It had been nearly a week since their date and they were growing more and more careless about their relationship. People caught them kissing all over Hogwarts and they were seen walking together a lot. Holding hands, kissing, walking together, they had been caught doing everything. However, this was the first week in which everything seemed like butterflies and daffodils so Scorpius and Rose stayed in a world of their own. They didn't know that their relationship had already gone public and so they were still deciding when to make their relationship public. The ideal opportunity presented itself when Lily's birthday came up and she was handing out invitations for everyone to come to the Gryffindor common room. She had even convinced the Fat Lady to change the password for a night and the password was on the invitation cards in the form of a riddle so, depending on how much the witch or wizard wanted to show up, that's how hard they would work to solve the riddle. But the Gryffindors were obviously already told the password and they tipped off most of their other-house friends. And Rose tipped Scorpius off on the password.
It started off normal, with Rose talking about Lily's party, giving Scorpius the password 'accidentally', telling him that she still needed to decide what to wear etc. and then it turned into a question where Rose said, "So, do you want to come?"
"To a party in a Gryffindor common room? You mean the place where I am the least welcome?" He scoffed, earning a frown from Rose.
"Well, it'll be fun and I'm sure Lily wouldn't mind you being there." Rose said and as if on cue Lily came bursting in through the door with an invitation in hand. She held it out to Scorpius who looked surprised but took it. He read the inside:
You are cordially invited to my epic birthday party tomorrow (the card will start singing when it's the right day depending on when you get the card) and I sincerely hope you can make it.
Yours most truly,
Lily Potter
P. S. Girls wear dresses or (if you really want to) skirts and guys wear shirts or (if you really want to) tuxes.
"Wow Potter. This is really...formal." Scorpius commented.
"I'm taking that as a compliment, Malfoy. So I expect I'll see you two there tomorrow?"
"Yeah." Rose said, nodding and smiling at her. Lily nodded and said, "Great! Wear something pretty! See you tomorrow! Al has been on my case to do Transfiguration even since yesterday. So I'm going to do a chapter before bed."
"Typical Al. Okay bye, Lily."
"Bye Potter."
"Bye Rose. Malfoy. Ha! Rose Malfoy. That sounded weird. Okay bye!" She said and exited, leaving Rose and Scorpius just staring at the door, a very vivid blush on both if their cheeks.
~Tomorrow~
Rose was in a red sleeveless dress with lace straps and Scorpius was in a shirt and trousers. Rose grinned when she saw him and said, "Well doesn't someone look gorgeous?"
"I hope we're both talking about you." Scorpius said, encircling her waist with his arms and pulling her closer to him. Before Rose could say anything, he kissed her. She kissed him back and once they broke the kiss, she was practically shining. But then the shine dimmed and she said, "Are we going together?"
"What do you mean?"
"Together. As a couple." She said, forcing out the word "couple". She still wasn't used to the title.
"Do you want to go as a couple?" Scorpius asked. Say no. Say no. Rose I command you to say no. The voice at the back of his head said. And so, when Rose hesitated, although Scorpius tried to look upset, he didn't succeed.
"I think we should put it off for a bit." Rose said, after deciding. She wasn't ready to be open about them. It was so nice and private. And she had a feeling that the only reason it was so private was because no one knew (or so she thought).
"Yeah I agree." Scorpius said a little too hastily: making Rose laugh. She said, "Shall we then?"
"We shall." He said and held the door open. Rose exited and made her way to the Gryffindor common room. Al was standing at the entrance...snogging Alice. So Rose walked past him, Scorpius right behind her. She said the password and The Fat Lady swung aside to permit them. They entered and realized that the party was already in full swing. A house elf came towards them holding a tray of butterbeer shots. It was obviously spiked. Rose took a sip and her mouth tasted bittersweet. But then she downed it in one go and didn't look back. Somewhere in the flow of the party, they lost each other and Scorpius found himself sitting on a sofa next to a Gryffindor couple snogging and clearly trying to undress each other. He said, "You know, there's a room right upstairs. Please take your business there. Please." The couple broke apart just long enough to look at him with a disgusted look (which Scorpius found really ironic) and then went back to snogging and attempting to undress each other.
A cooler was passed around and he took a butterbeer right when he heard a loud whoop coming from the centre of the crowd. He looked and his eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when he saw that Rose, Lily and… Fred? Were all dancing atop a table, each with their own bottle of butterbeer (which Fred eventually smashed on his head, causing him to, not only pass out, but also take a trip to Madam Pomfrey). He figured that he was probably the only sober person at the party since Rose was apparently already too drunk to function. Rose took another swig from the bottle and, apparently, emptied it. She swung it above her head and threw it flying in the direction of the couple next to Scorpius. The bottle fell just before the sofa, shattering. There was a loud cheer in the crowd and Scorpius pointed a wand at the shattered bottle and muttered, "Reparo." The bottle repaired itself and he picked it up, carefully putting it away. The shattering of the bottle seemed to be the highlight so the party calmed down, the trio got off the table (Fred smashed the bottle on his head and passed out; Roxanne had to take Fred to Madam Pomfrey) and Rose and Lily fell onto the sofa beside Scorpius after shooing off the couple and forcing them to go upstairs. Rose grinned at Scorpius and said, "I'm drunk."
