Chapter 21 – Rumours

"What the hell have you done?" Lily Potter demanded, slipping into the seat next to Scorpius. He had deliberately come down to breakfast later than usual so that he could avoid seeing Rose. Only a few students remained, and now every head was aimed in his and Lily's direction. Somebody from the Hufflepuff table wolf whistled.

"Not now, Lily," he hissed at her.

She looked almost as angry as Rose had done last night. This was clearly the Weasley genes coming out in them both.

"Last night was the perfect moment for you to get to know her better. You should have kissed her like Serephina said."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, detention is a real romantic situation to be in, and I think what Serephina actually said was 'make out.' I can't believe the two of you were spying on us."

"Well, it was all going fine until we left," Lily replied icily, narrowing her eyes. Scorpius was fed up of redheads being angry with him... "You need to make things better with her. Woo her – send her another rose – ask her out on a date, I don't care, just win her back!"

"She's not interested in me winning her back, Lily. I never had her in the first place, anyway."

"Well, then you better pull your act together and make her interested."

"FORGET IT!" Scorpius roared, standing up from the table, finally losing it. "I'M DONE, LILY. THERE NEVER WAS ANYTHING BETWEEN US AND THERE NEVER WILL BE!"

Everybody in the hall was muttering as they watched Scorpius' rage.

"You don't have to act so stubborn," Lily retaliated calmly, folding her arms as if to demonstrate her point.

Scorpius flung his bag over his shoulder, ready to storm out of the hall, despite the fact that all eyes were on him. As a final comment he yelled, "I DON'T NEED ADVICE FROM SILLY LITTLE FIRST YEARS!"

"I'M IN MY SECOND YEAR!" she snapped, finally losing her temper with him.

Scorpius didn't look back as he strode away. Lily overheard a Slytherin whispering to her friend a few paces away from where she stood, shaking with fury. "Did they just break up?"

"Good news," Janey squealed, as she entered the Gryffin-Girls room that evening, ready to tell them the daily gossip. Gwen, Taylor, and Rose just stared at her with bored expressions.

"It's about Lily and Scorpius," she added, staring pointedly at Rose. Rose tried not to look interested, but her heart had chosen to beat fast of its own accord at the mention of his name.

"Go on then, Janey," Gwen sighed, watching the small blonde girl bob up and down with excitement, bursting with information.

"They broke up!"

"They were never together," Rose said quickly.

"Well, okay then, but according to the rumours, they had an argument in the Great Hall this morning which sounded a lot like a break up."

"What do you mean?" Taylor piped up.

"According to a Slytherin girl he stormed out of the hall after yelling at her, 'There never was anything between us and there never will be.' Sounds a lot like a break up to me."

"Are you sure that he was talking about her?" Rose asked quietly.

Janey merely shrugged. "Who else would he have been talking about?"

But Rose did not answer, because she was afraid of the answer. It all fit together. Scorpius had promised her that he and Lily were not dating, and so had Serephina, and she believed them. But it was not unlike Lily to go and question him. After she'd caught the two of them spying on them in the library, she realised how obsessed Lily and Serephina were with this prophecy, and the idea that only her and Scorpius could bring peace between the families.

And if Lily had really gone to question him at breakfast then it was very likely that what he'd said had been about Rose. There never was anything between us and there never will be. So it really was true. She meant nothing to Scorpius Malfoy...

The next week was unbearable for Scorpius. Students were taunting him about his breakdown in the Great Hall, teasing him about his dramatic breakup with Lily, no matter how many times he tried to explain that he and Lily had never been dating in the first place.

But that was not what was bothering him. All he could think about was Rose Weasley – the forbidden girl. The girl who now despised him for a number of reasons. What if she was so mad at him that she told Professor Bobbin about the Forgetfulness Potion? He would be expelled for sure. His parents would kill him if he got kicked out of Hogwarts. Could the Ministry arrest him for something like that?

