Chapter 11 – The Other Woman
Disclaimer- Harry Potter is not mine, he belongs to J.K. Rowling still since the wish I made on New Year's eve did not come true *tear*.
Rose could not quite describe in words how she was feeling. She'd tried, really she had. She'd even pulled out her muggle thesaurus to look up the word happy, but none of the words could even come close to how she was feeling. She literally felt as if she was floating on air and nothing could pull her off of the cloud she was currently living on.
For the past week and a half, Rose and Scorpius had been spending as much of their spare time together as possible without raising the suspicions of their friends. So far, Rose was pretty sure no one had a clue what she was getting up to in her spare time, partially because when she told them she was going to meet Scorpius somewhere, they all just assumed it was for head work and not to go snog him in a broom closet.
Rose sighed at the thought. Merlin, he was such a good kisser.
"Rose!" Andy shouted suddenly into her ear, causing her to jump in her seat.
"Huh?" she responded dazedly.
"Merlin, what the hell is wrong with you?" he complained. "This is the third time you've zoned out in the past half hour. You promised you would help me with my transfiguration essay and all you're doing is staring off into space with this weird look in your eyes."
Rose cleared her throat in embarrassment but thankfully Alice turned Andy's attention away from her before he could notice her expression. "Exactly when did she promise that?" Alice replied. "Besides, you just showed up a half an hour ago while we were quietly studying alone here in the library, raving about how screwed you were."
"Whatever," Andy replied, ignoring Alice and turning to look at Rose with a large friendly smile on his face. "I just thought that since you're in such a good mood these days, you'd look at my essay and maybe tweak it a bit, add a few sentences here and there or, maybe, rewrite my whole introduction since I desperately need a good mark on this paper."
Rose gave Andy an exasperated look before holding out her hand.
Andy's expression instantly turned gleeful. "Thank you Rosie. You are the greatest bloody friend a bloke could ever ask for," he gushed as he pulled a slightly crumpled roll of parchment from nowhere and placed it in her outstretched hand.
"Yes, yes, I know," Rose said with a wave of her hand as she unrolled the piece of parchment and began to read.
"He's right you know," Alice said suddenly.
"About what," Rose replied distractedly, while grabbing her quill from the table and scratching out a sentence from Andy's essay.
"That you've been in such a good mood lately," Alice answered. "And so suddenly too. One minute you were making kids cry and the next you're smiling all the time and actually willingly doing Andy's homework."
Rose pretended to not be fazed by Alice's observation and continued reading the essay in front of her. "I was just having a bad week, that's all."
"Malfoy's been in a good mood too," Andy said, leaning back in his chair. "I swear I saw him smiling to himself the other day. It was creepy as hell."
Rose suppressed the urge to give Andy a dirty look and kept her eyes glued to his parchment. If there was one thing she wasn't ready for, it was telling her friends that she was in a relationship with Scorpius. She could already hear the sarcastic comments and see the shocked faces of disbelief, so it was no wonder she was in no hurry to tell them. However, there was still one other reason why Scorpius and her had not told anyone about them. Zabini.
She knew she'd be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying the fact that Zabini had obviously lost her claim on Scorpius. Hell, when she had seen Zabini for the first time after snogging Scorpius in their common room, and then his bedroom, and the bathroom the next morning, she couldn't help but grinning like a maniac at her. She had won and all she had wanted to do was gloat about it without actually revealing to Zabini that she was gloating about something that involved her. So, since being subtle had never been one of her strongest attributes, Rose was pretty sure Zabini knew what she was getting up to in her spare time. But it wasn't all her fault. Andy was right. Scorpius was acting far too cheerful for a bloke who was supposed to be stuck in a loveless relationship. It wasn't like she didn't mind him smiling, but he was being incredibly obvious that his life wasn't as horrible as people thought it was.
"I noticed that too," Alice replied. "He started acting like this about a week or so ago."
"Ya, about the same time Rose stopped acting like such a git," Andy replied casually, causing Rose's head to snap up in surprise.
While Andy hadn't noticed at all that what he had just said was related to Alice's statement, Alice definitely had, since she currently appeared to be processing Andy's words.
