"So… three roonspore eggs then two parts –"
"No, three parts valerian and then the eggs. Like I told you."
They had been going at it for hours. Straight after dinner, she caught his eye and gestured for him to meet her in the hall, and together Scorpius and Rose commandeered an empty classroom on the second floor to practice their potion for tomorrow's exam.
"You don't listen."
"Yes, I do."
"No, you don't. I could have just told you to snog Audrey Piston as part of the ingredients and you wouldn't have batted an eye."
Scorpius smirked. "Now that I would have heard."
Rose rolled her eyes. She had been tutoring him for over a month and their exam tomorrow would determine whether or not he played in the match on Saturday. He had been making progress until he skipped their meetings twice that week for extended Quidditch practice.
"Focus, Scor."
Scor. She didn't know when the nickname had settled in on them, but his name was quite the mouthful. He, however, called her nothing but Weasley.
With a huff, he went back to his potion making, Rose watching carefully from where she sat perched on top of the desk. "Three roonspore egg– No! The valerian!" Scorpius corrected himself, nearly crushing the eggs in his fist. Rose stifled a giggle and watched him work.
Piece by piece he added the ingredients, following the notes she had carefully written out on a scrap piece of parchment. "See? I'm better at this than you think." Scor looked up at her with a grin, and she tried not to notice the glint in his eyes. They were sometime so striking that she forgot to listen.
Shaking her head, a grin of her own appeared. "I'll believe it when it see it."
"And you will. Tomorrow." He dropped another ingredient in and stirred counterclockwise twice, before adding the next two. "I'll ace this potion, and then on Saturday Slytherin will beat Hufflepuff to a bloody–"
"Scor!" she cried suddenly, but it was too late.
Rose noticed at the last moment that he was adding aconite three steps too soon and his name burst from her lips just as the root dropped into the potion with a splash. There was a tall flash of blue flames before the potion spewed everywhere.
Scorpius had just enough time to duck under the table, but Rose had been seated on top of the desk, so close to the cauldron, that the potion sprayed all the way up her right arm, shoulder, and onto her neck.
"Rose!"
Rose let out a cry of pain and slipped from the desk onto the floor, her entire body shaking. She raised a hand to press against her cheek, but that only caused the flesh on her palm to burn. Scorpius ran around the side of the desk and hovered over her in a panic, his eyes wide with fear, hands outstretched towards her.
"Hospital… wing…" she gasped, struggling to push up off the floor. Rose was in so much pain and bit her bottom lip so hard that it drew blood; the room started spinning and she felt as though she was being lifted up off the ground.
It took her a moment to realize that she was, indeed, no longer laying on the cold stone floor, but that Scorpius Malfoy had pulled her up, draping her good arm around his neck, and was now shuffling her out the door and down the hall.
"Come on, Rose. We're almost there."
She sobbed into his neck as they moved, not bothering to try to watch where they were going. The pain was so intense that she was seeing spots whenever she tried, and for some reason she found his cologne comforting. Not to mention his arm tight around her waist and the sound of her name on his lips. Her first name.
They were standing at the doors of the hospital wing in what felt like seconds, and he pounded loudly on the closed double doors. "Madame Stuart!" His voice echoed down the hall and intertwined with the gong of the clock. It was past curfew.
When the doors to the hospital wing swung open, Madame Stuart gasped and ushered them inside, leading Scorpius to place Rose on the first bed they came to. "Here, put here here," she demanded, scolding him with her eyes. "What in heaven's name…" Madame Stuart appeared as though she would begin to lecture, but Rose let out another cry of pain and writhed on the bed.
Changing tactics, she huffed and moved Scorpius back towards the door. "Thank you, Mr. Malfoy for bringing her straight away. Now you must go. It's curfew, I can take it from here."
"But I–"
The doors slammed in front of him, leaving Scorpius alone in the corridor, pale and stricken from the accident. On the other side of the door, Rose gasped for air and struggled against Madame Stuart's cold hands as they pressed an ointment into the sores forming on her skin.
"What on earth were you doing, Miss Weasley?" Madame Stuart asked, her voice kinder this time as she worked with the girl silently sobbing into her pillow. The wounds were deep, having burned through her clothing, trailing along her arm, shoulder, neck, and even the right side of her face.
"'S m-my f-fault," Rose managed, even the slightest movement causing her to wince in pain, which caused the damaged flesh to light afire with pain a second time.
"Your fault?" the woman, repeated, working her magic slowly, skillfully.
Rose nodded, her chin trembling, water streaking her cheeks. "M-my fault. Not h-his." Scorpius had worked so hard over the past month –when he decided to show up, that is– and she wasn't about to let him get in trouble for the accident or being out after curfew. Even if he was a Malfoy.
"I see."
Whether or not Madame Stuart believed her, Rose couldn't tell. She was too preoccupied with a searing sensation across one side of her body, and a shocking sensation in the region of her heart.
She was lying for Scorpius Malfoy.
Scorpius Malfoy who hated breathing the same air as she.
Scorpius Malfoy who despised her existence.
Scorpius Malfoy who had come to her rescue.
Scorpius Malfoy who had called her Rose.