A/N: I hope everyone is keeping safe and well in these weird and uncertain times. Hopefully some ScoRose can bring a little slither of sunshine into our respective lockdowns. Big love to you all.
Usual disclaimers apply.
The Rumour Mill – Chapter 9
A week ago, if anyone had told Rose that she'd be kissing (read: snogging the life out of) Scorpius Malfoy, the bloke she had essentially loathed for the best part of a decade, she would have had them committed straight to the Janus Thickey Ward for Permanent Spell Damage at St Mungo's without further ado. As it turned out, however, they would have been spot on the money with such a prediction, and all she had to say for herself was why on Earth had no one told her to snog him silly sooner?
As the green flames of the Floo leapt up to lick around her ankles and the familiar rush of air whipped her curls from her shoulders, all Rose was truly aware of was the weight of Scorpius' arms draped around her waist, the brush of his stubble against her cheek and the unholy sweep of his tongue as he begged for entrance at her lips.
Eyes tightly shut to keep out the soot – basic Floo travel tips 101 – Rose trailed a hand down the front of his shirt, fingers lingering purposefully over his belt buckle, and revelled in the low growl that escaped him. Scorpius coiled his arm more tightly around her waist, pulling her flush against him, and refused to relinquish his claim on her mouth. Gods, the way his tongue toyed languidly with hers, teeth nipping gently at her lower lip as his fingers brushed teasingly over her hipbone. It made her wonder what other particular talents he might possess and that she might be able to look forward to, as soon as they made it back to the privacy of the flat.
As lost in him as she was, she failed to even noticed when the wind stopped blowing and the shimmering lights of the other Floo points on the network stopped blurring past them. She was vaguely aware that Scorpius was moving them, still entwined, trying to angle her out of the fireplace. Rose's only response was to tighten her grip on his hair. She felt him grin against her lips, chuckling softly, and the next thing she knew she was being lifted – her thighs instinctively wrapping themselves around his hips – as he attempted to manhandle her towards the bedroom.
That was when they heard the woeful sob emanating from the couch in the middle of the living room.
They froze – Scorpius coming to a sudden stop where he stood, his hands on her bum keeping her upright, and Rose's lips halting their current trail along his jawline. Eyes flying open; alarmed grey on horrified blue. In an instant, Scorpius released his hold on her and she crashed, ungracefully, into a heap on the carpet. That was the least of her concerns, however, as when she scrambled to sit upright and turned to face the apparent intruder, she was struck by two thoughts: the first, that the burglar must have brought with them a new couch, because that certainly wasn't there earlier that morning. The second, that the body lying prone on said couch and with his face mashed into a pillow was not, in fact, a burglar at all, but her long lost roommate and cousin, Albus Potter.
Rose and Scorpius stared, chests heaving – first at Al's seemingly lifeless body, then at each other. Talk about a bucket of cold water; Rose had to clench her teeth to stop her crying out in frustration. Helga's tits, she cursed, if only she hadn't been so insistent on leaving the Manor, she could have been getting shagged to within an inch of her life on a bloody snooker table right now. The only silver lining, it seemed, was that her cousin had failed to even notice them arriving, never mind with their hands all over each other, lost as he was in whatever mental anguish had finally driven him to go furniture shopping.
Scorpius was the first to regain his senses. "Er… Al?" he cleared his throat, wiping a smudge of Rose's lipstick from his mouth and quickly readjusting his trousers. "Everything alright, mate?"
Albus finally looked up from his pillow, frowning at the sight of his best friend looking unduly flustered, and his cousin, still in a simpering pile on the floor at his feet.
"Don't mind me, just tripped," Rose muttered, batting Scorpius' proffered hand away and climbing shakily back to her feet. "Al, we didn't think - …I mean, I didn't think you'd be home. Not that this isn't a lovely surprise but what's… er, what's going on?" she subtly tugged the shoulder strap of her dress back into place.
Albus let out another wail and squashed his face back into their new couch cushions. Rose couldn't help but notice that the latest addition to their sparse furniture collection was a hideous, bright mustard yellow colour (a suspiciously similar hue to the Falmouth Falcons home kit), but felt now wasn't the time call him out on it. After all, beggars can't be choosers and he also appeared to be having some sort of existential crisis.
"Potter, you're worrying us," Scorpius frowned, surreptitiously undoing the earlier work of Rose's wandering hands and doing up his shirt buttons, "tell us what's happ –,"
"I asked Emily to marry me and she said no!" came Albus' fabric-muffled yell.
Rose and Scorpius stared at each other, slack jawed, for a moment and then exploded simultaneously: "You did what?!" "Bloody Hell, mate!"
