Rose entered the Great Hall on Tuesday morning to find Albus once again sitting across from her usual seat. He was slumped at the table with a hoodie, jeans and trainers, not yet ready for school. It was still a little early, so there were only scattered pockets of students talking quietly at the other tables. Rose was surprised and a little suspicious to see him. Albus usually rolled out of bed about fifteen minutes before classes started, relying on Scorpius to grab him something to eat on the way to class. That he was here, early, and apparently, to speak with her, was not encouraging.
"Morning, Albus," she greeted pleasantly as she took her customary seat in the middle of the table.
"Morning, Ro." Albus yawned as he poured himself more piping hot strong tea.
"What brings you here?" Rose reached for the porridge.
"What are you doing with Scorpius?" Albus asked abruptly.
Rose was taken aback. "What- what do you mean? He's helping me for the Showcase. It is tomorrow."
"Were you rude to him?" Albus cut in. Rose's jaw dropped as she stared at him. "He seemed upset, almost angry, at dinner yesterday and didn't go to bed till very late. That's not like him. Are you sure you didn't force him into it? The Showcase's been all you could talk about for weeks..." Albus shook his head and dug into the remaining half of his fry-up.
Breathless, Rose didn't know where to begin with these accusations. She had a very good reason to find a new partner! Her struggle to find a replacement for Finn over the weekend had been quite stressful. And, force Scorpius? He had asked his housemates first and then offered himself! Besides, the only reason she'd approached Scorpius at all was to see if Albus would fill in. The only time she'd even seen Albus the past two weeks had been the day of the Quidditch match. Where did he get off, ambushing her at breakfast to question her intentions?
Rose was hurt and cross, and she let Albus have it. "Excuse me, I've just lost my partner, a few days before the show, after over a week of not rehearsing! I tried to find someone else this weekend, but no one would agree, not even our cousins. The only reason I even talked to Scorpius about it was because I was looking for you! The only time I've seen you recently was Saturday morning and you barely said hello—where have you been for the past two weeks, by the way—so, yes, I have talked about the Showcase a lot." She exhaled forcefully after her rant before leaning back in. "And for the record, Scorpius offered! It took me totally by surprise, too."
Albus stared back at her, frozen, his fork halfway to his mouth, but otherwise took her rebuttal coolly. He ate without comment for a while after she was done, before explaining, "Alright, Ro, I'm sorry. Just—go easy on Scorpius, would you. I know he can do it, but you tend to get obsessed with things and forget that not everyone cares so much about the Showcase as you do."
Rose pursed her lips and nodded. "So, where have you been, Albus? I've hardly seen you."
"Oh, you know…Quidditch," he stated casually.
Rose gave him an unimpressed look. "You don't play Quidditch, Albus."
"No… but I do commentate! And Scorp and I have strategy sessions. He's essentially captain this year—Baddock's been training him for it—and will be for sure, next year."
Rose raised an eyebrow. "You were spying on Hufflepuff's practices, weren't you? With Uncle Harry's cloak."
Albus neither confirmed nor denied. Instead, he stood from the table and scooped up his warming flask of tea. "The Cloak is a Potter family heirloom. It's as much mine as it is Dad's." He leaned over and tweaked her hair, "Besides, Rosie, aren't you always telling me to pay more attention, or else I'll never learn anything?" He took a sip of his tea, winked and departed.
Rose shook her head at her shifty cousin and began reviewing last week's notes for Charms.
That evening, Rose headed to the practice room immediately after classes ended for the day. She felt mentally drained after a full day of O.W.L. classes, but she was determined to put her best foot forward for this last push before the big day. She set down her bag, stretched and loosened her limbs, then began her warm up. She definitely couldn't play the piano, but she could at least pick her way through some scales on her own.
Scorpius entered just as she was in the middle of a fun run of a totally unrelated pop ballad. She stopped abruptly and cringed at herself for being so awkward. She should have played it off casually—Scorpius had already heard her sing yesterday. This was exactly the sort of situation she was meant to be overcoming!
"Hello, Scorpius," she greeted, then bent to pick out from her bag the new arrangement she'd worked on last night.
"How d'you do, Rose?" He had purple smudges under his eyes. His clothes were slightly wrinkled from a long day of shuffling between throngs of students, but otherwise he appeared as self-possessed as ever. He gathered his own music and sat at the piano bench.
"Well, thank you. I've, um, made some changes since yesterday. To the music." As Rose seated herself next to Scorpius, she handed him his copy of the new arrangement of Sing My Song. "I rearranged the verses and choruses to combine the two versions of the song." She bit her lip and hesitantly said, "Yesterday…it seemed like you were more comfortable playing than singing, so…I took out most of the bridge. Is that alright? I thought we could add more instrumentals instead, to give you a chance to—"
"Rose."
