The fireplace crackled in the Gryffindor common room and illuminated the walls and big, comfy armchairs sporadically placed on the enormous hearth rug. It was well after nine in the morning and sunlight was pouring through the window near the staircase leading up to the boys' dormitory. The light trickling in made the tiny dancing dust fragments visible but did nothing to warm the room as winter had mercilessly unleashed its fury unto Hogwarts. Rose was sleeping curled up in an oversized armchair near the warmth of the fire, her face partially covered by her hair and Artemis, her cat, below her on the ground with her tail twitching. The common room was not surprisingly empty and Rose allowed her normally conscious self to fill the room with snores. Nearly everyone in the castle had taken the train back home for the Christmas holidays but Rose had stayed behind after declining her mother's offer of a tour of muggle museums. Hugo decided against the tour as well, much to their father's dismay, and had opted to spend Christmas with Granddad Weasley.
Rose shifted in her sleep and breathed heavily. She had been studying intensely since September as professors had demanded more effort and better scores in preparation for O.W.L. exams next year. The weather had been so horrible Rose was forced to stay inside the castle and had gotten into the habit of falling asleep very late into the evening in the common room. Her afternoons were mostly spent with Scorpius who had stayed behind upon hearing that she would not be returning home for the holidays. Rose was secretly glad that she was getting to spend so much time with Scorpius alone. Teachers were much more lenient this time of year and because there were so few students in the castle, the Great Hall was the most popular place to sit and do nothing.
Rose awoke with a start after dreaming about a horrific exam she had no answers to. She looked around confusedly until she remembered falling asleep in the big chair the night before. Noticing the time, she gathered her things and made her way to her room upstairs. After a change of clothes she headed back down the stairs and out of the portrait hole.
The Great Hall was filed with gigantic Christmas trees and smelled of pudding when Rose walked through its entryway. Her stomach growled and she instantly regretted sleeping in and missing breakfast. She spotted Scorpius sitting at the Slytherin table with another member of his house playing chess. He was concentrating, as far as she could tell, and by the look on his face he had lost another piece to the other Slytherin. Rose tried to catch his eye but he was so deeply immersed in the game that he did not notice. She was grateful that the back of the other Slytherin boy was facing her. Over the years she had noticed that she was very unpopular among some Slytherins who she knew were the grandchildren of old Death Eaters. Rose waved at Scorpius but he remained looking down at the chess board. She started to jump up and down and wave her arms childishly, unaware of the looks she was getting from the other students in the Great Hall. Scorpius brought his head up slowly and raised one eyebrow at Rose who had finally stopped after noticing she caught his attention. He turned away and looked to the side and laughed. The other Slytherin turned around and looked at Rose. He sneered and left the table, bumping into Rose as he passed her to exit the Great Hall.
Scorpius called Rose over to his table and she hurried over to him. She sat across from him and moved the departed Slytherin's knight to capture Scorpius's queen.
"I was never good at this," Scorpius said wearily. He raised his hands to concede defeat before Rose could win.
"You give up too easily," Rose said with a smile. She pushed the chess board aside and put her face in her hands. "I shouldn't have slept in. I'm so hungry."
"Let's get out of here then," Scorpius said. "We can go to the kitchens."
"You've been there before?"
"A couple of times, yeah," he said getting up. Rose followed him out of the Great Hall and down the stairs leading directly below it.
"You know," Rose tried to start a conversation, "I don't think some of your friends like me very much. Especially that guy you were sitting with today."
"We're not friends," he said darkly. "He's an idiot and poor company when other people sleep in and forget that I'm here."
"Oh please," Rose said laughing. "I didn't forget about you."
They had reached the portrait with the fruit bowl and Scorpius reached up and tickled the pear.
"Stop snickering!" he told Rose. "That's how you open the door!" At once a door knob appeared and he turned it.
Rose marveled at the number of brass pots and pans hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. There were a number of fireplaces and large tables and hundreds of house-elves scurrying about cleaning up. Immediately, two of them came up to Rose and Scorpius.
"I don't think we should ask them for much," Rose whispered in his ear. Scorpius looked at her as if she was incredibly strange.
"What?" He shook his head in disagreement and put his hands into his back pockets. "We're, uh, a little hungry," he said to the little elf at their feet. "Do you think we could get some food?"