With another mournful groan, Albus flopped onto his back, staring desolately up at the ceiling. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Oh, Al…" Rose muttered, softly, her face stricken. "When did this happen?"
Albus shrugged loosely, as if time no longer held any meaning for him. "Few hours ago? Yesterday, maybe. I don't know."
Rose shook her head and rubbed her eyes in frustration. Her cousin had done some idiotic things in his time, she could testify to that almost better than anyone, but proposing to a girl after a week?! But then, as Scorpius had rightly pointed out, this thing between Albus and Emily Longbottom could have been going on for far longer than either of them had realised.
She felt Scorpius shift beside her and was momentarily distracted. Her lips still tingled from all their earlier ministrations, and when she glanced over at him and saw the heated flush still colouring his cheeks, she felt her pulse flutter and her stomach swirl with unsatisfied need. Rose swallowed hard and looked away quickly. Now was definitely no longer the time.
"Right," she muttered after a moment, shaking her head to clear it of a variety of deliciously unwholesome images. "Scorpius, make yourself useful and turn on the lights -,"
"Eurgh, no!" Al's whine went ignored.
"- and then go and find us something to drink. There's Ogden's under the sink and ice in the freezer. And then, Albus Potter, you're going to tell us exactly what happened, every excruciating detail of it!" Adding, when Scorpius had yet to move after another half second: "I meant now, Malfoy! Move your arse!"
The dazed blond jumped into action and, a second later, the dreary living room had once again been thrown into light. Rose curled onto her knees on the floor beside Albus' head, vaguely aware of Scorpius now banging around in their kitchen cupboards. He wasn't crying, she noticed, but there was a look on his face that she'd never seen on her cousin before. Al was always the jovial one of the two of them, always the happy-go-lucky cousin. His face didn't suit the deep sadness it now wore; maybe he had been more serious about this than she'd realised. Maybe Scorpius had been right and he and Emily were… or had been… in love? That was something Rose had to admit she wasn't familiar with, wasn't really adept to deal with.
She gently brushed some of his unruly black hair from his forehead. "We can fix this," she murmured gently. "Whatever's happened, we're going to fix it, I promise. If that's what you want."
Albus didn't say a word, just looked at her mournfully. They finally got him to sit up and make room for them all on their – frankly revolting, Rose was privately furious – new sofa when Scorpius returned with the emergency bottle of Ogden's Finest and three glasses. Rose was fairly sure that more alcohol was the last thing she or Scorpius needed at this point, given their evening so far, but raised her glass in solidarity all the same. It took about three shots worth of the potent amber liquid to get Albus talking, but when he did, it was hard to get him to stop. Rose and Scorpius sat at either end of the sofa – their mutual best friend between them – eyes growing wide as he filled in the blanks about his clandestine relationship.
As it turned out, Albus and Emily had crossed paths almost four months previously. Rose had practically snorted her drink out of her nose at this admission: four bloody months! Al had never been able to keep a secret before even if his life depended on it – he was widely regarded amongst the cousins as the weak link when it came to hiding information of any sort, and wasn't even allowed to help plan surprise birthday parties owing to his general inability to keep his mouth shut. How in Helga's name had he managed to keep up a secret relationship for so long, and right under their noses?! Rose was well and truly gobsmacked.
Albus claimed he had come to the Auror Department one day in February looking for Rose, intent on dragging her out for lunch with him, when he'd bumped into her friend. Although he and Emily had seen each other now and then over the years at the usual parties, or whenever Rose had brought her along to something, they'd never properly got talking and certainly hadn't spent any time alone together. Apparently, Rose had been nowhere to be found on this particular Tuesday and so, feeling uncharacteristically bold, Albus had asked if Emily had any lunch plans, instead. From that day on, they'd started seeing each other a few times a week for coffee, which turned into dinner one Saturday evening, which had then turned into going home together. After that it had become a blur of stolen moments: any spare evening, every weekend they were free was spent together. At one point they'd even gone on holiday; Albus had told everyone he was training with the Falcons and Emily had booked the time off work to supposedly visit her parents (Rose let out a strangled huff at that – she'd had to cover Emily's extra shifts that week and could distinctly remember the suspicious tan her friend had sported on her return).
When they'd accidentally crossed paths on that fateful night out the previous week, Albus – having had one too many drinks already – hadn't been able to resist making advances, and had to convince Scorpius that he was witnessing him finally pull the girl of his dreams for the very first time.
"What I don't understand is why you didn't just tell everyone?" Rose furrowed her brow, trying to fathom her way through the duplicitous saga that was apparently her cousin's love life. "Everyone would have been thrilled for you, you daft sod."
