A/N: Family confrontation time! Also, reader beware, I do not recommend repeating certain words in this chapter in front of parental units, as I accidentally let one slip today and was insanely embarrassed by my male Parental Unit in front of a crowd of very attractive college-lacrosse-playing boys. (And now I will slink into a corner and cry about such lost opportunities.)
Rose swallowed, and anger flooded her veins. She was going to hurt her idiot family. While she appreciated their terrible attempt at protecting her, they were going about it in a horrific way.
Al led the pack of them—and they were honestly a pack, a pack of rabid-looking red-and-jet-black-headed monsters. All their wands were drawn. Al, though he looked like a carbon copy of young Uncle Harry, had inherited Ronald Weasley's habit of turning his ears into flaming red balls of fire when he was angry. Right now, Al's ears could have toasted marshmallows.
Al, Fred, Louis, Hugo and even freaking James (who had graduated already, for Merlin's sake!) were there, all wands drawn. Al must have really reigned in the troops for this one. Rose swore she saw Roxanne and Molly in the back, probably just wanting to hex Score a bit for so thoroughly beating Ravenclaw in the last Quidditch game.
She stared at them coming in the distance, and decided she need backup. She turned around swiftly and muttered the counter-spell to Stupefy, and Scorpius come round drowsily. As he opened his eyes, she turned back to her family furiously. "Are you lot crazy?" she demanded loudly, looking at Scorpius's slowly-moving form worriedly. "What the hell is your problem?"
"We're just gonna hex the arsehole like he deserves," James said, as if it were an honourable thing to do rather than a right stupid thing.
"You will do no such thing," Rose said, annoyed. "I am Head Girl, and I will give you all a month of detention if you so much as point your wands in Score's direction again—'' She shook her own wand menacingly in front of them. Scorpius groaned something that sounded like no from behind her.
"Oh, please, sis. It'll be worth it. And we'll use our fists instead of our wands, if it makes a difference to you," Hugo said angrily. "Who the hell does he think he is, the git, cheating on Lily—with you, of all people! And what in the name of Merlin were you doing with Lorcan Scamander, Rosie?" he demanded.
Then Al ranted at Hugo, "Rose wants to snog Scorpius, you idiot, that's the problem! She's out of her mind, wants to date the cheating prick," and then he punched Hugo's arm, quite hard. "Bugger off, kid, let us deal with this one."
"I am not a kid, and Lily is my cousin and the prick cheated on her with my sister!"
"Lily's our sister!" Al and James yelled back at him.
"WILL YOU ALL PLEASE SHUT YOUR GIANT TRAPS AND LISTEN TO ME FOR A SECOND?" Rose had magnified her voice magically. They all look at her like they were the ones hit with Stupefy instead of Scorpius. She jabbed her wand at each of them in turn—as she did so, she saw Scorpius get to his feet dizzily in the corner of her eye.
"Merlin's soggy hat, she looks like Aunt Hermione when she does that," James whimpered pathetically. Rose snorted. That was so typical of her professional Qudditch player cousin, to say stuff like "Merlin's soggy hat", though normally he didn't fear "awkward little Rosie" at all. She figured the only reason he was so scared of her today was that he must be the one who had hexed Scorpius.
First, she pointed her wand at Al; he was the ringleader. "You—shut up about Scorpius being an arse. He's your best friend, you know him well—you think he would do this if Lily loved him, if Lily at least liked him?" Al looked sufficiently guilty, but still angry. She saw him glare over at Scorpius. She sighed. "Listen, Al, I know you want the best for me and Lily. I may not be a social butterfly, but I'm not a socially defunct idiot, either, okay? I can handle my own now." She paused and shook her head. "You've probably known how I feel about Score for a long time, Al, so please don't ruin this for me when he's just realized that he loves me too."
Al swallowed. "But, he's dating Lily," he said feebly.
"Yeah, and Lily cheats on him every week, doesn't even like him anymore, and couldn't care less if she hurt him." She knew that Al knew it was true; she knew that everybody else knew it was true. They might be big-headed and brash, her family, but they were not stupid or blind. She wondered if Scorpius had known, or if she had just rather brutally informed him of Lily's cheating.
She saw Al cave in—she saw the surrender in his eyes. Immediately she turned to James, wand firmly under his chin. His eyes widened real quick and he backed away nervously from her. "Rosie-Posie, calm down—"
"You're the git, you Stupefied Scorpius!" she yelled childishly at him. He had definitely hexed Scorpius. There would be no other reason for her lovable but idiotic cousin to fear her so. Well, that, and the fact that Aunt Ginny had taught Rose the proper way to do a Bat-Boogey Hex this summer. "What in the name of Merlin's soggy hat," she said mockingly, "Are you doing here anyway, Jamie? I thought you had some big game to play, some stupid, flouncy-haired, light on intelligence girl to ply with obviously false compliments so that she'll jump in the sack with you—"
"Hey!" he said defensively. "You can't insult the girls I date."
"Then don't insult the boys I date," she snapped back quickly. He, too, looked sufficiently defeated. She swore she heard Score chuckle behind her. He seemed to have finally managed to stand up straight without swaying, which was an encouraging sign--
"Fine," James muttered darkly. "But I'm not sorry about the hex."
Rose, satisfied enough with that, turned her wand to Hugo. "Hugo, I do not need you to be my keeper," she said impatiently. "You're the baby brother, remember? I'm the big sister."
"Yeah, but I'm your brother, and he—he—ew," Hugo made a face. "Why would anybody snog you when they could snog Lily, anyway?" he asked, looking both genuinely perplexed and annoyed.
