"What are you doing here?"
Scorpius can't help but stare. Rose Weasley, flushing slightly in the dimly lit corridor, caught sneaking off somewhere is one of the lovelier sights in life. Right up there with Rose Weasley on the run from Grogan (who somehow has more hatred for youth than the infamous Filch), or Rose Weasley after a midday trip down to the kitchens, or Rose Weasley in Charms, because that's her favourite class.
Merlin, this was getting sad.
He wished it was as easy as his father had said. "Stop being so shy and be honest about how you feel." Oh, Father, Father, Father. If only it were that easy. Rose would probably laugh in his face- not cruelly, of course, but she could never possibly think of him that way. They argued too much for that. And getting his heart broken by Rose was not something he particularly looked forward to. His father didn't seem to understand. Maybe all his years as a social pariah had finally gotten to his head.
Right now, Rose seemed to be looking for something to say. Scorpius cleared his throat. Her cheeks reddened ever so slightly and she said, "I am here to meet my, uh-" she was scrambling wildly for the words, "my lover." She finished with something of a flourish.
"Your lover?" Scorpius asked, his heart sinking. Maybe she had nothing against Slytherins this entire time, he thought, feeling regret bubble up in his chest.
"Yes, yes!" she said, nodding vigorously, her bright orange earrings swinging wildly.
"It's kind of a secret thing, is it?" he asked, wondering why in Merlin's name he wanted details. Some sort of masochism, probably.
"Ah yes, he is my secret Slytherin lover." Scorpius had always hated that word. Lover. He hated it now more than ever.
"And you're going up to meet him?" Well she was in the corridor leading up the the stairs going to the dormitories. So great job, Scorpius Holmes.
"Yes, could you please lead me to the seventh year dorms?" she asked.
Scorpius felt his stomach clench. "It's a seventh year?" he asked.
"Yes, I am also a seventh year, you will find." Rose replied with her you-really-are-daft look.
"So I know him?" Scorpius blurted, wondering who it was. Nott? Dylan? Bronie?
"Well, you are a Slytherin and a seventh year, so two for two, really." Rose deadpanned.
Ouch.
"So could you lead me up please?" she asked, snapping him out of the angst in his head.
"Oh, sure." he muttered, wondering why he was helping her. He was on the way to the library for a bit of reading before curfew and she was on her way to her lover. What could he possibly get out of this?
They walked up the stairs in silence before Scorpius's curiosity got the better of him.
"Can I know who it is?" he asked, wondering why he wanted details still.
"Um, we're kind of keeping it on the DL right now..." she said, twirling a strand of hair.
"Oh yeah, okay." he said.
At the door, his door, Scorpius turned and said, "Well, this is your stop."
Rose peered over his shoulder and he could've sworn her face lit up with a touch of mischief.
"Wait, why did you need me to bring you here?" he asked with sudden suspicion.
"I needed protection from the Slytherins!" she said, eyes wide, as if telling a campfire story about Bigfoot.
"Let me get this straight. You asked a Slytherin for protection from Slytherins when trying to meet your boyfriend who is also a Slytherin?" he asked, holding his fingers up for every time he said his house's name.
"Well, you both are the only exceptions!" she said, grabbing his forearm.
Scorpius really, really wished she didn't do things like that. It made thinking a little difficult.
"That isn't true and you know it." Scorpius said. He may be crazy, stupid in love with Rose, but he couldn't stand to see his house's name dragged through the mud.
"Well, Gordon Platt pushed me down the stairs one time." she said, crossing her arms.
"Mathilda Mathers set my hair on fire once, what's your point?" he countered, mirroring her.
"Well, she's practically a Slytherin." Rose said emphatically.
Before Scorpius could break out his list of Slytherins Are Not Bad Guys factoids, Rose pushed past him and said, "Well, I must be going. See you at Potions tomorrow?"
Scorpius swallowed. "Keep- keep it down, will you?" The last thing he needed was hearing what Rose Weasley was getting up to with one of his dorm mates.
"Or I could use a spell that would do that for me." She said with a wink as she turned the doorknob.
"Yeah, that also-smart- true- correct-as you were- good day- or, uh, night rather. Fuck. Bye."
Rose just laughed.
"Well, well, well. What would you know, I met all six of my fellow Slytherin seventh years outside the dorm last night after you supposedly were off to meet one of them." Scorpius smirked. Rose Weasley was busted. Of course, that wasn't the only reason he was so happy. Rose had no secret Slytherin lover.
Phew!
Not that he was going to do anything about it. Even though his father's advice had been rather sound, "You are not entitled to anyone's affections. You can't expect someone to like you just because you like them. Though she may not return your ardour, knowing you have feelings for her may cause her to see you as a serious option."
"I was waiting for him!" Rose said, voice rising in pitch, cheeks colouring.
"I happened to see for myself that you were not in the dorm when we all returned." Scorpius said, feeling the most smug he'd ever felt in his whole life.
"You just didn't look hard enough!" she said, but he could tell she was reaching for straws at this point.
"Just give up, would you? What did you go up for?" He was genuinely curious.
"I was there to meet my boyf-" Rose started, but Scorpius cut her off, "You're a terrible liar, I can't believe I didn't see through your little charade last night."
Rose frowned and then looked like she'd found a galleon in her sock. (That had actually happened to him once. He chalked it up to a laundry incident. That or the Sock Fairy.)
Rose leaned in, "Well, I know why you didn't figure it out. It's because you were jealous." She looked more smug than he had not a moment ago.
"Jealous? Why on earth would I be jealous?" Scorpius asked, feeling a blush rise to his cheeks.
"Because you thought I was meeting a Slytherin in secret and it wasn't you!" she said, looking triumphant.