"Of course sir!" the elf piped up. "What might you and the miss like?"
Scorpius looked at Rose who shrugged and then back to the elf.
"Maybe some cakes and sandwiches, and a couple of Butterbeers," he said quickly.
"Our pleasure, sir!" The elf scurried away and prepared everything Scorpius had asked for. He came back, along with two other elves, and shoved everything into Scorpius's arms. Rose was astounded at how fast the elves were able to get the food out and how genius it was for the kitchens to be right under the Great Hall. The food laid out onto the tables only had to be magically transported up to the students.
The elf gave a low bow to Scorpius and then turned and gave one to Rose. Scorpius gave his thanks and started to head out but waited for Rose to finish telling almost every elf thank you repeatedly.
"Where should we eat?" Rose asked brightly. She was glad to be putting something in her stomach.
"Well," Scorpius said timidly. "We could go to my room." Rose could feel her heart pounding away in her chest. She had never been anywhere with Scorpius that was not neutral ground.
"Yes, alright," she said hesitantly.
Scorpius led her down to the dungeons and for the first time Rose had appreciated how warm the Gryffindor common room was. There had to be nothing compared to this. She realized that it had to be under the lake as there was this murky feeling and green-lit atmosphere. They came to a stone wall and Scorpius said the password. Inside Rose felt very out of place. The room had a certain grandeur about it but there lingered an almost chilling feeling. It was empty like her common room, leaving the leather chairs and sofas vacant and room even colder. Scorpius led her past the furniture and torches and up the stairs. She passed doors she guessed opened to the rooms of other students and reached Scorpius's with much anticipation. He opened the door and peered in.
"I have to make sure no one is in there," he told her. "Everything's clear." He opened the door fully and allowed Rose to walk in. There were five beds along the walls with trunks at their feet. Each had a nightstand and curtains, much like the beds in Gryffindor, except everything was green. The room was not circular, but a large square. Scorpius walked all the way to the farthest bed and sat their food down on it. Rose noticed that he had clothes on the bed and books stacked at least two feet high on the nightstand. He quickly moved everything to the floor and straightened the sheets so that it may look half-way decent. She moved closer and took her wand out of her pocket and put it on the nightstand.
"Is this some sort of peace offering?" he asked smirking. "No wands?" He took his out of his back pocket and put it on the nightstand next to hers.
"It would have just been hard to sit with it in my pocket, is all," Rose said. She sat down on the very edge of the bed unsure of what to do next.
"I think my wand and magical skills would beat yours anyway," he said lightly. Rose quickly found her nerve.
"Oh really?" she asked playfully. "What is it made of?"
"Rowan and unicorn tail hair," he said simply. He shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "And what's yours, oak and a giant squid tentacle?" She glared at him "Because I can see the resemblance."
"Very funny, no actually," she told him matter-of-factly. "It's hawthorn and dragon heartstring."
Scorpius looked unimpressed.
"Right, well what do you want to eat?" he asked, grabbing a sandwich for himself. Rose had gotten used to his lack of interest in whatever she was saying. Most of the time Rose was sure Scorpius found her boring. And other times, when they were not fighting or insulting each other, she had the tiniest inkling that he genuinely enjoyed their time together. Rose took a sandwich from the pile and one of the Butterbeers. They ate in silence until Scorpius took Rose's wand off of the dresser and began doing simple spells.
"It feels weird," he said while emitting red sparks from the tip. "I think I prefer my own."
"Well of course you do!" she said reasonably as she picked up his wand. "It chose you when you bought it." She waved his wand around and then proceeded to turn his sheets a brilliant shade of magenta. "Do you want me to match the curtains?"
"Do you want me to hex your eyebrows off?" he asked, teasing her as he pointed her own wand at her face. "It might do some improvement." Rose swatted his hand away and changed the color of his shirt purple. Scorpius, in turn, gave her sweater green stripes.
"I think I like this wand," Rose said as she examined it. She poked Scorpius in the chest with his wand and waited for him to say something back. She realized that he was staring at her and she suddenly became very hot in her green-striped sweater. She lowered the wand and placed her hand on the bed, still holding it. She looked down out of embarrassment but could still feel Scorpius's eyes on her. He pulled the wand out of her hand and placed it on the dresser. Rose continued to look down and tried unsuccessfully to slow down her rapidly beating heart. She felt the bed shift as Scorpius moved closer to her and nearly fell off when he put his hand on top of hers. She looked up at him slowly and saw that he was inching towards her and biting his bottom lip.
