The room was dark except for the light flooding from behind the two figures in the doorway. dust flecks sparkled. A broken spider web hung dejected in the corner of the door opening and with the amount of dust laying on the floor, you would say the room hadn't seen a broom in ages. Ironically, it was a broom closet, but no one would use these brooms for something as mundane as cleaning the floor.
Rose sprang up as she recognised the two shadows in the doorway. She felt herself stumble a bit before she found her balance. A smile spread over her face and winked at Scorpius, a smile spreading over her face. He, however, seemed anything but amused at the situation.
"It seems like some others need this room more than we do," Rose said to Dave without looking at him. She straightened her shirt. Heatherwing was as red as a beet and refused to meet anyone eyes.
"We were done anyway, right, Dave?" She winked at him, eyeing his dishevelled hair and messy attire. He let out a hearty laugh that died off when his eye landed on something behind her. Rose, expecting a teacher or - god forbid - Filch, spun around, half tripping over her own feet, with ten excuses flashing through her mind.
There was no Flitch, nor was there a teacher or a prefect. She let out a breath and shook her head. Of course not, parols must have ended hours before.
"What the fuck," Scorpius said.
"Don't worry, don't worry," Rose said, pushing her hair out of her face. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, we'll get out of your hair."
She moved toward the door opening that he was still occupying. She rolled her eyes.
"The fuck," he repeated. "do you think you're doing here?"
"Trying to get out, but that is quite hard if you won't get out of the way."
Heatherwing, still as red as a strawberry, pulled Scorpius out of the way. The hero. She smiled at the still mortified girl and exited the room. When she was halfway down the hallway, she heard Scorpius calling after her, but she didn't turn back. She broke into a run after she rounded a corner. Her eyes stung and her stomach felt weird. She bit her lip and angrily blinked her eyes. It stung. She didn't know why but it stung so much. Her shoes hurt and the alcohol made her head spin around in circles, but she kept running, running away from the pain.
A hand wrapped around her wrist and jerked her to a stop.
"Rose?"
It was Dave.
Rose didn't look at him. She tried to pull her wrist out of his hand ut he didn't budge, pulling her a bit closer.
"Why are you running?"
Rose dragged her sleeve across her face.
"Why not?" she said, ignoring the lump in her throat. "I'm tired and running is faster."
"Ah," Dave said. He tilted her head with his free hand so she was forced to look him in the eye.
"Are you sure?"
He was too close.
She nodded. "Yea, look Dave, it's not that I don't enjoy talking to you in the middle of the night while it's freezing but I really wanna go sleep."
"Oh," he let go of her and stepped back. "Yes, of course." He scratched the back of his head and a sheepish grin spread over his face. "Sorry."
"No harm done," Rose said, "thank you for a wonderful night."
He shook his head. "No no, don't be silly. Thank you. Good night."
"Night." Rose said, turning away and continuing on her way down to the Slytherin common rooms. She didn't run again, nor did her eyes start producing ridiculous tears again, but the stinging didn't stop until she was fast asleep.
"Here," Rose said, throwing five galleons at Scorpius' head. She slumped in the seat opposite him and scowled at the buffet in front of her.
"For your efforts last night."
"You can fucking give them to me," Scorpius said, rubbing a red spot on his forehead. His shirt only buttoned halfway up and his tie was nowhere to be seen. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair was a mess. Dark circled his eyes. He was a mess.
"You look awful," Scorpius remarked, eyeing her with disgust.
"And you're the picture of beauty," Rose shot back, rubbing her throbbing temple. "My head is killing me, Scarlett stole my last vial of hangover potion."
"I'm all out," Scorpius grumbled.
"No shit."
Scorpius threw an apple at her that hit her square on the nose. Rose hissed and clutched it. "I am not in the mood, Malfoy."
He handed her a mug of steaming coffee.
"I feel like a whore when you give me money for hooking up with someone," he said with a scowl.
Rose sipped the coffee. It was good, giving her some relief from her headache. "Only then?" she asked.
He shot her a dark look.
"You can give it back if you don't want it," Rose suggested, holding out her hand.
"Hell no, I earned this fair and square."
