"Hey Rosie, I was wondering where you were." Albus Severus Potter walked into the Prefects' bathroom to find his cousin sat on the edge of the tub wearing her favourite red and gold bikini.
"Well, you found me," she said irritably. Today had not been a good day. Even though Albus was, in actuality two months older than Rose, she always looked upon him as a younger cousin, something that Albus reciprocated. At this point in time, Albus was even seventeen, whilst Rose was sixteen, but this charade of Rose being older still continued.
"What's wrong Rosie?" he asked, turning on his two favourite taps, one pouring hot but not too hot water, and the other which emitted perfumed golden bubbles. He was the only person apart from her father that Rose permitted to call her Rosie.
"Just one hell of a day," she sighed as she slid into the tub.
"Want to talk about it?" Albus asked. He thought he had quite a good idea what was bothering her, but he knew better than to mention it, in case he was wrong and she flew off the handle at him, as she had been known to do on occasion. He stripped to his own golden swimming trunks and leapt into the tub, causing Rose to shriek. She splashed him back as soon as he resurfaced, and the two enjoyed an extremely childish water fight, reminiscent of so many water fights in their gardens as children, but minus other siblings and cousins.
Albus was fairly sure that the reason Rose was so agitated tonight was that Scorpius Malfoy had pretended to ask her on a valentine's date to Hogsmeade in front of the entire great hall, to which she had gushed that she would love to, just for him to turn around and say "NOT!" really loudly in her face. It was an incredibly immature thing to do, but the sheer immaturity of it had caused everybody watching to laugh, even James at first, until he realised that Rose was genuinely upset. She had stormed out of the room, even forgetting her satchel full of books, leaving Albus to collect it and return it to her before the first lesson of the day. Scorpius looked slightly ashamed as she turned away. He called after her but she ignored him, pausing only to make a rude hand gesture in his direction. Scorpius even looked quite upset as Rose ran away. He even made to run after her, but James and Freddie had stepped in his way. Whilst Scorpius was tall at six foot, James and Freddie were taller, both standing at six foot three. It was like James and Freddie were the twin boys of the next generation. Uncle Percy had twin girls, but they were much less alike than James and Freddie, who were cousins, but personality wise almost exactly the same. They were both a little michievous, like both of their namesakes, but well loved by pupils and teachers alike. They were also known, though, to be extremely protective of their female siblings, especially the youngers ones- Rose and Lily. Scorpius had been quite right to cower away from the young men as they towered above him. They snarled threateningly until Professor Longbottom came over to make sure everybody was okay. Then they had been sent on their way.
Scorpius had tried to attract Rose's attention all day, but Albus and their friends had made sure she did not have to speak to him, issuing dire threats in his direction at every possible opportunity. Scorpius had forgotten how it felt to be at war with the Potters and the Weasleys. He had only said "NOT!" as a joke, but unfortunately he said it rather loudly and had attracted a lot of attention. He really HAD meant it- he DID want to meet her in Hogsmeade, but he guessed that wasn't an option now. He thought about this a lot as his feet walked the familiar route to the Prefects' bathroom.
He walked into the bathroom to find Rose having a water fight with her cousin Albus. The air was full of golden bubbles, and the scent of honey. Gryffindor robes were strewn on the floor. He was interrupting a family moment. Both turned to stare at him as he walked in. Albus growled and strode towards the side of the tub closest to Scorpius, but Rose spoke out,
"Albus... Could I have a moment alone with Scorpius please?" she asked sweetly. Albus looked at his cousin, showing her a look of extreme disbelief.
"Are you sure Rosie? I can hang around if you want,"
"No, it's okay Albus, you go back to the common room, I'll be back there soon." she told him. Albus scowled at Scorpius more, and pulled his red and golden towel around him. He dried himself off quickly and pulled on his shirt and trousers, throwing his other items of clothing over his shoulder. He spared one last look of disgust for the pair before leaving.
"Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Scorpius said in an overly friendly voice. It was then that he noticed that Rose was glaring at him. Apparently it was too soon for jokes, "Sorry."
