AN: Hello everybody! The customary shout-out to anyone who has or will ever review this story—THANK YOU! Just a warning—we're fast-forwarding to Scorpius, Rose, and Allie's sixth year at Hogwarts. James is now the oldest Potter/Weasley kid attending, so don't expect to hear much more about Victoire, Alastor, Remus, and Penny—though I may add them in again in later chapters, we'll see. Also, Scorpius and Rose are Ravenclaw prefects, and they're both on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team (with Allie commentating, of course!).
Thanks to my stellar-and-awesome-and-fantabulous-but-way-random beta, PhantomKat—You and your cupcakes rock!
-X-
The Next Generation: Sixth Year
"Oh, come on!" Scorpius moaned, as Rose's bushy red curls whipped around the door and out of the common room. Several other Ravenclaws snickered. "It's been months since she's even looked at me! I don't even know what I did to upset her!"
Allie sighed from a couch near the window. "You scored higher on the O.W.L.s than she did. And McGonagall made you Quidditch Captain on top of that. She's wild with envy. I thought you'd figure it out by now." She turned a page of the Quibbler idly.
Scorpius's gray eyes bulged in disbelief. "O.W.L. scores?" he asked incredulously. "My best friend is ignoring me because of O.W.L. scores? I only beat her in Defense Against the Dark Arts! She had to tutor me in Ancient Runes!"
"But you still got twelve 'Outstandings,' and Rose only got eleven," Allie explained patiently, hazel eyes kind.
"And Quidditch—I didn't ask to be Quidditch Captain!"
"Yes, I know, but the intervention of an objective third party further proves the conjecture that you're the better Quidditch player. Or so Rose thinks."
Scorpius's shoulders slumped. "She thinks I'm better than her at Quidditch?"
"No, she thinks you're better than her at everything. And it doesn't help that you've gotten really popular over the last year or so. Where is Hayden, anyway?" asked Allie suddenly, curiously peering at him over the top of the Quibbler.
"We're just friends now," Scorpius replied absently, running a hand through his white-blond hair. "She thought there'd be an 'us' after Hogwarts, and I didn't. There's too much I want to do first. D'you think she'd be in the library, or the Room of Requirement?"
"Probably the courtyard. She said something about meeting up with James and Al and the others when she saw you coming downstairs. Say hi for me."
-X-
Rose was indeed sitting in the courtyard, surrounded by her brother, cousins, and their friends, still in a rotten mood. She tried to make another run for it when she saw Scorpius heading toward her, but Al held her back.
"…have to face him sooner or later," Scorpius heard him say as he approached the group. Everyone greeted him cheerfully—the fight back in first year had firmly established their friendship, into which Lily, Hugo, Lilac Finnigan, and Patrick and Claire Patil-Thomas had all been admitted. The whole motley crew (all Gryffindors) was now assembled in the courtyard, grinning as they witnessed Scorpius and Rose's confrontation. The bushy-haired redhead in question turned to face Scorpius with a scowl.
"What?" she snapped.
"O.W.L.s, Rose?" Scorpius shot back. "This whole thing has been about O.W.L.s? I mean, I knew you were competitive, but this is a little over the top, don't you think?"
Rose sneered. "You don't know anything about me, Scorpius Malfoy. Don't pretend like you do."
"Your favorite class is Arithmancy, your favorite professor's Bones, your favorite color is blue," Scorpius drawled. "Your Quidditch team is the Chudley Cannons, you hate peanuts but you love peanut butter, you're allergic to eggs, you love being in Ravenclaw even though the rest of your family's in Gryffindor, and you want to be a Curse-Breaker for Gringotts, like your Uncle Bill. What, did you think I was deaf al FIVE YEARS we've been friends?"
Rose's face (and ears) turned an alarming shade of red. "Oh, wipe that smirk off your face, you prat, you look like a gargoyle. I'm surprised you descended from your lofty pedestal of popularity just to speak to me."
"Oh, that's rich, coming from someone who has such a condescending attitude." Scorpius could feel a headache brewing behind his forehead, a side effect of his anger. "You know the real reason you're so bloody put off is because you can't fathom the idea of anyone being better than you at anything, even Quidditch! You're used to being Little Miss Perfect and when someone turns up who can knock you off your pedestal, you can't handle it!"
"Oh, so I'm Miss Perfect, am I?" Rose shrieked, taking a step forward so that she was right in his face. "Well, if I'm such a burden, why don't you just run off to your little girlfriend, then, and tell her how positively thrilled you are that you're living up to your Grandfather's expectations, by using her to make up for your mum's lack of pure blood?"
"I don't have a ruddy girlfriend!" Scorpius bellowed, and Rose's blue eyes widened in shock. "AND DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT MY GRANDFATHER!"
"Yeah, that was a bit much, Rose," James commented from the sidelines. Both combatants spared him a fleeting glare before turning back to their opponent.
"I really don't get you anymore, Rose," Scorpius told her savagely. "We've been best mates for years, us and Allie, and we make jokes, and get in and out of scrapes, and help each other study, and play Quidditch, and share prefect duties; we even helped each other through all our grandparents' deaths—Allie's great-grandmother and Grandpa Xeno, your Granddad and Grandma Granger, and my Grandfather—and we went to Victoire's and Alastor's weddings together! Are you really just going to toss that all aside? What is one grade compared to everything we've been through?"
