I'd like to thank Words of A Feather, Veronique Ruthven, potterphilsosepher, Loonaticslover13 (for ALL your reviews), ErisedFeather, Rayven49, Jampaqd, Guardian54 (still lol'ing) and tiffc10 for reviewing. You guys are awwwwesome! :D I'd also like to thank my beta, rokslite!

"Scorp?" Rose called, knocking on the door leading to the boy's Fourth Year dormitory.

She moved back as the door opened and Scorp stood there, looking blankly at her.

"Did you need something?" he asked and she frowned, pushing past him.

"Don't be a git, Scorp. Al didn't mean it," she said. Scorp leaned back, folding his arms over his chest.

"I'm not being a git. He was," he said calmly, and Rose got her first up-close glance of the face that Scorp showed everyone else in the world. This cold, distant boy wasn't her best mate. This was a stranger.

"Scorp," Rose said, softly, her brows furrowed.

She watched as there was a silent battle in his eyes before he sighed, relaxing, his eyes softening, changing from steely silver, to the grey she knew and loved.

"He's still a git," he said, making his way over to where she sat on his bed and moving to lean against the head rest.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"We all know this. He sends his apologies but doesn't want you to punch him."

"I wasn't going to punch him," he said, grumpily, but when Rose continued to look at him he sighed and added, "hard."

Rose shook her head at him, moving to hug him. She felt him stiffen a bit but when she tightened her hold, he relaxed into it.

"Now tell me about Lorcan," she said, settling against his side. He frowned at her, but huffed in acquiescence.

"He asked me how to start a conversation with a girl you fancy," he muttered, blushing.

"And?" she asked, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"And nothing. I told him I was the last one he should be asking and he just ran off," Scorp said, shrugging.

Rose frowned, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze of support.

"You shouldn't put yourself down like that. I'm sure you'd be a wonderful boyfriend."

Scorp snorted and said,

"I have no romantic tact."

"Yes, well, I can help you with that," she said, pulling away and grinning at him.

He eyes her suspiciously.

"I don't want you match-making, Rose Weasley."

Her smiled dropped into a scowl.

"I wasn't planning to, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy."

He leaned his head back, keeping his gaze on her, grinning.

"I like how you say my name."

She felt her cheeks go slightly pink, but she shook it off.

"Now pretend I'm a girl," she said and he snorted.

"You aren't? I'd have never known," he said, laughing.

The scowl was back and deeper this time.

"As I was saying, pretend I'm a girl that you fancy."

Scorp's easy smile dropped at once.

"N-no, I don't think I will," he said, sitting up, stiffly.

"Come on, Scorp, I'm willing to help you here! Pretend you fancy me! How would you start a coversation?"

Scorp watched her, uncomfortable.

"Hi," he said and she nodded, enthusiastically.

"Great start. So here I'd respond in kind. Now, what else?"

"How are you?" Scorp, asked, fidgeting with his clothes, unsure of himself.

"Fine. And yourself?" she asked, with a flirtatious little smile. Scorp froze, never having had that smile aimed his way before.

"F-fine," he said, swallowing past the blockage that appeared in his throat.

"What else?" she asked, grinning.

"Do you like... chocolates?" he asked, glancing around the room, his eyes falling of Al's pile of chocolate frog cards.

"I do," she said, leaning forward slightly and batting her eyelashes.

Scorp stared at her, slightly entranced, before realising his mouth was hanging open slightly. He snapped it shut and said,

"Me too?" in a very unsure way.

"Be confident, Scorp," Rose said, concernedly, reaching out to squeeze his hand. He wiped it on his pants, realising suddenly, that his palms were very sweaty.

"What's your name?"

Rose snorted at that.

"Very original. Rose Weasley. And yours?" she asked, tilting her head slightly, making her hair fall over her shoulder in a red cascade that snagged his gaze.

"S-Scorpius," he said, still staring at her hair.

