Chapter 15: You Look Pretty Sinking or, She Walks Away Like A Lady

Rating: M mainly for language, and I can't discount any funny business later on

Disclaimer: I work with only what the infallible J.K. Rowling has given me.

It wasn't exactly common knowledge that Rose had a soft spot for magical creatures — any animals, really, but magical creatures were a special sort of soft spot for her.

Al, knowing this, had informed her that Hagrid had told him - unintentionally, of course - that there was a griffin recuperating from a broken leg in one of the paddocks behind his hut, far enough away that no one would find it accidentally.

So it was with barely concealed excitement that Rose made herself scarce after lunch and slipped away past the stone pillars and trees as she found herself alone on the empty grounds. She didn't really expect to see anyone there — most of the students were still inside eating, and being a Saturday, there weren't any classes taking place.

It was a cold day in March, but the sun was beating down, and Rose kept out of the shadows as she walked, enjoying the way the pumpkin patch looked as it was illuminated by the sun. As she passed the windows of Hagrid's hut, she frowned and paused before leaning back to scrutinise past her reflection.

Her reflection's forehead creased as she took another look at what she had previously disregarded as a figment of some deranged brain, and turned, crooking an eyebrow in amusement despite the sudden tightness in her throat. "First Hogsmeade, now here? Are you following me?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes as he continued down the hill, and Rose crossed her arms as she waited for him to get within normal speaking distance.

"I thought you were heading down to the pitch, and I was going to let you be, but then I saw you heading the other way, and…" He shrugged. "I was curious."

"I'm sure that's what all stalkers say."

Scorpius adjusted his scarf and nodded understandingly before his expression became perplexed. "Are you stealing pumpkins?"

"Close."

"Humour me. Where are you going?"

Rose shrugged before smirking. "Nowhere."

Scorpius cocked his head before saluting her. "Alright, well, if I never see you again, I'll be sure to inform McGonagall that this was the last sighting of you. Do you have the time?"

Rose tsked. "So much for curiosity." She walked on, keeping him in her eyeline, and after a moment, she raised her eyebrows at him quizzically. "Well? Are you coming?"

Scorpius studied her for a moment longer before he gave a dramatic sigh and followed her path. "Someone needs to make sure you don't die."

"I didn't realise that was a priority of yours."

"Don't be so fucking morbid, Weasley."

He held up a low hanging branch above their heads, waiting for Rose to pass before he ducked underneath. "Don't tell me you've roped me into some secret detention you've got?" He spared her a brief glance. "Nah, you're far too happy to have detention." He did a double take as they passed a clearing in the woods. "Is that the Thestral paddock?"

Rose nodded, and she didn't know why, but she heard herself asking, "Can you see them?"

Scorpius hesitated before shaking his head. "No, I can't. Can you?"

Rose shook her head too. "No. I'd like to— not, like that, obviously!" She went pink and broke their eye contact before clearing her throat and pointing ahead of them. "Look, we're almost there."

"You mean there's more forest in this forest?"

"It's not the forest we're interested in."

It was only when they reached the edge of the glade that they could see the corner of the paddock's gate. As they drew closer, Rose could hear scratching and what sounded like the ruffling of feathers. She grinned, increasing her pace until the entire enclosure came into view. Reaching the latch on the gate, she turned back to issue Scorpius a smug look. To her surprise, she saw him at a standstill a few paces back, a guarded expression on his face as he affixed the animal in front of them.

She frowned. "What's wrong?"

He didn't appear to hear her, and it was only when she said his name that he jolted, and blinked a few times. "What? No, nothing."

She beckoned him forward. "Don't you want to get a better look?"

She could've sworn the mumble out of his mouth sounded a lot like "Not really", but, he reluctantly joined her at the fence. Her gaze slid down towards the non-existent space between her coat sleeve and his, and then back up.

"It's magnificent, isn't it?" she said.

Although the griffin had initially taken an interest in the two strangers as they approached, it had considered them for only a few moments before it had resumed grooming itself.

"I wish we could get closer."

Scorpius scoffed. "I'm perfectly fine here, thanks very much."

Rose felt a tiny smile creeping across her face, and she braced an elbow on the fence as she turned to look at him. "Call me crazy, but you're acting a little—"

"Vigilant?"

"Twitchy."

Scorpius made a face, fastening his coat more tightly around him. "I'm behaving as I always do."

Rose squinted, and then nodded at him, no longer hiding her smile. "Stick your hand in then. Not far, just, hold your hand over the gate."

Scorpius's fingers immediately curled into fists and he pulled them back. "Safety hazard." He pointed vaguely at the nearest segment of fence. "There are probably signs everywhere prohibiting exactly that."

"Prohibiting what?" Rose asked in amusement. "This?" She stuck her hand out in front of them, waved it around a little, and returned it back to the safety of her torso.

"Now you've done it, Weasley, what did I tell you, look at THAT — oh."

Having fluffed out its feathers, the griffin laid its head back down onto its front legs.

"An easy mistake to-ah — SEE!"

Scorpius yelped and pulled them both away from the paddock's entrance. The griffin yawned again, unmoved by Scorpius' outburst, and tucked its head away out of sight.

Rose could still feel the heat and pressure from where his fingers had clasped around her shoulders, and she flexed her fingers, glancing sideways at him. "It's okay. I don't think it's paying attention to us anymore." A thought occurred to her, and she issued Scorpius a curious look. "I've heard Malfoy Manor's full of swans."

"Unfounded rumour," Scorpius dismissed, still staring at the griffin with intense suspicion. "Why in Merlin's name would we want our home to be populated with those vicious, hissing beasts?"

Rose shrugged. "They look pretty."

"So do I."

Rose rolled her eyes and looked back into the paddock, but she made no move to get closer to it. "I never thought I'd get to see one."

Scorpius was silent for a while before he inclined his head. "It's got a splint," he noted.

Rose nodded. "That's why it's here. Hagrid's helping it recover before he sends it back on its way."

"Why didn't you do this, then?" Scorpius asked suddenly. "Instead of people, I mean."

She pondered. "I don't know."

A breeze wafted through the forest, stirring up the smell of leaves and moss, and the griffin curled tighter into itself against the cold. Rose too burrowed tighter into her coat.

"We'd best not disturb it anymore," she said quietly. "I just wanted to get a look."

Even with the wind picking up, the sun still danced through the trees, bathing the glade in a dusty glow, and the griffin's fur looked as if it were dappled with molten gold. Feeling the warmth on her face, she turned to comment on this to Scorpius but met eyes that were inexplicably already looking at her. His own face was cloaked in shadow.

"Yeah."

They had just stepped out from the under the thick cover of trees when Rose immediately felt the soft splattering of wetness on her skin. Scorpius looked up too, into the sun-speckled, spring rain, and held up a hand to shield his eyes.

"Good timing, I guess," he offered. "Should be enough time for us to get back."

Rose shook her head. "Now you've done it."

He frowned at her wry expression. "What do you mean? Done what?"

Rose sighed and picked her way past him. "Never tempt fate, Malfoy. It's what makes the gods laugh."

"Weasley, I never took you for a superstitious and illogical-"

Rose silently held up a finger, and then with a clap of thunder, it promptly began to tank down around them. Scorpius, dumbstruck, turned to meet her smug expression, and without a word, they took off running back up the hill.

