It was eight in the evening when we finally decided on a film. The four of us were seated at the table in Ted and Victoire's flat, arguing over a rom-com versus some random kids film. As was to be expected, we weren't exactly in total agreement.

"Oh, come on, Rose," groaned Alice, "You're the only one who has a problem with this film!"

Rose glared at Alice, Al and I. "Have you even read the plot synopsis? This film has absolutely no substance. He goes to war, she pines over him, he comes back, they snog. End of story."

Al grasped his chest dramatically. "Where is your heart, oh cousin of mine?"

"Up your fucking –"

"Okay," I interjected, before the situation could escalate any further. "Rose. I'm very sorry but you are outnumbered three to one, so I suggest you just put up with it."

She eyed me with a scowl. "I want compensation, Malfoy. This deal is crap."

I rolled my eyes. "I dunno, why don't you just eat loads of that Muggle stuff you like? What is it…Pop…peas?" I frowned. "Carrots? Potatoes?"

Her expression transformed so rapidly that I would have laughed had I not thought that she was about to murder us. "You've never had popcorn? Merlin above, Scorpius, what have you been eating all these years?"

Albus snickered, "Uh, the same food as you at school?"

Rose ignored him, standing abruptly and grabbing my hand. I felt a thrill at the feel of her fingers between mine but didn't think about it, as she pulled me up.

"Come on losers," she said, a little smile on her lips, "Let's go see the shitty rom-com."

The minute we stepped out of the front door, it started to rain. We put up two umbrellas immediately and somehow I ended up sharing with Rose. Alice and Albus led the way in front of us down the long, winding streets of Exeter and I kept my head down, shielding myself from the rain.

"So, um," Rose mumbled over the sound of water hitting the umbrella, "How are you finding the trip so far?"

I considered the question. It felt as if we'd been travelling together for weeks, when in actual fact it was only the third day.

"Honestly?" I asked, and a wide grin spread across my face, "I'm loving it. It's really fantastic; I've never seen so much of England before, and definitely not without my parents. And you guys are awesome, of course."

"Of course," she agreed, beaming up at me. "As are you, Scorpius." As she spoke, I could have sworn that she winked.

I blinked a stray droplet out of my eyes. Was this…flirting?

No sooner had I formed that thought, I heard a massive splash and a car zoomed by. Less than a second later, I realised I was drenched.

"Fucking hell," I moaned, whilst wincing at the cold feeling of my jeans sticking to my right leg. I glanced down at Rose. The corners of her mouth were twitching, and I scowled.

"Go on," I said, "Laugh it up."

She giggled, and it was such an endearing sound that I couldn't help but soften my irritated expression. "Sorry, sorry," she said, eyes still crinkled at the corners, "It is kind of funny though."

"It is not."

"It is so."

I huffed, crossing my arms. Rose held onto the umbrella and tried not to laugh at my childish pout.

"Alright," she relented, "I'm sorry. No more laughing."

As we kept walking, a gust of wind suddenly blew at us, so that Rose's grip on the umbrella was loosened. She swore as it started to slip out of her hand, but I caught it, stretching out my arm and pulling it back over our heads in one swift motion.

"Thanks," she murmured, giving me a soft smile that had none of the teasing from before.

"You're welcome," I replied.

On somewhat of a whim, I gave her a one-armed hug, squeezing her around the shoulders because she was so much shorter. My arm hovered around her for just a bit longer than it should have, before I quickly removed it under the pretence of running a hand through my hair oh-so-casually. I winced at my own actions – she must have thought I was the most awkward person ever to walk the Earth.

Luckily, I was saved by Al, who turned around at just the right moment to announce excitedly that we had arrived. With a slightly strained but genuine smile to Rose, I followed Al into the cinema.

Within five minutes of being there, I decided that the cinema was one of the greatest Muggle inventions ever. I mean, how ingenious is it – acting out stories and recording them to show for entertainment, all with food and comfy chairs?

We were at the front of the queue now and I was practically bouncing off the walls trying to ask all my questions at once. "Wait, wait, what is that?"

Rose, who was acting as my teacher for the afternoon, laughed. "It's a drinks machine, Scorpius," she explained, "Watch."

I did. The lady behind the counter took a large paper cup from a stack and placed it under the machine. She pressed something that we couldn't see and suddenly, a stream of orange liquid fizzed from it, pouring straight into the cup. Amazingly, it stopped just as the cup was going to overflow and the woman put a lid on it before passing it to us, shooting me a quizzical look.

"Sorry," Rose explained, "He's foreign."

It took me a second to catch on before I grinned, "Oui, oui!"

The lady laughed and handed us our food as Al paid.

"Nice save, Rose," Alice said as soon as we were out of earshot, "And Scorpius, your French is great."

"Ah merci, mademoiselle!" I said in a terrible accent, wiggling my eyebrows.

Rose snorted and I stuck my tongue out at her as we went over to the door.

As we walked, Al explained that the film was shown in a dark room on a screen that was basically a large television. To be honest, the whole idea was amazing. I mean, how in the name of Merlin had Muggles managed to create everything without magic? It made me wonder why I wasn't as into Muggle stuff as Al – that is, until I remembered that Al was obsessed and totally insane.

We sat down in our seats and I ended up in between Rose and Al, with Alice on Rose's other side. The adverts were already showing on the screen, so we watched them while chatting under our breaths, much to the annoyance of some of people around us.

Just as the film was about to start, I spotted a few couples near the back of the room and inexplicably thought of Rose. I frowned and blushed, thankful for the darkness, and took a sip of my drink. What was up with my brain?

A loud sound jolted me from my thoughts.

"What the fuck is that?" I hissed, and Rose laughed.

