"Alright, Weasley, let's get this over with."

Scorpius Malfoy tossed his satchel roughly into a chair at the table, then sank into a seat across from his tutor, every huff and movement echoing in the quiet library.

Rose finished the paragraph she had been writing on her scroll for Potions before looking up at him. "Someone's in a good mood," she remarked, setting her quill aside.

At Professor Ludwig's insistence, they had begun their tutoring sessions that very day. Rose retreated to the library after dinner and Scorpius, who had promised to meet her, was half an hour late.

"If that's what you want to call it," he returned, his tone dripping with sarcasm. Neither was happy about the arrangement, but there was very little to be done. Scorpius needed to pass potions, and Rose did not want to let Professor Ludwig down. She would need his help and recommendation to get into the healers program at St. Mungo's after graduation.

Snatching her scroll, Scorpius quirked his head and began scanning her loopy script. "So, three feet on… Murtledove? Got anything good?"

"The essence of Murtlap," Rose corrected him. She reached across the table and tried to swipe the paper back from him, but he held it out of reach. "I am tutoring you, Scorpius, not letting you cheat. Give it back."

"I'm not cheating," he protested casually, kicking his feet up on the table beside him as he held the parchment further away from her. "I'm perusing."

Huffing in frustration, Rose stood from her chair and moved around the table to retrieve her parchment. "Give it here, Malfoy."

"Give it here, Malfoy," he laughed, mimicking her tone, holding it back over his head. "Didn't know I was being tutored by a Ravenclaw. And I thought a Weasley was bad enough."

Rose reached over him with a final swing, her hand wrapping around his as she wrenched his arm back towards her. His grip did not loosen, even as her fingers went white-knuckled around his, and when she finally tore the paper from his grasp it literally tore in two.

Scorpius's smirk evaporated for a split second, and a look of genuine surprise flashed over his countenance. Rose almost missed it. But her blood was boiling, rising to her cheeks as she took the two pieces of parchment and marched back to her seat.

"See, half for you. Half for me. Eh, Weasley?" Scorpius quipped, settling back into his chair with his signature smirk. His eyes were glued to her, trying to read her expression, almost cautious.

Rose gritted her teeth, staring at her hard work torn to pieces. The parchment was spellproof to keep from cheating, which meant she couldn't piece it back together.

"Can we just get this over with?" she said, sighing. Her large brown eyes were glossed and shining in the light of the fireplace, though no tears rose. At least in that she had succeeded.

Scorpius's smirked shifted as he reached for his textbooks, slamming them down on the table one by one.

Folding her torn pieces of parchment carefully, Rose tucked them into the pocket of her bag, her eyes darting at him with each thud. "I don't want to be here any more than you do, you know."

"Oh, I know," he replied, flippantly opening his textbook.

"But you're going to have to give me a reason to stay."

At this, Scorpius quirked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Rose had to set the tone from the beginning, and show that she could hold her own. Scorpius had made her younger brother's life a torment whenever he could, but she would not let him do it to her while helping him.

Pushing his feet off the table, she continued. "I'm not doing your homework and I'm not going to baby you. You have to work at this whether or not you like working with me. Otherwise I'll quit. And you won't be able to play quidditch, which honestly is just fine by me. But I'm here to work. So you better be here to work. Understand?"

Scorpius stared at her. Was he… impressed?

Whatever his expression read, he shrugged it off and found his natural smirk. "Merlin, Weasley. There's a little Slytherin in you after all. Careful, Daddy might disown you."

"Not as soon as he'd hex you," she replied, her own smirk appearing. "Come on." Rose opened her book to the appropriate page.

As they settled in, scanning p. 394, they said in unison, "Let's get this over with."

With a start, they both looked up from their books and caught each other's gaze in surprise.

Now this could be interesting.