The Bet

Chp 2, Compromise

"Merlin's pants, what have I done?" were the airy, whispered words that echoed throughout a particular dorm room in Hogwart's castle. This room contained a good variety of female students, but most importantly, contained a certain Rose Weasley. Despite the late hour, Rose was quite awake at that time, wide ocean blue eyes glued onto the ceiling above her. She lay awake as rigid as a plank of wood and as unforgiving of herself as a death is towards its victims. Over and over she reprimanded herself for agreeing to the bet as the scenes that took place earlier that day replayed again and again in her ever-tinkering mind.

She blamed it solely on Roxanne and Louis (which, of course, was pretty accurate) but she still berated herself for allowing her to be swindled so easily. 'What am I going to do?' she thought hopelessly. Just the idea of her being civil towards Scorpius Malfoy made her gag. If she was forced to be lovey-dove-all-the-time with him, she reckoned that by the first day she'd hop off the Astronomy tower to save herself. Images of Rose Weasley's demise flashed before her eyes, imagining all the possibilities that could occur if she followed through with her side of the bet.

"NO!" she screamed, sitting up quick enough to give herself whiplash. A couple of disgruntled "Rosie, shut up!"s from her dorm mates was enough to make her ease back down into bed. But Rose had already decided: Under no circumstances would she allow this game to continue. She would call it off tomorrow, inform all the participants that she refused to do it. Yes, this was certain: Rose Weasley would NEVER be an item, fake or not, with Scorpius Malfoy.

"Oh no..." Rosie muttered to herself as Andrew Thomas shuffled over to her, a determined look in his face. It was a well-known fact that Drew Thomas- son of the famous Dean Thomas- was still not over Rose, who had dumped him a few months ago. Their relationship was great in the beginning (dating all the way back to third year) and it hadn't be until the start of sixth that they began fighting. When I say "fight", I mean exploding volcanoes and massacres kind of fighting. There was screaming, and crying, and a good amount of slapping by Rose. Rosie finally ended it after she had caught him cheating and, when she confronted him, he called her a slimy slut. That was enough to give him a broken nose and Rosie a continued temper-tantrum for a week straight. She had not been over Drew at the time, but looking back she was entirely sure that she was 100% over him now. Drew tried to deny it at first, assuming that she'd come back and apologize for the broken nose and want to get back together, but after a couple weeks he understood that Rose was serious about the break up. Now, any time he got, he tried to persuade Rose to take him back. Drew was a nice, attractive guy. He just wasn't for Rose.

"Rose, I gotta talk to you." he said, his deep brown eyes pleading her to just listen. "No, I really can't, Drew. I have to go... get breakfast." she insisted, trying to side step him. He wouldn't be stopped, hopping directly in her path again. "Drew, stop." she warned in that voice you use when you're exasperated but don't wish to hurt someone's feelings. He put one hand on either shoulder, ducking his head around to try and force Rosie to look him in the eyes. She avoided eye contact at all costs. As mentioned in the previous chapter, when Rosie looked in Scorpius's eyes, the lines blurred between their relationship. The same went for Drew. As soon as she was captured in his perfectly slanted chocolate eyes, she couldn't help but get sucked up in their past, reminiscing about all the times he'd looked at her like this and she enjoyed it. Those eyes used to be what she lived for, so looking back at them brought back unwanted feelings. They stood there like this for a minute or two, Rosie staring at the ceiling as inconspicuously as possible, and Drew waiting for her to look at him. She couldn't deal with this. Rosie began to squirm under his hands and just as she was going finally build up the courage to look at him, and probably loose control...

"Drew, my boy!" called a overly-happy and obviously sarcastic Roxanne Weasley, pulling him apart from Rose and ultimately saving her cousin. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked, that fake broad smile plastered across her face, her eyes blinking repeatedly as she waited for a response. When he could only answer with baffled stutters and a plethora of 'um's and 'uh's, Roxanne pounced. "You do realize that Rose Weasley, Rosie Posie, Rose without the thorns, our one and only flower child... is dating someone else, right?" she asked while raising her eyebrows, her smile still as large as ever but her atmosphere turning borderline terrifying.

