DISCLAIMER: I don't own Rose, Scorpius, crazy ideas or kissing. Twelfth Night belongs to William Shakespeare.

Getting it Right.

Blurb …

Rose and Scorpius share a hate/hate relationship. So everyone thought. Even Rose and Scorpius themselves. It just took them a while to get anything right. :ScorpiusRose postDH NextGen:

CHAPTER TEN: The Potentially Embarrassing One.

"Madam, I am most attempt to embrace your offer–"

"That's not the line, idiot!"

The mood was not a pleasant one in Twelfth Night practise. All of the fifth-years had faced yet another long, gruelling week full of homework assigned nearly every day. The professors really were serious about forcing work down our throats! All of us were either on a sleep-deprived high or just pure hostile.

Naturally, Malfoy and I were nothing but hostile.

"Oh, so sorry, Weasley," Malfoy said through gritted teeth. "I forgot how right you get that 'woo-ing' line."

"Oh, come on, that's not bloody fair! I don't see you trying to say it!"

"Please stop bickering, you two!" Professor Hanson called. "We're at a happy scene! Everything gets resolved! Carry on."

I tried to refrain from rolling my eyes, I really did. It just so happened that I was doing it far too often these days. That was when I caught the eye of Libby, standing with Geraldine and Bea. Despite being Ravenclaws and the clear work ethic we supposedly had, even we couldn't keep up with the shear amount of homework. All four of us, along with Jo, had pulled an all-nighter last night and while I just went incredibly pissed off when I was tired, Libby apparently went extremely giggly.

"Yes, carry on, Rosie!" she called out and to my surprise (and concern, to be honest), the three of them burst out laughing. While I was instantly curious, I was certain that I didn't want to know. There's really no questioning Libby Fletcher when she's stressed.

I sighed. "Whatever. Malfoy, get your line right this time."

Malfoy's eye twitched as he glanced down at his copy of Twelfth Night, opened at Act Five, Scene One, but he didn't retaliate. Instead, he continued. "Right … Your master quits you; and for your service done him …" He drabbled on until he finally finished his line of, "Here is my hand; you shall from this time be your master's mistress."

(Or in other words, Orsino's just told Viola she can marry him).

"A sister! You–" Harley was about to chime in her next line, but Professor Hanson cut her off.

"Yes, beautiful! And this'll be the part when Orsino and Viola share a loving kiss!" she said excitedly, marking the page in her copy of Twelfth Night.

What?

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Malfoy snorted. "Ha, good one, Professor!" he said.

Professor Hanson glanced up, apparently confused at our expressions. "I'm not joking," she said and I felt my face drop almost immediately. "William Shakespeare is well known for his romantic-comedies and we can't really do the romance-part without a kiss. Plus, think of what you could learn from–"

"Kissing each other?" I finished in disbelief. I felt my neck go red when I realised that Malfoy had said "Kissing her?" at almost the exact same time. I felt my insides bubbling with panic; I didn't count on this when I took Muggle Studies!

Several others were laughing now, along with Libby, Geraldine and Bea. I threw the dirtiest look I could muster at them when I realised that they must've known about this. Geraldine at least had the decency to stop laughing, despite the grin, however Bea just leaned against Libby, snorting. Thanks a lot, so-called best mate.

Professor Hanson looked up, apparently shocked at our reaction. "Of course, Rose! And you, Scorpius. I saw the film version of this play and in it, they had some remarkable on-screen kisses! Particularly between Viola and Duke Orsino. With your chemistry, it will definitely make the play a lot more believable."

"But – but –" I tried to protest. Malfoy just looked like he'd been made to eat slugs.

We weren't even performing the play (well, not properly). I felt like this was extremely pointless. Why in Merlin's name should I have to kiss him? Shakeswotzit didn't even write it into the play! Surely if he thought it would benefit the audience, he would've actually written it in?

That was when Malfoy and I ended up exchanging equally horrified looks and I felt my insides flip. Merlin, I was going to kill Professor Hanson and from the look on his face, Malfoy was going to help me.

