Year 1: Studious Success

Chapter 10: June 2018

Before Rose knew it, exams were upon her. They didn't creep up on her, exactly. She'd known they were coming. And yet, as she headed into her first one on Monday morning, she was sure that she wasn't prepared.

"Albus I can't," I insisted, pulling her best friend's arm and tugging him away from the entrance to their history of magic classroom. "I can't, I need to study more."

"You don't need to study," Albus insisted. "You've studied plenty."

"I'm not ready," Rose insisted, shaking her head. Her stomach was in knots. She'd never felt like this before and she hated it.

"Why are you so worried?" Albus asked. "You know you're going to do great. You're at the top of our class."

"But I – " Rose faltered. Albus was right. She was at the top of their class. And yet she was still terrified at the though of having to take this exam.

It was one thing to take an in-class test, or write a paper, or learn a new spell or potion. It was another thing to take the end-of-year exams. There was so much pressure, so much riding on the outcome of this one test. Rose knew she wasn't feeling herself, and if she had an off day, she could mess up her entire course grade in the span of a few hours.

"Albus, I – "

"Cold feet, Weasley?" Scorpius sneered as he passed by, Hayley in tow.

Rose looked to Albus for assistance, but he was distracted, making moony eyes at Hayley.

"N-no," Rose replied unconvincingly. "Not at all."

Scorpius laughed. "And I thought you were going to give me a real fight for top of the class," he said.

Rose frowned as the fear suddenly began to seep out of her, to be replaced with anger and determination. Whatever pressure she was feeling to live up to her parents' expectations didn't matter any more. But Rose was not going to let Scorpius Malfoy have the satisfaction of thinking that he'd beat her.

"Go ahead, think that," Rose said, suddenly much more confident. "Let your guard down, it'll only make it that much easier for me to beat all your scores."

"You can't fool me," Scorpius declared. "I'm not falling for whatever mind games you're trying to pull on me. See you on the other side."

"You will," Rose agreed. "When they award me top marks and you get shoved to the sidelines."

"We'll see about that," Scorpius sneered, turning and heading into the classroom.

"I see you're feeling better," Albus commented. Now that Hayley was out of sight, her cousin was once again paying attention to his surroundings.

Rose shrugged. The fear was still there, but she could feel herself burying it, second by second, as determination took its place. Though Rose had spent the year trying not to let competition motivate her, she would lean into it now if it gave her the confidence that she needed to write this exam.

"Come on," Rose said, dragging Albus towards the classroom door. "Let's do this."

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As the first years filed out of the history of magic classroom three hours later, Rose listened as her classmates groaned and complained about the excruciating exam they'd all just taken.

"I can't believe he asked for specific dates," Curtis Higgins whined to his friends. "I memorized the years, but not the months or days."

"When it's that far back in history, what relevance does the actual date even have?" Richard Wright, one of Curtis' friends, inquired.

"And how is that kind of knowledge ever going to be relevant?" Allen Bones added. "Explain to me how it's going to be pertinent to me, when I'm training to be a Healer, to know the day and month of the duel between Emeric the Evil and Egbert the Egregious? Even memorizing the year seems a little unnecessary."

Just as Rose was thinking about jumping in and attempting to explain that it probably wouldn't be relevant to a Healer, but that that wasn't the point, Scorpius Malfoy sidled up next to her, his face smug.

"So Weasley, did you find that exam as hard as those Hufflepuffs over there?" he pointed at Curtis, Richard, and Allen. "Did you have trouble remembering your dates as well?"

"I certainly did not!" Rose sniffed, lifting her chin. "That exam was a walk in the park."

It was a lie. The exam had been tough, but fair. However, Rose felt confident that she'd still managed to ace it. Most of the exam had been a matter of couching up facts and dates that she'd memorized, and Rose had a pretty decent memory. Some of the more obscure dates had taken her some time to recall, but she'd still managed to finish the exam in plenty of time.

"If you say so," Scorpius shrugged. "I hope this doesn't make you overconfident. Wouldn't want you to choke on the next one."

As Scorpius walked away, Rose found herself frowning. What was Scorpius playing at? On the surface it sounded like he was heckling her, but actually he was spurring her on, encouraging her to do her best, and making sure that she was adequately prepared. When he'd seen her panicking before that first exam, why hadn't he just left her alone? If he had, she'd probably not have done as well. And why was he now reminding her to study? Did he want her to get a high score? Did he want her to beat him for top of the class?

But Rose didn't have time to think about Scorpius Malfoy. She had a transfiguration exam to study for.

