100 Rose and Scorpius Drabbles
Disclaimer: I disclaim!
Chapter X: Tournament
"A famous contest between the schools of Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons, originated 700 years ago for frivolity and friendly competition between the three schools. The Tournament itself is a series of tasks designated champions of the three schools must complete in order to win." It sounded so simple in its mere definition, but to Rose Weasley, who had read all about it in Hogwarts: A History, the Triwizard Tournament was an evil, uncouth practice, especially since more than one handful of students had died amidst completing the dangerous tasks. It didn't help that her uncle Harry had told her all about his own experience in the Tournament back in his fourth year.
Fourth year! Didn't students have to be seventeen years of age to qualify for the Tournament? Now also suspicious about the Goblet of Fire, which chose the champions for the contest, Rose Weasley hoped that the Triwizard Tournament would never occur again. This hope lasted for five years, and the Tournament had hardly ever entered Rose's thoughts since she had last spoken about it with Uncle Harry.
So it was not unexpected that Rose was in complete and utter shock when Head Mistress McGonagall announced that Hogwarts would be the host of the first Triwizard Tournament since 1994. Rose's first reaction was to grab at her shiny, brand new Head Girl badge and nearly fall off the bench at her table and onto her butt. Thankfully Albus prevented her fall.
Her cousin Louis was just like his laid-back, risk-taking father Bill. "It sounds so cool! But I'm only fifteen. Uncle Harry did it when he was fourteen! What a load of bullocks. Rosie, will you put my name in for me?"
Hugo wanted to enter as well, but was also too young. He wasn't whiny about this, but instead pressured Rose herself to put her name into the Goblet. "C'mon, Rosie, you're old enough and you're Head Girl! Blimey, if anyone can do it, it's you!"
Even meek and mild Lily was obsessively interested.
By the end of the first week of classes, Rose was hoarse and severely irritated from all the yelling and scolding she had to do to keep her cousins and brother in check. However, the person who worried her most was Albus, who was seventeen, who acted exactly like his father, and who said he was absolutely putting his name in the Goblet, no matter what Rose and her pretentious Head Girl syndrome had to say about it. "So take that badge and that lecture you've got saved for me and shove it up your arse, Rose." She had her suspicions that he was jealous about her newfound duties, but disregarded this idea, and quickly wrote Aunt Ginevra and Grams, who were her last hopes in convincing Albus that he was so far off his rocker that it looked like someone had lifted him up out of it and tossed him clear to the other side of the room.
And then he had the nerve to tell her he was putting his name in the Goblet. In the middle of Potions class. On an airborne note.
Finally got my opportunity to stick it to my father. Meet me in the library after Transfig. Bring something to eat.
Next to his short message was a sloppy doodle of a cup or trophy of some sort with the words "SCORPIUS (GOD) MALFOY: KING OF HOGWARTS" scrawled proudly on it. Rose made a sour face and scrunched up the note bitterly. She did as the note directed and met him in the library two class periods later, and she brought him something to eat – her fist.
"You're not doing it."
Scorpius didn't quite understand her stance in the argument, "Why not? Don't you have faith in me?"
Rose crossed her arms. "You are not doing it, Scorpius."
"WHY NOT?"
"Because you'll get hurt. Or blown up. Or dead."
"You have no faith in me," he was giving her a look she had only received in the first few years of her life at Hogwarts, back when he truly did resent her.
Rose sighed loudly. "I am tired of having this conversation. I've had it with Albus seventeen billion times and I am done having it. I have faith in you; it's not that, it's just that if you had any respect for the people who loved you, you wouldn't even consider putting your name in that Goblet!" She threw herself down into the nearest chair.
Scorpius shoved his fists in his pockets and stared down at her from his six foot frame. She brought her knees up to her chin and avoided his gaze. He watched her squirm, his face void of any real expression. She groaned. "Oh, what? Let me have it, then."
He shrugged. "I want to do this. I can do it, and I think you know I can do it. It's our seventh year. I'm running out of opportunities to prove I've 'grown up'." He put the words in quotation marks with his fingers because he was directly quoting a nasty letter from his father. Rose had read said nasty letter and silently agreed. But she was not letting him off the hook. She just wasn't letting him do it, period. He had no say in it. It was a matter of his life or his death.
