Chapter 9
A/N: I have so many essays due! And yet... here I am, procrastination with fanficiton. Good for those of you who were waiting for the next chapter, not all that beneficial to my marks. *sigh*
Anyway, have fun reading this, I certainly had fun writing it! The scene that takes up most of the last half of the chapter was actually written ahead of time while I was still near the beginning of this story. I knew it had to be included as soon as the idea popped into my head.
As always, thanks to all the wonderful people who reviewed and to thestarlitrose and irianaceleste for betaing!
~Frosty
Rose woke up to a loud banging on her door. She snapped a barely-understandable protest and buried her head under her pillow. The banging continued.
"Rose! It's Christmas and we're waiting for you to open presents!" Hugo yelled impatiently through the wood.
Since it was morning and, prior to Hugo, no one had tried to bang her door down. Rose could only assume that her mum had given her dad a talking to and convinced him to drop the issue of her dress - or at least forget about it until Christmas was over. That or he was waiting for her to leave the relative safety of her room so he could pounce like a tomato-coloured tornado.
With a sigh, she dragged herself from bed, frowning at the slight headache she had from a tad too much champagne. In the larger scheme of things, a little headache was nothing, but it did serve to add that extra bit of misery to her already gloomy day. A headache was not something to have prior to a Weasley gathering; it was guaranteed to only worsen after exposure to too many of the redheaded bunch.
She really wasn't going to have a Merry Christmas, she could already tell.
"Rosie! I have a few questions for you!" George said that night after the usual Weasley Christmas dinner.
Everyone had fallen into that happy state one reaches after plentiful good food and good company. Not Rose though, her frown stood out amongst the flushed cheeks and large grins that the rest of the family sported.
George sidled up beside his moping niece. She had been slightly surly to everyone that day, but he had never been deterred by a bad attitude. In fact, bad attitudes attracted him; a person in a foul mood required a lot less work to provoke, and he did so enjoy provoking people.
"Can't it wait, Uncle George?" she asked, begging with her eyes for some solitude. Unfortunately for her, the Weasley's weren't exactly a group that were particularly fond of solitude. They didn't believe in it for themselves and rarely allowed it in others.
George grinned. "No can do Rosie. This is an important business matter. Albus tells me that he gave you a bottle of the new Heart's Desire potion for Christmas and that you tried it. I want to know if there were any side effects."
Knowing her uncle wasn't going to give up until he had his answers, she turned her blue eyes to him as she thought about what had happened when she'd taken the potion.
The only side effect she could think of was the strengthened desire to snog her best mate, but that was a recurring issue with her. She was pretty sure that particular problem was completely unrelated to the potion she'd taken.
"None that I'm aware of," she said in a monotone, hoping to end the conversation as soon as possible. She wanted to get back to her brooding and whatnot.
"Were you expecting any?" she added as a suspicious afterthought. It was always best to ask lots of questions when sampling products from the joke shop, particularly those products in which her Uncle George had taken a special interest.
"I'm not actually sure yet." His grin was huge and slightly evil. George had no concerns about testing his products on his family. "It's still in the testing stages. I had a craving for pizza and mustard with butter and ended up in the middle of the neighbour's kitchen. His pregnant wife was there while she had a midnight snack. We're trying to work on invasions of privacy..." He rubbed his jaw while he said this. Rose assumed it was because the neighbour had found him in the kitchen, eating pizza with his wife and punched him.
"If it's any help, the wards of Malfoy Manor kept me out, I appeared outside the front gate." Her eyes widened the moment the words were out of her mouth; George wasn't the type to let a secret like that lie.
To her shock, he didn't seem surprised about her mention of Malfoy Manor. Instead he seemed intrigued.
"The wards there kept you out, you say? Interesting..." He stood up, clapping her on the shoulder. He was already shuffling around in his pocket for the pad of paper he kept there.
Rose winced at the contact. Lysander had bought her an Australian Hugging Cactus for Christmas. She'd opened the box it had arrived in, and the stupid plant had immediately embraced her, embedding its long spines deep in her shoulders and back. Her dad had raged against Lysander as he put the plant out in the cold, where it wouldn't be able to hug anyone.
Despite her mum's skill with healing charms, some of the puncture marks hadn't disappeared completely. She was left with small purple bumps on her skin that sent tiny jolts of pain through her system every time she stretched too far or put pressure on them. They'd take a while to fully heal.
Rose wasn't sure what it was that Lysander had been thinking when he sent such a violent gift. It had probably been something along the lines of: hugs were good and so were plants so she'd enjoy a combination of the two.
