Chapter 4 - Hot and Cold

The next two weeks passed by in a blur.

Between a full course load of NEWT classes, Head Girl duties, and helping Al prepare for the First Task, I hardly had any time for a social life.

I relished the half hours I spent chatting (read: engaging in harmless gossip) with my old dorm mates, because there were only so many times I could help Al practice Summoning Charms.

Still, it was hilarious thinking up creative things to summon, like Louis' pants. Although, despite the fact that he'd been in the middle of the Great Hall at dinnertime, he was utterly unembarrassed, even going so far as to hop up onto the table and take a bow for all of the ladies in the room. That boy was shameless, really.

Anyways, one night, I was enjoying my 30 minutes of peace in the 7th year Gryffindor girls dormitories—one of the only places where Al couldn't demand to practice more defense charms, given that he is (or so he claims) male, and even the Marauder's Map and the Potter charm couldn't get past that staircase (though James swears he did it…)—when Cassie Bakers, one of the friendliest girls on the planet, said:

"Did you guys know that Teresa Flannery is telling everyone she's dating Scorpius Malfoy, the Beauxbatons champion? Merlin is that bloke fit!"

My stomach chose that particular moment to do a weird, flip-flop thing.

"Are you joking? What's she saying?" Kate Fleming asked skeptically. Kate's awesome and my best non-related mate.

"Hmm… not much, just that, really. She wasn't really giving much detail, but Kristen Atherton did say she saw them walking together one time after Herbology…" Cassie mused.

My last former dorm mate, Riley Chase, snorted in sardonic amusement, "Oh please. Walking in the same direction that everyone else is walking in after a class is hardly considered dating. Besides, I really can't fathom what those blokes see in that slag."

Excellent points, Riley! Although, I had forgotten that Flannery was a sore subject for her. Back in fifth year, Riley caught her boyfriend cheating on her with Flannery. Needless to say, we pulled off an epic revenge prank on both of them, but that still didn't soften the pain.

"Well, that's obvious. Her magically enhanced double-D's, of course," Kate replied, rolling her eyes.

"It's a shame she can't magically enhance her brain," I smirked, causing the others to giggle even more. It was true, though. Teresa Flannery was very pretty in the overly-made up, short-skirted sort of way, but she possessed almost zero brain cells.

Riley, now visibly more cheered, sighed dramatically and mockingly reprimanded us, "Oh, you girls are just too mean sometimes."

"But that's why you love us," Cassie sing-songed. "Seriously, about this Malfoy bloke, though. Did you guys catch that Quidditch match he was playing with his mates? Such a fantastic Chaser. So dreamy."

Riley nodded her head in agreement. "Rich, too, from what I hear. He's heir to his family's billion galleon company."

"He sounds perfect," sighed Cassie.

Kate laughed. "Well Rose is the lucky one. She's his foreign buddy, right?" she asked in confirmation, eying me curiously.

I cringed slightly. "Er—yeah, I am. But, I don't really talk to him, because… since the First Task is only weeks away, and I have to spend most of my spare time training Al and Scorpius obviously has to practice as well, we kind of agreed to lie about our daily meetings," I mumbled guiltily.

I felt bad lying and I did enjoy talking to Scorpius. However, as it felt like the days leading up to November 25th were seriously flying by, I figured it'd be best for all of us if we just focused on the Tournament for now.

Besides, I hadn't really spoken to him since that night, because even though we took most of the same classes now, he usually sat with his group of friends…

Okay, so maybe I wished he'd occasionally sit by me, but it wasn't a big deal. Really.

And also, he was allowed to date whomever he wanted to. It mattered not to me. Seriously.

Riley scoffed. "The Head Girl, cheating? Who'd have thought?"

I grinned half-heartedly at her but was more focused on Kate, who seemed in deep contemplation. "Interesting," she murmured. "So who initiated the break from meetings? You or him?"

"Me, the night of the champion selection," I said, remembering when I awkwardly suggested the deception to him. It'd taken Scorpius a moment to answer me, and I wasn't sure if I'd imagined his slightly deflated expression or not…

"What?" Cassie shrieked, appalled. "So you voluntarily prevented yourself from spending time with that god of a man? You're bonkers, Rose!"

Alarmed, I tried to placate her boy-crazy mind. "Calm down, Cass. It's just logical for now. He and Al really need to practice for the First Task and I really don't have much time to spend with him, anyways! Besides, I've seen him in class, and he seems fine hanging out with his mates." I muttered the last part slightly more bitterly than intended, and caught a knowing smirk from Kate.

I rolled my eyes at the too-smart-for-her-own-good brunette. She knew nothing.

"Wait," said Cassie. "You're in here, now! You have time, right now! Get your arse out of here and down to that delicious Frenchman stat, Weasley!"

