.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.

.*.

Second Chances

Between school work and the extra practices Caitlyn assigned over the next two nights, Rose was surprised that she had time to think about Scorpius at all. It turned out, however, that she was better at multitasking than she had previously known. But while her distracting thoughts only added a few hours to homework, her Quidditch game was suffering substantially worse. This, according to Caitlyn, was a much more urgent matter than figuring out what to do about giving Scorpius a second chance.

While in any other circumstance Caitlyn's actions might seem callous, Rose was inclined to forgive her considering the first Quidditch match of the season was to take place on Saturday morning. Rose would have plenty of time to work out her feelings after Gryffindor had beaten Slytherin.

The problem, however, was that the very thought of the Quidditch match was now inexorably linked to Scorpius due to the fact that it was his team they were playing. And every thought of Scorpius sent a physical lurch into Rose's stomach and a volley of questions and doubts into her head.

As Rose lay in bed on Friday night (Caitlyn had demanded that the team try and get some sleep by going to bed early), Scorpius was all she could think of. It wasn't hard to admit to herself what she wanted: she wanted Scorpius and he was now offering her exactly what she had wanted since the first time they kissed. He was offering her a real relationship, even if it was one that had to be kept secret. He was offering her the title of "girlfriend" and Rose would have been lying to herself if she said that she didn't want that more than the air she was breathing.

The problem was not what she wanted. The problem was what she needed. Upon his own admission, Scorpius was not good for her. Rather than bringing out her best, he seemed to bring out her worst. When she was with Scorpius, she didn't think twice about doing things such as sneaking out of her house or helping him to cheat on his innocent girlfriends.

But he had been acting differently. He broke up with Madeline for her. He promised her exclusivity—if only she would give him a second chance. But there was a tiny part of Rose that knew if she accepted his offer, she was giving him a second chance much too soon. They'd barely been doing whatever they were doing for a month and he had already cheated once. Simply saying that things were going to be different didn't make them so.

And Albus, quite frankly, didn't make things any easier. Giving Scorpius a second chance meant dating him behind her cousin's back and no doubt Albus would be hurt beyond belief if he ever found out.

Not to mention the fact that if Rose agreed to be with Scorpius, she would undoubtedly have to tell Caitlyn her decision. Therefore, she was asking Caitlyn to keep a secret from her new boyfriend.

If Albus ever found out, he was going to be mad at Caitlyn too.

Rose threw her arms over her face in frustration. She should have stopped this after that very first kiss. She definitely never should have let it get this far.

But out of all of these things that could go wrong, her biggest fear was that Scorpius was telling the truth. That he really did want to be with her more than any other girl and that he really wouldn't get bored of her as soon as something new came along. Her biggest fear was that he was serious about this—that he really wanted her as much as she wanted him. Her biggest fear was that she would refuse to give him a second chance because of everything that could go badly and miss out on an extraordinary relationship.

Her biggest fear was that she'd make the wrong decision.

.*.:.:.:.:.*.

Caitlyn shook Rose roughly awake early the next morning. Dazed, she opened her eyes as far as she could long enough to register that Caitlyn was already dressed in her Quidditch gear. Rose groaned and rolled over, burying her head into her pillow. She hadn't got as much sleep last night as she would have liked.

"Up!" Caitlyn demanded. She only stayed in the room long enough for Rose to sit up before she charged out of the door, assumedly to wake up the rest of the team. Rose snickered at the thought of Caitlyn trying to wake Hugo as she began digging through her trunk for some clothes. Her Quidditch robes were in the locker room, so she wouldn't be able to change until she got down there.

After donning a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, Rose went into the bathroom in order to brush her teeth. It was only when she was standing in front of the mirror that she began to dwell on how utterly revolting she looked. Even though she knew very well that she was going to be playing a rough game of Quidditch in about an hour, she decided she should at least wear a little bit of makeup. After all, Scorpius was going to be there. Even as Rose was putting on her mascara, she was also cursing her own idiocy but she couldn't make herself stop.

