Chapter eleven
Rose had felt numb when she had seen the two of them on the quidditch pitch. She didn't now why she cared as much as she did, she only felt like she'd been stabbed with a knife. Sure, it was like a bomb ready to go off, all the girls that were after Malfoy, but he had never seemed to be interested in them. Maybe she just flattered herself with thinking that there was something between them, Christine obliviously had something that Rose didn't posses.
She had turned around when she saw the kiss, not wanting to see more, she kept her pace up and got into the castle. Inside she had seen Paul, and acted on pure impulse, if Scorpius had a girlfriend, then she could have a boyfriend, and in that case why not Paul. That would make Scorpius think. She had walked up to Paul and in her most flirtatious voice suggested that they would go to the library alone, and then he was hooked.
Just as soon as they came in there he had been all over her, his lips felt like a slug and she had wished that it would be Scorpius's arms around her, and then she had seen him walk in. The look on Scorpius face made her insides twist. He had swiftly left and without thinking she said to Paul that she would be right back. She left him confused, but didn't care about that.
Rose caught up with Scorpius in the corridor outside and she had to step in front of him to make him stop. He did that, but kept his gaze just above her head to not meet hers.
"Scorpius, look at me."
"Why?" The question took her off guard, she didn't know what to answer, but he continued, "Go back to you boyfriend, he will be worried if you spend anymore time with a Malfoy."
"Well, what do your girlfriend say if you are here, and not off snogging with her?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, Weasley." He took a step to the side, trying to move pass her, but she didn't let him.
"You stubborn prat!"
"I could say the same thing about you, but I don't have time for this now." He felt like he had to get away from her, so he did the only thing he could think of to get her to move, he took a firm grip around her shoulders and lifted her so she wasn't in the way anymore.
"Fine, leave. I don't care. Go to your girlfriend, I have Paul!"
Her words stung him as he pretended not to hear her. But if it was this way she wanted it, then he would play along.
Finding Christine wasn't hard, and when he got to her he whispered in her ear.
"What do you say about finish what we started before?" He didn't have time to react as her arms flung around his neck, almost like she was trying to strangle him, and her lips were firmly planted on his. He staggered back to the wall were she resolutely pinned him against it, all this time not removing her mouth from his.
This wasn't what he wanted, but a small part of him thought that this must get to Rose, he couldn't know that similar thoughts flew through her mind as she went back to Paul and aggressively dragged him with her, and when they came to the Great Hall she kissed him square on the mouth for everyone to see.
Rose's mind was too clouded for her to think straight, but she didn't care. Scorpius could have Christine, and know everyone would know that she had McLaggen. Maybe not the person she had as a first choice, but it was easier this way, she already knew that he liked her. All she had to do was move along with that.
When she had broken free from the public kiss, she was faced with an angry Hugo, who took her by the arm and gritted.
"What are you doing, have you lost your bloody mind?"
"Watch your languish Hugo, and no." Now Albus had come to join his cousin, his face was red with what looked like embarrassment for his relatives' behaviour.
"Why don't you go and finish this somewhere else, that meaning where it's less than thirty people close by."
Rose glared at them both and before she turned to walk away, she told them in a cold voice.
"There is nothing to talk about; I'm with McLaggen, end of story." She left the three boys, one beaming after her, the other two with shock written all over their stunned faces.
As Rose then got up the stairs she noticed something or someone pressed against the wall, then she realised that there were two, and seeing the white blond hair, she knew that it was Scorpius. She could feel her anger rise yet again, with a snort she brushed pass them, noticing that he looked at her with surprise, and what she thought to be guilt, but she shook it of, all she wanted now was to be alone, and the only place where she could find privacy seemed to be in her own bed with the curtains closed.