Her Uncle George wandered back into the room, scribbling furiously on his pad of paper. Rose was a tad concerned that he was going to go to Malfoy Manor himself to examine the wards to find out what it was about them that had kept her out. She may have just unleashed her Uncle George on the unsuspecting Malfoys.
Scorpius scowled at his trunk as he sat on it in the foyer of the Manor. His parents were late.
If they didn't show up soon, he was going to Apparate to the station without them.
It was really just a formality that he allowed them to accompany him to the train anyway, and now they were going to make him miss the thing. His mum insisted on accompanying him to the train station despite the fact that he was old enough to Apparate on his own. It was one of those sentimental mum-type things that even Malfoy women didn't seem to be immune to.
"Your mum's not here yet?" Draco asked in surprise as he ambled into the room, his hands resting casually in his pockets.
The younger man didn't even glance towards his father, his eyes focused on the stairs as if he could make Astoria appear there with his gaze alone. "No."
Draco rolled his eyes at the boy's theatrics. "You wouldn't be in such a foul mood if you hadn't botched up the plan at Christmas."
"What plan?" Scorpius asked, looking like he was ready to strangle someone.
One of the major downfalls of living with someone who was both a Slytherin and a Malfoy was the scheming. Merlin, could it ever get out of hand. Nothing pissed Scorpius off quicker than finding out about a plot concerning him after the fact. It made his blood boil.
"Do you think it was an accident that Rose's little boyfriend ended up in a broom closet for the duration of your dance with her?"
Groaning, Scorpius shifted back so he could bang his head on the wall. That's just what he needed; another reason for Rose to be brassed off at him. Knowing her temper, she'd probably think he asked his father to invite her louse of a boyfriend to the Manor just to abuse him.
Misinterpreting the reason behind the groan, Draco patted Scorpius' shoulder. "Calm down, there's hope for you yet."
He reached into his pocket and handed over the deep blue bottle over to his son. Sure, he'd left Rose the impression that he wasn't going to tell Scorpius about that particular detail of her visit, but his loyalties were to his family first and the chit should have known that.
After reading the label, Scorpius looked at his father in disbelief. "You think an empty bottle of some Heart's Desire potion is going to make everything better?"
"No, but it's proof that all hope's not yet lost. That bottle is how she got here the day I gave her the invitation to the Christmas ball. It was her heart's desire to see you."
The younger man stared hard at the bottle while his father watched on. Scorpius was about to say something when he heard a distant clicking.
"Are we ready to go?" Astoria called, clacking into the room on her heels.
Quickly, Scorpius stashed the bottle in his pocket. He'd ponder on that later, when his parents weren't standing there, sharing that irritating knowing look of theirs.
Rose sent Scorpius a questioning glance. He was sitting across from her in their train compartment with a confused and troubled expression. His hand kept touching something in his pocket, and every time he did, the swirling conflict in his eyes only intensified.
When he caught her look, he shook his head slightly, telling her not to ask.
Despite – or possibly because of - their interactions over the winter holidays, things were still a little strange between them. Rose suspected it might have something to do with the fact that Lysander was still spending a lot of time with her. The hatred Scorpius held for Lysander only seemed to increase as time passed. She could understand why Scorpius would be upset that Lysander was taking up some of her time, but a personal vendetta against the bloke was taking it a little far.
She and Scorpius' reaction upon seeing one another once again after the awkward kiss over the holidays had been almost anticlimactic. Scorpius had given her and Albus both a small smile and nod on the platform, then he had joined them while they searched for a compartment.
Conversations had flowed with near-normalcy, leaving Rose more confused than ever. How could they still be acting the same while so much had changed? The commonality of their situation only reinforced Rose's belief that something had only changed for her and not him.
"Well," Albus said, looking between his reticent friends and trying to break the tension. "I had a good holiday, what about everyone else?"
Rose and Scorpius glared at him.
Sipping the tart raspberry tea, Rose tried to think of something she could say to break the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over the table she shared with Scorpius. They'd made small talk for a moment when they arrived in class, but without Albus there to act as a buffer, they had been unable to keep up a conversation.
Maybe everything wasn't as normal she she'd thought – not that she assumed it meant something. She refused to believe Scorpius thought of her as something other than a friend. It would crush her when he proved her wrong by flaunting a relationship with another one of his slags.
"This is ridiculous!" she grumbled, more to herself than anyone else. She was being ridiculous.
Scorpius looked at her, an eyebrow raised in silent inquiry.
"We used to talk about everything and now we can't seem to hold a conversation." Her head thumped down to rest against her folded arms.