"The only reason you're doing this, Scorpius, is because Albus said he was." She frowned and scanned a row of books on a tall shelf to her right.
"What?" Scorpius's face looked as though she had just slapped him. "Wait, can you please repeat that again? I thought you just reasoned my motives with that of Albus Potter." Rose stayed silent. "Wow. That's probably the one of the stupidest things I've ever heard you say."
Rose narrowed her eyes. "So now I'm stupid?"
Scorpius flashed her a close-lipped smile and nodded.
"Thanks, Malfoy."
"No, Weasel, thank you."
"You're a dickhead."
"Such foul language, Weasley."
"Shut up before I shut you up."
"Oh, please shut me up. I have a feeling I'd enjoy that." He smirked. She glared. He shut up.
Rose sighed. "Everyone knows you've had a ridiculous competition with Albus since day one. Quidditch, duels, physical fighting, anything – as long as you can look like the tougher guy. Neither of you can win. You both make yourselves look like morons." Rose stared up at him. "But never grades. That was my assigned job. To beat you on every test."
Scorpius snorted. "Looks like you've been quite the little overachiever." He nodded at her badge.
Rose shrugged. "That's beside the point. The point is, if you're trying to beat Albus again, don't. I've finally convinced him not to put his name in that goblet, and now you're starting. Just don't. I don't want you to."
"You're being selfish."
"Am not!"
"Then what is it you're supposed to be doing here? Why are you convincing me not to? Being a hero? Protecting me?" He raised an eyebrow.
Rose stood up to her full height so that her forehead almost reached his shoulder. And then she tilted her head back and glared up at him. "Why do you want 'eternal glory', Scorp?"
Scorpius lowered his chin and glared down his nose at her freckled face. "Um…it's eternal glory." He made a face that clearly said 'only an idiot would ask that question'. She seemed to interpret this. "Right. Well, why do you need eternal glory?"
He grinned. "I don't. But I don't always need everything I want. Although…" His grin disappeared and Rose could feel his hands on her waist. "You're the walking contradiction to that statement." He pressed his lips to hers. She immediately forgot what she was supposed to be doing and felt her body temperature rise.
Bloody hell, he should be beaten for pulling stunts like this. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. Scorpius' right hand left its place on her hip and trailed down her leg and under her black skirt. She groaned and shoved him away. "Scorpius Malfoy, we're in the middle of a library!" she hissed.
Scorpius snickered, a devilish grin forming on his face. She narrowed her eyes and straightened the collar of her uniform top, trying to get rid of the color in her cheeks.
"So, now that that's settled," he drawled. He smirked and blew her a kiss and before she could respond properly, he had waltzed his way out of the library. "Scorpius! Get back here and finish what you started!"
The argument about the Triwizard Tournament was not what she was referring to.
The next morning at breakfast, however, Rose wished she had finished her conversation with Scorpius. Perhaps she already would have had him convinced not to put his name into the Goblet, but as she saw him striding down the middle of the Great Hall with his best mate Brutus Flint, a piece of parchment in hand, she knew it was too late. A hollow feeling formed in her stomach as he strode past her. Her knees felt wobbly as she stood up and raced after him.
"Scorpius…" she called after him, weakly, barely audible. "Scorpius!" He turned and grinned. "Morning, cupcake." He kissed her cheek. She frowned and squeezed herself between Flint and Scorpius. "Scorp, what are you doing?"
Flint smirked and said, "He's bloody conquering Hogwarts, that's what he's doing!" The three of them came to a halt at the age line drawn around the Goblet of Fire, which had been present in the middle of the Great Hall since the second day of school. A lump formed in Rose's throat as she stepped in front of Scorpius. "Please, I am begging you, don't do this."
Scorpius scowled. "What are you so afraid of?"
"You know." It was a whisper and it barely came out at all.
"It won't happen."
"You don't know that."
He sighed, his jaw tightening. She knew he was getting annoyed. Finally she swallowed the lump in her throat and allowed what she had wanted to say for the past twenty-four hours to come out in a low, menacing hiss, "If you put your name in that goblet and you're chosen as the Hogwarts champion, I will never forgive you." She pressed her lips together in a tight, thin line and stormed out of the Great Hall, everyone watching each step she took until she was out of sight.