It took her three tries to get her hair into the perfect ponytail.

Grateful that no one was awake to witness this moment of weakness, Rose decided it was time to leave her dormitory lest she try to put on a dress to walk down to the Quidditch pitch.

Knowing that she had some energy bars produced by her Uncle George in her locker at the Quidditch pitch, Rose chose to skip the nervous fiasco that breakfast was bound to be. Instead, she decided to beat the crowd and make her way to the pitch. As she walked, her thoughts drifted right back to where they were when she had fallen asleep the night before: on Scorpius. She just hoped that she would be able to play a decent game of Quidditch and not embarrass herself in front of the entire school.

"Oi, Rose! Wait up!" Startled, Rose turned to find Albus running towards her. Her cheeks immediately began to flush as if he had caught her undressing rather than simply thinking about his best friend.

"Did Cate wake you up too?" she scoffed as he drew nearer.

"No. She has issues coming into the Heads' Common Room though," he mused. "I'm assuming that's partially your fault for putting ideas in her head. I think she thinks I'm going to take advantage of her as soon as we're alone."

"Have you even kissed her yet?" Rose asked.

"I believe that's my business," he replied, blushing red.

"So you haven't," Rose noted. "Just kiss her already! She'll be fine after that—she's just nervous."

"Nervous?"

"Albus, she's never kissed anyone before. I'm sure it's nerve-wracking," Rose explained. She looked over to Albus and found that his eyes were widening in understanding.

"I knew she'd never had a boyfriend, but…" He grinned widely. "I'm going to be her first kiss?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "If you don't stop acting like a narcissistic teenage boy, then she might change her mind."

Albus ignored this last part. His body had physically relaxed and Rose realized that without even trying to, she had managed to alleviate some of his own worries going into this game.

"So, has Owen had the protective older brother conversation with you yet?" Rose asked as they continued on to the locker room. Albus winced.

"Not yet. And considering the fact that he's gotten farther with you than I've gotten with Caitlyn, I think we can postpone it for a while."

"You've always been friendly with him, though," Rose pointed out.

"That was before I started dating his sister…Maybe he'll take it easy on me. He hasn't had much practice in dealing with Caitlyn's boyfriends. With Lily's first boyfriend, I had no clue how to act."

"You and James have perfected the art over the years, I see," she smirked.

"And we've trained Hugo too, so you're all set."

"Lovely."

"He hasn't had much chance to hone his talent lately," Albus noted. Rose rolled her eyes. "You've been awfully distracted during Quidditch though and I assume it's not me or Hugo you fancy, so who's the lucky guy: Dylan or Parker?" Albus took her surprised look to be one of regret. "I mean, they wouldn't be my top two picks but you can't control who you like, right?"

"I don't fancy Dylan or Parker!" Rose insisted, trying hard to keep from laughing.

"So why've you been flying so badly then?"

"I've just had a lot on my mind!"

"Right," Albus agreed. "A guy!"

"So what if it is a guy, Albus Potter? It's none of your business!"

Albus looked over at her calmly. "You're forgetting that I am a guy also. What's this bloke doing that's distracting you so bad? I can't count the number of times I've come to you for advice on girls. Let me return the favor."

Rose had to admit that the idea was appealing. She could get information from Albus and she doubted that he'd ask too many questions. The problem was that if she opened his mind to the thought that she was seeing someone, he would be ever watchful as to whom that someone could be. And if people started paying close enough attention, Rose and Scorpius were as good as caught.

But if she played her cards just right, Albus really could be an invaluable source of advice.

"I've been seeing someone," she admitted, her heart beating wildly out of her chest.

"I knew it," Albus smirked. "And I'm also assuming there's a reason you can't tell me who it is?"

"He has a girlfriend," she shrugged. Albus just nodded. "Or he did."