"What? Is this true, Rose?" asked Drew, looking as if he'd just been hit by a semi truck.

"Of course it's true! Why would I say it if it weren't' true?" Roxanne snapped, getting feisty like she did best. "She's dating Scorpius Malfoy." she said matter-of-factly, and a little too loud for comfort.

"WHAT?" cried Sean Finnigan, spitting out his water all over the carpet and turning to face Rose with accusing eyes. "You're dating Scorpius Malfoy? As in Slytherin Scorpius Malfoy? As in Malfoy the snake himself? As in the boy you've waged war with for your ENTIRE LIFE?!" he screamed, jumping out of his chair and shaking Rosie by the shoulders. "Are you daft, girl? What's gotten into you?"

Rose was about to deny it, and call off the bet... but she peeked a glance at Drew to find that he was retreating solemnly. Normally it'd take an entire stampede of elephants to get him off of her back and yet he had just left so quickly. That's when she decided that maybe the bet wasn't such a bad idea. It kept her personal stalker at bay, and Rosie would gladly take a year's vacation in the Forbidden Forest to do that. Maybe pretending to date Scorpius Malfoy wasn't such a bad idea after all. Maybe it would work to her advantage. "Answer me, woman!" Sean cawed, gently play slapping her face a couple times to get her attention again. Rosie would have gotten mad if he wasn't one of her best friends. Everything Sean did was ridiculous and over the top, so it was to be expected.

"What can I say? I'm a sucker for cold, heartless men." she said, waving him off like a cat. He sighed and shook his head as she ripped herself from his grasp and started heading towards the door. She wondered how everyone else would react to her new boyfriend. She could only imagine how James, Fred, and Hugo would react. Teddy would find out in a week or two after the gossip spread in, so she was safe for a while from him. The girls (Domonique, Victoire, and Lily) would all probably say that 'they knew it would happen eventually' or some crap. All the women in her family pretended to be Cupid.

"Hello, darling." purred the extremely pale, gray eyed boy known as Scorpius Malfoy as he slipped an arm around Rose's shoulder. He had thrown a sneak attack and startled her as she was walking in to the Great Hall. Her first reaction was the throw his arm off of her and snarl "Watch it, Malfoy." a ferocity so great that she resembled an attack dog barring its teeth. Her eyes glowed like they always did when she felt passionately about something.

"Rosie baby, our fans are watching. Pull your act together and stop acting like such a slob." he said sweetly while replacing his hand on her shoulder again. His air was that of a perfect boyfriend, caring and infatuated, but his words were still as venomous as ever. Rose allowed the hand to stay there but she was so tense that it looked like a snake and a robot were walking with each other. Scorpius stilled smiled, flashing his perfectly pearly whites while Rose had the biggest scowl known to man on her face. Everything about her screamed "I hate him!" and before long, people were giving them peculiar looks, pointing and whispering as they passed. Scorpius let out a strained sigh and made a complete U-turn, dragging Rose with him. He lead them straight out of the Great Hall and into a nearby closet, where he shut the door and spun around to look at her.

The closet was small and full of stuff, so they were forced to stand as close as partners stand when they're slow dancing. He ducked his head down to look at her, a pretty dramatic height difference between the two. "What the HELL are you doing?" he demanded angrily, his eyes flashing in the dimly lit space. "We're supposed to look like a couple, not a chipper police man hauling off a contemptuous prisoner! You're going to ruin things for the both of us, and that's rather selfish of you." he ended, cooling down as soon as he said it. He sighed and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. "You're the worst actress I've seen in my entire life, Weasley. I thought you'd be relatively decent... or at least scrap-able, but honestly?" he mused nonchalantly.

"I am not!" she denied, though she knew he was completely and 100 percent true. Rose had always had the problem of controlling her emotions. They just kind of radiated from her and there was no use trying to stop it. "You're just too big of a critic." At this he merely snorted. "I'm being serious! You're a perfectionist, a critical cynic. And it doesn't help that we both loathe each other." she continued, on a rant now.