Scorpius wasn't sure if he was fighting against Christine or if he was starting to bend, when he heard a snort, close to a growl, looking up he locked eyes with Rose who by the looks of it was furious. His mind went almost numb and it was like his insides had been hexed with sectum sempra. For a moment he didn't know what he was doing, but then it came back to him, but after seeing Rose's face, he didn't want to continue. It wasn't easy to get Christine to realise him, it was harder than he had imagine, but after a while she let him go, with the promise that she would be waiting for him.
But his guilty feeling somewhat turned when he passed the Great Hall and could hear a buzz of excited voices. He didn't feel like he needed to hear what it was about, but Lucy Goyle had spotted him and now raced across the room to tell him the news.
"Scorpius… You missed one of the best shows I've ever seen… That Weasley scum snogged the hideous head boy senseless, right here!" Scorpius stared at her blankly, before he could feel the rage built up, he didn't know what it was that made him most angry, the things Lucy had said or how she said it, but frankly he didn't care. He saw Lucy's lips move but her voice only became a murmur in his ears, until he felt like he was going to snap.
"Will you just shut up, Goyle!"
He had left before he could see how all the inhabitants in the room reacted, but as he entered the common room, he thought that shouting at her wasn't going to help with anything, even if it let some of the steam off from the main thing that infuriated him.
So Rose can go and snogg with who ever she wants, but he couldn't. There were going to be a change to that.
Albus and Hugo just sat and stared at the Slytherin girl, who looked like she was at the brim to tears. They had after being shouted at by Rose decided that it was for the best if they stayed in the Great Hall for a while, to let her calm down if they wanted to stay alive long enough to graduate Hogwarts.
"I think we made the right choice Al, with staying here I mean."
"Yeah, that was… unexpected"
Malfoy's reaction to what his fellow Slytherin had told him had made the both Gryffindor boys jump and almost fall of the bench were they were seated.
"Everyone is acting really strange today."
"Who are acting strange, Al?" It was Lily who had just entered the room, ignorant to what had happened just minuets earlier. They filled her in on the events, and she agreed with them that it didn't seem like the normal behaviour for either Rose or Malfoy.
"So Lils, what do you think it is?" The girl got a thoughtful expression, and then she said jokingly to the others.
"Maybe they are in love."
They laughed, but deep down they all thought that that could be a reason for what had just accord in front of them. Silence came and they looked at Lucy Goyle who still stared at the spot were Malfoy had been.
"Someone should bring her back to life…" Lily looked at the others and smirked as they paled, then she continued, "… and I should find Rosie, since I'm the one that didn't made her want to tear this place apart."
"Good luck."
"Break a leg."
With that she left the room and after checking the map, which she had taken from Albus, she walked straight to the Gryffindor girls' dormitory.
Rose heard someone come into the room and decided to act like she wasn't there, but then she heard Lily's voice.
"I know that you are there Rosie, the marauders have told me."
Smiling slightly at this she opened the curtains a little.
"What do you want Lils?"
"Thought that maybe you wanted to talk about your new boyfriend." Lily sat down on the bed and smiled at her cousin, hoping that would make her talk.
"There is nothing to talk about."
"That's not what I've heard, seems like your tiny public display, affected more people than you thought." Lily smirked at Rose, when the other girl straightened up and looked at her questionably.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well not only are all the students talking about you and McLaggen, but also Malfoy who apparently became very angry at Goyle after he heard about it and screamed at her, then left her standing there." Lily waited for a reaction, but when she didn't get any she said, "Do you know why he would do that, Rosie?" This caused at least something she thought when she saw fury flash in her cousin's eyes.
"No, why would I know. Ask Christine, she might."
It happen so quickly that Lily wasn't sure how she ended up sitting on the floor with the bed's curtain right in front of her face. And just as she got up and dusted the invisible dust from her butt, Christine Finnegan barged in; a smile covered her pretty face.
"I just have to tell some one!" Lily could hear something from Rose's bed that sounded like some of her Uncle Ron's worst curses. But then her attention got to the other girl who had flung herself over her bed and was talking franticly.
