Chapter 8:

Hogsmeade weekend came faster than expected. One minute I was in Transfiguration class talking to Dominique about Charms homework and listening as she babbled on about makeup and Colin. Before I knew it, I was standing outside the portrait hole, adjusting my jacket and trying not to look like I was waiting for someone.

It's not like I was embarrassed to be going with Scorpius or anything, I was just… nervous. I hadn't told my family I was going with him. Though they had questioned who this "random Slytherin" was, I hadn't given in. I knew they wouldn't approve of Scorpius simply because he was a Malfoy and we weren't supposed to get along.

Scorpius was running late. It was already five minutes past eleven and most everyone had already left for Hogsmeade, nestled in jackets or light sweaters. October had come, and it brought a late autumn chill with it. The temperature must have been ten degrees cooler than it had been before. That meant there was no more studying outside, something that Scorpius thoroughly detested.

As for the tutoring, Scorpius and I had been meeting every Monday night for the last few weeks going over Potions homework and talking more about what we wanted to do when we graduated Hogwarts. Scorpius wasn't kidding when he said he wanted to be an auror. He had his heart and his mind set on it. He planned to buy a flat in London in order to be close to the magical world and then finish Auror training school. We mostly talked about his goals, because mine were "boring." I wanted to work at the Ministry like my Mum, and do something to help the lesser creatures of the magical world gain their rights. My Dad was an auror and that was interesting for a moment before I realized that I knew next to nothing about his work and my future was sounding very dull next to Scorpius's.

I pulled my jacket tighter around myself. The corridors were unusually drafty today and I hoped it wouldn't be too cold outside. That would mean that everyone would be inside and I hate crowds—

"Looking for me, Weasley?"

I jumped a little. Scorpius had a way of sneaking up on me even when he was right in front of me.

"You're late." I said in a mock angry tone. He shrugged with a sheepish grin.

"At least I came right?" I rolled my eyes at him and we began to make our way down the corridor.

Ten minutes later we were outside the school grounds having received a few strange looks from groups of students who weren't used to seeing a Weasley and a Malfoy associating. Scorpius ignored them but I couldn't help worrying that the news might come back around to my family.

"So, Weasley, I was thinking." Scorpius started to say as we crossed the cold, hard ground to the village.

"That can't be good." I giggled. He gave me a look but kept going.

"I've been thinking that we've been friends for a little while now but we hardly even know anything about each other."

I stopped in my tracks. He tossed the word friends around like it was a casual thing to say. I suppose it was and I was merely overthinking it.

"I like to think I know plenty about you; more than enough if you ask me."

"Alright, then" He said. "Name everything you know about me right now."

I racked my brains for a moment. "Your name is Scorpius Malfoy. You're a Slytherin who smirks far too much. You play with your hair a lot and you don't know you're doing it. You want to be an auror; you're really good at Defense against the Dark Arts and…" I trailed off. To be honest, that's all I could think of at the moment.

Scorpius smiled. He had that look in his eyes that he had whenever he knew he was right. "Okay, not bad. But can you tell me this? What's my favorite color? Who is my idol? How old was I when I broke my arm for the first time?"

"Okay," I said, conceding defeat. "Maybe we don't know much about each other." We reached the village which was crawling with Hogwarts students. I scanned the street for anyone from my family and when I found no one, I started to walk down the pavement. Scorpius followed me.

"Want to play a game of twenty questions?" I suggested, peering through the window of a bookshop. They had a special price on their new quills.

"What's that?" He asked. I thought he was joking but his face clearly showed he didn't know what I was talking about.

"It's a muggle game. My Mum taught it to me when I was ten. You have a partner and you think of something. Then they have twenty questions to try and guess what you're thinking of."

He looked at me stupidly.

"In this case, we'll be asking twenty questions about each other." I finished.

"What's the point of the game?" He asked. He looked far less than interested.

"We'll get to know each other better. I thought that's what you wanted?" I pushed open the door of the book shop and headed inside. Scorpius came in after me.

"Alright then Weasley, you can start."

I smiled to myself.

"Okay. What's your favorite food?" I asked as I ran my fingers over the quills. They were nice, but the sale was still more than I could afford.

"Chocolate." He shot back immediately. I almost laughed while picturing Scorpius stuffing his face with chocolate.