"Professor Hanson, don't you think kissing is taking it a little too far?" I asked, hastily.

"For once, I actually agree with Weasley!" Malfoy added.

"Rose, if we're going to perform the play, we might as well do it properly!" Professor Hanson replied as the rest of the class continued to laugh. "If I talk to Professor Flitwick about charming a video camera, I'm sure we could try and record it somehow! It'd be brilliant to have something to fall back on for future reference–"

"Oh my god!" I complained. Great, now all Professor Hanson cared about was how this would benefit her work!

"C'mon, Rosie!" Bea said, once we had finally finished the scene, thankfully the last one of the play. Everyone dispersed from the stage, rubbing eyes and yawning. However, Bea found the whole thing highly amusing and I don't think she'd stopped grinning since Professor Hanson announced it. "You should just do it! Who knows, from what I've heard, he's a bloody good kisser."

"Oh, yes, because that makes it less awkward!" I said, rolling my eyes as I shoved her shoulder. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"Ouch! Ok, yes," Bea admitted, rubbing her arm. "Well, Libby and I overheard Professor Hanson telling Geraldine and the backstage girls that she was thinking of getting us to act more with our 'bodies'," She placed quote marks around the last word. "It's not just kissing, apparently we actually get to lock Danny Parker in jail!"

I groaned. "Bloody brilliant. Why would she even care?"

Bea shrugged. "For the reasons she told you, I suppose. Professor Hanson is getting really into this."

I glanced over at said Professor, who was currently arguing with Malfoy. His arms were flailing about, obviously avoiding looking in my direction. Parker and Harley were standing together, half laughing at Malfoy's predicament, half looking disgusted.

"Oh, god …"

"Ah, come on, it can't be that bad," Bea said, laughing again. "Just do it!"

"What part of no way in hell don't you–"

"Oh, that reminds me – Toby and Bea, Trevor and Lucy – you two pairs will be kissing as well!" Professor Hanson suddenly called.

"What?" coursed several voices. Bea's laughter was cut off as her mouth fell open in horror.

"You were saying?" I asked, now somewhat satisfied.

"I have to kiss that?" Bea said in outrage, pointing at Toby, who was so busy flirting with Leanne Kite, he didn't even hear the announcement.

"Professor, you can't be serious?" Harley asked desperately, turning her nose up at Trevor, who glared back. Professor Hanson rolled her eyes.

"Yes!" she said, exasperatedly. "This is how you will understand the play! How you'll discover the way the scenes are played out, the emotions underneath the lines; you're kissing and that's final!"

She walked away to sort out a question by Oliver Gemmel, obviously fed up with all the complaining. Libby was in complete hysterics, only now Bea didn't seem to share her amusement. She was glaring at Toby's back, who had apparently finally understood what had happened. He was now complaining to Tom Ellis, looking disgusted at the fact that he was supposed to kiss my best friend.

"So now do you sympathise?" I asked Bea, smugly.

"Bloody Merlin," Bea said in answer, turning back to me with a horrified look. "No way in hell."

"Good to hear someone else agrees," We looked up to see Trevor coming to talk to us. He looked disgusted. "It was funny when it was you and Malfoy, but I have to kiss Harley?" He glanced over at her again and narrowed his eyes. "This is pure torture! I'm sure that previous Muggle Studies classes didn't have to kiss anyone."

"Previous Muggle Studies classes didn't act out a Shakeswotzit play," Bea reminded him. Trevor sighed.

"Ah well. There are compensations. Harley's at least hot and apparently one hell of a snog," he said, absent-mindedly. I rolled my eyes. "But on the plus side, Rosie, you actually did ok with the acting today."

I snorted. "Did not." I answered immediately and Trevor shrugged. Even he couldn't deny that we all sucked at acting. Ah well, at least it didn't matter that much.

But kissing is taking it too far, surely?