"Oh, the work you had to put into it," Rose said, putting the back of her hand against her forehead and leaning back a bit in a dramatic gesture. "The torture it must have been to spend all night with this girl. The horror, the suffering."
He clutched his shirt with his right hand and said in an equally dramatic voice, "How dare you mock and belittle my sacrifice. I did there things for the good of the world."
"I seriously doubt that," Rose said, taking another sip of her coffee. "Do you know where Scarlett…" Her voice drifted off as her eyes caught the scene that was unfolding at the other side of the great hall. James Potter, the rude bastard, was shouting at Heatherwing. Not all that surprising. Shouting matches at that end of the hall weren't uncommon. Privacy wasn't high on the list of values of Gryffindors.
"Spiking drinks." Scorpius said, pointedly ignoring the sound of his name reaching them all the way here.
"Is that today?" Rose asked, rubbing her eyes.
Scorpius nodded, biting into an apple. Rose eyed the food again, but the thought of food made her stomach turn.
"Did you have fun last night?" Scorpius asked, scanning the front page of the Daily Prophet. Rose shrugged.
"It was all right. The alcohol makes me tolerate people a bit more. I'd perfer to have stayed on the rooftops though."
Scorpius looked up at her and raised an eyebrow, "And miss out on your adventure with Stover?"
Rose snorted. "Adventure? What do you think happened?"
"The usual. You were in a broom closet."
"So were you and Heatherwing, something that didn't escape James attention, apparently."
Scorpius smirked. "I don't deny having had a bloody wonderful adventure."
"Pig," Rose said.
"You are denying it then?" Scorpius said, his eyebrow still raised.
"I am telling you nothing happened," Rose said, and scowled. "With one of James' friends? I have some standards, you know. Primarily someone who didn't almost cause my death."
"Could have fooled me. I remember your kiss was with - Auch, what the fuck, Rose"
He rubbed his leg.
"Don't say it," Rose hissed. "Or I swear to god I will call James over here and leave you to your own fate. It's bad enough that it's true, you don't have to go and remind me." She shivered at the thought of Henry Goyle.
"Should've fucking listened to me that night not to drink any more," Scorpius muttered, but Rose ignored him, her eyes glued on Heatherwing slapping James before storming out of the great hall.
"Brilliant," She whispered.
Scorpius looked up and followed her line of sight, craning his head to see what had her attention.
"What, what happened?" he asked.
"She slapped him," Rose said. "Merlin, I think I just fell in love."
Scorpius rolled his eyes, his eyes fixed on James, who was now slowly slinking back into his seat at the Gryffindor table, whispering with Freddy and Dom in what Rose was sure was supposed to be a secretive way.
"What do you think they are talking about?" A voice breathed in Rose's ear. Rose shot up three feet and Scrambled around for her wand before she saw Scarlett laughing at her.
"You!" Rose said, pointing a finger at the highly amused girl.
"Me," Scarlett agreed. She sat down. "And I believe you owe me some thanks."
She was going down. Rose threw herself at Scarlett and began tickling her. Scarlett's laugh chanced pitch and she was scrawling away from Rose, but Rose would not give up so easily. She pinned Scarlett's legs against the bench and moved to straddle her while attacking her stomach. Scarlett was wiggling underneath of her, but Rose was stronger. A menacing smile spread across her face.
Scorpius cleared his throat. "As much as I am enjoying this, don't you think you're behaving a bit - Gryffindor like?"
Rose slid off of Scarlett, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
"She started it."
"I didn't," Scarlett said, poking Rose in her side.
Scorpius rolled his eyes again. "Are you two still in fucking kindergarten? Who the fuck cares who started it. Scarlett, did you or did you not just poison Weasley-dee and Weasley-dumb?"
Rose raised her eyebrows and looked at Scarlett with interest. "I forgot that you were off to do that."
"Too busy mooning after Heatherwing, no doubt," Scorpius said.
"That would be you," Rose shot back.
"Yes, I did it. They were too busy talking smack to notice me," Scarlett interrupted them. "I might have given them a dose that's too large though." She looked questioningly at Rose, She waved it away.
"It's not like it'll kill them."
"Are you sure?" Scorpius said, a glint in his eye. "I would pay to see that."
"You," Rose said, throwing a piece of bread at his face, "Are an arse. That's still my cousin."