"Yes?"
He held up one finger without looking at her. "Wait."
She shut up as Scorpius perused the new copy. He said nothing, but after some minutes, spread the pages out individually on the music shelf, discarding his old copy on the ground beside him. He then held out his hand to her. When Rose stared uncomprehendingly, he said, "Let me listen to both versions first. I'll have a better idea afterward."
A little relieved, she pulled out her music player and shared one earbud with him, starting up the original version. Scorpius moved closer and took the player from her, his fingers brushing over hers. Her heart startled in her chest, but when she looked up at him, he was only adjusting the volume. She was suddenly aware of how close they were, listening to and rehearsing a romantic song while secluded in this small, quiet room deep within the castle. There were only a few inches separating their legs. She could smell him, too: fresh linen and crisp air, with a whiff of sweat underneath.
She cleared her throat and sat up straighter. Chiding herself silently, she reached for the water bottle she'd set on top of the piano and took a few sips to distract herself.
They listened for a long while, replaying sections multiple times. Rose got a little bored, finally handing over the other earbud in favour of reviewing her list of tasks for the rest of the week. Scorpius made notations on his music with a pencil (stolen from Albus, most likely); Rose noted that he was as meticulous as she was. She only interrupted him once, to ask, "Do you see what I mean about the bridge?" He just hmm-ed.
After some time, he began his own warm-up, stretching his arms, cracking his knuckles, wiggling his fingers, and swivelling his neck through a few cracks. It would have been more alarming if Rose hadn't seen Hugo and Albus do that several times a day. It was one of those boy quirks she'd seemingly spent her whole life cataloguing.
Though, it was strange to think of Scorpius as a boy, to lump him in the same category as her brother, many of her cousins, and her father. Scorpius was so different from any other boy she'd ever met. He was quiet and reserved much of the time. (The Weasleys were never quiet, sometimes to Rose and her mother's dismay.) Scorpius was poised and measured and thoughtful. He held himself at a remove from other people and exuded an aplomb she often envied. At first, she'd thought he might be a little shy and unsure, like Rose herself was, but his placidity had nothing to do with self-consciousness. It wasn't until last year, observing Scorpius during study sessions in the Ravenclaw common room, that she'd realized that Scorpius didn't bother with most other people. Rose surmised that, as a Malfoy, he'd been subject his whole life to the wildly disparate perceptions of others, and therefore, no longer cared for their opinions and impressions of him. He was a little like Albus in that regard. With each passing term and each interaction with Scorpius, Rose was coming to understand more and more why the two boys were best friends.
Scorpius finally nodded and declared, "Alright, I'm ready now. Whatever else, we'll play it by ear."
Rose nodded, too, then blinked and did a double take.
Scorpius was smiling slightly at the sheet music. He gave her a side glance, his smile widening into a grin, as he said, "Shall we?"
They began.
It was a much more productive practice than that of the day before. They rehearsed out of order, finalizing the introduction and the verses first, most of which Rose sang by herself. Once they began the choruses, Rose lowered her volume in order to hear Scorpius better, but even sitting as close as she was to him, it was hard to hear his voice over the resonance of the piano. He started haltingly and sang quietly, intermittently humming. She considered asking him to practice once through acapella but worried he'd refuse altogether. At the bridge, she discovered that he'd translated the original melody into a complete arc with a climax. It was impressive for something done impromptu, and she found herself humming along. She considered creating original lyrics to go with it but ultimately decided to let Scorpius have his moment.
They sang the song the whole way through twice before stopping for the evening. The rehearsal had run almost entirely through dinner, but Rose felt much more prepared for the upcoming performance. Working with Scorpius had been more pleasant and much less awkward than she'd expected after the tenseness of yesterday. As they gathered their materials to leave, she told him so.
"Scorpius, thank you. I know I lost it a bit about the Showcase," she rolled her eyes at herself, "but I really appreciate your help. You didn't have to, but I'm really glad you are. I think this'll go well."
He gave her that sideways smile again as he closed the practice room door. "This is important to me, too, Rose," he said quietly before walking away from her back to Slytherin.
A/N: Just one chapter and an epilogue left after this!
Song used: "Sing My Song For You"- originally sung by Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas in the show Sonny With a Chance; remixed and sung by Brigitte Mendler and Shane Harper in the show Good Luck Charlie.
The arrangement that Rose & Scorpius sing here is a mix of these two versions, with the bridge removed, just as Rose & Scorpius discuss. I just really wanted to keep in the tenor line and Scorpius singing, "You are looking so lovely". ;)