Chapter 21- A Winter Sky

Disclaimer- Harry Potter is not mine so please do not sue me.

"Here you are Rose," Darren announced loudly, as Rose finished her breakfast, causing most of the people in the room to turn and look in her direction. Including James, who proceeded to make kissy faces at her until she gave him the dirtiest look she could muster. Darren continued with his announcement, a large smile on his face. "I know this is kind of late but here is the Valentine's gift that you picked out in Hogsmeade."

Rose took the small jewellery box from Darren's hands and opened it to reveal a pair of 2KT diamond studs, embedded in white gold backings. In other words, they were very expensive. Rose felt a lump of guilt form in her throat. Since she was too much of a coward to break up with Darren, he was now buying her a few hundred dollar pieces of jewellery in order to punish her without him even realizing it.

"Darren you really shouldn't have bought these," Rose responded honestly. "They were bloody expensive."

"I'm aware," Darren replied in a much lower voice, "but you're worth it Rosie." Before Rose could argue that she definitely was not worth it, Darren leaned down and proceeded to kiss her soundly on the lips, earning several wolf whistles from people in the crowd. It took Darren several seconds before he pulled away and Rose was far too confused about her feelings to say anything back. For some reason, Darren took her lack of words as a good sign.

"I have to get to class Rosie," Darren said tenderly as he stood up from his seat. "I hope to see you wearing those the next time I see you." He then reached out a hand and tucked some of her dark red hair behind her ear and quickly kissed her on the forehead before racing off to his class with his friends, who began to make fun of him for his grand display of affection in front of everyone.

Rose stared gloomily down at her toast; her appetite quickly vanishing. She was possibly the worst Gryffindor in the world. The fact that she didn't have the guts to break up with a guy she had only been dating for about 3 months was just sad and what was even sadder was that there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. Rose could even say that her dating him had made him a better person and for all she knew, if she were to break up with him, he may revert back to being a giant slime ball.

"Hey Rosie," Alice said brightly. "Do you want to come back up to the common room and do some studying with me and Dave?" Rose really wasn't in the mood to be hanging out with the cutest, happiest couple in Hogwarts so she decided to decline the offer.

"No thanks Alice," Rose replied sadly. "I'm going to go to the washroom to put these on and then I need to go for a walk. I really need to clear my head."

"What's wrong Rosie?" David asked worriedly.

"Nothing life threatening," Rose reassured standing up from her seat. "I'll talk to you two later."

Rose stared miserably at her appearance in the bathroom mirror. It wasn't that she looked bad or anything but every time she looked at her appearance all she could see was a nervous wreck with giant diamond earrings.

Not only was she stressing about how to break up with Darren but now she was freaked out over the fact that there was an escaped murderer on the run who was possibly smart enough to, at some point, get into Hogwarts, where he would immediately go after Nora. And was anyone looking for the psycho. Nope.

After she had sent a letter back to Teddy asking him what the auror's at the ministry were doing to look for Darius, Teddy had responded with a letter saying that only two auror's were guarding Hogwarts on weekends and one auror had been given the case file so that he could look at it and judge if it was a good idea to look for Darius.

Rose was very tempted to send her uncle Harry a strongly worded letter on the matter but she knew if she did, she might run the risk of getting Teddy in trouble for even telling her that Darius was on the loose.

Rose turned away from her appearance in the mirror and hopped up to sit on the bathroom counter. While she was thankful for answers on what had happened to Nora last year, Rose was having second thoughts about finding out about all that had happened without Nora's permission. She shuddered at the idea of Nora finding out about her snooping in her past but Rose was pretty sure it was in her genes to go peeking into other people's business. After all, that was why her parents were constantly getting themselves into life and death situations for all 6 years they were in school and the one year they were living on the run.

Rose sighed and looked out the large glass window at the end of the row of stalls. While she knew there was nothing she could do about Darius, she did know that it was definitely her job to break up with Darren. But to be honest she had no idea how to do it and there was really no one she could ask for advice. Al was more depressed and irritable than ever after something intense happened during his detention with Nora, Alice and David were too happy to see anything negatively, Nora only seemed to talk to Malfoy now a days and Andy was about as useful on the subject of breaking up with someone as a 10-year old pickle.

Rose heaved yet another sigh and hopped off the bathroom counter, walked past the row of stalls and went through the door into one of the many ancient stone hallways Hogwarts had to offer. Rose pulled her cloak around her body and wrapped her red and gold scarf snugly around her neck as she made her way down the hall and out onto the grounds. Snow still remained on everything you could possibly set your gaze upon, however, it was now warm enough to be able to go outside without freezing.

Rose breathed in the fresh air greedily. It was odd how silent the world seemed during the winter. Some people found the silence disconcerting but Rose found that she rather enjoyed the peace and quiet. Especially when she needed to do some much needed thinking. Rose turned her eyes towards the sky, as if hoping that some sort of higher being had written her a message of advice in the blanket of grey clouds above her head.

