Chapter 5
A/N: Hello readers! Guess what month it is! I'll give you a hint: November. I'm 16 906 words into my NaNoWrMo story, and it's only the 5th, so I figure I've got a pretty good start on it, but it might slow my updating down because it sucks up all of my spare time.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to thestarlitrose and jocelynnn for betaing!
~Frosty
Rose tugged her robes tighter, unprepared for the autumn chill as she stepped outside. She was taking advantage of the fact that most of the school was at dinner in order to sneak outside unnoticed. It would be best if she didn't have an audience for what she was planning.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," she mumbled, casting furtive glances back at the castle to make sure she wasn't being followed. Rose was acting like a criminal even though she wasn't doing anything against the rules.
It really was a nice evening - aside from the breeze, which was a touch nippy. The cool air carried hints of wood smoke from the fires burning inside the castle, and the stars were already starting to appear in the darkening sky. Anyone who saw her would probably assume she was outside to enjoy the pleasant weather as the last vestiges of summer lost the eternal battle against autumn. She stood at the edge of the lake and watched what remained of the sunset distorted in the ripples on the water.
Was she just supposed to... talk? Rose almost wished Lysander had given her more instructions when he'd suggested she try this. At the time, she hadn't paid his suggestion any attention because she'd thought the whole thing was ridiculous, yet here she was.
"Um... Squid?" she asked, feeling like a complete moron.
Nothing happened.
Who talked out problems with a sea creature anyway? It was not an action of a sane person. She'd heard about it from Lysander; that alone should have tipped her off about the insanity of the idea.
What help could a squid possibly provide? The thing hardly had any experience in the romance department, being alone in the lake and all, and even if it did, it would hardly be able to convey any helpful advice it may have.
She had almost convinced herself that she was being stupid, and she was about to turn around and go back into the castle, never to mention this incident again, when a thick tentacle poked out of the water and waved at her. Somehow, that one tentacle managed to convey that the squid was happy it had a visitor and was listening to her. Maybe the squid, like the castle itself, had a sort of magic that was all its own.
Or maybe Rose's grasp on sanity was more precarious than she thought.
"I think I've made a mistake!" she blurted. Where in the world had that come from? The words felt almost like they'd been pulled from her mouth. She must have been more desperate to voice her inner turmoil than even she'd anticipated.
A few more tentacles broke the surface, as if to show that she had his full attention.
Well, she wasn't going to look any crazier. May as well finish what she'd started.
"I have a date this weekend with a really nice boy. Lysander - you probably know him, he's the one who told me to visit you. But he's not the one I can't stop thinking about – that's Scorpius. You should have seen his face when he found out I had a date. I've never seen him so angry and upset. I don't know if he thinks we're not going to be able to be friends if I end up with a boyfriend, or if there's something else bothering him about my date.
"Our relationship hasn't been the same since I had this vision hallucination episode thing during Quidditch practice." She stopped her rushed speech and let out a huge breath. It felt kind of nice to get those things off of her chest, even if the one listening wasn't another human.
The tentacles wove together encouragingly, making small splashes in the otherwise smooth surface of the lake.
Rose climbed on top of one of the large boulders that jutted out into the lake and perched there, legs dangling and the toes of her shoes almost touching the water.
"I seemed so happy in that vision I had. It made me look at Scorpius differently. I think... I might have feelings for him and I just needed that jolt to realize it. How dense does that make me? And pathetic, it certainly makes me pathetic. He only wants to be my friend and now I'm ruining that friendship with my feelings."
She was frustrated to feel that her eyes were welling up with tears. "I don't want to lose him over something so stupid. His friendship's too important to me."
One of those tentacles came over and ruffled her hair, as if to say 'everything will work out'. Freezing lake water dripped down the back of her neck, making her shiver as the cool breeze hit the water, turning the cold rivulets into liquid ice down her skin. Her curls were soaked and probably tangled with seaweed by the time the limb pulled away, disappearing below the surface once more.
Surprisingly, talking with the squid had made her feel better – slightly insane - but still a little better. It was easier to sort out her emotions when she was speaking them aloud.
"Were you swimming in this weather?" asked a voice from behind her.
Rose turned to see Scorpius climbing the rock. Her stomach dropped for a moment, terrified that he'd heard something she really didn't want him to hear. She searched his face for signs that he'd been listening in on her private moment with the squid, desperately hoping not to find any.
Thankfully, his expression was blank, with perhaps a touch of uncertainty in his eyes. No, he couldn't have heard what she'd said.