"Right, everyone!" Professor Hanson called, chivvying us all to gather again on and around the stage so she could talk to us. "That was a good run-through, next time you backstage girls can get onto making a jail–"

In the midst of our arguing and complaining, no one had noticed that someone had been watching us the entire time we'd been practising. It was only then that he made himself known, cutting in over Professor Hanson with a, "Hello there, everyone!"

We all turned in surprise to see the headmaster, Professor Finch, walking towards us from the doors of the Entrance Hall. Professor Finch apparently used to work at the Ministry and, honestly, he was a bit of a useless person. However, Professor Hanson suddenly went all flustered and immediately rushed forward to shake his hand.

"Hello, Headmaster!" she said, frantically. "Sit down, why don't you? Have my chair–"

"Oh, it's ok, Alice–"

"No really!" She practically shoved Professor Finch into her chair as the rest of our class exchanged looks. "So what brings you here to our Twelfth Night practise? It's a Shakespeare play you know, a Muggle play that is very worth your time–"

"Not now," Professor Finch said, sternly. She shut up immediately.

I glanced at Bea and noticed that I wasn't the only one looking confused. We all gave Professor Hanson weird looks and she made shushing gestures from behind Professor Finch's head. Amy and Leanne were muttering together with raised eyebrows, while everyone else simply looked bemused. I turned back to see that Professor Hanson had gotten her wand out. Waving it once, smoke furled out and formed several people: a King sitting in a chair with several servants bowing down to him.

I'm going to hazard a guess at we need to play nice to the headmaster.

"So you were performing a Muggle play?" Professor Finch asked, interested.

"Yes, Sir!"

"Yes, Professor Finch."

"Absolutely, Professor!"

Professor Hanson had obviously got the message across, because we were all acting extremely nice to Professor Finch. I'm pretty sure that none of us knew why, but I was assuming that we'd get that out of Professor Hanson later.

"That's nice," Professor Finch said, cutting over our enthusiasm. "Would someone care to tell me what it's about?"

"Well, it's about Viola and Sebastian–"

"They're twins!"

"Who get shipwrecked on this island–"

"And Duke Orsino loves Olivia!"

"But she doesn't love him, she loves Cesario–"

"Who's really Viola in disguise as a bloke!"

Professor Finch seemed positively swimming after receiving this onslaught of information. After a round of about five incredibly detailed versions of Twelfth Night, he finally held up a hand, causing us to all fall silent and for him to shake his head slightly.

"Right," he said. "So am I right to believe that you're performing it as a class to better understand it?"

"Parker didn't get it!" Leanne said and Danny Parker punched her on the arm.

Professor Finch laughed. "I see. And would you all, by any chance, be willing to perform it for the rest of the school?"

The school–?

"Oh, we'd love to!" Professor Hanson burst out before anyone else could say anything. Harley's mouth dropped open and I heard Oliver, who was playing Sir Andrew say, "She's kidding, right?" Professor Hanson seemed completely oblivious to the outraged stares of her class as she waffled on.

"Anything for you, Professor Finch!" she said, shaking the headmaster's hand again. "We must pack up the hall now, last time we left the stage out, Mr Filch got the slightest bit angry since we accidentally set it on fire, but we will talk dates soon! It was so nice of you to appreciate the hard work we've put into Muggle Studies–!"

Professor Hanson practically ripped Professor Finch from the chair that five minutes before, she had been forcing him into. She then proceeded to shoo him out the doors. By the time she was back, she was facing about fifteen not-so-happy students. She seemed to take a deep breath, knowing that the tirade was coming.

"Ok, now I'm the teacher, and I say–" she began.

"Professor!" Libby whined.

"I can't act!"

"None of us can!"

"My friends will laugh!"

"I thought this was just to understand the play?"

"Are we getting marks for this?"

"My girlfriend's going to think I'm an idiot!"

"I can't act!"

"I don't want to kiss him!"

