that he hadn't dared to move his body an inch, either. She hated to stare; especially since there was no reason to look at him in the first place.

Rose would never consider them friends, nor true enemies. They had been rivals at one period of time in their first year together, as expected. It seemed to be inevitable for he was clearly a Malfoy. How could someone not see instantly that he was in relation to one, Draco Malfoy? His pale, pointed features were evident to any person. His strait blonde hair hung in front of his ocean-deep grey eyes, and he was tall and thin. Lanky, yet oddly strong. It was almost as if they could be twins, aside from the obvious age difference and relation.

Rose couldn't deny that he was truly intelligent as well as irrevocably good-looking. He matched her intelligence and vigorous determination with every wily move he made. It drove her mad, knowing she was always competing with him somehow. They shared many of the same classes, but were not in the same house. He was in Slytherin, of course, just as his parents had, as she was in Gryffindor, just as her own dear mother and father.

She had to hate him. It was almost inevitable that Rose and Scorpius would never get along the way other civilized people, muggles or not, behaved. It just wasn't written in the books for these two.

Rose looked back down to her book and away from the boy in front of her. There was no reason to stare, really.

It was almost half past eight when she had finally finished up a good chunk of her book and decided to turn in for the night. She silently rose from her seat and crossed the library, heading towards the aisle where her book had been kept. Before she knew what she was doing and where she was going, her body impacted with another.

"Shite," the person muttered, as Rose regained her composure, and started to heave herself off the floor. When she was upright, her eyes focused on the person she had accidently walked into.

"Oi!" Rose sighed. "Sorry about that."

Scorpius scowled and returned her apology with a nasty look. "Make sure it doesn't happen again, Weasley."

Her eyebrows knit together in frustration. "It wasn't entirely my fault."

"You clearly were not paying attention," there was a brief pause. "For someone so smart, you are utterly daft."

"I am nothing of the sort!" Rose's voice rose with the anger that was building from inside her. Why was he picking a fight with her? She clearly hadn't knocked into him on purpose.

"I beg to differ," he exclaimed, crossing his pale arms across his chest.

"Well no one cares what you think!" She was fuming. How dare he insult her like that? Everyone knew she was one of the brightest, if not the brightest, witch residing in that bloody school. What made him any different?

He held up his hands defensively. "There is no need to throw a wobbler, Weasley. Nor is there a need to be so irrational." His voice matched her volume as they continued their banter.

"You started it! If you hadn't been so rude about it…"

"Rude?" He laughed haughtily. "I am not being rude!"

"Sure you are!" Her voice rose higher and more hysterical with each passing second. Boy was he pissing her off.

"I am not! Stop being such a child, Weasley."

"Me? A child?" She sincerely hated him with all her being. "And stop calling me Weasley!"

"It's your name!"

"That is not true; my name is Ros-"

"Hush, both of you!" There came a scratchy voice from behind the two students.

Rose's head whipped around to find the aged librarian, Madam Pince, standing there, shaking her tiny head. "You do realize you are in the library after hours, don't you?" She continued on to ask, and received a nod from both Scorpius and Rose. "Scatter now, both of you!"

Without another thought, Rose collected her books, slung her bag over her shoulder and sauntered out of the library, dismissing an almost silent apology to Irma. She wasn't sure if Scorpius had indeed followed the old woman's instructions as well until she felt him brush passed her arm.

"Good going," she called out to him as he walked in front of her down the corridor outside her dormitory.

"Wasn't my fault," he yelled from over his shoulder.

"It absolutely was!"

Scorpius turned then, walking back over to where she had stopped. "You're very annoying; you do know that, right?"

She scoffed in disgust. "I beg to differ."

"Well, it's true. I don't think I've ever met someone so…," he paused, finding the word he was looking for. "…vexatious."

She stared him down with such a withering glare; she thought she may break him.

But truth was, her expectations were far from reality and she knew her glowering wasn't as powerful as she'd hoped. Her thoughts were confirmed when a loud, booming laugh erupted from his throat.

"What's so funny?" she demanded, although she already had an idea.

"Oh, nothing."

"Malfoy, I demand you to tell me right now!"

"You demand me, eh? Wow, than I most certainly must share with you then," Scorpius teased.

"You little-"

"Miss Weasley, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Shite," Rose muttered again under her breath while she turned to face her headmistress, Professor McGonagall, as came up from her behind her. 'Déjà vu,' Rose thought, only to herself. 'Everyone here must be looking out for me. How thoughtful.'

"Headmistress," Scorpius greeted the old woman politely, and with a small smile.

"Gallivanting after hours, I see?" She questioned. Neither Rose nor Scorpius responded to their headmistress when she continued. "If you two will follow me to my office?"

Rose fell right into step with Headmistress McGonagall while Scorpius fell behind. It was a short distance from where they had been, but Rose somehow wished there was more time to come up with a way to explain her cause while not sounding guilty. Although, there was no reason for finding an excuse; what was there to explain? She had clearly been making her way up to her dormitory, as she was directed, when Scorpius had found it necessary to bother her…

When they arrived to McGonagall's office, they were motioned to sit down in the twin chairs set across the Headmistress' desk.

"Now, let's explain the punishment for your absence from bed, hmm?"

"Headmistress, I assure you, I was on my way back to my dorm-"

"Rose, I'm well aware where you were going. It's the fact that you were having a rather loud row right outside the Gryffindor dormitory. I'm sure you both awoke a few other students. That isn't fair now, is it?"

"I'm certain we were not disturbing anyone…"

"I do not want to disagree, Scorpius. I saw the dispute between the two of you with my own to eyes, so there is no need to deny anything."

"Yes Ma'am," he replied flatly, showing no emotion at all. Rose hated how sensational he thought he really was.

"Ten points from both Slytherin and Gryffindor?" She asked rhetorically after nodding in Scorpius' direction. "Seems fair enough, yes?"

"Yes, Headmistress," both Scorpius and Rose answered in unison.

McGonagall paused before saying, "Alright, off to your own dormitories you two."

"Goodnight," Rose offered an apologetic smile and walked off towards her dorm respectively.

She started off towards her dorm, wanting nothing more than to just fall into a deep sleep and act as if this whole incident never happened. This small incident was not something Rose was proud of. She strongly disliked having any negative confrontation with any of her respective school officials. Especially McGonagall.

Of course, Scorpius wouldn't let it go. "Come back here, Weasley. I wanted to thank you for getting me in trouble," Rose heard from behind her just as she made it to the portrait hole. She turned around to face him, a mix of annoyance and exhaustion painting her features.

She rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. "Goodnight, Malfoy."

"Goodnight, Weasley."