"I screamed when I heard the news," Lily said jumping in front of me.

I was on my way to the Library at the end of my school day when she bombarded me in the corridor.

"Hi?" I laughed at her excitement.

Lily grinned, "There's no time for that. I had to be in class 10 minutes ago but it's Binns so who cares. I want to talk about you and Scorp."

I glanced around, the corridor was packed with people moving to class but no one seemed to have heard what Lily had said.

"It's too loud here!" Lily complained already heading away. "Come on, we need privacy."

I hurried after her, "Can't we do this later?"

Lily stopped in her tracks and laughed, "Your classes have ended, I have a brilliant memory when it comes to timetables, and I have a class that I never go to. What's a better time than this? You'll be busy with Scorp later."

I blushed at her tone and the wink she added in. It was times like these I wondered whether I should've told Lily at all but then again I would be in the blissfully ignorant friend-zone if I hadn't. And nothing felt better than being more than friends with Scorpius Malfoy!

Lily charged on through the crowd, down a couple of flights of stairs and into a dusty corridor. I couldn't wait to talk to someone about Scorpius, other than Scorpius himself. Four days back and I could already tell he was sick of hearing about how disbelieved I am and how dream-like the whole thing feels. But I didn't let my excitement get the better of me. Naturally, Lily would probably jump to the kissing topic and other stuff. I'm not interested in talking about that out loud. I like holding his hand and love when he wraps his arm around me. I think I've had enough so far.

Lily opened the door to an empty classroom that was just as dusty as the corridor it resided in. I sneezed as I walk through the door. Lily muttered a dusting charm clearing our path of dust bunnies.

"Tell me everything," Lily said sitting down on top of a now dust free table. "'I'm now together with S.' Isn't enough."

"Well," I was blushing again. "We said it to each other on the Hogwarts Express in a round-a-bout way. Thanks to your misplaced Kissing Concoction. I ended up accidently sending it to Scorpius as a Christmas present."

Lily smiled up at the ceiling. "I should be writing this stuff down. It's so romantic. So what happened next did you kiss him like instructed or did he kiss you? Or was it an old fashioned 'I have to ask you out on a date first?'"

"Weeellll," I said again. I started twisting a strand of hair around my finger. "He kissed me here." I tapped the spot next to my mouth.

Lily groaned for a second.

"What? It was great. I don't want his tongue down my throat." I said dropping the hair twisting act and crossing my arms.

"Yet?"

"Ever?" I replied quietly but it came out as a question. The thought of actually kissing him not just on the cheek or anything made me uncomfortable. How was I suppose to do that? There weren't any classes I could take on it. Note to self: get every book on the subject. I tried to push that nervous fear to the back of my mind. He wasn't going to suddenly jump on me like that. He hadn't tried to kiss me since the train except when we were fighting.

"Oh, Rosie," Lily shook her head at me then she blinked like a new thought had popped into her head. "I guess it makes sense. Going out with Scorpius is the most rebellious, craziest thing you've ever done. And I'm guessing since Scorpius is a nice, boring guy under the green and Malfoy name this is the most out of this world thing he has ever done."

"There's nothing wrong with it, Lily."

"There isn't. My point is -the good side of the point- is you're good for each other. No word from the family yet?"

"No, Lily." I sighed at the thought of how mad everyone would be if they had found out I ever said 'hi' to Scorpius. "Don't remind me. They would explode if they found out I was holding hands with a Slytherin."

"Let's not forget a Malfoy too."

"You didn't tell anyone, did you?"

Lily raised an eyebrow at me, "For the millionth time no! I would never do that to you and you'd never do that to me. Unless you were going out with Voldemort."

I stuck my tongue out at her, "I'm not interested in bald, noseless old men."

"Just checking. So how often are you seeing him? According to Abby, she hasn't seen you in three days."

"I study, but with him. I always study that isn't anything new." I said even though I knew I really wasn't studying that hard when I was with him. He was the world's best distraction.

"Ohhh," Lily said. "I wish I had a guy like that but they're all too busy with Goodman in the year above."

"How? You're Lily Potter."

"I know right. I'm red headed, funny and did I forget to mention my dad's Harry Potter." Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder. "You should see the fashion choices Goodman makes. Seriously, wearing your cloak to the side, a velvet cloak, hasn't been in since 2001. And it's not the good kind of vintage."

Lily took in a deep breath and relaxed her crinkled forehead, "Okay, rant over. What other romantic things has Scorpius been doing for you?"


My talk with Lily had been an hour and a half of giggles. My heart felt lighter after gossiping with her and my head still felt far too light.

