Disclaimer: It isn't mine!

Chapter 3

The rest of my week is uneventful. Luckily, Malfoy is training with Chris on charm maintenance, so I don't have to deal with him save for an hour or so on Friday.

The hour in question is spent discussing reasons why curse breaks take place, which is a relief. I can't handle any more Hogwarts reminiscence from Malfoy this week.

"So basically, only the person who set up the vault can open it unless it's magically passed down to an heir of sorts using a special incantation. Unfortunately, not many people know the incantation. So when someone dies, the vault is magically closed using whatever security the owner wanted in place. That's where we come in." I am rifling through a large stack of papers and finally find one that I can use. I slap it down onto the table in front of us. Malfoy slides his chair closer to mine so he can see it.

"This," I begin with some rare enthusiasm, "is a security sheet for one of our vaults. All the spells listed are the ones we have to break to get back into the dead person's cell. Once we get past these, we can turn the cell over to the rightful heir or next of kin or whoever is specified in the will."

I glance at Malfoy as he reads through the sheet with interest. His eyes flick up to mine, catching me watching him. I feel my cheeks heat up slightly and curse myself as he smirks.

He leans back in his chair, tipping it onto the back two legs. I have the urge to knock him over, but I resist.

"So we just wait around until someone dies?" He gently sets the front legs of the chair back on the ground and turns to face me. He's uncomfortably close, so I stand up and start pacing back and forth.

"Well," I start slowly, "there are also joint accounts for couples and such that need curse broken if one person decides to back out of the agreement. And of course, there are the people who forget their code spells or passwords, which happens all too often."

He rolls his eyes. "Idiots." I chuckle slightly, surprising myself. He raises an eyebrow.

"For once, Malfoy, I cannot agree more. Anyways, since we're just the internal curse breakers, we don't go on any of the tomb raids and such that the externals do. We're kind of rescuing treasure from within, rather than trying to accumulate more."

He stands up and leans against the table, eyeing me shrewdly. I push some hair out of my face awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable under his watchful stare. I start filing away the security sheet I had unearthed until he breaks the silence. "Doing anything fun with the mystery fiancé this weekend?" he asks with a half-grin, half-smirk.

I glance at the clock. Ten more minutes and I would've been home without a care in the world. But of course, personal conversation with Malfoy will inevitably piss me off for the rest of the evening.

Before I can stop myself I say, "Not that it's any of your business, but he works a lot, so I probably won't see much of him." I look away from his piercing silver eyes and start gathering my things.

"Sounds like a real winner," he remarks quietly. I hear something in his voice that I can't define, but when I meet his eye, he is wearing his usual mocking grin.

"I'll have you know that he's a really nice guy!" I say, not knowing why I'm even arguing at this point. Malfoy doesn't deserve to know anything about me or my fiancé or my life.

The mocking grin falters slightly, but he remarks with a voice full of snark, "If nice is what you want!"

I give him the most hateful glare I can muster before spinning around and walking away, fuming all the while.

"Hey, Weasley!" he calls after me and I pause. "What did you say his name was?"

I turn back to face him. "Why do you care?" I snap.

"Just curious what I'll call you once you get married. Assuming you aren't keeping your last name, that is." His eyes dare me to retort. Rather than giving him the satisfaction of an argument, I decide to answer honestly.

"His name's Perry. Perry Thornbush." I sense the heat rising in my cheeks, but ignore it as I turn back around to leave.

I hear Malfoy laughing behind me. "So you're going to be Rose Thornbush?" Instead of turning around, I send a rude hand gesture in his direction and hear him laugh again.

Screw him.

By the time I meet Lily at our favorite café on Saturday afternoon, I've put Malfoy out of my mind. That is, until she decides to bring him into our perfectly lovely non-Malfoy related conversation.

"So how's your partnership with the gorgeous one going?"

I scoff. "Ugh. Why does every single female on this planet swoon at the thought of that jackass?"

She raises her hands in surrender before taking a sip of iced tea.

"It's just a fact of life, Rosey. He's good-looking and you know it."

I push a tomato around my plate with a fork, refusing to agree with her even if I know she's right.

"He is a total cad though," she continues. "Wonder if he still dates every halfway attractive girl he meets."

I scowl and direct my attention to the exposed brick wall to my right, not wanting to discuss my giant prick of a coworker. We sit in silence for a while until I finally decide to break it.

"I don't get what people see in him anyways. Why am I the one girl who hates him? And why am I the one person unlucky enough to have to work with him?"

My cousin shakes her head, ginger hair gliding gently over her shoulders. She sighs. "Well," she begins slowly, "some women think it's better to date Scorpius Malfoy and have their hearts broken than to not date him at all."

I shake my head in dismay. I mean other than his looks, there's really nothing appealing about him.

Except that he's smart. And he's athletic.

And he's a total prat, I think, coming to my senses.

