Chapter 19: The Tea Party

HEY GUYS! First off, I want to apologize it took so long for me to update. I was in a writing slump, as well as working on a few personal writing projects. I tried very hard to make this chapter special. Please enjoy. I am also currently in the middle of Chapter 20 so that should be here shortly. As always, please comment to let me know what you think. I have been dying for some spicier scenes, but there hasn't really been an opportunity yet.

Several hours later, Alice stepped away from Rose's hair, her hands falling as the two of them looked on at their reflections in the armoire mirror. She had braided Rose's long, red hair in two streams framing her face, then left the rest combed and curled into neat waves. She stuck pearls to the braids, making them shimmer in the candle light like a mermaid's locks.

Alice let Rose braid her hair as well, folding it into an elaborate crown of wheat colored knots. Alice donned some pretty eyeliner and blush as well.

"You look marvellous, Alice." Rose commented. Alice's hand fisted her gown as she avoided her friend's comment.

"If you're ready, we should head out." Alice said, and although her words were calm, Rose could see her bubbling with excitement from within.

Alice had beckoned her to wear a tiny bit of makeup. A couple swipes of mauve lipstick and blush, as well as a dabbing of mascara. Rose didn't enjoy the sticky feeling it left on her face, but she supposed it would

She had never seen his eyes so glazed, so needy as they were now, behind the mask of silver molten metal that they usually were. Something was beneath them that hurt her internally. Scorpius had entered the corridor outside their rooms, dressed in his finest dress robes, which were finely crafted of a soft velvet black fabric and embroidered with the emerald Malfoy crest, the same emerald shade shone on Rose's gown.

The beads of the gown glimmered against the curves of Rose's breasts, held together into a tantalising pinch of cleavage only by the thin strip of fabric. Rose's gaze lingered on the soft sprinkle of freckles on the swell of her breasts, dipping down beneath her gown to where she knew her pink nipples lied, but the heavy emerald fabric covered them. Even still, her nippled hardened at his gaze, causing two peaks of slight texture to appear beneath the thick fabric of the gorgeous dress.

She didn't have time to think about what her skirts looked like, hanging off her ample ass, before Scorpius severed the heavy silence.

"Hmph." he uttered, locked on her in an impenetrable, chocolate gaze. "Take my arm?" he asked, his voice ringing her ears with authority she didn't know until now he could summon.

Rose wasn't sure what his words meant, but her pride swelled in seeing that she was obviously satisfactory to him. Long gone were the days of her clown gown, as he had called it, during the Yule Ball last year. This time was different, even if in an aesthetic, shallow way, and she couldn't help but smirk when she realised he was enticed by her. Since when was his affirmation important to her?

Perhaps ever since he made candles melt by her arousal.

Or perhaps it was his smooth, elegant hands, guiding her on the dance floor several times before, where she never expected them to be in the first place. She felt her chest constricting beneath the tight gown, and she moved to accept his arm. She couldn't quite explain why she did it, other than his commanding, glowing presence and his gorgeous dress gowns she so rarely saw him in. Perhaps it was her mother's insistent voice from the night before. "Get to know him," she asked of her daughter.

One of the few requests Hermione had ever made of her. Because the love of her parents was always given, never asked for, and yet she had spent the past five years at Hogwarts doing everything in her power to earn the approval from others. And Scorpius was one of the people she knew would never give it over without a fight.

She let Scorpus take her strongly in his grasp. He clutched to her like she was his property, and at first, Rose didn't feel offended by the notion. That was, until her brain started working overtime, and she realised she should probably say something about it —

"Oh! I knew you two would be going together. Rose, how did my dress turn out?" Shea was saying, having suddenly appeared in the doorway of the corridor between her and Scorpius' dorms. Her arms slinked down her dress, feeling the fabric in a tantilaxing manner. Rose looked at Scorpius, as if to assess if he was looking, but he was still locked in gaze with Rose's breasts.

"Are you ready?" Scorpius asked, his eyes only for her.

"As much as I'll ever be." She said quietly, avoiding his steely gaze long enough to quiet the sound of her beating heart.

They stepped out of the common room together, their friends prattling on lightly about each other's attire and how they were excited to dance. Rose began to feel awkward about how she let Scorpius hold her, and she began to move away from him once they were in the hallway, surrounded by centuries of cold dark stones of the castle.

As she broke away, Scorpius shot her a troubled gaze. "Why did you let go?" he asked.

