In the Previous Chapter…

"Night, Rose" Scorpius said before following Rose up the stairs. Scorpius quickly glanced inside his wardrobe to find that he had Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and Ancient Runes the next day, all of which he shared classes with Rose. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow" he moaned as he drifted into sleep in his new bed.

Rose woke up in a strange place. This wasn't her normal, crowded dormitory. This wasn't her bed with the sunken dip in the middle and the worn bed posts. Rose then remembered exactly where she was, and was ecstatic. She had her own room! And the only other person around was Scorpius.

Rose glanced at the clock, and upon seeing that it was 7.30am decided to go and take a shower. Rose's first impression of her ensuite bathroom was that it was very large for only two people. It was easily the size of her bedroom and contained a large bath, a shower in the corner and two sinks with mirrors and cabinets for all of their toiletries. There was another door at the other side of the bathroom. Rose assumed that this door led to a cupboard, so she scooped up a clean, dry towel from a rack and turned on the shower.

Scorpius woke up with a jolt at 7.40am in his new room. He was very happy that he was going to wake up every morning for the rest of the year to see the beautiful view of the Black Lake in the morning. After digging out some shower gel, Scorpius headed for his ensuite bathroom. He opened the door and caught a glimpse of the large bathroom before hearing a shriek from the shower in the corner.

"HOW THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU GET INTO MY BATHROOM?! GET THE FUCK OUT SCORPIUS!" Rose screamed from inside the shower, hastily grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her body.

"Rose? Shit, I'm really sorry. I had no idea we had to share the bathroom." As he said this, Rose's face turned to one of thunder.

"Are you sure you didn't already know that the bathroom was shared and fancied a sneak peek at me in the shower?" she asked accusingly.

"No! That'd be so rude! I wouldn't really want you walking in on me! I can come back in a bit if you want…" Scorpius said, wounded.

"No it's fine. I was about to get out anyway. You just surprised me, that's all." Rose said. "I'll see you later, Scorpius" she mumbled before retreating to her room with a blush creeping up on her face.

Scorpius stood dumbstruck in the empty bathroom for several minutes after Rose had left the room. He had just walked in on her in the shower. What a nightmare, he thought before finally gathering up his stuff and heading towards the shower.

After Scorpius had gotten dressed, he walked down into the common room with his school bag over filled with the all the books for that day.

"You don't need to take your Potions and Ancient Runes stuff with you this morning" came a voice from by the fire. Scorpius looked up to find Rose sat on the sofa with her marginally lighter school bag sat at her feet. "You can just pop back here after lunch to grab the books you need and dump the Charms and Transfiguration stuff on the shelves" she explained.

"Oh, yeah, right. I forgot I'd be able to do that now I'm nearer to everything" Scorpius mumbled, feeling slightly stupid for not realising this before. He hastily removed his Potions and Ancient Runes textbooks from his bag and piled them onto the desk by his side. "Were you waiting for me or something?" he asked, "because otherwise I'm a bit confused as to why you aren't down at breakfast already" he finished.

"Yeah, I was. I thought we could perhaps walk down together. It would show some house unity and could possibly set the other students a good example."

Scorpius held out his arm for Rose before saying with a laugh "Come my dear lady! Let me accompany such a fine woman down for her breakfast!" At this Rose laughed at his joke before walking towards the entrance.

As Rose and Scorpius arrived at the Great Hall, they knew something was up. All of the pupils who were already at breakfast stopped eating and looked up from their breakfast and post to stare at the Head Boy and Girl. As Rose and Scorpius separated to go to their separate tables, eyes followed them until they sat down. Rose thought that her Beth and Jack acted weirdly when she sat down next to them.

"Rose" said Jack, "Is there something you aren't telling us about?"

Rose was confused by this. "Like what? I've never kept anything from you guys before."

"We've been hearing things, Rose, about you and Malfoy" said Beth in a hushed voice. "A rumour went round that you're secretly dating Malfoy."

At this Rose sat up deadly straight, alarmed, and her head swivelled to stare at Scorpius. At the same time Scorpius also stared in confusion at Rose.

"You heard what?" Rose hissed under her breath to her friends. "And how does the whole school know?"

"Some Slytherins announced to their entire house that they had caught you two all lovey dovey in the corridor after the feast yesterday. That spread and, you know the school gossip chain, it's changed from you and him sharing a smile to you and him having sex in a broom closet" Beth whispered back.

"I-I-I can't believe it!" cried Rose, close to tears. "Some little buggar must have seen Scorpius and I when we were on the way to find McGonagall. We'd just talked and agreed that we should try being friends! I swear there's nothing to that rumour, guys" she said, practically pleading her friends to believe her.

"I believe you, Rosie, but there's a problem. The rumour hit Gryffindor Tower after it had been changed a bit. All of your fam and Daniel heard that you'd been caught by these Slytherins snogging in a cupboard. They're fuming" whispered Jack, immediately regretting what he'd said.

All of the colour drained from Rose's face. "Daniel heard" she muttered weakly before sinking her head into her hands. "He won't believe a word I say."

Daniel McLaggen was Rose's long-term boyfriend. They'd been going out for over a year now, but whenever Daniel heard anything about Rose, he would never believe her side. This had resulted in numerous fights and they had almost broken up several times. Rose loved Daniel with all her heart and was devastated that he'd heard another silly rumour.

"Where is he?" she asked quietly. "I need to speak to him before it gets worse."

"He's locked himself in his dorm, Rose. He doesn't want to see anyone. He's going to yell at you again, I'd just leave it for a bit. Go see him at lunch or something."

"Good idea, Beth. How would I get on without you, huh?" laughed Rose sadly. She'd have to wait until after Charms to speak to Daniel, but before that, she had to talk to Scorpius.