Chapter 7

Rose Weasley must have been staying well out of sight, Scorpius decided. He'd seen her only once on Saturday, and that was across the pitch during the Quidditch match. In fact, he'd been so busy watching her that he was practically startled out of his skin when he saw a figure drop hard and fast from high above the ground. A few Hufflepuff spectators screamed, "It's Colt! He's been knocked off his broomstick!"

"Is he dead?" Marcus asked Scorpius, looking nervous.

"Student players can't die from Quidditch. You'd know that if you'd read anything about the history of this sport at Hogwarts. The ground is designed to catch and cushion falls. See, Toady's moving his legs," Scorpius said, squinting down at his friend, who was being led away in a floating stretcher.

Marcus shrugged, looking relieved. "Lucky break. Poor bastard, he'll be eating the hospital wing food. He's lost his spectacles as well. Third pair this year. That ought to put him in a right state."

Colt would be alright. His stocky build tolerated the athletic life better than most. Besides, they didn't attend Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft for nothing. He went back to watching the small dot that was Rose until the game was over.

Rose, the girl who was becoming his obsession. She had already admitted that she was afraid of her feelings, which he was trying to understand, but couldn't really. He was quite pleased with the feelings that arose in his chest when he saw her, when he even thought of her. He'd never had them before. From the moment she had kissed him, something inside of him had changed. The thing was, Rose herself was getting in the way of exploring this new thing. She must know the way he stared at her in the dining hall, just hoping for one glance from her, hoping that he could somehow transfer his longing to spend time alone with her again from his eyes to hers, from his heart to hers. They'd already admitted that they liked each other and they only wanted to snog each other, so what was the problem?

Scorpius decided to take a risk Sunday evening at dinner. He waited until he saw Rose enter the hall, and luck was on his side, because she'd only come down with Roxanne. Quickly, Scorpius scanned the dining hall. Fred Weasley looked to be telling an incredibly amusing story to a gang of giggling girls; Albus was with some of his friends and his brother James was with his new girlfriend, Candy Burlington. They sat together on the far side of the dining hall, holding hands and grinning at each other. All of the family members who just might give him trouble were occupied. Rose's brother Hugo was relatively agreeable, but then, he was a fourth year, and probably didn't have a clue that Scorpius was interested in Rose. So, seized with a feeling of bravado, Scorpius rose to his feet and declared boldly to his friends, "I'm going to go and sit with Rose."

Marcus and Colt, who had been released only that morning from the hospital wing, stared in shock.

Then, Colt let out a chuckle, shaking his head. "Lovesick arse! What makes you think she'll have you hanging about?"

Scorpius hadn't told his friends that he and Rose had actually snogged several times. Held hands, held each other, made each other blush. He wasn't sure how to break the news to them.

"Er…I–"

"He's doing it to make Hester jealous. She's with that Seeker on Slytherin's Quidditch team…Anton somebody or other," Marcus interrupted.

"Hester can shag all of Hogwarts if she likes," Scorpius said.

Marcus suddenly jumped up, seeing his friend was serious. "Well, if you go, I'm coming as well. I'll talk to Roxanne."

Colt shrugged, standing up. "Don't want to miss out on the fun."

"Sit down, you gits! You're not coming with me!" Scorpius barked.

"Oh, we're coming, alright. This isn't about you, anyway. This is about me and Roxanne," Marcus said.

Scorpius, who was wasting precious time, shook his head and started for Rose's table. "Suit yourself. You're on your own once I get there, Marcus."

So the three of them walked across the noisy, crowded hall and over to Rose's table. Scorpius went straight to Rose and said, "Hello, there."

Rose colored instantly, smiling faintly. "H-hello, Scorpius. Hello, Marcus. Colt."

The three Hufflepuffs sat down at the mostly Gryffindor table. Some students were staring, but they were mostly girls, eager for any reason to gossip.

"What are you ladies up to?" Colt said cheerfully, settling himself across from Roxanne. Marcus had gone quite pale, and said nothing.

To Scorpius' surprise, Roxanne seemed suddenly very alert. Her eyes became very bright, and she sat up straighter, saying to Colt, "What's your Quidditch number? Eleven, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's right–"

"I thought you'd be out of commission after the match yesterday! You fell so far! Didn't you break three fingers and crack your skull?"

