The next morning I woke up after what hardly could have been called a good night's sleep. I'd been woken up by screeching owls, cars driving by and what must have been Albus getting up in the middle of the night to take a piss. I glanced at my watch, which read half five in the morning, eyes falling over Scorpius, who was undeniably attractive when he slept. His entire face was relaxed, hair flopping over his eyes which flickered as he began to stir. His lips were slightly parted. I felt myself redden, thanked Merlin that Scorpius was not awake to see me, and turned over in an attempt to fall back to sleep.
Just as I was drifting off, Scorpius murmured something in his sleep and rolled over. I froze. The idiot was now lying uncomfortably close to me - fuck, we were practically spooning - and I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. I attempted to ignore him, and how uncomfortably hot it had gotten in my sleeping bag, but it was all really too much. Cursing Scorpius Malfoy's attractiveness in my head, I tried out various positions for minimum awkwardness, but he was like a bloody limpet. Eventually I admitted defeat and settled back down next to him, nodding off.
"Holy shit!"
I woke up to the unmistakeable sound of Alice's voice. She sounded scandalised, I noted drowsily. I forced myself awake, and came to the stomach-dropping conclusion that it was not a pillow that my head rested on, but Scorpius' chest. And - oh Merlin - his hand was resting on top of my head.
I sat bolt upright, ignoring the head rush and feeling completely mortified. Scorpius was evidently in the same boat.
"It's not- we're not- I mean..!"
Alice silenced him. "Whatever, Scorp. Go back to sleep, I just need Rose to help me with breakfast."
I gave her a look, but followed her out into the field.
"You could have knocked," I said, as we walked towards the car.
"You can't knock on a tent, and besides, I didn't know my best mate and Scorpius were shagging in it."
"We weren't!" I shrieked. "I was just-"
"I know," she replied, "I'm just winding you up to distract myself from the main issue."
"Which is?"
"Um.." Alice pulled a similar face to when she anticipated me hitting her. "There's a problem with the food,"
"What!" I burst out. "Are the sausages okay? Please say the sausages are okay,"
"Rose, forget sausages, there's no food at all."
Half an hour later, Alice and I were on a Food Finding Mission. Okay, less of a mission, more of a long slow trek in the middle of nowhere with no map. It was only six in the morning, but my stomach was already growling at the mere prospect of no breakfast.
"You know, the rest of us probably could have survived until lunch," Alice said as we wandered along the road.
"I do not skip breakfast."
"Or any other meal, for that matter," she muttered, and I shoved her into a bush.
A short while after, we entered a village, and I practically sprinted towards the corner shop, already imagining all the kinds of breakfast foods it could have. I was planning a bacon, eggs and sausage sandwich combo when I read the sign on the door.
"Closed!" I exclaimed, "Who opens a corner shop at seven, for fuck's sake!"
"Rose, you're usually still asleep at seven," Alice commented.
I ignored her and tried the door, just to be sure. An idea dawned on me.
"Alice, can you keep watch for Muggles?"
"Sure," Alice paused, frowning at me suspiciously, "Wait, why?"
"Alohamora,"I whispered, and the door clicked open.
"For the last time, Alice, it's not theft if you're paying for it!" I said, grabbing a loaf of bread to add to my growing pile of food, "Now, get to work and scramble their CCTV cameras,"
Alice sighed, but complied, casting spells at the offending cameras.
"This must be the most rebellious thing you've ever done," I said, setting down the correct coins on the counter.
"Yes, well having a teacher as a father does dampen my rebellious spirit somewhat," Alice retorted.
We exited the shop with a suspiciously large bundle of groceries.
"Not a word of this to Albus," I said as we left the village.
"My lips are sealed," she replied. "Though I imagine he wouldn't have a problem with us breaking and entering a shop, only that we didn't do things 'The Muggle Way'."
In what seemed like a short while later, we arrived back at the campsite, to find Albus just exiting the car looking groggy.
"Hey," he said, rubbing his eyes, "How was sleeping with Scorpius?"
"Don't phrase it like that,"I spat. If I hadn't been famished with hunger, I would have hit him then and there.
"I dunno," Alice said as she began to set up the fire. "The two of them looked pretty cosy this morning…"
Albus' eyes widened in shock and I seriously considered murdering Alice.
"She's joking," I said "Honestly, Albus, can you imagine me shagging Scorpius?"
Of course, just at that moment Scorpius got out of the tent and blushed crimson to his ears.
"We didn't- I swear!" he stuttered.
Alice grinned maliciously. "Oh, I'm not so sure-"
"SHUT IT!" I yelled, "We did not shag, we have no intentions of shagging, and I am fucking starving."
Albus knew better than to argue with me when I was hungry, so quickly made me a bacon sandwich to appease me. I don't think I've ever tasted anything better. Though as I sat and ate it, while Albus attempted to contact Teddy again, the taste was slightly marred by my thoughts. Did I really mean what I said? After all, 'no intentions of shagging' sounded very definite in retrospect, and if Scorpius was going to keep being so frustratingly attractive I was going to have to re-visit my proposition.
After I had eaten enough to think clearly, we tidied up the tents and put out the campfire, as Teddy had informed us that he was coming to get us right away with a tank of petrol. We were mostly silent, whether from tiredness or as a kind of reaction to my outburst it was hard to say. I kept stealing glances at Scorpius, who was wearing an unreadable expression. Guilt settled in my stomach and I allowed myself to think that maybe his mood was due to my comment. Oh God, what if he actually liked me?
