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I woke up to the worst headache I had ever had. I wasn't sure exactly how I had got it but I knew that banging my head in the shower had not helped.
This was why I traipsed down to breakfast on Tuesday morning, nearly knocking over Peter Maroon as he tried to talk to me for the twelfth time since term began (which was an accomplishment seeing as it was only the morning of the second day and we weren't even in the same house), and storming into the Great Hall in a bad mood.
I sat down between Al and Lucy, my hair getting frizzier by the second, and started buttering at my piece of toast angrily.
"So I had to go and drag—," Al stopped mid-sentence to turn and stare at me. "Whoa, Rosie, my little ray of sunshine, what's got your wand in a knot this fine morning?"
I glared at him pointedly and then my gaze switched as I watched Peter Maroon enter the hall and go and sit with his friends over at the Hufflepuff table. He waved enthusiastically at me. I clenched the toast in my hand until it was completely squashed and broke in half, landing on the table.
I was forcing my anger at myself onto Peter but, right now, I didn't care. It was early morning (I was most definitely not a morning person) and I had a bad headache and bruised and painful leg.
I felt all my relatives in a two metres radius shrink away from me, supposedly unnoticed.
"Oh, cool it," I snapped at them all. "I'm not going to rip your heads off,"
"We disagree," Angie told me after a moment where neither of them had spoken.
I couldn't help it; I laughed. Angie always found a way to cheer me up, even when I was really upset. She had cured my 'heartbreak' in my second year when I was told that all the stories Gilderoy Lockhart had written were not his. Or when I had seen the only boy I had ever had a crush on, William Brown, snogging a girl two years older than us, back in our fourth year.
"So," I asked, mainly to change the subject, whilst buttering a piece of toast. "How was the start of term party?"
Fred, Albus, Hugo, Lily, Dominique, Lucy, Roxanne and Angela all turned to look at me. Or glare would be the right word. The only person not glaring was Hugo.
"W-What?" I faltered.
"There was no party," Hugo told me and he poured some juice.
"Why not?"
"Because somebody," Albus turned this time to glare at Angie, "told the person on patrol, namely Head Girl, that there was going to be a party."
"Come on, guys," I complained. "I wasn't going to appear and give you all detention. I didn't even know where the party was."
"That was a risk that some of us didn't want to take," Fred said, mocking Albus by pretending to be serious. When Al turned away Fred's face broke out into a huge grin.
I tried not to laugh, "So when are you going to have it now?"
"Halloween," Hugo told me.
"Hugo!" Al yelled at him and a few Hufflepuff fifth year girls walking past turned to stare. Al winked at them before turning back to Hugo as they giggled. "You're not supposed to tell her!"
"Sorry," Hugo muttered but then started quietly cursing Al in French, which he probably learnt from Victoire and Dominique. Unfortunately, I was fluent enough to know what he was saying, and that meant it was harder for me to prevent my laughter.
"Am I not invited then Al?" I asked. "Just because I'm Head Girl doesn't mean I don't want to party."
"That's the spirit," Scorpius said by a way of announcing his arrival.
I shot a huge grin in his direction. "I take it you like to party then, Scorpius?"
"Just a little," he replied, smirking mischievously.
There was silence from all our friends as we both turned back to the group. Scorpius sat between Al and me.
"What..." Angie tried to say but Dominique interrupted her.
"Did we just walk into a parallel universe or something?"
I looked at Scorpius and saw that he was also staring at me. A look passed between us, it had a clear message: 'What did we do wrong?'
I turned back to face Dominique, an expression of confusion still etched across my face. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," she started and hauled her bag onto the table. "That you're unusually nice to each other today. It's unnatural and, quite frankly," she stood up and walked past me smiling, "it's freaking me out."
"Whatever, Dom," I called back to her and I heard her laugh before she disappeared between the crowds of students now filing into the Great Hall for breakfast. I turned back to the others after glancing briefly at Scorpius; he was staring down at his cereal. "What's so wrong with a little politeness?"
"Nothing," Angie replied in a way that stated something completely different. I couldn't quite work out what she was implying so I settled for raising my eyebrows at her.