I didn't see Scorpius, to my disappointment, until the next day. He was standing down the hall from my History of Magic class waiting to walk with me to Divination. I ran up to him and stood up on a bench next to him so I was taller than him. I clasped his shoulders for balance. Merlin, he was strong and steady! Why wasn't he on the quidditch team?

"I missed you," I said grinning ear to ear.

"I didn't miss you at all."

"Scorpius!" I protested. "Do we have to go to Divination?"

Scorpius laughed, "What's wrong with you? The Rose I know wouldn't miss a class for anything."

"You're not just anything."

"I think that just proves I'm a bad influence on you."

I shook my head, "Maybe I've always been like this and you've never known it."

"I think I would know. I do know who's scarf you wear all the time." he teased. "What are you going to do when summer comes?"

"I'll still wear it but use a cooling charm." I teased back.

He grinned at me and pulled me closer and said, "If you don't want to go to Divination then where?"

"The Owlery, outside in the snow again, or the Library…"

Scorpius frowned, "Won't it look weird if we're both missing from Divination?"

I sighed seeing sense, "Very. So afterward we can go somewhere."

He lifted me up off my feet and put me back on the ground. Yeah, he's strong and I have the proportions of a small child compared to him. I tried not to laugh instead, I tried to be serious about it.

"I'm not a doll," I said trying to keep a straight face but I couldn't get mad at him.

"You look like one," he replied giving me a sneaky glance over that he probably thought I wouldn't notice.

Missing what he actually meant entirely. I scowled and said, "Not a nice compliment."

"I meant the good kind." he said.

"Clarify."

"The pretty ones." he said taking my hand and leading me up the corridor.

I squeezed his hand, "I've never heard anyone say that before. Are you lying?"

"I wouldn't waste my breath." he shrugged it off. "And we are about to be late to Divination."

"Merlin, Professor Trelawney was right about us," I said picking up the pace with him. "That fraud was right about something."

"I don't fancy her telling the class that again."

"Yeah, that would still be embarrassing, but true."

Then I let go of his hand and grinned up at him.

"Race you!" I yelled out already getting a running start.

We made it to Divination in time just as the last of students were climbing up the ladder of the trap door. Scorpius and I took our seats at our regular table. It was sweltering in the Divination room. The fire was roaring in the giant fireplace, I was already warmed up and sweating from running all the way to the Divination tower. Scorpius beat me, by the way.

"My legs are shorter than yours that's the only reason you won," I told him. "I will beat you next time."

"When grindylows fly." he replied.

Professor Trelawney was sitting in an armchair by the fireplace wrapped in what looked like dyed purple sheep's wool. Her eyes were shut and her head was tilted back.

"Has she finally died?" Scorpius asked me taking his Divination book out of his bag.

"I can hear her snoring. She's asleep."

"Great, I didn't do the homework," Scorpius said whipping open his book and pulling out some parchment.

"You had all the Christmas holidays to do it."

"I was busy writing to you. What did you say for it?"

"Scorpie, I thought your 'seering powers' were greater than mine."

"They are. That's why I left the homework until now. I knew she'd be asleep." Scorpius said proudly and added even prouder. "I did win the race, after all."

I exhaled, "Fine,"

I pulled my answer out of my bag and placed it on the table.

"How has what you have seen in the crystal ball impacted your life if any correct predictions have been made?" I read out the question.

"You wrote your answer about me," Scorpius said faking tears and wiping his eyes.

"Close, very close. I wrote about my cat going missing."

"Did that really happen?"

"Merlin, no. Why don't you write about me? You did see me in the crystal ball before school ended."

"Then Trelawney would never leave us alone," Scorpius said. "As much as I would love to get all personal about you in a school essay."

He pulled my essay over to his side of the table and skimmed it.

Then he smiled to himself, "You must really like me if you're letting me touch your homework."

I gave his leg a tap with mine under the table.

"Don't push it."

He picked up his quill and started writing.

"You don't mind being pushed, Rosie." he said jokingly.

"Oh, shut up, Scorpius, you're just the same," I said. "If I asked you to duel a professor you would for me."

"Maybe," Scorpius said taking his time to find the words. "If you…"

"If I what?"

"Go flying with me," he said in a kind voice. He was trying to coax me into doing it.

"We've been over this."

"Yeah, before any of these… feelings made us so civil."

"The answer is still no."

"Really?" he said his voice still full of hope.

"Yes, Scorpius, really." I replied firmly.

"Rosie, how about you come and watch me practise after this. I can't wait to show you my new broom."

"This isn't a trick, is it?"

"No, it's an invitation. A date if you want it to be." He didn't look at me when he said this. He kept his head ducked and his eyes firmly on the parchment in front of him but I could see his cheeks were starting to go red.