"I know. Maybe we should get you back to the dorm?" Scorpius said because, to be honest, he was getting quite bored. He didn't get drunk very easily and so he was actually not able to have fun (he had already found out that drinking made parties more and more fun).
"What?! No! You can't do this to me, Malfoy! Rose is so much fun when she's drunk! She's like an innocent little baby with a dirty mind. And she is so honest about everything."
"You're sober?!" Scorpius asked Lily, his eyes widening.
"Well of course I am! But Rose isn't. Hey Rose, do you want to play Truth or Dare?"
"No. That's a stupid game. You're given the stupidest dares. Like everyone will want me to have seven minutes in heaven with Scorpius or something. Not that I would mind." Rose said, a playful glint coming into her eyes as she looked at Scorpius. He said, "How about no?"
"I'm going to dance. Will you be okay?" Rose said, looking at Scorpius and not listening to anything he had said.
"Will you?"
"Good. Don't make out with Lily or I will hex your sorry arse into oblivion!" She called as she went into the crowd to dance. Scorpius just stared after her. Lily noticed the way he was staring and said, "You really like her, don't you?"
"Yeah. I do. She's really amazing."
"She is. Which is why, Malfoy, if you do anything to hurt her, I will kill you. And I'm not joking."
"I know. But I won't do anything to hurt her. And if I do, I clearly am not worth even a millionth of her."
"I have never heard anything so romantic ever. Why can't Lorcan be like you? Where is Lorcan anyway? I need to find him. I think a slow song is going to come up. Where is the music playing from? Ugh, whatever." And she was right, a slow song did come up. She disappeared into the crowd, looking for Lorcan. Scorpius realized that there were couples all over the floor, dancing. He figured that he could have this dance with Rose and then they could leave (if she wanted to). So he went into the crowd looking for her. And he found her… dancing… with another Gryffindor. The boy looked ecstatic to be dancing with her but Scorpius had a feeling that Rose couldn't actually process who she was dancing with. He started walking towards her when the Gryffindor boy bent his head and whispered something into her ear. Immediately Rose pulled away and she shook her head, holding her arms out so that he was at arms length. He said something back at her and she pulled out her wand and pointed it at him. Scorpius swooped in immediately (since Rose was probably capable of murder with that amount of alcohol in her system) and said, "Do we have a problem here?"
"Who invited you to this party, Malfoy?" The boy spat out, glaring at Scorpius.
"That would be me, the birthday girl. Although, I don't remember inviting you, Harvey." Lily's voice came from behind them. And her words might as well have been acid in the verbal form. Harvey shifted on his feet, suddenly looking uncomfortable. Scorpius supposed that that's the effect you had on people if you were somehow related to Harry Potter. Especially if you were Female Potter Junior. He said, very intelligently, "Um…" and Lily rolled her eyes at him and said, "Get out."
"But I'm a Gryffindor and this is my common room! Too!" He added after a pause, seeing the look in Lily's eyes. She glared at him and said, "Not tonight. Get the hell out of the common room. Go bunk with someone else in their common room. And if I see you here again, I'm not afraid of using one of the Unforgivable Curses on you." She said it so threateningly that Harvey visibly gulped and then just turned around and left (nearly running into one of the couples). Rose turned around and said, "Merlin's freaking long beard, Lily! That was amazing! You were amazing! You're so amazing! I admire you so much! I know I make fun of you but I really do love you. I swear I do. And I-"
"That's sweet, Rose, but you should probably get back to Scorpius." Lily said, pointing at Scorpius. Rose acknowledged his presence and said, "Yeah okay."
"Okay? Okay." Lily said and nodded at Scorpius who took Rose. He said, "Do you want to dance?"
"Mmhmm." Rose nodded, flashing him a grin and encircling his neck with her arms. Scorpius took her waist and they swayed along with the music in silence until Scorpius said, "What did Harvey say to you?"
"He asked me if I wanted to take our party upstairs." Rose said, frowning. Scorpius took a deep breath to calm himself down and said, "And what did you say?"
"I told him to back the hell off. I told him that I was in a relationship and that I had a boyfriend and that we were both really close and that my boyfriend could kick his sorry arse, magically or otherwise, any day of the week. At which point he started telling me that he was pretty strong and he hated the fact that I was choosing my boyfriend over him and that he wasn't looking for anything serious anyway. So I took out my wand to shut him up and that's when you and Lily came and Lily made him soil his pants on both ends." Scorpius gave a slight chuckle.
"Boyfriend huh?" He said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well aren't you? I mean we did kiss a lot and since, according to you, we're in a relationship, you are my boyfriend, aren't you? I think you are. Because if you aren't looking for anything serious then you're looking in the wrong department. Hell, you're looking in the-"
"I am." He said, partly to tell himself and partly to shut her up. Oh my god, you're her boyfriend.
Shut up, it's not that big a deal.
You're her boyfriend, Scorpius.
Yes I am, so?
Do you want to be her boyfriend? It's so official.
Scorpius looked at Rose, smiled at her clueless expression and whispered to the voice: Yes, I do.
