scorpiusoc, cheese
requested by BlueGemini
Scorpius wishes he still only knows her because she is a friend of Rose. The two seem to be forever giggling in corners, acting remarkably like infants for two girls who are usually pretty sensible. They are quite similar, really, Scorpius thinks. Both avid readers, both loud-mouthed - but where Rose is forever sticking her foot in her mouth and being inadvertently insensitive and saying the most ridiculously cheesy things because she thinks they'll be romantic, Clara Longbottom is very tactful and diplomatic and Scorpius doesn't know how she does it but she always knows the right thing to say. No matter what. It's like she's got a magic touch where she can just fix arguments by knowing what to say at exactly the right moment. The number of times she's patched his and Rose's friendship up after one of their fights is absurd.
But she's just a friend, that's all. Honestly. He doesn't think she's pretty in the mornings when she's overslept and her long dyed hair's all rumpled on one side. He doesn't find his gaze on the back of her head in Divination when he snaps out of a daydream. He doesn't watch her when she's reading, studying the way her lips mutter the words at a ferocious speed as her eyes flick from side to side of the page. He doesn't get himself into detention just to be with her. He doesn't watch the Muggle films he hears her and Rose chattering about in the corridors between lessons. And he most definitely doesn't dream of her at night and wake up aching, false memories playing in his head of the way her hair smells and the way her eyes cloud over when he touches his hand to her cheek. He just doesn't, okay? Doesn't. N't. It would embarrass his father if he fell for a Longbottom, it would infuriate his Head of House, Professor Longbottom. It would piss off Rose if he made a play for her best friend, and it would probably bring down the wrath of both other Longbottom siblings if he went after their sister (and since Alfie Longbottom is good friends with Hugo Weasley, only dangerous pranks could come of that). And, most of all, it would break Albus' heart if his best friend went after his girlfriend.
Scorpius sometimes thinks, in the dead of night when his guard is down and the other Gryffindor boys are sleeping, he thinks that maybe it could be good, if he went after Clara Longbottom. She and Albus could break up so Albus could admit to his feelings for Scorpius' cousin Chloe. Rose could accept, finally, that she and Scorpius are never going to be what she hopes and maybe take a second look at Tristan Edgemoore, who comes to all her Quidditch practices to cheer her on. And Clara - Clara would understand that boys can be interested in her forher, not just for better grades in Herbology or Professor Longbottom on their side to get them out of detentions. Boys who want her for the way her eyes shine when she's reading in the lamplight, boys who tease her tenderly about the way her dark eyebrows don't match her silvery dyed hair, boys who'd take her to all the Muggle salons she wanted to get her eyebrows done if she wanted. Boys who'll read aloud to her when she can't sleep at night and help her improve her poor grades by studying patiently with her. Boys who'll run their fingers lightly over skin to get her soul singing, boys who'll love her for all that she is and nothing less. Boys like Scorpius Malfoy.