"He is the world's best kisser, and he is the most considerate boy in school, not like any of the others. I love the way he smells. And he is good at quidditch, but that doesn't say anything about his good looks. When he landed to day, I just had to kiss him, and after that he couldn't get enough of me."
Lily was confused, who was it that Christine was talking about, and it obviously had something to do with Rose's bad temper.
"Eh… who are you talking about?"
This abruptly stopped any more words to come out from the girl; she sat up and stared at Lily like she was some kind of an idiot.
"It's Scorpius Malfoy, who did you think, silly?"
"Oh, I don't know, but now that you say it…" Lily went to the door to leave, but when she reached for it, she felt a hand on her shoulder and a pale Rose who whispered in her ear so that Christine wouldn't overhear.
"Do not leave me alone with her. I'm coming with you." The two cousins quickly left the now beaming Christine, who dreamingly stared out the window.
"Rosie, what's going on, tell me." They were now sitting in the library, hidden behind a group of bookshelves. Lily eyed Rose closely, like she was trying to read her mind.
"I honestly don't know Lils, it has gotten out of control. All of it." Seeing Rose so depressed made Lily feel like a piece was missing, Rose usually was the happy, put together one in the family, the one that kept all the others in order.
"Then we take it one step at a time, first, are you together with McLaggen?" Rose cringed, now she would have to seriously put this in words.
"Yes, I am." Lily looked a little taken a back by this, but then she continued.
"Second, how does Malfoy fit in to all of this?" Now Rose really didn't know the answer, and she didn't want to admit to anything, at least not yet.
"That is the part I don't know." She sighed and rested her fore head on her hands.
"Ok, so we will figure it out, sooner or later." Lily told her reassuringly and patted her on the back. But Rose wasn't so sure about that, everything had become so complicated. "We are going home for Christmas; it will be good for you to get some distance to all of this."
But even if Rose wanted it all to stop, she couldn't do it. Every time she saw Malfoy together with Christine, she would go and find Paul in an act of trying to make Scorpius suffer like she did. What she didn't get into her head, and neither did Scorpius, was that they were thinking and doing the same thing, and that sealed the evil circle they together had created.
Sometimes this would make their friends sit in an uncomfortable silence, while they were busy making the other jealous, and soon their friends were starting to count down the days till they could get away from the situation they unwillingly had been put in.
The day for Rose to go home couldn't come soon enough; the thought would flicker in both hers and Scorpius's minds more than once during the last days, they were both getting tired of keeping the act up for the other. Before long Paul and Christine would want to take it all a step further, something Rose and Scorpius never had planned to do.
Scorpius had been forced by Christine to come and see her off at Hogsmeade, and as he stood there, listening to her jabber on and on, Rose caught his eye. Their gazes locked immediately, then Paul bent down to kiss her on the cheek, but as Scorpius noted she turned her head so instead his lips would hit hers. Jealousy boiled in him as he saw this, he wouldn't be worse, so he kissed Christine, who immediately stopped talking. All this time he and Rose didn't avert their gaze's. In response to his kiss, she had forcefully pulled McLaggen towards her, with her arms around his neck, she glared at Scorpius when he made Christine giggle which made him glare back at her.
Lily and Avery were standing in between the two couples, trying to small talk about what ever came into their minds, both persistently looking at each other, pretending like they didn't notice their friends' behaviour. But when they didn't come up with anything else to say, they felt that now was the time to try and break the intimacy the two couples had.
When Lily and Rose later were on the train, searching for Hugo and Albus were they both red in the face, but from totally different reasons. Rose because the lack of oxygen while kissing Paul, and Lily from the embarrassment of standing beside and then have a slightly odd good bye shared with Avery. It had felt strange to just walk away from him she reasoned, since they had spent some time together before the holiday.
They found the boys in an empty compartment playing a game of wizard's chess, so for the rest of the ride they played and laughed, making Rose almost forgot about what had happen the past month.