Rose burst into tears and fled from the courtyard, leaving Scorpius dumbstruck. He looked at the others.
"She's never done that before," Diana remarked, settling back against James. Fred shook his head wonderingly.
"Probably just realized what an idiot she'd been lately," Hugo said knowingly. He was tall and gangly like Rose, but he had short, straight brown hair and eyes, and was distinctly less bookish than his sister. "Better go after her now, Scorp, while she's in a remorseful mood."
"Maybe we should all go," Lily suggested, observing her cousin's retreating figure with worry.
"Oh, I'm sure Scorpius can charm away her tears without any help from us," Al assured her, green eyes sparkling wickedly behind his glasses. Everyone else grinned knowingly; James shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Scorpius whacked Al gently on the head as he hurried after Rose—just because Scorpius thought of Al as the brother he never had, didn't give the black-haired boy the right to blab Scorpius's secrets all over the castle. Then again, no one really seemed surprised…
Damned if he knew how it happened, but somewhere along the way Scorpius found himself in love with Rose Weasley. One day he looked at her from across their table in the library and was immediately captivated by the pure golden lights shimmering in her fiery curls. He'd gotten his first "A" on the next day's test because he couldn't concentrate with her sitting next to him, her exposed knee inches away from touching his leg. Eventually, he'd been able to hide his feelings when he was around her—he had no reason to believe she liked him in return, after all, and he didn't think he could bear it if their friendship was ruined—but when she'd started dating in fourth year, he'd taken to sulking in the Three Broomsticks with an amused Al and an irate James. After that, it seemed like everyone knew about his "more-than-friendly" feelings for his best friend. Everyone except Rose.
So when he finally caught up with Rose in the library, with her head on her arms and her back shaking with sobs, his heart ached and he discovered he had the capacity for hating himself for making her cry. Scorpius slowly approached her table and lowered himself into a chair next to her.
"Rose?" She turned her face away from him. He laid a gentle hand on her back, resisting the urge to take her face in his hands and turn it toward him. "Rose, come on." She shook her head, still sobbing quietly, and his heart broke a little more as he watched. "Rosie, please," he pleaded, but she just sobbed harder.
"Oh, shut up, Scorpius!"
Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't that; he reeled back in his chair, his shock apparent on his pale face. "What?"
"Stop being so nice," Rose sniffed. "You're only making it worse." She wiped her nose on the back of her hand.
"Making what worse?" Scorpius wanted to know, immediately digging his handkerchief out of his pocket and wondering if all girls acted like this.
Rose took the hankie without thinking. "You're just reminding me even more of what an arse I've been toward you, and how much you didn't deserve it." Her cerulean eyes brimmed with tears again.
Unthinkingly, Scorpius covered his hand with his. "Well, it's nothing to cry over. I'm just glad you're speaking to me again." He tried desperately to ignore the warm, tingling sensation creeping up his arm from the point where his hand met Rose's.
The oblivious object of his undying devotion laughed. "Always the voice of reason," Rose said, smiling and drying her eyes. "After talking to you, nothing seems as bad as it really is." Scorpius's heart swelled against his ribs as he basked in the glow of her smile. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes lazily.
"Ah, well, that's what the ladies tell me," he said nonchalantly. "How do I know you aren't just trying to butter me up, like they do?"
No response. Scorpius cracked an eyelid, curious as to why she didn't reply to his banter. What he saw made him sit up and open both eyes fully.
Rose was staring wide-eyed at her hand as if she'd never quite realized she had one before. Her ears turned bright red, and Scorpius could feel a blush mottling his pale face as well. They both quickly snatched their hands away at exactly the same moment.
"So, um, er," Scorpius blustered. "So you think we've made out—up, I mean, do you think we've made up sufficiently enough to go to Hogsmeade with Allie tomorrow?"
Rose blinked confusedly, as if she'd forgotten Allie existed at all. "Right. Hogsmeade with Allie."
"And you know Al will want to tag along," Scorpius said with a knowing smile.
Rose smiled back, though shakily at first. "To spend time with Allie. Why he won't fess up, I'll never know—she'll never figure out he likes her if he doesn't just tell her already."
Scorpius shrugged. "Maybe he's afraid of rejection, and how awkward it would be if things didn't work out."
But Rose waved this way. "Tosh. We both know that Allie adores Al, even if she's quiet about it."
Scorpius sighed inwardly, wondering if she guessed the double meaning in his words. But all he said was, "Come on. We'd better go tell Allie she can stop being indifferent to our row."
"Six years in Ravenclaw, and the best word you can come up with is 'row'?" Rose asked as they exited the library. "You're slipping."
-X-
AN: I love this chapter, even if it isn't my longest to date. Don't agree? Tell me. Agree? Tell me. Don't know how? Try pushing that little "Go" button on the bottom left—see where it takes you. Go on, just push it already!
Stay Tuned for more nail-biting Action!!!!!