"Er-," Rose said, her voice slightly panicked. "Andy! How is it outside? I heard it was going to rain."
Andy gave her a bewildered look. "It's cold, but no rain. Why are you talking so loud?"
Rose laughed nervously as she glanced at Alice, who was now looking at Rose curiously. Oh crap. "You're hilarious Andy," Rose replied lamely, looking around the room for an escape route. "But I just realized that I completely forgot to give Longbottom my prefect evaluation report for the last week, so I really should be going."
"But what about my essay?" Andy protested as Rose hurriedly got out of her seat.
"You told me that you only have to hand prefect evaluation reports every month," Alice said, her eyes narrowed at Rose.
Rose ground her teeth together in frustration as she packed her things into her bag. "Well I was wrong." Rose snatched up Andy's essay and waved it in his face before stuffing it into her book bag. "And I will take this with me if it will make you feel any better."
"It does," Andy replied childishly, earning him a hard look from Alice before she focused her attention on Rose.
"Rose Weasley," Alice said sternly. "What are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding anything," Rose laughed loudly. "But I must dash. See the two of you at dinner."
Alice opened her mouth to say something else but Rose pivoted on her heel and rushed away, humming to herself, so as to drown out Alice's voice. If she hadn't heard the question, she could easily pretend like it had never been asked.
Rose had known that it would only be a matter of time before one of her friends had caught on to what was going on and she had guessed that it was going to be Alice. Nora was too wrapped up in her own life to notice anything else outside of it and Al was too busy being worried about Nora's life to also notice anything around him, which left Greg and Andy. While they both weren't idiots, they were still just like any other guy; completely oblivious to how other girls felt about other guys, which left Alice as the only one who could discover how different the relationship between her and Scorpius actually was.
Rose sighed as she walked out of the library and into the hall. It wasn't as if she never wanted them to find out. There were just several other problems presently not allowing her to be honest. One, if and when her parents found out about them, either her or Scorpius were going to meet their untimely end and two, Scorpius was still officially dating Zabini. Rose frowned. The second problem, however, could be easily fixed. Sure she enjoyed the smug feeling of stealing Scorpius from her, but in the end her conscience was going was going to beat down her ego. She was already starting to feel bad about being the 'other woman' in this complicated love triangle and she didn't like it, while Scorpius seemed absolutely euphoric about the situation sometime's. That's what she got for dating a Slytherin.
Rose continued walking, her mind not registering what and who was around her until it was much too late to escape.
"Weasley," Zabini's instantly recognizable voice pierced the air. "What a wonderful surprise running into you here."
Rose cringed and turned behind her to see Zabini looking as menacing as ever. "It's not all that surprising since this is how I get back to the head dorms."
"Really," Zabini replied dismissively as she walked closer to Rose. "I didn't notice."
Sure you didn't.
"What do you want Zabini?" Rose sighed dejectedly. "I'm kind of busy right now."
Zabini stopped a few feet in front of Rose, a forced smile forming on her lips. "I just wanted to let you know that I know what you're up to."
Rose's stomach twisted in apprehension as she attempted to keep her expression indifferent. "What exactly am I up to Zabini?"
"Oh, I think you know," Zabini smiled sweetly but the way her eye was twitching alerted Rose to the possibility that she was finally going to be slapped for the first time. And in a way, she sort of deserved it.
"Enlighten me," Rose replied in defiance. Zabini's eye twitched unattractively before she responded.
"Do you really think I haven't noticed what you and lover boy have been up to," Zabini snapped, her smile now gone. "Not only has Scorpius been acting extremely out of character but the two of you have been spending an awfully large amount of time together, which you both claim is for "work". And don't think I haven't noticed you giving me those smug little looks when you think I'm not looking."
Bugger. So she had noticed those.
"Look Zabini," Rose began, stepping away from Zabini and preparing herself to leave. "I don't have time for this. I really have to get going."
"Get going where?" Zabini sneered. "Back to Scorpius? You do realize that he has yet to break it off with me and for some reason you're putting up with it. I had no idea that you were that kind of girl Weasley. Are you really still a virgin?"
