Ch. 2: Best Friends
After my classes I went back to the common room to relax for a little while on one of the large, leather couches before I started my homework. I had a pile of it to since whenever I would try to concentrate on my work, a certain blond Slytherin would consume my thoughts, and I would know no more except for him. I would try to push him out of my mind, but it was impossible for more than a few seconds. I soon realized I had to snap out of it, all he had said were a few words and now I couldn't concentrate.
What was wrong with me? I wondered if I had been charmed or something at first, because usually I can concentrate on anything if I wanted to, but today was completely different. I shook my head trying desperately to clear my thoughts when a voice interrupted me.
"Is something wrong?" Right then it was the last voice I wanted to hear, but at the same time the only voice I wanted to ever hear. Life was so complicated. How could the boy I had easily judged, and hated, before suddenly be the only thing that I could think of. His light blond hair, his piercing dark eyes, his long nearly-transparent eyelashes…
"I'm fine, Scorpius," I could feel the blood rushing to my face, and hoped the lights were dim enough that he didn't notice. He did.
"Wow you're red. It can't be nothing," He teased. He was just a foot away so close…What was wrong with me?
"Nothing that concerns you," I lied quickly. Maybe a little too quickly.
"I'm sure I could sweet talk Snape into giving me something that would convince you to spill your secret," Scorpius threatened. How had we gotten to this? Before our charms class neither of us were anything like this, and now… He glanced at my shocked expression and added "I was kidding, Rose,"
"How do you know my name?"I asked, nobody every called me Rose at first, I always had to remind them it wasn't Rosalie, or even Rosie (I don't know why, but both names bothered me to death).
"You're the Slytherin Weasley, everyone knows your name," he replied, smiling.
"No, I mean knowing I preferred Rose," I corrected.
It was his turn to blush "You hear people talking, calling you Rose. I glanced at him, fairly sure the only time I knew of when he had heard someone say Rose was when I was flirting with Nathan, and he wouldn't have listened to that, would have he? That made me think of James and what he would say if he was here. I muffled a giggle.
"What," Scorpius questioned, looking insulted.
"I was thinking of what my cousin would say if he knew I was here talking to you," why was I telling him this?
"James?" his face became the hard look that was neither a glare nor a smile again, this bothered me so much that I had to think of something to get his mind off my cousin.
"Do you think you'll try out for quidditch? I know first-years don't have much of a chance, but it's worth a shot,"
"Yeah, maybe seeker, what about you?"I couldn't tell if he was serious.
"Me?"
"Yeah, don't tell me even you don't notice how much better than all of the other first years you were, during our class"
"I guess maybe a beater, like my uncles were; sometimes it'd be nice to knock James off his broom,"
he smiled "We still have a month or two until tryouts, I could ask my dad to send some brooms for us to practice on, as soon as he finds out we'll be against Potter in matches he'll send them right away,"
"I'm sure the teachers won't care if we fly around on broomsticks all weekend," I noted
"Also after class, and no teachers have to know,"
I rolled my eyes "fine, but if we lose points for Slytherin on the brooms, it's your fault,"
Four days later we were eating breakfast when the brooms arrived. We smuggled them up to his dorm and as soon as we opened them, I told him to send mine back
"Oh, come on, there amazing brooms, the newest out there, they're practically impossible to break, so when were done he could just return them easily," Scorpius told me.
I had just about gotten over my whole obsessed-with-Malfoy thing, now we were best friends. It's amazing what four days can do. "You know that broom is probably worth more than my parents' house," I argued
"It's a donation to the Slytherin quidditch team,"
I grumbled, not sure how to respond to this "fine," I agreed.
"Let's go try them out, then," he replied, silently daring me to change my mind. He sneered when I stuck my tongue out at him.
The Nimbus 5000 was like nothing I had ever ridden in my life. My family wasn't poor compared to most Weasleys, thanks to my Mum, but we weren't rich either. The best broom I had used ever had been a Firebolt. This was so different; it was hard to believe both were brooms. For once I was confident the tryouts would be easy.
Then, all of a sudden the tryouts were here. First was Scorpio, but something was wrong from the second he mounted the broom. It was nothing like I had seen before while we practiced, I glanced around at the few watching students, and there was Albus, muttering and holding his wand high, it was pointed at Scorpius. Furious, I quickly disarmed him, his wand flew from his hands a few feet away, and Scorpius' broom steadied. I glared at Albus the whole time until it was my turn. I could tell i had done we'll by the look of approval on the captain's face, but even that couldn't remove the sour taste in my mouth.
