Rose Weasley liked hugs.
Hugs were friendly. Hugs were affectionate. Hugs could make you happy.
Rose hugged people when she was happy. She hugged people when she was sad. Especially when she was sad.
It was a particularly nasty day for her. She had overslept and missed breakfast, dashing into Arithmancy just seconds before the bell rang. A minute later, she found out that the had forgotten her homework, which had kept her up most of the night, in her dorm. She felt like tearing her hair out. At least Professor Vector was sympathetic and told her to turn it in during the lunch period. Things could have gotten much worse.
And things did get much worse.
It was a rainy, muddy kind of day, but her herbology class outside in the greenhouses was not cancelled. Having forgotten her umbrella, she cast a charm over herself but still managed to get her feet soaked. Her class was assigned to pull out yesug-cacti, which apparently were poisonous and could be only removed when it was raining and the ground was soft. When pulling out a particularly stubborn one out of the ground, she fell, getting her skirt and cloak muddy as well. Go figure.
When she trudged in for lunch, muddy, sweaty, and quite drenched, she found out that there was every kind of sandwich available except her favorite kind, Turkey ranch. Merlin, this was not possible. She grumpily chomped on a chicken ranch instead and headed over to Defense Against the Dark Arts, hoping that at least the last double period of one of her favorite classes would be able to cheer her up.
They had a hands-on lesson that day. Professor Wilkins assigned them to practice the shield charm. Hexes were being thrown right to left. She had just let her defense down when something hit her on the back, making her knees go weak.
To her horror, she began laughing as her sides began to tickle. She couldn't breathe. She desperately wanted to stop. She felt tears coming out of her eyes and her face turning purple. When Professor Wilkins finally lifted the jinx for her. She fell to the ground, clutching her sides, taking large gulps of air. She felt worn out. To say that Rose was in a bad mood that day was an understatement. She felt like a soggy marshmallow.
Rose trudged through the halls feeling tired of everything. She jumped up in surprise when she felt somebody sling their arm around her shoulders. She looked up. Scorpius looked down at her.
"What's up, Rose?" He asked playfully. He seemed to be in a good mood. Rose just shook her head slowly. Her day had felt terrible. She felt like crying. She shook her head harder, trying to shake away her thoughts.
"Seriously, what's wrong?" Scorpius had stopped walking. He turned her around to face him. Rose didn't want to let him see her crying. She looked down at the floor.
"I just had a really shitty day," she choked out. She held her arms out.
Rose half expected him to ignore her. He usually avoided her hugs. To her surprise, he pulled her in for a hug, patting her back. He smelled like soap. Leaning into him, she felt her anxiousness ebb away.
Hugs were nice, especially the ones from Scorpius.