Aria: Wow longest chapter yet! I am now starting to update weekly so hopefully I'll have a chapter for you every week :) This chapter was fun to write and I hope you enjoy it :) and thanks to everyone who has favourited, follower or reviewed the story so far and to come. And please ask questions in the reviews if you have any and I'll answer them in the next post :)

I don't own Harry Potter!

Please enjoy! :)

Chapter 6 – Dresses, the Ball and Dates

Rose's POV:

I put my arm down on the white sheets of the Hospital Wing bed.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" I asked irritated however my voice just sounded strained from my sobbing earlier.

His face was hard to see in the dim light. Even now his wind-swept hair and deep silver pools made equal to that of a God. Not the time Rose, I thought to myself.

His signature smirk appeared as he said, "Just checking that you're not dead, Weasly."

I had recently woken up and was still a bit grumpy so his comment aggravated me. I gruffly replied, "Well I'm fine, so you can leave," I turned away from him so he couldn't read my pained expression at making him leave. I waited a minute for the disappointing sound of footsteps walking away. But there were none. I took a chance to peak over my shoulder and there he stood. I was happy and confused at the same time. I quickly turned away again.

"Rose," it was a whisper but I still heard it. When he said my name for the first time, it sent pleasurable shivers through my body. He said it with such deep emotion it was both surprising and scary.

I turn back to face him. I caught his gaze. His expression then changed to one of confliction. He seemed to be almost at war with himself inside, before he looked slightly away and said, "Never mind." He was blushing slightly and it looked cute.

He started to walk away. No, NO, was all I could think. On impulse I reached out and grabbed his wrist. He stopped and looked at me.

"I want to know what you wanted to say," I stated quietly so that only he could hear. He retraced his steps back to where he started. I patiently waited for him to say something.

He didn't look me in the eye and said, "I just think that your standards were as low as to include that Greg guy."

For the first time I actually listened to him properly and objectively thought about what he said. He was right, I had concluded. I had been blindly cooed into a trap by fake kindness and acting. I tried to be angry but my disgust in him and disappointment in myself over took it. Before I knew it all sorts of different emotions bubbled up at once. My eyes stung and my attempt to stop the coming waterfall of tears coming was useless. Once the first one fell the rest followed. I started to sob bringing my hands up to my face. I knew Malfoy was quiet alarmed at my sudden break down. I was sorry he had to see it – even though secretly my heart was immensely happy he was the one here. He abruptly did something I didn't expect.

He hugged me. I clung to his sweater like he was a life line. It was like as long as he was here I didn't need anything else in the world. This feeling was totally new and I knew that most of my actions at this point were on impulse but I didn't care.

He was stroking my hair and humming some tune. I calmed down quite quickly but didn't pull away from him. He smelled of spearmint and chocolate which made me smile. I was very drowsy and so it felt like my common sense wasn't working.

So, half asleep, I asked, "Malfoy…can we be friends?"

He replied after a minute, "I always thought we were…good night," he whispered the last part and I drifted straight into a pleasant dreamless sleep.

Scorpius' POV:

She was still clenching my sweater when she fell asleep. Even while she was asleep she still didn't let go, so I had to carefully pry her hands from my sweater without waking her.

She was the perfect picture of beauty. It pained me to leave her side. It took several minutes of debating with myself whether to leave. Then I heard footsteps, it was Madam Abbott. I had to leave before she saw me. So I quietly snuck out and headed back to the common room thinking only of Rose.

Rose's POV:

The blearing sunlight poured over the Hospital Wing. I woke up to the sound of murmuring voices. I opened my eyes slowly to see, all – or nearly all – my cousins and my two best friends standing there.

"Rosie! You're alive!" James joked and everyone laughed including me.

"Of course I'm alive you idiot, it was only a concussion," I said with a grin on my face.

"You're pretty happy for someone who is the grumpiest when she wakes up," Mya pointed out.

"Happy? Me? Of course not!" I joked with a smile.

"Well good, we we're all very worried," Lil said with a relived smile.

"I'm fine I promise," I giggle.

"Madam Abbott said that if you did wake up today, you could leave the Hospital Wing but you're not going to classes today," Fie commented.