"Not everything," Scorpius said, staring into his tea. "It's what we're not saying that ruining us." It seemed that he was talking more to his tea than to her.
With a dark look, he tipped his head back and gulped down the steamy liquid.
Rose knew what she was hiding, but what was it that he was keeping to himself? The small part of her that was eternally optimistic told her that maybe they were hiding the same thing.
Before that idea could root itself too deeply in her mind, she ruthlessly crushed it with memories of the brunette at Hogwarts and the blonde from the ball. She'd rather be friends with Scorpius and actually talk to him than just occasionally shag him in dark corners -or wherever he took those slags.
Copying her friend, Rose finished off her tea as well. As soon as she set the porcelain down on the table, he snatched it away and thrust his own in front of her.
Apparently they were going to pretend he hadn't said anything.
Silence reigned once more while Rose flipped through her book, Scorpius following her motions with his eyes but not moving to do any work of his own.
"You've been poisoned and it's eating you up on the inside. The only cure for this poison is sharing it so it can become something good," she said. Rose scowled down at her notes. "That didn't make any sense. This is why mum told me I shouldn't take this class," she said in exasperation, laughing at herself.
Rose failed to notice that Scorpius hadn't joined in with her laughter, he was looking contemplative.
"Are you going to do mine?" she asked.
He jolted slightly as her words startled him out of the world of thoughts in which he'd accidentally immersed himself. Silver eyes flicked down to the dregs of her tea, looking bored. "Your boyfriend is going to die a slow, painful death," he said with relish.
Professor Trelawney overheard the portent of doom. She gasped and rushed over to check the teacup for herself. "Class, we have a budding seer amongst us!" she excitedly exclaimed. "You could all learn something from Mr. Malfoy here."
"Can I ask, Mr. Malfoy, what it is that you've done to open your inner eye so quickly? Last class you were less than enthusiastic in your studies," she said excitedly. Her owlish eyes blinked expectantly at him from behind her thick spectacles.
"I find that with the right motivation, these things just come to me." He smirked at the glaring Rose the entire time he spoke.
Rose knew very well that his only motivation was a hatred of Lysander and a mind disturbingly well-versed in the darker side of magic. While his father no longer practiced Dark magic, the Malfoy library was stocked with tonnes of literature on the subject. Scorpius probably knew a spell or two for slow, painful deaths just from light reading in the family library.
When the professor was finished fawning, Scorpius grinned smugly while Rose tried to burn him with her eyes.
"Don't be jealous Weasley, not all of us can have innate talent such as mine."
She cast a stinging hex at him under the table, sniggering when he jumped and nearly fell from his chair. It seemed she'd come across a little inspiration of her own. She foresaw a lot more stinging hexes in his future if he kept annoying her.
"Where're you going?" Albus asked when Rose came out of her room. He was seated in the Head's common room with Scorpius. They were all set for a quiet evening in front of the warm fire. Sometimes the two of them liked to have what they called a "boy's night" where they just lounged around and drank. Rose didn't really know what else they did; she was never invited to boy's nights.
"Lysander said he has a surprise for me," she said, avoiding making eye contact with Scorpius. There was bound to be an expression there that she wouldn't like, and it wasn't fair to Lysander to go meet him after a fight with Scorpius that would keep her furious for the entire night.
She rushed from the room before there was time for their silence to become uncomfortable for her.
Rose scratched at her hair as she opened the portrait guarding the Head's common room. It took a conscious effort not to slam the door; her mood wasn't the best at the moment, but it wasn't fair to take it out on the painting's occupant.
She jumped when she caught sight of the blond figure lounging on the sofa, his sharp grey eyes trained on her. There was amusement in those grey eyes. She wasn't sure if she could handle his amusement in her current mood – not without hexing him.
"How do you keep ending up with plants in your hair?" he asked, trying to hold back laughter.
She tried to tug one of the sprigs of mint tangled into her braids, but it was futile. Lysander's spell has twisted her hair into a mass of tangled braids and mint that was going to take her forever to unwind.
Before answering, she took a second to suppress her irritation. There was still a little bitterness in her voice when she spoke. "Lysander says that Moon Frogs are particularly bad this year and I need extra protection because they've been known to eat red hair. Apparently, mint's been known to keep them away."
His eyes had dimmed slightly at the mention of Lysander, but at the end of her statement laughter burst forth. Who wouldn't laugh after a story like that?
In a huff, Rose stomped past him to head to her room, still scratching at the itchy sprigs. Her discomfort didn't help her foul mood.
It was one thing to understand why he was laughing, but it was another to stand there while he laughed at her. She was going to her room to sulk while she tried to get the bloody plants out of her hair.