"So is he still interested in you?" Lily asks nonchalantly, bringing me out of my reverie. I cough, swallowing my lemonade too quickly.

"What do you mean by interested?" I ask, eyeing her in disbelief. She cannot be serious right now.

My dear best friend raises her eyebrows at me. "Are you delusional? He was so into you at school! You were just too busy with homework and quidditch to notice!"

I think back to my exchange with the twit in question earlier in the week. "And who did I reject if I was such a heartbreaker, pray tell?" "If you don't know, then you aren't as smart as I thought."

I tune out my subconscious and laugh with disdain. "Yeah, sure. And pigs fly."

Our waitress appears at the table and collects our empty plates. "A. Pigs do fly. I've witnessed it in charms class.

"B. Scorpius Malfoy was after you for years."

I feel a jumping sensation in my chest. So what. That was years ago, anyways. And I could not care less about what he thinks or thought of me.

"I think you're the delusional one, Lils. Malfoy and I have been enemies forever. And regardless of his alleged feelings, I have a wonderful fiancé named Perry that I'm much more concerned with!"

She goes back to sipping her cold glass of tea, condensation dripping over her fingertips. "Mmhmm. Whatever you say," she says slyly.

I swear, I think to myself, this family makes me twice as crazy as I already am.

"Hey, Per," I say brightly as he walks through the door on Sunday afternoon. He strolls over and kisses me on the cheek before I pull him in for the real thing.

"How was work?"

He collapses in the armchair across from me, sighing at the same time. "Oh, fine," he says, fighting through the exhaustion. "Nothing out of the ordinary, I guess."

I smile warmly at him, but his tired gaze doesn't falter. I launch into a conversation, throwing out ideas and plans for the evening. "We could go out to eat or something. I definitely don't feel like cooking anything, unless you want to." Perry always cooks when he's home and I never do, so I probably didn't need to point that out.

I watch as he buries his face in his hands. "I'm really, really sorry, babe. I have to do a bit of work from home tonight." Before I can protest, he holds up his hand to stop me. "I swear this will all be over in a few weeks! I just need to stay on top of things leading up to the big proposal." It's always just a few more weeks, I think to myself, but then decidedly ignore it.

I briefly think of Malfoy's comment about Perry. "Sounds like a real winner."

But then I decidedly ignore that, too.

Perry gets up and walks to his office as I flick my wand toward the kitchen cabinets and summon myself a bowl of cereal.

Some night this will be.

I show up late to work on Monday, much to the chagrin of Chris. The minute I walk into the break room for my morning cup of coffee, I'm met with his boisterous, yet stern face.

"Rose! You do realize it's after nine o'clock right? You're new partner is really showing you up."

As I pour a cup of lukewarm coffee, I see the bane of my existence step into my line of vision. Terrific.

"Yes, Rose, you really should set a better example," he says obnoxiously. I sit down at the table and put my head in my hands. I hear Malfoy sitting down across from me as Chris continues to ramble. I try to tune everything out, but Malfoy kicks me lightly under the table. I throw my hands out in front of me, glaring at him, but knock over my coffee in the process.

"Smooth move, slick," he says quietly as he waves his wand to clear the mess. His eyes betray a hint of joking as they lock onto mine. He bumps his foot against my leg once more and this time, I keep my cool, sending him a Malfoy-quality smirk. I push my hair behind my ear and watch the shine from my ring catch his eye.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Chris booms and I snap my attention to him. His humongous face is tinged red, as it normally is when he gets frustrated. I stare blankly at him before glancing at Malfoy. He gives me a knowing look. Apparently he wasn't paying attention either.

Chris huffs loudly. "I don't know why I even try. As I was saying, you guys can do paperwork today. Scorpius needs trained on reporting. Sound good?"

I can't resist retorting. "Terrific actually. I'll finally work with someone who pulls their weight when it comes to write-ups."

Chris points at me exasperatedly. "You better watch it, Ms. Weasley! Just because you've been my favorite in the past, doesn't mean I won't fire you!"

I roll my eyes. It's not like I haven't heard that before. Chris makes a tsk tsk noise and eyes Malfoy and I shrewdly before turning to leave.

"Better be on time tomorrow!" he calls as he exits the break room. I promptly put my head back in my hands. A half a minute later I'm pulled out of my misery by the sound of mug hitting the table in front of me. I look through my fingers and see Malfoy sitting back down.

"Figured you could use a cup of coffee that's actually hot," he says simply.

I eye him skeptically and take a tentative sip of the steaming hot coffee in front of me. My skepticism immediately turns to gratefulness and he grins.

"Two sugar packs, as you like," he says, briefly flicking his eyes up to mine over his own cup of coffee. He grins slightly and I feel a jumping sensation somewhere in my abdomen.

I take another sip, purposely trying to look miserable, before setting my mug down on the wooden table top. "Who says that's what I like?"

