"The rain makes everything sexier."
"Must you say that every time it rains, Scorpie?"
"Yes, Rosie, yes," he beamed as we made our way through the wet grass. I slipped my hand into his. My legs still felt like jelly from flying.
Dinky stood at the back door holding an umbrella over his small head. He looked like a disproving parent, arms folded and a look of suspicion on his face.
"It's about time, Master Scorpius and Miss Rose," Dinky said leading us back into the hall. He snapped his fingers and just like that we were dry and warm again. "Dinky was starting to worry."
"So was I," I said. "Were you worried too that we were going to be struck by lightning?"
"Dinky was worried your food would go cold," Dinky answered. "Also a letter has arrived." He reached into the tattered pocket of his sheet. "From Master and Mistress Malfoy." He pulled out a very formal looking letter with a silver wax Malfoy seal on the back of the envelope. It was already torn.
"What does it say, Dinky?" Scorpius asked not bothering to take the letter. Scorpius led me through the hall. The house elf hurried after us squeaking,
"Dinky does not know!"
"It's clearly open."
Dinky's face sank, "Stupid, Dinky, stupid." He whacked himself with the envelope. I squealed, one of the edges almost went into his eye. I swiped it off him without protest. "Dinky forgot to reseal the letter. Forgive me Master Scorpius-"
"It's fine just tell me." Scorpius sighed.
I pulled the letter out of the envelope. It was tied with a black bow- a bloody bow. The spiral writing was almost impossible to read. I squinted at the page. The parchment was perfumed. It reeked of that gag-worthy perfume from the boy's dorm.
"See Miss Rose does the same fault as Dinky." Dinky pointed to me. I pointed an accusing finger back.
"But Miss Rose is hot," Scorpius replied. "And nosy."
"Cut it out, Master Scorpius, I can't even read it," I complained. I scanned the page once more. 'Weasley' in big cursive letters stuck out. "Why the hell is my name in this?!"
Scorpius grabbed the letter from me, a line appearing between his eyebrows. He immediately started reading it.
"Master Malfoy hates the Weasleys," Dinky informed me. "Master loses his appetite every time Master sees one."
"I guessed," I said.
"Master Scorpius loves the Weasleys,"
Spots of colour appeared on Scorpius' cheeks, "A Weasley, Dinky. It's just your surname, Rose. Stop scaring me. And never mind what's in this letter."
"What does it say?" I practically jumped on him.
"The usual. Nothing productive." He said crumpling the letter into a ball.
Dinky pulled a face, "Master Scorpius, why must you create more litter for Dinky to clean up?"
"What does it say?" I bent down to the house elf. I smiled politely at him.
Dinky cleared his throat.
"No," Scorpius firmly cut across. Dinky grabbed his throat like the words were caught.
"Yes," I protested.
Dinky relaxed.
"Ron Weasel," he started quoting.
"Shut up," Scorpius waved his hand. "Rose isn't a Malfoy. Why are you taking orders from her?"
Dinky tapped his foot expectantly, his lips pressed together.
"Speak." Scorpius sighed.
Dinky shook his head, "Master Scorpius sounds like Master Malfoy when he speaks like that. Miss Rose is your love."
Scorpius' shoulders sagged, "Thanks, Dinky, can you leave us alone for a minute?"
"Yes," There was a snap and the house elf was gone.
"Did I?" Scorpius turned and asked me before I could fire questions at him.
"What?" I frowned, thrown off my game.
"Sound like my father?"
I smiled and shook my head, "Just normal you when you get annoyed. What is your father like? You never say directly."
"Cold," he stated. "You wouldn't like him, Rosie."
"Like your Grandfather?"
Scorpius' expression twisted like he had tasted something sour. That was the wrong question to ask.
"Sorry," I said quickly.
His eyes narrowed, "Like someone who'd write, 'Ron Weasley is the highest of blood traitors, dirty blood all those Weasleys. He can barely keep his hands off his fortune, away from the pubs-'"
"Scorpius, stop." I snapped.
We both stared at each other for a second. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.
"I get it." I broke the tension. "I won't ask again. Does this place have a bathroom?"
"You wanted to know," Scorpius said hotly.
"Bathroom?"