I was shocked. I would miss a whole day, I can't even imagine the work I'll have to catch up on.

Hugo noticed my expression and said, "Don't worry about the work Rosie, I'm sure your friends can take notes to catch you up."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Madam Abbott came over and said, "You can go now Miss Weasly."

"Thank you," I replied as Mya and Fie helped me out of the bed, I was still a little shaky.

- The next day -

It's a Saturday and as usual I am grumpy. Someone – aka Emily – shook me awake to get me to answer a stupid question. I almost bit her head off and definitely was not in the mood for stupidity. The only ones that really know that I get grumpy in the mornings is my family and Mya and Fie, thus, my outburst scared Emily half to death. Since I was so rudely awakened I may as well get up, I thought. I slipped out of bed brooding while I got dressed.

"Don't forget we're going to Hogsmeade in 10!" I heard Mya yell from the stairs. Wait did she say in 10, I started to panic.

Fie luckily yelled up, "Mya was joking! Stop freaking out! We're leaving in 40!"

Bless her, I will get Mya back later, I took a deep breathe to calm down.

We walked down to the great hall 15 minutes later. Fie wore black jeans, her red with a green 'F' Weasly sweater – which Nana Weasly gave her last year for Christmas. Mya wore her light green skinny jeans with her florescent pink and green swirl top and a hot pink coat over that. I decided to wear a lilac top that was two sizes too big for me with a mint green long-sleeve shirt underneath, my denim jeans and a violet coat. When we entered for some reason I started searching for a certain platinum blonde. I spotted him over at the Slytherin table with Al…and his snake – I meant girlfriend. Glaring daggers at them for a second before I turned pointedly away. Why the hell was I so mad? I thought.

- In Hogsmeade -

We were in one of the shops looking for our dress robes for the upcoming Halloween Ball. It was decided that this year's main event would be a Halloween Ball for all the fifth year students. I was sceptical at first because I don't dress up often – however I have always had a girly-girl side to me that people don't see. I wasn't sure about what I should wear to the ball but that's what my besties are for.

Fie tried on a flowing floor-length silver dress that shimmered when she twirled. It had an over-one-shoulder strap and had a slit in it on the right side up to just above her knee. This figure-fitting dress displayed Fie's great figure and as the saying goes: she had curves-in-all-the-right-places.

Mya and I analysed the dress. Fie had tried on a few other dresses but this sliver one was my far the best. It even complimented her long raven and violet eyes. "What do you think?" She asked.

"It looks fabulous Fie," I replied happily, I was starting to get excited. We all giggled and squealed, "Now to find your dress, Mya."

Mya took several in to the changing rooms and when she was finished changing each time, she would let Fie and I judge it. I took slightly longer to find Mya's dress, eventually she settled on a red knee-length dress that was layered with the straps connecting at the back of her neck. I looked at Mya – who had just stopped twirling – her attention was quickly drawn to somewhere behind us. However, she quickly looked away blushing and that's when I knew it was…..

"Hey girls, doin' some shopping are we?" Al asked. Did I call it or what?

"Hey Al," We all said at different intervals to each other. Malfoy was with him we all greeted him in our usual way. I then noticed that Malfoy seemed to be quiet good friends with my friends, how had I not noticed that before?

"Malfoy," I greeted with a smile. Smile? that was totally on impulse.

"Weasly," He replied with a grin. What's he so happy about?

Mya then smiled at Al and went back to her normal self and replied, "No, we're not shopping, we're hunting gnomes in a garden….of course we're shopping Al." She joked and Al laughed causing her to blush again.

"I'll call next time I need gnomes to be tossed from the garden," He replied.

We all laughed with Al who then said to Mya, "You look hot in that Mya, is it for the ball?"

Al – I had noticed – had slightly blushed when he saw Mya in the red dress. Mya was almost as red as her dress but replied with a smile, "Thanks, yeah it is."

I could tell that there was no doubt that she would buy this dress. In fact I'm pretty sure that she would buy any dress Al said she looked hot in. Those two, I couldn't help smiling.

"Mind if we tag along with you for the rest of the trip?" Al then asked.

