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I'm a bit nervous about this chapter so be sure to let me know what you think of the ending!

Chapter 7:

Rose watched as Scorpius paced around the small flat, waving his wand in the general direction of the walls and ceiling. He'd been at it for twenty minutes now and every time she'd asked him what exactly he was up to, he'd just shot her a look that said shut-up and continued muttering under his breath.

Rose followed his path with her eyes, her frown growing more pronounced. What the bloody fuck was the man doing? She crossed her arms nervously, then uncrossed them a moment later. Scorpius glanced at her and her arms automatically went across her front again. Irritated, she considered dropping the defensive stance then chucked the idea. She couldn't help it if her body language betrayed her unease at having him around, especially after the disastrous morning.

Even now, the memory stained her cheeks a vivid red. He had walked in on her- in the bloody shower. What were the odds of that? Okay, so granted, they were living together- no, scratch that, 'living together' made it sound as if they were carrying on a torrid love affair. They were sharing a domicile- yes, that would do- so naturally there would have been some sort of awkward encounter sooner or later. But did it really have to happen in the one place where people were at their most vulnerable? Couldn't she have a nice soak in the tub or a hot shower without having to worry about ex-boyfriends bursting in, waving their wands about?

Speaking of which, how had he turned up there so quickly anyway? He hadn't spent the night in the flat…but he had been close enough to hear her screaming like an idiot…As Rose's mind closed in on the mortifying conclusion, Scorpius finally stopped talking to himself and turned to face her.

"Well, now what have you been raving about for the past half hour? And why is your face so red? Imagining me in the shower?" He smirked at her and predictably, Rose turned even redder, knowing he'd slipped in the word 'shower' on purpose.

"That would make any female blush I suppose," he continued in a mock-humble tone. "I mean, I do have quite the physique after all- why, just ask the string of lovely ladies petitioning for my hand."

Rose found this statement to be incredibly awkward but Malfoy didn't seem perturbed by his words at all. Either he was so completely over her that her presence didn't affect him in the slightest or he was still the same old Scorpius, who seemed completely oblivious to social cues and past mishaps.

Not to say that he was socially awkward, he clearly wasn't….Rose had no trouble at all in believing that he did indeed have a line of 'lovely ladies' or in other words, gold-diggers, after him. She'd fallen for his charms once too- bloody manipulative, lying scumbag.

Garnering absolutely no verbal response from Rose, Scorpius shrugged and twirled his wand between his fingers.

"Now that I've strengthened the wards, we can get down to business."

"Er- what? Why do you need to strengthen the wards, I think they're perfectly fine," Rose said, distracted by the random urge to punch him. Was that normal? Was it acceptable to want to punch men for no reason at all? What if it wasn't? Merlin, what if something was terribly wrong with her and she would be doomed to live out the rest of her days in an asylum after physically assaulting the Minister!

Not that that would be a pity. Assaulting the minister, that is. The man was as effective in his post as a sack of potatoes would have been. The potatoes would have been more attractive at any rate.

She was brought back to the present by the sound of Scorpius scoffing. "Perfectly fine? Your stalker's gotten past the wards at least twice and you think it's all fine and dandy, do you?"

"Well…." Rose said slowly, not wanting to admit that she actually agreed with him. The wards were clearly not good enough.

"Anyway, I've put up much stronger ones now so we ought to be fine. Now what we really need to do, is duel."

Rose laughed, surprised. "You know, I could have sworn you just said you wanted to duel me. Isn't that ridiculous? Why would you-er, oh… You did say duel didn't you?"

Rose petered off feebly as Scorpius gave her a condescending smirk.

"Yes, Weaselette, I did say duel. If memory serves correct, your dueling skills are abysmal and roughly at par with those of a dimwitted third year."

Rose gaped at him, completely thrown. "Hey!" she protested. "That's a lowblow! And I don't suck that much, for your information. I have improved vastly since our days at Hogwarts. Vastly. Yeah."

She nodded self-righteously, highly offended. Stupid prat, what did he know?

And she'd beat him in every other field of magic anyway….except Quidditch. Quidditch and dueling were her two weak points, the only places she had failed to live up to her dad's expectations. He'd been sorely disappointed that both his children pretty much sucked at the sport.

"Yes, I'm sure you're an expert now," Scorpius said smoothly. "But regardless, -expelliarmus."

Rose's wand flew out of her hand traitorously, landing neatly in his outstretched palm.

"I wasn't ready!"

"Exactly my point," he said, beginning to sound bored. "Now will you shut it and let me do my job?"

Rose flushed angrily, retaliating with words. "Your job, huh? Of course." She laughed, not finding the situation remotely funny; he was attacking her in her weak spot. "Great job on that by the way- you landed yourself a pretty cushy job after all. How much are they paying you to babysit me, I wonder? Enough to finance your petty pureblood indulgences? Tell me, Malfoy, stepped on any other hearts lately?"