"Did you tell him to break up with her for you? Because that's mistake number one."

"No. He told me to tell him to break up with her, but I wouldn't."

Albus smirked. "This bloke sounds like Scorpius; he's trying to manipulate you." Rose nearly lost her footing, but tried to keep her emotions off of her face. "So he broke up with this girl to be with you, I'm assuming?"

"Once I found out that he had a girlfriend, I refused to have anything to do with him until he broke up with her. So, I guess so."

"So where does the problem come in?"

"Well, we weren't exactly dating or anything, but…he cheated on me." Albus winced. "I know I shouldn't want to have anything to do with him after that, but he sounded sincere when he apologized. And he asked for a second chance." Even Rose had to admit that this sounded a bit bad in the re-telling.

Albus sighed deeply. "Okay, you need to know that what I'm about to say is not coming from first-hand experience. I've never cheated on a girl, but Scorpius is my best mate and—well, you know him. He has a bit of experience on the subject. The thing I've learned from him is, people that make it a habit to cheat don't usually apologize sincerely for it afterwards. Or if they apologize, they normally don't ask to get back together with you as a couple or anything. Because they obviously never cared about you in the first place."

"So you're saying that if he's offering me a relationship, I should give him a second chance?" Rose asked.

Albus closed his eyes and shook his head as if he were trying to clear it. "I can't rightfully tell you to get back together with a guy who's cheated on you, being your cousin and all. But people make mistakes, Rose. It's your call."

They walked in silence for a while, Rose trying to clear her head. Surprisingly, she thought what Albus had said was really helpful. Her heart was still beating out of her chest, but this time it was for an entirely different reason. She had made her decision and for the first time in two days, she was genuinely happy.

"So, what are you going to do?" Albus asked, smiling slightly. Even if he wouldn't press her for information, he was still insanely curious.

Rose did a double take. She had almost forgotten that Albus was with her. "I think I'm going to stay single for a while," Rose smirked. "I mean, why should I date a guy that's being compared to Scorpius Malfoy anyway?" She couldn't help but laugh at this last statement. Albus joined in although he was laughing more at Rose than at what she had said.

"Well good," he said just as they arrived at the Gryffindor locker rooms. They were empty, unsurprisingly, as the rest of the team was still at breakfast.

"Why aren't you eating breakfast, by the way?" Rose asked as she pulled her uniform out of her locker along with the energy bars she kept there. She tossed one to Albus and he caught it without missing a beat as he shrugged out of his jumper.

"This is the one day of the year that I don't get along with Scorpius," Albus said sincerely. "Trust me, it's better if we don't see each other before the match."

"I guess that's understandable," Rose said. As she changed, however, she couldn't help but think that after the game today, Scorpius was probably going to be madder at her than Albus. Both of them played Chaser which was going to pit them against each other directly. For the first time, Rose was grateful that Scorpius had cheated on her just so she wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath of this game.

Rose was half way through changing when Hugo and Bree walked into the locker room. Albus and Rose turned to look at them, but they seemed to be under the impression that they were the only ones in the room because as soon as the door shut behind them, Hugo pressed Bree up against the wall and began snogging her wildly. Rolling her eyes, Rose turned back to lacing up her boots. Albus, however, burst out laughing, causing the young couple to stumble apart.

"Check the room next time," Albus smirked.

"Like you can talk," Hugo accused, smiling as him and Bree walked to their respective lockers. Neither seemed the least bit embarrassed. "You're dating the Captain. I bet you use this place for snogging all of the time." Albus couldn't help but smile slyly.

"You're dating Caitlyn?" Bree asked surprised. "Now that's just not fair! Between the Heads' Common Room and the Captain's office, you've got a never-ending supply of privacy. The rest of us have to resort to empty classrooms and storage closets."

"I'm a lucky man," Albus shrugged.