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"What's that you've got there?" Scorpius Malfoy called out to her a few days later. She was in the Great Hall, re-reading her herbology notes before the exam.

"None of your business," she called back, without even looking up. She was starting to get used to this strange pattern of exchanges between the two of them.

Nearly every chance he got, Scorpius was calling her out, reminding her not to slack off lest he get a better grade than her, making fun of her, but in a way that only made her study harder.

"I hope it's your herbology notes," he responded. "Because I was up studying all night, and it's going to take a lot of revision to beat me today."

"What's that all about?" Rose's roommate, Nicole, inquired with a frown. "Since when are you friends with Scorpius Malfoy?"

"We're not friends," Rose scoffed, refusing to look up from her notes on the venomous tentacula. "He's just afraid I'm going to beat him out for top of the class."

"Well, you are," Nicole stated. "We all know you have the best grades. But this sounds like more than that."

"What do you mean?" Rose frowned, finally looking up to meet her friend's gaze.

Nicole shrugged and made a face. "Well, he's been paying you a lot of attention this week," she commented. "The other girls have noticed it too. When a guy pays attention to you like that – well it usually means they like you."

"Oh please," Rose scoffed. "Scorpius Malfoy hates me. I'm a Weasley. It's in our blood."

"Maybe it used to be in your blood," Nicole said. "But the war's been over for years, and the divisions that used to separate us are lifting. I think he might have a bit of a crush on you."

Rose wrinkled her nose. Scorpius Malfoy, have a crush on her? Gross! Scorpius Malfoy was a pathetic little imitation of his father: a mini-ferret, as her father liked to put it, though Rose was never sure why. There was no way Scorpius was interested in her. And even if he was, there was absolutely no way on earth that she would ever be interested in him, so it hardly even mattered.

"You're crazy," Rose declared, shaking her head at Nicole and turning back to her notes.

"Hey Weasley!" Scorpius called out then from across the hall. "I hope those notes come with pictures, because you'll never be able to tell the plants apart otherwise!"

Rose rolled her eyes as Nicole smirked at her. "You were saying?" Nicole said smugly.

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There was no way. No way at all that Scorpius liked her in any capacity, let alone as a girl he might want to be more than friends with. Rose refused to even consider the idea.

Except that she was considering the idea. She was considering the idea when she should be focusing on her herbology exam.

She had to focus.

What type of soil is ideal for the spiky bush to grow in?

Spiky bushes. Rose forced her mind to focus on her notes about spiky bushes. Spiky bushes were capable of shooting their spikes at people. Rose recalled then that they were also capable of leeching the contents of their soil into the spikes, which was why it was not recommended to grow spiky bushes in acidic soil, or else the spikes could become acid spikes.

Rose wondered if Scorpius knew the answer to the question.

No, Rose reminded herself. This was not the time to be thinking about Scorpius. Not while she was writing her exam. The only capacity in which she should be thinking about him was in the capacity that she was going to beat him.

Rose glanced over at Scorpius, wondering what question he was on, but he was too far away to tell.

Rose shook her head. She had to stop this. She couldn't be trying to peek at other students' papers, Professor Longbottom would think she was trying to cheat. As if she needed to cheat.

She penned an answer to the spiky bush question and moved onto the next.

What if Nicole was right? What if Scorpius was interested in her? He had been paying a lot of attention to her recently. Much more than usual, that was for certain. Rose wondered what had changed. Or had it simply been him who had changed, or rather, his feelings?

Though his comments were almost always outwardly negative or veiled in harassment, the sentiments behind them were actually positive. Was it possible that he was trying to encourage Rose? Could he have seen that she was struggling and was now trying to help her get through her exams? And if that was the case, how did Rose feel about it?

She'd certainly never considered Scorpius Malfoy as anything more than someone to beat in classes. He and Albus had a great deal of animosity going on over Hayley, but Rose got the impression that Scorpius' relationship with Hayley was more brotherly than romantic in any way. But Rose had no real quarrel of her own with the Slytherin boy.

Focus, Rose had to focus. She shook her head, trying to shake Scorpius out of it. Bouncing bulbs: she was supposed to be writing about bouncing bulbs.

Scorpius wasn't that bad looking. In fact, if Rose thought about it, he was actually kind of good-looking, for a twelve-year-old that still had to grow into his looks. But compared to the other first years, he was definitely on the better-looking end of things. Rose couldn't say that she didn't sometimes like to look at him for a minute or two when he wasn't paying her any attention.

But she could say the same for a lot of guys in her year. That wasn't exclusive to Scorpius.

Only, Scorpius was the only one who'd shown interest in her so far.