"Scorp, you're never going to get a girl this way," she said, frowning at him. "If you can't even flirt with me, then what do you expect to do when you meet someone you actually fancy?"

"Stutter at her like an idiot," he said, his head falling back, smacking against the wall.

"Well that's cute at least," she said, laughing, moving to sit next to him once more. She took his hand into her own once more and squeezed, understandingly.

"Now say something funny," she added, leaning against his shoulder once more.

"Something funny," he said, dryly and she laughed. Scorp smiled, gently. He could listen to her laugh all day.

"If you act with a bird the way you do with me, she'll fall in love with you in no time," Rose said, hugging him close. Scorp's eyes darted down to her, but she had had already looked away, her eyes focusing on the door of the dormitory. There stood Al, his expression apologetic.

"Did Rose calm you down? Or are you still going to clock me a good one?"

Scorp sighed, leaning his head back.

"If I was going to hurt you Al, I'd just do it in your sleep."

Eyes wide and terrified, Al glanced at his bed, next to Scorp's, horrified.

"I wonder who's the girl Lorcan fancies," Rose whispered and Scorp glanced at her, incredulous.

Did she really want to talk about that while they were collecting bobutuber pus?

When they had entered Herbology class, Neville had already been there, waiting, a line of pots, containing what seemed to be large, thick, black slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil, behind him. They were squirming slightly and had numerous large, shiny swellings upon them, which appeared to be full of liquid.

Scorp recognised them from the illustrations in his textbook, almost immediately.

"Bubotubers," Neville said, with a smile. "Today, we are studying bubotubers. As you can see from the size of the swellings, they need squeezing."

"In today's class," he continued, "You will collect the pus-"

"The what?" exclaimed a girl from Slytherin.

"The pus, Miss. Phergell. The pus. It's an excellent remedy for the most stubborn forms of acne. Now, this is extremely valuable, so please don't waste any. You must wear your dragon-hide gloves since undiluted bubotuber pus does strange things to the skin. You can collect them in these bottles," he added, gesturing to a line of bottles on his desk.

They were currently arms deep, squeezing the bubotubers and Rose wanted to talk about Lorcan.

"I don't know. Maybe she'll be just as loony as he is and they can be forever happy together," Scorp said, irritably, squeezing a swelling and watching as a large amount of thick yellowish-green liquid burst forth. As he caught it in his bottle, he wrinkled his nose. The pus smelled strongly of petrol.

"Don't say that, Scorp," Rose said, frowning at him, collecting the pus from her plant as well.

He sighed, rolling his eyes, but actually considering the question.

"The only girl I've ever heard him talk about is Lily," he said with a shrug. Rose glanced at him quickly.

"I certainly hope it's not Lily," she said, sharply.

Scorp frowned at her.

"What's wrong with it being Lily?" He rolled his eyes, mimicking her voice, "He's a perfectly lovely boy, who just needs a few mates." He even did a rather feminine hand gesture. "Don't think he's so lovely now when it's your cousin, then?

Rose scowled at him, her lips twitching into a smile.

"You're a right git, Scorpius. I do not sound like that. That's not what I meant, anyway. Lily already fancies his brother. I'd be disaster-bound," she said, shaking her head.

Scorp's eyes widened.

"She fancies his brother? Is he just as bad as Lorcan?"

"No. Remember I told you Lorcan isn't anything like Lysander? Lorcan is... strange. But Lysander is as normal as one can get. He's even on the Quidditch team. Don't you remember him? He's a Beater," she said.

Thinking hard, trying to remember if there was a blonde Beater on the Gryffindor team, Scorp furrowed his brows for a moment, before his expression cleared.

"Blimey, I remember him. He doesn't look like his brother, though. Doesn't wear a dandelion hat, at least," he said with a shrug.

"They're identical. But Lorcan wears his hair a bit longer," Rose seemed to ponder this, "Probably forgets to cut it, actually," she said, shrugging.

