a/n: a very Merry Christmas to everybody, but most particularly to the recipient of this little fic, the only and only Delilah Reede, who is a lovely, lovely girl and I feel so honoured to know her. She's sweet and kind and funny and exactly the sort of person who deserves everything that they want. Love you, Dee.

dark corridors and close-quarters
for Dee

Rose Weasley is sitting doing homework.

This should not be a surprise to you.

In fact, this should not be a surprise to anyone. But, naturally, her dear cousin and his stupid friend are going to pretend that it is.

"Rose, old bean!" Albus cries, crossing the common room at a near-run, dragging up a chair so he can sit nice and close next to her. "Assure me that there is no possible possibility that you are doing homework."

"Piss off, Al," Rose retorts, checking her astronomy chart for the location of Jupiter.

"She is doing homework," Al comments sadly to the boy who has taken a seat across from them, his grey eyes lightly amused as he watches Rose scribble furiously.

"That's because she has no life, Al," Scorpius reminds his best friend, and Albus nods in concurrence.

"Oh, yes, I forgot. We are the sole lights in her lonely life, and we were too busy playing Quidditch to remember to talk to her."

Rose raises her eyes slowly from her parchment, now almost completely covered in inky blue scribbles, and glares at them, brown eyes dark and dangerous under drawn brows.

"Albus," she says slowly, hand creeping towards her wand, "Please don't make me hex you. Not this close to the weekend."

"Oh, but Rose," Al exclaims in despair, his green eyes wide and entreating as he blinks pathetically at her. "You need to have some fun, dear cousin."

"You know what, Al," Scorpius says, leaning over the table towards Rose and tilting his head to examine her face, "I don't think Rose knows the meaning of the word fun."

"I do too know what fun is," Rose retorts, and she'd come up with a better comeback but she's tired and she's got this whole homework to finish and, Merlin, why can't they just leave her alone. "It is something that occurs when neither of you two are present."

"Oh, Rosie, you're such a charmer," Al teases, and then suddenly he's dragging her to her feet, Scorpius moving to take her other side, and then without quite understand what is going on Rose is being hustled out of the common room and into the dark corridors of the school.

"Albus," she says in a low voice, teeth clenched, "Where are you taking me?"

"To the kitchens, Rose," Scorpius informs her, and Rose ignores the butterflies in her stomach at the realisation that his hand is wrapped around her arm (and yeah, she's pathetic) and instead focuses on that irrational fury that rises up inside her whenever he's around.

"And why would that be, Malfoy?" she inquires in a low voice, eyes almost sparking as she turns her head towards him.

"Because you're grumpy," Al chips in cheerily, sounding like he's about to burst out into song or something. "And food makes grumpy girls into happy ones."

And, holy crap, Albus is actually turning into a ninety-year-old man who belongs in the Dark Ages.

"For Merlin's sake," she grumbles, giving up on trying to escape and instead allowing herself to be tugged through the sleeping school. "Remind me why I'm friends with you guys again?"

"Because we're amazing," Scorpius replies matter-of-factly, yanking her casually around a corner. "You couldn't stay away from us if you tried."

"Or something like that," she mutters in reply, and she's just about starting to think that maybe this isn't such a bad idea when Albus gives her an almighty shove sideways and topples both her and Scorpius into a broom cupboard.

"Malfoy, get your elbow out of my stomach right now or so help me I will not be held responsible for my actions!" Rose hisses, glaring at his face over the two-inch distance that now separates them thanks to Al's inexplicable actions.

In response, Scorpius clamps a hand over her mouth.

Behind the hand, Rose explodes in a fit of swearwords, until he brings his face even closer to hers and whispers, "Would you just shut up? Clepps is coming, that's why Al chucked us in here!"

"Then why isn't he in here too?" Rose inquires, removing his hand from her face. "He needs to hide!"

"In case you haven't noticed, Weasley," Scorpius replies, vainly attempting to disentangle his left leg from her robes, "it's not exactly spacious in here."

"Yeah, I sort of guessed that when you shoved your elbow into my gut," she retorts, and then suddenly they both hush instantly, slowing their breathing right down as they hear the old school caretaker, Clepps, walking creakily past their cupboard, able to see the light of his upheld lantern through the cracks in the door.

They barely breathe as he pauses, but then some noise distracts him further up and he disappears off after it like a dog on the scent.

"Phew, he's gone," Rose says eventually, suddenly very conscious of the fact that she's pressed right up against Scorpius, touching almost everywhere, and that her hair is falling into his face and he's not even complaining. In fact, when she looks at his face, he's almost looking… content, or something. "Comfortable there, Malfoy?"

"Oh, yes, decidedly," he replies smoothly, his face back to impassive almost instantly. "What with the whole inch of space I've got and all."

"Merlin, let's just get out of here and go back to the common room, alright?" she says with an eye roll, managing to lever herself into an almost-upright position, reaching down to give him a hand to his feet. He accepts, grudgingly, and soon they are both standing with the moonlight that is falling into the corridor slanting over both of their faces, their breath stirring the still air, and as Rose goes for the handle of the door she miscalculates and her hand slides up against Scorpius' ribcage.

At that point, with his eyes very dark and hungry and the whole of the rest of the world ceasing to exist for her, it seems very natural for her to accept his kiss with alacrity, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and pulling him downwards, stumbling against the wall of the cupboard.

They are not disturbed until they hear a voice saying, "Sweet Merlin!" just outside the cupboard, and then they break apart hurriedly and rearrange clothing just in time for Al to tug both doors open.

"That was close," he announces with a grin, reaching in to tug them both out. "I'm impressed you two didn't kill each other."

"Yeah, we're going to give the whole enemies-angle a rethink," Scorpius informs him, turning to Rose with one eyebrow raised. "Save us energy with OWLs coming up and all."

"I can't afford to be distracted from my homework by arguments any more," Rose adds when Albus looks terribly confused, unsure whether to believe his friend or not. "So the neutral-thing will probably work in my favour."

And with that, they turn massive grins on Al and grab him, dragging him down towards the kitchens as he cries obscenities at them, trying to get them to tell him what on earth brought this newfound peace into being.

Their eyes meet behind his back and they smile at each other, almost shyly, Rose's eyes darting away quickly to focus on a painting.

Scorpius turns back to the empty, dark corridor, a small smile travelling across his lips.