We exited the book shop and started down the streets again. I pulled my jacket tighter around my body as a cold gust of wind blew our way. Scorpius looked anything but uncomfortable bundled up in a Slytherin scarf and a warm looking black jacket.

"Okay, your turn." I said. I thought I saw Hugo's trademark red hair down the street, but it turned out to be another passing ginger. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, let me think." He answered. We turned a corner and Scorpius gestured to a small Quidditch Supply Shop. I rolled my eyes but nodded and we went inside. Looking at equipment bored me to no end, but it was getting colder as the wind blew harder and the shop looked warm.

"What was your first pet?" He asked as he examined some beater's bats in the corner. I was mildly surprised by the question, though I couldn't fathom why.

"My mum had a cat up until I was nine. It was a ginger cat named Crookshanks. He was rather old and grumpy, but he was sweet. I miss him sometimes." I smiled as I reminisced on the old cat. It was a sad day in the Weasley household when he died. Mum cried for two hours straight and even Dad, who hated the cat, gave a nice speech for him.

"I never thought of you as a cat person." Scorpius said, turning towards me with a smirk on his face.

"Well you never struck me as the chocolate type." I shot back, giving him a smile.

He laughed slightly and then brought some gloves up to the counter. He paid with two sickles and then we were on the streets again.

"Okay," I said, thinking of what I could ask him. Dominique and I used to play this game when we were little, but the questions had never gone like this. "If you could go anywhere, where would you go?"

"That's easy. I would go to my grandparent's house." He replied. His face lit up slightly as if the mere thought of being there spread a little happiness on his outlook. "They built me a giant Quidditch Pitch and they live right near a lake. It's fantastic there."

I tried to picture the place Scorpius was talking about. For some reason, I couldn't get the picture of a mansion out of my head. Scorpius's family seemed too rich to live in anything less. I thought of my grandparent's house which was small, shabby, and constantly filled with shouts and laughter.

"Want to go into Honeydukes?" He asked. I glanced at the little shop across the street. It was bustling with teenagers all over the place. I figured the crowd was so large in there; it would be difficult to find my family even if we tried.

"Sure." I replied. "And it's your question."

Honeydukes was extremely crowded. As Scorpius and I squeezed in, about fifteen other people squeezed out. Still, there was barely any room to breathe in the sweet shop. The poor owners of the shop looked frazzled as they tried to attend to about twenty people at the counter at once. Scorpius let out a low whistle.

"Never seen it this packed before." He remarked. We pushed through the crowd and went into the farthest room from the door. There were shelves laden with candy in this room and mercifully, it wasn't nearly as crowded as the main entrance.

"What's your favorite candy?" He asked. I was suspicious as he started to walk down the shelves, fingering the jars full of sweets.

"Is that your question?" I asked. Scorpius looked confused for a moment. Still, he shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

"…Pumpkin pasties, then." I said. He smirked and dug his hand into a jar of the said treats. I watched in mild shock as he shoved a handful of pumpkin pasties towards me.

"Well, eat them quickly before someone sees you."

"Excuse me?" I asked rather loudly. I must have been hearing wrong. Scorpius didn't just tell me to eat sweets without paying for them did he?

He clapped a hand over my mouth.

"Do you want someone to see you?" He asked. "You heard me." He gave me a smirk and a slight wink. I matched up my years of knowledge that you should always pay for something against his sudden plan.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Rose, I can't understand you when you're mumbling." He removed his hand.

"I said I can't eat these fast enough with your hand over my mouth!" I replied with a slight grin. His face broke into a wide smile and he watched happily as I stuffed the pumpkin pasties into my mouth.

He snuck another handful of pumpkin pasties and some fizzing whizbees before we were out the door trying not to look too guilty. Once we were outside we found a deserted street corner covered in frost and ate the sweets.

"Merlin, I can't believe I actually stole from Honeydukes!" I exclaimed. Never in my life would I have thought I would have to say that.

"Oh come on, Rose!" Scorpius said, tossing a candy in the air and expertly catching it in his mouth. I applauded politely for him. "It's just food. It doesn't cost much anyway, and they make so much of the damn stuff they won't miss a few pieces."

