[summary] — Scorpius/Rose (platonic) [Writer!AU] In which Rose is fictional and Scorpius is a writer who just can't let go
A/N — Did I write this because I couldn't think of an actual plot? Yes. Yes I did.
Thank you to the awesome Dina [DinoDina] for beta'ing
[3403]
He sits, staring at the words he's already typed up. And deletes the entire page. He feels a brief moment of remorse, but it was all crap anyway. Just nonsense typed because he couldn't think of anything else.
It's time for a new approach.
He finds a character profile template online and copies it into a new document.
[name] Rose he types quickly — it's a name he's always liked — though pauses when it comes to her surname. He opens a new tab, searching for a list of unusual surnames. None of them look right, though, and he grows bored of reading the long list. He decides, instead, to use the surname of a teacher he'd had in school, years ago now, who had been the one to get him into writing in the first place.
[name] Rose Weasley
[born] 2005
It makes sense for her to be his age, he reasons, as it'll make her easier to characterise.
[nationality] English/British
[hometown] London
Might as well keep her in an area he knew.
[siblings]
He pauses here, thinking. What would her family life have been like? She'd have a younger sister, surely? No …
"Mum!" Rose yells from upstairs. "Hugo won't stay out of my room!"
"I'm not in her room!" Hugo retorts, and their mother releases a tired sigh.
"Aren't you two a bit old for this?" she asks, setting aside her work and ascending the stairs.
The sight she is greeted with is Hugo standing just outside Rose's doorway, feet carefully positioned so they are aligned with the doorway and he technically isn't in her room.
"Rose, he isn't in your room," she says.
"See! I told you —" Hugo begins, but their mother interrupts.
"And Hugo, stop antagonising your sister!"
[siblings] Hugo (younger brother)
He leaves the spouse and children sections blank.
[extended family]
Mountains of food lie before them, and Rose feels saliva pooling in her mouth already. Her fingers itch to grab the serving spoon for the nearest dish before anyone else can, but she waits for her Grandma to sit first.
"Everyone dig in," Molly says with a grin, and there's a rush of noise: the clatter of plates and shouts as dishes are grabbed from hands that weren't quite finished with them. Buffet style's always a risk — especially with so many of them all clamouring for food — but Rose likes to think she's perfected it over the years.
She's learnt to always sit in front of the food you can't grab with bare fingers, and to take what you can from the dishes other people have grabbed. There's different techniques, she knows — Victoire, her eldest cousin, likes to be the last to take each dish; the riskiest tactic, as all the best bits are gone, but it means she can take as much as she wants without having to leave enough for everyone else — but this is the one she's found works best for her.
And pilfering off people's plates is only acceptable once everyone's got all their food and the owner of said plate has made the mistake of leaving their food unattended.
[extended family] LARGE
Grandmother: Molly Weasley
Cousins: Victoire Weasley (oldest)
He'll fill in the rest later, but for now he wants to focus on Rose.
[appearance]
Rose towers above most of the boys in her year, though she supposes they might not have finished growing. Still: a bit embarrassing. And she has yet to grow into her gangly limbs, but there's still beauty in her slightly-too-large features — though she will never quite grow into her nose — and she holds herself with as much grace an awkward teen can.
Brown eyes like her mother, and her hair a natural red that she's inherited from her father. She's curled it today, so what would once normally reach her shoulders falls a couple inches above, held back from covering her eyes with bobby pins hidden in her locks.
"You look beautiful," a girl says, and Rose blushes a deep red, bordering on purple, that clashes with her hair and hides her freckles. "Maybe some make-up though?" Roses face falls.
"I — I don't know how," she says, eyes dropping to her feet, clad in her nicest shoes — okay, still converse, but they're the only shoes she owns that aren't caked with mud or stained with dirt and grass and other things she doesn't want to know about.
"I can teach you," he friend says. "But I'll do it for you this time." Rose grins at that, a relieved smile that shows slightly crooked teeth. "Gotta look good for your first date."
[mannerisms & speech patterns]
"Al!" she yells, running to catch up with one of her many cousins.
Scorpius scrolls up and adds Albus Weasley to the list of family members.
"Rosie," he says in a sing-song voice.
"Don't call me that!" she snaps, having caught up to him, now slightly out of breath.
"Don't call me Al."
"Not a fan of Paul Simon?"