"There is not too much of a difference between loathing and loving, Weasley." he stated

"Oh, so now you're a poet? Get a life and stop quoting Wilde." she snapped.

"You're the bloody worst. I've never met someone I could dislike so much, and I'm pretty good at disliking. Every other girl is nice, flirty, and cooperative. They're like rays of sunshine. I'll have you know you're quite the opposite, like you're some sort of rain cloud hovering over my head. At least other girls who are like you are ugly, and then it's easy to see that they're uninteresting. You're a trap. It's like a temperamental toddler boy is stuck inside a pretty teenager's body." he retorted back. "And you're a damn awful actress. Let's never forget the actress part."

Rosie said nothing, silently furious. His words were so brutal, his serpent's tongue licking at her unstable heart. She'd show him what a bloody fantastic actress she was if it was the last thing she did. She was now determined to prove the pathetic rich boy that he was wrong, to make him eat the very words he just said. With a final driven nod, very similar to ones that soldier's do in war movies before they do something spectacular, Rose got her flirt on. "Come on, Scorpy, I'm hungry." she giggled, flipping her hair and batting her eyelashes coyly. She even went so far as to grab hold of his hand and drag him back to the Great Hall. Scorpius made a face signifying just how shocked he was, thinking to himself how bipolar his new "girlfriend" was. However, as soon as they reached a place where people could see them again, he went along with the game and pretended he was enjoying every minute of it.

At the part of the Hall where you turn to your separate tables, they both went opposite ways, Rose heading for Gryffindor and Scorpius for Slytherin. Rose cocked one eyebrow questioningly but kept her composure. "Come on dear, we need to sit down and eat." she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Their hands were stilled intertwined, and she tugged him towards the familiar red and yellow colored table. Scorpius's mouth made a tight line, his annoyance just barely veiled. Everyone in the hall was looking at them, waiting to see who sat where and which person wore the pants in the relationship. Everyone's loud chatter became very quieted murmurs and then eventually, it was dead silent. Both their prides were so dangerously important to them and neither was willing to give up their dignity.

"I know, honey. So why don't we sit down?" he agreed, but nodded his head at his own green and silver table. "I really am starving." he added, tugging her forward, much harder than she had done to him. She staggered forward. Her smile was slowly creeping into a look of disgust again, a frustrated growl escaping her throat.

"Indeed. Let's get some food at the table." she said, yanking him forward hard enough that he stumbled and almost fell to the ground and had to put on a circus wire-walker routine just to keep his balance. A triumphant grin resurfaced on her face at the sight of him looking like a fool.

"Sit down, sweet heart." he cooed venomously, now dragging her across the room to her table. She dug both her heels into the ground and leaned back with all of her might. Rose always did anything possible to win, and when it came to competitions, she became the most courageous. Though she was at a 45 degree angel with the ground and she was starting to get red in the face, she did not quit. When she realized she was still being dragged by the Slytherin, she began to step backward. It became a game of tug-of-war, both fighting for all their might.

In the end, Rose ended up pulling too hard and slipped, falling onto the floor. However, she brought Scorpius tumbling down with her and he landed sprawled out on top of her. Now, this was not one of those scenes that happen so gracefully, where the boy lands perfectly atop the girl and they and girl realize that they secretly have feelings for each other, normally resulting in a kiss or a cutesy little blush. It was far from it. Scorpius's long gangly limbs were everywhere and his face landed directly onto the floor, giving him a bloody nose. Rose on the other hand, was knocked out from hitting her head so hard when she originally fell. This is normally the end result when you have two very forceful, very competitive people against each other.

Scorpius's groans of pain couldn't be heard over the round of applause started by Louis Weasley that thundered in the massive room. "Such a cute couple, wondrously in love." he hollered to Roxanne, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. "The truest thing you've ever said, my dear cousin." she agreed, clapping with her hands above her head.

"We're brilliant matchmakers." they chimed at the same time.

A Word from the Author:

I rather like this chapter. :) Reviews are more than welcome!