Before I could even blink, Cassie had her wand out and ejected me from the room. Bemused, I heard overly happy voices chorus, "Have fun!" "We want details!" and "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Laughing at their silliness, I marched down the staircase. Maybe they were right. I really should allow myself to have more fun (aside from the occasional goofing off with my cousins). I was taking this Triwizard Tournament deal a little too seriously, and I wasn't even the one competing!

Really, I worried even myself sometimes.

It was time to relax a little, starting tomorrow.


However, tomorrow turned out not to be a day of nice, peaceful relaxation. In fact, it was one of those days probably purposely designed by Merlin to make my life miserable.

I'd woken up at 2:00 AM to the sound of Al puking in the bathroom. He had a horrible case of stomach flu, and I waited two hours for him to be calm enough to make it down to the Hospital Wing. Then, I slept in the chair next to his bed for the next few hours, before heading back to my room to get ready for the day. Fortunately, Madam Pomfrey was kind enough to give me a few Energizing Potions. Merlin knew I'd need it.

However, even with the potions, I spent my classes trying hard not to doze off, especially in History of Magic.

Of course, word must have gotten to Professor Binns that today was the day to make my life hell, since he decided to give us a surprise at the end of the lecture.

Yeah, the three-foot long essay on the Pixie Skirmishes of 1704 that was supposed to be due three weeks from now? It's now due tomorrow.

If my eyes were capable of producing tears, I would've cried. Sadly, I was robbed of that consoling action as well.

I barely registered seeing Louis next to the portrait of Morgana in the Tapestry Corridor. As we headed to the Hospital Wing to check up on Al during our lunch period, I informed Louis of Binns' insanity.

"Thank Merlin I dropped that class," said Louis, clapping me on the back sympathetically.

I sighed. "I know. I hate today."

We found Al eating some chicken noodle soup and poring over a heavy tome on dangerous magical beasts. And to both my and Louis' delight, the house-elves had already brought up extra servings of lunch for us. They were amazing creatures.

"Hey, I forgot. Will you be okay running the Prefects' meeting by yourself tonight?" Al asked.

I stared at him, feeling my heart sink. I'd have even less time to work on the History essay. Hopefully, I'd be able to find a book on the Pixie Skirmishes still left in the library after the meeting.

Agh. Today sucked. At least I didn't have anything else due tomorrow.

I looked at Al with what I hoped to be a reassuring smile. "Of course! It's routine stuff. It'll be simple."

Of course, we both knew that with these mostly pedantic Prefects, the meeting was going to be unnecessary long and full of pointless questions. They always were.


Ignoring Madam Pince's disapproving glare as I rushed into the library, I headed straight to the History section in the back. I'd managed to escape the wrath of the Hogwarts Prefects relatively unscathed, but it was already ten past seven and I was getting a little worried.

Hmm, pixies. Where art thou?

I ventured towards the far corner of the History section. It was literally the most secluded part of the library (excepting the Restricted Section), because only the handful of N.E.W.T.-level History students stupid enough to subject themselves to more torture ever needed to use the texts back there.

AKA: me.

Spotting a catalog on the edge of the aisle, I quickly searched for something I could use. Apparently, the only related text left was C. Barnstorms' Pixie Pride. It seemed that my classmates had checked out all of the other books, but at least something usable remained.

With little time to waste, I perused the shelves for this stupidly important book.

… Ball… Bane… Bar… Barnstorms!

Yes! I happily pulled the old leather book from the shelf. I'd finish this essay in no time!

"Hey!" a rather irritated tone exclaimed from the other side of the bookshelves.

What in Merlin's…? I stared in surprise as a hand frantically searched the empty space that Barnstorms used to occupy.

Determined footsteps rounded the corner to my side of the shelves. "Excuse me, but I really—oh. Rose?"

Abruptly pulled from my state of shock, my smile was entirely too happy and nervous as I studied the familiar figure before me. Of course I'd caught glimpses of him during classes, but I still sort of missed his company. (Yeah, I know, the whole situation was of my own doing, but still…) And those chiseled features and striking gray eyes certainly didn't hurt, either.

"Hey, Scorpius."

He gave me a tired smile. "Stealing books now? You're looking for something for Binns' essay, too, I take it."

I nodded slowly, it only just registering that he was one of the few foreign students in my History class. "Yeah, but it looks like I got the last one…"

Scorpius sighed, muttering under his breath, "I knew I should've skipped that meeting with Maxime."

An idea suddenly occurred to me. Have fun! I could almost hear Cassie in my head. "Um… if you want, we could share the book?" I ventured.

His expression was unreadable. "Are you sure?"

"Certainly! Come on." I smiled, leading him to a vacant table nearby.