Colt laughed, holding his hand up for all to see. "Nothing Madam Pomfrey can't mend for me, though, bless her, she is getting on in years. My skull is still a little tender, but that's where the Potions classes come in handy. I can knock a liquid sedative up in no time. I added too much dragon tonic to my brew, though. I reckon I was out cold for about four hours earlier."

Scorpius glanced at Marcus, whose coloring had returned, but instead of being a scared pale, was now an angry red.

Roxanne, however, noticed none of this, fixing her eyes instead on Colt. She cocked her head to the side. "You make your own healing potions, do you? I do a little of it on the side, as well. My mum does it for a living."

"You don't say?"

"Oh, yes. But, it's no wonder you were out for so long, using dragon tonic for a pain reliever. Rat tail soaked in essence of plumeria would have been better."

"Sounds disgusting."

"Tastes disgusting, but it works."

And they proceeded to carry on about mixing and potions class, while Marcus looked on with a scowl.

"She fancies him. I can tell," Rose said to Scorpius in a low voice, confirming what he thought to be obvious by now, as the two were now totally engrossed in conversation and each other.

Scorpius shook his head, fighting a laugh, and said quietly, "Marcus is the one who really likes her. I don't understand why he's said absolutely nothing since we got over here!"

"Maybe he's nervous," Rose suggested.

"Being scared never got anybody anywhere. Now Colt's going to take his girl," Scorpius said.

Rose made a face, and nudged him. "Help him out!" she hissed.

"I'll let them work it out. I wanted to talk to you," he said. They stared at each other for a few moments, and Rose finally looked down, taking a nibble of her dinner roll.

"Why do you do it? Make me come chasing you?" Scorpius prompted.

"It's not intentional. I-I just get nervous. My cousins will take the mickey out of me if they find out I've got a boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

Rose opened her mouth, blushing even more furiously. "I-I thought we were…I thought–"

"Oh, did you mean me? I didn't know," Scorpius teased. Rose looked at the table, squeezing her eyes shut. "I'm making an utter fool of myself," she whispered, shaking her head. "Just forget I said anything at all."

Scorpius laughed now, leaning in and whispering in her ear, "The thing is, it's kind of hard to ask you to be my girl when you're always hiding from me."

Rose turned her face towards his. They were inches apart. "They're going to be talking about us."

"I don't care."

"I hope you know what you're saying."

"Of course I do." Scorpius kissed her, in front of the entire table, in front of their friends, in front of everyone.

They broke apart to find their friends staring in surprise at them, all except Roxanne, who was grinning and nodding her head.

"Wicked," she said. "It's official."

* * * * *

It seemed to be the makings of a very pleasant night that evening in the Hufflepuff common room. Scorpius sat at one of the tables finishing up an essay while Colt was going over formation strategies with some of his Quidditch teammates. Marcus was trying to figure out an Arithmancy problem.

Right before curfew, an interpersonal owl flew through and delivered several notes, one being for Colt. It was heart shaped, and lavender colored. Colt sputtered in embarrassment as the Quidditch players around him started hollering and clapping.

"Whoo, hoo! Toady's got a girlfriend!"

"Who's it from, Colt? Tell us!"

"Nobody…er from my sister… She…She wants to know if I'm alright," he said. Scorpius knew this was bollocks, as Colt's sister wouldn't be starting at Hogwarts until next year. Curious, he watched Colt take the letter and walk some ways from the Quidditch players. He opened the small colored paper and read it hurriedly.

"What've you got there, Toady?" Marcus asked suspiciously.

Colt, looking bashful, was jamming the letter into his robes. "Nothing."

"Accio, note," Marcus said quickly.

"Hey, give it back–"Colt exclaimed as the note flew from his hands into Marcus'.

Scorpius felt a sense of dread as he watched Marcus' eyes skimming the letter. Finally, he crumbled the letter and hurled it to the floor, his eyes narrowing into angry slits. "You right foul arse! You knew what you were doing at dinner! Sussing her up with your Potions bollocks! She was my girl! Mine!" Marcus said loudly.

Scorpius rushed to stand between his friends. "Now, wait a minute, you don't know–"

"I know plenty! Now Roxanne suddenly wants to meet with him tomorrow to study for Potions…signing her letter with little hearts! You saw him, Scorpius, don't defend him! Didn't let me get a word in edgewise, did he?" Marcus demanded.

"You wouldn't say a bloody word! Besides, I only went because I didn't want to eat by myself. How was I supposed to know that Roxanne would be so..so agreeable!" Colt retorted.

"So you admit that now you want her for yourself?" Marcus growled, pulling his wand out.

With a shout of surprise, Scorpius interrupted. "What the bloody hell are you doing? Colt's not admitting anything!" he said, turning to his friend. "Are you?"

Colt had turned bright red. "Actually…I…I–"

"TRAITOR! BLOODY TRAITOR!" Marcus boomed, and before Scorpius could stop him, he shot a bolt from his wand, missing Colt by an inch. A piece of wall exploded behind him.

Colt pulled out his wand, and fired back, shouting, "HOW DARE YOU, YOU COWARDLY WANKER?"

For the next few moments, pure chaos erupted as Marcus and Colt continued to shout insults and shoot spells at each other, sending chairs, books, papers and bags flying. The common room became a mad house as everyone screamed and hollered with fright as they covered their heads and made mad dashes to the safety of the bedrooms.

Scorpius tried to break it up, but his two friends had clearly lost all senses. He hadn't a clue what to do, but didn't have to come up with a plan because suddenly, a voice could be heard loud and clear.

"STOP THIS MADNESS!"

The three boys left in the common room–Scorpius, Marcus and Colt– froze.

"What in the name of Merlin is going on here? Have you lost your minds?"

It was Professor Sprout. Someone had gone to fetch the Headmistress of the house, and she was looking quite put out as she stood glaring at them in her night robes, a sleeping bonnet sitting crookedly on her head.

"Now listen to me. Hardshaw and Fletcher, you will not sleep a wink until this room is spotless. In addition, you have earned yourselves a month's worth of detention. You could have seriously hurt someone! As a matter of fact, Fletcher, I'll see to it that you are suspended for the next two Quidditch matches!"

Colt's face paled. "Two? But the semi finals–"

"Would you like to make it the rest of the season?" Professor Sprout demanded, crossing her arms.

Colt hung his head. "No, Professor."

"Then get yourself to work. The both of you. Malfoy, you are dismissed to bed. Luckily for you, I was told who was involved in this. Goodnight to you," Professor Sprout said.

Scorpius exited quickly, hoping that Roxanne would not come between his best friends. He found himself chuckling, though, as he climbed into his bed after washing up. Good old Toady had found himself a girl. It got Scorpius thinking that maybe Colt wasn't lying about shagging all those girls. He'd been very confident to have never said three words to one of the most well known girls in school before. Roxanne seemed drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Good God, would Colt try to shag Roxanne? The two had obvious chemistry. She would probably let him. And if she let him, would he be able to please her?

With a thought of panic, Scorpius realized that he had not a clue what to do to please Rose. He certainly couldn't count the groping in the dark he had done with the other girls as experience. He would never grope Rose. Well, maybe he would, but it would be in the throws of passion. But, could one be passionate without ever having shagged? Why was he even thinking about shagging? Some witches he knew were waiting for marriage. Maybe Rose was that type of witch. One who wanted to wait. She'd said in the library she wanted her first time to be with someone special. And before he could stop the fantasy, he could see it clearly: Rose in a white dress, her long hair flowing down over her shoulders and down her back like a curtain, walking towards him with a bouquet of flowers. Pink ones. No, yellow ones. Yellow like the headband she had worn the first time she'd kissed him in the library.

"I'm mad. I'm going mad," he said aloud.

"If you are, keep it to yourself. We're trying to sleep here. Got class first thing," a muffled voice said.

Scorpius turned on his side. It was time to sleep. At sixteen, he'd just thought about a girl as being his bride. It could only mean one thing.

Try as he might, he couldn't help thinking of his father, and what he might say if he knew. The Christmas break was in a few weeks, and his father had wanted to meet Hester. Scorpius hadn't even told his parents yet that the relationship was over, and that he had fallen in love with someone else.

"Who is she?" his mother would be the first to ask.

And what would he tell them? What would he say?

Rose. Rose. Rose.