Chapter 7

There was a Quidditch match today, so Scorpius was making his way to the pitch. In front of him, he saw Rose standing, looking around like she was lost. Making his way up to her, he saw that she was carrying a box.

"What's the box for?" he asked. Rose jumped when he spoke. She had a right to. After all, they still weren't on the best of terms. After last week's situation, they had barely spoken to each other. Scorpius was all about giving Rose her space, but he still felt like they should have talked more about what happened.

When Rose saw him as she turned, her smile dropped off her face. "Oh. I thought that you were Lorcan." When Scorpius looked at her puzzled, she clarified. "He was going to meet me here, but I don't know where he is."

"I'll wait with you, if you want. That way you won't be lonely," Scorpius offered with a fake smile on his face. It still hurt him the she was going out with Lorcan.

Rose shook her head. "No," she responded quickly. "That's fine. He's probably just running a little late." Rose shifted her weight from one foot to the other, struggling under the weight of the box.

"Here, let me help you." Scorpius seized the box from her before she could respond. Once he took it, though, he felt like a million of bricks had just been placed in his arms. "What the hell is in here? Bricks?"

"No, of course not. Don't be silly. It's just something Lily wanted me to carry to the game. I really don't know what it is," Rose said, giving up on getting the box back.

Scorpius' eyes twinkled from excitement. Rose and he were actually having a civil conversation. "Let's open it," he said, setting the box on the ground. Then he reached to open the top. Suddenly, Rose's hand was on top of his.

"Don't open it," she hissed. "Knowing Lily, it's something we don't want to mess with," Rose warned, pulling his hand away.

Scorpius wasn't listening. Not only was Rose's hand on his, but something told him that the box wasn't dangerous. It was probably just something for a prank. "Come on, how bad can it be?" Before Scorpius could put his other hand on the mysterious box, he heard a shout.

"Hey, Rose. Rose!" a figure shouted while coming down the path towards them. When the shape got closer, Scorpius could see that it was Lorcan, Rose's date to Hogsmeade. "Hey Rose," he said once he was closer.

"Hey Lorcan. What took you so long?" Rose asked. Scorpius noticed that she had quickly pulled her hand away from his when Lorcan came into view. He guessed that being seen with your ex-boyfriend right before your date wasn't good.

"Professor Wolf just held me up- something about last night's homework. But now I'm all yours," he grinned at her for a moment before noticing Scorpius' presence. "Who's this?" Lorcan asked, pointing at Scorpius.

Scorpius felt slightly disgusted. How could he not know his twin brother's best friends name. "I'm Scorpius Malfoy, Lysander's friend," Scorpius sneered.

"Oh, well hey then." Then, turning to Rose, Lorcan asked, "Should we go then?"

"Just one second," Rose responded. She reached down and grabbed the box that had been laying on the ground, forgotten. "I have to give this to Lily," she explained. "She wanted it before the games, so I have to go give it to her before the game. Save me a seat, though. I'll be there soon." With that, Rose flounced away, carrying the box.

Lorcan stared at Rose's retreating figure, but then glanced back at Scorpius. As it he just noticed that they were alone, Lorcan began to shifty his feet. Awkwardly, he said, "I'll just go get a seat now. Um... see you later." Then, he all but ran to the stands to get away from Scorpius.

Scorpius huffed, not liking the reaction he got. "I'm not that bad," he grumbled. He trudged up to the stands where his other fellow Slytherins were sitting.

"Hey, Scorpius. Come sit by me." Scorpius glanced at the place where the voice was coming from. There, he saw his best friend, Lysander, calling his name. Though he didn't want to sit by him, Scorpius climbed up towards the empty seat next to Lysander.

He knew that Lysander would want to talk about Quidditch. Normally, Scorpius wouldn't have minded because he was, after all, the captain of the Slytherin team; but today he did not fell up to it at all. All Scorpius wanted to do was think about Rose and what was in the box she was carrying. Scorpius wondered if it was dangerous, but quickly put those thoughts aside. It was going to the Lily who wasn't the mastermind of anything. And right now, he had to talk to Lysander about Quidditch.