Rose clenched her teeth together in fury. She didn't care that she was technically the bad guy in this situation. It was time for Zabini to realize that she had messed with the wrong girl for far too long. "Look Zabini. You are the one who gave me a free pass at the end of last year, so you really shouldn't give a damn what I do with Scorpius. Also, we both know that you're no paragon of virtue, so everything you're lecturing me about right now is just hypocritical garbage."
"Well I guess I changed my mind about the free pass. It seems that I don't like sharing and since you practically just admitted you and Scorpius are together, I'm now starting to wonder what you're families are going to think about the matter. I'm sure they'll be thrilled," Zabini mocked.
Rage welled up in the pit of Rose's stomach as she closed most of the gap between her and Zabini, taking the taller girl by surprise. "There are two things you need to get through your head, so listen and listen well," she threatened. "One, my family would never believe a single thing you said, so by all means, write them a letter because I decide when I tell my parents about Scorpius and me. And two, if I find out that you sent even a single member of my family so much as a post-it note; I will tell everyone about what you've been up to with Anwar Knight and who knows who else."
Zabini's eyes widened at Rose's last comment. "How do you know about that?" Zabini snapped.
Rose couldn't believe what she was doing. She was blackmailing Tatiana Zabini , the current best example of what an evil bitch was, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. She had never thought that she would have to resort to using threats to get someone off her back but Zabini didn't seem to be receptive to anything that wasn't aggressive in nature.
"It doesn't really matter does it," Rose replied quickly. She had to make sure Zabini didn't ask for details since she still had no idea what the deal Zabini had with Knight was actually about. Not to mention revealing that she had found out about the deal completely by accident while hiding under a desk didn't make her sound very intimidating. "Just leave my family out of this," she continued.
"You surprise me Weasley. I thought your entire family were a bunch do-gooders, but I guess for you to have a thing for Scorpius you have to be a bit different from the rest of your family," Zabini replied.
Rose was about to retort when a recognizable voice rang out from behind her causing her to turn. "Oi! What the hell is going on here?" Al exclaimed as he rushed towards Rose and Zabini.
This wasn't good. While she was glad that Al had shown up when he did, there was no way Rose could convince Al that all Zabini was talking to her about was there last Potions lesson, especially with the way Zabini was sneering right now.
"Well if it isn't Albus Potter here to save the day," Zabini mocked. "Not that you needed his help though Weasley, since it appears we've reached a bit of a stalemate." Zabini backed away from her, winking at Al when he reached Rose's side. "I promise to be good... at least for now," Zabini said with a cold smile before turning away and sauntering down the dimly lit hallway.
Rose snorted and turned away from Zabini's retreating figure. She had to admit, Zabini was excellent at dramatic exits.
"Alright," Al began, "what the bloody hell was that all about?"
Rose pushed past her cousin and continued her trek to the head dorms. "It's nothing Al."
Al followed close behind her. "Something's been different about you. For the past week or so all you've been doing is sneaking off to do 'work' and now you're having arguments with Zabini, which it looks like you're winning. So don't tell me that nothing is going on."
Rose rolled her eyes at his persistence. "Al. Zabini and I have never much liked each other. Why does it surprise you that she was trying to push my buttons?"
"It looks to me like she was succeeding there," Al added. "And what did she mean about the two of you reaching 'a bit of a stalemate'? Are the two of you competing over something."
Rose's face scrunched up uncomfortably at Al's comment. "What exactly would Zabini and I be competing over?" Rose joked, trying to feign indifference.
Al suddenly stopped walking, causing Rose to turn in surprise to see what was wrong with him, only to find him staring at her with his mouth open in astonishment.
Shit. "What's wrong with you?" Rose asked, her eyes darting around looking for a possible escape route if necessary.
"It finally happened," Al said, a smile creeping onto his lips.
"What finally happened?"
"You and Malfoy!" Al exclaimed with a laugh.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Quick, think up something clever to say. "Me and Malfoy what?" Rose replied awkwardly. Yes, very clever.
"Are hooking up!" Al answered with a suggestive grin that made Rose's face turn bright red. "I can't wait until I tell Nora. She's been so down lately but this will definitely make her feel better. Though, I can't believe she didn't notice."