He walked down the corridor and I followed him. He pointed to a door, "There,"
I didn't reply. I walked into the bathroom, a large glossy room, and locked the door after me. I looked into the mirror above the sink. My face was as hot as it felt. I splashed cold water on it.
I could go out there and pretended it didn't happen. Walk right up to him and kiss him, but I didn't feel like kissing him right now. I hated when Scorpius was angry, it made me angry and vice versa. It was an anger circle. Which was a bit strange since first and second year were mostly me trying to get a rise out of him. Now it made me feel sick.
I dried my face and left the bathroom, ready to get this over and done with. I expected to see him standing where I had left him but the corridor was empty as far as I could see. I walked up and down but nothing. I panicked, merlin, I couldn't leave the corridor. I could get lost or what if he was really angry... What if I had hurt him more than he hurt me?
"Scorpius?" I called out weakly. The portraits of generations of Malfoys stayed asleep. It made me shiver suddenly being alone. I looked down at the black wooden floor. The stories I heard from people and dad… mum never talked about it but I had seen the 'mudblood' scar on her forearm. "Scorpius?" I called out louder this time. "Please?"
And how could I forget? Voldemort and about a hundred other death eaters walked on this very spot-
Snap out of it, Rose.
Merlin, if I was alive during the second wizarding war I wouldn't survive two seconds of it.
"Scorpius?!" I yelled.
There was a snap beside me.
"Does Miss Rose want Dinky to bring her to Master Scorpius?"
"So I can scream at him from a closer range? Yes."
Dinky led me back to Scorpius' bedroom.
"Thanks for abandoning me." I walked in.
Scorpius jumped up from his desk. A pot of ink fell onto it side drenching whatever he was looking at in ink.
"Maybe we were only meant for Hogwarts," I said coldly, grabbing my bag.
"Rosie, please," he said coming over to me. "I didn't expect you to be done that fast."
"How long do you think it takes a girl to pee?"
"For the record, I didn't think you were peeing I thought you needed some space." He said. "And I wanted to write a reply to my parents-"
"Without me nosing over your shoulder."
Scorpius frowned, "No, I like it when you nose over my shoulder. I just wanted to say to my father 'get over your Weasley obsession', that's it. I don't want this ruining any more of our time together that's why I did it while you were peeing or whatever."
I sighed sitting down on the edge of his bed, "Your house is just… scary. I can't- I don't want to be alone. I know I sound like a big baby but it's just creepy. The-floorboards-are-going-to-grab-me creepy."
"I won't do it again," he said holding up his hands. "Where you go I go."
I dropped my bag and pulled my legs to my chest. The lights were on in Scorpius' room sending a cosy- well as close to cosy as you can get in Malfoy manor- glow around the room. The windows were still open letting in a cold breeze. The rain provided a nice soundtrack. It didn't feel like the evening, outside the clouds were dark and angry.
Scorpius was next to me again. He wrapped his arms around me.
"I'm sorry, Rosie," he said into my hair. "I'm…"
"I started it," I offered up. "I think I'm the one that should be sorry."
"That's big of you," then he laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"It's funny 'cause you're short."
I pushed him playfully. He grabbed me pulled me on top of his lap. I ran my fingers through his hair and then down to his face where I traced the lines of his cheekbones and under his eyes…
"Done playing with my face yet?"
I ran my fingers across his jawline, "Nope."
"I guess we are back to normal then?"
"Nope," I repeated.
"Why?"
I smiled and kissed his jawline, "Our normal isn't getting to do whatever we want without interruptions or rushing."
"The broom closet," Scorpius smiled pulling me back onto the bed with him.
"Wide open space and no dust."
"Who said anything about space?" He pulled me tight to him and I giggled. There was a clap of thunder and lightning somewhere off in the distance. I wiggled out from him.
"If we're going to have some fun," I announced. "I'm changing into my pyjamas, the most comfortable thing in the world. I'm sick of that uniform and these clothes."
Scorpius got up and pulled up his top. I yanked it right back down for him, red in the face.
"I said pyjamas."
"I'm getting changed," he said throwing it off again. "Remember where you go I go."
I blushed and looked the other way. Then, naturally, looked back again. He was staring at me expectantly and shirtless. There was some hint of muscle on his arms, but his stomach was flat and there was a birthmark on one of his ribs.