"So," Scorpius said when he finally got next to Lysander, "how is the Gryffindor team looking this year?"

"Well, they did win their first game of the season, so I'd say they are pretty good," Lysander responded.

"I'll just have to make out team practice harder, then," Scorpius concluded. He wasn't about to let some stupid Gryffindor team beat his in the Championship.

"I know that Potter has his team practicing sox times per week. On Saturday, they spend half of their day down here," Lysander commented, looking scandalous.

"That's mental!" Scorpius exclaimed. "No team could ever do that with six practices a week. Al... Potter's running his team to the ground." Scorpius mentally hit himself. He didn't mean to call Potter Al. It just slipped. Hopefully, Lysander didn't notice anything. Scorpius glanced over at his friend and saw that he hadn't noticed anything.

Lysander was just continuing to talk about Gryffindor and their team. "I totally agree with you. Potter is a mental path, making his team practice so much. Promise me that you won't make us do that."

"I won't," Scorpius said. After all, what else could he say?

Silence fell over the two Slytherins as the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff team took the pitch. Scorpius could see Al Potter conducting his team to do laps before the game. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose exiting the Gryffindor changing room without the box. Again, Scorpius wondered what was in the mysterious box.

"Hey, mate," Lysander asked, breaking Scorpius' concentration. "I kind of got a date to Hogsmeade today." Scorpius could tell that he was worried about what his reaction would be.

"That's great," Scorpius exclaimed, happy for his friend. Usually, Lysander was the biggest player in the school, besides himself of course. Scorpius was glad that he decided to actually date someone this year. Then, he realized that because of this, he would have no one to hang out with. His grin turned into a slight frown.

Lysander, noticing this, quickly said, "It's Rachel Gray. You know, the Ravensclaw girl that I told you about at the start of term. Well, she asked me out, but she also has this friend who is crazy about you. I told her to bring her friend along and I'd see if I could hook her up with you. So, do you want to come?"

"Sure, I guess," Scorpius responded. "It's not like I have anything better to do." Then, thinking about dates got him thinking about rose. He could not afford to get off topic right now. Taking a quick look up, he nudged Lysander. "Look, then game is starting."

[-**-]

As soon as Rose had giving the box to Lily, she hurried out of the changing room. For one, she really didn't was to find out what was in the box. It was probably something hazardous or something stupid that Lily wanted. She really didn't want to be caught up in that mess. Second, she wanted to see Lorcan and watch the game. Lorcan was saving her a seat and, she didn't want to keep him waiting. Though she would much rather go to the game and Hogsmeade with Scorpius, that wasn't an option. She was, after all, going with Lorcan if she liked it or not. It wasn't that she didn't like Lorcan, but Rose just liked Scorpius more.

Third, Rose wasn't in the mood to be lectured by Al. After blackmailing him not to say anything about her and Scorpius, Al had taking to telling her what was wrong with her whenever they saw each other. Rose wasn't in the frame of mind to talk to Al today. The fourth reason was that she didn't want Al to make a different speech about her. Knowing Al, that speech would include things about Scorpius as well as why she should be playing Quidditch. Rose had already heard that speech about a thousand times over the past year. Rose wasn't about to hear it again.

Walking up the steps to the Gryffindor seating area, Rose spied Lorcan waving at her. Rose waved back up to him and continued climbing. Just as she reached him, Justin Jordan shouted, "And they're off. Gryffindor had possession of the Quaffle with Lily Potter leading them to the posts. Rose, stopping to look at the field, saw the red and gold team was indeed in possession.

"Go Lily!" she shouted. Rose was glad that Al had let his sister on the team. Lily was one of the best players on the team without a doubt. Everything about her screamed Quidditch. Her body was lean, and she was fast on a broom, just like her mum and dad. And, like her mum, she could play both Seeker and Chaser, though she favored Chaser. Lily was just good at everything she did at Quidditch. It didn't help that both her mum and dad, two of the best players in their day, helped train her during the summer.

