This Toxic Gravity

Notes – What happens after the penny has dropped? See chapter 6: home.

.o.O.o.

CHAPTER 8: so close

Summer before Sixth Year

Rose winced as some harassed-looking old warlock rushed past and trod heavily over her foot in the process. Diagon Alley was just as packed and chaotic as it always was in late September.

"You okay?"

She glanced up at her brother and marvelled at how much she had to crane her neck to do so. My god the kid's growing up fast. "Yeah, I'm fine – stupid people not watching where they're going!"

Hugo grinned, brown eyes twinkling. "Well, they can't be blamed entirely. You are quite hard to see from a normal person's height. Owww, that hurt!"

"You deserved that, you cheeky git. Oh stop it with the puppy eyes, I barely touched you! Come along, we'll get out of here."

He followed his sister obediently as she squeezed through the crowds, making a beeline towards Flourish and Blotts. Though the masses of witches and wizards pushing their way to and from the shops often blocked his view of Rose, her bright copper curls, an identical shade to his, made her easy to spot again. He caught up with her just as she slipped through the crowds at the door of the old bookshop.

"I've just got to grab a copy of 'Advanced Transfiguration' and that Borage Potions book – and maybe the new edition of 'Numerology and Grammatica'. Molly's old copy is definitely on its last legs," Rose called back to him over the buzz of the shoppers around them. "What was it you needed again?"

"Just the new Care of Magical Creatures book and Grade 4 Goshawk. Listen, I'll just grab them and meet you at the cashier, yeah?"

"Hm? What?" His sister was already moving away, eyes fixed on some interesting book or another.

"Never mind." Shaking his head, Hugo headed off towards the "Magical Zoology" aisle.

Twenty minutes later found Hugo wandering through the bookshop, textbooks in hand, craning his neck in search of his sister. He finally found her in an aisle hidden right at the back of the shop, nose buried in some dusty-looking tome, oblivious to the world. Smirking, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Oy."

The older girl jumped. "Ahhh! What?"

"Merlin, Rose, keep it down! People are reading here –"

"—I was reading here, you prat! You didn't have to sneak up on me!"

"I didn't," retorted Hugo. "You were over-reacting. Anyway, I said I was going to meet you at the cashier, but clearly you got distracted so I'm just going to head off now."

Rose looked sheepish. "Oh, are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll go and help Uncle George back at the shop. Meet you there before closing time then, yeah?"

She grinned fondly at him. "Look at you, being all sweet and responsible."

Hugo rolled his eyes. "Roooose."

"All right then, off you go."

With a wave, Hugo disappeared behind the bookshelves and Rose returned happily to her newly discovered book.

Some minutes later, she felt another tap on her shoulder and huffed in annoyance. Just as I was getting to something interesting. "What now, Hugo?"

But as she whipped around, she was met with not her brother's eyes, but someone's grey sweater-clad torso. Rose tilted her head back further and something inside her fluttered as she met a very familiar pair of steel-grey eyes.

"Scorpius." Her voice came out strangely hoarse. She flushed and cleared her throat as Scorpius Malfoy grinned down at her.

"Hello there."

"I wasn't expecting to see you here," she said, trying for a casual tone.

Scorpius gave a little shrug. "It's the end of summer now – thought I'd better get around to getting all my supplies for this year together before we head back. But fancy running into you like this!"

He was still smiling at her. That fact unsettled her enough, given the fact that he rarely gave anyone more than a fleeting smirk, but also he was still standing so close.

"Well, my family does run a store down the road, Malfoy," Rose said evenly. She put a lid on the figurative jar of butterflies that seemed to have appeared in her stomach. "Most people wouldn't be quite so surprised running into me here."

"Oh, I suppose seeing you a whole two weeks before expected was just too good a prospect to dream of," Scorpius teased back. A familiar tone of sarcasm tinged his words now and Rose relaxed. Now this was the Malfoy she was used to.

"Oh, I'm sure it was," she sniffed, turning her back to him. "Now go away like a good boy and leave me to my book."

"Yes, what is this fascinating doorstop you seem to be examining so closely?"

She twisted away sharply as Scorpius bent over her shoulder to have a look. "None of your business. Go away."

"Oh come now," he cajoled. Smoothly as anything, the Slytherin reached over with one arm and tugged the book from her hands, bracing himself on the bookshelf with the other.

"Oy!" Rose snatched for the book, but he held it above her reach. "Malfoy! Give it here."

"I shan't before I have a look," he told her cheerfully, flipping the book shut to peer up at its cover. She pummelled his chest in reply and he winced. "Ouch. Physical abuse will get you nowhere, little one."

"Little one? Ohhhh, that does it! Accio!"

The book flew from his hand into the air before dropping straight into Rose's outstretched hand.

"Hah!" Triumphant, she spun around to grin up at Scorpius, but any thoughts of gloating immediately cleared her head as she suddenly found herself pressed very snugly against his chest. Evidently, he, too, had reached out to catch the book. And, evidently, the result was that they were now standing very close together.

They stood frozen for a long moment. A far corner of Scorpius's mind registered the faint scent of flowers emanating from the coppery curls under his nose – but the vast majority was acutely preoccupied by the slight warm curves pressed against him. Rose, for her part, wondered why her heart now seemed to be trying to beat its way out of her chest. She took a swift step back, wide eyes looking up to meet his. The intensity she found in them caught her off-guard and suddenly she was terrified.

"I should go." The words had left her mouth, but the voice that spoke them sounded strange in her ears. Too slow and strained and deliberate.

His gaze was burning into hers. "Rose—"

"—I really need to go." She spoke quickly, cutting him off. Somehow she knew she didn't want to hear what he had to say. Her feet moved automatically, carrying her first to the end of the row and then to the front of the shop and out the door, leaving the boy behind.

Barging through the front doors of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Rose registered that she somehow felt very much like she had just narrowly avoided being Bludgered in the face during a Quidditch match. After taking a moment to gather herself, she strode towards the back room of the shop, vaguely wondering when it was she had dropped her book.

.o.O.o.