"Why are we here?" Scorpius whispered, his blonde hair falling in his eyes. They looked blue in this light, with ever present specks of yellow in them. Rose called them beautiful, pretty even. With his long lashes, they looked like the eyes of a maiden, something she was careful to keep to herself, because Scorpius didn't like to be called anything but though, handsome or masculine. This didn't take away from the fact that what he was above all else was fair - beautiful in a way that was not, strictly speaking, any of the things that he wanted to be.
"Shut yer yap," Rose shouted. "I told ya we're neva gonna work out. Now get ofa me ya big oaf before I hex ya and all this room inta oblivion. Immana do it, I swear."
Scorpius was hiding his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with laughter. Rose listened but there were no footsteps running away.
"Okay, so we are alone," she said.
"You are unbelievable," Scorpius said, wiping a tear out of his eye. "I told you we were."
"Like I am ever making the mistake of trusting you again. Remember last time I trusted you?"
"That was one fucking time!" Scorpius protested. "And it was four bloody years ago! let the past rest, Rose, you've beaten it enough."
"The whole school knew I fancied Brent Fowler because you couldn't be bothered to check," Rose accused. "It was horrible."
Scorpius tsked and whipped the hair out of his eyes. "No use beating an old horse. Although." A thoughtful look appeared on his face. "By all means, beat it some more. I love it when you talk filthy to me."
Rose pretended to gag. "You are disgusting."
He bowed. "I aim to please. Now are you going to answer my question."
"Oh, I don't think you're ready for the answer."
Scorpius pulled her close and raised his hands threateningly toward her stomach.. "Now you got me interested, red. Tell me or I'll have to resort to drastic measured to force it out of you."
Rose held her hands up in surrender. "I mean, I'm really certain you're not ready for the answer. You'll just whine and bore about how it's a bore and how you could be spending your night in such a better way in the company of one or two lady friends."
"Tell me!" He said and poked her in the tummy. Rose slapped his hands away and took a few steps back, raising her arms in a fighting stance. Scorpius watched her for a long second before raising his own arms.
"You are fighting a lost battle, you know," he said as he lashed out. Rose blocked his first two strikes and managed to get a weak punch in, but his thrid strike was a faint and he tackled her legs from under her, knocking her firmly to the ground and twisting her arm behind her back.
It hurt. Rose laughed and slapped him with her free hand. Scorpius was the only guy she knew who would actually fight her. She liked that. It was how they had become friends. "Alright, alright. You win."
"You win, who," Scorpius said as he pulled her arm a bit tighter. Rose hissed.
"You win, you majesty, king and lord Malfoy, ruler of all that is doomed and withered, ruler of the blackness and bastard of the world."
"That's better," Scorpius said as he let her go. Rose rubbed her arm. "That really hurt, you know."
"Oh please, like you wanted me to hold back."
Rose rolled her eyes and took his outstretched hand. He pulled her up with ease.
"Now, what are we doing here."
"Well, we're going to confund Madame Rosalinda when she is going to check on Roxy and Dom, who are currently held up in theirs rooms, away from the embarrassment we set up for them, so that she'll declare them fit for school and will force them not to miss any classes tomorrow."
He raised an eyebrow. "Can't we just flood their room? Place a swamp in there or something - thrash it? maybe hex them while we're at it."
"Maybe, no and maybe, but not tonight. They'll see us, Malfoy. Not to mention that hexing people is not done since third year when Densky almost died. Remember when you got caught hexing that Thomassen guy after that?"
"Longest year ever," he groaned. "How can I not remember. I spent all my free time with Filch."
Rose nodded and pointed around the corner. "So we're going to confund her and no one will ever know. I don't want to know Filch well enough to feel obliged to sent him a Christmas gift."
Scorpius scowled, but nodded. "Yea, yea. What if she still sees those sluts are poisoned though?"
Rose shrugged. "We can place a swamp in their rooms and hex them while we're at it."
Scorpius sat down with his back against the wall. "Waiting is so damn dull. Couldn't you have brought Scarlett along or something?"
"She'd skip of to somewhere and I would be left to wait on my own," Rose said, sitting down next to him. Scorpius scowled at her. "That's right, you could just do it on your own."