"I don't really see the resemblance," Scorp said, scowling as he squeezed another swelling.

"You've never seen them together, then. But Lysander's a lot more open. Smiles more. He's a terrible little prankster," she said, smiling as she shook her head. "James and Fred are considering taking him under their wing."

"Well let's just hope that won't happen," Scorp said, wrinkling his nose as he collected pus.

"I just hope it isn't Lily. She'll break his fragile little heart," Rose said.

"Don't go all romantic now, Rose. Focus on the pus," Scorp added, rolling his eyes.

"Why am I not a part of this conversation?" Al asked, leaning over.

"She's being a bird," Scorp said by way of explanation and Al nodded, understanding, going back to squeezing his bubotuber's swellings.

"Wait, but isn't Lysander Lily's best mate?" Al asked as they explained their conversation on their way out of Herbology.

"Yeah, but all the good relationships come from mates, anyway," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

Scorp and Al turned to stare at her, waiting for an explanation.

"Mum and Dad," she said, checking a finger off on her hand, "Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny," she ticked off another finger, "Vic and Teddy," she held up another finger, "Al and Alice," she said, pointedly and watched as her cousin flushed with colour.

"Maybe you're right," Al said, shrugging.

Al sat on his broom, his eyes scanning the pitch. He watched as Rose blocked the Quaffle from entering a hoop and gave a small internal cheer. He looked at the other players, not as good as he wanted them to be, but doing well for their first match.

He shook his head as one of his Beater's missed the Bludger aimed at one of the new Chaser's. He was relieved when she dodged it, swerving slightly on her broom and still holding onto the Quaffle as she sped towards the opposing goal posts. Scorp caught it as she tossed it his way and threw it directly into the right goal. Al grinned, giving another internal cheer.

He thanked Merlin he had those two to count on. Without Rose and Scorp, he didn't know what he would do.

He took once more to scanning the pitch, knowing that if they were to win, he needed to get the Snitch before the Hufflepuff Seeker.

When he noticed a glimmer of gold on his left, his gaze snagged on it. The Snitch hovered above one of his Beater's shoulder. Aiming directly for it, he shot forward. The opposing Seeker, all the way across the pitch, didn't stand a chance. The Beater saw him speeding towards him and panicking, flew out of his way. As Al snatched the Snitch out of the air, he held it up, grinning.

They had won.

"I don't think you're supposed to be here," Rose said, laughing as Alice shrugged and grinned at her.

"I don't reckon they're supposed to be here, either," Scorp said, gesturing with his thumb towards where Al stood with James and Fred. He watched in amusement as the two brothers and Captains hugged.

"They're here to congratulate him," Rose said, grinning. "Since it was his first match as Captain and he won."

Her eyes narrowed, competitively.

"I hope they remember this win when we face off on the pitch."

Scorp rolled his eyes, letting his neck loll backwards on the sofa.

"I think I'm off to bed," he said, stretching.

"Don't be an old man, Scorp," Rose said, grinning at him.

"That's my line," he said, narrowing his eyes at Rose who shrugged, innocently.

"If the boot fits."

Sighing, he resigned himself to staying in the common room.

"So do you have any plans for Christmas, Scorpius?" Alice asked, politely.

"I do. Al, Rose and myself will be going to my house for a few days. Then, we're going to the Burrow for New Years," he said, a little suspiciously.

"That's nice," she said, obviously trying to make conversation.

Scorp eyed her for a few moments more before Rose frowned at him. He sighed before asking,

"Would you like to join us?"

Startled, Alice stared at him.

"Me?" she squeaked, unsure.

"Yes," Scorp said in a slightly irritated voice and saw Rose glare at him again. He took a deep, calming breath before he continued, "It'd be great if you could join us."

Rose beamed at him, reaching over to squeeze his hand.

"Thank you," Alice said, sincerely and he nodded, "I'll ask my parents."

She really was starting to grow on him. Much like a fungus. Or a tumor.

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