"Hey Lorcan," Rose said, climbing into the seat that he had saved for her. "Sorry to keep you waiting. You know how Lily is with her things and all."

"It's fine. I was a little late getting to you too," Lorcan apologized, playfully punching Rose in the arm. "I will forgive you if you will forgive me."

Rose nodded and hit him playfully back. Turning her attention back to the game, she saw a Hufflepuff Chaser throw that Quaffle at the Gryffindor posts. Rose flinched instinctively, as if to go for the ball. She had, after all, played Quidditch Keeper for the Gryffindor team since third year. Luckily, their new Keeper managed to catch the Quaffle and saved the goal. Rose clapped loudly, along with all the other Gryffindor's. Sighing, Rose stopped clapping and put her head down.

Lorcan, noticing this, asked, "What's the matter? We are winning the game."

Rose put her head back up. It wasn't that she was sad, but her heart felt a pain of sadness when the Quaffle was thrown. No matter what anyone else said, she did miss being Keeper. She missed the way her hands felt when her gloves caught the Quaffle and saved a goal. She missed the way her uniform looked against her red hair, and how going up on her broom made her blood rise. Thinking about it, Rose realized that she hadn't been on her broom since the summer. She promised herself that she would go riding soon.

"Rose, are you feeling all right?" Lorcan asked again.

"I'm fine. I just miss being Keeper, that's all. It's so weird not being out there."

"Well, it's not like this is the first game," Lorcan reckoned. "Did you feel like this before?"

"Well... no," Rose admitter. Rose thought back to the first Quidditch game of the year against Ravensclaw. During the game, Rose had been paying attention to Scorpius, not the game. So, in one sense, it was good that she wasn't playing on the team if she couldn't concentrate. On the other hand, she wouldn't still like to play.

"If you miss it so much, why don't you try to play again? I bet that Al would love that," Lorcan said.

"As much as I would like to, someone else is playing Keeper now. It wouldn't be fair or right to steal their spot. Besides," Rose commented, "I have too much going on. N.E.W.T.s are coming up really fast. I have to get a good grade on those."

"Good point. N.E.W.T.s are really hard, and they take up a lot of time. Have you started the practice tests yet?" Lorcan asked.

Rose nodded, and for the rest of the game, they talked about their N.E.W.T.s and what they were doing to prepare for them. Rose, though she would usually love discussing this, found it rather boring. She was so used to having no one around wanting to hear about school, she never talked about classes and things. Talking to Lorcan should have been like heaven to her, but it wasn't. Talking to Lorcan was hard work. Earlier in the year, she would have said that talking about school all the time was fun, but it really wasn't. Rose liked when she could talk about different things. With Scorpius, they never ran out of things to say. They never had a dull moment together.

"Gryffindor wins!" shouted Justin Jordan. "This puts them in first place for the Quidditch Cup. Wish them luck because they will be playing Slytherin next."

Rose clapped hard for her team, glad to have distraction from Lorcan. As much fun as he could be in a group, alone he was a nightmare. Rose didn't even want to think about what they would be talking about later that day in Hogsmeade. She was tired of talking to him for an hour.

"Well, we should be leaving now," Lorcan said, touching Rose's arm slightly. "There will be an after party later tonight and we don't want to miss that, so we should head down to Hogsmeade now. That way, we will be back in plenty of time before the party."

Rose silently nodded and let Lorcan help her out of her seat. Climbing down, she couldn't help but notice Scorpius in the stands next to her. He seemed to be talking rapidly to Lysander, Lorcan's brother. She wondered what they were talking about and if it was important. Then, Scorpius looked up and caught her eye. His eyes seemed to be searching her soul. Blushing, she looked back at Lorcan and didn't give a second glance at Scorpius.