Before I could freak myself out any more, I heard the sound of an engine.
"Teddy!" Albus exclaimed, and ran to the road to look for him. The noise was getting louder, but there was no sign of Teddy on the road.
"Look up!" Alice yelled, pointing to the sky and sure enough, Teddy was sitting on his motorbike much like he was on a road, except for the fact he was about forty feet in the air. Scorpius' mouth fell open. I grinned, but I had to admit Teddy looked pretty damn cool. He had an undercut of bright blue hair, his preferred shade, and was wearing a leather jacket. I also knew from experience that you would only just be able to count the number of piercings he had on two hands. He pressed a button and began to descend and soon landed on the road, skidding and crashing head-first into a hedge.
"Oh shit," I said, and we ran over, to where he was already sitting up and dusting himself off.
"It's alright, happens all the time," he said with a lopsided grin. Before I could say anything he scooped me up into a huge hug. My head was buried in the woolly jumper he had on, as Teddy must be one of the tallest and lankiest people I know (and that's saying something).
"Rosie!" he exclaimed, "I've missed you!"
He did the same to Al and Alice, then stopped and looked at Scorpius.
"Scorpy! It's been ages!" he said, pulling him into a hug which took Scorpius completely by surprise. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing. It was the most awkward thing I had ever seen, which is saying something.
We pulled the bike upright and wheeled it to our campsite, Al filling in details of our trip to Teddy, who was as enthusiastic as I'd ever remembered him. I walked up to Scorpius, who was helping Albus fill up the car.
"How do you know Teddy?" I asked.
"We're cousins, or something like that," he said, looking over to where Teddy was admiring the Undetectable Extension Charm, and attempting to haul his bike into the boot. "He used to babysit me when I was little."
I imagined Teddy hanging out at the very sombre Malfoy Manor and tried my hardest not to laugh. I failed, letting a snicker slip out and Scorpius rolled his eyes at me as we climbed into the car.
Unfortunately the charm did not extend to the back of the car, so Alice, Scorpius and I all had to squash in the back together. Once again I was uncomfortably close to Scorpius and feeling rather warm, though fortunately it wasn't just me as Teddy had taken off his jacket and rolled his sleeves up, so we could see his tattoos. I could see Scorpius trying not to gape in awe (the Goth Phase Scorpius was definitely still in him somewhere) at the sleeve of intricate designs that shimmered and moved about his arm. In pride of place were the Hufflepuff badger, a werewolf and the moon, which I knew was accurate to whatever phase it was in at that moment. My thoughts were interrupted by Scorpius elbowing me in the chest as we went over a speed bump.
"Merlin's fucking beard!" I yelled, nearly causing Albus to swerve off the road.
"What?" he said.
"Scorpius elbowed my fucking boob," I muttered.
"Sorry!" Scorpius looked mortified; his apparent default expression.
"It's fine, I'll pay you back by kicking you in the balls when we get out of the car."
Teddy snorted.
"Are those two always like that?" he said.
"Like what?" I interjected defensively.
"Just…nothing," he said, sharing a knowing look with Alice. What on Earth was he implying?
A short while later we arrived in Exeter, and Victoire greeted us with tea and cake in their little flat, which was above a bakery and therefore always had a vague whiff of freshly baked bread about it. We recounted the journey so far, with everyone interrupting each other.
"So sorry I didn't pick up my phone in the evening," Teddy eventually said, looking guilty, "I was busy."
"Yeah, we were both 'busy', if you know what I mean," Victoire said, giving us a wink. Teddy's hair turned fuchsia.
"Vic!" he groaned, with his head in his hands. "Honestly, I can't believe I'm the mature one in this relationship."
"This is coming from the man who bought a tortoise and knitted it a hat."
"WHAT!?" We all chorused.
To my disbelief, Teddy had actually bought a tortoise, named it Brian (of all names?) and knitted it not just one hat, but several. He retrieved it from its tank and brought it to us, and we all sat around admiring it in the living room. It was wearing an orange beanie and was singularly the strangest and cutest thing I have ever seen.
"You knitted this yourself?" Alice asked, as Brian sat on her lap munching a lettuce leaf.
"Yeah, he's like the best knitter in our family, besides Grandma Molly," Albus replied.
Victoire came into the living room and sighed.
"Look at you all, fawning over a bloody tortoise," she said.
Teddy grinned. "Told you they'd like him."
However we soon realised that there was only so much a tortoise could do before it got boring, so began to organise things to do.
"Can we go to the cinema?" Scorpius asked mid-discussion.
"Sure," I said "But why?"
He looked sheepish, "Well, I've never actually been-"
"Scorpius!" I yelled, "Where have you been all your life?"
"Cooped up in a dusty mansion, mostly," he replied.
"Alright, the sob story's won me over," Alice said "Though I'm still thinking you're just using that as an excuse to get cosy with Rose in a darkened room."
We all laughed at Scorpius, myself included. I felt awful; it seemed like I was purposefully trying to push him away from me, play off our (hopefully mutual) attraction as one big joke. But for once in my life I didn't feel like joking. Dammit, of all the people in the world to get a crush on, I just had to get one on Scorpius bloody Malfoy.