He reached out and caught her wrist. "Wait. I didn't mean to take the piss, but there's no way you can't see the humour in the situation."
The rigid posture she had assumed lessened, but she didn't laugh with him. Maybe she'd be able to see the hilarity of the situation later, but the events of her short night were still too fresh.
"Hair incident aside, why are you back so soon? I thought you were going on a date," he said the word date with immense distaste.
"He used a spell to braid mint into my hair and then tried to take me on a picnic by the lake," Rose said.
His silver eyes slid to the window, where snowflakes pelted the glass as a blizzard raged outside. He started laughing again.
Rose glared. Her hand reached up to scratch at a particularly persistent itch above her ear. Maybe if she wasn't so itchyand annoyed, she would have been able to laugh as well, but she was, so she couldn't.
Scorpius' laughter calmed down and he noticed her scratching.
"Come here," he said, gesturing to the floor at his feet. At her confused expression, he elaborated. "You're not going to be able to get those braids out yourself. Come here."
Willing to do anything to relieve the itching, Rose moved closer to him than she'd allowed herself in a long time. She hesitantly perched on the ground between his feet, her posture rigid so she wasn't actually touching any part of him.
"Where's Albus?" she asked, covering her discomfort with words.
"He got called away to deal with a disagreement between prefects."
They fell into silence once again.
With surprising skill, his long fingers started unwinding the braids and plucking mint from her hair. She unconsciously leaned into his touch, tilting her head back slightly to press his hands closer to her skin.
Every time he unwound a braid, he massaged the patch of scalp where it had started, eliminating the itch. He would then run his fingers through the freshly-freed hair a few times to make sure all the mint was gone.
Rose was in heaven. She loved to have her hair touched; it always turned her to a puddle of happiness. Her eyes started to drift shut as she moved closer to the sofa, wiggling backwards until she was bracketed by his legs. A barely-audible moan of contentment escaped her lips unbidden, making his hands freeze in their soothing movements.
"Sorry," she hastily apologised. "Don't stop."
At that moment, she would have given anything to see his face, to see in his eyes what it was he was thinking, why he had stopped. Instead, she had to stare out the window and hope to once again find her previous state of bliss.
She should have been embarrassed that she got so carried away that she made an embarrassing sound, but she deserved some rest! It was just too tiring to worry about everything all the time. She'd be embarrassed later, when he wasn't so freely touching her.
Slowly, as if unsure, his fingers once again began gently unravelling her braids.
It took her a little longer than the first time, but she was eventually able to relax once again. So entranced by his touch was she, that she didn't notice when he ran out of braids to unravel and just started trailing his fingers through her hair and over her scalp.
She did however, notice when his hands travelled down to her shoulders. A hiss of pain was startled from her as he touched one of the marks from the blasted hugging cactus.
"What's wrong?" he asked, worried that he'd injured her somehow.
Gently, Rose rubbed the spot he'd pressed, trying to soothe the dull throbbing that had begun."I got an Australian Hugging Cactus for Christmas... It hugged me," she mumbled, a little embarrassed about her run-in with a plant.
He wasn't touching her anymore, but she could still feel him tense behind her. "What bloody imbecile would give something so dangerous as a present?" he hissed.
"It wasn't meant to be dangerous," she said defensively.
Scorpius scoffed. "Let me guess; that sodding boyfriend of yours was the one. And he only had the best intentions when he inadvertently maimed you?"
Her silence was all the answer he needed. Behind her back, he shook his head in irritation while he fished out his wand
"Let me see."
At her wide-eyed shock, he elaborated.
"Mother has one in the greenhouse at the Manor, and she taught me a special spell to heal the wounds caused by its thorns after it grabbed me one day."
Rose hesitated. The cactus had the longest spines on the ends of its 'arms' and virtually none towards its middle, but she still had a few shallower punctures near one collarbone. If she was going to show him all of the marks so he could heal them properly, she'd practically have to remove her shirt, and she didn't think it was a good idea to be shirtless around Scorpius. To have his hands on her bare skin once again... She shivered at the thought.
No, it was best she kept her shirt on.
Having known her for years, Scorpius could tell she was getting ready to refuse him. He didn't like to be refused, particularly when he only had the best intentions.
"It's not like I ordered you to strip naked. Just undo the top few buttons of your blouse and pull it down over your shoulders. You'll still be covered far more than you were at the Christmas ball."
Blushing at the memory, Rose moved her fingers to the buttons, knowing he wasn't going to relent until he got his way. Malfoys always got what they wanted – at least, that's what Scorpius had frequently said when they were younger.