"What are you doing?" she asked quietly. He leaned in and Rose could feel his breath on hers.
"Rose," he whispered. Rose was overwhelmed with different emotions. She had no idea what he was thinking or why he was about to kiss her. She saw that he was millimeters away from her lips and closed her eyes.
At once there was a slam from downstairs and a loud swear word. Scorpius pressed his forehead against Rose's and grabbed her wrists.
"Wait right here," he said agitated. Rose watched him walk out of his room and felt her stomach flip over many times. She heard him running upstairs and sensed something was wrong.
"What is it?" she asked. She did not know how she found the words to speak to him.
"You've got to go, come on." Scorpius grabbed her by the hand and led her out of the room and down the stairs. "As soon as you get out, run to your room because that git will be coming back."
Rose did not know who he was talking about but could only suspect that it was the boy from the Slytherin table earlier that day. She wished that she could have all the time in the world to stand there and hold Scorpius's hand but she also couldn't bear the thought of her and Scorpius getting into trouble. She took one last look at Scorpius who was nervously ushering her out the door and ran up the stairs until she reached the Gryffindor common room on the seventh floor.
Rose stood there panting in the middle of the common room, clutching her side and staring angrily down at the new green stripes on her sweater. She did not know why she was mad but she desperately wanted the green stripes off of her sweater. She reached into her back pocket and realized that she left her wand in Scorpius's room. She swore loudly and stomped her way up to her bed and buried her face in the pillows.
Rose replayed the night over and over in her head trying to understand why Scorpius was rude and infuriating half of the time and at the next moment trying to kiss her in an empty bedroom. She hated him for it and knew that tomorrow was going to be awkward.
The next morning
Rose lingered in bed as long as she could stand it before going downstairs for breakfast. When she entered the Great Hall she noticed that Scorpius was not at his table yet. She sat down and helped herself to toast but could barely bring herself to eat it. She saw Scorpius walk into the Great Hall with the other Slytherin and busied herself with a glass of pumpkin juice, spilling some down her front in the process. Scorpius casted a nervous glance her way and then turned back to listen to what the other boy was saying.
Rose sat there wiping juice off of her and jumped when she felt someone tap her shoulder. Scorpius was standing behind her with her wand, smiling at the mess she made.
"What?" she snapped. Scorpius looked taken aback.
"Here's your wand, Weasley," he said as he put in on the table. "I'm sorry about yesterday." He nodded his head at the Slytherin table where the boy from yesterday was sitting.
"Whatever," Rose said harshly. "I have to study today so maybe you should leave." Rose could not help but feel angry with him. Scorpius had to be the most confusing person she had ever had the misfortune to meet and he called her Weasley like nothing ever happened.
"Oh, okay then." Scorpius looked at her before beginning to walk away.
"And we have O.W.L. exams next year so you should really be concentrating too," Rose said to him as he left. She didn't turn around to face him. "So maybe you should stay over there and I should stay over here and we just shouldn't get too friendly." Her father's words echoed in the back of her head and she knew right after saying it that she regretted it.
"Fine, Weasley," Scorpius said. She could hear his old snarky self coming back. "Have it your way. But when you realize that you have no one else, don't come running back to me wanting to be friends." His words stung and Rose stayed turned around.
"I didn't say that we couldn't be friends," she said a little too quickly.
"Whatever," Scorpius said.
She heard Scorpius's footsteps retreating from her table and put her face in her hands.
A/N: This was a short chapter, yes. I do not like to introduce new characters very much because the only people I care about are Rose and Scorpius. I mention Albus and Hugo because it is necessary but I do not really feel the need to come up with a name for the Slytherin. He is one year older than Scorpius and Rose and well, Harry did not know the names of many of the upperclassmen when he was at Hogwarts so, too bad. I really appreciate the reviews and the subscribers! I think that my portrayal of Rose and Scorpius may seem off but I think that they are really complicated characters. She is tempered and smart but she does not really know what she wants. Scorpius has a lot going against him because of his name and even though he may be a better person than Draco, he is still sarcastic and mean when he wants to be. The only way they know how to deal with each other is to be angry so here they are getting into it again.