Rose rushed towards her cousin, her mind now in panic mode. "Albus Severus Potter, if you so much as tell anyone about this, I will make sure you are never able to procreate."
Al winced. "Okay, that was unnecessary and did you really have to say my entire name. My first name alone is bad enough as it is."
"You're not taking this seriously," Rose exclaimed. "If my parents find out about this, Scorpius is as good as dead and I would like to be with him for longer than a couple of weeks."
Al rolled his eyes at her theatrics. "So is that what Zabini was so angry about?" He inquired. "Malfoy tossed her and now she's threatening to tell everyone why."
Rose gave Al a sheepish look and stepped away from him. "You see, she might have a small reason for being angry with me, since Scorpius... hasn't really tossed her yet."
Al gaped at her. "What?"
"Oh don't look at me like that," Rose protested. "She's been cheating on him for months with Anwar Knight of all people in exchange for gifts or something, so I think Scorpius has every right to give her a taste of her own medicine."
"I don't give a shit what Zabini's been up to Rose," Al blurted angrily causing Rose to stare at her cousin in surprise. "Why the hell hasn't Malfoy chucked Zabini if he's with you?"
"Scorpius isn't really good with confrontation," Rose replied awkwardly. "And we're trying to keep everything secret for now."
"Scorpius isn't really good with confrontation," Al repeated scornfully. "That's bullshit Rose. When have you ever wanted to settle for being some bloke's girl on the side? He hasn't chucked her because he's afraid of what will happen next."
"I'm afraid of what will happen as well, Al," Rose retorted, "so I think Scorpius has every right to feel the way he does."
"Then maybe the two of you aren't ready to be together!" Al bellowed.
Rose stared at Al in alarm. "What?" she managed to choke out.
"You shouldn't be afraid to be together," Al exclaimed. "I understand that you're worried about telling your parents but you can't hide forever. But being afraid to tell your friends, who honestly have been waiting for this to happen for months, is your mind telling you that you're not ready to be with him. And if he hasn't dumped Zabini yet, then maybe he still isn't ready yet either."
Rose felt her heart plummet as she buried her head in her hands. Merlin, she had been such an idiot. She had been so happy these past couple of weeks that she hadn't taken the time to check in on reality. She had known that what the two of them were doing wasn't right and completely immature, but she still loved him and she knew she wanted him.
"You're right Al," Rose replied, taking her hands off of her face to wipe her watering eyes. "But you're also wrong. I know I have to talk to him about Zabini and I know we can't hide forever... but I love him, issues and all. And I can honestly say that he loves me too. We just have a few wrinkles in the relationship that we need to work out and it's not going to be easy to do it."
"A few wrinkles?" Al asked, brow raised.
"Okay, giant hills that we need to tunnel through," Rose admitted. "But he does love me Al. I promise. And if I'm wrong... you have every right to beat the crap out of him."
Al sighed before closing the distance between them and hugging her. "Well," Al began, "if you know what you're doing, then I guess I should back off and let you handle the situation."
Rose's arms wrapped around Al's body and squeezed him tight. "I think that's a good idea, but I appreciate you looking out for me."
Al let go of her and swung one of his arms around her shoulder. "No problem. We are family after all."
"Well I better go talk to Scorpius before Zabini comes up with some way to get out from under my foot," Rose said with a sigh, pulling away from Al.
Al gave her a thoughtful look before replying. "How exactly did you do that anyway?"
"By telling her the truth and lying at the same time," Rose replied. "Thank Merlin she didn't figure out that I was bluffing half the time I was threatening her."
"So what was the truth?" Al questioned.
"That I overheard some weird conversation she had with Anwar Knight about, what I believe, was the exchange of money for sexual favours, which I still don't understand since, last I heard, Zabini's family had a lot of money to spare."
"She got money from him?" Al asked in surprise.
"At least I think it was," she replied. "I was hiding under a desk at the time, so I can only go by what I heard. Why are you so interested in this?"
"I'm not." Al replied distractedly. "But I need to go find Nora and make sure she's ready for the quidditch match tomorrow."
"Okay," Rose said, slightly confused.
"Good luck with Malfoy," Al replied as he back away from her. "And don't forget to tell him about the whole me beating the crap out of him if he hurts you. Hell, I'll round up the whole family and we can all do it together."