"OK!" Professor Hanson yelled. She looked distressed. She wasn't the only one. "Look, under normal circumstances, I would've said no," she told us. She then sat down heavily in her chair, facing our indigent expressions, still sat on the stage. "But I guess there's something I should tell you."

She looked highly serious, which was bloody weird for her. I had a shrewd feeling that this was the reason Professor Hanson was taking things insanely too far in this play (the 'kissing' announcement of course only being one of many). She faced us, twisting the end of one of her ponytails around her fingers and looking nervous.

"Look … we all have fun in Muggle Studies," she began, sadly. "But, well, there are only two classes this year … you crazy lot and our third-years. No fourth, sixth or seventh. No one wants to take it any more. And … well, the Board of Governors are appealing to Professor Finch to get the entire subject scrapped."

Of course, there was a flipping uproar at this.

"What?" Bea yelped.

"But this is a fun class!" Tom from Gryffindor complained. "I'm allowed to yell all I want!"

"This is the best class at Hogwarts!"

"In what other class can I learn about – what are they? 'Fellytones'?"

"Muggles are fascinating! They can't just scrap it!"

"They unfortunately can, Trevor," Professor Hanson said, cutting off our outraged cries. "All the Governors have to do is take it up with the headmaster and he's most likely to say yes to anything they ask."

"Yeah, that's because he's a pansy …" Toby muttered.

Professor Hanson looked like she wanted to agree with this statement, however ultimately decided that it wasn't her place to agree, y'know as a teacher and all. "Look, Professor Finch may not care much for Muggles, but he's always had a fascination with drama," she said. "If we do this play and do it well, then perhaps he'll see that Muggle Studies isn't entirely worthless after all … I don't really want to lose my job, after all."

Oh, crap. The look on Professor Hanson's face was pure agony to watch. She looked devastated. Looking back, I realised that no matter how many times I'd nearly died in this class, I really did love Muggle Studies. Sure, half the time I never knew what the hell Professor Hanson was on about, but we always had fun. I mean for Merlin's sake, she called us all by our first names! We were practically one big, extremely messed up family now …

I would be sad to see it go.

I kind of felt sorry for Professor Hanson now and judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, the rest of the class did too. She looked just about ready to cry and not many Professors' did that.

So long story short, we all ended up agreeing to help her by going along with the plan of performing Twelfth Night to the rest of Hogwarts.

I have no idea what the hell I just got myself into, but I'm betting it can't be good.

Half an hour later, I found myself collapsing next to my younger brother. I didn't normally have much to do with Hugo, y'know, outside of living with him during the holidays and being related to him. He was always closer to Lily than me. Still, sometimes I'd make an effort to see what he was up to and to make sure that his life wasn't spiralling down into deep despair or something (I'm pretty sure Mum would kill me if I hadn't even realised that my little brother was depressed or whatever).

"Hey, Hugo!" I said. He and Lily were playing chess, his hand fisted in his curly, red hair in concentration. Yeah, we both got the unfortunate 'wild hair' gene from Mum. However, while I got Dad's blue eyes, Hugo got Mum's brown ones. Lily was chewing her tongue, staring at the board with confused eyes while their mate, Kitty, read a book about chess moves.

"Hi, Rosie," Hugo said, not even looking up from the game board. "Can't talk. Must win."

I rolled my eyes and instead turned to my cousin. Lily however was apparently too busy trying to think of a way to cheat herself to a win.

"They're always like this when they play chess, aren't they?" I asked Kitty, who's wavy, brown head popped up from behind her book.

"This is nothing," she snorted. "You should see your brother during 'Hugo's Challenge'. Turns into a right arse."

"I'm sorry, 'Hugo's Challenge'?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lily looked up to answer as Hugo made his move. "Every Saturday evening he sets up his chess board in the common room and anyone of any age can challenge him to a game. He promises to give up his entire collection of Chocolate Frog cards to anyone who can defeat him!"

"But … Hugo, you've been collecting those cards for years!"

My little brother winked at me. "And I still own them!" he said, cheerfully.

