"YOU DID WHAT!!!!!!?????" shouted Andy loudly for the entire common room to hear.
"I honestly don't see what the big deal is. We aren't sworn enemies anymore. We made a truce."
"YES BU-" she started, and quieted when Rose shushed her. "But why!? You hate him! I haven't got a problem with him... he's smart, athletic and gorgeous…also he really isn't that bad."
"Hence the truce."
"You stopped fighting because he's gorgeous!?!?"
"We stopped fighting because he isn't that bad!" Rose said in a bored voice.
"You two should really try to get along!" said Andy in a matter-of-fact way.
"I just told you we are not enemies anymore!" said Rose, rolling her eyes.
"That's your definition of getting along? I mean like friends! You two have a lot in common. Like I said: Smart, athletic, gorgeous, nice, awesome…"
"You never said he was nice or awesome. I thought we agreed on not bad."
"And nice and awesome!" she said in a bubbly voice. "Anyway, I think he liiiiiikes yooooou!" she continued, half mockingly, half serious.
"Shut up."
*other side of the common room (not within earshot ((thank god)))*
'Oh my god. She thanked me. And she said we should stop fighting…' Scorpius was lost in thought. He had no idea what was going on. In all honesty he had no problem with Rose personally, but except for today and that time the previous week, she had clearly despised him. The only reason he didn't like her was because he wasn't allowed too. He was supposed to be better than her. He was supposed to beat her. He was supposed to be in Slytherin, with her in Gryffindor and beat her in every quidditch game. In stead, they were beaters together. They were lab partners. They had been through countless detentions together. They had shared their deepest secrets and troubles with each other. She had cried on his shoulder in the rain for an hour straight and he was OK WITH IT! HE COMFORTED HER! AND WORST OF ALL, HE WAS ACTUALLY STARTING TO LIKE HER!
He had had enough. He was going to go to the library or something. Reading takes his mind off stuff. Maybe he'd read the next Twilight book. Now that he and Rose stopped fighting he needed something else to hate.
He got up and headed for the door. Once he was out, he walked mechanically in the direction of the library, Eclipse in hand. Half way down the corridor Albus materialized out of nowhere, right next to him. He was talking about something or another, but Scorpius didn't hear.
"Not right now, Al. I'm tired and grumpy."
"I know a peaceful place you can go to read…quieter than the library!" Al said, deciding now was the perfect time to execute part two of "Operation Secretly Make My Cousin And Best Friend Like Each Other." He told Scorpius the place, and as soon as he was out of sight, he headed in the other direction, toward Ravenclaw Tower.
When he arrived the door it asked some random question he did not know the answer to.
"I don't know, but you know that I will get in anyway, so it isn't logical for you to deny me entry!"
"Fair point," said the door, as though it actually was a decent answer.
Once he was in the common room, he walked over to Rose. Seeing that she was still being pestered by Andy, he walked over and whispered in her ear.
"I know where she'll never find you," he said, in a persuasive tone. "I'll distract her." He whispered the directions and she slipped out the door.
As the door closed behind her she heard a loud explosion go off behind her. Al was good at distracting people. She headed down the stairs, out the doors and onto the grounds. She walked in the direction Al had told her. He had said that just past Hagrid's hut, there was a beautiful tree. It was in a great place, and few knew about it. There would be the perfect place to rest in the trees shade and read. Once she passed the hut and walked a bit farther, however, she was greeted with a less pleasant sight than she had anticipated.
Just a few yards from where she was standing was a tree, as promised. It was not, however, even remotely peaceful. In fact it was currently thrashing around uncontrollably. Her first instinct was to run for her life, until she noticed something small and limp in the trees grasp. It was Scorpius.
Cursing Al under her breath, she ran forward, thinking fast. There was an obvious answer that she couldn't remember. She, unlike her mother, had never been in a situation like this where she needed to use her immense knowledge for something important. 'Think, Rose! THINK!'
"IMMOBULUS!" she shouted as soon as the thought came into her head. The tree stopped dead in its tracks, Scorpius still dangling loosely from one of its limbs. Rose hopped up onto the trees lower branches, climbed a bit to where he was trapped, and managed to untangle him. He fell and landed hard on the ground with a slight thump.
"ow…" he said in a weak voice.
"I was hoping for a thanks," said Rose, slightly sarcastically. "so this is the infamous womping willow…"
"You've heard of it," said Scorpius as he tried to support himself against the tree.
"My parents told me... but when Al said peaceful this is the last thing I expected…"
"Albus sent you here?" said Scorpius suddenly.
"Yeah. Why?" she replied.
"He sent me here too."
They looked at each other for a moment, before wordlessly striding off toward the castle, Scorpius leaning on Rose for support. It was time for Albus to pay.
Speaking of Al, he was currently sipping a cup of tea, looking amusedly out the back window of Hagrid's hut, watching the pair stumble by. "That seems to have worked nicely," he said, with an evil chuckle.
"I can't understand what yer tryin' to do, Al," muttered Hagrid, pouring himself a bucket sized mug of tea.
"Yes," replied Al, "but you can't deny that it's working quite well." He pointed out the window by the door, through which you could plainly see Rose helping Scorpius as they limped up the stairs to the castle. Hagrid looked too, and just shrugged.