As if to emphasize this point, Caitlyn walked into the locker room at that exact moment, closely followed by Dylan and Parker who were playfully shooting sparks from their wands at each other. This was not doing much to calm Caitlyn's nerves and Rose was just thankful that she had not walked in around the same time Hugo had decided to use the locker room as his own brothel.

Without saying a word to anyone, Caitlyn took a seat on the bench waiting for the rest of her team to get ready. Figuring it was best not to disturb her by talking, no one else said a word. After everyone was ready, they came to stand around her in the middle of the room. Caitlyn looked as if she were about to throw up, but she did managed to choke out a few words of advice. "Just don't screw this up, please," she muttered. Parker and Dylan exchanged smirks while the rest of the team gathered their brooms and walked out of the room.

As they walked out onto the pitch, the crowd went wild. Looking across the field, Rose found that the Slytherin team was walking towards them with Scorpius in the lead. He was the Slytherin Captain, a fact that Rose had apparently forgotten. Him and Caitlyn approached each other and shook hands without making eye contact. All friendships were somehow forgotten on the Quidditch pitch, which was one of the reasons Rose hadn't wanted to join the team in the first place.

As soon as the whistle blew, Rose was in the air almost as if it were an instinct. She might not be a fan of organized sports in general, but she did love Quidditch. The quaffle was released and Rose and Scorpius flew towards it at the same time. Their eyes locked for the briefest of seconds, but Scorpius got to the quaffle first and tore across the pitch with it.

Cursing herself for getting distracted, Rose flew after him with Parker and Hugo in formation behind her. The first few minutes of the game took some getting used to—Caitlyn had warned her of this. She wasn't used to the cheering crowd or all of the distractions so she let Parker and Hugo make most of the major moves. It didn't take long, however, for her to get used to things once more.

Taking a leaf from Albus's book, she decided that just for this one game she would leave her thoughts about Scorpius off of the pitch. This plan, of course, worked better in her head but thankfully the quaffle was changing hands so fast that Rose could barely keep up with it let alone worry about offending Scorpius too.

And he definitely didn't seem too worried about angering Rose. In fact, he was doing everything that he possibly could to knock the quaffle out of her hands, including ramming into her broomstick from the side. Getting angrier at the whole institution of Quidditch by the second, Rose played even harder, determined to prove to Scorpius that he could not control her.

She had to admit, however, that Scorpius was probably just trying to release some of his pent up frustration towards her by beating Gryffindor. Plus, Albus would never assume they were snogging if they continued to try and unseat each other.

The game was almost tied when the snitch was spotted after nearly an hour of fierce play and when Albus caught it and the stands erupted, there was a small part of Rose that felt a bit bad. She was happy they had won, but she could see by the look on Scorpius's face that his win would have meant a lot to him. He was Captain after all and he had just led Slytherin to their first loss of the season. Rose had no doubt that losing this game would not have been as big of a deal to her as it was to Scorpius.

The Gryffindor team stayed on the field for a lot longer than necessary, being cheered on by their own house and being promised a party as soon as they cleaned up. As they made their way back to the locker rooms, Caitlyn was giving the team a recap of their superb performance and even though none of them needed or wanted to hear it, they just let her talk.

Rose took a lot longer in the showers than she normally would, but she just couldn't clear her head. Even the warm water wasn't calming her as it usually did. She just kept playing Scorpius's look of dejection at losing in her head over and over again. And standing there in the shower, she knew that she had to see him. She shut off the water as if it were burning her and changed as fast as she could. She used her wand to dry her hair, but she knew it would take a while to get it completely dry, so she just left it damp and tried to scrunch it with one hand while putting on her trainers. She had to get to the Slytherin locker room before Scorpius left.

As she entered the main room, she was unsurprised to find that most of the team had already headed back to the locker room. Albus and Caitlyn were the only ones there and it seemed to Rose that they were waiting for her. They were also holding hands, something that she noted with pleasure.

"You shouldn't have waited on me," she said, trying to think of a good enough lie to explain why she wouldn't be walking back to the castle with them.