"What do you want Malfoy?" Rose asked him coldly, her eyes searching his face.
"I want to apologise to you for being so incredibly immature this morning." Maybe this was one of those times to be completely honest, Scorpius thought, "I really didn't mean to upset you- I only said 'NOT!' as a joke, I really do want to meet you in Hogsmeade..." He trailed off. The look on Rose's face clearly told him that she did not want to meet him in Hogsmeade, "It was just an accident- I thought you would find the 'NOT!' thing funny, I didn't realise so many people were listening..."
"No, I don't suppose you did, Malfoy," Scorpius winced at the fact that she was calling him by his last name- they had broken that barrier as soon as they started talking to each other in a civil manner and he didn't like being forced back to that state of play, "But that doesn't change the fact that you did it."
"I know it doesn't," Scorpius agreed instantly. When they're arguing girls like to think that they're right, so perhaps the right way to go about winning her round is to let her badmouth me all she wants and then agree with everything she says, he reasoned, "But I really am sorry Rose, I really don't want to ruin our relationship because of this."
"Our relationship?" Rose inquired, raising one eyebrow.
"Our friendship, I mean," Scorpius blushed, and Rose could feel a warmth spreading across her cheeks.
Over the summer, Scorpius and his parents had been invited to her cousin Victoire's wedding to Scorpius' distant relative Teddy Lupin. Rose had been a bridesmaid, along with all of her female cousins, and all of Victoire's other cousins, and a fantastic time had been had by all. Her parents had even managed to be civil towards Scorpius', although the tension had been palpable. She had worn the most beautiful midnight blue dress with a cream sash tied about her waist. Her hair had been straightened, the frizz completely removed, with a large blue ornament placed in her hair, along with each of the other bridesmaids. She thought it was a little over the top, but everybody commented on how adorable they had all looked.
Rose hadn't known that Scorpius was attending the wedding- apparently his family had received the invite only two days before the even itself- until she walked down the aisle of the marquee set in the Burrow's orchard. She saw him sat in the back row, sandwiched between his parents, wearing robes coincidentally of exactly the same colour as her dress. In fact, the colours were so alike that some people had even asked if Scorpius was part of the bridal party, much to the amusement of the younger Weasley and Potter girls.
When Rose walked past the row in which Scorpius had been seating, their eyes met briefly, and she could feel her cheeks pinkening as she continued to sweep gracefully (she hoped) down the aisle in line with Lily and Roxanne. Roxanne leant across discretely as whispered in her ear, "It's supposed to be the blushing BRIDE not the blushing bridesmaid!" and winked at her.
The ceremony had been beautiful and passed without great incident. The reception followed immediately and after the newly married couple had taken their first dance as man and wife to raptuous applause, Rose found Scorpius stood in front of her, his usually cool composture faltering slightly.
"Would you like to dance, Rose?" he asked, offering his left hand to her. She took it, and the two spent the evening dancing together. They danced to fast songs (but took care to avoid Roxanne and Freddie, possibly the most exhuberant dancers present apart from their mother), and slow songs, and during the last song of the night, they shared a real moment. Nothing was said, and nothing really happened, but Rose found herself staring deep into Scorpius' eyes, and he back into hers. A vast amount of non-verbal information seemed to pass between them. They were still gazing into each others' eyes when Scorpius' father Draco had broken the moment by informing Scorpius that they would be leaving imminently.
The moment had been well and truly lost, and had never been discussed since, but it had often played on Rose's mind. What would have happened if Draco hadn't come to retrieve his son?
Now they were sharing a similar moment. Neither said anything, they simply stared each other in the eyes, Rose searching for sincerity, Scorpius for forgiveness.
"I should go," Rose said finally, "Or Albus will be back with whichever relatives he can find to spay you."
"So.. Are we cool?" Scorpius couldn't think of a worse way he could have said that. Rose gave him a look that was half way between a smile and a grimace.
"Yeah, sure.."
"And do we still have a date?"
