During the spring of their fourth year, Scorpius sat in Muggle Studies, his only class with neither of his best friends. He usually liked the class decently but today he couldn't help but zone out as the class did a reading from their textbook. He was thinking longingly back to earlier that day…
They had been in Potions, which was his worst subject. They had been working on the Wit-Sharpening potion. Somehow, Scorpius had managed to add his Toad spawn before the crushed Gurdyroot. The explosion had been disastrous. His head had begun to swell and his skin turned orange.
Albus had taken him to Madam Sanita. She had told Albus to go back to class so Scorpius was alone. Madam Sanita had performed a few spells to return his skin to normal before telling him to drink a bubbling blue potion to reduce the swelling. She had finally released him in time for lunch. When he went down to the Great Hall, completely cured and back to normal, about half of the Gryffindor table was full so he headed towards a large gap. None of his friends were there yet.
Suddenly, from behind him, he heard a yell and was nearly knocked off his feet by a hug. He turned around to see Rose hugging him.
"I saw the potion blow up and your head start to swell. I didn't know if you'd be okay," she exclaimed still holding onto him tightly around the neck, her head on his shoulder. She was a few inches shorter than him. He had hugged her back grinning broadly before realizing that they were blocking traffic into the hall. They had sat down and ate lunch, but he couldn't help grin because of the hug…
Now in Muggle Studies, he thought back to the hug grinning again. Rose had hugged him. She had seemed super worried about him. She never hugged anyone like that. Could it be possible that she liked him too?
Since third year, when his mother had died during the summer, she had come to his house with Albus and they had stayed with him and comforted him. Then she had comforted him throughout the year whenever he was sad. Then they went to Hogsmeade and he didn't know how it happened, but sometime on that visit, he had this feeling swell up inside of him. At first he didn't know what it was but he soon realized that he liked Rose. He had told nobody about his feelings, not even Albus, his best friend. After all, she was his cousin.
The only time anyone had gotten close to knowing was when his older cousin, his mom's sister's son, Crispin who was four years older, had asked why he hanged out with Rose so much. He had teased Scorpius for a while about them being in love before getting bored and forgetting about it.
Now today, she had hugged him. Should he make a move? What if she didn't feel the same way and laughed at him or worse stopped being friends with him. No, he couldn't risk it. He held in his feelings. He acted as if nothing was any different.