"We weren't," Albus shrugged. Caitlyn hit him on the shoulder. "What? We weren't! We thought you were already gone honestly."

Rose laughed. "Well then, I'll just leave you two to your…privacy."

"We can walk back with you though!" Caitlyn insisted. The look on Albus's face suggested otherwise.

"No, I think you're going to want to stay here actually," Rose said thoroughly amused. Caitlyn looked back and forth between the cousins, but didn't have time to comment before Rose was out of the door.

The pitch was dark as she crossed it to the other side, but the lights were still on in their rival locker room so she continued her trek. Once she arrived, she realized just how idiotic this plan was. The locker rooms were sound proof, so she had no way of knowing who, if anyone, was inside. Shaking her head at her own stupidity, she had half a mind to turn around at once.

She had only taken a few steps, however, when she turned back. She needed to see Scorpius. She needed to talk to him and she didn't want to wait until morning. It had to be now and if he was still in the locker room, that would at least give them some privacy—an idea that Hugo had planted in her head a few hours earlier. She had never been more grateful for the benefits that Quidditch provided. Not that having a thoroughly private conversation was best done in the Slytherin locker rooms, but what other choice did she have?

Deciding that she should at least peek into the windows before she barged in, Rose walked around to the side. She raised her head just slightly above the sill and immediately lowered it when she realized that the entire Slytherin team was still in there. Breathing heavily, Rose collapsed onto the ground underneath the window. Well at least she hadn't barged right in…

Figuring that whatever Scorpius was saying to his team couldn't last much longer, Rose decided to wait. She had a clear view of the front door and with any luck, Scorpius would stay in his office getting things together for a few minutes before he walked back up to the castle. If it were Rose, she would want as much alone time as possible right now.

Realizing that this alone time probably didn't involve visitors from the opposing team, Rose decided to forget that particular argument and just pray that whatever was supposed to happen would happen. If it was fate for her to talk to Scorpius tonight, then he would stay put in the locker room.

It was less than five minutes later when Scorpius seemed to have released his team. Rose started when the door opened and began to count the people as they filed out of the locker room, praying that no one would look back and see her. It was probably too dark for them to notice the lonely Gryffindor anyway.

She counted each Slytherin as they walked out of the building and then re-counted when they were a few yards away. One…two…three…four…five…six….There was no seventh player. Someone was still in the locker room.

Rose tried to determine whether any of the people leaving the locker room was Scorpius, but she couldn't be positive in this light. She was almost sure that she would have recognized his body but then again, maybe she was wrong.

As soon as the six players were out of sight, Rose stood up from her hiding spot and made her way to the door. Rather than knock to announce her presence, she opened the door and walked straight in. This way, if it wasn't Scorpius who had stayed behind, she could at least pretend like she was planning on pulling a prank or something.

She shut the door gently behind her and thankfully, it barely made a sound. The main locker room area was empty, but the door off to the side that led to the Captain's office was slightly ajar. Rose walked closer until she could see around the crack in the door.

And there was Scorpius. His head was resting in his hands and he was rubbing his temples as if he had just been through the most stressful day of his life. Rose's heart fluttered upon seeing him looking so alone. She wanted more than anything to just barge in, but she didn't want to scare him. Raising her hand slowly, she knocked on the door frame.

Scorpius jumped slightly, but when his eyes met hers, he looked rather calm. "Rose," he smiled as she entered the room. It was almost as if he thought she was a dream. And sure enough, when the reality set in his face grew hard once more. "Are you here to rub it in?"

"No, but I can leave if you'd like me to." She took a few more steps into the room, making her way over to where Scorpius sat at his desk.

Scorpius looked like he was seriously debating whether to kick her out, but he eventually just shrugged. "Go ahead and say whatever you came to say." It was obvious by his tone of voice that he wasn't expecting good news. He refused to make eye contact with Rose and she couldn't help but wonder if the thought of this moment had kept him from concentrating these last few days also.