"That's the start of the film. They usually have loud fanfare type things at the beginning."

I nodded slowly and settled back in my seat as the title appeared on the screen.

An hour and a half later, I was almost in tears.

The film was amazing. I knew it was one of those cheesy rom-coms with very obvious plots, but every time one of the characters started yelling at each other, I felt like yelling. I was giggling at the funny bits and crying silently at the sad parts.

Rose, on the other hand, had adopted a habit of rolling her eyes and pushing her cheeks up with her fists (yes, I did know this because I was staring at her through the corner of my eye).

Albus was in an even worse state than me. His eyes were bloodshot and his nose was a bright shade of red. On Rose's other side, Alice was playing a game on her iPod.

As the credits began to roll, Rose turned to me and raised her eyebrows. "Are you crying?"

"What?" I rubbed my cheeks hastily and blinked. "No. I mean, nah, of course not."

She narrowed her eyes and smirked. "You so were. Scorpius Malfoy, Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, Prefect, sole heir to the Malfoy name –"

"It's good to know you remember all of my credentials –"

"Friend to the psychotic Muggle wannabe Albus Potter –"

"Hey!" Al yelled.

"—Was crying at a terrible rom-com?"

My jaw dropped. "It was not terrible! The plot was very well thought out."

Rose snorted. I ignored her.

"And the special effects were good…"

She raised an eyebrow.

"…Ish. And the characters were super cute!"

She sighed. "And you had so much potential, too." She paused to grin at me, and then stood.

What the hell did that mean?

I didn't have any time to dwell on what she had just said – Potential? For what? – before I was being yanked from my seat and out of the cinema.

Outside, the rain had stopped, but there were still dark clouds above us. I wondered aloud if there was going to be a storm, and Rose's expression quickly became one of anxiety.

"Let's go," she muttered, and hurried ahead. The three of us caught up to her further down the road.

I was nearly next to Rose again when Alice whispered in my ear, "Rose is scared of storms."

I furrowed my eyebrows and fell into step with Rose. "You okay?"

She looked up. "Yeah, fine. Just a bit cold."

I hesitated and thought about giving her my hoodie. Then I figured she probably wouldn't like the gesture…it's not like we were dating or anything.

I gave her a warm smile instead. "We'll be back soon."

When we arrived back at the flat, Teddy and Victoire were both back from work. Unfortunately for our eyes, they were also snogging on the sofa.

Al walked into the living room first and immediately screeched so loud that he sounded like an owl. "My eyes!" He yelped, and bounded out of the room.

"What?" I asked, poking my head around the doorframe, "Ew."

Alice and Rose shoved me aside. "Oi." They said in unison, and I peeked around to see Victoire's mouth detaching from Teddy's with a horrible squelch.

"Gross," moaned Al, still holding his hands over his eyes, "Ew, ew, ew!"

Rose hit him on the shoulder. "Stop being such a baby. It's not like you've never kissed anyone before!"

"So not the point," Al muttered, but he walked into the room with us all the same.

We congregated on the floor (Al refused to touch the sofa) just as the first rumble of thunder sounded. Rose yelped, and we all looked at her.

"Sorry," she squeaked, and I couldn't help but feel kind of protective over her. Plus, I had a pretty good idea.

"So…" I began, a slow grin spreading across my face, "Blanket fort, anyone?"

"For fuck's sake, Al, stop with the Muggle thing!"

"But, Rooooose," Al whined, "This is supposed to be a Muggle style trip!"

"Come on, Al," I said, "Isn't it so much better with levitation charms? That way we don't have to hold up the whole fort with our bodies."

He scowled. "I suppose."

Our blanket fort was pretty damn awesome. We had laid out all the pillows in the flat in a rectangle on the floor and then draped sheets over the sides. Then, we had put a fluffy blanket on the ground and several more all around the sides. We even had some fairy lights – "But what do they have to do with fairies?" Alice had asked – hung up on the top of the fort so it added "aesthetic value" (in Victoire's eyes, at least).

Now, the six of us were lying side by side on the floor. It was a comfortable sort of squish, not the gross sweaty type, but the nice, reassuring kind. I could tell that Operation: Distract Rose from the Storm had officially succeeded, because she wasn't glancing out of the window every five seconds or wincing at the lightning any more.

After a few more squabbles, some complaining from Al, some kissing from Teddy and Victoire, and some mothering from Alice, everyone started nodding off, one by one. Soon enough the fort was filled with soft snoring and deep breathing.

I was almost asleep myself when Rose poked me in the ribs and I squirmed. We were next to each other again (how did that keep happening?), but I found that I was enjoying that fact a lot more than I probably should have.

"Hey."

"Hi," I replied.

She looked even more pretty than usual in the soft yellow light surrounding us, with her deep brown eyes like chocolate and her hair a fiery mane. For some reason my eyes were drawn to her lips for a moment, pink and soft and…

I snapped out of my reverie when she spoke, and I was glad, because I had the funniest feeling that I wanted to kiss her.

"You're pretty cool, Scorpius." She said quietly.

I tried my hardest not to give her the trademarked Malfoy Smirk. "It took you this long to figure it out?"

She expelled a breath with a smile. "Shut up."

I beamed. "You're pretty cool too, you know."

"Oh, I know."

There was a slightly awkward pause in which our eyes locked. I found myself trying to count all the freckles on her nose instead of looking at her lips again.

Outside, the storm had stopped. The rain had returned to its usual drizzling state, and I was lulled by the quiet pitter-patter on the pavement.

"Goodnight, Malfoy."

"Night, Weasley."

A/N: Sorry about the wait! We've been really busy with school and stuff (A levels suck) but hope you liked the chapter! Please review if you have time (: