Characters: Scorpius Malfoy & Rose Weasley - Friendship (& a touch of something else)
Year: Two
It was a warm, breezy day in mid-May. Scorpius and I were sitting by the lake, talking about Transfiguration. I was trying to read while we talked, but I was eating an apple and the juice kept dripping onto the pages, so I threw the book down in defeat.
Scorpius seemed slightly distracted and was doodling in his sketchbook, stretched out on the ground. He was nodding and saying "yeah" a lot, so I caught on that he wasn't listening.
"Okay, what's up, Scorpius?" I asked, folding my arms. "What's going on?"
He sat up and looked at me, his eyes serious. "Rose... Can you please keep a secret? Even from, like, you know, Geoff and Randall?"
Normally, I would have been annoyed that he had to ask, but he seemed genuinely upset. "Of course. Now what's wrong?"
He looked at the ground, then shoved his drawing my way. I picked up the well-worn book and took a look at the quick pencil sketches. The one on the page it was open to showed Draco Malfoy with his arm around Astoria Malfoy's waist, Scorpius standing off to the side staring at the two. Nothing seemed unusual with it. I gave my friend a quizzical glance. He motioned me to flip to the next page, so I did.
It was the same scene, only this time, Astoria's stomach was bulging and Scorpius was not in the picture at all. I gaped at him. "Your mum is pregnant?" I asked him, shocked. He nodded miserably. "But you're twelve, you'll be almost fourteen when it's born then, won't you?"
"I'll only be thirteen," he said. "Only thirteen."
It dawned on me why he hadn't drawn himself in the second sketch. "You don't think they'll stop loving you, do you?" I asked. He looked away silently. I felt the urge to laugh at the idea, but held it back out of kindness. "Trust me, they won't. Mum and Dad love me and Hugo. And all my uncles and aunts are the same. We've got a lot of kids. Of course they'll still love you!"
He sighed. "You don't get it. Why would they have another kid thirteen years after me? Because I failed them, that's why. Because I'm a Ravenclaw and my dad wanted a Slytherin, I know he did. And Mum wants a daughter, if that's what they get she'll forget me in a second." The words rushed out of him as though he'd been bottling them up for quite awhile. "They hate me, Rose, they must. I'm a complete disappointment to them, and all I want is for them to love me. But I can't say that because I'm the son. It's not fair!" He was breathless by the end of his little rant.
I quickly made sure no one was looking our way - we both had our pride - and then gave him a hug. He shrugged away pretty quickly, but I knew it cheered him a bit. "I promise they won't stop loving you. First of all, you showed me the letter they sent last year about getting in Ravenclaw. They were completely proud of you! And even if your mum does want a daughter, so what? Now she might get to have one of each. They probably didn't mean to get pregnant." He looked confused. "What? You've never heard of an accident? I was an accident!" I grinned at the look on his face. "Think about that for awhile. And don't worry," I told him earnestly. "I promise they love you, even if they don't say it." I leaned in for one more quick hug.
Unfortunately, as soon as I did that, a chorus behind us broke out into "Ooooh, Scorpius and Rose!" Several of our friends, including Geoff, Randall, and this girl Amanda, plopped down next to us, smirking. Poor Scorpius blushed a delicate pink from the roots of his hair to the tips of his ears. I found it hysterical and cracked up with the rest of them.
"Shut it," Scorpius mattered, slamming his sketchbook closed and storming away. We, obviously, found this even funnier and laughed harder than ever. Of course, I found it particularly funny because I knew Scorpius fancied Amanda, and he knew I fancied Geoff.
"He's not acutally mad, is he?" asked Amanda, looking worried for an instant. I rolled my eyes.
"Of course not, he's just embarrassed," I assured her.
"Oh, good," she responded, looking at him dreamily. As everyone else began teasing her, I felt annoyed and maybe a little jealous.
But no, that couldn't be right. I did not fancy Scorpius Malfoy. No. Bloody. Way.