"You have such a middle-aged-dad taste in music," he mutters, but lets the matter drop. "Did you want something?"
"Aww, c'mon Al. Albus," she corrects herself. "We hardly see each other anymore. Not since we were sorted into different houses."
"We see each other plenty."
"Only during holidays. I miss you."
He makes a note at the bottom of the document: attends boarding school.
He isn't sure he's quite worked out all her mannerisms, though. In fact, he knows he hasn't, but it's not something he's particularly worried about; those'll unfold more the more he writes her.
[best quality]
Rose stands awkwardly just inside the doorway of the room she is sharing with three of her cousins, hesitant to enter.
Scorpius thinks for a moment; Albus and Victoire weren't siblings, but he felt like they'd each have some. He adds Dominique Weasley (Victoire's younger sister) to the [extended family] section.
Dominique hasn't seen her yet, if the undisguised sobbing is anything to go by, though her eyes are so red and puffy Rose wonders if she can see anything. Until:
A hiccough, followed by a loud sniff, and Dominique is hurriedly wiping the tears from her cheeks, as if that's all she needs to do to hide the evidence.
"I — I'm sorry," Rose stutters. "Grandma said to tell you dinner's ready," she finishes awkwardly, shuffling her feet and wishing she'd been fast enough to leave before Dominique noticed her.
"Oh," Dominique says, sniffing again, but she doesn't move.
"Do — do you want me to get Victoire? Or —"
"No! No," Dominique continues at a more natural volume, "I'm okay. Thanks."
"You don't look okay," Rose says slowly, wishing she would just turn and leave — Dominique probably wants that too — but she's never been one to leave someone hurting. "What's wrong?"
"It's — It's nothing. It's stupid," Dominique says, turning away.
"You don't have to —"
"Louis' starting school this year," Dominique says before Rose can finish. Rose gingerly takes a seat on the bed next to her cousin.
"And you're a squib." She winces at how harsh the words sound — she hadn't intended to be so blunt — but she can't take them back.
"Thanks, Rosie, I hadn't noticed." She scowls through her tears, her tone biting.
"Sorry." They sit in silence for a moment, both thinking, and then Rose says: "Filch is —"
"Don't even go there," Dominique snaps, but she's stopped crying now, too angry for tears. In a round-about way, Rose counts it as a win.
He scrolls up once again, adding squib beside Dominique's name and, on a new line, Louis Weasley (Victoire & Dominique's younger brother). In hindsight, it might have been easier to use two separate documents, but …
[favourite sayings]
Everyone's drenched and shivering, water dripping steadily onto the stone floor.
"I told you that wasn't the right spell," Albus says, finally breaking the stunned silence.
"Ah well," Rose says, her grin far wider than the situation really called for. "What's done is done."
He grins; he can actually remember this happening one time at school. A mistake his friend had made in first year, confusing Alohomora with Aguamenti. Easily done, he reasons, when you haven't officially been taught either.
[hobbies & personality]
"Check mate," Rose says with a grin. Her chess piece moves, smashing her opponents king — okay, so maybe her opponent just so happens to be her best friend, Katie, but her point still stands.
"I'd beat you in Quidditch any day, Rose," is Katie's sullen response.
"The hell you would!" She stands quickly. "Grab your broom, let's do this."
"It's chucking it down, you moron! I'm not going outside in this weather, let alone flying!"
"So you concede?" she asks, cocky grin firmly in place.
"Never!"
Her friend doesn't so much win as tackle Rose to the ground, but it's been hours now and they've likely missed curfew — they've definitely missed dinner, which Rose is a bit upset about, but her cousin showed her where the kitchens were back in her second year — so they decide to call it a draw.
They're caught sneaking back into the castle, covered in sweat and leaving a trail of mud through the Entrance Hall. Detention every night for a week is a little harsh in Rose's opinion, but she's too hungry to argue.
After being escorted back to the Gryffindor Common Room, it doesn't take them long to sneak out again.
[education] Boarding School — Hogwarts
She lies in her dorm room, staring up at the canopy above her bed. "What're you guys gonna do when you graduate?" she asks in a small voice.
"We've got like two years, Rose," someone across the room says. "Go to sleep."
She sits up quickly, disturbing the owl she'd been petting. "I can't sleep! Aren't you worried? Excited? The classes we pick for next year are gonna decide our entire future!"