Rose pointed to an old weeping birch tree a little ways to their left and called, "We can wait under there until it lets up!"

The castle was still at least a few minutes away, even at a run - and with the amount of mud and sopping grass they couldn't really keep up their pace - and Scorpius conceded as he followed her and ducked underneath the drooping branches.

Once inside, he immediate shook out his hair, and Rose was taken aback by how human and well, un-Scorpius, the act was, and she much more covertly began to squeeze out the excess from her ponytail as well.

She scoped out a relatively dry area of ground and sat down, cross-legged, as she waited for Scorpius to do the same.

"What were you saying?" she asked innocently as she looked up at him. "Superstitious and—?"

"Illogical," Scorpius grumbled as he sat. "Or something."

While Rose had settled herself with her back resting against the trunk of the tree, Scorpius had chosen a spot opposite her, and he looked around at the leaves above them; while they warded off most of the incoming drops, a few still managed to evade the branches. He lowered his gaze back down, and something seemed to catch his eye. His brow furrowed, and he leaned forward, his eyes on the trunk behind Rose.

Her breath immediately stilled, and she cast her eyes downwards, already knowing what had caught his attention.

"RW and NB," he read out loud, raising his eyebrows. His expression took on a scornful edge. "No heart?"

"Nate did that," Rose said, her cheeks warm despite the cold. "We were fifteen."

Scorpius met her eyes again but said nothing, and he had no right to judge her, he had no right to judge anything Rose had done or felt, not when she was out here carving her initials into trees, and he was inside doing God knew what with—

"So is it weird?" he asked instead.

"Is what weird?"

He shrugged. "Being out here with me instead of him."

Rose shook her head, and, feeling the pooling of water on her shoulder, reached up into her hair and undid her ponytail, letting the wet strands loosen and dry in the air. "I've been coming here for years by myself to, you know, read and think. Nate's never been back here." Even with her back to the trunk, she still knew exactly what it looked like. "I showed him this place anyhow, I figure I've got dibs on it."

Scorpius nodded slowly, his eyes still hovering behind her, and then with one last look, he turned his gaze on her instead. "I don't know how this keeps happening," he admitted, a thin smile flickering across his face.

Something alighted in Rose's chest, and she cleared her throat. "What?"

He hitched his shoulders up. "How we keep getting into situations like this. Hogsmeade a few weeks ago, Hogsmeade a few months ago even, and now this—"

"Hogsmeade was a Heads-sanctioned event," Rose pointed out. "We couldn't exactly not go."

"The club wasn't though," Scorpius considered evenly. "We did that all by ourselves."

Rose didn't know why he was saying these things, things that under their best judgment, they should let pass, because they were things that made them stop and think that maybe they shouldn't be here at all, and maybe that would be enough for them to leave. The thought twisted into her stomach like a knife.

"It's only a bit of rain," she said quietly. "We could-"

"It's like Noah's fucking Ark out there, Weasley," Scorpius interjected. "It would be stupid to leave."

Rose pulled in the side of her mouth, and then she nodded, interlacing her fingers. "Al and Gen will be wondering where I am."

"Did you not tell them where you were going?"

Rose shook her head. "No, I did. Al was the one who told me about the griffin in the first place."

"How'd he find out?"

"Shouldn't you know?" Rose said, a dry smile playing on her lips. "You know, since you guys are so close now and everything?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "What with boys and nails, we don't really have time to talk about anything else." He cracked a smirk - which Rose thought could've passed for a smile - but then his expression grew more serious, and he shrugged. "I think sometimes he needs some male company. You know, someone to go to with girl problems, for relationship advice."

Rose's eyes grew comically wide. "And he comes to you for relationship advice? Why, was Warren Beatty unavailable?"

"Albus cares more about being a good partner than I ever have," Scorpius admitted after allowing another smirk at her pass. "He worries over nothing."

Rose smiled. "They're a good match."

Scorpius nodded, and then he frowned a little before picking up a broken off twig from the ground and trailing it in the dirt. "Why do you think it worked out for them?"

Rose cocked her head at him. "...Because they're a good match?"

"No, I mean…" He paused and dug the stick in even more. "Why do you think it's so easy for some people to just…decide they want to be together, and they just do it."

He was still looking at the ground, and Rose blinked a few times, unsure of the answer he wanted. "I'm uh…I'm probably not the best person to ask," she said with an uneasy laugh. "I guess I don't have much experience with that kind of thing." She hesitated, hedging her bets, but then she realised she didn't have that much to lose. "Didn't you…you know, want to be with Liv?"

At the sound of her name, Scorpius finally looked up at her, and his eyes were as startling as ever. "I never wanted much of anything when it came to Liv," he said slowly, as if maybe he were just figuring that out himself. "It just made sense. We were already friends, and we were doing all that other stuff too, it complicated things more if we weren't together, in a weird sort of way."

A droplet that had collected on a strand of his hair gave way, and Rose's eyes couldn't help but follow it as it trailed down his collarbone, and she stared at that taut skin, beaded with water, and she suddenly wondered whether the rain would be warmer on his skin than it was in the sky.

She coughed abruptly, ignoring her ridiculous brain, hoping he hadn't noticed her wandering eyes. "It's funny how complicated the simple things get."

"Did you know?"

Rose's eyebrows raised. "About Al and Gen?"

"Yeah." He paused. "Only you looked a little taken aback that day when we got back from the Hospital Wing, and they were, you know…"

Her forehead creased and she drew her legs in, hugging her arms around them. "I guess I always had a sneaking suspicion when it came to Al. He's never been good at hiding his feelings. Gen was trickier."

"You mean better?"

Rose shook her head, her mouth puckered in thought. "I think Gen held back for my benefit, but I don't think she felt the same way until last year at the earliest." Her expression turned wry. "You've never been this interested in my friends before."

Scorpius held her gaze for a few moments before he shrugged, tossing the stick back onto the ground. "We've never been stranded out during a rainstorm before."

Rose blinked; she had forgotten that that was why they were here, that they weren't simply out here because they wanted to be. The silence in the air suddenly hung heavy.

"It's stopped raining," Scorpius said, and maybe that was why.

Rose scrambled to her feet and stepped back out into the open air. "There's a rainbow," she said, letting out a breath and pointing ahead of them. "And a blue sky."

Scorpius followed her out and stood next to her, sunlight glinting off every droplet in his hair. "We should probably head back then," he said. "You know, now that the rain has stopped."

"Yeah," Rose said after a moment. "We probably should."

He nodded and tightened the scarf around his neck before adjusting the collar of his coat. The movement caused the fabric to billow out slightly, and something caught Rose's attention.

"What?" he asked when he saw her staring.

She pointed to the pocket sewn into the inside of his coat. "You — you had your wand."

He followed her gaze and blinked. "Oh, right, I didn't even realise what with the rain and, you know, the tree and everything." He cleared his throat, turning his attention back to the sky. "Think we're tempting fate again by just standing here?"

Rose bit her lip to keep herself from smiling. "Probably."

As they walked back to the castle together, this time she couldn't keep the smile away as the rainbow arced in the sunlight above them and her fingers brushed over the wand sitting inconspicuously in the back pocket of her jeans.