I glanced around to make sure no one was watching or eavesdropping and Professor Trelawney was still asleep or meditating.

Was I going to let a broomstick (the villain) get in the way of a date with Scorpius? Merlin, no!

I leaned across the table so only he could hear me and said quietly, "I want it to be a date,"

Scorpius' shoulders relaxed and he finally dropped his quill. He looked up at me and was wearing an expression that looked far too happy to be sane.

This was the moment Professor Trelawney chose to wake up.

"Oh," she muttered, flustered. She adjusted her crooked glasses and said, "Hello, fifth years."

"Third years!" some guy in the back yelled out correcting her.

Professor Trelawney cleared her throat and wrapped one of her sparkly scarves tighter around her. She made her daily prediction and then Scorpius and I got to stare into a crystal ball for an hour. I was beyond happy when the final bell started to ring. I couldn't wait for my 'date' with Scorpius. The weekend had started and I couldn't wait to spend it with Scorpius with no classes in the way.

"I'll get my broom," Scorpius said once I was down the ladder.

"You don't have to. We can just… hug." That sounded weird out loud.

"You can hug me all you want on the broom," he said giving me a pat on the back and starting to walk.

I let out an annoyed huff and hurried after him.

"When I imagined our first date I didn't imagine any broomsticks being involved," I said. "I was expecting something nice and relaxing. And memorable for the right reasons."

Scorpius took my complaints into consideration and made sure the corridor was clear before wrapping his arm around me and pulling me next to him.

"Better?"

I didn't lie, "Yes."

"Trust me, I'm not going to go out of my way to hurt you. You'll like this."

I argued with him about it until we had to split up. Scorpius went to the Slytherin common room to get his broom and put back his bag. While I hurried up the stairs to the Ravenclaw tower to put back my bag. Which took longer than usual. The bronze knocker asked me 'What moves slowly and never stops?' I blurted out 'Scorpius'. Not my brightest moment and definitely one of my most embarrassing. I had to wait for another person to show up and answer the riddle.

Then in my dorm, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. It had been a long day and the fumes from the potion I had to make earlier gave my hair an even frizzier quality. Not 'about to go on first ever date' material so I threw it up in a high ponytail. This took longer than expected and involved magic to be achieved. I wished he had given me more of a warning. I would've worn something nicer than my crinkled school robes and I would've managed to pull my hair together and maybe even put on some makeup. I wasn't going to attempt the makeup bit. I knew it would take forever.

I ran back out of the Ravenclaw tower again. Abby yelled after me in the common room.

"Where's the fire?"

I then hurried down the stairs, Scorpius was waiting at the bottom of the Grand Staircase with his broom thrown over one shoulder. I tried to look as graceful as possible when I came into his view.

"You took ages. I thought you were after abandoning me."

I was panting despite my efforts to be graceful.

"I had to wait for someone else to open the common room."

"You didn't get the riddle wrong? Did you?"

"No, I yelled your name at the eagle," I said defeated.

Scorpius laughed and a couple of passing students gave us a weirded out look.

"We should get on with it," I said trying to sound casual and not completely head over heels for Scorpius. "Before more people see us."

Scorpius nodded and we went outside. We crept around the castle and down a couple of hills to a private spot too far a walk from the castle to be used.

"Alone at last." he said when we reached some flat ground.

"What now?" I said stepping closer to him. "And please don't say broom."

"Do you want to kiss?" he asked quickly.

That snapped my thoughts away from broomsticks. I bit my lip, oh merlin, no I didn't think this would happen so soon. Do I want to? I didn't answer instead I stared off into the distance and hoped he would say something or do something to set my mind straight.

Scorpius didn't say anything. That's somehow worse than him saying something horrible.

I hated the silent so I broke it, "I don't know."

"So, no?" he asked.

"Have you ever kissed anyone before?" I asked dead serious.

Scorpius was quiet for a second before answering, "I kissed you on the train."

"I meant on the mouth."

"No. Have you?"

"No," then more honesty. "I don't think I can do it properly."

Scorpius gave me a shy smirk, but underneath it, I could see he was just as doubtful about the whole 'kissing' situation as I was which was a relief.

"Don't you think it's a bit early on to be doing that?" I asked uncertainly.

I had I ever had a boyfriend or anyone who was as close to me in the way Scorpius was? No. Do I know anything about courtship? No. I thought I did. I thought it would be easy, it's really not. Do I have anyone in the world to follow by example? No. Well, yes but at the same time no because Jane and Eric, mom and dad, Victoire and Teddy, and everyone else is different from me and Scorpius. I wondered if somewhere in Lily's piles of hundreds of Witch Weeklys there was an article, no an issue! Dedicated to the crisis relationship that is me and Scorpius.