A pillow hits her in the back of the head. "Shut up!"
"Fine," she mutters. And then, louder: "I'm keeping this."
Scorpius sits back, staring at the document. It's a bit of a mess right now, with random sections that could potentially be included in a longer story mixed in with Rose's character bio, but he'll fix it later.
He moves on to the next section.
[what frightens this character?]
A pigeon flies low overhead; Rose shrieks and ducks into the nearest shop, hands covering her head.
"Are you serious?" Lily asks. Albus and Hugo are doubled over with laughter, both gasping for air, their cheeks reddening. She thinks Hugo might even be crying.
Well, everyone's scared of something, Scorpius reasons. And it has absolutely nothing to do with that seagull who stole his ice-cream — and came back for seconds — the one year his family had decided to stay in the UK for their summer holiday.
He adds Lily Weasley beneath Albus' name. He is about to start the next section when he decides that maybe Albus and Lily should have a different surname — perhaps Rose's dad had a sister? — and he scrolls back up and deletes Weasley from next to Albus and Lily's names, changing it to Potter, recalling the countless times he's had to drive through Potters Bar. He'd always told himself he'd use the name one day.
He gives them an older brother, who he names James.
[what would most embarrass this character?]
"C'mon, Rose," Albus goads, having seated himself at the Gryffindor table for dinner that night, "what could be more embarrassing than your fear of pigeons?"
"Being rejected in front of the entire school?" she suggests. "Having everyone watch as my heart is literally ripped from my chest and crushed by the love of my life?"
Albus pauses for a moment, then says: "Have you considered asking her out in private?"
"So you do think she'll reject me?"
"Well," Albus hesitates, "you're not making a great case for yourself right now."
Rose huffs, about to say something more when the subject of their conversations stands up from the Ravenclaw table and makes her way over.
"Hey, uh … I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime?" she asks. Rose grins, nodding.
"Yeah, I — Hogsmeade?"
It doesn't occur to her that it was maybe a little too coincidental until her cousin cracks up with laughter at the other end of the table.
[how does the character deal with sadness?]
"Just get out!" Rose snaps. "Leave me alone."
"I really am sorry," James says for what feels like the hundredth time. "It was meant to be a joke."
"Leave. Me. Alone," she repeats, enunciating every word clearly through gritted teeth.
Only when he's gone does she let the tears fall, burying her face into her pillow to muffle her sobs.
[with change]
Rose had thought she'd be sad at her graduation, but now the time has come she's elated. She'd loved Hogwarts, she always would, but she was so ready to leave the school behind. She won't even need to miss her friends — not that she'd had many — as Dominique had found a nice flat off Horizont Alley and Katie was moving in with them soon after they'd graduated. And of course she'd be seeing Albus all the time, too.
And, okay, she'd miss living in an actual castle, but she hates to think she might have peaked before even leaving her teens.
Now, she is ready for the next stage in her life, excited for what is to come.
[how does the character deal with loss?]
Rose sits stoically all though the funeral, face blank. Her mother leans close to whisper, "It's okay to cry, Rose," her voice thick with tears of her own. Rose nods, swallowing thickly, but her eyes remain dry.
It is only later, when she is alone in her room, that the tears begin to fall.
"He's in a better place."
She remembers how her aunt Ginny had to be held back by two of her uncles at that — "A child! He's a child! How can he be in a better place?" — and how, a few long weeks ago, she'd never seen her dad cry. Now, it's a daily occurrence.
There's a tentative knock at her door — everyone's a lot quieter now, more subdued — and her mother pushes the door open slowly. She stands in the doorway looking apologetic, waiting for an invite before stepping into the room.
And Rose howls, her silent tears turning into loud, gut-wrenching sobs that leave her red and struggling to breath, Her mother is quick to join her on the bed, wrapping Rose in the safety of her arms, though Rose can feel her tears too.
Distantly, she notices her father joining them, but she can only focus on herself; her own pain.
[greatest flaw]
"Weasley! You could have got yourself killed!" yells Auror Blanchard, pacing his office and reminding Rose of a caged tiger more than anything else. "You're lucky not to be sacked!"