Scorpius had had a good weekend. An uneventful Sunday, but… a more eventful than had been expected Saturday. He walked into Potions on Monday morning, his good mood persisting, and he swept a cursory gaze over the classroom, not looking for anyone in particular, just…looking.

She was the only redhead in the room, so it was only natural that he immediately noticed her at the front, and he pulled out a piece of parchment from his bag as he walked over to where she was sitting. Al saw him first and lifted a hand in greeting.

"Good weekend?" he asked.

His cousin had turned at Al's words, and she looked at him then, her expression unfathomable but still somehow expectant.

His lips twitched. "I'd say so."

She looked down, a tiny smile turning her lips up, and Scorpius suddenly thought that saying it had been a good weekend seemed like the understatement of the century.

He held out the parchment to her. "I've got one of the pages of your Defence assignment; it probably got mixed up with my stuff when we were studying on Saturday."

"Oh, I didn't even notice," she said, taking it and putting it back into her bag. "Thanks."

From next to her, Genevieve raised a brow but said nothing. Al suddenly launched into an excited spiel about how the Holyhead Harpies' Quidditch Captain was under investigation for tampering with Bludgers before a match, with Rose chipping in about how the papers had gotten the details wrong. Genevieve's eyes were narrowed as she watched Scorpius talk to her boyfriend and best friend, and it didn't bother him as such, but it wasn't exactly encouraging his good mood.

A throat cleared pointedly at the front of the room, and Scorpius looked up to see Professor Xavier staring at him with open interest, and he abruptly hurried to where Toby had just arrived and was setting up his things further back.

"Good morning, all," their Professor said as soon as Scorpius had sat down. "I trust you've had an enjoyable weekend. Like I said at the end of last class, we will be brewing the Amortenia potion today. As I also made a point of saying, Amortentia is an extremely dangerous potion, and any student seen storing any of it will receive immediate disciplinary action."

He flicked his wand at the board behind him, and letters began to carve themselves into the chalk. "You will have until eleven to finish. Instructions can be found on page fourty-six of your textbooks."

Toby grinned archly, waggling his eyebrows. "Ready to fall in love with me?"

"I thought I already had," Scorpius answered dryly.

Xavier's voice cut through their conversation. "Sit down, Mr Rosenthal — and put those away. I have yet to assign partners and somehow you have managed to collect almost every ingredient besides the ones you actually require in the five seconds that have passed."

He flicked his wand again, and two columns of names started to form. Scorpius sought his out immediately, and then promptly said goodbye to his good mood.

She didn't look too pleased either, even when her friend gave her a consoling smile before rising up and taking her place next to a Ravenclaw near the back of the room.

Scorpius sighed, turning to Toby and dramatically declaring, "Promise you'll wait for me," before he went to sit in Rose Weasley's now unoccupied seat. His new partner kept her gaze on her textbook as he arrived, and he promptly remembered that the last real contact he'd had with Genevieve Chang was when he had catapulted a cushion straight into her face. He wondered if that would be a good ice breaker.

Before he had a chance to think on it further, she pushed out her chair and said, "Ingredients. I'll work my way down, you work your way up."

Scorpius knit his brow, not used to being ordered about in the Potions classroom and immediately deciding that he was not a fan of such a situation — but she had already set off, so he knit his brow some more and did the same.

When he reached the store cupboard, Rose was piling Ashwinder eggs into her arms while her partner headed back to their table with his hands full of peppermint.

"Careful, I hear Walker's almost as clumsy as he is stupid," Scorpius said in an undertone. "I wouldn't let him near any of the glass stuff if I were you."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "You know, that's almost like something a friend would say."

"Almost, Weasley," he replied before carrying the ingredients back to their work station. Gen was already looking at him as he walked over, and her eyes seemed to be perpetually narrowed, her mouth getting tighter by the second.

He sighed internally, and decided today he wasn't in the mood for an argument. "Listen, I know the two of us don't exactly like each other, but we don't have to in order to make a good potion. We just need to get along well enough to work properly and avoid mistakes. So how about it?"

She appraised him for a few seconds before she nodded slowly, closing her textbook. She angled her head towards Scorpius', and, after a moment, he pushed it over so that she could see it as well.

She wasn't a bad partner, he grudgingly admitted, especially when the frown on her face started to disappear when she realised that they were at least three stages in front of all the groups around them.

Then Steven Walker stumbled past him with a glass beaker and he automatically turned to issue a significant look at Rose, who pressed her lips together and shook her head at him, and when he turned back, that frown was back in full force.

"Something the matter?" he asked lightly after a few seconds, crushing moonstone into powder with a pestle.

"What do you want with her, Malfoy."

"What do I want with her?"

Gen kept cutting up the rose thorns, her eyes fixed on the movement of her knife. "You spend the best part of six years despising each other - taking any and all opportunities to show that - and then suddenly you're going out clubbing together and dancing during Christmas Balls, then you save her from a Bludger, and somehow you end up at the same table on Valentine's Day."

"You've simply stated a course of events. I don't know what you want me to do with that information."

"I want you to explain why those course of events are a course of events."

"This seems like a friend conversation. Why don't you have it with yours?"

The knife sliced down with a violent crack on her cutting board. "Because I trust Rose, and I wouldn't trust you further than I could throw you."

"I don't think you could throw me anywhere."

"Is it a game or something?" she asked waspishly, finally turning those steely eyes on him. "Do you have a bet on how long it takes before she sleeps with you? Is that it?"

"Jesus, Chang, it's not even ten o'clock."

"Or is it worse than that, huh? Do you actually like her?"

He paused here, for the slightest fraction of a second, before he weighed the crushed powder on a scale, even though he already knew it was the right amount. "If we hadn't been paired up in this class, when were you planning on asking me this?"

"I don't want to, but I'm taking that as a "yes"."

"Then you don't know any more than you did before I came here."

She put her knife down, and frankly Scorpius' immediate thought was to grab it before she decided to abandon their civility and stab him with it. She checked the temperature of their cauldron and after consulting the textbook, poured in half of the prepped thorns. "I know you and Al are…friends now, or something, okay, I know he sees something in you that he doesn't hate." She rotated the thermometer around so that she could see the numbered side. "I want to know if you're giving Rose reason to see the same thing."

"So what you really want to know is if I'm being nice to her. Sure Chang, we share notes and sing kum-bah-ya together, it's a fuckin' ball."

"You don't intimidate me, you know," she informed him. "Not in the slightest. Not with your permanent glares or the way you flaunt your knowledge about, or the way you speak like you know better."

"Come to think of it, what good did nice guys do for her anyway? Braithwaite, Wells — don't even get me started on Goldstein-"

"Why do you care who Rose dated-"

"What do you want, Chang?" He turned on her, and unlike most, she didn't flinch. He didn't know if that impressed or annoyed him more. "You want things to go back to how they were before this year? Humour me, do you think it's possible that the peace between us might actually be doing the pair of us some good?"

"Is it a peace or a ceasefire?"

The cauldron bubbled next to them, and Scorpius immediately lifted it off the flames, cursing that if there was one conversation and one person that was going to make him fuck up his potion, it was this conversation and Genevieve Chang.

As the liquid simmered down and Scorpius saw that their concoction was unaffected, he put the pot back onto its stand.

