Chapter Eleven
Rose listens to a confession
Rose felt the next morning as though she hadn't slept at all. The clock in her beside table read well past breakfast but she really had no desire to get up. Only her iron core and that little voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like her mother forced her to get up. She rolled over out of her bed falling out of it in such a manner that she bumped her head on a shoe she had left on the floor beside her bed. It would have been comical for anyone else to see but the room was fortunately empty. She was still rubbing her eyes when she walked down the steps fifteen minutes later, walking clumsily into Max Harlow.
"Hey," he said brightly Rose's response was somewhat grumpy and Max raised an eyebrow at her.
"Sorry," she smiled "I am just so tired."
"We have potions first he said I think I can find my own way there."
"Yeah," Rose scoffed and "let you and Malfoy kill each other."
"I have a genuine grievance against him,"
"I didn't say otherwise Max but I have no desire to see either of you hurt."
"Either of us? I thought you hated him nearly as much as I did." Rose ground her teeth this could only be the Gryffindor gossips Abi and Alizia Longbottom.
"I have no energy to fight Max," she said exhausted. Rose had to force herself to stay awake during potions, next time she told herself you might end up with blue hair or no hair. She looked across the dungeons to the table Scorpius and Charlie shared. Charlie although not animated like usual was hardly in the state Rose had seen Lily in the previous night. Scorpius seemed to notice her gaze because he looked up from chopping belladonna. Rose however averted her eyes back to her own desk.
The next few weeks left Rose feeling isolated Marianna avoided her and Lily avoided everyone barely leaving her room. She quit the Gryffindor team despite Albus saying it would cost the team the title indeed several Gryffindors became convinced that had been Charlie's plan. She refused to leave her room outside class and just nibbled at her food.
Early November Rose was sat in the head boy/girl study that she so rarely used. She had refused to move into the bedroom attached instead staying in the seventh year girls dorm with Marianna a decision she was now regretting. The room gave an excellent view of the grounds with the rain common in November pouring in sheets. Rose saw a group of first year Hufflepuffs soaked to the skin after a herbololgy class. Rose was in a rather melancholic mood seriously worried about Lily and considering writing to her Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny.
Her thoughts where interrupted by a knock on the door and Vena Szabo entered Vena was half-Swiss half -Namibian and had been brought up in the Czech Republic subsequently English was not her first language or her second. Rose had been tutoring Vena for over a year to help her English but really Vena didn't need much tutoring she picked up languages fast and the pair soon found that these sessions were good for revision and talking. Despite being a Slytherin and Gryffindor the pair got on very well more often than not their conversations ended far from charms or arithmancy.
"Really?" Rose was asking an hour later "this snowboarding is popular it sounds like a death trap." Vena herself a keen skier couldn't keep the laughter from her voice.
"Your face Rose gosh it's almost as funny as when I told Scorpius about digital watches." The mention of Scorpius Malfoy made Rose straighten up.
"What's he really like V?"
"Why got your eye on him?"
"Hardly," she scoffed in response.
"He is fair," Vena said in a thoughtful voice "quiet, serious, clever loyal to his friends I heard he broke a friend from an unsuitable match."
"Which friend?" Rose asked her heart beating so fast in her chest.
"I don't know," Vena replied honestly.
"What was the problem?"
"Her family I think," Vena replied absently "an old traditional pure blood Slytherin family and a more modern mixed family I wouldn't have worked anyway Rose," she looked at her watch "I am so sorry I better get going I'll see you after the holidays." Rose didn't reply. It wasn't Charlie it was Scorpius. He had convinced his friend to break up with Lily. He was the reason her best friend was growing thinner and paler by the day. Next time she decided when Max fought with Scorpius she wasn't pulling them apart.
It was several hours before Rose left the little common room. She didn't trust herself not to spill the beans about Scorpius influencing Charlie if she did tell did he wouldn't just have Max Harlow after him he'd have most of Gryffindor tower too. As Rose walked through the silence of Hogwarts as curfew approached she tried to focus on other things reciting the twelve uses of dragon blood, the names of belladonna, the sonnets of Shakespeare even the colours of the rainbow all sixteen of them. But her mind would not stay focused upon one thing and soon found herself drifting. She couldn't tell Lily definitely, she couldn't tell Albus, Marianna wasn't talking to her and even the normally more rational Roxanne and Hugo were out. She would just have to keep her mouth shut she decided. She felt the anger and upset she had focused at Charlie Zabini switch to Scorpius Malfoy. That night was the second in the row that Rose slept badly.