He leans back in his chair and rolls his eyes. His dark green t-shirt brings an image of him in his Slytherin quidditch uniform to the forefront of my thoughts, but I push it from my mind.

"Come on, Thorny," he starts coyly, mocking my future last name, "I watched you drink coffee every morning for at least a few years at school. I can pretty confidently say I know what you like, unless your taste buds have totally changed in the year since I last saw you."

I don't know what to say, so I take another sip. I can't help but think of the fact that I couldn't even begin to guess what Malfoy drank every morning for breakfast at school. Let alone how many bloody sugar packets he put in whatever he did drink.

I feel him watching me, but choose to ignore him. Instead, I stand up, taking my hot mug with me. "Time for paperwork," I snap, wanting a change of subject. I sigh heavily in an effort to lower my slightly elevated heart rate.

As I walk out of the break room, I don't have to turn around to know that his eyes are following me.

A couple of hours later, Malfoy and I are back in the break room. My usual table in the corner has been taken by a few coworkers, so I sit down at a small table toward the back wall. Unfortunately, Malfoy sits down across from me. Instead of letting him get a rise out of me, I summon a bag of m&m's from a cabinet filled with my go-to snacks.

"Candy at eleven in the morning?" Malfoy taunts. I ignore him, but he grabs my hand and turns it toward his line of vision to read the label.

"And it's muggle candy, at that." He eyes me shrewdly and I pull my hand back to my side of the table.

"Well, when you're marrying a muggle…" I say quietly, shooting him a noncommittal glare as I try to ignore the goosebumps left where his hand had wrapped around my own.

He coughs loudly, partially choking on his water, and I raise an eyebrow. "Your fiancé is a muggle?"

The look of shock on his face almost makes me laugh, but instead I shoot, "Yeah. So what? What's it to you?"

He shakes his head slightly. "I just can't believe that, of all people, a muggle won you over. Not that there's anything wrong with that," he finishes quickly, raising his hands to stop me from the protests I was ready to make.

I go back to eating my m&m's in silence, but after a few minutes, Malfoy breaks it.

"Don't you wish, I dunno, you had someone to play quidditch with?"

I crumple up my candy bag and send it sailing into the trash can on the opposite wall.

"What?" I ask, feigning confusion. The reality is that I do wish Perry could play quidditch with me. Or at least discuss quidditch with me. Or discuss anything about the magical world with me, really.

"I just always thought you'd end up with some quidditch player. Or maybe someone who played quidditch in school, but went on to an interesting career that not many people would be up for."

Sounds like he's referring to himself, I think. And before I can stop myself, I say it aloud.

"Sounds like you're describing yourself, Malfoy." I feel my ears heat up as he snaps his eyes to mine. Moments like this make me thank Merlin for the mass of red hair that covers the over-sensitive skin of my ears.

He gives me a meaningful look that I can't read before saying, "In your dreams, Thorny," and winking at me.

I scoff, "More like in my nightmares."

He laughs genuinely, and for some reason I can't resist joining. I feel his shoe bump against my leg under the table for the third time today as he catches my eye. I attempt a glare, but my heart isn't in it.

"You know," he starts quietly, "we could try to be friends. Now that we're forced to spend time together anyways, I mean." When I don't respond, he continues, "I have nothing against you, after all. Of course, you hate me for some unknown reason."

He smirks and I roll my eyes. "For your information, Scorpius, I have plenty of reasons. You're a cocky bastard. You broke half of my friends' hearts. You always say the things you know will annoy me the most." I count on my fingers as I rattle off my reasons. "And these are just a few things I don't like about you," I point out. "There are plenty more, I'm sure."

Like the way you make me feel when you look at me like you know everything about me, I add in my head. But this time, I keep my thoughts to myself.

Anyways, that probably doesn't count as something I don't like.

I flick my eyes back to his, sapphire meeting silver, and see him watching me intently. He leans forward in his seat, his face only a few inches away from mine. I hold my ground, but can't help noticing the fogginess closing in around my brain from his close proximity.

"We'll see about that, Rose. I'm sure you'll come around soon enough. No one can resist the Malfoy charm." He gives me a dazzling grin and I blink blankly at him before he backs off.

Pull yourself together, Rose!

He leans back in his seat, looking quite self-satisfied. I shoot him a scathing glare just before Chris calls into the break room,

"Scorpius! Got some of the security team here for you to meet!"

Malfoy grins at me, leaning toward me once more. "Until next time, friend."

Before he stands up, it's my turn to kick him under the table.

A/N: So it looks like Scorp definitely had (or has) feelings for Rose... and it seems that it was obvious to everyone, except Rose of course!

Thanks for all of the support so far! Next chapter (to be posted by next Friday) will have some curse breaking action, along with lots of tension between our two favorite coworkers ;)

For now, let me know your thoughts on this one! Are you in love with Scorp? Do you just want to scream at Rose for being so oblivious? Are you ready to slap Perry for being such a workaholic? Can't wait to read your reviews :)