Scorpius' eyes flashed and Rose knew she'd pushed it too far. She wasn't even sure why she'd flown off the handle like that- except for the fact that having her mistakes, her flaws pointed out to her, especially by him, wasn't something she took kindly to. Apparently being a total bitch was her default defense mechanism.

Looking at him now, Rose felt an unfamiliar trickle of dread creeping in, dispelling some of her misdirected anger. He looked positively furious- ready to kill. He was still gripping both their wands, his knuckles white and jaw clenched. Then, just like that, as if something had sucked out all his anger, his shoulders relaxed and his face was covered with the all too familiar blank mask.

"If you're quite done," he said coldly, "I'd like for us to begin."

Rose nodded meekly, knowing that now was not the moment to push this topic. Judging by his hostile reaction, their turbulent past was one can of flobberworms he didn't intend to open with her.

He passed her the Blackwood wand, the handle warm from the heat of his hand as she clutched it.
"I'm assuming you know the basic protective enchantments, as you probably have to use them in your line of work. I'm going to attack you and you're going to defend yourself. Understood?"

Rose nodded, noting that his voice sounded oddly detached and mechanical. Before she could dwell on it, a jet of purple light flew from his wand and struck her shoulder. She stumbled back from the impact, her legs banging against a hard surface.

"Pathetic," he sneered. "Can't even stop a simple ramming spell."

Another spell left his wand, then another and another. She dodged them as best as she could, her panic clouding her judgement. She knew she ought to throw up a shield but when she was dueling, when she was being attacked by a real live person, all her common sense and training just seemed to leave her. She felt that if she stopped moving for even a second, she would die. It was ridiculous and irrational but there it was- the crux of the matter: Rose Weasley simply could not duel.

A jet of green light missed her by a centimeter and in her panicked state, she imagined for a second that it was an unforgivable. She stumbled over a chair leg and Scorpius' next spell struck her, square in the chest. Her eyes burned with the conjunctivitus curse, and waving her wand on pure instinct, she finally managed to cast a shield charm. She could feel the power radiating through the centre of the room, even with her eyes closed.

Casting the counter curse, she lifted her lids, wiping her streaming eyes. Scorpius was standing on the other side of the translucent partition, arms crossed and gaze hostile.

No sooner had she gotten her bearings, than he had started his assault again, bringing down her shield charm within moments.

"That's an improvement, I suppose," she heard him say, over the rush of adrenaline flowing through her veins. "Of course, if this was a real duel, you'd have been dead ten minutes ago, but I'm-"

She drowned out the rest of his words and focused on him. He'd stopped when she had and this cleared her mind, bringing reason back into the picture. He wasn't here to hurt her, nobody was casting unforgivables and she was a capable witch who never had trouble casting spells outside of a fight.

She threw up another shield to meet his curse and confidence growing, cast a hex of her own. It was a weak attempt and he dispelled it with a lazy flick of his wand, but he looked at her almost approvingly.

Instead of encouraging her, this made her mad. He was acting so- so condescending! As if he was better than her, just because there was one thing he could do which she couldn't. As if it was a miracle if Rose Weasley managed to cast one bloody jinx during combat.

The rage cleared the last of the fear from her mind and she fired her own volley of curses at him. He blocked them all of course, but for the first time it looked as if he was actually paying attention.

"Very good, Rose," he sneered. "You can cast basic spells. Planning on levitating a feather next?"

Fury clouded her vision and she cast recklessly, forgetting to defend herself. He sidestepped her hex neatly but his Impedimenta struck her squarely and she hit the wall behind her, her insides seeming to crumple from the vicious blow. Pain clawed at her chest, overriding her senses for a moment.

Her wand clattered from her loose grip and she shakily drew air into her lungs. Her eyes burned with tears of pain but she refused to let them fall, willing them away.

Footsteps crunched closer towards her as Scorpius made his way through the wrecked room. Rose's chest burned in humiliation, and she waited for him to sneer at her and call her weak, maybe even laugh at her.

Instead, a pale arm pervaded her field of vision and grasped her around the waist, lifting her gently.

"Well," Scorpius said conversationally. "That was fun."

XXXXXXX

Rose lay propped up against her pillows, silently fuming. She was absolutely mortified.

Never, never had she been beaten so completely in a duel- mostly because she managed to avoid them for most of her Hogwarts career, but that was besides the point.

After the annoying prat had helped her up, he had made her humiliation complete by insisting on tending to her wounds. All his anger from earlier had vanished so completely that for a moment Rose found herself wondering if she had imagined the whole thing.

Yes, she decided. She had taken a fall down the stairs and hit her head, her concussed brain entertaining her with all sorts of delusional episodes. She hadn't just had her arse handed to her by Scorpius bloody Malfoy and she wasn't being babied by said aggravator.

