Sorry I haven't posted in forever, I've been up to my eyeballs in homework! Hope you like it :)

Chapter Twelve- Rose

I spent the better part of my week trying to get James to talk, practicing on my Nimbus 4000, and avoiding Scorpius.
"Rose! Don't you dare go back to the Common Room until you've eaten at least something!" Alice protested, I took one look at the food on the table and my stomach tied itself into a knot.
"I'm good, but thanks anyway," I said before I rushed to the Common Room to study, I had a Herbology essay due the next day and I hadn't had time to edit it and thoroughly go over it, to make sure it was perfect.
"Rose? Are you okay?" I heard someone ask behind me, I had my nose stuck in the Herbology textbook. I turned around to see Albus standing there, clutching his mug of hot chocolate.
"Yeah Albus, I'm fine." I said as he sat next to me, taking out his Potions homework.
"Ok, then do you mind helping me with this? I don't get the part…" and then I was helping him study and everything seemed okay again.

Albus went up to the boy's dormitories as soon as he finished all of his homework leaving me alone with my mound of homework due the day before. It was then that I heard a knocking at the window, I went and opened the window to see Ace glaring at the owlery, he had a thin rolled up scroll that had a silver and gold ribbon around it.

Rose,

I am very sorry about well…everything, and I do have an explanation for everything. I'm not asking for anything except that, would you mind considering meeting me in the library tomorrow after classes to talk?

~Scorpius

"No wax seal? I thought you had more class Scorp," I said with a smile as I slipped the note in my robe pockets, trying not to think about it too much. It was then that Teddy bounded into the Common Room, giving Lily a piggyback ride.
"Rose! Where have you been? You missed it…" Lily went off telling me about some amazing first year drama and I tried to follow along but eventually Teddy realized I wasn't in the mood for talking.
"Lily have you finished your Transfiguration essay yet?" Teddy inquired; Lily gave out a small squeak before running to her dormitory to finish her essay.
"Rose, what is wrong? You've been acting strange ever since last week!" Teddy said as a house elf brought him a steaming cup of tea. Most of the house elves got paid now; my mother had had a huge role in that. She had even revived S.P.E.W.

"Nothing's wrong!" I snapped, "I'm just-stressed, about everything. Quidditch, schoolwork, James," Scorpius, I thought in my head.
"Oh, well, lucky for you Christmas Break is coming up soon!" Teddy said with a smile.
"Yeah if you count a few months as soon" I pointed out and he just shrugged as he nibbled on his hot chocolate.
"Oh! I have something that will make you feel better!" Teddy exclaimed as he stuffed the rest of his chocolate frog in his mouth.

Teddy pulled out his chocolate frog card, which was Godric Gryffindor and his face contorted and turned until he had the face of Godric Gryffindor! My jaw dropped in surprise until I burst out laughing as Teddy made funny faces. The rest of the night we stayed there, him imitating the faces of famous people, and me whooping and hollering right next to him.

The next day zipped by quickly and before I knew it I was in my last class, which, afterword I would have to choose, go see James?
"Class dismissed." The professor said and I cringed. As all the other students raced out of the classroom I took my time, one slow step at a time.

I stood in front of the library entrance for what seemed like hours but was only one minute. I finally forced myself to walk in, what's the worst that could happen?

He was standing there, his almost gold blonde hair falling over his eyes as he flipped through a large leather bound book. I almost laughed at the comical sight, Scorpius Malfoy reading a book, it was almost unheard of.
"Rose," he whispered quietly, looking up. I gave him a sad smile but I saw his bright blue eyes that lit up and stayed, transfixed. "Y-You came!"
"You sound surprised," I said coolly and he nervously laughed, why was he so nervous? Shouldn't I be the nervous one here?
"So… I'm here? What'd you want to talk about?" I asked and he shook his head slightly.
"O-Oh yeah! What I wanted to talk about…" He trailed off again and I quietly laughed, he was a nervous wreck and all he was going to be doing was talking.
"I wanted to- to explain. About everything, your cousin, Lily, the Great Hall that one day…" my cheeks turned pink at his mention of the day at the Great Hall, I didn't like thinking about it.
"So explain." I said coldly. I had never been one for forgiving apologies. When I was younger it took me 6 months to forgive James for pushing me into the pool.