"Yer a good kid, Al. But yer completely mental."
"I know," said Al, still watching his friends with a slightly mad expression on his face.
*Slytherin Tower*
The two waited wordlessly, Scorpius leaning on the wall to remain standing. They had been stationed there for some time now, waiting for a student to emerge. Then someone did. The door swung open slowly to reveal a small, timid looking boy, a first year like them.
"Hello," said Rose in a sweet convincing voice. He looked up, one eyebrow raised. "We were just wondering if you would be so kind as to do me and my friend a small favor."
He gave her a quizzical look, before shaking his head firmly, and continuing down the corridor. Suddenly a hand grasped his shoulder, and a wand appeared at his throat.
"Please," said Scorpius through gritted teeth, forcing his voice to stay calm. The boy looked positively petrified, before he nodded in consent.
"Great! You know Al, my cousin?" he nodded once more. "All we need you to do is to sprinkle this in his bed." She handed him a small bag of some unknown powder. He nodded for a last time, and rushed back through the door from which he had just come.
*Next morning*
Scorpius awoke with a loud yawn. He looked around for a moment, confused, before remembering what had happened yesterday. He was in the hospital wing. He propped himself up in bed, reaching for the pain relieving potion on the table. He drank it, feeling much better. He replaced it and I doing so caught sight of Rose, asleep in an armchair by his bed. He smiled, surprised to see her, but pleased all the same.
She stirred at the noise he was making, and opened her eyes sleepily. She blushed, realizing that she had stayed there all night and it might seem as if she actually cared about his minor wounds. "U-um…g-good morning!" she said, realizing that he was staring at her.
"You know, you really are a hypocrite sometimes," he said, slightly mockingly. She glared at him, recovering from her blush.
"I was just going to stay for a while, to make sure you were fine…and I suppose I just fell asleep…" she muttered defensively.
"It's fine. I appreciate it," he replied, smiling kindly. She smiled back slightly, happy that he seemed to be fine.
"Well now I might get to see if our little trick we played worked! He should come in soon."
"I hope not. What do you think he'll say when he sees that you stayed here all night?" he said, rolling his eyes.
"Knowing Al, either something sick and perverted, or something about me liking you, or something about us being secret bffs…" she said, seeing his point.
As if on cue, Albus burst through the door loudly, covered in hives from head to toe. He plopped down onto an empty bed, looked up, not at all surprised to see the two, and said "you did this to me. So…Un…Cool…" At this his words were stopped by Madame Pomfrey who had suddenly rushed to his bedside, fussing over him. He was certainly not happy about his current situation, he was glad for an excuse to come here and see that his plan had worked.
"Oh no!!!" shouted Rose suddenly, making the others jump. "Classes! WE'RE LATE!" she pointed to the clock franticly, as if she hadn't already made her point clear.
"Relax, Wealey," said Scorpius, reaching out a hand to calm her. "It's Saturday. Weekend. No class." At this, she landed directly back in her chair with a little "flop!"
"That's good," she said with a little sigh. "I didn't get much sleep last night."
"Aaaawwww… were you worried about me, Rosie?" he asked in a mock baby voice. She blushed bright pink, and poked him sharply in the arm he had a bandage on.
"Ow!" he yelped. "You said no more fighting!" he whined, rubbing his arm with a hurt expression. She giggled a bit, at the silly face he made. Scorpius laughed a bit too. Al just grinned, watching them silently from across the room.
It only took another hour for the two to heal quickly. The three left together at about 9:30. They headed to the field to practice quidditch for a bit. Quidditch was the only thing that made Scorpius and Rose really feel comfortable together. It also helped to have Al around.
They played for a few hours before heading to lunch, their stomachs reminding them painfully that none of them had eaten breakfast. In the great hall, Al ran off to join the Slytherin table, while Scorpius and Rose sat at their own table.
"Why are we sitting next to Scorpius?" whispered Andy, taking the seat to the right of Rose. Rose looked to her left, and sure enough, there was Scorpius, pouring soup into a bowl.
"I don't know," replied Rose quietly. "I guess since we were hanging out we just walked in here and sat together."
"You two were hanging out?"
"Practicing quidditch!" said Rose defensively.
"I still don't get it…"
"Well I had been visiting him and Al in the hospital…"
"Awww…were you worried about him?" said Andy in the same mocking voice Scorpius had used.
"That's what I said," came a new voice from the other side of Rose. "Oh, and Corner, you should work on you whispering skills. I could hear you from over here. Weasley was pretty quiet. Follow her example." Andy blushed and excused herself, pocketing an apple as she left.
"Thanks…by the way," muttered Scorpius as soon as Andy left. "For staying, and for saving me. Bloody tree took my wand."
"Oh…um, no problem. You know it was set up. I couldn't not save you…but I really was a bit worried… They should've killed that tree years ago." She said the last part angrily, knowing how much harm it had caused, particularly to relatives. Lucy had even almost gotten an eye out in her first year. It was lucky Madame Pomfrey had been able to help, but she did end up needing glasses.
She spent the rest of lunch telling him all about what her parents told her about that tree. That there was a passage to hogsmead in it. That it had been home of a werewolf. That an escaped convict had held her parents hostage there. They had fun. They actually seemed to be enjoying each others company. All was going according to Al's plan.