"Yeah, really? Anybody who snogged Rosie would have to prepare for a lecture about safe sex right afterward. Malfoy was definitely trying to make Lily jealous, thought getting it on with Rosie would win Lily back." Roxanne—or was it Molly?—chimed in from somewhere in the back, a note of derisive humour in her voice.
James snorted loudly at this. "True," he considered. "Malfoy's probably already gotten a lecture on sexual assault by now," he laughed, and then sobered. He still glared at Scorpius and said, "Doesn't let you off the hook. You tried to use my cousin to make my sister jealous—"
Rose, though accustomed to her family's off-handed but hurtful comments about the difference between her and Lily, was still hurt by their words. It was like they thought nobody would ever want to date her just because they wanted to date her. It was like they all expected her to become a spinster.
Rose swallowed. What could she say to that? Who would rather snog her rather than Lily, anyway? She was the neurotic control-freak and Lily the beautiful princess—quite literally, what with being Uncle Harry's daughter and all. Her wand quavered a bit and she lowered it. "Hugo, James," she said between gritted teeth, "Shut up." She pointed at the rest of them. "Leave me alone, all of you," she said, trying the best she could to not let her hurt show.
"Relax, Rosie," James said, in a tone he probably thought was kind, but she thought was condescending. "We're just joking about the lectures." He looked wearily at her wand, which she had bravely raised again. "I suppose we can always deal with him some other time—"
"Fuck, just stop talking!" Suddenly Scorpius was yelling vehemently. James looked infuriated, Al exasperated, Hugo irritated, and the rest of them primed to attack.
"Listen to yourselves for one fucking second!" Rose had never seen Scorpius, who was reluctant to get violent even on the Quidditch pitch, this angry in her life. Rose decided that Score was crazy while staring at him in shock, trying to tell him to shut up with her eyes. "You claim you love Rose. You claim you want to protect her from me," Score was shouting, "But what the bloody hell does she have to worry about from me, when she's got you lot breaking her heart every single fucking day?"
"Shut your mouth, Malfoy, you don't know what you're saying," James said sharply, wand poised to attack.
"Yeah? D'you wanna bet your sorry ass, Potter?" Scorpius demanded, holding his own wand high. "I was prepared to take whatever crap you lot were going to give me, if you were giving me crap for Rose's sake. I was going to let you tear me from limb to limb, but I won't let you tear Rose apart, not anymore," he said. Uncle Harry would be proud of Scorpius's hero complex.
Rose looked at him in shock. She had never thought that anybody else noticed the way that her family's behaviour hurt her. Deep in her chest, her heart thudded wildly as she realized that Scorpius most definitely loved her. If he was willing to stand up to a bunch of her family because he thought they had hurt her, he was either psychologically disturbed or deeply in love with her. Or both, really.
"What are you talking about, Scorpius?" Al demanded loudly, although Rose could see the apprehension and unease dawn in Al's perceptive eyes. He glanced at her guiltily, as if he knew that Scorpius was right, and turned back to Scorpius.
Her family looked jittery now, the whole lot of them murmuring amongst themselves. Al, James, and Hugo were in a semi-circle around Scorpius, who was still yelling at them. Fred, Roxanne, and everyone else were gawking at Scorpius and whispering to each other. Rose stood beside Scorpius, her wand pointed at Al and James.
"You people all act like Lily is some priceless, shiny gem that every single person wants to steal from you—and maybe she is. Fine, whatever, you can protect Lily and put yourselves in denial about the fact that she doesn't need your protection at all. But Rose—you all ignore Rose unless you need help with your frigging homework!"
Hugo and Al exchanged anxious glances and James looked infuriated, but they stayed silent. Suddenly Scorpius pulled her towards him, arm around her waist almost possessively. She was glad that he had the courage to say the things to her family that she was afraid to say. She always thought they'd laugh at her, but they weren't laughing at Score. He kept talking, "And you know what? I did it too, I ignored her and refused to open my eyes, almost until it was too fucking late to do something about it—but at least I did. Haven't you all thought that maybe Rose needs your support, your stupid idea of protection, more than Lily? Haven't you all thought that maybe she minds all your stupid little comments, the ones that you think are so funny but in reality are just little darts to throw at her? Haven't you ever considered the fact that Rose is the only reason you lot aren't failing Charms or Potions or Merlin knows what, or the fact that Rose is the one who covers for you when you go out and do stupid stuff you don't want your parents knowing about? Haven't you all realized how much worse off you'd be without her? Haven't you thought about the fact that you owe her a lot, that you should all shut up about how amazing Lily is and tell Rose that you appreciate her sorting out your crap for you?"
Scorpius finally stopped talking. Her family fell into a tense silence and stared at him. His arm tightened around Rose's waist and he turned to her with a brilliant smile. "Anything you want to add?"
She blinked. "Um." She turned back to her family, who were, despite their careless comments, still her family. She loved them and she knew that they loved her. "Well," she said uncomfortably, looking at her shoes. "Score is being…harsh--"
"No, I'm not," he said sharply.
"Well…" she paused and looked at Al, who gave her a wane smile and nodded, surprisingly, in encouragement. She took a breath. "I guess it would be nice if you didn't act like I'm an old spinster…" she said quickly and turned away so that she wouldn't see their reaction. They all stayed silent, so she never looked. She felt lighter all of a sudden and smiled at Scorpius, who beamed at her. He started to walk towards the castle and she followed.
"I guess we're done here," she murmured quietly. "D'you want to see the Head Tower?"
Scorpius looked at her incredulously. "Do you need to ask, Rosie-Posie?" he asked her. His smile was so bright she beamed at him. They left her family gaping.
A/N: Review, everyone! Please vote: Rose and Scorpius...to shag or not to shag in the Head Tower? ;)