Noticing how tense his body was, Rose couldn't help but walk around behind him and place her hands firmly on his shoulders. As she began massaging him, he let out an involuntary moan that utterly tore through Rose's planned speech. She couldn't remember a word of what she had come to tell him; she was too utterly preoccupied with trying to make him make that sound once more.

"Yes," she finally said, still rubbing his back, once she remembered the gist of the conversation she had planned on having.

"Yes what?" he asked huskily, leaning in to her touch.

"Yes, I'll be your girlfriend," she said. At her words, Scorpius grew rigid and Rose stopped kneading his shoulders in fear that she had said something wrong. Slowly, Scorpius turned around in his chair to face her.

"What did you say?" he asked her, looking dead into her eyes.

"I said yes, Scorpius." Figuring that he couldn't have misheard her twice, Scorpius's face broke out into the biggest smile Rose had ever seen grace his features.

"You'll be my girlfriend?" he confirmed, standing up and grabbing each of Rose's arms.

"Yes!" she nearly shouted. Overcome with joy, Scorpius pressed his lips to hers fiercely. He lifted her off of her feet and spun her around, their lips still connected. When he finally stopped kissing her, he didn't put her down immediately but continued to stare into her eyes as if he couldn't believe what she had just said.

"You won't regret this," he said sincerely as he set her back on her feet. His arms remained around her body, however, which she was grateful for because she doubted that she would be able to stand.

"I know," she whispered, leaning in to kiss him once more. The kiss was soft and sweet and held in it was all of the desire Rose had flooding through her body. Scorpius Malfoy was no longer just a fling. He was her boyfriend. Her secret boyfriend—but somehow that seemed only fitting for the two of them. Nothing could be easy. They were going to have to work for this relationship.

But as they continued kissing, Rose couldn't help but feel like this was going to be easier than she had previously suspected. Kissing Scorpius was quite possibly the easiest, most natural thing she had ever done in her life. They stood there snogging until Rose was positive she wasn't standing on her own accord anymore and Scorpius lowered her onto a couch she hadn't realized was there.

She could feel every inch of him against her and she wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything in her life. His tongue traced the outline of her lips and she allowed him entrance. Her body was burning with desire. It wasn't much longer before Scorpius had to pull away. He was out of breath and as he sat up, he snickered slightly.

"What is it?" Rose asked, feeling slightly embarrassed. What was he laughing for?

Scorpius stared at her as if he had never seen a girl before and it made Rose feel like in that instant he saw every inch of her body and her soul. He was giving her a look she had never seen before and somehow she knew that everything was going to work out just so long as he kept looking at her like that.

Scorpius shook his head at her question. "I have to stop snogging you for a minute," he gasped and even he looked mildly surprised at his words. "I can't…um…control myself, Rose. If you keep kissing me like that we're going to go way farther than we need to before we even reach our first date."

"You're planning on taking me on a date?" Rose smirked. She highly doubted that he had ever stopped something that was about to go too far before.

Scorpius just kept giving her that intense look. "Of course," he said, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm going to do this right, Rose. It may take me a while to learn, but I am eventually going to be the perfect boyfriend."

And even though he had told her to stop, she kissed him again; suddenly her world seemed complete.

.*..:.:.:.:.*.

It was late when Rose arrived in her dormitory that night. As she lay down in bed, still fully clothed, Caitlyn stirred slightly from the bed next to her. She turned over to face Rose and even though she was still half-asleep, she managed to mutter, "Did you talk to him?"

"Yeah," Rose whispered and turning her back on her best friend, she suddenly knew that she had to lie. In order to keep her promise and never force Albus or Caitlyn to choose sides for her benefit, she had to lie. "I ended it."

"I'm sorry, Rose," she said. Rose didn't bother to respond and within seconds, Caitlyn was fast asleep.

.*.

A/N: Review, please :)