"Well with Lily, I- well Jake had asked me if he wanted to go study so I said sure. Then- he got bored so he picked a first year, Lily, I was just watching, I never actually sent a spell. And if you're going to say, "Why didn't you stop him?" he's a Slytherin, we never do what people say and after we disobey them we make fun of them. It's like a code." He was right; I was going to ask him why he didn't just stop Jake. I had never been furious about him for that for that long, Lily had gotten over it quickly and seemed to have gotten more popular afterwards.
"Mhm," was my response, I was leaning against the bookshelves and my red hair was spilling over my black robes making it pop out even more.
"With the Great Hall…thing. I was in a pretty bad funk after you-we br-" he took a deep breath before starting again. "Broke up. So naturally Paige decided it was her responsibility to butt in. She had me in a full body-bind as she put her lipstick smeared on my lips and tousled my hair. She then convinced me to walk with her into the Great Hall like that- only to get my pride back with the Slytherin's, I promise we never did anything!" He pleaded and I looked down at my feet. I had been so hurt when I saw them together, I was certain he had been over me… and it was all a trick?
"So, Rose, I'm going to let you be, I know you're still angry, and I know I hurt you… but I- I still care for you, a lot, and I don't think I'll ever stop." Scorpius whispered as he left.

I sat down at our table with my head in my hands, on the verge of breaking down. He tricked me, made me think he was over me when really he was faking it the whole time. It was then that I saw Hugo walk into the library, great.
"Hugo! Shut up!" I heard a girl flirty-ly say, I rushed and hid behind a bookcase, not ashamed of spying. I couldn't see the girl's face but I could tell she was clinging onto his arm and leaning towards him.
"You have to admit I make a fair point, Alice!" Hugo said, laughing and smiling and my jaw dropped open. Alice?
"Alice, you horrible, horrible…person!" I whispered, not able to think of a better insult. I gathered my bag and ran out of the library before either of them could see me.
And I ran into no other than Paige Parkinson.
"PAIGE!" I said angrily, I knew I'd promised Scorpius I'd give him a chance but ever since I had learned she was behind the Great Hall Thing I never wanted to have to see her again.
"Weasly." She dismissed me as easily and she had when we were classmates and we didn't have Scorpius in common. I grabbed her arm and dragged her under the stairs. " Weasly! Get off me!"
I finally let her go once we were under the stairs; I popped my hip and looked her up and down once.
"What, are you unhappy that I told your little boy toy to move on and he listened to me?" Paige asked in a faux sweet voice but I just smirked.
"I take it you don't know he just gave me a full apology?" my smirk widened at her confused expression.
"Then are you trying to torture him or are you just stupid?" she asked, her question surprised me so much I didn't respond, waiting for her to explain.
"He really cares about you. He stayed in the Common Room for two days straight in almost-depression. He hasn't done that since- in a while." I wanted to press her for more information, since when?
"Well…" but she wouldn't let me finish, she was still talking.
"So you not taking him back is torturing him. I know you still care for him or you wouldn't have listened to his apology, and if you're so stupid that you can't see it's slowly torturing him, then you don't deserve him." She finished her rant and took a deep breath, as if she had wanted to say those words for a while.
"Well I would have taken him back if you hadn't-"
"ME? What did I do?!" she demanded, all her interrupting was annoying me and I let it show.
"You were the one who made it seem like he'd gotten over me before I'd even ended it!" I said, referring to the Great Hall Thing, she looked at me confused for a minute before getting it and her jaw dropped in horror.
"Well- that wasn't, I didn't mean- ugh!" She said before she stomped away, probably feeling guilty. I just smiled as I walked into the Common Room.
"What are you so smiley about?" Teddy inquired as I plopped down next to him, he had returned to his trademark blue hair and sea green eyes.
"Nothing, I just won an argument over a Slytherin," I said with a cocky grin. "What's with the blue hair? I thought you were on a natural streak,"
"We all know that wasn't going to last long, although I will be going natural more and more, Victoire made me promise" Teddy said half glumly and I broke out in giggles.
"Someone's in a better mood then yesterday!" He remarked and I nodded as Albus ran to us and hid between our chairs.
"James is going to kill me! I ripped up his potions essay because he called Elizabeth Jameson, the girl in my Herbology class, ugly!" Albus said as he tossed the shredded pieces of paper into the fire.
"Wow, you must really like this girl," I said as I pushed his head down as James came barreling towards us.
"Where is that stupid rat?!" James demanded before he looked into the fire and his mouth dropped. "ALBUS!" He screamed as he picked Albus up by his shirt and glared at him. James would never actually hurt any of us and it wasn't the first time Albus had attacked his homework.
"You burned my Potions essay that I worked on all night!" he screamed as he face started to get red and he glared at Albus. Albus started to look scared as none of us had seen James get this angry over something so small.

