Although neither Rose nor Scorpius would admit it, Lily's plan of bringing them closer together had worked marvelously. Although they never brought up the hands, they were much more outspoken with each other. They established ground rules which included only acknowledging each other's presence outside the common room. But inside the common room, it was completely normal for them to joke around and enjoy themselves. Of course, nobody, not even Charles and Lily were aware of this. And no matter what Rose said or what Scorpius said, they both knew that them being seen together as friends would be weird. Owing mostly to the generation-long feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin that not even the second Wizarding War could stop. They would also often swap homework assignments to double check. Although they often wrote almost exactly the same things it still felt nice to know that if they got a T (Troll), someone else would get a T with them. They were in the middle of each other's assignments on such a night when Scorpius said, "So, Weasley, what's your favourite subject?"
"Why are you trying to make conversation, Malfoy?"
"Because your Charms essay is beyond boring." He said, scanning over the parchment and then putting it down on the table. Rose snatched it back and handed him his essay and said, "Yours isn't exactly my ideal novel, either, Malfoy."
"If you don't like it, don't read it." Scorpius muttered, rolling up his parchment and putting it away. Rose let out a laugh and said, "In any case, my favourite subject is Transfiguration. What's yours?"
"Potions. Or the Defence Against the Dark Arts. I can't decide." He said. She smiled at him and then began proofreading her essay.
"What's your favourite colour?" Scorpius asked, attempting at conversation again. Rose put down her essay again and said, "Can I finish proofreading this and answer?"
"You're proofreading that for the seventh time, Weasley! I'm pretty sure it's perfectly alright." Scorpius said, rolling his eyes. This was another rule between them. The fact that they would only use last names and no first names because first names felt too personal.
"This is the first time I'm proofreading it, Malfoy. I gave it to you to proofread and you decided it was too boring so I can't count on your judgement."
"Well can you really blame me if you're going to write so much about the amount of time it takes for a charm to wear off and all the reasons why it takes so long?"
"Well that's what the essay was about, wasn't it?" Rose said, indignantly.
"Don't you know how to have fun, Weasley." Scorpius groaned.
"Malfoy, your idea of fun is asking me what my favourite colour is. Forgive me if we don't see eye-to-eye on the definition of fun."
"Point taken. So, speaking of favourite colour, what is your favourite colour?"
"Why don't you guess?"
"Pink." Scorpius said, without thinking.
"That is so sexist and no." Rose said, rolling her eyes.
"Blue?"
"No."
"Orange."
"No."
"Yellow."
"Yes!"
"Really?!"
"No."
"Red?"
"Finally. Yes."
"Really?"
"Yes." She said, rolling her eyes at him. He smiled at her smugly and she laughed. Then she said, "What's yours?"
"I thought we had different definitions of fun."
"Well I never said this was a fun question. Why are you asking me these questions anyway?"
"Since we're… are we friends?" He asked. Rose put down her parchment. She knew this would come up sooner or later. The biggest question: Are we friends? Scorpius had been thinking about it too. Neither knew that the other had stayed up wondering whether they were simply acquainted or friends. They were obviously closer than before but were they ready to call themselves friends? And neither of them had an answer. So Rose decided to answer with a question:
"What do you think?"
"I think we're close."
"Do you?" Rose didn't expect him to answer this way. She thought he would say that they were somewhere between friends and acquaintances. Not that they were close to being friends.
"You don't?"
"I don't know." She admitted, looking down and turning slightly red. She should have agreed with him. She knew she should have.
"Well, now that I know your favourite colour and class and you know my favourite colour is green and you know my favourite class, I think we can officially update our relationship status."
"When you say it like that, it sounds like we're dating." Rose said, laughing and rolling up her parchment. She couldn't be bothered to finish proofreading it.
"We could start." Scorpius said and winked. Rose's eyes widened and he rolled his eyes at her expression, "I'm joking, Weasley. I am not going to date you."
"What's wrong with me?!" Rose said, feeling slightly offended with the way he had stressed on 'you'.
"There's nothing wrong with you. I'm just saying. Why, Weasley? Do you want me to date you?" He said, smirking at her.
"You're an ass." Rose said, unrolling her essay and deciding to finish reading it instead of talking to him. Talking about dating always made her feel awkward.
"You're not fooling anyone by pretending to read your essay." Scorpius said, rolling his eyes.