"Ridiculous, preposterous, absolutely bollocks, ridiculous-" he sputtered.
"You used that one already." she said, inspecting her fingernails.
"Because that's how ridiculous it is."
"Now who's lying and being obvious about it, huh?" she said, getting in his face.
"Why would I be jealous?" he asked, even though he was afraid she'd know the answer.
"That's because you," she gestured to him like there might be some confusion, "have a little crush on me." She indicated her body. "I don't blame you, I have killer legs. I bet you have a thing for my legs, don't you, Malfoy, huh?"
Scorpius flushed and he hoped she didn't notice in the dim lighting.
"Stop it." he muttered, looking anywhere but at her.
"Why? Afraid you'll get turned on?" she said, poking her head into his line of sight.
She was so bloody annoying.
"No!" he said indignantly.
"You can try to hide it all you want, but it's plain as day. You like me."
She knew, she knew, she knew.
Shit, shit, shit.
What now?
"And your cutesy little crush led me straight to your lair!" He didn't appreciate his emotions being labelled as a "cutesy little crush", nor did he like that she referred to his dorm as his "lair".
Like he was some sort of evil villain stereotype.
"And what, pray tell, did you do with this new found access to our 'lair'?" Scorpius asked, praying this would be enough to change the topic.
"I was dared to steal something from your dorm. So I filched a quill right off your desk!" Her hand made a snatching motion across his face. With the look of pride on her face, you'd have thought she had discovered a cure for kneazle fever.
"How did you know which was my desk?" Slytherins were, after all, not known for their overly personalized desks.
"Oh that was easy. It was the one with the skrillberry plant on it."
"And the skrillberry had to be mine because?" he asked.
"You only asked about it like five times in Professor Longbottom's class. I thought you and Professor would start a fan club in it's honour and fangirl about skrillberry sap's extraordinary sticking properties." She rolled her eyes. "And it was in full bloom. Skrillberry flowers take about a week to flower after transplant, you were asking all about it a week ago, so I knew it had to be yours."
"Well, Weasley, I could have been asking for a friend." he said. Who knew Rose would notice quite so much about him?
"Oh please, you are the biggest herbology nerd on campus- and that's counting Professor Longbottom. You're probably going to take an herbology scholarship when school's done so that you can properly dedicate your life to your precious little plants."
Scorpius was shocked. She knew his life plans, for Salazar's sake! Only his parents knew! Even his best mate thought he'd become a healer or something.
"Wow, Weasley, I didn't know you kept such a close eye on me." His smirk was making a glorious comeback.
Rose blinked rapidly and blushed. How pretty, Scorpius thought absently, before forcing himself to focus.
"I think this means you have a little crush on me." he said.
Rose spluttered but said nothing intelligible.
"I don't blame you," There was something poetic about using her own words against her, he thought with glee. Noticing her eyes drawn to his gesticulating hands, he continued, "You probably have a thing for my fingers. You probably think they're sexy and graceful and what not." he teased, wiggling his fingers at her.
"Stop it!" she said, looking away.
"Why?" he teased again, "Afraid you'll be turned on?"
Rose narrowed her eyes at him.
"Yes!" she bit out.
Wait what?
"That's right, I don't come from a house of cowards, so I'm not afraid to admit it. I like you." she said.
"You- you-" Oh dear. It appeared Scorpius had temporarily lost the ability to speak.
"HA! Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you!" she said, coming up in his face again.
"Are you just saying that to mess with me or do you actually like me?" Rose wasn't cruel like that, but the alternative was that she actually liked him back and he wasn't sure which was more unlikely.
"I do actually like you, but that'll mess with your head even more! So HA! I win!" Rose looked positively maniacal.
"I don't even know what we're playing!" Scorpius exclaimed, feeling more confused than ever.
"Well, whatever it is I'm in the lead!" She crossed her hands, looking like she'd won the World Cup.
"Weasley- Rose, you like me?" he asked, softly. He hoped she'd understand that he was serious now, and in desperate need for answers.
The crazed look on Rose's face was replaced by something almost tender. He wasn't used to seeing this expression, he was more accustomed to her plotting face or her escaping face, or even her plotting-while-escaping face.
"Yes." she said simply.
"Well, I like you too." he said, taking a step closer to her.
"Really?" she looked surprised.
"You said- I thought you knew." he said. She was the one who brought up the jealousy thing!
"Oh, I just said that to get you riled up." she replied, stepping closer as well, looking shy.
"You weren't wrong." he whispered.
"Your skrillberry's coming along very nicely." Rose said after a few moments of silence, blushing a deep red that rivalled her hair, "Whatever Professor said must've worked."
"Hippogriff dung." Scorpius replied, internally kicking himself immediately. Nothing says romance quite like hippogriff dung. Thankfully, Rose giggled and took his hands in hers.
"I rather liked the paper kittens you flooded the principal's office with." he said after a moment of thought, running his thumb over hers. He filched one when no one was looking and it was currently meowing in the middle of his Advanced Potioneering book.
"Thanks." she whispered, lacing their fingers together.
"Do you, uh, want your quill back?" Rose asked.
"Is that a euphemism?" Scorpius asked with the quirk of an eyebrow. Rose rolled her eyes.
"No." she said, looking amused.
"Keep the quill, how about a kiss instead?" he asked uncertainly, hoping he wasn't being too forward. The last thing he wanted was to scare her off.
Rose gave him a shy smile.
"Are you sure just one will cut it? I mean, I don't know the exact kiss to quill exchange rate, but I hear it's pretty high." she said with a shrug.
Scorpius grinned as he leaned in.
"Oh Rose, my quill's not the only thing you've stolen from me."
A/N: My first ever fanfiction! Please let me know what you think of it! I hope to write a lot more :)