How does anyone tell a guy that while you enjoy all the attention that he may shower on you and the outrageously expensive gifts he gives you, that you are no longer attracted to him enough to feel really anything when he's snogging your face off. Rose huffed loudly in indignation and averted her eyes from the sky to the nearest bench. Trying her best to not get her feet horribly wet, Rose trudged her way over to the bench and with a quick flourish of her wand, cleared the snow away so she could sit down.

Exactly how was she the one who always got herself into situations where the outcome of the events that stemmed from that problem never really led to anything good? Knowing her, she would probably keep her thoughts bottled up until sometime in the Great Hall during dinner Darren would ask her to pass the peas and then she would blurt out for the world to hear that she was breaking up with him. Or he would eventually figure out that her lack of enthusiasm while snogging him was because she was no longer attracted to him and he would become angry and dump her. Then leading to pitying looks from the rest of the school and a lifetime of being known as the girl Darren dated but dumped like every other girl he ever had sex with. Oh Merlin! That could make everyone think he had had sex with her and that he dumped her because he got what he wanted.

"Ugh! Why does life have to be so bloody hard?" Rose exclaimed, staring up at the gloomy grey sky above her.

"I'm pretty sure the hard part only applies to certain people," a voice suddenly responded from behind Rose and she visibly jumped in fright before looking behind her to see Scorpius Malfoy standing only a few feet away from her.

"What do you want?" Rose snapped as she shot up from her seat and turned to face him.

"I'm avoiding Hallows and then I saw you sitting out here by yourself, so I decided to come talk to you," Scorpius replied.

"Why would you be avoiding Hallows?" Rose asked in confusion.

"Well I should be in divination right now but I decided to skive off class since I didn't feel like wasting two hours of my life today."

"Figures," Rose muttered.

Scorpius snorted at her reaction. "Just because you are unable to break a single rule Weasley, doesn't mean the rest of us don't enjoy living."

"I have broken rules before Malfoy," Rose responded in a matter of fact tone.

"Never seen you in detention before Weasley, so there really isn't any proof is there," Scorpius replied with a sneer.

Rose knew he was trying to rile her up, since for some reason, he seemed to enjoy doing it a lot. "Maybe I'm just smart enough to never get caught."

"True," Scorpius replied thoughtfully, "but I doubt it."

Rose huffed loudly in aggravation and sat back down in her seat. "You can go now Malfoy since I'm already sick of you." Scorpius laughed as he walked towards the bench she was sitting on and much to Rose's intense dislike, he sat down in the spot next to her. "I said you could go now, not come sit down beside me," Rose said irritably and Scorpius continued to smile.

"So what's making your life so hard Weasley? White didn't buy you big enough diamond earrings?"

Rose glowered at Scorpius. "There is no way you could help me with my problem Malfoy because you..." Rose trailed off as she began to realize something. Hadn't everyone always said that Malfoy was dating Zabini out of obligation? That meant that he was also dating someone he wasn't really interested in but Malfoy just had the unfortunate problem of dating someone really disgusting.

"Weasley? You okay?"

"You may actually be able to help me a little," Rose replied eyes narrowing in his direction. "Especially since none of my friends or family are really useful for helping me with this problem."

Scorpius seemed slightly taken aback that Rose was willingly asking him for advice but he tried to play it off as much as possible. "So what do you want to ask Weasley?"

Rose smiled slyly. "Have you ever wanted to break up with Zabini?"

"What?" Scorpius asked in astonishment.

"Everyone says that you're just dating her out of obligation, so I'm guessing you've probably thought of breaking it off with her a few times," Rose explained as Scorpius gaped at her.

"I haven't really thought about it that much Weasley," Scorpius spluttered. "Why the hell do you want to know about whether or not I've thought of breaking up with Zabini?"

"You have thought about it though," Rose replied, trying her best to keep Scorpius confused. "You just said so."

"Wha-?" Scorpius replied in confusion.

"So how would you break up with her?" Rose asked quickly, hoping to get a quick answer out of him before he caught onto why she was asking such random questions.

"I don't know. I'd tell her it was over," Scorpius replied uncertainly. "But once again why do you care about how I would break up with Tatiana."

"Just curious," Rose replied innocently.

Scorpius remained confused for only a second longer before that look was shattered by a smile of realization. "Really, you're just curious."

Rose didn't like that look. That was the look of a person who had just figured out exactly what another person was talking about. "Yes I'm just curious."

"Right," Scorpius drawled sarcastically. "Just getting ready for the day you have to toss White to the curb."

"Maybe, maybe not," Rose replied, looking anywhere but at Scorpius.

"You know something Weasley," Scorpius said, "you didn't look very happy today at breakfast when White gave you those two giant diamonds. In fact, you almost looked a little guilty."

"I don't know what you're talking about Malfoy," Rose said as innocently as possible turning to look at him. "I love these earrings and it was a very nice gift from my boyfriend."

Scorpius scowled at Rose's choice of words, something Rose did notice. How odd? Scorpius scowl quickly went away and was replaced with a look of glee. "What girl wouldn't love to be given expensive diamonds earrings. However, you didn't mention that you loved your boyfriend," Scorpius replied with a smirk. Rose's eyes widened and she quickly stood up from her spot on the bench.