"See what I mean?" Kitty said, gesturing a hand to her best friend. "An arse."

"Oh, shut it, Kit."

I snorted at the exchange. Anyone looking at Hugo would never have pegged him for an outgoing bloke. Growing up, Hugo had been almost painfully shy, especially when we had attended a Muggle primary school (y'know, before we accidentally blew it up, but that's another story). Lily had always been the louder one and when he'd come to Hogwarts, he'd gone even quieter. We'd all thought he'd go to Hufflepuff and myself and every other person in my crazy family was surprised when the Sorting Hat yelled Gryffindor. However, when Hugo was just with friends or family, he became an absolute cheeky idiot, outspoken and curious about everything. Sometimes, he could be just as bad as the Idiot Twins, especially the time last month during James' birthday, where they spiked Hugo's Butterbeer and he got just slightly more than tipsy.

"Anyway," Lily said, staring at the chess board in confusion again. "What's up, Rosie? Why d'you look like you've been sentenced to the gallows?"

I shook my head. "Just sick of work," I answered and this was mostly true. While I was indeed sick of all the homework we'd had forced upon us, it was the work of Twelfth Night that had me most worried. In fact, Bea was as of this moment complaining to Al on the opposite side of the joint common room. When we'd first told him what we were going to do, he'd outright laughed in our faces, the bloody git. As such, I had decided to come talk to my adoring little brother and leave Bea to handle our best mate.

Lily snorted. "Sure Rosie, that's the only thing bothering you," she said. "And I'm totally going to win this chess game. Pawn to E2." she added. Her pawn moved, blocking an attack from Hugo's Knight, only to have his Rook move forward and take out her Bishop. "Crap …" she muttered, eyeing the board.

"How d'you know what is or isn't bothering me?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"It's after dinner and you haven't even started your homework yet? Yeah, something's bothering you," Lily answered as Hugo and Kitty laughed.

Oh, I really do have such lovely people in my life. "Well, what do you suggest to make me feel better?" I asked.

Lily shrugged as Hugo went back to studying the chess board. "Go piss off Malfoy?" she said.

"I tend to find that there are only so many times you can piss him off just for fun in one day," I replied.

"True," she said. "Well, feel free to vent all you like, I'm all ear – damn it, how d'you do that?" she added to my brother, who had just taken her Queen.

"Skill, my dear cousin," Hugo said, stretching his hands behind his head and grinning. "Something that you clearly don't have."

"Oh, clearly don't have my arse …" Lily muttered to herself, staring intently at the chess board.

"So anyway, before Lily loses and this game turns violent," I said, turning back to my brother. "Hugo, d'you know if Mum or Dad have sent anything along?"

Hugo shrugged, not noticing as Lily swiped one of his pieces off the board and replaced it in an easier place to target as Kitty giggled. "Doesn't Mum just send you stuff with Layla?"

"Well, she's taking forever and I want to know if mum's sent the books I requested yet!"

"You had to request for some books?" Kitty asked, raising an eyebrow as Lily swiped yet another piece. "I thought you already partially own a library?"

"Oi, don't you listen to whatever my brother tells you," I said to her. "… the other half of my library is at home."

"She couldn't fit them all into her trunk!" Hugo sniggered and I whacked him on the shoulder for good measure as Kitty laughed.

"Anyway," I stressed, shaking my head slightly as Lily was still busy cheating her way to a victory. Bloody hell, it's a wonder no one's noticed yet. Hugo might actually lose for a change. "One of the books I had to leave behind was all about Shakeswotzit classics and I wanted to read up on Twelfth Night."

"Isn't that the play you're studying?" Lily asked as Hugo glanced back at the chess board and frowned. "My class aren't studying literature in depth or anything, we're just going over main topics. Though the other day, Professor Hanson actually made us look at some Muggle play or another – The Homecoming, I think it was called, bloody weird if you ask me."

"I dunno what's gotten into Professor Hanson lately," Kitty spoke up then. "I know she's a nutcase as a general rule but lately she's just been utterly mad!"