"Are you and Albus going to stay together forever?" he finally asked.

She was visibly taken aback, her tone immediately defensive. "What?"

"You and Albus," Scorpius repeated. "Are you going to move in together? Get married?"

"I don't know," she admitted, and it was obvious that she didn't like that she was divulging this to him.

"Well then, I don't know either. But maybe you're hoping you will."

She said nothing, only continued to stare at him, and for once Scorpius thought she wasn't going to argue back. He dropped his gaze back to his textbook for a second and then added the rest of the rose thorns. Soon after, he felt the weight of her gaze leave him.

"It's ready," he said after a minute of stirring.

Gen leaned in and sniffed the potion. Her brow immediately furrowed a little as she drew back, her gaze dropping back to the cutting board on the table, and then she stepped back fully, nodding at him.

Scorpius had brewed Amortentia before in order to test the effects of an antidote he had helped to curate, so he already knew what he would smell, but he bent down anyway. He froze, blinking furiously as his eyes glazed over and his blood iced in his veins. He recognised the scent instantly.

"Do my eyes deceive me?" came the voice that he recognised instantly.

Scorpius jerked up, his eyes settling on the test tube that the hand in front of him was holding.

"Am I handing in a potion before the Prodigal Son himself?"

Rose was grinning, but that grin faded when Scorpius failed to reply. "Malfoy?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Gen was looking at him suspiciously as well, but, unlike Rose, there was no element of concern on her face.

The panic that had gripped his heart loosened its hold, and he could breathe again. "Just making sure the potion's ready," he said, bringing out his wand and magicking a sample into their own test tube.

Rose scrutinised him for a second more before her gaze passed towards her friend and she gave her a smile before continuing towards Xavier's desk.

"You know, if it had been last year, she would've been the one lying in the Hospital Wing with broken bones," he said, his eyes never leaving the girl at the front of the room.

Gen was staring ahead too, but at his words she turned her head just enough to look at him. "There are worse things than broken bones," she said, her voice hard, and with that, she plucked the test tube out of his hand and walked it up to where her friend was standing.

Scorpius looked back down at the cauldron, his curiosity almost overwhelming him, but he didn't dare lean closer; and before he could change his mind, he waved his wand, and it disappeared.

Rose thought her day could've gone better.

Her second period Potions class had left her with an uncomfortable feeling simmering in the pit of her stomach, and nothing she had done since then had done anything to quell it. Even attempting to focus on her Defence assignment had done little to distract her; glancing at her poorly written and subsequently abandoned assignment on the floor, really, her attempt had backfired.

So Rose had turned instead to the package that her mother had sent to her a few weeks before, and now the table that she had been working on was littered with jigsaw pieces. It didn't stop her mind from running, but at least her future wasn't riding on how quickly she could put the jigsaw together.

Her head twitched when suddenly she heard John H. Wyatt's friendly voice from the other side of the portrait hole, and she inadvertently let out a slow exhale, twiddling with the pieces she was no longer looking at.

"We've been relieved," Scorpius announced as he walked in, his rucksack still on his shoulder.

Rose looked up and blinked. "Relieved how?"

Scorpius opened his bedroom door enough to drop his bag inside and closed it again. "McGonagall caught me as I was leaving the library and said that she's giving our rounds to Ainsworth and Prescott as punishment for uh…abusing theirs."

Rose made a face. "How is giving them further opportunity to do that helpful?"

Scorpius shrugged. "The woman's got years of experience. Anyway, it means that we don't have to patrol in the freezing cold until midnight." He got a closer look at what she was doing and frowned. "I'm sure there's some spell that might allow you to reassemble that without all of this work."

Rose rolled her eyes and spied a piece in the box that she had been looking for. "This isn't a chore, Malfoy, it's a game. And you're more than welcome to help."

He pursed his lips but wandered over to where she was sitting, lowering himself down until he was seated opposite her.

"Um…" Rose bit her lip. "You might want to sit on this side. You know, so you're not looking at it upside down."

"Oh."

She scooted a little off to the side as he repositioned himself next to her, studying the table with his brow lined in thought. The table they were working on was small, so with both of their legs crossed, there was less than an inch separating them. Because of the lack of space.

"These pieces all look the same."

Rose followed his gaze to the cluster of grass pieces she had picked out earlier and stifled her grin. "Well, try them out, there's only one that'll fit." To illustrate her point, she fitted together two of the pieces and added a third to the board. "See?"

Scorpius stared at the pieces she had moved before he glanced at her. "Where did you even get one of these? I've never seen one in my life."

"My mum mailed it to me a little while ago. I've been doing jigsaws since I was little."

"Jigsaw?" Scorpius repeated, picking up the cover to inspect it properly. "Ages twelve and up?" he scoffed. "Hardly."

Rose chuckled. "It's more of a guideline."

"I'll say."

"Yes," Rose said, musingly. "My ten year old cousin Lucy very much enjoys doing them."

Scorpius looked up sharply, but upon seeing Rose's lips pressed together to hide her smile, he softened, and bent down to study the pieces again.

Rose caught him staring at her out of the corner of his eye as she handpicked pieces out of the box and fit them into their respective places. She bit her lip to stop herself from laughing, and kept working. A moment later, he reached for the box and shuffled around in it for a little while, picking out anything that looked vaguely blue.

"What're you doing?" she asked, unable to stop herself.

He met her gaze, and if she didn't know better, she'd say he looked slightly sheepish. "I thought I'd pick out the blue ones, you know, to do the sky."

Rose reached out and tapped one of the pieces in his palm, ignoring the rush of heat down her fingertips and into her stomach as she brushed the skin at his wrist. "This piece is a part of the blue barn over there, and this one belongs to the puddles on the ground."

"Oh." He put them back into the box.

"But, um…" She tapped the remaining piece. "I've been looking for this one for ages."

Scorpius looked at the hole in the corner of the sky and after considering, slotted the piece in. "So how do you balance it? You know, your parents coming from two different backgrounds?"

Rose blinked, taken aback by the question. "My um…my dad didn't have much growing up; except company. He had a lot of siblings so they sort of relied on each other for entertainment. My mum was an only child so this sort of stuff is mainly from her."

Scorpius nodded slowly, not meeting her eyes as he continued to shuffle about in the box. "Did you go to Muggle school?"

"Well, I just called it 'school'," Rose said, smiling wryly. "But yes, I did."

"Me too."

She looked up in surprise, and Scorpius' lips twitched at her expression. "It's not the Pureblood way, I know, but my parents thought there were things I needed to learn that wouldn't be taught at Hogwarts."

"What age did you stop?"

Scorpius smirked. "There were incidents. My parents had to go in and wipe some memories. My father knew we were taking a risk by letting me go there but my mother insisted we try. I got a tutor when I was five."

Rose looked at the piece in her hand, one half of the bird that was sitting in Scorpius' palm. She indicated at it and hesitantly took it from his hand, joining it with hers. His eyes were glued to the board when she looked back at him.

She cleared her throat. "So is that where you learnt all those pop-culture references you know?"

"Haven't I already answered this?" he asked, raising an amused brow.

"Badly," she replied smartly.

Scorpius seemed to consider for a while before he wet his lips. "My parents didn't want me growing up closed minded. My father has always believed that ignorance played a big part in…everything that happened."