Rose groaned. She was writing an exam. She needed to focus. Bouncing bulbs. She was supposed to be listing ways to handle them without them bouncing away.

Rose took a deep breath and decided that she couldn't allow herself to be distracted now, while exams were going on. Once they were over, when she'd finished the final one, only then would she let her head explore the possibility of possibly befriending Scorpius Malfoy. For now, she had to remain single-minded.

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After exams were over, there was a week before the first years would receive their grades back. And while most of the students either fretted over their results, or spent their days trying to forget that the results were coming soon, Rose finally allowed herself to contemplate Scorpius' recent behavior.

She'd talked to Nicole and the other girls about it again, the evening after their last exam, and they'd given her plenty of examples to prove their point. The only real question remaining was whether Rose wanted to pursue anything.

And after a week of agonizing over it, Rose decided that she did.

There was no reason for Rose to hate Scorpius Malfoy. Just because her parents didn't like his parents, it shouldn't mean anything for her. Scorpius was smart, good-looking, good on a broom. Rose didn't really know all that much else about him, but she decided that she'd like to know more. Maybe they had something in common and maybe they didn't, but it would be a disservice to herself not to find out, right?

So, the day before the exam results were released, Rose went in search of Scorpius.

She found him in the potion's lab. He was attempting to brew an herbicide potion.

"You know exams are over, right?" Rose asked, stepping into the room and surprising Scorpius a bit.

"What do you want, Weasley?" Scorpius sneered in his usual way.

"I wanted to talk to you," Rose replied, letting the derision roll off her back. This was just Scorpius' outward way. It would fade away, once they started really talking. "I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?" Scorpius frowned. "For what?"

"Your help, on the exams," Rose said. "I never would have made it through them without you constantly reminding me that I had to do my best if I was going to beat you."

"Well that certainly wasn't my intention," Scorpius muttered, turning back to his potion.

"Wasn't it?" Rose insisted, stepping closer.

"What are you talking about, Weasley?" Scorpius groaned.

"I'm talking about how you saw that I was stressed and you figured out what I needed to get my confidence back. Competition. You gave me competition," Rose stated.

"And why would I do that?" Scorpius demanded.

"Well… because you care about me," Rose said, confused by Scorpius' tone.

At that, Scorpius laughed, and Rose stepped back, as if she'd been burned. "You think I was trying to help you?" he demanded. "I was trying to help myself. I'm the one that needed the competition. I knew that if I was going to be able to focus on the exams and do my best, I needed to know that you were doing the same."

"You mean – you weren't trying to help me?" Rose frowned.

"Trust me, if I'd known you were nervous about the exams, I never would have said anything," Scorpius insisted. "Then maybe I'd have actually stood a chance of beating you. As it is – "

Rose felt herself turning red as she realized she'd misinterpreted the entire situation.

"Well," she sniffed. "You may still beat me. Exam results don't come out until tomorrow."

Scorpius shook his head. "I botched my potions exam," he declared. "Couldn't remember a thing about the herbicide potion. Left the entire section blank."

"Brewing one now won't change your grade," Rose pointed out.

"What do you care?" Scorpius demanded, looking up from his notes. "You're guaranteed top of the class now. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Yeah," Rose nodded stiffly. "Yeah, I guess it was."

She turned and left then, realizing that there was nothing left to say.

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Rose retrieved her exam results the next day, and to her delight, she had straight O's. Professor Longbottom informed her that she had indeed scored top of the class, with Albus pulling second place. Scorpius, it turned out, had managed to take the third slot, despite his less-than-stellar grade on his potions exam.

Rose spent most of the train ride home thinking about how she'd misjudged Scorpius. At first, she'd been upset with herself for letting Nicole and the other girls convince her that Scorpius had any interest in her at all. But then she started thinking about the boy that she'd talked to in the potions lab and realized that maybe, even if he had no interest in her, she still might have some interest in him.

He obviously struggled with insecurity or a lack of confidence, just like she had been. He came across as aloof and proud, but underneath he was just a boy trying his best. And when Rose thought about it, she realized that he didn't really have that many friends. Maybe she could be the friend that he needed, she thought to herself. When she returned to school in September, she decided she would try to reach out to him. After all, everyone deserved to have a friend.

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Rose's mother was overjoyed to hear how well Rose had done on her end-of-year exams. Her father was mostly disappointed that he hadn't received any letters home about Rose getting into mischief.

"Didn't you use any of those joke products I gave you?" Ron whispered to her when her mother and brother weren't listening.

Rose just rolled her eyes, but also found herself smiling. It was good to be home. These past couple of months had been so stressful, Rose was looking forward to a nice summer vacation.