She wasn't sure how long she lay there trying to make sense of the entire thing, but she must have drifted off at some point, because she was awakened suddenly by the dormitory door slamming open. She stirred and opened her eyes to find Roxanne standing in the doorway, arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"What?" she mumbled, pushing herself into a sitting position and rubbing her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Haven't you heard Albus?"

Rose yawned widely and shook her head.

Roxanne jerked her head toward the bottom of the stairs. "He's been calling for you to come down for about five minutes. He was threatening to go get his broom."

Rose stretched. "What's he want?" she asked sleepily.

"I don't know," Roxanne snapped. She clearly did not appreciate being dragged away from whatever she'd been doing to play messenger owl. "Come down and ask him yourself."

She waited in the doorway until Rose dragged herself out of bed and followed her down the stairs. Albus was waiting at the bottom.

"Why didn't you answer?" he said irritably as Roxanne headed across the room to a table she had presumably been working at with James and Julian before Albus had cajoled her into going to retrieve Rose.

"I was sleeping," Rose said, sagging against the doorway. "And the door was closed. What do you want?"

"Scorpius wants to talk to you." She blinked at him a few times without responding, so he motioned toward the portrait hole. "He's outside."

"You told him where our common room was?" she asked indignantly.

Albus blew out his breath, grabbed hold of her shoulders, and shoved her in the direction of the portrait hole. "He's known where our common room is for awhile," he said. "Go talk to him."

Given the choice between an irate Albus and Scorpius, Rose would gladly choose Scorpius. She pushed open the portrait and climbed out, half-hoping that he would have given up on waiting and headed back down to his common room.

She had no such luck. As the portrait closed behind her, Scorpius scrambled up off the floor.

"Hi," she said awkwardly.

"Hey," he responded, rubbing the back of his head. He was clearly feeling the same way. "I- what's that on your feet?"

Rose looked down at her socks and felt her ears start to get warm. She'd forgotten to slip shoes on before leaving her dormitory. "Nothing. They're just socks."

Scorpius continued to stare at her feet. "Are those snitches moving around on them?"

She ignored his question. "What did you want?"

He winced a little at her tone. "I was just-" He stopped himself, and then started again. "Did I do something wrong?"

Judging by his tone, he was more than a little hurt by the way she'd run off, and she felt a wave of guilt wash over her. "No." Having this conversation where anyone going in or out of the common room could overhear it was making her increasingly nervous, and after a moment, he seemed to understand what was bothering her.

"Come on," he muttered, leaning forward to grab her hand. She let him lead her around the corner and into a secret passage that he could only have learned about from Albus. She half expected him to kiss her as soon as the tapestry had fallen back over the opening, but instead, he slumped against the wall. "I'm sorry," he said after a minute. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

It took Rose a moment to understand what he was talking about. "You didn't," she said. He gave her a skeptical look, and she added, "Well, you did, but not like you mean."

"Enlighten me," Scorpius suggested. "Because right now, I feel like a jerk."

Rose sighed. She didn't really want to talk about how she was feeling right now: she usually tried to avoid talking about her innermost feelings in general to anyone who wasn't a Potter, her brother, or her mother, and this was especially difficult because it required her to admit that she was wrong, which - as a rule - she tried to avoid doing when at all possible.

But if Scorpius was feeling bad about the entire thing and thought that he'd done something wrong, she knew that she probably should.

"I just feel bad," she said, looking at her feet. The snitches fluttering across her favorite pair of socks were glittering in the soft light that always seemed to pervade the passage, night or day, and she tried to concentrate on them rather than on what she was saying. "I was really, really wrong about you."

His laugh echoed eerily off the stone walls. "Wait, that's why you ran off?" She nodded without looking up. "Rose, I- Rose, will you please look at me?"

She forced herself to look up and focused her attention on the section of wall right behind his head.

Rose really, really hated admitting that she was wrong.

He stepped forward to insert himself into her view. "Rose," he said gently, "it's not like I was right about you."

She examined his face, but he looked completely sincere. "I started it," she pointed out. She'd finally remembered exactly what had happened on the train before their first year, and she was starting to feel thoroughly embarrassed.

Scorpius shrugged. "The first time, yes," he agreed. "But it's not like I haven't baited you since then - and I know how to bait you. I'm a Slytherin, remember? We know how to manipulate people."

"I didn't need to rise to the bait," she countered, and he sighed.

"I didn't need to bait you, either, so let's call it even."

They stood there in silence for a minute. "Scorpius, why do you even like me?" she asked. "If I were you, I wouldn't."