"Well," Rose began, having no notion of the excuse she could give, "I just thought, it would be silly to traipse around like a couple…"

"Oh." Scorpius' glace snapped forward, and Rose watched as he masked his emotions, just like he always did, and his face became that of a stone soldier. "I didn't formally ask you to be my date, did I?"

Rose blushed furiously, although she couldn't summon why on earth the question was eliciting the reaction. "I–What?" she mumbled.

"Come to the party with me, as my date, Rose." Scopius repeated, showing her his hand, outstretched and palm up, all the veins in his sallow skin peeking through in the lamp-lit hallway. He watched her from under his platinum lashes, which appeared to glow with their unnaturally blond colour. "Please?"

Rose felt her heart quicken. Although in different circumstances, she would be half inclined to say yes, this was different. He obviously thought she looked nice now, and was asking her because of it. Normal Rose, the one in her woolly socks and plaid skirts, would not have been asked to the Tea Party by Malfoy.

So, she held her chest strongly, fixed her posture, and continued to glide down the hallway. She had to grip her hands rather tightly together to keep from taking his porcelain hand. "I think we both know that's not necessary, Scorpius." She said, trying not to show too much emotion through a hard expression.

Scorpius' hand fell so quickly to his side, she could have been mistaken he offered it to her at all. She felt a pang in her chest when he did so, almost as if there was an air of rejection in the air, but she knew the handsome boy would quickly get over any imagined offence she paid did not linger to see what else he would say, and she sped up her pace so she could walk with Alice and Shea.

The castle at night was unearthly. Everytime they passed a window, stars sparkled like lost diamonds from a crown. Their dress shoes clacked on the cobblestones of the hallways, and soft candlelight illuminated them like that of ancient portraits of fine ladies.

"Why aren't you walking with Scorpius?" Alice asked softly when Rose approached her.

Rose furrowed her brow. "Why would I be? He is not my date or anything like that."

Her friend shot a glance behind her. "Why not?"

A laugh escaped her lips, but she thought about the question. Why wasn't she? Because she thought he hated her no less than a week ago, and it was impossible to reconcile the thought now that…that it might not be so? "He asked me. To be his date."

Alice's eyes widened. "What the hell are you doing, then? It's just a date, Rose, it's not like you're marrying him or anything!"

Rose grumbled at the irony of the statement, then resisted the urge to look back at Scorpius. "I mean…it would just be for tonight. And if he wasn't a jerk, and he treated me well…that would be…however uncharacteristic, I assume I might enjoy his company. If his company was nice." she rambled, her hand toying with one of her loose ringlets.

Alice sped up then, obviously trying to hint that Rose should stop talking to her and go back to Scorpius. Rose's chest felt like it was flipping within, but eventually, she staggered her pace, in hopes Scorpius would catch up to her soon enough.

Eventually, he did, just as they were about to round the corner into the classroom which had been cleared out for the Tea Party.

"Did you have something to say, Weasel?" Scorpius said gruffly, not bothering to look at her as they strode side by side.

"I was just thinking that…well, you know why it would be ridiculous for me to accept being your date, right?"

"Are you trying to rub it in?" Scorpius said through gritted teeth. "You made your distaste for the situation quite clear already." He turned slightly, checking his appearance in an adjacent window.

Frustrated, Rose grabbed a hold of his fine jacket sleeve and yanked so that he was facing her. He stood up straighter, all six feet of him towering over her. "You're a menace." she hissed. "I would have liked to say yes, but I said no because you clearly only asked me because you saw me in this nice dress. It's like asking out a clown off-hours after the creepy costume is off. You flatter me as much as you'd like, but we both know I will return to dumpy Cinderella in the morning when our Prefect duties resume." She huffed once, feeling an immense weight lift now that was off her chest.

Scorpius did not respond for a moment. Instead, he turned away from her completely, walking towards the same window he had been checking his reflection in, pulling at the edges of his jacket slightly and exhaling as he did so. For a moment, Rose thought he was going to ignore her completely, but then he spoke, very quietly. "You wanted to say yes?"

She flicked an eyebrow up at him. "Maybe I did. But don't milk it, Malfoy."

A beaming smile, one she had never seen before, flashed across his face for a second, and then the stony facade of seriousness overtook it almost immediately.

She couldn't follow what happened next. One moment he was at the window, one moment he was not. His large, hard hands were reaching up along her jaw, his eyes were inches from hers, and his lips were so close that she would have had to kneel to see them.