Us girls agreed but only then did it occur to me that we were still looking for a dress for me and Malfoy would be there the whole time…wait why did it matter? Why am I so nervous about what he'll think of me? I thought.

"Rose is the only one who doesn't have her dress yet so we're going to be look for one for her now," Fie said as cheerful as ever.

We spent the next hour looking and I tried to not try anything on but then my besties practically throw me into the changing rooms – much to my protest – with two dresses. The first one was a canary yellow dress with sparkles; the second – my preferred one – was ankle length, white with a v-neckline and thick shoulder straps that then had a mermaid tail styled bottom. I put the yellow one on and showed my friends.

"Unfortunately the first thing that comes to mind is a volcano, you know with the yellow clashing with your hair," Mya stated. I looked in the mirror and instantly understood what she meant.

"Ok I'll try the other one on," I changed into the white dress and emerged yet again.

Mya and Fie wordlessly exchanged looks then turned to me presenting cheeky smiles. Al was smirking at Malfoy's reaction. Malfoy probably for the first time in his life appeared to be speechless. I had a feeling that this dress was the one. I walked over to the mirror and examined the dress critically. It felt and looked like in was made just for me, so I decided to buy it.

After I came back from paying for my dress we walked around for a little while before heading back to the castle.

- Two weeks later -

It's a week until the Halloween Ball and I still didn't have a partner yet. It was a Monday afternoon and I was heading to the library to meet Malfoy to do potions work. I found him at a table by himself reading a book.

I greet in a hushed voice – because we're in the quiet part of the library, "Hi,"

"Hey," He replied with a smirk looking up from his book. I took my seat opposite him and started my own work.

He then asked, "Where did you get up to since the last time we worked on it?"

"I didn't go too far ahead but I did what I could without a partner," I reported to him. He nodded.

After a few minutes I had to go and choose another book from the shelves. I left my seat to go and look. I stopped when I found a good book but just as I turned to walk back Malfoy appeared right beside me. When did he walk over here? I asked myself.

"What ya looking at Rosie?" he asked, "Could it be a book on how to get a date to a ball?" He mocked.

"Are you suggesting that I need help finding a partner to the ball?" I snapped back.

"No only that you would need a book like that because no one in their right mind would take you," He replied teasingly. He really knows how to get under my skin, doesn't he? I thought bitterly.

"Well for your information, I could take anyone I wanted to the dance, but I like to take my time choosing a partner," I huffed and marched back to the table we were calmly working at not long ago.

The section continued much like this. I eventually left the library fuming when he had said, "I bet 100 galleons that you'll always be depressed and single because of your terrible taste in men."

It had taken all of my will not to throw a ten-tonne book at him. Instead I left the library and ran back to the common room so that he couldn't follow me.

0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0

After dinner I came up to the common room to then have Henry pull me to the side.

"Hi Rose," He said nervously.

"Hey Henry," I politely replied.

"Would you please do me the honour of being my partner to the Halloween Ball," Henry practically blurted out a little louder than I think he meant to, which caused most people to turn to us.

What do I do? I thought, If I turn him down in front of everyone he'll be hurt and he's so nice, but what about the gossip that could go around? Then I remembered the conversation Malfoy and I had in the library earlier today and was determined to prove him wrong, I can take care of myself.

"Sure, Henry," I replied with – what I hoped was – an excitedly cheerful smile. I second I agreed something felt wrong. My smile was forced. My cheerfulness was fake. It all felt wrong for some reason. But I tried to ignore it and continue with the decision I just made.

0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0

Later that night Fie and Mya were both worriedly looking over at me, so I asked, "What is it? You guys are worried about me?"

"You don't seem happy to go with Henry," Fie said from her bed.

Mya was walking over to my bed – that I was sitting on – and sat down. She then said, "You can be a brilliant actress to the rest of the world but you know that doesn't work on us," She was very serious. So I replied, "It just doesn't feel right to with him but I don't know who would be the person who could make it feel right is, if that makes any sense?"

Both Fie and Mya nodded and shared a look.

"Well, if anything happens tell us ok?" Fie assured me. I nodded, "Thanks."

"Yeah we don't want you to make another runner for the Forbidden Forest, would we?" Mya joked, we all laughed and went to sleep.