"And deny you my lovely company, I am not so cruel as that."
He slung his arm around her and hugged her against him. "Is that so, are you perhaps offering to be my lady friend for the hour, seeing as you have so cruely denied me from those intoxicated with me."
"In your dreams, Malfoy," Rose said, not moving away.
"Oh, yes. Every night. You have quite the filthy fucking mouth then too."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Like you have time to sleep."
"More than I would like," he sighed. "But sleeping is not so much of a torture when I have a chance to see you naked in them."
Rose laughed. "You are such a pig. And how would you be able to see me naked in them. You have never seen me naked."
"Oh," Scorpius asked, "And how are you so sure of that. I am a pig after all. You should know that. You remind me of it every goddamned day."
Rose pulled away from him and lightly slapped his arm. She regretted it as she was doing it. What was she, one of his lady friends.
"Tell me you didn't peek in the quidditch bathrooms.
A dreamy look spread across his face.
"And during Christmas. And one time when you were swimming in the lake and your top unfortunately came lose. Wonderful times."
A flush spread across Rose's cheeks and she crossed her arms across her chest. "I will never feel safe again," she muttered, looking at him. "No place is safe. I have to run to protect my virtue. I have to leave everything behind. I'm going to be homeless. Peniless. Oh Merlin, I'm going to have to become a beggar in Dublin, not a penny to my name. Then I might be forced into prostitution. See what you did, Malfoy. You're forcing me into prostitution. I told you your actions have consequences."
"You," Scorpius said, trapping one of her stray strands of hair behind her ear, "would make a wonderful courtesan - and a lovely whore if you run in the wrong circles."
His thumb trailed along her cheek and he leaned closer.
"You're compliments are so fucked up," Rose said, but she didn't look away from his eyes. He was drewing her closer. Everything became hotter around her, which was odd because the castle was freezing this time of year. Her eyes flicked down at his lips for a moment, then back to his eyes. They were really blue in this light. Bluer than she had ever see them.
She cleared her throat and stood up, almost driving her knee into his chin with her haste. "Madame Rosalinda could come any moment now," Rose said hastily.
Scorpius stood up with a lot more grace than she had. He stretched. "How do you know."
"Woman's intuition," Rose said with a dead serious face. "I can feel it in my womanly parts."
"Fuck, please keep that to yourself," Scorpius said with a look of disgust painted on his face.
Rose shrugged and peered around the corner. Nothing. She kept looking at the door, sure than Madame Rosinda was coming out any moment now. She usually visited people held up in their dorms around nine.
"It seems like your womanly parts were mistaken,"Scorpius whispered in her ear when five minutes had gone by in such a fasion.
"Shh," Rose said. "Any moment now."
It took five more minutes and two more snarky remarks from Scorpius before the door finally swung open and Madame Rosinda bustled out, muttering something under her breath about students and idiots and just coming to the hospital wing if you felt under the weather and something that sounded suspiciously much like a string of curses.
"Do you want to do the honours," Rose whispered, pulling her wand out.
"Is my name ridiculous, of fucking course I want to do the honours. What else did I stuck around for," Scorpius whispered back, rounding the cornor to get a clear shot. He pointed his wand and muttered so quiet that even Rose couldn't hear what he said.
Rosinda stopped for a moment when the beam of light hit her, looking around. Scorpius dove around the corner.
Rosinda didn't seem to notice and after looking around a bit more, she continued walking a bit less steady than she had before.
"Did she see me," Scorpius asked, still lying belly down on the floor.
Rose suppressed a laugh. "I don't think so, but I don't think she would have really noticed you even if she had seen you."
She didn't help him up, smirking at him. When he tried to get up the first two times, she pressed her foot against his back and pushed him down.
Their efforts were paid off the next day, when Dom and Roxy stumbled into the hall with green smallpox all over their skin. Scorpius grumbled something about how they should have slipped them veritaserum instead and Scarlett's eyes gleamed at the thought of trying to make such a dangerous potion. Rose rolled her eyes and told them that for those two, smallpox were a damn sight worse than them spilling their non existent secrets to anyone.
"Besides," Rose said as she lowered a camera into her lap. "I don't plan on letting anyone forget this sight."