"Ha ha," Rose replied sarcastically.
Al grinned in response.
Rose stared miserably at the portrait hole to the head common rooms. It had been easy to say she was going to talk to Scorpius about Zabini, but actually doing it was a completely different story. She couldn't just tell him to leave Zabini... or could she? She was technically his girlfriend.
She sighed as she watched the golden retriever in the painting pounce on the wolf's back. Rose had parted ways with Al almost half an hour ago before taking as much time as humanly possible to get back to her dorm room. She didn't even know if Scorpius was even inside but if he was there was no way she could forget what she had talked about with Al. Scorpius would notice instantly that something was bothering her and she was horrible at lying.
Rose sighed yet again before saying the password to get inside. The wolf and dog quickly halted their games at the sound of her voice and the painting began to slowly creak open, allowing her to enter.
As quietly as possible, she walked down the small corridor into the living room to find Scorpius laying fast asleep on the couch sitting in front of the fire. Rose couldn't help but smile softly at the scene. Scorpius rarely let his guard down, so seeing moments like these were sometimes cause for celebration.
Rose set her bag down softly on the floor before tiptoeing silently over to the couch; hovering over Scorpius for a moment before leaning down and placing a soft kiss on his lips. If she was about to issue an ultimatum to him, she at least wanted to savour any last moments of contact with him. Not to mention he looked absolutely adorable when he slept.
Scorpius' eyes popped open in surprise but he quickly got over it. With a sly grin, Scorpius' arm reached out and pulled her down, causing half of her body to fall on top of him with a loud squeak of protest.
"I could get used to you waking me up like that, Rose," Scorpius said with a chuckle.
"Keep dreaming Malfoy," Rose replied cheekily, giving him another quick kiss while adjusting her body so that she was half sitting on the side of the couch and half lying on top of Scorpius' body.
"We'll see about that," Scorpius replied suggestively, bringing a blush to Rose's cheeks. "How was the library?"
"Uneventful," Rose lied, laying her head onto Scorpius' chest so he couldn't see her face properly. "Andy wanted me to do his essay for him and was being obnoxious, so I left a bit early.
Crap, she was already lying. Come on Rose, just suck it up and tell him what happened. "But when I was on my way here I ran into a few people."
"Like who?" Scorpius asked with a yawn.
"First Zabini and then Al," Rose admitted, before propping herself up so she could see Scorpius' face clearly. "They both know about us by the way."
Scorpius' eyes widened at the news and he sat up slightly. "What did Tatiana threaten to do this time?"
Rose sighed unhappily and moved away from Scorpius so he could shift into a sitting position. "Don't worry; I took care of it for now."
"How did you take care of it?" Scorpius asked in confusion.
"I used Zabini's tactics on herself," Rose replied quickly. "But I wanted to talk to you about what Al said to me."
Scorpius sighed. "Let me guess, Potter doesn't approve."
"Well, no," Rose replied nervously. "But oddly enough it had nothing to do with the two of us being together."
"Then what doesn't he approve of?" Scorpius questioned impatiently.
"The fact that your also still with Zabini," Rose answered, her body tense.
Scorpius was silent for a moment, his eyes glued to hers, before he spoke again. "Oh."
Rose couldn't help but feel disappointed by his answer or lack of one in this case. "Oh? It's a valid reason for him to be upset at you." Rose looked away from Scorpius and began to fiddle with the hem of her shirt. "... And for me as well," she added quietly.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched Scorpius rub his face wearily before sighing. "Nora warned me that you weren't the kind of girl who'd ever settle for being some bloke's girl on the side."
Rose's head snapped back to look at him, her expression surprised. "Did you ever think I would?" Rose asked, slightly offended.
"No," Scorpius replied while meeting her gaze, his answer both simple and serious at the same time. "And I love you for that."
"They why haven't you left Zabini yet?" Rose questioned. "You knew I'd eventually get over playing this game."