Then, James did the unthinkable.

He punched Albus straight in the jaw.
"James Sirius Potter!" I screamed at the top of my lungs but James had already backed away from the wide-eyed Albus, he was looking at his jaw, shocked before he bolted out of the Common Room.
"Teddy keep an eye on Albus," I called behind me as I chased James, he had never done something like this before.
"James! James come back!" I screamed as I chased him all through the hallways, finally when he stopped to catch his breath I tackled him and had him pinned to the ground.
"You better start explaining to me right now or I swear you won't be able to remember your own name when I'm done with you." I said steely as I dug my knee into his kidney making him gasp in pain.
"Screw off, Weasly." He said as he pushed me off of him and I fell on the floor in shock, he considered himself part of the 'Weasly' family since Lily was trademark Weasly and to hear him say it with as much disgust as we usually get from the Slytherin's brought tears springing up.

I covered my face with my hands as I ran to the only place that I knew I could be alone, the library. I ran in, it was a weekend so the librarian wasn't there. I went to my table but didn't make it all the way there, I got halfway there before I crawled to the bookshelf and let my tears flow, I let myself breakdown. I was alone and I would let myself break, just for a minute before I put myself back together, broken piece by broken piece.
"Rose?" I heard a voice whisper and I just shook my head, I needed to be alone, I was mad at everyone. James for punching Albus, Albus for making James punch him, Teddy for not coming after me even when I told him to stay, Alice for betraying me, Paige for ruining what I had with Scorpius…

"Rose! What happened?" I heard the whisperer say again and suddenly I was in someone's arms, I didn't particularly care whom so I sobbed into their black robes.
I looked up at whose arms I was in and I saw the familiar blonde hair fall into the now-grey eyes, I noticed they changed colors.
"James… he-he-he p-punched Albus! Albus only ripped his Potions…." And then there I was, spilling out everything to Scorpius, the boy I vowed off. I told him about James, and about Alice and Hugo.
He had carried me to our table and had me on his lap while my crying slowed down and I gave him a small smile.
"I'm sorry for getting your robe messed up," I said with a small smile, Scorpius laughed and tilted my chin up.
"I think my robes will live, now about you, I think Albus will be okay, he's pretty tough. And Alice and Hugo? You should talk to both Alice and Hugo; they probably have something to say about that. And James? He'll come and talk to you when he's ready, obviously something in that forest freaked him out, but he'll come around. Now about that Scorpius character, he seems like a real hot guy and I think you should forgive him since he made a mistake that he paid for." I giggled and rolled my eyes.
"Oh really? You really I think I should forgive the guy who broke my heart?" I asked softly and he pouted to me. I leaned up to him and I was about an inch away from our lips meeting I whispered.
"I think he can wait another day." I whispered before I smiled and moved my head so it was on his chest. I could feel the steady beat of my heart, I wondered how it wasn't thumping nervously and comforted as in my chest. I looked up at him and smiled.
"What are you going to do for the Christmas Holidays?" I asked and Scorpius's face tightened.
"I'm staying here. Just like usual." He said coldly and I moved to face him.
"Why not? I always go to the Burrow and Malfoy Manor is only on the other hill, it's not that bad if you're on a broom." I said and he smiled.
"My da- my parents- my parent isn't so fond on having me around, he'd have to take days off of work and he loves his work too much to even think about it." He replied with a tight, fake, smile. "And besides, I love the castle during Christmas time, it's so festive; Paige always stays with me also so it's not that bad, Jake usually does but he has a little sister now." I nodded, I knew better than to push it even though I wanted to so badly.
"So the infamous Gryffindor/Slytherin star-crossed lovers are back together? Such a shame, I thought I had him all to myself." We heard Paige remark and I rolled my eyes but stayed on Scorpius's lap, we didn't have to hide from Paige.
"Paige! You were right!" I heard someone else yell as they ran into sight and I leaped off of Scorpius.

It was Hugo.