In the Previous Chapter…
"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.
Scorpius' morning was a bit of a disaster. When he'd arrived at the Great Hall with Rose that morning, he'd thought the stares odd. It was when he sat down the Scorpius knew he had a problem.
"Scorp, did you sleep with Wealsey over the summer?" Lysander hissed spitefully across the table.
"What the hell, mate? Why would I sleep with Rose?" he replied.
"Word went round that you shagged 'Rose' over the summer and now you've got your own common room you'll be shagging her more. You could've told us mate!" Lorcan said before grabbing a piece of toast off the rack in front of him.
Scorpius stared straight at Rose after hearing this, to find she was staring back just as confused and hurt as he felt. Who would spread such a rumour?
"Mate, what happened last night? I heard that two fourth years saw you guys smiling all lovey dovey at each other in the corridor after the feast. What's got into you, dude? You've never been on speaking terms with her and yet now you guys are walking to breakfast together and being all friendly. You sure you didn't sleep with her?" Lysander prodded.
"I think I'd know if I'd slept with Rose" replied Scorpius icily. "Look, last night we just agreed on the way to finding McGonagall that we should get along with each other this year as we are living together. That was it. I haven't slept with her, snogged her, done ANYTHING with Rose, got it? I swear she has a boyfriend anyway? That McLaggen prick?"
"Yeah. But I heard that he's barricaded himself in the Tower and won't come out" said Lorcan form across the table. "He doesn't want to see Weasley at all. Word's going this is the final straw to their relationship."
"Poor Rose" thought Scorpius aloud. "I should probably go talk to her. Plus at the rate she's going, she'll be late for first lesson, and McGonagall will positively Avada her if she's late…I'll catch up later guys" said Scorpius, grabbing a slice of toast before heading over to where Rose was sat with her friends.
"Rose, can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Scorpius, coming up behind Rose and tapping her on the shoulder. As Rose turned to face him, Scorpius thought Rose looked paler than when they had arrived. "You may as well bring your stuff and we can head over to Transfiguration – don't want to be late for McGonagall."
Rose said a quick goodbye to her friends before standing to join Scorpius. Eyes followed them as they left the hall. As soon as they were away from prying students, Scorpius turned to Rose. "It wasn't me" was the first thing that slipped out of his mouth.
"I know" she said bluntly. "Apparently it was some little pricks in fourth year who were slying on us and thought they'd start the year by spreading shit about the two most senior students in the school" she said.
Scorpius noticed that her voice had no tone, no warmth and she still looked way to pale for a Weasley. "Are you alright?" he asked her, "It's just that you look a bit pale…"
"I'll be fine, Scorpius. I'm just a bit worried. Daniel heard the rumours. I guess you've probably heard that he's refusing to see me or anyone. .."
"Yeah, sorry to hear about that. No offense but he never seems to trust you a lot" commented Scorpius.
"No offense taken, as he never listens to what I say."
"Why don't you just break it off with him then?" Scorpius suggested.
"I dunno. He's really nice when there isn't shit spreading around the school about me cheating on him with you. It's tricky as he'll go off on one now but in a few days he'll be fine" stated Rose, as if she had repeated this phrase hundreds of times over.
Just as Scorpius was about to ask if she'd spoken to her moody boyfriend yet, McGonagall walked towards their classroom and let them inside.
"I've put the class into a seating plan. I'd like you two to sit together for this term" said McGonagall in a voice that had such finality that both students sat obediently next to each other. As other students started to find their places, whispers soon started emerging.
"Is that Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy? Sat together? Maybe they really are secretly going out…"
"Don't you think it's weird that Weasley and Malfoy are sat together straight after that rumour they slept together got out? Maybe the rumour was true and they can't be bothered to hide it!"
Scorpius glanced across at Rose and saw that her face was paler. He realised that she was really stressed out by these rumours. To try and perk her up, Scorpius reached into his bag and pulled out a sugar quill before handing it to Rose. "You need the sugar to get some colour back into your face" he whispered into her ear as the lesson started.
Behind Rose and Scorpius sat Maisy Thomas and Megan Finnigan. "Oh my merlin! Look at Rose and Malfoy! We should probably tell Daniel about this development, shouldn't we" whispered Maisy.
"Yeah" Megan whispered back, "maybe he'll dump her now she's cheating on him and he could ask out one of us!" she squealed.