Chapter Ten – Passing Notes

I was late. I overslept, and I was late. No one had even bothered to wake me? Lunch was going to start soon, and I had just waked up. I had missed two of my classes (that had been the second day in a row for Potions). I was going to be in so much trouble with the professor. The stuff I missed was bound to show up on the N.E.W.Ts.

Of course, I would happily go back to sleep if I knew I could relive the dream I had been having. Everything was so surreal in it, so unbelievable. At one point, I even tried to take one thousand one hundred points from Gryffindor, and I snorted when I laughed after eating some energy bar from Uncle George (ha! Like that would ever happen). The best thing was that I got to kiss Scorpius—no, actually, he kissed me.

Yeah, it was kind of unbelievable. First of all, I would never eat anything Uncle George gave me. Secondly, why would I take over a thousand points from my own house? And, thirdly, Scorpius would never kiss me. As great as it was in my dream, I knew that it would never happen. Which was all right with me, so long as I could dream.

Speaking of dreaming, I basically had to sprint to Divination. I was already late, but I needn't take my time. By the time I reached the classroom, I had already missed over half the class. We would be dismissed for lunch soon.

"We've been expecting you, Miss Weasley. I'm glad you could join us," Professor Firenze said as I sat down next to Scorpius, my face burning up. I highly doubted that the class had been expecting me. Maybe the professor had been expecting me, but I was pretty sure that no one else could foresee that I was going to show up.

A piece of parchment slipped under my fingers, and I looked up at Scorpius; he was looking away from me. I opened the folded parchment and looked at the messy scrawl on it.

Are you feeling any better, Rosie? You didn't eat another one of those energy bars, did you? it read. I furrowed my eyebrows and wrote down a reply on the same sheet of parchment.

What are you talking about?

I slid the parchment across the table as silently as I could, so as not to attract the attention of the professor. Without turning around, Scorpius reached back to grab it (although it took a couple of tries to actually find it). Within seconds, it was back on my side of the table, and it had another answer written down on it beneath mine.

Last night, remember? You ate an energy bar from your uncle's shop and basically went crazy. You wanted to take one thousand points from Gryffindor for seeing two students run in the hallways. Or did you forget? Oh, by the way, I checked for you, and the points were never taken from your house.

Wait a minute. That actually happened? It wasn't a dream? Oh, those poor kids were probably scared to death of me, and I never had considered myself someone to be afraid of. Most students liked me as a Head Girl, or so I had been told. Now, they probably told everyone that I was a nutcase. Which I suppose I was last night. What had I been thinking, eating something from Uncle George's shop? Or eating something that Uncle George cooked by himself in general?

Wait another minute. Did that mean that I actually kissed Scorpius? That he actually kissed me? Holy mother of Merlin!

Oh, right, I wrote down, anyway. I would bring it up, all right. How could he have not said anything to me in the note earlier? How could he just ignore it like it never happened—at least I thought I dreamed it. Yes, I'm feeling much better, thank you very much. Except, I can't seem to remember much of anything after we kissed. Or did you forget? Because you aren't looking at me, which obviously means something is wrong.

I shoved the paper back at him, expecting him to turn around and look at me when he finished reading it—or at least glance my way. I had no suck luck with that. He just wrote down another reply and passed it back to me.

I'm trying to look interested in what Professor Firenze is saying, unlike you, I'm sure. I'm surprised he hasn't caught us yet. You're completely awful at passing notes.

You're avoiding the subject, I replied angrily. He was definitely avoiding it. I knew what was going on here. He was embarrassed; it was a mistake. He didn't mean to kiss me. Unfortunately, I probably would have to go back to dreaming about kissing him instead. I couldn't believe it.

No, I'm not, he answered.

Yes, you are. Now stop. I know you kissed me. You know you kissed me.

Oh, come on, Rosie. If you can't remember anything after that, isn't it obvious that you weren't entirely there last night? Rose, I'm sorry, but I think I messed up big time. I'd appreciate it if you would forgive me. I shouldn't have taken advantage of you like that.