Al shook his head. "That's exactly the problem, Rosie! Our family… well, they can be a bit much. Look how everyone reacted at just the idea of you and Scorp getting together." Rose shifted uncomfortably, unable to resist shooting a glance towards the other end of the couch. Scorpius was suddenly very busy staring at the nearest wall. "I didn't want that kind of scrutiny for Emily and me. I knew it was something special, I had to…protect it, or something, I don't know. Just for a little while."
"You could have told us at least, mate," Scorpius finally spoke up, gesturing between himself and Rose. "I mean, you let me believe that night in the pub was practically the first time you'd seen each other since Hogwarts, for Salazar's sake." He was frowning, and Rose was surprised to see he looked genuinely wounded. She had a sudden urge to reach over to him, lace her fingers with his, and had to physically sit on her hands to stop herself.
Al had the good grace to look rather abashed at that. "I know," he muttered, taking another deep slug of his drink. "I should have told both of you. Everything just happened really fast."
Well, Rose could certainly empathise with that. Instinctually, she glanced over at Scorpius again but found he was still purposefully avoiding her gaze.
"You honestly expect us to believe that there was never a good time in the last four months to tell us that you had a girlfriend?" the blond man grumbled. His jaw was set, his scowl dark – he was nothing short of brooding, in fact, and Rose's skin responded by erupting in a prickly heat.
"Al, tell us about the proposal," she cut in, more to distract herself than anything. She didn't imagine it would help her cousin's delicate psyche if she climbed over him to jump his best mate's bones, no matter how much it might help hers.
Albus groaned miserably and let his head flop back against the cushions. "I'm such an idiot," he muttered.
"Yes, you are," Scorpius sulked at his end of the couch. Rose shot him a dark look, although she secretly had to agree.
"I didn't really plan to do it," Al raked a hand through his already dishevelled hair. "It's her birthday next week and I just wanted to give her something special. She likes antiques, vintage things, and Dad's always going on about how much old stuff he keeps finding in the family vault so I asked him to send over some things…"
Rose had a sudden recollection of Lily turning up at her door with a plate of flapjacks and a bag full of assorted knick-knacks only that very morning. She'd been so distracted by the presence of a certain person, who happened to make delicious French toast, that it hadn't even registered as weird.
"He didn't know why I was asking for them," Al continued, "but there was a ring amongst all the stuff he found and the idea just popped into my head. So, I went over to her place, I asked…. and she said no." He blinked, falling quiet. The look on his face nearly broke Rose's heart.
Scorpius was suddenly on his feet, his own drink in hand as he began pacing across the rug in front of them. "Okay, so we've established that you're apparently an absolute moron -,"
"Malfoy! Have a little compassion," Rose hissed but he waved her off, dismissively.
"- because no one in their right mind proposes to a girl before they've even once had dinner with her parents. That being said," he paused to drain the dregs in his glass, "she is also clearly an idiot -,"
"Oi!" Al bristled from his place on the sofa.
"– Because no one in their right mind says no to marrying my best mate. Not to mention the fact that she's obviously besotted with you. And I'm not just saying that because the pair of you have evidently lost your minds, running around like a pair of lovestruck teenagers for four months –,"
"Merlin, you have to let that go, Malfoy," Rose rolled her eyes skyward.
He rounded on Al, then, finger pointing almost accusatorially. "I saw the two of you together, that night in the bar, remember? You were your usual shit-show self after three pints but she couldn't get enough of you. At the time I thought she must be drunk or had maybe had a recent lobotomy, because it seemed so unlikely that anyone could find your joke about the troll, the goblin and the centaur that walk into a bar even remotely funny –,"
"Compassion, Malfoy," Rose reminded him, pinching the bridge of her nose and fighting against the grin forming at the corner of her mouth. "Do you even know the meaning of the word?"
"My point is," Scorpius flashed her a half-hearted glare, "that she clearly loves you, Potter, you utter buffoon, and I know this because the two of you looked like you'd been hit with a Confunding charm from the moment you set eyes on each other. It was actually pretty disturbing, to tell the truth."
Albus was staring up at his friend in bewilderment. "Er, thanks… I think?"
"I think what Malfoy is trying, and failing spectacularly, to say," Rose shook her head in exasperation, turning in her seat and taking hold of Al's hand, "is that Emily might not have said 'no' because she doesn't feel the same way, but because it was just too soon. Four months -," Scorpius let out another huff of indignation somewhere behind her which she pointedly ignored, "– really isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. I bet you just surprised her."
Albus didn't look convinced.
"I could talk to her, if you'd like -," she offered.
"No!" Albus stared at her seriously. "Absolutely not. I just…" he shook his head and grabbed for the bottle to top up his drink. "I just need some time to get my head straight. If I'm lucky, I'll self-combust out of sheer humiliation before I ever have to see her again."