Rose lets out a sigh of relief, her shoulders dropping slightly. "I —"
"I'm not finished!" He turns to face her and she tenses once more. "You will be on desk duty for the foreseeable future. "If I even so much as think you have left this building during work hours you will be out of here before you can say 'Fizzing Whizzbees'"
Rose decides it's not worth mentioning that she's very unlikely to say Fizzing Whizzbees within office hours. Instead, she says, "Yessir," and nods her head in what she hopes is a respectful and chagrined manner.
"Just —" he rubs his eyes, looking older than she's ever seen "— try to stay out of trouble, Weasley. Do your job and let other people do theres."
"Yessir," she repeats for lack of anything else to say.
"You're a good recruit, Rose," she notes the use of her given name, but doesn't dare interrupt, "but you're pretty far from knowing everything." She nods, eyes downcast.
[what motivates this character?]
He considers putting something like love or friendship — they would both fit her well — but he doesn't think that's all that motivates her. She's more complex, less cliché. He drums his fingers gently on the keys, careful not to press any.
He'd been doing so well, he thinks with a self-depreciating sigh.
Pushing himself up from his chair, he grabs the tin of teabags from the shelf above him and flicks on the kettle he keeps at his desk.
Sitting back down, he resumes typing as the water boils, hoping something makes at least a little sense.
"Rose? What're you still doing here?" Fred asks.
Another cousin, Scorpius decides, though he'll have to expand the character lists at some point, for now he wants to stick to her family and close friends.
"I need to finish this," she says, nodding towards the large stack of files beside her.
"Can't it wait until tomorrow? It's just filing," he says, leaning against the desk opposite hers. "We're all going down to the pub if you wanted to join?"
She shakes her head. "Sorry, not this time." Though she knows recently she's said that every time. "I want to keep on top of things. There'll be more coming in tomorrow."
"Alright Rose." He pushes himself off the desk and makes to leave, calling over his shoulder: "Just remember to get some rest. You don't need to be the best at everything."
The kettle boils, but Scorpius ignores it and continues typing.
[how does the character deal with anger?]
Rose stands back as the Medi-Witch examines the body. There's charms around the area, keeping the rain from contaminating any evidence that remains, but Rose is standing outside of those, letting the rain soak through her red Auror robes.
Distantly, she notes she's shivering, but all her attention remains on the body she can no longer see. A young girl, can't yet be old enough to attend Hogwarts. Now, she never will.
"Weasley?" the Medi-Witch — Carrie — calls, and Rose pushes down her anger to be dealt with at a later date. Preferably when she's alone.
"Yeah?" she asks, stopping behind the other woman. "You find something?"
"No. Not really," she says. "I've got all I can from here, though."
"Back to the lab?" Carrie nods.
[with conflict?]
"Rose, we never see you anymore," her mother says, but at Rose's look she amends: "We barely see you anymore."
"It's just … it's difficult, Mum," Rose says eventually, not meeting her mother's eyes. "There's so much to do at work and it just … it never ends." She looks up then, meeting her mother's worried gaze. "And there's so much to do, and I can't fall behind —"
"Rose," her mother takes her hand, leading her to the sofa, "don't you think you're putting too much pressure on yourself? You're allowed a personal life."
"I have one, Mum, I do," she says. "I see my friends all the time. Have done since I got back in the field"
"And you're taking time for yourself?"
"Yes, I just said —"
"Not going out and having fun with your friends, though of course that's important," her mother interrupts. "I mean spending time by yourself. Just being alone. That's important, too."
Rose shakes her head.
[what makes this character happy?]
Rose runs her fingers through Carrie's hair, her book long-forgotten beside them.
The lights are off but the sky is dark outside and they've left the curtains open; the room is only illuminated by the occasional flash of lightening and the gentle light from Rose's wand.
She listens out for the next rumble of thunder, the gap between getting slightly shorter each time.
"Why d'you like storms so much?" Carrie murmurs, blinking her eyes open slowly.
Rose thinks for a moment, then she says: "I like the sounds. Rain on the roof, thunder overhead."
"So you don't like being out in them?" Carrie makes to sit up, but Rose gently holds her down, returning to carding her fingers through Carrie's hair.
"No," Rose whispers. "Being out in a storm's like … like you're small and insignificant and alone."
"And being inside isn't?" Carrie asks, flinching at another flash of lightning.
"No," Rose pauses for the rumble of thunder, "you're still small, but you're safe. Like when you're a kid and you're mum wraps you in her arms."
[how character is different at the end of the story]
He leaves this blank. He isn't ready for her story to end just yet.