Rose tried to imagine Scorpius as a young boy, in a home with a television that played Muggle movies, in a home that had turned that young boy into who she saw now.

Almost like he had read her mind, Scorpius toyed with the piece he was holding and said, "But my parents weren't the ones who showed me musicals. Liv did."

Rose wondered how their conversations always managed to come back to her; somehow she had allowed herself to forget that Liv had been a significant part of Scorpius' life for far longer than she had ever been. The forgotten discomfort in her stomach made itself known again.

"I never pegged Liv as the musical type," she confessed instead.

"She isn't really," Scorpius admitted, reaching over her to place a piece by her elbow. "Her parents showed them to her, and once she showed them to me and Toby, Toby got completely stuck on them and ordered Liv to take us through her entire collection." He laughed, shaking his head, and Rose suddenly thought that he was the only real puzzle worth solving in this room.

"How do her parents — I mean, isn't she—"

"Muggle-born," Scorpius finished for her.

Rose's mouth fell open before she could stop herself, and she blinked several times in incomprehension.

"You didn't know?"

He didn't look judgemental, just surprised, and Rose bit her lip. "I um…I just assumed," she said truthfully.

Silence washed over them as Rose wracked her brain for something to follow it up, but her struggle was forgotten when she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Oh, god, I didn't realise how late it had gotten," she breathed.

Scorpius followed her gaze. "It's not that late," he said. "How early do you go to bed?"

She waved him off. "No, I um…I was working on our Defence essay earlier but uh…I wasn't getting anywhere with it so I put it down to give myself a break and now I—" She faltered and sighed. "I suppose it'll have to be a late night."

Scorpius studied her for a few long moments before he shrugged. "I've got Charms to do, I haven't started that one."

"That one's not due for another week," Rose said, frowning a little. "Right?"

"Right." Scorpius shrugged again. "But there's no time like the present."

When Rose failed to reply (or do much of anything), he got up and headed for his room, soon after re-emerging with his bag and Charms textbook.

Rose pointed at the table. "How're we—I mean, the table's sort of in use."

Scorpius laughed in disbelief, shaking his head at her. "Are you a witch or not?"

He murmured under his breath, and the puzzle and all of its pieces began to hover, Scorpius guiding them onto the desk at the other, colder end of the room. He murmured again, and the dying fire came back to life.

Scorpius was a solitary person by nature, so it was no surprise that his favourite time of day was past curfew, when the castle was quiet and dark, when he could loosen his tie ever so slightly and roll up his sleeves until they tucked about his elbows. He checked his watch; it was just past eleven. He didn't usually wander the castle so late, but tonight wasn't strictly a curriculum-approved kind of night, and he needed to minimise his chances of a run-in.

So when the sound of his footsteps were coupled with an intruding set coming from the adjacent corridor, he stiffened, his right hand immediately grasping the fabric of his tie as he made to right it.

The sight of her didn't surprise him. Scorpius, as established, was a solitary person by nature and her arrival had quite frankly ruined that for him, but when his gaze landed on her curious eyes, the tugging of a smile at her lips, he thought there was the smallest chance that solitude was overrated.

"Hey," she said, and with that little word something in his throat jumped, and made the calculated effort of clearing it before he replied. That didn't much surprise him either.

"Hey."

"What're you doing out here so late?" Rose asked once she had reached him.

Scorpius inclined his head at her. "Why, do you want to corroborate excuses? I'm going to take a gander that mine is better than yours."

"The bar is set pretty low." She waggled her Transfiguration textbook at him. "Go on, impress me."

Scorpius shrugged. "Just something a little off the radar."

Rose raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms. "Oh? And what, might I ask, is the Head Boy doing that is "a little off the radar"?"

Scorpius considered, and before he could change his mind, he took a step backwards. "Care to take a walk on the wild side?"

Rose rolled her eyes, but a shiver of thrill snaked down Scorpius' spine when she took a step forward to land where Scorpius had stood previously. "Didn't we recently establish that neither of us qualifies as being particularly wild?"

Scorpius continued to increase the distance between them, cocking his head at her as she pursed her lips.

"I would consider our little excursion on Saturday to be on the more exciting side of things."

"I know you would. I suppose if someone sees us we could say we're on Heads business."

"For all you know, we could be."

He waited for her to catch up before pivoting around and leading her down the corridor.

"So how'd you manage to evade Pince? Doesn't the woman skulk around the entire library during closing time?"

A twinkle entered Rose's eyes. "Evidently, my prowess around a library far exceeds your own. She has a blind spot."

"Might I ask where?"

"You might, but I won't tell you where it is."

Scorpius shrugged. "You wouldn't find me in any secluded corner of the library. You do realise you're probably studying on relatively unholy ground?" When she frowned at him, he nodded smugly.

She pulled a face. "Must you do that?"

He spread his hands. "Just giving you a health and safety warning. I'm sure it's a very…educational area."

Suddenly he felt an elbow in his side, and he blinked. Rose, having realised what she'd done, hugged her arms around her torso and slipped a hair away.

"Um…" Rose said they walked past the Transfiguration corridor and out towards the back end of the castle, "is this the part where you lure me outside and kill me?"

"You weren't very difficult to lure," Scorpius pointed out. "And no. Unfortunately, I don't have an alibi."

"Okay, where are we going?"

He looked back at her and smirked. "Scared, Weasley? I thought I was bringing along a Gryffindor."

"You're bringing along the Head Girl, and the Head Girl wants to know where we're going."

"Hush, you're ruining the surprise."

The greenhouses were almost pitch black from the outside, save for the little baubles of light dotted around the greenhouse closest to them that housed the nocturnal plants.

Rose snorted. "Don't tell me you dragged me along to watch you do last minute homework?"

Scorpius scoffed. "As if. Professor Longbottom asked me to help him with something."

They continued walking past the cluster of five greenhouses, and then Scorpius stopped at the door of the one positioned a ways away from the others, feeling around in his pocket for the key.

"I don't think I've ever been in Greenhouse Six before," Rose said as he slotted it into the keyhole.

He flashed his teeth. "Something a little off the radar."

He pushed open the door and moved aside the curtain that hung in the entrance, putting the key back into his pocket whilst dimly hearing her move past him into the glasshouse.

"Ooh." Rose bent to peer at the plant on the table. "It's so pretty, what's it-ahh!"

Scorpius, acting purely on instinct, had grabbed her around the waist from behind and tugged her towards him, holding her flush against his chest, and he figured it must've been the shock that stilled her thought processes, because she didn't push him away.

They stood there in silence, the twin intakes and exhales of air the only noise in the room before Scorpius let out a long breath. "Don't touch that, Weasley. It may look pretty but it'll swallow you whole."

Rose nodded slowly, the movement causing her ponytail to brush at Scorpius' collarbone. "No touching, got it."

Her words hung in the air between them, and Scorpius' arms snapped to his sides at the exact moment Rose propelled herself hastily forward. She drew a hand through her ponytail before gesturing vaguely at the rest of the greenhouse. "I'll uh...I'll stick behind you."

Scorpius mutely nodded and twisted sideways to edge past her, heading towards the end of the room, seemingly empty besides a black screen that stood from floor to ceiling. He spared a glance at Rose out of the corner of his eye as he rolled the partition out of the way, revealing a modestly-sized tank draped in a black fabric.