"I was talking to the Giant Squid," she said.
When she put it that way, it made her sound insane... Who was she kidding? It made her sound insane no matter what way she put it. Merlin, she was losing her mind before she'd even gone on one date with Lysander!
The blond snorted a laugh as he sat down beside her, not caring that he was getting moss on his expensive pants. Rose liked that about him; he could wear clothes that were of the highest quality and not let it hold him back from getting just as dirty as everyone else.
"And this conversation led to seaweed in your hair?"
She sat perfectly still as he wound his fingers through her curls, trying to remove a strand of green from among the mass of red. It took effort to restrain herself from leaning into his touch.
"You know you're strange, right?" he asked, throwing the seaweed back into the lake.
She watched it sink under the surface, not able to look at the person by her side.
"You say that as if you haven't known that since we first met."
Their friendship had begun with a punch in the face, and then an attack of guilt so strong that Rose had been glued to his side until she knew he'd be fine. After such a rocky beginning, it was highly unlikely that they were going to be normal.
Scorpius reached into his pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled sandwich. "I noticed you weren't at dinner," he said, offering the food.
Lifting up a slice of bread to peek at the filling, Rose found that it was turkey and mustard, her favourite. She smiled her thanks and took a big bite. She hadn't realized that she was hungry before she'd starting eating, but once she'd swallowed the first bite she was suddenly ravenous.
"How'd you find me?" she asked between bites.
"Point me spell."
He noticed she had finished her sandwich and was licking the spare mustard off of her fingers, still looking hungry. Grinning, he produced another, even more squished sandwich from the same pocket. They were really single sandwich pockets, hence the squished bread. He also may have sat on them a little when he perched on the rock.
Rose devoured it almost as fast as the first one. He knew her well. Her appetite had been known to sometimes rival her dad's – though she was much more polite than her father when she ate.
"Thank you for the food. I may have withered away out here," she said, leaning close to kiss his cheek like she'd done many times in the past. She wouldn't have done it if she'd been thinking, but it was such an automatic action that it was more reflex than conscious action. Unfortunately, he turned towards her to say something at that exact moment and her kiss landed on his lips instead.
Time stopped.
Rose's stomach was suddenly a riot of warmth and butterflies. She was drawn to him like a moth to a flame, but she was sure the only reason he hadn't moved away already was because he was in shock. She wanted to fling her arms around him and snog him properly but knew that probably wouldn't be well-received.
The decision was taken away from her when Scorpius wrapped his strong arms around her, pulled her closer, and slanted his head for a better angle.
Her mind went completely blank and she gave in to her urge to tangle her hands in his hair. She forgot to question motivations and wonder why it was the he would want to snog her when he didn't see her as a girl.
Noticeably absent were her earlier concerns that they would do something stupid and ruin their friendship. The only thing she cared about in that moment was his lips on hers and his hands roaming over her body.
Distant laughter from the direction of the castle made her jerk away from Scorpius' embrace. It was almost dark, so it was highly unlikely that anyone could see them all the way from the school, but the possibly of being caught had startled her back to her senses.
He was Scorpius. She'd accidentally kissed him, and he'd given into his hormones and reacted to the kiss. That was plausible, right? Teenage boys had to constantly grapple with raging hormones that made them want to shag anything that moved too close. She'd just happened to get too close, and now Scorpius was going to regret it.
Abruptly, she stood up, trying to avoid the blond's darkened eyes. "That wasn't supposed to happen," she said shakily.
The only good thing that had come from that kiss was that she now knew for certain that she didn't think of Scorpius as just a friend. She had felt the electrifying sparks of pleasure and a yearning for him that 'just friends' could never have.
With her feelings confirmed, tensions were only going to increase more between them. In one moment, Rose had singlehandedly shredded their comfortable relationship. She wasn't going to be able to look at him without focusing on that kiss!
He was trying to catch her gaze, but she avoided it resolutely. Seeing the regret there would crush her completely.
"Rose-" Scorpius reached for her, but she took a step away from him, not wanting to be touched. That would only make it worse.
Those butterflies that had felt nice earlier had suddenly armed themselves with pointy things and were tearing into her insides with a vengeance.
Only thinking that she needed to stay far away from him and his outstretched hand, she took another step back, forgetting how close she was to the black water.
Before she could really understand what was happening, she had slipped on a mossy patch of rock and was plummeting though the freezing-cold lake. Her heavy robes were weighing her down and the cold made her numb within seconds of hitting the dark water. The cold liquid pressed in all around her, trying to flood her nose and mouth to choke her lungs.