"You alright, Scor?" Al asked quietly over the giggling of Lucy and Roxanne. Again, I noticed that he was rather subdued today.
Was I even supposed to notice? This has to be bad, how aware of him I was now.
He looked up from his cereal to see Al and then, when his eyes flickered to mine and saw that I was watching, he smiled. "I'm good, Al. Thanks."
"Okay..." Al started, he didn't sound too convinced but quickly spotted a group of seventh year girls over at the Slytherin table which attracted his attention better than if they were shiny objects. "See you guys in History of Magic," he muttered quickly and hurried after the girls as they left the hall.
After that I realised that every one of my relatives and best friends were in a really good mood. I didn't know why this morning was so special, but the mood was infectious and, by the time I found myself on my third piece of toast, I was smiling and laughing along with Fred and Angela as they recounted the story of Albus and Dominique arguing again about some Quidditch move.
"So Dom said that it should have been 'dive, turn, shoot' but Al was all for 'turn, dive, shoot'—"
"What?" I exclaimed, purely to mock Fred for once – it was usually the other way around.
"—I know!" Fred told me and I rolled my eyes. He didn't get it; I couldn't care less about their Quidditch arguments. "Why, oh why, was Al given Captain?"
It was rhetorical but, nonetheless, Scorpius Malfoy must have felt like this was a good time to remind us of his presence and said, "I know, I mean, no one can beat me anyway, why bother with a team captain for Gryffindor this year at all?"
"Because we are so much better than you," I told him. "And all we need is some idiot who thinks he's in charge...but obviously is not,"
"Ha ha, very funny Weasley," he told me but, unlike usual, he didn't say it in a rude way – it sounded like we were best friends teasing each other.
"Yeah," Angie commented. "Rose has Al wrapped round her little finger, don't you, Rose?"
"Yep," I agreed and smiled as we walked into our History of Magic classroom, only to be greeted by Albus.
"Where did you get to after breakfast?" Dom asked Al as she, too, entered the classroom and slammed her bag onto the table next to a girl with black hair and violet eyes, whilst adding, "Hey Alice,"
Alice smiled up at her and then her pretty eyes met Albus' and she blushed as Al winked at her. He turned to us all and stated, "I was talking to Rich about the upcoming plans for this year,"
"But don't the Head's get to decide the events?"
"Well, we were only guessing, Dom," Al told her, shaking his head as if he couldn't understand why she was taking this seriously.
"So what do you think we should plan this year then?" I asked, "We only get two events,"
"Party," he beamed, sitting down on Angela's right, Dom on her left. I sat next to Al and Scorpius sat the other side of me with Fred next to him, on the end. In History of Magic we sat in rows of seven; apparently that was because it was the most powerful magical number and therefore we would work better in groups like this.
And I was almost one-hundred percent sure that I was the only one who had listened when we had been told that.
"We need an excuse for a party, Al," Scorpius told him, leaning across me to speak to him. My breath hitched in my throat and I inhaled the scent of his cologne. I had to bite down hard on my lip so that I didn't do or say anything stupid.
"We need a cover story then," Al declared and, to my utter horror, Scorpius turned his face, now only inches from mine, and smiled at me mischievously before turning back to Al.
"How about a dance?" I asked and they all looked at me like I was having mental health problems. "What? Come on, it doesn't have to be all fairies and twinkling lights and ball gowns that flow to the floor and waltz music just because I say the word 'dance',"
"What do you mean then?" Angie asked and Dom nodded her head rapidly whilst Al still looked like he was in shock from me suggesting he waltzed.
"I mean, Weird Sisters music and Hippogriff High and stuff,"
"Oh," they all said and realised what I meant.
"You mean we call it a dance, so that we can get it accepted by McGonagall, but then turn it into our very own party, teenage style?" I nodded in answer to Al's question and he laughed. "Excellent,"
Just then our History of Magic teacher, Mr Norton, who was thankfully not a ghost, entered the classroom (via the door, not blackboard) and called for the class to quieten down.