Rose frowned at it, and shot him a questioning look.

"It disturbs the other plants," Scorpius explained.

"What disturbs…them-"

Scorpius had reached out and pulled off the fabric, and Rose wordlessly moved forward towards the glowing tank and lowered herself down until she was eye-level with it. Her eyes were wide, and Scorpius felt a little satisfied grin pricking at his lips at the sight. He leaned over the tank, bringing his wand out of his pocket and moving it in a figure-of-eight above it, and as the water agitated, the faint light grew until it was positively beaming. Rose's mouth parted in wonder, her face bathed in soft, blue, sparkling light, and suddenly Scorpius didn't know where to look.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"The Muggles call it bioluminescence," Scorpius replied, and he coughed when his voice came out softer than he'd expected. Rose didn't seem to notice; she'd brought up a finger to rest against the tank, as if hoping somehow she could touch it through the glass.

"What are they?"

Scorpius rubbed his hand against his upper arm, feeling suddenly strange standing behind her. He lowered himself down until they were level, gauging her reaction as he answered, "The proper term for them is dinoflagellates, but most people recognise them as-"

"Plankton," Rose said.

"You remember your Herbology," Scorpius said, impressed.

"It's incredible," she breathed. "This…this is real magic."

Scorpius felt the corner of his lips twitch again. "You haven't seen anything yet."

He waved his wand and passed it in an arc above them, and suddenly the entire greenhouse was flooded in that bright, dazzling blue. Rose let out a delighted laugh as she watched each little plankton encased in a bubble of water create their own ball of light in every space of the room, and God, Scorpius could've bottled the sound. She blew very softly on one, and smiled as it lightly bumped into the one next to it before re-settling.

Scorpius had never seen her so relaxed in his presence, and he wracked his brain for any other way he could ensure that that smile returned.

Her face suddenly came into focus, and her questioning look made him realise she had asked him something.

His brow creased. "Sorry, what?"

Rose cracked a grin. "I guess you never get used to it, huh?"

He supposed the laugh he managed sounded natural enough because Rose tilted her head at the other side of the room. "Anyways, I thought you said they disturb the other plants."

Her question jolted Scorpius back into reality, and he realised he didn't quite want to be back there. "They can survive an hour or so, don't worry."

Rose was still playing with the plankton, curling and twisting her fingers so that the little bubbles drifted against her skin. "What exactly does Professor Longbottom want you to do with these?"

"Uh…research, basically," Scorpius said, scratching his head, and he raised his hand to find himself copying her movements. "Bioluminescence occurs due to a chemical reaction produced by these organisms. Professor Longbottom wants to find out exactly what that chemical is, and how we can recreate it."

"For?"

"Among other things, it can produce neurotoxins that can be used as a relaxant for some of the more…over-zealous plants."

"Like the ones that tried to eat us?" Rose asked wryly.

"Like those ones," Scorpius confirmed.

He watched as a little bubble bumped into Rose's index finger, and she gasped and pulled her hand back as she watched it right itself.

"You can touch it," Scorpius assured her.

She met his eyes, and then looked up at the plankton again, but her hand was still curled into a fist, hesitant at her side.

Without quite realising he was doing it, Scorpius reached out and cupped one of the bubbles, closing the few steps between them and placing it into her hand. The warmth of her palm grazed his, and then his mind began to whir. What the fuck are you doing? he thought frantically. The first time was an accident, but this is…definitely not that.

He stepped away hastily, crossing his arms and praying that they would just fucking stay there, and it occurred to him that it was happening again, this thing between them was happening again. And then it occurred to him that maybe these things were happening to them because they allowed them to, because in some ways, they were actively seeking them out.

"Hey, Malfoy?"

The sound of his name on her lips reminded him that despite what was running through his mind, they weren't friends; he had no idea what they were. But even so, there was something about it that sounded different, something that called to the tiny spark of hope within him and sent it beating unrepentantly against his chest.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for luring me outside."

Scorpius realised that he might not know where he stood with Rose Weasley — hell, he might never know — but right now, in the middle of the night in Greenhouse Six watching as the world swam lazily around them, he didn't care.

"You're welcome."

It was Friday, and Scorpius had forgotten about the fireworks.

"It's tonight?" he had asked that morning at breakfast. "Are you sure?"

"It's my favourite day of the year." Toby had been distraught. "It happens every year. Today. My favourite day. Which is today."

It was ironic, then, that Scorpius sat in the Slytherin Common Room seven minutes before the fireworks were due to start, tapping his leg impatiently when Toby still hadn't appeared. The living area had rapidly emptied out ten minutes before as people scrambled to get a good view to watch the display.

"For fuck's sake, Toby," he muttered, checking his watch again.

Just as he wondered if Toby had forgotten that they were supposed to meet - which wouldn't be entirely uncharacteristic of him - and considered getting up to go and find him, he heard footsteps descending down the girls' staircase.

Liv was holding a piece of parchment, still scanning it as she came down, so she didn't see Scorpius until she approached the sofa he was sitting on.

"Hey," she said, obviously surprised, lowering her arm so the paper hung at waist-height. "What are you still doing here?"

"Waiting for Toby," he replied after he'd raised a hand in greeting. "Though I'm not completely convinced he's going to show."

"Fireworks Night is his favourite night," Liv smirked. "He'll show."

Scorpius allowed a good-natured eye-roll and inclined his head at the parchment. "Posting a letter?"

Liv looked down at it before she nodded. "Yeah. I'm um…sending it to my aunt." She rolled it up, tucking it into her robes. She paused. "I'm asking her if I can stay at hers over the summer. You know, if everything goes well."

She wore the same closed off expression she always wore when she talked about her family - when she had to, she didn't do it often - so, as usual, Scorpius didn't ask her to elaborate.

Instead, he gave her what he hoped looked like a reassuring expression. "See you outside, then?"

She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Can't miss the fireworks."

She waved at him and slipped away, leaving Scorpius staring at the portrait hole long after she had disappeared from sight.

"Okay, how does this sound?" Gen cleared her throat. "You probably know Al - I put Albus Potter in brackets, you know, in case they forgot - and we've been friends for ages, but he's my boyfriend now." She pursed her lips, poising her quill. "Okay, wait, maybe—" She stepped towards the wall next to them, bracing her parchment against it. "We're — together — now. That's less official-sounding."

"You put 'Albus Potter' in brackets?" Rose repeated, laughing.

Gen made a face. "That's all you took from that? Come on, Rose, this is important. I need your literary skills."

"You're writing to your parents, not the Minister. Calm down."

"No, it's just—" Gen sighed. "I've been telling them for years that I'd never date Al and I never saw him in that way, and now out of the blue I have to tell them that we're together."

"And you put 'Albus Potter' in brackets?"

"You are no help."

Rose rolled her eyes, still snorting. "Okay, fine, how about, 'I'm dating Al. We'll see how it goes'."

"Um, no, Rose, I want my parents to think I'm happy about this." She paused, still braced against the wall, angling her head just enough to see Rose. "Are you happy?"

Her sudden shift in tone made Rose blink.

"About you and Al? Of course I am."