No, he couldn't possibly feel that way. He hadn't taken advantage of me. I mean, if I remembered correctly, I was the one who had said that I loved him—which was true enough. He had done nothing wrong. And, personally, I liked kissing him. A lot. I had never felt that way before about anyone; he couldn't think that I needed to forgive him.

Do you really think it was a mistake, Scorpius? I asked, sliding the parchment back over to him. He grabbed it, and for the first time today, he looked back at me. His eyes caught mine, and for a moment, he just stared at me, wide-eyed. Then, he spun back around and wrote down an answer. This one took a while, and I wondered what he could possibly be writing. It fluttered back in my direction, and I picked it up. I was surprised to find only a one-word response from him:

No.

My heart melted inside my chest, and my stomach was instantly filled with a million butterflies. That one word—the one word that he apparently had to think about a lot, since he took so long to write it down—made my entire body be filled with joy. He didn't think it was mistake—he had actually wanted to kiss me! He meant it!

Good, I wrote back, because I don't think it was a mistake, either. I was saner than you thought.

Scorpius looked back at me and smiled when he finished reading my reply. He didn't write anything back this time; class was almost over, anyway. Instead, he took the parchment and placed it in his folder for this class. I almost wanted to keep it, too, since I knew that was what he would do with it. It would forever stay in that folder as proof of what happened.

A few minutes later, class ended, and lunch would be served downstairs in the Great Hall. Everyone filed out of the classroom, and Professor Firenze went into his office. Scorpius and I were the only ones left, standing awkwardly together by the ladder. I put a hand on the side of my face and giggled once, before biting my lip to stifle it.

"Are you sure you didn't have another energy bar?" Scorpius asked, and I nodded, a smile plastered on my face. "You can go down first."

I held my book bag tight to my side and started down the ladder, but Scorpius tugged on my sleeve. I paused and sat on the edge of the floor to look at him (because I probably would have fallen if I hadn't). He took my bag from me—the first time he ever had—and I stared at him incredulously. He was being very polite. Normally, he would have gone down the ladder first, and normally, he wouldn't have taken my bag for me as I went down the ladder.

"Who are you and what have you done with Scorpius Malfoy?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. He smiled and chuckled.

"Well, if we're going to be together, I figured that I might as well start acting gentlemanly and boyfriend-ish to you," he shrugged, and I bit my lip again—this time to keep myself from screaming out excitedly. He had just said we were together! As in boyfriend and girlfriend together! I could just die. Seriously, I was going to be the target of envy from every girl in the entire school now. Now, if someone asked if Scorpius and I were going out, I could actually say that we were!

"Okay," I managed to say, smiling widely. I climbed down the ladder, and watched as Scorpius attempted to get down carrying my bag and his own. After maybe a minute of laughing at him, I finally decided to relieve him of embarrassment. I grabbed my bag and his from him, and he jumped down the rest of the way. "That was really pathetic. Oh, wait, do I have to be nice to you now?" I paused, thinking of a way to say that it was pathetic while being nice. "That was really… no, that was just pathetic."

He looked annoyed at me, then realizing that he probably should have been, he smiled. "Thanks, Rosie," he said sarcastically. Then, he blinked and tried again. "Wait… no, thank you, Rosie."

"This isn't working," I decided, and he nodded. "Okay, even though we're together, I think we should just go on like we're just friends. Maybe like friends with benefits, but we can actually be together… Hold on, am I confusing you?" Scorpius was looking at me strangely, so I assumed that I was definitely confusing him. "Just act normally."

"Right," he agreed, taking his bag back from me. "No being nice to each other."

I rolled my eyes. "Now, I didn't say that. You can still carry all my stuff if you really want to," I sneered, and Scorpius shook his head. "Fine, then. We'll just act normally."