Suddenly, something rubbery wrapped around her waist and started propelling her towards the surface. The tentacle lifted her clear of the water and carried her across the lake to the spot closest to the castle.
When it released its hold on her, Rose fell to the ground in a heap, unsteady on her legs. It seemed she was something of an accident magnet of late.
"Rose!" Scorpius called. He was rushing towards her, wearing that frantic look on his face again. The one she'd seen when she'd fallen from her broom and woken up with him hovering over her. She had to stop doing that to him; it couldn't be good for his blood pressure.
When he reached her, he crouched down beside her and grabbed both of her shoulders in his warm hands. Once again, he was completely uncaring about his expensive pants as he stared right into her eyes.
Rose idly noted that his mum had to hate him for his treatment of clothes; it must be a nightmare trying to stop him from ruining everything she bought. Then again, Scorpius looked great no matter what he wore or did. She probably looked like a drowned rat, while the only change he had to show for the whole experience were slightly swollen lips and windswept hair.
"Are you hurt somewhere? Did you hit your head? Let's get you inside," he pulled her to her feet and started to lead her towards the castle, but Rose pulled away.
"No!" She couldn't have him hovering and worrying over her, it gave her ideas that he cared more than he did. When she saw how hurt he looked behind the mask that had fallen over his face, she hurriedly tried to amend her statement to something less vehement. "Just... I have to go." She turned and ran, leaving him bewildered and hurt behind her.
It wasn't proper Head Girl behaviour to be running through the halls dripping seaweed and lake water, but Rose didn't care. She just wanted to be somewhere Scorpius couldn't get to her, somewhere she could think.
Her concern that her feelings were going to ruin their friendship had blinded her to the fact that she was already doing just that. How ironic was that?
Rose hoped Scorpius could just forget the whole lake incident and pretend it had never happened. That's what she intended to do – if he ever talked to her again.
Albus looked up, startled when she burst into the common room. She ignored his confused questions, running to her room and slamming the door behind her. She cast the strongest locking spell she knew on the door, not wanting to deal with anyone.
A quick drying spell had her clothes back to normal before she ripped them off and crawled into more comfortable pyjamas. She curled into a ball in her bed and clutched a pillow close to her face.
So she was a coward, there was a reason she hadn't been put into Gryffindor. She'd rather run from him than let him tell her that he hadn't meant to kiss her, that for a moment, he'd mistaken his friend Rose for Miss Busty Slytherin and kissed her back. It would crush her. Sure, she was already a little dented but still relatively whole. She was going to do whatever she could to keep those pieces intact.
Albus knocked on her door for a while, but she quickly tired of the noise and silenced it. Magically locked in her own little world, she was free to wallow in her misery. She'd just had the best kiss of her short life and it made her more distraught than any other single moment ever had.
Love was hard.
She smiled bitterly at her own understatement.
The next morning, Rose was completely unprepared for her date. She'd slept poorly, her hair was revolting against her because she hadn't washed it after the lake incident, and her head was killing her.
She peeked out her door before going into the common room, but no one was there. Albus must have been off somewhere. Relieved, she dragged herself into the bathroom.
A quick shower made her hair flatten slightly, but it was still a disaster. Frowning at her reflection in the mirror, she charmed her evil curls into a ponytail. That would have to do. She didn't look her best, but she was passable. Somehow she didn't think Lysander was overly concerned with her appearance anyway. The boy routinely wore bottle caps as a fashion accessory; he could hardly point fingers if she was a tad dishevelled.
A pair of jeans and a comfy shirt were chosen over a dress; she didn't think Lysander would plan something that she could comfortably do in a skirt. The radish earrings Luna had given to every female in the Weasley clan were the finishing touches on her outfit.
Rose grimaced as she caught her reflection in the mirror. She literally looked like something a cat had dragged in - after eating her and then vomiting her up again.
Lysander was waiting for her in the Entrance Hall, leaning against the wall and staring vacantly at the people passing by. A large grin stretched across his face when he caught sight of her radish earrings.
"I see you've come protected from the Nargles," he said, reaching down his collar and pulling out a bottle cap necklace to show that he was protected as well.
Wonderful, there could be a full-on Nargle invasion and they'd be the only two in the entire castle that would survive – save for Lysander's twin, of course.
"What's the plan?" she asked, feeling awkward already. It didn't help that she could feel the heavy weight of someone's gaze on her back. A part of her knew that if she turned around and searched the area, she'd find Scorpius giving her one of those long, unreadable looks of his.