"No." Gen shifted to look at her friend properly. "As in, are you happy right now?"

"Right now right now?"

"Be serious."

Rose thought back to the past week, of griffins and greenhouses and sun-speckled rain and felt her lips turn up as warmth spread across her cheeks. "Yeah, I am." She blinked and then suddenly knit her brow. "Why do you ask?"

Gen scrutinised her for a long few moments before her gaze lightened and she shrugged, tucking her finished letter back into her robes. "Just doing my best friend-ly duties. Come on, we don't wanna miss the start."

"Does this have anything to do with a certain Potions class we had this week?"

Gen halted in her tracks for a second before she continued walking. "You said it, not me."

"So it is?" Rose caught up to her, touching a hand to her shoulder. "Why, what happened?"

"Nothing."

"Gen."

Her best friend took out her wand from her robes and twiddled it in her hands. Rose eyed the movement suspiciously. After a moment, Gen pressed her lips together and suddenly looked a little sheepish. "Okay, don't be mad."

"No promises."

They reached the spiral staircase leading up to the Owlery and began to climb.

"This thing with Malfoy, Rose—"

"What thing?"

"Well, that's what I tried to get out of him."

Rose crossed her arms, but her eyes were brimming with eagerness, and something else that Gen didn't want to place.

"I asked him what he wanted with you, why he took that Bludger for you, why the two of you were at Hogsmeade together."

"You know that was for Heads business."

Gen looked her straight in the eyes. "I didn't mean that time."

Rose's eyes widened guiltily as Gen's words sunk in, and the arms she had crossed suddenly wound protectively around her torso. "Gen-"

"I'm not mad, Rose, I promise." The familiar smell hit them as soon as they entered the Owlery and Gen took out the envelope and parchment she had stashed in her robes. "I'm just worried about you."

As Gen whistled for Navajo, Rose folded the parchment and placed it into the envelope. "Why didn't you just ask me?"

"Because I knew you'd tell me everything I wanted to know."

"And that's why you didn't ask me?"

Navajo nipped at Gen's fingers before he took off into the black expanse of sky, one that would soon be filled with bright, explosive lights, but Rose was in no hurry.

"Not telling is just as useful," Gen said.

There was movement behind them, and a few seconds later another owl took off. The two of them watched it as it departed as Navajo had before Gen cleared her throat. "Listen, I didn't ask you because I don't need you to tell me what's going on. But I need to know that you know what you're getting yourself into."

As they turned away from the glassless windows, the dim jumble of noise just discernible in the background began to turn into coherent speakers as people began to assemble below them.

Rose said nothing until they reached the base of the stairs. When she spoke, her voice was tentative. "Did you smell the potion?"

Gen blinked. "Of course I did. Didn't you?"

After a moment, Rose shook her head. "No."

It was apparent after a few seconds of protracted silence that Gen wasn't going to ask her why, and Rose suddenly understood what Gen had meant about the usefulness of unshared information. She felt the heavy weight of something akin to guilt, and she sighed. "I was going to tell you, you know. I just…I don't know, I guess I don't know what I was waiting for." Something occurred to her and she looked up at her friend. "Al knows too?"

Gen made an apologetic face and nodded. "He was there. Although I wouldn't be surprised if Malfoy's already told Al. You know how they've been—" Gen shuddered. "Hanging out."

Rose finally cracked a grin at her friend's expression and leant into her side. "He's not bad, you know."

"What made you change your mind? The whole risking-his-life-for-you thing?"

Rose elbowed her lightly. "It wasn't just that. We…we talk about things. Important things." When Gen raised her eyebrows at her she shrugged. "I think I might be getting to know him."

"He actually tells you stuff? Like, personal stuff?"

Rose nodded. "I mean, he's told me about his family and…and all that stuff about Liv, the things that happened between them."

"And you? Is he getting to know you?"

She remembered back to before Christmas, when she had been with Christian and what Scorpius had said about him then. It felt different now. "It's only fair that I reciprocate a little, don't you think? He—" She stopped here, hesitant to say it out loud, maybe because she didn't want to know what Gen thought about it, maybe because saying it out loud felt a little like making it true. "I think there's a part of him that genuinely wants to know why I was with Nate and Christian and…you know, Conrad."

There was a part of her that wanted to know the same thing.

"Listen, Rose, if that party a few weeks ago is anything to go by, you're still friends with Nate. And you know your break up with Christian was completely harmless." Her expression turned grave. "Malfoy isn't like that. He's even told you about him and Liv. He's not a relationship kind of guy."

A tiny urge to defend him seeded up inside of Rose. "You can't put all that on him, he's not the one who cheated." She hitched up her shoulders. "As crazy as it is, he's got the moral high ground this time."

Gen sighed heavily, but when she didn't argue back, Rose knew she had at least made a fair point.

"Do you think it affected him, her cheating?" Gen asked instead.

Rose considered. She thought back to their conversation the week before, under the tree that had been their sanctuary from the storm. "I don't think he ever really cared about Liv in that way," she said slowly. "Nothing she ever did seemed to particularly affect him."

Gen scrunched up her nose. "If you ask me, he's been way happier since that whole thing went down. Maybe she did him a favour." The scornful smile dropped off her face, and her expression turned serious. "There's something else you should know."

Rose frowned. "What?"

"Al was pretty hammered the night of the party, but he told me that when he was helping to put Malfoy to bed, Malfoy waited until Liv had gone to the bathroom and told him about how he thought he saw you kiss Nate, and that he didn't want to see you back with him." Gen's voice was measured, careful, and Rose's heart pounded as she waited for her to continue. "He said people do stupid things when they're drunk, but if you had kissed Nate, you would've been way stupider than him." She bit her lip. "I didn't know if I should tell you. You know, drunk speak and all that."

"And all that," Rose repeated softly, her eyes vacant.

"I mean, I doubt you were stupider than him that night given that he hooked up with Liv. I mean, of all people, why would you choose the ex that cheated on you—"

The sound of footsteps suddenly exploded from the adjacent corridor, and Liv stormed into view, her face flushed with anger and her fingers gripping the parchment in her fingers so tightly she was practically ripping into it.

Rose felt her heart drop through her stomach, and Gen stiffened next to her, and she opened her mouth to speak, though she had no idea what she was about to say—

"Don't fucking try it, Rose," Liv snarled. "What right — what fucking right do the two of you think you have talking about me and Scorpius? Do you think I went around talking shit about you and Braithwaite when you guys dated, or whatever the fuck you and Potter think the two of you are doing?" She barrelled on without waiting for an answer. "No, I kept my damn nose out of your business! What, you think just because you and Scorpius hang out sometimes means that you suddenly have any right to anything — anything — that went on between me and him? You understand absolutely NOTHING about us."

Liv's eyes were dark, her frame taut with rage, but even then, Rose could see that in her eyes, simmering behind all of that anger and radiating off her in tidal waves, was raw, searing hurt. And Rose knew then that the apathy that Scorpius had described to her about their relationship did not extend to Liv. The girl that was stood in front of her was what was left of the mess that Scorpius had made, and she fleetingly wondered if one day someone would say the same thing about her.

"Liv, I—"

"And you know what? I was rooting for the two of you to be friends, fuck, to just get along!" Liv shook her head, a sardonic smile twisting across her face. "And you couldn't even extend the same courtesy to me."