"I really don't know, Rosie. How about you let me know when you want to?"

I crossed my arms, "Do you want to?"

"I'm asking you."

"In all the books I have read-" I started.

"Here we go again," Scorpius said putting his broom down.

"In all the books I have read," I repeated standing on my tip toes and in his face making sure he was listening to me. "The protagonists, which are you and me, confess each other's feelings and kiss or kiss straight away not bothering with words."

"You do that, Rosie."

I cleared my throat, "It's usually the guy that leads."

"Right, are you telling me to kiss you now or something else entirely?" Scorpius asked rubbing the back of his neck confused.

"I'm saying we're passed the due date according to the rules of literature," I replied. "I don't know what to do. I really can't decide. I'm not joking or playing games when I say that."

Oh, why did he have to bring the topic up in the first place I was more than happy holding hands with him.

And here comes all my confusion. He's such a lucky guy to have a word-vomiting girl like me.

"I mean, it shouldn't be such a big deal. It is a big deal but not in the huge complicated way we're making it out to be. It happens. At least it's not the next step up- forget that I said that and also don't ask about that as well because I never want to do that… no offense. Is this going to be our life from now on? Waiting for the first kiss? Are we even together if we haven't kissed on the mouth?" I was out of breath by the end of it but Scorpius seemed both bewildered and entertained by the speech. "I should probably shut up now."

"I think we should both shut up and forget about it," Scorpius said. "And forget most of what you just said. Anyway, we're not out here for that, we're out here for the Nimbus."

He made a sweeping arm gesture over his broom.

"You never said how nice it is," he said. "The finish, the balance-"

"It's a very nice broomstick, Scorpius. If I kiss you will I never have to look at it again?" I asked deadpanned.

Scorpius stood up straighter and his eyes slid over to me. This was attempting offer. Yay, my intelligence has returned!

Scorpius blinked at me after a second, "I'm not falling for that one."

He reached down to pick up his broomstick.

"I was serious!" I exclaimed.

Scorpius picked up his broomstick and casually leaned against it. He knew he had the upper hand. I stepped closer to him and place my hands on his shoulders to balance myself. I stood as tall as I could but it still wasn't tall enough to get my lips in line with his. I should've taken Lily's footstool advice seriously.

"See, I'm serious," I said sounding out of breath. All the stretching was exhausting. I think it's appropriate to say Scorpius is a giraffe.

"You really don't like brooms or flying. How did you pass flying in first year?" was all he said.

"I hate it. Can you please slouch or something? Don't pick me up." Yes, it was that awkward before it had even started.

"Rosie-"

I had had enough of it. I jumped and instead of planting a successful kiss on his lips I banged my head against his.

"Ow!" we both exclaimed at the same time.

Why? The one time I pick up the strength, the confidence, wittiness to do it and it backfires. Painfully backfires splat on my forehead.

"Don't try that again," Scorpius groaned. I had hit him right in between his eyes. He was pinching a growing red mark I had left. "I've never seen anyone do something so stupid in my life."

"Fine then, I won't," I said annoyed. "I'm sure you can find other girls- Slytherin girls to kiss."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

I stamped my foot, "It means I won't try and you know. I told you to bend down. You wanted it. Oh, look it's time for dinner I better get back up to the castle."

And I stormed off. Not because of him, but because of the overwhelming embarrassment I felt. I was either going to cry, melt into the earth or try and kiss him again. So storming off, while it wasn't really my style, seemed appropriate.

"Rosie," Scorpius walked up to me without any hesitation, broomstick nowhere in sight. He made me stop in my tracks by placing his hands on my shoulders and turning me around to face him. "I'm sorry but I have to do this. I can't stop thinking about it."

He took a deep breath. Before I could say anything he bent down and- and- and- Scorpius Malfoy kissed me.

My insides melted as electricity sizzled through my every nerve. I felt warm all over. Best day ever.

It wasn't perfect but I loved it and would've done it forever. It was a peck, no French tongue sticking, thank, merlin, but it was slow. It felt like it lasted an hour. A magical hour. We were both very tense and standing at an awkward 45-degree angle. Our noses bumped and there was a moment when Scorpius held on to my ribs instead of my waist but his hands eventually found it. While my hands hung aimless and numb at my sides.

When he pulled back. I felt at peace and steady like the whole world was standing still. And he kissed me again. The second time felt even better than the first. It was more relaxed and even warmer as he stepped as close to me as he could and deepened the kiss. What was I so worried about? With Scorpius by my side, I felt like I could touch the stars and the moon. Stars and the moon were starting to come out as the dark January night begun.