Scorpius stood up from his seat and began pacing in front of her, alerting her to the fact that he was becoming upset. "I haven't left her yet mostly because I'm afraid of the questions I'm going to have to answer afterwards. Not to mention the questions you'll have to answer. My parents will find out if I chuck Tatiana and they'll want to know why immediately," Scorpius explained. "And I'm not sure I can lie about something like this."
"Then don't," Rose said simply.
"It's not that easy, Rose," Scorpius said in frustration.
"But it is," Rose replied. "You're over thinking everything by trying to predict what's going to happen so far ahead in the future. If you just focused on Zabini, everything would probably seem a lot easier."
Scorpius stopped pacing and whirled on her. "I don't see you running off to tell every single member of your family about is," Scorpius responded angrily.
"Well," Rose said as calmly as possible, trying to keep her temper in check. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about what they're going to think, but I also don't want to have to go through the drama of everyone knowing I'm your second girlfriend. You should have seen how angry Al was when he found out you're still technically with Zabini. He even threatened to round up my entire family and beat the crap out of you."
Scorpius snorted.
"I'm not joking Scorpius," Rose insisted. "To be honest, I was surprised by how alright Al was over the idea of using being together, and we practically think of each as brother and sister, so I have a feeling that the rest of my cousins will care less about what I do with you. But they will care if they think your treating me badly."
"I know that," Scorpius admitted guiltily. "And I never want anyone to think that I am. This is just difficult for me."
"Then I guess I'm going to have to be horrible to you," Rose said dejectedly.
"What do you mean?" Scorpius asked in surprise, his eyes searching her face frantically for an answer to his question.
"What I mean is that there can be no us until you formally kick Zabini to the curve," Rose announced glumly. "And I'm only being this harsh because Al would throttle me if he found out I wasn't."
"Wha-? There can be no us? I can't even talk to you?" Scorpius exclaimed, clearly flustered.
"Oh you can talk to me all you want," Rose reassured, her face becoming pained as she thought about the second part of her statement. "You just can't touch me."
Scorpius just stared at her. "Excuse me."
"You heard me," Rose replied, her expression stoic. "No touching until Zabini is gone. While I love silently gloating about this, I'm becoming acutely aware how wrong this situation truly is."
"But I can't touch you?" Scorpius questioned again.
Rose gave him a dark look. "I'm sure you'll be fine."
"So I can't even hug you?" Scorpius asked, brow raised as she lowered his body so that his face hung over hers.
"No," Rose replied bluntly while trying to overlook how close his face was to his.
Scorpius grinned. "I can't even touch you a little?" Scorpius asked suggestively, raising his hand to stroke the side of her face.
Rose batted his hand away while trying to ignore the sensation that ran through her body over a simple stroke of the cheek. He wasn't taking her seriously and that was all she needed to find the anger she should have used at the beginning of this conversation.
"I'm serious Scorpius," Rose replied irritably, standing up from her seat to give him a frosty look. "I love you and you love me. Nowhere in that statement does Zabini pop up. So, until you tell Zabini it's over, I am going to keep my distance. That doesn't mean you can't talk to me, you just have to keep your hands away from me."
Scorpius gave her such a miserable look in response that Rose was horribly tempted to tell him that she had been kidding during the entire conversation. Damn his good looks. But then she was reminded of how irritating Zabini was and her resolve instantly hardened.
Rose stepped around Scorpius and walked toward the staircase that led to her room; silently bracing herself for a fight she hoped would not come.
"I love you, Rose," Scorpius said clearly into the still silence of the room.
Rose relaxed slightly and turned her head to look at him, which only made her even more conflicted when she saw the forlorn expression on his face.
"I love you too," Rose said as tenderly as possible, hoping that her words may help to make him feel slightly better. "But now we have to prove it to everyone else."
A/N - Yes I know, I took forever getting this chapter up but I was being lazy so it is entirely my bad. So in this chapter we have Rose realizing that being in a relationship with three people is not so much fun. Let's face it, many of us have been there. Next chapter will mostly be about Nora and how her paranoia is making her a bit cranky (also there will be quidditch!), and yes its already under construction so hopefully it will be up much faster than this chapter. I hope everyone had a good holidays and I have totally forgotten to say 'Yay! to over 100 reviews!'. So thanks everyone and please keep on reading and reviewing as always. Ciao :)