AN: So here I am, with my first real chapter ever! How exciting! (Exclamation point!) This is the result of one night of binge writing, and I really hope someone out there likes this.
Disclaimer: I still don't own a thing!
Chapter 1. Mates or Dates
"I've been thinking, we have a lot in common, Rose."
Our story begins with a proposal made to a girl from a very eager boy, in the library, in hushed tones:
"So, how about it, then? Want to go Hogsmeade with me?"
With one word, Rose Weasley held incredible amounts of power. She would change not just her own life, but the lives of at least two others in the castle. Rose Weasley was messing with fate. Of course, as with most sixteen year olds, none of this occurred to her as she gave her spur-of-the-moment answer.
But first, let's examine how this situation came to be.
It started on Rose's first day at Hogwarts, really.
Rose Weasley saw Scorpius Malfoy for the first time on September 1, 2017. The Hogwarts Express was preparing to depart, and Rose was beginning to feel an uneasy sensation in her stomach. She loved her parents, and her little brother, Hugo. And what if she got homesick? What if she wasn't in Gryffindor like her parents? What if she was terrible at all the subjects?
Just then, Albus Potter caught Rose's eye, and the cousins grinned at each other. Rose felt the nervous feeling die down a bit. She was being ridiculous. Albus and Rose had been excited to attend Hogwarts together for as long as she could remember, and now, it was really going to happen.
Oh God. It was REALLY going to happen. And just as suddenly as she had re-entered reality just moments before, Rose became lost in her own mind once again, pondering all of the (barely) possible, and increasingly terrifying situations that could happen at Hogwarts, from magical bug bites to being drowned by mermaids. She was in the middle of a particularly disturbing fantasy involving being accidentally poisoned in Potions class and dying a gruesome, dramatic death, complete with convulsing on the floor of the dungeon, while everyone looked on in horror, when her father's voice broke into her thoughts.
"So that's little Scorpius. Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains," Ronald Weasley remarked, looking at the pale, blonde-haired boy hugging his parents.
"Ron, for heaven's sake. Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"
Eleven-year-old Rose had to smile. She really was going to miss her parent's (loving) bickering, her father's sense of humor, and her mother's sound advice.
Just last week, her parents had called her down from her room. As soon as Rose stepped into the kitchen, she knew something was going to happen. Hermione cracked first, rushing up to Rose and embracing her in a tight hug.
"Your father I love you so much, and we're so proud of you, and we want to keep in touch while you're at Hogwarts, of course," Hermione said.
"So, we've got you something!" Ron added, excitedly, and produced the most beautiful owl Rose had ever seen. She was a lovely barn owl, and as soon as Rose saw her, she drew in a breath.
"Mum, dad, she's gorgeous!" Rose exclaimed, holding out her hand to the owl, who nipped at it affectionately.
Rose named her new owl Felicis, because she wanted to bring a little luck with her to Hogwarts.
As Rose stepped onto the train, she was well aware that Scorpius Malfoy was staring at her. However, she shrugged it off. It was nothing.
The first conversation Rose Weasley had with Scorpius Malfoy took place just a few days after she first saw him on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. During the first week of classes, before going to Potions for the first time, Rose realized that she left her book in Gryffindor Tower. She rushed up to the seventh-floor entrance, distractedly gave the Fat Lady the password ("Gillyweed!"), grabbed her book, and ran back out. She was on the stairs, fretting about being late for her first Potions lesson ever, when all of a sudden, she couldn't move. Literally. Rose Weasley had just stepped into the trick step. She could distinctly remember her cousin James' laughing face, as he told a story last Christmas, about the boy who got stuck in the trick step for five hours, while Peeves sang rude songs, and threw things at him.
Oh no. This couldn't be happening. People would talk for ages about the stupid first year who got stuck in the trick step. She'd be known as "The Trick Step Girl" for the next seven years. She'd never live it down.
"Didn't anyone warn you about the trick step?" came a drawling voice from behind her.
Rose turned around as much as she was physically able, only to see that blond-haired boy her parents had been talking about at the train platform. His arms were crossed, and his chin was stuck up towards the ceiling, giving off an air of superiority.
"Of course someone told me, but I was in a rush," she explained, shooting the boy a dirty look. It probably wasn't the best idea to turn the only sign of potential help against her, but she couldn't keep her temper in check, and she only wanted to wipe the smirk off of his face.
Instead, his smirk grew a little bit bigger, as he held out his hand to her, and pulled her up.
"Be a bit more careful next time, yeah?" he sneered at her, and stalked off.
Rose gathered her belongings and tossed them haughtily over her shoulder. Of course, that Malfoy boy had to find her. Now she would really never hear the end of it. It was only a matter of time before the whole school would be talking about her blunder, and she would be on the receiving end of several mocking comments every time she walked down the corridors.
But the whispering, and the pointing, and the rumors never came. Scorpius Malfoy never told a soul.
As her father predicted, Rose quickly rose to the top of her class. And right on her heels was none other than Scorpius Malfoy. Anytime Rose felt like skiving off on an assignment, she just pictured Malfoy's gloating face as he held up an O, while Rose only had an E. Both Rose and Scorpius reveled in the competition.