"You've seen this before- forget that- you've stared at this before. Don't look so shocked. I'm your boyfriend. You were going to see this sooner or later." He said hauling me up from my safe spot on the bed.
"Is it weird that I haven't seen your bare arms before?" I gripped his shoulders balancing myself. His skin there was even softer.
He shrugged, "Now you can admire them all you want. How about you strip down and I'll stare at you."
"In your dreams."
"Every night." He beamed.
I shook my head holding back a wave of cringe and a queue of other emotions that don't have names. I pulled off my jumper- yes, there was a t-shirt underneath it- just to tease him.
"Happy?"
"Yeah, that's see-through in this light." He laughed.
I covered my chest and grumbled, "Put some clothes on, for Merlin's sake.'"
I gathered my pyjamas from my bag while Scorpius made a whole show of showing me his underpants.
"Your underpants are green," I raised my eyebrows.
"Pureblood to the max. And your bra's red."
I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Where is the nearest bathroom?"
"It's fine, Rosie, I'll turn around."
"Like hell, you're turning around in front of the mirror," I said pulling him to the other side of the room.
"One day…" he sighed.
"I swear to Merlin, Scorpius, if you turn around I will hex you."
"Once we get back to Hogwarts," he added.
"Exactly," I said making him face the wall. He covered his eyes.
"Done?"
"No. I haven't even started." I said quickly whipping off my t-shirt.
"Great," he said turning around.
Great indeed.
I shrieked clapping my hands to my red bra. I knew I should've worn my white one which actually does its job properly. Scorpius collapsed against the wall laughing.
"You said you hadn't started," tears of laughter were threatening to spill.
I was never going to live that one down.
"Ha, ha, ha," I said sourly trying to find my top. I crouched down to see all the crap that was under Scorpius' bed. Everything from clothes to old school books.
Scorpius was suddenly beside me. Still wheezing out laughs he handed me my pyjama top.
"Go away," I said sharply. I took it from him.
"You're really pretty- beautiful," he said suddenly serious.
"Stop," I said pulling the top over my head. "You weren't supposed to see me like this until fifth year or beyond."
Scorpius chuckled, "You had a plan."
"I have a plan for everything," I said matter of factly.
"So there's no 'never.' What's the point of waiting? You've just proven you expect me to be around forever."
"Merlin, help me, you're still not dressed."
"You know I'm not going to go around gossiping about what you look like under your clothes."
"I'm dying of embarrassment," I whined.
"And I'm not going to touch you. I don't care if you change in front of me."
"You do."
"Yeah, you're right I was lying there. But I still won't touch you or… I want you to feel comfortable around me. It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong-"
I whipped off my normal pants and put on my pyjama pants at lightning fast speed.
Scorpius' mouth fell open.
"Happy?"
He nodded.
I unclipped my bra while I was at it and did that complex under the shirt take off. Just like magic. I fired it right at Scorpius' dumbfounded face.
"Will you put on some clothes now?"
He nodded. I went to his drawers- the wooden ones. I pulled out a set of pyjamas right next to what looked like a cap and gown. I was right but all smugness had left me. I threw them at him. I paced around the room trying to fight off the tidal wave of embarrassment while he pulled on his pyjamas.
Can the reincarnation of Voldemort walk in and kill me now?
He flopped back down on his bed, "Oh, Rosie, Rosie…" he covered his face with his hands. "You didn't turn that red when we shoved snow down each other's robes."
"That was different."
"Time to clear my conscience. No, it wasn't. One time I may have seen much more than a flash-"
I attacked him with a pillow. Covered with feathers, he tackled me to the duvet, still laughing.
"Of all the girls in Hogwarts how did I end up with you?"
"Because I like your smile," I grinned, pressing my nose against his. "And I have the unique ability to forget everything you say."
And he kissed me.
Author's note: Thanks again for the lovely reviews, favs and follows. This chapter was bit more riské than the others (which says a lot) and for that reason, this fanfic gets a rating boost. Yay! From K+ to T. Hope you guys don't mind... It's just to be safe :) Anyway leave your thoughts in the reviews they're always helpful :) Thanks again.