And students were still gossiping about Rose's bizarre hug after the Quidditch match. Scorpius was getting a bad reputation. Rumours about he and Lily, and he and Rose, were spreading wildly. People couldn't be sure which redhead he was going for. The fact that they were cousins and both in different houses to him made it all seem much worse.

Scorpius kept his thoughts to himself. He couldn't risk seeing Albus for fear of what he'd say about Rose and Lily. Family was more important than friendship, right? At least that's what his mother had always told him.

He mostly spent his time in the library. He could spend hours there, silent and undisturbed. And of course there was always the hope that Rose would be there. But she never was. It was as though she knew he would be there and was deliberately avoiding him.

Neither Lily nor Serephina had approached him since the Great Hall incident, for which he was grateful for, but he felt so alone. There was nobody he could talk to. Nobody would understand. Not his parents, or Albus, or Professor Bobbin, or anybody. It was truly unbearable.

All he knew was that he needed to see Rose again. If he could only talk to her; he could tell her the truth about how he had not meant to imply that she fancied him, but that it was he who liked her. But there was no way she would ever believe that after he'd been making her forget him for four years. Even to himself it didn't make sense. But he was a Slytherin and a Malfoy – determined and cunning. He would not back down without a fight. And so he formed a plan.

It had been exactly a week since Rose had discovered the letter from Draco Malfoy to her mother, and stormed out of the library. She couldn't bear to go back to the library; It would only remind her of Scorpius, and the humiliation she'd felt that night.

Janey, Taylor, and Gwen were on her left as they marched down the corridor in pursuit of their next lesson. It had been Janey's idea for the Gryffin-Girls to travel in a 'wall,' as a means to look intimidating, and to protect Rose from the gossipers in the corridor. Her little stunt at the Quidditch match was still a hot topic. And it worked. Anybody who knew the feisty attitudes of the three girls would never dare to make any comment to Rose if she was constantly with them. It made her feel reassured and it made her feel protected.

It was in this way that they were walking through the corridor when it happened. The corridor was busy, as it always was at change of lesson, and Rose was walking in the middle of the corridor with the others linking arms with her to her left. It was bizarre, but it was how they travelled now. It was so busy in that corridor that nobody even noticed them.

A busy flow of students were travelling in the opposite direction, often knocking into Rose as they barged past. It was rather inconvenient for four girls to be walking down the corridor side by side, but Rose did not point this out to the others. She liked that they were trying to protect her.

They had very nearly reached the Transfiguration classroom they were headed for when time seemed to go in slow motion, for Scorpius Malfoy had just rounded the corner, and was travelling down the corridor towards her. Rose couldn't breathe.

He was alone in the sense that there were no fellow Slytherins with him, but there were so many people in the corridor that he blended in as merely another boy in the crowd. The other Gryffin-Girls had not even seen him. Rose was panicking now, watching as he drew closer and closer.

He was simply going to pass her – that was all – but this was the closest they'd been since a week ago, and she wasn't prepared to see him yet.

And then he lifted his head and they locked eyes. He looked at her meaningfully, but she didn't understand what he was trying to convey to her. Don't be ridiculous, she thought to herself. Scorpius Malfoy did not have anything to say to her, it was all just in her head. But he was staring at her far too intently. It was unnerving, yet she couldn't look away.

Scorpius was still getting closer – any moment now and they would pass each other. Rose held her breath, ready for the impact. He looked away as he passed her, his shoulder brushing hers lightly as he passed, and his hand pressing into hers for just the slightest of moments.

Rose clasped her hand around the piece of paper that Scorpius had just pressed into her hand. A note? It had been such a small movement that nobody had even given them a second glance. Her grip tightened protectively and she pocketed the piece of parchment.

That evening as Rose returned to the common room, with a quick glance over her shoulder beforehand, she unfolded the piece of paper with shaking hands. There were only a few words scrawled on the parchment – slanted and untidy, as though they'd been written in a hurry.

Quidditch Pitch, Tonight, Eleven O' clock