Rose

Rose couldn't recall why when she woke up that morning there was an unpleasant, hollow ache in her body. Then suddenly everything came back to her in a rush and she had to lie back down before she fainted. The curtains of her four-poster were still drawn but she could make out the sounds of Maddie, Elle, and Laura getting ready for the day. Laura was ranting about an assignment she hadn't finished and Elle was attempting to comfort her by telling her to go to the library at lunch and complete it then. She wanted to block them all out, even Maddie, and just lie in bed all day.

But she didn't.

"You're up!" Maddie said, almost gratefully, beaming. Maddie and Rose had bonded over the fact that they were both mutually compatible with each other. Rose could handle Laura and Elle, but Maddie was even more introverted than her. Rose knew for a fact that she didn't like being alone with their two talkative dorm mates and she couldn't blame her. Rose smiled at her and dressed quickly so they could head down to the Great Hall.

They entered the dining hall and made their way over to the ravenclaw table. With a wrenching pull in Rose's gut she saw Lysander sitting in their usual spot, the Daily Prophet held up in one hand and a mug of tea in the other. Rose didn't really want to sit with him this morning and was about to tug Maddie in the opposite direction when he looked up and smiled at them. He set down his mug and waved the girls over. Rose internally groaned, knowing she couldn't get out of this. Maddie lead the way to the seat across from Lysander and sat down, Rose following shortly after. She couldn't quite meet the eyes of the dirty blond-haired wizard.

"Morning," he said cheerily. Maddie replied with a slight smile and Rose nodded, staring down at her plate. Just then a body sat down on the bench next to her and she shuffled over a bit as Jack set his bag down on the ground.

"Hey guys," Jack said. Rose looked up at him and immediately noticed the bluish purple circles under his eyes and the definite slump of his shoulders. It looked as though he were struggling to keep his eyelids aloft.

"Didn't sleep well?" Rose asked him, a note of concern in her voice. He sighed heavily and reached for the teapot.

He merely responded, "Does this have caffeine in it?" Lysander nodded and Jack immediately filled his goblet to the brim, not even bothering to add sugar or milk before taking a hearty chug. He winced. "Ack, burnt my tongue. Merlin, that's strong."

"Jack, I think you're working yourself too hard," Maddie said as she bent over to look at him. She appeared to be worried, her eyebrows creased and face drawn. "You'll run yourself into the ground!"

Rose silently agreed with Maddie but did not voice her opinion when she saw the annoyed expression on Jack's face. "I'm fine, Mads, really. Just a little tired."

The four companions fell silent, succumbing to the noises of the dining hall for a moment. Still unable to look at Lysander Rose instead directed her attention anywhere else, when all of a sudden her eyes were locked with none other than Scorpius Malfoy's.

For a split second - a fraction of a second, really - his expression seemed soft and curious. It was not something Rose had ever seen on him before. But as soon as their eyes met he immediately sent his trademark sneer her way and Rose responded with a roll of her eyes. She looked back down at her plate but couldn't seem to get the image of him out of her head. It was as if his face was imprinted into the backs of her eyelids. Why had he been looking at her? That soft expression she'd thought she'd seen on his face must have been her imagination. Or a trick of light.

Yeah.

The rest of breakfast was a quiet affair, and Rose was perfectly okay with it. Her mind was reeling and she was so absorbed in her thoughts that even if she did have the energy to participate in a legitimate conversation she probably wouldn't be able to articulate coherently. Rose was somewhat relieved when Maddie suggested they head to their first period class - advanced double potions with the slytherins. Oh joy.

Jack looked away and blushed. He was the only one out of their friend group who hadn't made it into the advanced potions class. When he'd seen he hadn't gotten the required O.W.L.s he played it off, saying he didn't need it anyway, but Rose knew he was a little upset at not having been put in. "Right, I have a spare. You guys go ahead, I think I fancy a walk around the grounds."

Maddie glanced at him from underneath her lashes. An expression Rose couldn't discern passed over her face. Then it was gone. "Alright. Have fun." With that her, Lysander and Rose stood and retreated out of the dining hall, beginning their descent down to the dungeons with heavy hearts.

The day flew by in what felt like a blink of an eye. The next thing Rose knew she was collecting her things in the ravenclaw dormitory and getting ready for the Prefect meeting. She stalled in the girl's dormitory, deliberately packing and unpacking and organizing all the things she needed in her bag and checking her reflection. Rose wasn't looking forward to the meeting. Lysander was the other ravenclaw sixth year prefect and throughout the entire day she'd barely made any contact or conversation with him. Rose could tell he was very put off because he kept staring at her, trying to engage her with meaningless chitchat or shooting her questioning looks. Eventually after Rose's lame, one-syllable responses to his attempts he gave up and they hadn't talked since. After one last and unnecessary glance at her face in the mirror hanging over the sink in the dormitory bathroom she steeled what little courage she had inherited from her gryffindor parents and began the descent to the common room. To her intense relief she didn't see Lysander among the students sitting in armchairs reading, talking, or doing homework. Rose exhaled and set her shoulders back, trying to feel more confident - or at least look more confident than she felt. She exited the common room and bounded down the spiralling staircase of ravenclaw tower alone.

However she wasn't alone for long.