"Good morning and welcome back to school," he started and everyone but me groaned. "I'm sure you're ready to get started on some work after your lovely summer holidays. Today we're going to be talking about a subject that is involved in a fairly recent event in the Wizarding World but possibly the most important event to ever happen."
Everyone waited whilst Professor Norton turned and wrote the title of today's lesson on the board. I copied it down immediately onto my blank piece of parchment before fully taking it in and understanding it: The History of Horcruxes.
"Now, does anybody know anything about this, before we begin?" he asked.
The eye of every person sitting on my bench and a few others in the room, including the Professor, turned to look at me.
"I...I don't know," I muttered, my voice sounding as if I couldn't believe I was saying those words, which I couldn't. I knew that everyone could tell that I was embarrassed, like I was admitting a great humiliation. "I—I'm not allowed to know. Or, at least, not until I was told at school,"
"No worry, Miss Weasley," Professor Norton said, turning back to the board. "That's what I'm here for,"
Still, I did not like to not have the knowledge before it was told in class. It made me feel uneasy. I could sense the curious eyes of Scorpius Malfoy staring at me from my right and Albus Potter staring at me from my left. "What?" I whispered to them both.
"You don't know anything about it?" Scorpius asked Al and I.
"No, I told you, I wasn't allowed to know,"
"So?" Scorpius asked me. "You didn't just ignore your parents and learn all you wanted?"
"Of course not!" I exclaimed in a whisper. He snorted. "What?"
"Come on, Weasley," he said whilst trying not to laugh. "You're really that... conforming?"
"At least I listen to my parents," I said, and the people sitting directly in front of us turned to tell us to be quiet. Luckily, Professor Norton just continued talking.
"It's good to take a risk sometimes,"
"No it's not," I insisted.
"God, this year's going to be hell, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically.
"What do you mean?" I asked, my anger flaring up again.
"I just mean that you're going to make it so boring, aren't you?" I had to resist the urge to slap him.
"I am not boring," I muttered under my breath as I started to copy down notes off the board.
"Prove it," He challenged me.
"You UN-prove it," I countered lamely. He simply looked at me. "How exactly am I supposed to prove I'm not boring?"
"I don't know," He said as if this thought had never occurred to him. It probably hadn't. "Stop taking notes for once, kiss a boy, annoy the Whomping Willow, take a bath in the Black Lake, run down the corridor naked, whatever you see fit,"
"Is that something you'd wish to share with the class, Mr Malfoy?" Came the annoyed voice of Professor Norton.
Scorpius smiled at me wilfully and I saw him and Al exchange a look that I knew would result in nothing good for me. "Don't you dare, Malfoy," I threatened under my breath but his grin just grew wider.
"Weasley was just deliberating whether to snog Peter Maroon or run down the corridor naked," he stated loudly so that the whole room could hear.
I felt my face turn red, even though I knew it wasn't true, and my anger got the better of me. I forced my books into my bags and stood up. I pointed my wand directly at Scorpius' face and, a second later, the words 'I like men' appeared on his forehead in bold red letters and I smirked and walked out of the classroom. Professor Norton wouldn't mind, I was usually a good student.
A few minutes later and the bell went. Dom, Angie, Fred and Alice caught up with me just outside the Great Hall.
"That was brilliant, Rose," Fred told me.
"He looked completely confused, he had no idea what you had done to him until he saw his reflection in the window," Angie laughed.
"The best thing is, he can't get it off without my consent," I told them and they all started to laugh just as we sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"What did you do?" Dom asked, "What spell did you use?"
"It's new," I told her. "I'm not sure if it has a proper name or not but I found it in this really interesting book in the library the other day – I've been waiting to try it out. I can change the words anytime I want,"
"That's just the best thing ever," I heard Lily exclaim as she joined us with Lucy and Hugo close behind. "Have you seen Scorpius?" she asked.
"Have we seen it?" Dom asked, incredulous. "We were there! Rose did it to him,"
Lily started to laugh, "Why?"
"Annoying, slimy, arrogant git," I muttered under my breath and they started to laugh.
"He can't get Madame Pomfrey to get rid of it either because none of us know what spell Rose used," Alice added.