"Well, there's a reason people usually don't go out with people very similar to them. It tends not to work out all that well." He reached out to grab her hand. "What, do you think that I would do well with someone as manipulative and calculating as I am? I'd probably kill her within a week." That got a giggle out of her, and he smiled, too. "And no one with your level of patience would ever put up with you."

"Thanks," she said dryly, and he leaned in to kiss her cheek. "But I still don't understand why you like me."

"Do you have to?" he asked seriously.

"I'm curious," she whined, and even in the dim light, she could see him roll his eyes.

"I don't think you'll like the answer, but fine." She stared at him, and he rubbed his forehead. "I haven't properly figured it out yet, and Albus was too thick to notice it until recently so he hasn't been a huge help, but as near as I can figure out, I started- er- noticing you third year."

Rose wondered at his characterization of her cousin - when she'd talked to Albus, he'd definitely been tracing it back much earlier than "recently," but if he hadn't been totally up front with Scorpius, she had to assume he had a reason.

And at least now she finally felt like they were on level ground. "Noticing me?" she asked mischievously, taking a step closer to him.

"Either you get your answer or you tease me. You don't get both."

She made a face, but backed off.

"Right." He looked a little disappointed. "So I spent all of third year feeling even more irritated with you than usual, and then from there it just kind of built into more..."

"More?" she prompted him.

He sighed. "More of an actual - well - thing," he forced out. "But you were still insufferable, and I wasn't even really aware of it until-" He stopped again and shifted uncomfortably. "Rose, does this really matter?"

She crossed her arms. "Yes. Now I'm even more curious."

He looked down at the floor. "Do you remember when I was going out with Haley last year?"

Rose frowned. "The Hufflepuff?" He nodded without meeting her gaze. "Yeah, sure. What about it?"

"I said something about you," he said so softly she could barely hear him. "Something... it was... in kind of an inappropriate context. I wasn't really thinking."

"What did you say?" she asked, and he slid down the wall onto the floor. "Scorpius?"

"Well, it was a few things, really," he said. "At one point she asked me what color hair I liked, and I said that I usually liked redheads but was willing to make an exception for her." He snorted. "I meant it to come out as a joke, and she basically took it as one, but she commented that she was surprised you hadn't completely soured me to red-haired girls."

"You like redheads, specifically?"

"I don't know," he said. "Probably not. I think I just like you, but 'redheads' is what I had at the time."

She could feel her cheeks start to get warm, and she felt vaguely pleased with herself. "What else?"

His eyes seemed to have become permanently locked to his knees. "Well, the real giveaway was when we were snogging at one point, my eyes were closed, and I said your name."

She stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"Don't start," he warned her without looking up. "I didn't even realize I'd done it. It was honestly kind of a nightmare."

Rose was still processing what he'd said. "So what you're telling me is that your first relationship didn't work out because of me?"

"That's one way of looking at it," he muttered. "It's a bit of a sensitive topic, so please don't tease me."

He was still refusing to look at her, and something about his position tugged at her heart. She knelt down and touched his arm lightly. He finally looked up, and on impulse, she kissed him.

However insecure and vulnerable he was feeling just then, Scorpius was clearly not so perturbed that he'd forgotten how attracted he was to her. After a moment, he deepened the kiss and wrapped an arm around her. She lost her balance and fell onto stone floor with a squeak, and he pulled back.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, and he leaned back in. When they finally parted, they were both short of breath, and her hair was tangled from where he'd sunk his fingers into it.

"That was nice," she said lamely, and he laughed. She shifted over the short distance between them and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Can I tease you just a little if you know it's in good fun?"

Rose felt more than heard him sigh. "Rose, I honestly don't know that you can actually identify when it's good fun and when it crosses a line, so no." He looked down at her, clearly expecting some protest, but she didn't give him any. He probably had a fair point, and she wasn't feeling much like thinking just then.

And anyway, she was sure that if she slipped up, she could convince him to forgive her without too much trouble.

"Anyway," he said, and she snapped her attention back. "You shouldn't feel too bad about everything. I really did think that you were insufferable."

She elbowed him softly. "Clearly not that much, if you liked me."

He snorted. "I'm pretty sure that mostly started because I was a fourteen year old boy and you were a pretty redhead who I had to spend too much time around because we shared a best friend."

"Thanks ever so."

Scorpius let out a quiet chuckle. "Like I've said, I'm not a saint."

They sat there in silence for a minute. "I really am sorry," she said again.

He kissed the top of her head. "So am I, so I guess we're even."

A/N: Scorpius talks a little more about this in an Albus one-shot I wrote called 'Albus Potter and the Worst Excuses Ever.' (Along with a lot of Albus stumbling over his feet because he doesn't know how to turn down dates.)

Thanks for reading, and I'd love to know your thoughts on the chapter. :)

- Branwen