"You think those horrid things about yourself?" He asked, his breath singing like a siren's song against her prickled skin. "There is no word for you that would describe you well enough. Angel, unearthly creature made of starlight and gold, resplendent woman, my saviour, goddess divine…"

His breath tickled, and his touch was making her tremble. But she couldn't help but let a nervous giggle escape her. It rolled into something like a cough. "I've read Pride and Prejudice too, Malfoy–"

His eyes were searching her adamantly. Feverishly. His hands didn't know where to touch in order to soothe their wanderings.

"Attention, please!" A sharp cry jolted them away from each other. Rose snapped her limbs to her sides, having not even noticed that her hands had started to creep up to touch the heat of where Scorpius was wandering. Her neck burned with the memory of him.

Professor Tulis was standing outside the classroom, and although she couldn't see Rose and Scorpius, she was calling all of the students who hadn't yet entered the Tea Party. Rose gulped and tried her best to casually glide away from the window. Scorpius, much to her horror, was right alongside her, not leaving her side for a moment, and clearly trying to grasp her attention again by lightly gripping her elbow.

The room was stunning. Red, yellow, green, and blue banners hung from the rafters, beautiful bouquets of wild thistle and magical flower assortments lined the tables. In vases all around, magically lit sparklers were used in lieu of candles. On each chair lay a wand made entirely of chocolate, wrapped in a rice paper as thin as a rose petal. The Prefects, students, and guests stood in a huddle before the tables, admiring the decorations for a moment.

The dance floor was cleared of any rugs or debris. A single record player was propped at the end of the hall, with two stone statues guarding said music player. With a flick of her wrist, Professor Tulis pointed at one of the stone figures, and it jumped to life, spinning a record in it's hardened hand. It moved to the record player like a real man and started to play a gorgeous lilting classical tune. Tulis bowed to the character, then turned to face her students.

"Everyone, please take a seat at your respective house table. Students from Shanghai, you may sit wherever you'd like."

They sat, taking their places at respective House tables, with the males across the table from the females and the guests sitting wherever they could find room. It seemed as though Zhao felt a special connection to the Gryffindors, because he sat next to Scorpius. Yin, the girl with the freckles, sat next to Rose. They picked up the chocolate wands and placed them on their plates, admiring the beauty of the decorations for a moment before talking quietly amongst themselves. Professor Tulis used her wand to make a dozen or so boiling pots of tea hover in the air, and then pour into the cups in front of the students. She notified everyone that the tea was a special flavour, Cherry and Jasmine, but if they wanted dessert tea later, all they had to do was stir the chocolate wands into cups of boiling water and a lovely drink would be made.

Yin blew on her cup, then nudged Rose slightly with a shoulder. "Rose, I am excited to hear about your betrothed. Zhao was just telling me before we left."

Rose sucked in a breath, irritation mingling on her as she remembered how specifically she'd told Zhao Scorpius was not her betrothed. She was about to protest, but when she lifted her eyes to look at Zhao sitting next to Scorpius, she was distracted by the way the boy from Shanghai leaned to whisper to his friend, Qi. Qi simply shook his head in response, and then looked pointedly at Scorpius.

But Scorpius wasn't paying attention to them at all. At first, he looked into his cup of tea, and then he lifted his eyes to Rose and stared at her. She felt her cheeks heat at the thought of him surveying her so closely, and leaned down to look at her cup like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"What is your favourite class to study, Rose?" Yin asked her then.

Rose cleared her throat. "Well, Charms is interesting to me, but honestly, I much prefer Transfiguration."

Yin merely nodded, and then Malfoy interrupted their conversation with a remark. "Rose just enjoys anything she can control." He smirked.

Rose shot a glare across the table. "That isn't true, Scorpius." She snapped, setting her tea down on the saucer with a clink. "Besides, in this turbulent world, there is no shame in taking joy from predictability."

Qi spoke up then, his low voice hard to hear over the sound of tinkling plates and murmurs of conversation. "I actually agree with the red-haired girl."

Scorpius' steely gaze turned dark as he took Qi in with a judgemental glare. "Her name is Rose." He said, clattering his cup down on his saucer as well. "You would do well to call her that."

Rose snorted. "Feeling possessive are we?" She asked Scorpius icily. "You're the only one who is remotely allowed to insult me. Except your insults are evil, foul things. You're the worst of the bunch."