The last part of her sentence was drowned out by Scorpius as he made his way over, fuming. Al was following behind; he and Rich Everton, a cute boy in our year with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes, were using the other to support themselves as they both tripped over with laughter.
"This is not funny, Weasley," Scorpius declared as he sat down opposite me and we all saw that the words had changed to read 'annoying, slimy, arrogant git'. All my relatives including Alice and Rich burst into laughter at this.
"I beg to differ," I told him as it changed again to say, 'I love Lauren'. Again, the laughter just doubled as we all saw Lauren Dowry hurry over from her place at the Ravenclaw table like the good little fan girl she was.
"Hey Scorpius," she asked whilst batting her eyelashes and twirling her blonde hair. I rolled my eyes but couldn't help laughing along with everyone else at Scorpius' panicking face. I could see his eyes dart around, looking for the exit.
"What's that on your forehead?" She asked.
"Weasley likes to constantly throw insults my way," He told her and glared at me.
"Actually, the spell only lets the truth appear," I lied. Of course it didn't, I just thought it would be highly amusing to watch Lauren's face.
Lily and Rich had to start up a conversation about Transfiguration notes so that their new fits of laughter were less obvious.
Scorpius looked completely mortified with my answer and I could almost see his brain working quickly to find an excuse to run; now Lauren thinks he loves her. I decided to help him out a little. I waved my wand so that the words now read, 'inexperienced loser'. Fred choked on his butterbeer and Al immediately slapped him on the back to try and cover up their new fits of laughter.
Lauren looked as if she was about to say something, I had no idea what, but her friend Paula called her back over to the Ravenclaw table and she left after saying a hasty goodbye and not commenting at all on Scorpius' improved look.
He groaned and turned to me. "Please will you just take it off, Rose?" he whispered, sighing as if he expected another long argument.
"Sure," I replied and removed the spell with one lazy flick of my wand whilst buttering a roll of bread.
"Really?" he asked and used his spoon to check his reflection. All my friends were looking at me like I was mental for the second time that morning. "Just like that?"
I shrugged. "You overlooked me being late at rounds so I guess this is me making up for it,"
"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically. "You know, you could have just said 'sorry',"
"No," Hugo interrupted. "Rose doesn't do that,"
"What?" Scorpius asked, totally confused. Al, Angie, Dom, Lily, Lucy, Molly and Fred, even Alice, nodded their heads in agreement with Hugo. "Why not?"
"She just doesn't," Hugo explained.
"I don't believe you should just say sorry all the time," I told Scorpius. "I think it gets stupid just saying it over and over again until you don't mean it,"
"You're lucky if you get a sorry from Rose," Angie informed him.
"So... what, you just never apologise?" He asked me, completely mystified.
"Of course I do," I snapped back. "Just never using the word 'sorry' unless I really am apologising for something terrible that I've done... what's so weird about that?"
"Oh..." he said, faking a loss for words. "I don't know... everything?"
I elbowed him in the ribs just as Peter Maroon came running over from the Ravenclaw table.
Was he stalking me or something?
"Hey, Rosie," he said a little too enthusiastically for someone who I had jinxed to have eight leprechauns follow all morning singing, 'For he's a jolly good fellow'. Apparently he had somehow removed them. Shame.
"Hey Peter," I replied, in an unimpressed manner."What's up?"
"I was just wondering, well... I'm having a hard time understanding what Professor Roberts is teaching and, well, I know you're really clever and all," I looked across the table and Dom rolled her eyes, "so I thought that maybe, if you wanted to, you could, umm... teach me?"
"Like tutoring?" I asked innocently. I was not going to let him know that I knew he was treating this like a date because I was certainly not going to. He nodded his head. "Sure,"
"Thanks!" he exclaimed and tried to hug me. Al and Hugo put their arms in the way so that he couldn't lean across the table. Unfazed, he addressed me again. "See you later then, about seven in the library?"
I nodded and he walked away with his stupid swagger. By this time I couldn't hold my smile any longer so I was grinning like a maniac. "Thanks Al," I told him and then kissed Hugo on the cheek. "I did not want that creepy boy touching me."