By third year, they still weren't quite friends, but their relationship wasn't strictly based on pure competition any longer.
Then, in the spring of their third year came the event that Rose liked to think of as "The Hospital Wing Pact." Rose was jostled into alertness after dozing off on her cot in the Hospital Wing when heard a familiar drawling voice arguing with Madame Pomfrey.
"Really, I'm fine. Staying overnight is unnecessary."
Rose had to smile. She had said those very words just two hours ago, but of course Madame Pomfrey had brushed them off.
Malfoy was brought over to the cot next to Rose's, and as Madame Pomfrey rushed off to get supplies and potions from her office, he turned to Rose.
"She's a madwoman," he said.
"Tell me about it. I have to stay here at least three nights, she's saying. The Bludger didn't even hit me that hard, you know."
"It looked awful. Goyle is a right prat, you know. Can't believe he'd stoop so low as to aim the Bludger at someone in the stands."
"He only did it because I told him I didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with him."
"Still a prat."
"Can't argue with that. So why are you here?"
"Well…I…well…"
"Fist fighting at Hogwarts! Imagine! You're lucky you don't have detention for the rest of your life, Mr. Malfoy," tutted Madame Pomfrey, as she re-entered the wing with a Potion, "Take this, you," she said, pushing the potion towards Malfoy, and shuffling back to her office.
"Fist fighting! And you had the nerve to call Goyle a prat," Rose chided.
"It was Goyle."
"What?"
"It was Goyle. He lost us the game with all those foul shots, even with me catching the Snitch."
"You're still a prat. And I don't see Goyle in the Hospital Wing, so maybe that will teach you not to pick fights."
"Goyle's not in the Hospital Wing because he's at St. Mungo's. Am I still a prat?"
"Yes," said Rose after a moment of stunned silence, "Still a prat."
Two nights later, Rose was pretending to sleep when she heard Malfoy call her name.
"Weasley? You awake?"
"Yes."
"Does it make you mad that everyone kind of forgets about you when you're in the Hospital Wing?"
Rose was taken aback. It was as if Malfoy had read her mind, just then. Nobody had come to see her besides Albus and Tove.
"Yes. I can't stand it, actually."
And that was how, at two AM one night, in the middle of the Hospital Wing, a pact was made.
"Shake on it, Weasley."
Rose held out her hand, and the two shook.
"This is our secret of course," Malfoy added.
"Naturally."
According to their Hospital Wing Pact, whenever either one ended up in the Hospital Wing, even if it was all their fault for being a prat, the other would be required to visit at least once a day, and bring gifts. ("Preferably Honeydukes fresh fudge and Sugar Quills," as Rose had added, last minute.)
The Pact was among the best kept secrets at Hogwarts, and since both Rose and Scorpius had more than their share of Hospital Wing visits, the two got to know each other this way, apart from all of the classroom competition.
The summer before her fifth year, Rose's Hogwarts letter was thicker than usual. She brought the Hogwarts owl over to Felicis' cage to rest before flying back to the castle, and tore open the letter, to see a small badge fall out onto the floor.
"Mum! Dad! I'm…a…I'm a prefect!"
Scorpius Malfoy was a prefect, too. At least that's what Rose learned from Tove's letter the following week. Not that she cared or anything. It was just nice to know who the fellow prefects in her year were. That's all.
"Normally, we'd just keep it simple and pair up prefects for patrols based on year and House," said the new Head Girl, Alivia McDonough, at Rose's very first prefect meeting.
"But this year, we're trying something new. It's to encourage unity between Houses!" added Head Boy Roger Darwin, with too much strained enthusiasm to be natural.
A few of the older prefects groaned, but most of the fifth years like Rose just looked around curiously, checking to make sure there wasn't anyone in the room that they absolutely couldn't be paired up with.
And that is how Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy ended up doing their patrols together.
"So what exactly does one do on a patrol?" she asked, as she met Malfoy by the entrance to the Great Hall.
"Burst into broom closets, and bust people for snogging, I imagine."
"I suppose."
Rose left for patrols thinking that it was going to be the most awkward experience of her life, walking the castle with Malfoy – but she was wrong. There was something fun about it.
By the second hour, the pair was having fun with it. They took turns at all the closets they passed, shouting out ludicrous things like, "Open up! Snog police!" They had only managed to actually catch one couple, and they were too busy laughing about it to actually give the lovers too much trouble.
Through Hospital Wing Pacts, and prefect patrols, Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy became something like friends. They weren't quite mates, but they were…something like it.
And while even Rose Weasley, who was notoriously stubborn, knew that there was something special about Scorpius Malfoy, she didn't think that they would ever be more than mates, if you could even call them that.
So when Donovan MacBean sauntered up to Rose as she studied in the library for that pesky Transfiguration exam, it did not even occur to her to answer with a "no."
As far as she could tell, she had no other romantic prospects, and besides, it was just one date. One date in Hogsmeade, with a boy who, she had to admit, was pretty darn cute.
If Rose knew who had been standing behind the nearest book shelf for the last hour, peering out at Rose between the library's copies of Potions for Emotions: Mood-Regulating Potions for all Occasions and Potioneering Explored: So You Want a Career in Potions? wanting nothing more than to gather up enough courage to ask the very same question, would she have answered differently?