So what if she was avoiding him? She was entitled to do that kind of thing from time to time, wasn't she? He was probably going to want answers when he talked to her, and Rose hadn't had time to come up with those answers. So really, what she was doing was for the benefit of both of them.
"I think we should get out of here before Malfoy contaminates the whole room with his Wrackspurts," Lysander said with a wary glance over her shoulder.
At least she wasn't the only one who had noticed Scorpius. Through sheer force of will, Rose didn't turn around to see what expression Scorpius was wearing. "Don't worry Lysander. I'm pretty sure any... Wrackspurts that Scorpius is throwing around are directed entirely at me."
He peeked over her shoulder again. "No, that death-glare of his is fully focused on me."
Rose linked her arm through his and pulled him towards the exit. "Should we head to Hogsmeade then, give the Wrackspurts room to disperse?"
He gladly followed, looking like he was fleeing from something. Rose could hardly blame him, the onetime she'd given in and glanced back at Scorpius, the blond had been wearing such a menacing look, she could have sworn it was his grandfather the former Death Eater behind them.
Little things seemed to go wrong for almost the entirety of their date. First, the bags of candy they'd both bought at Honeydukes suddenly burst, dropping the contents onto the muddy ground. Then a flock of sparrows suddenly decided that bits of Rose's hair would be the perfect lining to their nests and tried to pull it out.
The birds had chased them into The Three Broomsticks, where both their meals simultaneously exploded in their faces, covering them in mashed potatoes and gravy. The mess was repaired with a quick Scourgify, but both their appetites were ruined. Who wanted to eat food that had a tendency to attack anyway?
They'd tried for a stroll down to the Shrieking Shack, but trees had tangled in their robes and roots seemed to go out of their way to catch their feet. When Rose had tripped over a root and stumbled into Lysander, nearly knocking the both of them down a hill, they had given up and decided to call it a day.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone was following us around and trying to sabotage our date!" Lysander exclaimed as they walked through the castle gates, still on the lookout for renegade roots. The effort seemed to be unnecessary; the attacks had stopped as soon as it became obvious that they were headed back to the castle.
Rose glared towards a splash of red just at the tree line of the Forbidden Forest. Lily should know that she shouldn't leave her bright hair down to wave in the wind if she was going to try and hide in wooded areas. A black-robed figure that looked suspiciously like Albus grabbed Lily and pulled her behind a tree, hiding her hair. Considering their father was Harry Potter, one would assume they'd be less disappointing at the covert work.
"I know better and I think I may have to murder some of my cousins," she mumbled under her breath, too low for her date to hear.
"Despite the incidents, I've had fun," Lysander said awkwardly, grabbing one of her hands. It took a conscious effort not to take her hand back, his palm was clammy, and he was holding her poor fingers much too tightly.
He really had been a good sport about the whole thing, smiling serenely even with gravy on his face, offering the birds bits of twine he kept in his pockets so they'd leave her hair alone. His calm serenity was sort of soothing for someone as prone to extreme emotions as Rose. If she could just stop thinking about a certain blond, she may even be happy in a relationship with Lysander.
Maybe she just wasn't trying hard enough.
Her eyes widened when Lysander leaned in slowly, giving her plenty of time to pull away, but she held firm. What better way to wipe the memory of that kiss with Scorpius out of her head than another kiss? She closed her eyes and waited.
It didn't take long. Lysander pressed a chaste kiss on her lips and pulled back smiling.
Rose forced a smile on her face as well, trying not to look as miserable as she felt. There was no spark, nothing. She may as well have been kissing a mannequin for all she felt.
Once she'd set her mind on something, Rose was never one to do things halfway. She'd decided that she was going to forget about Scorpius and his mind-blowing kisses and she was going to have to give it her full effort.
That meant she was going to have to give kissing Lysander another go. Maybe she just needed to work harder about feeling something. It had been effortless with Scorpius, but with Lysander, it would obviously take another try.
Lysander's blue eyes widened when she grabbed either side of his face, but he didn't seem to mind when she mashed her lips against his. There were no fireworks, butterflies, or desire to completely immerse herself in the moment.
She applied a little more pressure before releasing him.
"Wow," was all he said, looking a little dazed.
Rose wasn't looking at him; she couldn't seem to tear her eyes from the grey pair that were staring at her with accusation, hurt, and an icy sheen that was completely new. She'd put that ice there and it killed her a little.