"I can't believe you!" I screeched, "I mean from James, sure, but you Albus?" I added.
"I- It wasn't- I was only trying to fix it. I knew it would bother you if he was hurt," Albus defended himself. He had immediately known what I meant.
"Oh, then who was it who was trying to ruin Scorpius' tryout?"
"Nathan," he replied as he relaxed. I just stared at him.
"Who are you talking about?" I asked.
"Nathan Brume, I guess he got a little jealous,"
"Jealous?" was he crazy? I had only really talked to Nathan once; I mean I barely remembered which Nathan he had meant at first.
He looked at me as if I was an idiot and added "It doesn't matter anyways," before turning around and walking off. That had been the hard part about being friends with a Malfoy. My whole family hated me, except maybe my mum. At night I would cry for hours, only stopping when his face filled my mind. I did feel kind of bad, although just because my dad and mum had hated him, it didn't mean I had to, did it?
Dinner was soon and Scorpius and I were excited to see the results of the quidditch tryouts, he was sure I would be Slytherin's new beater, but I wasn't so confident. Finally it came time to announce the quidditch teams. Gryffindor was the same as last year, while Hufflepuff got a new seeker and Ravenclaw got two new keepers. Finally it was time to announce Slytherin's team.
"Only two new additions this year" stated the Slytherin team Captain, Andrew Carr "a new seeker and a new beater" the suspense was killing me, but I still managed to smile at Scorpius. I noticed Nathan smirk out of the corner of my eye as Carr announced "Nathan Brume as seeker and Rosalie Weasley as beater," My head snapped up as his meaning sunk in. At that moment I felt a strange anger towards Nathan, maybe it came from the fact that I realized Albus had been right. Not about everything though, it was definitely not because of jealousy, only greed. Or was it? As I reached my arm around Scorpius to comfort him Nathans eyes narrowed. Suddenly my arm was pushed away. I glanced up to Scorpius' face.
"Rose, I'm going to go for a walk outside," I only nodded dumbly as Scorpius walked away, shocked. I wasn't too shocked to notice Nathan slide into the seat beside me.
"Hey, are you doing anything this weekend," Nathan asked
"That depends," I replied coldly. It depended on whether he was asking me on a date, or something else. I still had hope maybe something could work between me and Scorpius but during the last few weeks it had become painfully clear that we were just friends, best friends maybe but still not anything more.
"I just thought if you were free they were supposed to have some pretty cool fireworks in Hogsmade, I think you should get a chance to see wizard fireworks,"
"Maybe not," I replied awkwardly.
"If it's about Scorpius I'm surprised you can even look at him after what his family has done to yours,"
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"I would be uncomfortable with someone that shared blood with my mum's torturer and has a father who wanted to kill both my parents and was a death eater," my parents had only ever talked about them and Scorpius's rivalry, nothing this serious, and I certainly hadn't known his father had been a death eater.
"I…I have to go," I stuttered, and before he could object I added "I'll think about the fireworks,"
That night I sat in the corner of the Slytherin common room in one of the many large couches waiting for him. I swore to myself I wouldn't fall asleep until I had confronted Scorpius, even though he didn't come in until passed curfew, at 1:00.
"Why are you still up?" he questioned me softly, before taking a seat beside me. I had expected this and quickly slid farther down the couch, facing him with my knees hugged tightly against my chest.
"I wanted to talk to you," I whispered, my tone icy.
He reassed the situation according to my tone then asked "What about?" his expression guarded.
"Maybe how you don't seem to find it important that you're father was a death eater and tried to kill my parents," I replied, my voice becoming higher with each word.
"Oh" I glared at him, but then he added, "Who told you?"
"It wasn't you, and that's all that matters,"
"I didn't think it would have mattered to us if you knew that, they were our parents, not us," he reminded me. I just shook my head and stalked off to my dormitory. That morning I was up late and there were only two seats left at the Slytherin table. One was beside Scorpius one beside Nathan. Nathan waved me over and I quickly walked over to join him. Luckily they were practically at the opposite end of the table from each other so I wouldn't have to even see Scorpius face.
"So, do you want to see some fireworks?" Nathan inquired.
I smiled; "Sure," I would need something to keep my mind off Scorpius, at least until I made up with him.