Scorpius snorted; Rose rolled her eyes. "You don't mean that," she gave him a nudge. "You're in love, you great prat, remember? Spontaneous combustion is hardly conducive to a meaningful relationship."
Albus cracked the smallest of lopsided grins at that. "Thanks… both of you. Although you could try being less of a git when your best mate's dying of a broken heart, Malfoy, just for future reference."
"Duly noted," Scorpius grinned and tipped his glass towards him. Rose rolled her eyes.
"I do have a question, though," Albus frowned thoughtfully at the pair of them. "Why are you two dressed like you've just been to the Yule Ball together?"
Rose blushed furiously as she tried to find an explanation for her presence at the Malfoy's Summer Gala that didn't make it obvious that she was lusting after her cousin's best friend. Luckily, Scorpius stepped in, somewhere around her fifth or sixth 'erm'.
"Well, you were apparently busy asking random women to marry you," Scorpius smirked as Albus groaned at the reminder, "so I had to drag someone else along to help me woo the masses."
"Bugger," Al grumbled, "I love the galas!" He turned on Rose, excitedly, "Did Flimsy make you one of her dirty martinis? They'll make you forget your own name if you're not careful. I could do with one of those right now, come to think of it."
Rose took that as her cue to try and steer her tipsy, love-forlorn cousin to bed. As pleased as she was to see the idiot distracted from his near-marital woes, she didn't much fancy answering any more questions about her evening with Scorpius at the present time. Especially considering that the extra few glasses of alcohol had done nothing to erase her memory of what it felt like to have his body pressed against hers, his tongue in her mouth, or his hands sliding over her thighs beneath her dress.
Once she'd managed to get Al safely tucked into bed, promising that – first thing in the morning – she'd help him fix this no matter what it took, she escaped back to the living room. Letting her head rest against his closed bedroom door, Rose allowed herself a moment to process her rollercoaster of an evening. More like a whole week of madness, she thought to herself. Things that she'd held as constant for as long as she could remember – like Albus being a sworn, blabber-mouth bachelor, and her own deep-rooted dislike of his toe-rag of a best friend – were all starting to come apart at the seams.
"So…" The familiar drawl snagged her attention just as she was about to mentally unravel. Rose glanced across the room to find Scorpius standing in front of the fireplace, hands in his pockets, still looking delectably dishevelled and watching her carefully. "Looks as though there'll be plenty to talk about at your next Sunday lunch. Are you alright?"
Rose let out a long, slow sigh, "I'm fine," she muttered, arms folding loosely across her chest as she moved further into the room. She stopped in front of him, just out of arms reach. "I don't know how we didn't see it. It's Albus, we should have known something was going on -,"
"We did," Scorpius shrugged. "We were just… distracted," he grinned, ruefully. "Besides, you're forgetting that he's a Slytherin. If he really doesn't want you to know something, you don't get to know." She watched his face contort into a frown again, evidently still smarting about being kept in the dark like everybody else.
Rose chewed on her bottom lip. Despite their earlier activities, she suddenly felt awkward around him. She was unsure how to act; they'd crossed a line that she hadn't even realised existed between them and now they were in a strange sort of limbo. She supposed it was abundantly clear to him that she fancied the literal pants off him, and was apparently more than willing to let him have his way with her, but the moment for such things had also well and truly passed. So where did that leave them?
They made to speak at the same time: "I should probably go -," "You could stay, if you -," Rose blushed furiously and looked away. Scorpius raked a hand through his hair leaving it jaggedly askew.
"I mean, I could stay if you -,"
"No! That is, you're right. You should probably go." Rose stared at the carpet, her cheeks still burning. Albus' low snores began to rumble through the thin wall between them.
"Right," Scorpius rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly. "I'll stay the night at my parents and be back first thing… For Al," he clarified, when Rose looked at him questioningly.
She blinked, stupidly, "Yes, of course. You're a… good friend, Malfoy." There was a pause whilst an internal battle raged between her desire to drag him into her bedroom and the sudden exhaustion that was threatening to overwhelm her. "Well, goodnight, then."
Scorpius stared at her for a long moment, just long enough to make Rose feel incredibly self-conscious, before he quickly closed the distance between them in two long strides. Rose felt a jolt run through her at the thought that he might be about to kiss her again, only regaining the ability to breathe when, instead, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly into his chest.
"Goodnight, Weasley," he murmured into her curls, planting a chaste kiss on her forehead.
They stood like that for what felt like a very long minute before Scorpius disentangled himself from her rigid arms, stepping into the fireplace without so much as a backward glance. Rose stood in the empty living room, watching the green flames flicker and die in the grate, Albus' snores the only remaining sound beside the pounding of her heart. Sweet Helga, she realised with a shaky sigh, she really was an absolute goner.
.