December was as painful a month for Rose as November, bottling the one secret that she wanted to share sometimes felt like it was physically hurting her. But she did notice Lily begin to get better she was hardly herself nor would she rejoin the Quidditch team but the colour returned to her cheeks and she at least began to eat rather than pick at her food. Despite various efforts though Marianna refused to talk to her.
In mid-December the first heavy snowfalls came to Hogwarts so that the thick white blanket covered the grounds and made several people late to herbology classes. Albus decided this would be a perfect time to have a Quidditch practice despite several of the team pointing out the next match was not until March by which time the snow was unlikely to still be falling. This was why Rose Weasley found herself freezing in a Quidditch stand performing elegant flicks of her wrist that created a lion made of golden sparks bound in the air for the Gryffindors to follow. To her left on the edge of the Quidditch pitch she saw a tall person in school robes that could be no one else but Scorpius Malfoy. She knew it was foolish but she exited the stands to follow Scorpius. In her mind she thought through his crimes cutting Max off from his education and of course splitting up Lily and Charlie. After ten minutes or so Rose's temper cooled and she found herself a good walk from the pitch knowing that the others would be wondering were she was and cursing her Weasley temper she turned back towards the stadium. Half way through the walk back to the stands a light rain began to fall that soon drenched Rose through her cloak and clothes and she wished that she had learnt the rain repelling charm.
"Rose?" A voice shouted as Scorpius Malfoy walked out from a cluster of trees near the edge of the lake.
"Scorpius?" She replied equally angry and surprised. She was surprised for two reasons firstly he had seemed to be waiting for her and secondly he had called her Rose on the few occasions they had talked it was "Weasley".
"Rose I had to talk to you I came to the Quidditch pitch this evening for that reason. I have fought against my better judgment, my family's ideas, the house you belong to. I am willing to forget all this and I ask you to end this agony." Scorpius' face was as if carved from stone and totally unreadable. Rose's brow furrowed in confusion,
"I don't under-"
"I love you. Completely." he was by now as soaked as she was his blonde hair covered in water that dripped onto his nose. Rose gave no response she couldn't her mind had gone blank all she could think was he what "this was a sick joke," she thought "because Scorpius Malfoy lord of Slytherin, the person in the world she hated most could not be telling her that …the phrase was too big."
"Please do consider-" and then Rose felt the famous Weasley temper kick in.
"I am sorry Scorpius if I have caused you any pain it was unintentionally done. If you really felt such regard then why did you tell me you liked me against your better judgment."
"No," Scorpius began.
"I have other reasons too,"
"What reasons?" he asked and for a moment Rose thought he was genuinely confused.
"Do you think anything could coax me to love someone that has ruined maybe forever the happiness of my cousin?" the silence between them was loud as the rain splashing around them could be heard.
"Well?" Rose asked angrily her temper still bubbling "do you deny it? That you split up a young couple in love Charlie still pines for her I can see it on his face and Lily is wasting away, she's barely functioning."
"I don't deny it."
"How could you?"
"I believed his affection much greater than hers,"
"She's shy!"
"Charlie thought it was weird too,"
"Because you suggested it. Lily barely tells me anything. Was it really her family? Her friends? Her house?"
"No although it was suggested that shown by the Longbottom girls, her brother's temper that she was unsuitable for him." Another silence followed in which Rose could hear the gentle clip of rain on her leaves.
"I'm sorry," Scorpius said his head hung low "I went too far."
"And what about Max Harlow?"
"Harlow?"
"Yes what excuse are you going to give me for your behaviour against him?"
"I admit that when I saw him at that first potions lesson I was angry but I suggest you do not take all he says at face value."
"Why? You ruined his life he had a good education at Beauxbatons."
"So?" Scorpius asked in a dark voice "this is what you think of me thank you for explaining so clearly perhaps if your pride had not got in the way."
"My pride?" Rose asked aghast. "I have known you seven years Scorpius Malfoy and you have been conceited and arrogant throughout them all." For a moment Scorpius leant into Rose and she was sure he was going to kiss her but he simply whispered,
"Then forgive me for taking up so much of your time," without another word he turned on his heel and walked away. Rose dropped to her knees and stared after him Scorpius Malfoy who had regarded her with such sustain for years. He had called her plain, broke her best friends heart, insulted her and was yet in love with her.