"I'm not pretending-"
"It's upside down, Weasley." Scorpius said and Rose went red when she realized he was telling the truth. Her essay was upside down. She turned it the right way and rolled it up again, deciding not to bother. Then she looked at him, expecting him to say something more. Now he felt awkard so he just stared at the floor silently. So Rose said, "So, Malfoy, have we updated our 'relationship status'?" She said, putting 'relationship status' in air quotes.
"I don't know, Weasley. Have we?"
"I think we have." She said, smiling He smiled back. A genuine smile. Not his usual smirk. It was a refreshing change. Rose then realized that she was staring and quickly looked away, feeling awkward again. Scorpius looked away awkwardly too and said, "Well then, Weasley, this was fun. But I'm going to call it a night. So good night, Weasley."
"You can call me Rose." The words tumbled out before she could process them. Rose's eyes widened for a second but then her face went back to passivity and she looked at him, waiting for a response. But her heart rate had increased and her palms were beginning to get clammy. She balled up her hands into fists and waited for a few agonizing moments. Then he said, "And you can call me Scorpius. Good night, Weas-Rose." The name felt foreign on Scorpius' tongue but he wasn't about to tell Rose that it did. Rose said, "Good night, Mal-Scorpius." The name felt foreign on Rose's tongue but she wasn't about to tell Scorpius that it did either.
Rose went downstairs the next morning to find Scorpius there, staring at the empty fireplace. It was cold in the common room and she hugged herself, rubbing her arms, walking towards him. He looked like he was thinking about something. Thinking really deeply about something. And she was more or less right. Scorpius had been thinking about how their conversation would go with their actual first names being used. Of course, all he had to do was substitute "Weasley" with "Rose" but that was easier said than done. Every time he thought of it, it sounded odd in his head and he had been wondering about whether they were ready to actually use the first names or not.
Get a grip on yourself, Scorpius. She'll probably go back to calling you "Malfoy" in the morning. The little, annoying voice in Scorpius' head said to him. A part of Scorpius-a very minor part-was actually hoping that wouldn't be the case. He knew that Rose Weasley was a genuinely nice person. And that she didn't hate him or his family. And he didn't really mind that she wanted to use first names. But he was wondering whether she had decided that she had made a mistake.
"Morning, Scorpius." Rose said, her voice straining slightly on the word "Scorpius". She was obviously not used to saying his name. But nonetheless, he felt a small amount of relief that she hadn't said "Malfoy" instead.
"Morning, Rose." He said with a little more ease. She looked at him, one eyebrow perfectly raised at the ease with which he had said her name.
"How did you say it so easily?"
"Practise. I've been saying that to myself all night." He said truthfully. But he knew that if she asked the most obvious question-Really?!-next, he would deny it and roll his eyes at her.
"Really?"
"No. It just… happened." No it didn't, Scorpius, and you know it. Scorpius rolled his eyes at the voice but Rose thought he was doing it at her. She sighed and rubbed some sleep away from her eyes before going back to hugging herself. Then she said, "I'm going to get dressed."
"Yeah me too." Scorpius said. But he didn't get up to leave after she left and he was still sitting there when she returned. He suddenly realized that the Hogsmeade weekend was two days away. With his Head Boy duties and classes, he barely had time to concentrate on anything. The only time he saw Charles was during meal times now and even those were cut short because he needed to patrol the edge of the forest to prevent any first years from entering. Or any other years. Of course, it doesn't matter if I die. He often thought to himself as he paced along the edge, feeling very stupid.
"Earth to Scorpius." He came back to the common room when he heard Rose's voice. He looked at her, his eyebrows raised.
"Yeah?"
"Well I was just saying that we probably shouldn't use each other's first names outside the common room. It may attract some unwanted attention." Scorpius resisted the urge to snort. With Rose not only being a war hero and heroine's daughter but also being really pretty, she was attracting much more attention than she was obviously aware of.
"Yeah. I agree." Scorpius said, instead of snorting.
"Great. I'm going to go for breakfast now. Bye." She said and left without waiting for a response. Scorpius stared at the now closed door for a moment before quickly getting dressed and exiting the common room too. He nearly ran into someone on his way out-
"Rose! I'm sorry. I didn't see you." He said, catching her before she could fall.
"It's okay. I should be the one apologizing. I'm the one who was in a hurry." She said. There was a moment of silence and then Rose cleared her throat and pointedly looked at Scorpius's arm which was still around her upper arm, holding her. He quickly let go, looking and feeling incredibly awkward. He felt his face heat up with embarrassment and he heard the door open and shut behind him. Then he heard a voice, "Mr. Malfoy?" He jumped and turned around to find the large portrait of Professor Dumbledore smiling serenely at him.