"I kept your secret, Liv," Rose said quietly. She felt Gen's head twitch in her direction.

"And that makes you so fucking wonderful, does it?"

Rose could see the whites of Liv's knuckles as she continued to crush the parchment in her hands. "I bet you couldn't wait to tell Scorpius about me and Horatio, couldn't you? Because Rose Weasley is so perfect that she would never cheat on her perfect boyfriend-"

"You're right, I would never-"

"With her perfect grades and her perfect family and her perfect Head Girl title-"

Gen's words came out through gritted teeth. "Liv, you're taking out your anger on everyone so you don't have to shoulder the blame yourself. You got yourself into this situation, and it's no one's fault but your-"

"Fuck you, Chang," Liv whirled on her, eyes flashing dangerously. "Your own best friend didn't trust you enough to tell you about her precious Valentine's Day date until today, what the fuck do you think you know about any of this?"

Gen furiously opened her mouth to retort but Rose held out a hand to stop her.

"Is that why you're mad?" she asked disbelievingly, stepping forward. "Because Malfoy and I ate lunch together? You're going to run over here screaming at me because you think I'm moving in on your ex-boyfriend?"

"Don't you fucking talk down to me, Rose. I couldn't give two shits if you actually moved in with Scorpius. But if you don't have the decency to admit that it was you who started this with your bitching and butting into me and Scorpius' business acting like you have any right at all—" She broke off suddenly, and when she spoke again, her voice was quiet and far more menacing than it had been before. "Did you ever consider that you only ever got Scorpius' account of things? Did you even think for one second that you might not be getting the full story and God forbid I'm not the only one in the wrong here?"

"What you did-"

"What I did is none of your business! Whatever that was, whatever decisions I made, however they affected him they didn't fucking affect you, Rose! You think that my relationship with Scorpius is some assignment that you can stick your stupid brain into and come out with an O, well, it isn't!"

"I wasn't aware the two of you had business anymore," Rose snapped before she could think about it.

Liv halted, and some realisation seemed to hit her. She tilted her head at Rose, her eyes slowly narrowing as the gears clicked into place. "You're trying to use your relationship with Scorpius as leverage. He's gotten under your fucking skin, Weasley, hasn't he?" She suddenly cackled, and her previously darkened eyes were now alight with triumph. "And guess what?! He still chose me! His fucking cheating girlfriend!"

She stepped closer, breathless. "Who chose you, Rose? Who fucking chose you."

Rose thought of a thousand slights, but for some reason, all of them included Scorpius Malfoy, each and every single one, and she couldn't say any of them, not when Liv was here saying...saying things that, by all accounts, were-

Instead, she let the expression drop from her face. "Why don't you go and find Horatio? You're good at that."

She turned away, the lump still knotted so tight in her throat that she didn't dare breathe, and walked down the corridor away from the Owlery, her and Gen's footsteps the only noise in the now quiet hallway.

She could still hear the fireworks from the Astronomy Tower.

She had expected it anyway, but it didn't make things any easier when she was up here alone, and they were all down there, laughing and shouting as the fireworks lit up the night. She had told Gen to go on, she didn't feel like being around people, and anyway, she didn't want to bring down the mood, not when Al had been looking forward to this all week.

She wondered if Liv was down there too, wondered if she was with Toby and…well, she made a point of not thinking his name.

He's gotten under your fucking skin, Weasley, Liv's voice echoed, scornful and victorious. Rose pushed it deep down, away for another time - or maybe never - and she made her way towards the outer edge of the tower, where there were always blankets set up for the Astronomy students.

Rose knew that being alone with only thoughts like these for company wasn't doing her any good, but she'd rather this than be with anyone else, because then she'd have to tell them what was wrong, and at the moment, she didn't think she wanted to know that.

The sky suddenly shattered into a waterfall of deep blue and red, and there were more cheers from downstairs. She thought back to the fireworks last year, when she had stood with Al and Gen and Nate, and all that had mattered then was Nate and how warm his hand felt in hers.

Nate. Nate had chosen her.

Suddenly, the door handle began to turn, and Rose's panicked brain immediately thought that it was him, that somehow Liv had told him about what had happened and he had for some reason left the fireworks and come to find her, that he'd see her here and say that Liv was wrong, she was wrong about everything—

The door swung open, and Rose thought then that the gods had a sick sense of humour—

Christian stared at her, confusion etched into his face as she sat wrapped in a blanket with her chin on her knees, eyes dry but empty and all alone.

"Rose?"

She raised an arm, summoning a smile to her face. "Hey, Christian."

"What are you doing here? Do you not like fireworks?"

She tried for a laugh, but it was shakier than she expected, and that just made it all worse. "I guess I wasn't really feeling it tonight." She forced more conviction into her voice when she spoke again. "What are you doing here?"

Still perplexed, Christian pointed to the telescope right next to her - God, she was probably nestled in the blanket he had meant to use - and shrugged semi-apologetically. "Mapping the stars for an assignment. I have to mark their positions every three hours."

"Oh. That sounds fun."

He studied her properly, his gaze softening. After a few seconds of hesitation, he started closing the distance between them.

"No, Christian—" Rose tried to wave him away. "Don't worry, I'm totally fine, I'm just really tired, you know, you go, enjoy the fireworks—"

But he sat down anyway, close enough that they were shoulder to shoulder, but far enough that they didn't touch.

"You…you look like you could use a friend."

They sat there in silence, even though Rose remembered that Christian never could stay quiet for long, watching as luminescent shards of light sliced through the canvas of stars.

Christian chose me, she thought dimly. He's choosing me.

A/N:

I'm sorry that this chapter took so fucking long to post. I am inexcusable, and I don't deserve your patience ❤. That being said, I'm down to my last few weeks of uni, so I'm hoping I can churn out some chapters relatively quickly over the summer. To compensate for this terrible wait, I thought I'd add some extra trivia: Liv's a really difficult character to write, but if you want a little look inside her head, listen to Lea Michele and Ashley Tisdale's cover of Dancing On My Own. Chapter titles come from Fall Out Boy's This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race and Third Eye Blind's Faster.

Omg also, something a little random: someone sent me this question and I thought it was quite hilarious and worth sharing with you guys (plus, as always, it gives you some more facets to Rose and Scorpius' characterisations in my mind):

Q: What would Rose and Scorpius do if they saw a discarded piece of trash on the ground? So random lol

A: Haha yes, random BUT you can gauge many a character trait from one's propensity to deal with trash, so hats off to you for sheer creativity! With Rose, it would be more of a tiny sigh but automatic reach down to pick it up and walk it over to the nearest bin, or walk with it until a bin appeared. She wouldn't make a big deal out of it; she wouldn't even pause the conversation. And then you have Scorp. Scorp would definitely call attention to it, and make a big fuss over littering and the general lack of cleanliness and which shithead thinks he's too good to just fucking throw his own garbage away, but he'd definitely pick it up and make a scene out of stomping around to find a bin and disposing of it.

On the subject, I've been sent some questions along similar lines (i.e. character-related questions), and they're always super fun to answer, so if you have any, feel free to leave them as reviews/messages, and - as long as they're not spoiler-y - maybe I can add some to the end notes of my chapters!