"No more energy bars," he reminded me, and I laughed. That wouldn't really be a problem anymore. I never planned on having one of those again. Although, they had been beneficial. I made it through my shift without falling asleep—at least, I thought so (since I still couldn't remember anything after Scorpius kissed me)—and it brought Scorpius and I together. I thought it worked out pretty well. "Speaking of that, now that you're… let's say, sobered up…"

He came closer to me and placed his mouth over mine. I melted in his arms, and he tightened his grip around me before lifting me off the ground. I squealed, pulling away from him for only a moment until he put me back on the ground. My arms were wrapped around his neck, playing with the hair that reached down that far.

Scorpius pulled his lips away from mine and formed a smile with them. "Yeah, that was a little better," he admitted, and I smiled weakly back at him. "Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good yesterday—you're just… entirely here today, whereas yesterday, you were kind of loopy…"

"Oh, thanks," I said, rolling my eyes. I couldn't really compare any of the kissing because it was all really wonderful. I mean, yesterday was amazing, even though I thought it was a dream first, and today was just as amazing. It was as if all of the nerves in my body were affected by his kissing, like my entire body was under his control. It was a strange, but wonderful, feeling.

Of course, he probably had kissed a lot of girls in his time here at Hogwarts, whereas he was the second boy I had ever kissed (or the first, if I didn't include Jeremy when I was eight). Speaking of Jeremy, I had never told Scorpius about that—he would probably make fun of me forever. It was probably a better idea that I didn't tell him about that.

"We have to go to lunch," Scorpius said next, probably realizing that he was actually hungry. As if on cue, my stomach growled, and I remembered that I hadn't yet had any food. "Meaning that we have to face everyone, since we'll probably be the last one's there, and everyone will wonder where we've been. We have to tell them, you know. Albus won't be happy, will he?"

Right. I had forgotten about everyone else. Oh, Lily and her boyfriend would probably be happy for me. It was Hugo and Albus I was worried about. First of all, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted my parents to know that I was going out with Scorpius quite yet—especially with this whole thing with Mr. Malfoy going on right now. And Hugo was bound to tell them if he knew.

Then, there was the problem child: Albus. My over-protector. I loved Albus, really, but this was one thing that I would resent him for if he complained. He had no right to whine. I knew he just wanted me to be safe, but Scorpius wasn't a problem. He wouldn't hurt me. Albus was going to have to get that through his thick skull. There was no problem here.

"Albus will be fine," I replied, sighing loudly. "If he puts up a fuss, I'll kill him."

"He's seventeen. If he puts up a fuss, I'll make sure he's sent back to first year," Scorpius muttered, and I couldn't help but to laugh. "Seriously, he has no say in who you go out with. Speaking of that, do you want to go to Hogsmeade together?"

"We would have gone together, anyway," I reminded him, and he shrugged.

"Details."

"Fine," I agreed, looking down the hall. Better now or never if I ever wanted to eat—and face everyone at the same time. "Shall we?" I held out my hand, and Scorpius grabbed it without another thought, something he wouldn't have done before. I smiled at this, but he didn't seem to notice.

So, walking hand in hand, we started for the Great Hall to face our impending doom.

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Author's Note: Howdy! Get ready for the impending doom in the next chapter—which also happens to be its title. I think. If I remember, which I might not. I'm bad with things like that. Anyway, impending doom is coming up soon.

Anyway, wasn't it weird for Scorpius to, like, offer to take her bag and stuff? Seriously, if I was Rose, I would have been really creeped out. I'm just glad they're going to act normally around each other. Except for the making out and stuff. But, like Scorpius said, those are just details. Who needs them? Well, I'm a writer, so I do. But that isn't the point.

Who's hoping that Albus puts up a fuss about Rose and Scorpius? Anyone? To be honest, I am. Not saying that will happen or anything…

Anyway, review! Say what you think! Tell me if you think Albus will put up a fight! Anything! I just need more reviews!

Thanks everyone!