"Didn't she tell you about Muggle Studies?" I asked and the two girls shook their heads as Hugo gave a sudden realised look at the chess board and mouthed, 'Hey!' "Apparently, Professor Finch is planning on scraping the subject entirely!"

"What?" Lily and Kitty yelped. I agreed with them, however Hugo just chimed in,

"LL, are you going to make your move or what?" Apparently chess is more important than Muggle Studies. Lily smirked slightly as she moved a pawn before turning back to me with an appropriately aghast expression.

"But they can't scrap Muggle Studies! It's brilliant!" she cried.

"It might be mad, but it's so much fun!" Kitty agreed.

I nodded. "Well, that's what we all thought. We've been running through the play just to get a feel of it, but Professor Finch saw us practising and now, we're bloody performing it for the castle! You should've seen my class when Professor Hanson agreed to it, we nearly tore her head off!"

Lily's eyes lit up as Hugo snorted. "Sounds like it has the potential to be rather embarrassing," he said, moving a chess piece despite Lily's cheating. "Oh, and check."

"What?" Lily frowned at the chess board for a few moments before looking back at me. "Hang on, you mean we actually get to see a real, live Shakeswotzit play, just like they used to?" she asked, excitedly.

"Well, it's going to be performed by a bunch of teenagers with little to no talent at acting, so I don't know about the whole 'how they used to', but essentially yeah," I told her. "You get to see the whole thing. Complete with jail cells, snogging and getting washed up on beaches."

"Snogging?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow as she managed to swing a few more chess pieces around before making her move.

Oh, crap, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. Now I have to tell her. There's no point in me trying to keep it from her, there's just no way you can lie to Lily Potter. It's not possible. "Er, yeah. My character falls in love with Malfoy's and, well, they end up snogging."

Kitty let out a laugh as Hugo looked up in shock. "Merlin Rosie, don't even joke!" he said.

I just rolled my eyes as my brother turned back to the chess board. Lily was frowning. "What makes you think she's joking?" she asked.

Hugo snorted. "Rosie? Snogging Scorpius Malfoy? She's done nothing but complain about him since she started Hogwarts!"

"It's not like she's got a choice in this," Lily tried to reason. "Why would she joke about that?"

"Because she thought it might be funny?" Hugo asked while shooting me a look. "Though it clearly isn't."

"Why're you so opposed to your sister having a love life, even if it is a fake one with someone she hates?" Lily demanded.

"Oh, dear lord …" I muttered as Kitty gave me a sympathetic look.

"Don't worry," she told me. "Sometimes, I wonder why I'm friends with these two as well."

"… and Rosie hates Malfoy!" Hugo apparently finished his reasoning with a flourish, bending to move one of his chess pieces and knocking over Lily's King. "Oh, and checkmate!"

"What the hell?" she cried, staring at the board in irritation.

Only Lily would be able to cheat at a chess game and still manage to lose. Still, why was it so bloody hard to imagine myself with Malfoy? I mean sure, we hate each others' guts, but that doesn't mean we're completely incompatible. There's been an occasion every now and then when we'll manage to have a civilised conversation …

Oh, hell. I really am going to kill Professor Hanson.

Conclusion to possibly losing Muggle Studies and performing Shakeswotzit in front of a crowd:

-Just don't do it. Ever.

-Unless Muggle Studies in jeopardy. You can do it then, but only if the play is a tragedy where everyone dies and there's absolutely no kissing.

-I swear Merlin does this to me on purpose. But who knows? Maybe Malfoy's a better kisser since he was thirteen.

-God, this was going to be either lots of fun, or just plain embarrassing.

Rose: 17, Malfoy: 18.

(I think I deserve a point for suffering through this).

A/N: Updated, 2013: Yes, kisses are a bit typical, but i can promise that it doesn't go all as planned!

I hope you all liked it and remember reviews are always appreciated.

Until next time-

-Moon. : D