When we were both settled in at the table, I said, "So, I'm sorry for ditching you these last couple of weeks. I've really been so busy, especially with helping Al practice. I hope you haven't gotten too lost around here," I teased.

"Me? Get lost? Please," he smirked.

I rolled my eyes at him, secretly appreciating his unique brand of sarcasm. "C'mon, let's start this thing. You know, I've never liked Pixies..."

The essay really wasn't so bad, especially since Scorpius shared his iPod with me. Even though all of the magic at Hogwarts was sure to make Muggle technology go haywire, Scorpius had charmed it so that the device was powered by a complex spell.

I had just finished penning the concluding sentence of my essay when the lights in the library abruptly turned off, enveloping us in pitch darkness.

"Scorpius! Where are you?" I whispered nervously, pulling out the headphones.

"Right here. Does this happen a lot at Hogwarts?" A hint of exasperation was evident in his tone.

I shook my head but realized he couldn't see me. "Lumos," I murmured, causing my wand to light up. "No! This has never happened before. Oh Merlin, what do we do?"

"Calm down, Rose. What time does the library close?" questioned Scorpius.

I took a deep breath. Calm down. "Eleven," I answered shakily.

With a glance at his watch, Scorpius groaned. "Yeah, the library's closed. Come on, we need to go see if the doors are still open," he said, dragging me up.

They weren't. No combination of unlocking spells could open them, either.

"The librarian probably didn't know we were still around since we were all the way in the back," mused Scorpius.

"Yeah," I agreed. "And we were probably too focused on our essays and the music to hear her announce the library closing." I groaned. "What do we do now?"

Scorpius smirked. "Looks like we're spending the night together."

"You're incorrigible," I said, rolling my eyes.

We decided to head back to our previous spots in the secluded area of the library; that way, we could more easily evade trouble when Madam Pince reopened the doors in the morning.

Scorpius was in charge of the sleeping arrangements while I performed some Cleaning Charms to tidy up the old, dusty bookcases around us. However, when I returned to our designated sleeping spot, the sight that greeted me was completely unexpected.

"Um, Scorpius, what's this?"

Instead of the sleeping bags he was supposed to transfigure, Scorpius had conjured up a low mattress with a fluffy blanket and pillows.

"The sleeping bags were too hard and lumpy. This'll make us more comfortable."

It suddenly registered to me that there was only one mattress. One mattress. My body suddenly felt very hot. I tried to brush off my nervousness with a joke.

"What, Beauxbatons boys don't slum it?"

"Never," he smirked, kicking off his shoes, loosening his tie, and settling into the makeshift bed.

I copied his movements, albeit much more hesitantly. I'd never been in this type of situation before, and I'd only just met Scorpius... but somehow, I trusted him (not that I really had a choice at this point, but still).

As I lied down on the bed (keeping as much space between us as I could manage, which wasn't much), I realized that the mattress really was quite comfortable. I told Scorpius so.

He chuckled. "Thanks. I like Transfiguration, but I'm best at Defense."

"Hmm, no. Defense is pretty cool, but Charms is obviously the best."

"Clearly, you've never studied Defense at Beauxbatons, but don't worry, I'll teach you," he said, and I could feel his smirk even though I couldn't see it.

"Well, I suppose Professor Gale is only a mediocre teacher," I conceded. "But I definitely do not need help from a Beauxbatons boy," I said saucily. "How's your training going, though?"

"Fine, I suppose." He sighed. "That was actually why I was so late in getting to the library. Maxime's been forcing me into extra spell practice. Although, it turned out to be a good thing."

I was sure I was blushing furiously and was grateful it was so dark right now. "Al is spending every waking moment practicing, too. You know, you should hang out with him," I suggested. "And Louis, too. You'd like them," I said earnestly, as another thought struck me. "In fact, we're all going to James' Quidditch match this Saturday. Would you be interested? I'm sure I could convince Slughorn to let you come with us. I mean, that's only if you want to, of course. You don't have to—"

Scorpius covered my lips lightly with his hand, and I realized I'd been rambling. Oh Merlin. "Relax, Rose. It'd be cool to join you guys. Thanks for the invite."

"Okay," I said, smiling sleepily. "Well... good night then, Scorpius."

His grin was evident as he replied, "Night, Rose. Sleep well."


a/n: Thanks for reading! Kind of a filler chapter, I know, and I apologize for Rose's hot/cold attitude towards Scorpius, but she's seventeen and naturally struggles with these sort of things. :P

Anyways, it all belongs to JK Rowling. The "last book" part was inspired by gpoy's Out of Print and the "stuck in the library" scene was inspired by pratty-prongs-princesse's Fly Me to the Moon.

Please let me know what you think! Thank you to all who reviewed last chapter! I'd really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions, as reviews are truly motivators to write. :)