"A few?" I asked mockingly, pushing him lightly. "We practically cleaned out their inventory for them!"

"Then we've done them a favor!" I rolled my eyes. Only Scorpius could understand his logic.

A bell chimed in the distance. It was twelve-thirty. Had it really been that long already?

"You hungry Weasley?" He asked.

"To be honest, I'm really full from all the sweets."

"So you don't want to grab a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks?" He asked with a smile. I thought about it. Butterbeers sounded great and it was only getting colder but my family was bound to be in there and I really couldn't risk being caught.

"No, I actually think we should be heading back to the castle. It's getting later than I thought it was." Scorpius shrugged and began trudging back up to the castle. I fell into step beside him and we walked in a comfortable silence for a while until my stomach growled.

"Really full from all the sweets, eh?" Scorpius laughed, gesturing to my stomach. My cheeks flushed.

"Er…"

"There's a different reason you didn't want to go to the Three Broomsticks isn't there Rose?"

My heart dropped into my now audible stomach. That sounded horrible, like I was ashamed to be seen with him.

I stopped walking and Scorpius faced me.

"If you don't want to hang out with me today Rose…" He began. I could tell he was keeping up that air of importance he had as if he could care less. Still, in his eyes I could see a bit of disappointment.

"No, it's not that at all!" I insisted. "It's just… I haven't exactly told my family about us yet."
Scorpius raised an eyebrow but I could see him getting a bit more relieved.

"Us?" He asked.

"I mean, I haven't told them that we're friends and associate and occasionally spend time together…" I trailed off. He was laughing.

"Are you angry?" I asked.

"Nah. I get it. I haven't really told any of my friends either. I suppose it would be harder to be friends if I had some siblings on my side too." I nodded awkwardly. I was glad he understood, but I still felt bad.

"I'll tell them if you'd like. They'd get over it eventually. They might even grow to like you!" I offered.

Scorpius smirked. "Rose, I think they'd kick my arse first." We laughed and kept walking. The wind blew harder and I shivered in my thin jacket. I should've anticipated colder weather today.

"You cold?" He asked.

"No, I'm fine—

Scorpius was already removing his scarf and placing it around my shoulders. It smelled like cologne and was warm and thick. I pulled it around myself.

"Thanks." I said, my cheeks flooding with pink again. I don't know why I was so embarrassed, it was just a scarf.

We made it back to the castle before the rush of other students which meant there weren't many people watching us as Scorpius walked me back to Gryffindor tower. We stood outside the portrait hole and I handed his scarf back to him.

"You can keep it if you'd like. I have others and it'll probably be drafty tonight as well."

"Thanks, but I think my family might hex me if they saw me wearing Slytherin colors." I smiled and he took the scarf.

There was a pause.

"Well, thanks for today. I had fun." I said. Scorpius smiled.

"Me too. We'll have to finish that question game at our next tutoring session." He replied. I rolled my eyes with a smile.

We moved closer to each other and the next thing I knew, his arms were around my waist and we were hugging. I had never really properly hugged anyone besides my family and Robin, so I was in shock for a moment. Still, I wound my arms around his neck and hugged him back. He smelled like something I couldn't quite describe, but seemed slightly familiar and was quite pleasant. His hands were warm on my back and felt safe there.

As quickly as it had happened, it was over and we were two separate people facing each other in a corridor.

"I'll see you Monday, Rose." He said as he began to leave.

I nodded. "Monday." Once Scorpius was gone, I gave the password and entered through the portrait hole. The common room was mostly empty, save a couple younger students. I decided to wait for my family who wouldn't be far behind.

Within ten minutes, my many cousins and siblings were entering the room, flopping down on couches and removing jackets, scarves and boots.

Dominique and I retired to the common room after a while of relaxing and I planned on finishing my day with a book and a nap before dinner. I was exhausted.

"I'm taking a shower." Dominique announced as I thumbed through the pages of my latest romance novel. "And no offense Rosie, but I think you should take one too. You smell like cologne."

Whoops.

A/N: Yeah… sorry for not updating in like FOREVER. I had the worst case of writers block in my life! I figured it was better to wait and produce a good chapter than force a bad one out so I really hope you guys will continue to read and review! I appreciate the reviews soo much and love hearing from you

~yours in eternity