"Didn't I?" Rose said, trying to make up for her mistake.

"Nope," Scorpius replied with a large smile and he too stood up next to her. Merlin he was tall.

"Well I best be going then," Rose announced suddenly and began to walk away from Scorpius.

"Hey Weasley," Scorpius called out.

"What is it Malfoy?" Rose called back, not bothering to stop walking and look behind her.

"I wonder what White would do if he found out you were planning on breaking it off with him," Scorpius replied and Rose immediately stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at Scorpius grinning broadly a few feet away from her.

Anger began to well up in the pit of Rose's stomach and she reluctantly made her way back to Scorpius who continued to smile broadly. "You will not tell him anything Malfoy," Rose threatened, now standing right in front of Scorpius and looking directly into his eyes. Unfortunately she had to look up quite a bit to be able to do that, so she didn't look as scary as she would have liked.

"Mhmm," Scorpius murmured. "I wasn't planning on telling him anything. It's highly unlikely that he would listen to me."

"Then why did you just threaten me?" Rose asked in confusion.

"I just wanted to get you back over here," Scorpius admitted casually.

Now Rose was really confused. "Why?" she asked warily.

"Why do you want to break up with White?" Scorpius asked.

Rose snorted. "I'm definitely not answering that."

"You do know that once you dump him people will think he was pressuring you into having sex with him."

Rose gave Scorpius an offended look. "He is not pressuring me to do anything."

"I thought so."

"But you just said-?" Rose said in bewilderment and Scorpius interrupted her mid rant.

"I was just clarifying that what I've been thinking all along is right," Scorpius responded in a bored voice.

"And that is?" Rose asked irritably.

Suddenly Scorpius' eyes seemed to lock Rose in place and she couldn't help but notice how much his eyes resembled the winter sky. In fact Rose was noticing a lot of things. She noticed that while her father always told her that Scorpius' father wore his hair slicked back, Scorpius wore it naturally and there would always be a section of hair that hung down in front of his left eye that he would constantly be seen pushing back with his hand, just for it to fall back into place again. He had shockingly pale skin but not to the point where it made him look sickly but almost angelic when paired with his light blonde hair. Rose didn't want to admit it but Scorpius was definitely very attractive. Scorpius seemed to notice her lack of words and he smirked before moving his head closer to her face. "I always thought that you were never attracted to him," he answered in a serious voice.

Ding! Ding! We have a winner. But Rose was too flustered to deny or confirm Scorpius' suspicions. Rose watched wide-eyed as Scorpius' face moved closer to hers, the expression on his face far more serious then it was only a moment before, and his hands came up to rest on either side of her neck as Scorpius rested his forehead against hers. Rose felt like she was about to have a heart attack her heart was beating so quickly. While Scorpius' eyes were closed as if he were taking a nap, Rose's eyes were wide open as, what felt like, bursts of electricity raced through her body. Why wasn't she pushing him away? Why wasn't she at least pretending like she had a boyfriend? Rose was trying to will her body to move away from Scorpius but she was failing miserably. She couldn't explain it but Rose felt oddly safe standing so close to Scorpius.

Luckily Rose's eyes were still open when she saw Scorpius beginning to move his face even closer to hers. Rose was not about to wait and find out what he was going to do, so she mustered up what little remnants of common sense she still had and finally said a few words. "Scorpius, please, don't. I'm dating Darren."

Scorpius groaned as he was brought back down to Earth along with Rose and he pulled away from her looking depressed and apologetic but he kept his hands in their place around her neck. "Sorry," he muttered in a raspy voice, doing his best to look anywhere but at her face.

"Scorpius I-," Rose began, trying to find the right words and he lifted his hands quickly from around her neck as if he had just been burned.

"I think we should stick with last names only Weasley," Scorpius replied in his normal emotionless tone. "Once again, sorry about that. I don't know what came over me."

Rose wasn't sure why she was so angry that he was apologizing to her but she was. "Right," she replied in a mocking tone. "I have no idea what came over you either. Thanks for all the advice Malfoy," she spat angrily.

Scorpius finally seemed to have composed himself enough to be able to look her in the eyes and all Rose saw was a completely different person. "You're welcome," he replied in a cold voice.

Rose just shook her head as she walked past Scorpius to try and clear her thoughts of the new layer of confusion that had just been added. She had felt something she had never felt before when she had just had a small amount of contact with him. Rose looked behind her to see Malfoy staring up at the sky. Rose looked up as well and shivered, swiftly averting her gaze to look ahead of herself as she quickly walked into the castle. It was eerie how similar his eyes were to a winter sky. A winter sky could be considered mysterious, sad, calming or distressing. Qualities that Scorpius possessed more than any other person Rose had ever met.

A/N- ScoRose fluffiness!!! You have to love those two together and how conflicted they are. I'm well aware that I am a horrible updater and I will try to be more punctual in the future. Please read and review. Toodles!! :)