The Malfoy boy's response was quicker than a whip. "Tell me, what other way was I supposed to get the smartest girl in Hogwarts attention? Flattery wouldn't work, I had seen many boys try and fail with you. You don't notice much of anything besides the book stuffed at the end of your nose. But you noticed me."

The fact that this conversation was happening now, here, in front of all their classmates and the Shanghai students, was almost enough humiliation to make Rose fall back in her chair. On top of it, Scorpius was insinuating that boys tried flirting with her all the time, and she turned them down. This was simply untrue.

She made eye contact with her friend Alice, whose eyes were wide as if she could find nothing more interesting than the conversation unfurling before her.

Her chest heaved, and although she knew her cleavage was probably quite visible, she didn't care. She had to set the record straight. "I have had one boyfriend my entire time at this school, Scorpius Malfoy, and you ruined it!"

Scoprius looked like he had just walked into a candy shop. His eyes glittered as a smug smile roved over him.

"Good."

The table lept into silence. All Prefects stared between Rose and Scorpius, and some of the Shanghai students tried to sheepishly look into their laps, while others laughed into their napkins.

Professor Tulis strolled in the room again, holding her wand once more as she hummed a little tune under her breath. Well, at least Tulis hadn't heard that embarrassing conversation. "Everybody up!" the professor demanded. "Grab a partner, and we will have a few dances before the food arrives."

The stone statue flipped the record that was currently playing, and the tune switched to the swaying rhythm of a dainty orchestra. The rest of the students wasted no time removing themselves from the awkward situation between the Weasley and the Malfoy. Many of them looked all too happy to be leaving the table behind. Alice looked wary before standing, but eventually, her face lit up with joy as she saw Albus coming around the table to grab her arm.

Rose and Scorpius stared at each other from across the table. "Why would you do that?" Rose finally said, her voice a touch more broken than she would have liked it to be.

He stood, extending a pale hand to her as he turned about the table. Rose immediately baulked at the gesture, but then quickly realised that they were the only two not dancing. She very well could not sit there all evening, refusing to dance as everyone else did so.

She took his hand gently, trying to ignore the static shocks sweeping through her body as their skin brushed one another. She forced eye contact, long enough to finally succumb to a horrible realisation, which hit the bottom of her stomach like a rock.

She found Scorpius Malfoy attractive.

Really attractive. She found him so categorically pleasing to the eye, most of the time when she described hating him, what she actually meant was how she hated the things he made her feel. She hated the way his icy platinum hair shone like some kind of magical creature. The way his skin was so pale, it looked as though you could see through it, like he was always bathed in moonlight. She hated the way his long, black robes draped over his tll lean body, the way he carried himself in a demanding, elegant, powerful manner. She detested his sharp cheekbones, full lips, piercing eyes and gorgeous lashes. But most of all, when she was speechless around him, hot from anger at whatever injustice he had just said, she hated how she didn't know why he was so attractive to her.

His hand, large and bony, wrapped around hers with cool reassurance. He watched her attentively when she so obviously struggled with the war of her feelings brewing inside of her. And he took her to the dance floor, his strong arm sweeping around the curve of her waist like a glove to a hand.

The swung into the first couple steps of the dance, allowing Scorpius to dip his head and whisper in her ear, "Albert," he hissed, "That boyfriend you were referencing – the one that I ruined your relationship with? He was very much in love with Alice. He asked you to the dance as a friend, so that he could work up the courage to tell you he liked your mate. I overheard him talking about it one evening in the library. He didn't know I was there, but I heard the whole thing. He said he found you daft because you never paid attention to what he was saying. His words, not mine."

Rose recoiled, staring up at his emotionless expression. She half expected him to be smirking again, but it seemed like recounting the story wasn't exactly a pleasant experience for him.

"Why were you cruel to me?" she replied quietly. "Just because my date was pining after Alice didn't mean you could take matters into your own twisted hands. You could have told me. And then maybe I wouldn't hate you so."

Scopius inhaled sharply at her words and swept her around in a circle, jerking his arm around her waist perhaps a touch faster than he had to. "That night, when I saw you in that dress." Scopius looked up to the ceiling, as if he was biting back words. His full, long neck showed his throat bobbing in the dim light. "I had to say something mean. It was the only thing, the only thing, Weasley, keeping me from falling at your feet and begging you to take me. I was prepared, as I always have been, to worship you."