As Rose was turning the corner on the second floor that led to the prefect meeting room she was intercepted by a tall, trim figure with dirty blond hair and inquisitive blue eyes.

Cornered.

She took a step back but Lysander just stepped right towards her again, closing the small distance between them. Rose would have kept backing up but found that her back was practically pressing against the wall. She forced herself to look at her shoes instead of his eyes.

"Rose. What's going on? Why have you been avoiding me and refusing to look at me?" he demanded. Rose could detect real hurt in his voice and it made her heart swell up and then freeze over again. She was pretending to be fascinated with her shoelaces when she felt a finger gently touch the underside of her chin and tilt her head up until she was forced to look into his eyes. They were swimming with sadness and confusion and despair, darker than usual and resembling not a clear sky but a cloudy, overcast storm. When she looked into his eyes, really looked into them, she felt something, something warm and sweet and indescribable but lovely all the same. And then it was gone and she was left with coldness and confusion and annoyance. Rose tried to avert her eyes and he sighed dejectedly.

"Look at me," he said softly. "Please." Rose reluctantly obliged but decided not to look directly into his eyes. Instead she focused on his lips. Which looked surprisingly soft and inviting. She knew she should look somewhere - anywhere - else, but found herself fascinated. They parted slightly and Rose heard a small shaky intake of breath, but whether it was hers or Lysander's she didn't know because the next second his lips were on hers.

At first all she could really register was how soft and warm they were and how effortlessly he ensnared her with his hands by wrapping them around her waist and pulling her closer to him, closing the gap between them. Then suddenly Rose's hands were entwined in his hair, pulling him closer to her, needing to simply feel him.

But it was over before she could feel anything else. And he was gone. And Rose was alone in the corridor, the ghost of his kiss lingering on her lips.

Scorpius

At first Scorpius thought that he was joking.

But after staring at Christof for an indeterminable period Scorpius realized that his friend was dead serious.

His immediate thought: not a chance in hell.

There was no way he was going to try to get that swotty know-it-all half-blood Weasley to like him. The thought was vile, repellent, disgusting - and surprisingly malicious.

Scorpius thought about it some more while Christof smiled at him smugly. Sure, Rose Weasley wasn't a pure-blood and sure she was a Weasley and sure her parents were his archenemies and sure he hated her with every fibre of his being but ... but ...

What if he was somehow able to succeed in getting the swot to like him? The ultimate revenge of making her fall in love with him and them dumping her sorry arse, leaving her heartbroken and miserable was too sweet to resist. And didn't he need to re-establish his reputation of being a Malfoy, a heart-breaker, and a womanizer? Everyone in slytherin house was probably laughing at him behind his back for getting caught by Tally and Liz and then actually feeling sorry about it, and now more than ever Scorpius needed to regain his status as a pure-blood male dominant slytherin. Pretending to like Rose Weasley, making her fall for him, and then turning around and dumping her would surely remind everyone that Scorpius Malfoy was mean, desirable, and powerful.

"So? What do you say?" Christof asked eagerly. Scorpius grinned devilishly.

"You're on."

"I didn't think you'd actually agree to it!" Christof exclaimed, a mixture of awe, surprise, and curiosity displayed openly on his face.

Scorpius felt unreasonably defensive at this comment and scowled subconsciously. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Easy," Christof muttered. "I just meant ... Well, it's Rose Weasley we're talking about here."

The blond-haired slytherin rolled his grey blue eyes and sighed. "Are we still on for the bet, or aren't we?"

Christof jumped out of his chair and held out his hand to Scorpius, grinning madly. "Shake on it?" Scorpius begrudgingly stood and clasped hands with Christof before collapsing onto the chair and pinching the bridge of his nose between his pale, slender forefinger and thumb.

"Right. So how am I going to do this? I hate to admit it, but I think Weasley hates me almost as much as I do her. That swotty half-blood has a stick so far up her arse I'm surprised she can even sit." Scorpius commented crudely, shaking his head.

"I don't know, mate," Christof replied. Scorpius narrowed his eyes slightly at the mischievous grin plastered across his face, which seemed even more sly than usual. "But you'd better figure it out; you only have so much time." With one last wink Christof rose from his chair, and slinging his bag over his shoulder rubbed his hands together in a very characteristic gesture. "I'm going up to the dorms. Are you coming?"

Scorpius sat still for a moment, pausing and thinking. Finally, he said: "No, I'll catch up with you later."

Christof shrugged lightly and nodded. "Alright. See you." With that he turned and disappeared through the door leading to the boy's dormitories. Scorpius studied his hands and pondered for a moment, almost regretting accepting his friend's ridiculous bet.

But then the thought of that half-blood know-it-all's prude little heart breaking welled up inside of him and he knew it would be worth it, in the end, just to take her down from her high pedestal. He despised the way she and that arrogant army of family members paraded around the school as if they owned the place, and he desperately wanted to put them in their place at last - especially that Rose Weasley. The thought of her nose pointed into the air and her wild, untamed mane of hair made him irrationally angry, and he found himself clenching his hands into fists.

He would show her. Already a plan was formulating in his mind, a plan sure to help him succeed in getting her to fall for him.

All he needed was a bit of control. And Scorpius relished the thought of controlling his sworn enemy.