"No problem, Rosie," Al said and him and Scorpius left. They both imitated Peter's walk and Dom spat out all the pumpkin juice she had just been about to swallow. We all started to laugh again.
"Why in the world did you say yes?" Lily asked me.
"Because I love potions and he's a student,"
"So, being Rose Weasley, geek-extraordinaire, you just had to help," she joked and I nodded. "But, Rose, you do realise that you have to spend at least an hour with him later?"
I groaned. I hadn't actually thought of that.
I walked out of my dormitory and then down into the Gryffindor Common room. It was now five minutes past seven and I was trying to postpone meeting Peter in the library. I had my bag full of blank parchment and spare quills and all the potions books I owned that weren't in the library at school.
I saw my family, including Angie, sitting, again, by the fireplace and made my way over. Maybe one of them would want my help with an essay or some other piece of homework ad I wouldn't have to go and meet Peter. I really did not want to spend the next hour with him drooling over me like and idiot and trying to make a move on me.
To be honest, the strangest thing about it is that this behaviour around Rose Weasley was unnatural.
"Hey," I greeted them all and joined Lily and Dominique sitting at the table, they were playing a game of Wizards Chess, one which Lily was losing badly. "Knight to B6," I muttered and the white knight moved forwards to completely destroy Dom's Queen.
"Hey!" Dom exclaimed. "No fair,"
"Calm down, Dominique," I addressed her by her full name. "I won't play any more,"
"Fine," she muttered and then her eyes lit up as if she had figured out a complicated puzzle. "King to C4,"
Her King moved forwards towards Lily's Rook and smashed it to pieces. Lily groaned but I immediately said, "Bishop to B5,"
Dom's smile slid off her face and turned to one of horror but before she could say anything I declared lazily, "Checkmate,"
I smiled and I heard Fred chuckle. "How the hell did you do that, Rose Weasley?" Dom screamed at me and I suddenly felt that it would be better for me if I was in the presence of Peter Maroon.
"Calm, Dom," I told her, hoping that she wouldn't kill me. "It's just chess."
"I was hammering her," she screamed some more.
"Umm... I should be in the library... Peter's waiting for me..." I mumbled and stood up quickly.
"Yeah, you should," Dom snapped as I made a swift exit out of the portrait hole and down to the library.
Sure enough, Peter was standing outside the library and fidgeting on the ball of his feet. He hadn't noticed me so I took a deep breath as I approached and said, "Hey Peter,"
"Rosie!" he said, turning to watch me arrive. "I thought you wouldn't come..."
"I had to make a quick detour to beat Dom at chess," I told him, making it sound as if the situation couldn't be avoided.
"That's fine," he said and led us through to the tables at the back of the library.
I was about to sit down on the table closest to me when he kept walking and flung his bag down on the table right at the back of the room. I raised my eyebrows but followed him anyway.
"So where abouts did you get lost?" I asked, flicking through my notes whilst sitting in a chair.
"Umm... somewhere near the beginning," he replied, sitting also but moving his chair round so that he sat unnecessarily close for someone who wanted to learn.
"Right," I said, trying to decide where to start from.
I got to my feet and wandered round to the other side of the nearest bookshelf. After about two minutes of looking I found the book wedged between 'Charm your way to health' and 'Love Potions'. I returned back to the table and sat back down, pulling a blank piece of parchment towards me.
I wrote a list of ingredients onto the paper and started to write a complicated formula. To me it wasn't complicated but, apparently, Peter found it complicated because he leaned forwards and turned the paper towards him.
"What does this mean?"
"It's—, " I started to say but then I noticed Scorpius walk into the library and sit down in a chair at an empty table, all the while staring hard at his copy of 'Advanced Potions Making'. He attempted to sit down on his chair but missed because he was so engrossed in his book and landed on the floor.
I laughed loudly, not deliberately, and Scorpius turned and saw me, he blushed.
Wait, he blushed? Scorpius Malfoy does not blush.
Before I could even register what I was doing I had vacated my chair and walked over to him, Peter following. Scorpius' gaze followed me as I came closer and then flickered to my hand, that I had offered him to help him up, and back to my face.
"Why, thank you... Rose," he said and let me help him up.