The door clicked open, and the man himself entered, his expression of concern and the slightest hint of amusement, dispelling her hopes.

How could he have the bloody nerve to be amused about this? His mood swings were incredibly worrying.

He sat down gently next to her, taking care not to jostle the mattress, his familiar musky scent enveloping her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked softly.

Rose gritted her teeth. He was talking to her as if she was a mentally disturbed patient lying on her death bed or a simpering child who cried over every boo-boo.

Having elicited no response from her, save a murderous glare, he half-smiled and extracted a silver container from his pocket.

"Turn around," he ordered.

"Why?" Rose asked sourly.

"Well, your bruises aren't going to heal themselves are they? I need to apply this ointment."

"Actually," Rose said snarkily. "My bruises are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. And my bruises want nothing more to do with you."

Scorpius actually had the nerve to chuckle at that. "Well, that's just too bad for them, then. I'm not taking no for an answer." He unscrewed the lid of the tub, revealing a minty green paste. "Oh, and take your shirt off."

Rose gawked at him, spluttering indignantly. "W-WHAT?"

"You heard me. The shirt-off."

"Wha-NO. Are you completely insane? First you assault me, slam me into a wall, completely annihilate my ego and now you want me to strip for you? Do you have a death wish, Malfoy?"

Rose glared at him, unable to utter another word, from the sheer indignation building up in her. He really was asking for a whooping today wasn't he?

Scorpius tutted patiently. "Don't be difficult, Rosie. It's not as if there's anything I haven't seen before. In fact," he added brightly, "You could wear the shower curtain if it makes you feel better."

Rose gave him an evil look. He was this close to having her hands wrapped around his neck- and not in a passionate embrace either- in a why won't you stop breathing and die already? kind of way.

"Look," he said setting the tub to the side. "I'm really sorry. I had no right to take my anger out at you in the way I did….It was despicable and I regret it."

Rose's temper flared. "Oh you're sorry? You regret it, so that makes it alright, does it? If you Avada someone tomorrow, it's alright as long as you feel sad about it, is it?"

Scorpius met her gaze steadily, his eyes conveying a sense of anguish he hadn't expressed verbally. "Nothing makes it alright, Rose." He said softly. "Just please let me help you."

Rose stared at him for a few more moments, mentally appraising his sincerity. She inclined her head almost imperceptibly. Then slowly, she turned her back to him and pulled off her shirt, wincing with the movement. She thought she heard a sharp intake of breath from behind her, but craning her neck around, she could only see Scorpius diligently scooping out the green paste, his eyes on the bottle.

She jumped a little as the cold ointment touched her skin. His other hand came up to grasp her shoulder gently, steadying her. Rose clenched her hands in her lap and stared fixedly at the wall in front of her, counting the slight cracks. One…two…three…four…

His fingers moved in a slow, circular motion across her bare skin, leaving behind a burning sensation despite the coolness of the medicine.

Five….six….seven….

His hands moved lower, gently massaging her lower back. Rose wondered if he was even using the cream anymore. Her nerve endings were on fire and she could feel each of them lighting up as his hands trailed over her skin.

Eight….nine…seven….was that seven?

Rose exhaled slowly, the breath coming out in shuddering gasps as his hands moved around her waist. She felt his warm arms encircle her as he lowered his head against her neck, cradling her to his chest.

She felt his breath against her skin as he kissed her shoulder and said something so softly she barely caught it. "I'm sorry."

The cool air rushed in against her skin, unwelcome and invasive as he let go of her, standing abruptly. Rose continued to stare at the wall in front of her as his footsteps faded and the door clicked softly.

Ten…eleven…twelve….

A message from the one and hopefully the only, Pal The Bad Ass:

If any of you have read the reviews of this story, you'll probably know me. If you havent, then I feel sorry for you. Im Pal The Bad Ass. Im Annevader's real life as well as virtual life stalker. Quite like how Scorpious is Rose's stalker in this story. Except that we dont have a romantic history. And will never have one either. That's because a) We dont swing that way (Im a girl) and b) She's like the kid sister I never had. So when I caught her in the most noble act of uploading Chapter 7 i couldnt help but hijacking her workspace for a while. She has been quite...apprehensive (to put it mildly) about this chapter. Really, our other friend Palak (who has inspired many chapters of this fic.) literally had to perform...a show of sorts to calm Annevader down. It was highly amusing. Im kidding. That never happened. But since this all a work of fiction, i guess I can say whatever I want right? No? Well, who cares.

Okay Annevader is calling me now. She wants me to leave you alone. And to tell you to REVIEW. Really, I just saw the number of views and Im APPALLED that you dont review! Why?

Really. Review NOW or Ill have to show you just HOW Bad Ass I am. (Im a fan of Puckerman from Glee. Sue me.)

A/N: I apologize. Really. Just...yeah.