"Ye-yes, Professor?"
"Shouldn't you be going to breakfast. Unless you've forgotten something too."
"Er, no. Thank you. I'm going to go now too."
"You know, Scorpius. Before you leave, I would like to congratulate you on using Rose Weasley's first name."
"Thank you, Professor." Scorpius said, wondering how exactly he had known.
"You're welcome. Now go off to breakfast. I expect there may still be some toast left if you're fast enough." It took a moment for the word to sink in before Scorpius hurried off to the Great Hall. Moments after he had entered, Rose entered too, clutching her bag and panting slightly. She sat down beside Albus and pointedly ignored Lily. Albus sighed and said, "Why can't the two of you just hug it off? You do that about almost everything. You did that when Teddy started dating Victoire and wouldn't look your way. How do you even like someone who's as close as he is? Especially you, Lily. I get Rose but not you."
"Well in that case, neither of us could have him so it was alright. And neither of us caused the other to lose house points and end up in detention." Rose said, glaring at Lily. Lily sighed and held up her hand to stop Roxanne from continuing her long speech about how she was convinced that she would one day meet some famous wizard that Lily was not particularly bothered about. She turned to Rose and said, "Did it bring you and Malfoy closer?"
"No it didn't." Rose lied.
"You liar. I can tell when you're lying, Rose. So don't even try. So it did bring you closer."
"Okay fine, yes. It brought Scorpius and I closer but that doesn't prove anything." She said. Then she realized that Lily, Roxanne and Albus were staring at her wide-eyed. It took her a moment to realize that she had used his first name.
Of course. When it needs to be easy, it won't.
"Did you just call... did she just call... Merlin's goddamn beard." Roxanne said, being the first to speak. The chatter along the rest of the Gryffindor table had been drowned out by a deafening silence.
"Rose, did you just call Malfoy by his first name?" Lily said, staring at her.
"Yes. So what if I did?" Rose said, trying to regain her air of annoyance towards Lily. Needless to say, she was failing miserably.
"If you've already come to first names...well you may as well start snogging him tomorrow!" Albus exclaimed, causing Roxanne to burst into a fit of giggles. Rose threw Albus a dirty look and said, "We are going to do no such thing. Now, if you'll excuse me-"
"Rose. You can't leave. You need to tell us everything. We deserve to know." Lily said, looking at her earnestly. Rose looked around at the other two and they were nodding in agreement. Sighing, she sat down and told them how the words had tumbled out and everything. They listened to everything (although it wasn't a very long story) and at the end, all of them seemed to be thinking deeply. Then Lily bent towards Roxanne and whispered something into her ear. She listened and then nodded. Lily then whispered the same thing to Albus, who immediately said no. She glared at him and then whispered furiously again. He listened again and his eyes widened in disbelief. He looked at Rose for a second and then nodded. Lily grinned and then said, "Rose, we have come to a conclusion."
"That means her-Lily-not us."
"Please, Albus. Let me speak."
"Must I?"
"You had better or else-"
"Fine fine. No threats required."
"Good. Now, Rose, we have-"
"-come to a conclusion. Yeah."
"Will nobody let me finish?"
"Sorry. Go on, Lily." Rose said, stifling a laugh.
"OK… Rose. We have come to a conclusion. We are willing to allow you to call Mr. Scorpius Malfoy by his first name provided that you promise to snog-"
"Lily." Albus said, staring at her.
"Fine. Provided that you promise to marry-"
"Lily!" Albus said again, now glaring at her.
"Merlin's beard! Alright! Provided that you will allow him to sleep-"
"Lily!" Albus exclaimed, now sounding shocked. Rose expected that he would be, considering that Lily was his little sister and no matter how much she tried to emphasize that she was fifteen, he would still take her to be the innocent little nine year old he had left behind when he first boarded the Hogwarts Express.
"Fine! No provisions required. You have our-"
"Your." Roxanne and Albus cut in.
"-full support." Lily finished, acting as if neither of them had even spoken.
"Thanks. That's great. And Lily, just for this, you're forgiven. But don't ever land me in detention again or I will hex you into oblivion." She said and stood up to leave.
"Wait, are you going already?" Lily said.
"Yes. I'm on patrol duty today." She said and left. On her way out, she glanced at the Slytherin table where Scorpius was sitting. He was speaking animatedly with Charles Zabini. Rose sighed. He hadn't told Charles that he and Rose were calling each other by their first names. It was obvious that he hadn't.
Although, he had.