"You studying for potions?" I asked, trying not to laugh as I replayed him falling onto the floor in my head.
"Yeah," he admitted. "There's just one thing I can't get my head around... And there's a quiz on Friday,"
"There is?" I asked and he nodded. "If you want you can study with us,"
I indicated myself and an annoyed looking Peter. I didn't care if he thought this was some sort of a weird date, I didn't. It was making me more uncomfortable by the second and I would gladly have anyone around to break the silence.
Even Scorpius Malfoy.
For a moment I thought Scorpius was going to refuse but instead he just grinned and said, "Thanks,"
We all went back to the table, Peter looking more irritated than ever. This only made me smile more.
"Okay, so we also need a book called 'Basic Potions: NEWTs Level'," I stated.
I stood up and made my way round the back of the last row of shelves in the library, Peter followed closely behind me; Scorpius stayed seated, waving lazily in my direction as if to indicate that he was fine sitting down and doing nothing. I scanned the bookshelves looking for the right book and when I saw it I stopped suddenly. Peter walked into me and I turned instinctively to glare at him.
Before I could turn back around he had grabbed my wrists and pinned me between himself and the wall of books behind me.
"Get off, Peter," I said calmly but my voice shook a little.
"Come on, Rosie," he whispered, his face close to mine. "I won't bite,"
This was the closest I had been to a guy (unless you counted relatives), ever, and it made me uncomfortable.
Unless you counted this morning in History of Magic with Scorpius.
You didn't feel like this when Scorpius was this close, a voice in the back of my mind told me and I immediately told it to be quiet.
"Peter," I warned him. "Move,"
His face turned into an unpleasant smile, one that I thought would never appear on his face – he had seemed so sweet. The next thing I knew, he was kissing me. I clamped my lips together, there was no way I was going to kiss him, and struggled against his grip.
"What's going on?" I heard a voice ask and Peter immediately let go of me and took a step back.
Scorpius came into view and I sighed with relief. However, that relief lasted only a minute because I realised that he was about to murder someone; if I had to guess I would have bet on Peter.
I had never seen him looking so angry and even Peter shrank back from the force of his glare. Just when I was sure I'd have to go on the run for witnessing a murder, Scorpius closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.
"Get out of here, Maroon," he whispered. His voice, quiet but shaking with suppressed rage, scared the life out of Peter, who jumped a mile and then sprinted out of the library – I could hear Madame Pince yelling at him to slow down.
As soon as Peter was out of sight I looked at Scorpius and he opened his eyes to meet my gaze. I saw his eyes soften and he reached me in two long strides and pulled me into a hug.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
I was a little shocked at his behaviour. If this had happened a week go, if we had been at school that is, the whole situation would have gone differently. I was sure that, one, he wouldn't have agreed to study with us (not that we had got much studying done) and, two, he would have probably applauded Peter and left us alone.
I just nodded my head and held on to him as if my life depended on it. It didn't matter what could have happened a week ago because that hadn't happened. He was here now and he had saved me from whatever Peter was planning to do.
After a few minutes in silence, in which I tried to stop myself from crying and simply hugged Scorpius' body closer to mine, he muttered quietly, "Come on, Rosie, lets get you some tea."
I pulled away from him and we started to pack away the piles of books and paper on our table. I sighed loudly in the silence and said the one thing that I really did not mean.
"You know, Malfoy, I'm not really that bad. I'll be fine, honestly, just... just go,"
He shook his head. "No way, you're lying and you know it."
"Malfoy—"
"—Scorpius," There was silence between us whilst we simply stared at each other. "Call me Scorpius, please."
"Now, come on," he took my bag and my pile of books, placing his one on top of mine. "You really need sugar."
I sighed and, as we walked out of the library I caught him glancing at me. Instead of looking away or even blushing like he had done before, Scorpius reached out and took my hand.
My heart rate quickened and I quickly told it to slow down. This was Scorpius Malfoy, I reminded myself for probably the millionth time since term had started.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I heard myself whisper the one thought that I really didn't want to believe it would.
So what if it was Scorpius Malfoy.
Thanks for reading! :)
