Thank you for reading this far! I And trust me when I say you're less than 10 people. I especially thank everyone who reviewed, fav'ed, subscribed, and C2d this story! :D

And I know I said I'll revamp the story but yeah… no such luck. I basically just proofread it or something. xD I apologize for the inconvenience.

REVIEW: Hermione and Ron's children: Rose and Hugo | Bill and Fleur's: Louis, Victoire, and Dominique | George and Angelina's: Fred II and Roxanne | Harry and Ginny: Albus Severus, James Sirius, and Lily Luna | Luna Lovegood and Scamander's children: Lorcan and Lysander | Neville and Hannah's: Alice (non-canon) | Mark Goyle is obviously Goyle's son | Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass: Blake Zabini | Pansy Parkinson: Linda Higgs

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's creations. Plot is mine, though.

…

CHAPTER VIII: Learning Awesomeness- Part 3

POTIONS LABORATORY

Slughorn walked slowly from side to side of the room as he talked. He introduced the course and told them what their activities would be.

"Most of my exercises would be competitive. The first pair to do the assignment would win something different from me each time – and let me tell you that it would be something very useful to have." He grinned and continued nonchalantly. "There would be steps that would require a different set of hands for there may be mixtures that must be added fresh to another one-"

He then looked inconspicuously at the two students who just arrived.

"...that means that each student must study and work hard together in order to win the premium item, and…" He paused to give the meaningful look sent to them even more meaning. "…not glare at each other the whole period."

...

Rose sighed.

Not glare the whole period, he said. Maybe she wouldn't—If that prat would stop. She did not get why he became especially mean to her out of nowhere. They had always been acting haughty with each other, but when the professor announced their partnership… something just changed.

He did not say anything but he was definitely looking at her with some odd type of contempt—It was as if he was trying his best to appear that he' was annoyed with her… which was weird because she knew she could do that without even trying.

She just shrugged the thoughts away and assumed he must be undergoing some sort of male PMS… or something…

That or he was just being the idiotic bloke he could be.

Scorpius—on the other side of the table—found it hard to maintain this particular façade, so he tried his best to actually mean the insults he was spitting out. When the professor implied that pair should work together, he muttered as soon as he could: "Bloody hell I'd work with you, Weasley." Effectively getting her to glare at him – a glare he responded with equal intensity.

"What the hell is your problem, Malf—you blighter?" Scorpius flinched at her reluctance in calling him his last name, which was to be expected anyway.

He had somehow managed to convince himself to associate her with her last name during the whole week he hadn't seen her. It was definitely something his grandfather would obviously prefer. So that was what he did.

She continued to stare at him and he begrudgingly frowned at her. The moment he'd been paired with her, he made sure that his conviction was made stronger as to avoid… losing his way. The instant he heard the news from his fat professor, he just knew he had to start moving… otherwise he'd think he would want to be her fr-frie—he cringed. He couldn't even utter the word in his head.

"What? You've gone deaf, too?" Rose frowned getting him to wince even more. He wanted her to see that he hated her. So is it even natural to dislike the fact that she was frowning at him? She gaped at him for a moment, waiting for him to speak but nothing came. She just sighed and irritably looked away from him.

When Slughorn finally decided to break his stare away from them, Scorpius went to examine the materials in front of him to distract himself from a certain red-head. Not a moment too soon, though, he heard a silent 'psst' from the adjacent work area.

"Where have you been, Rose?" One of the blonde twins whispered.

"I left my book in your room."

CLANK

The sound of a glass being dropped on the marble-covered table was heard across the classroom. It didn't break, but it was definitely a close call.

"I'm not going to pay for that." Rose stated immediately, and Scorpius sent her his strongest glare for her 'insensitivity'. Rose sensed the unjust judgement, but didn't say anything. Scorpius was obviously having an internal war, and Rose didn't want to make it worse for him.

He was her rival, but she would never see him as her enemy.

…

HISTORY OF MAGIC

Lunch came by and the first class was the infamous History of Magic class known for being the most boring class in history.

Oh. The irony.

It was taught by the ghost Cuthbert Binns who pretty much 'droned' the lectures to his students. Even Rose had a hard time giving her full attention to the class. She didn't really feel guilty though, especially since most of the class were already snoring.

As she listened and absorbed whatever was being thrown at them (or at least what she could catch, given the fact she was very much losing her focus)– she looked around to entertain herself. The professor didn't seem to mind (or notice) what his students were doing, anyway.

The twins were snoring – no surprise, there. Heart and Alice were awake but they were either smiling dreamily and fighting themselves to keep awake, respectively. Scorpius was barely awake himself but his seatmate was. She saw her before—the girl was sitting beside him during Transfiguration class. She was wide awake because she was having so much fun playing with Scorpius's hair. Rose saw that Scorpius was trying his best not to crack, but he eventually did and slapped her hand away.

Rose sent him a nagging glower. The two immediately looked her direction with different sorts of confusion.

"That's not nice." She mouthed quietly but firmly, and his eyes twitched in response.

"What do you care?" He vehemently whispered back.

"You're my Rival, you blasted fruit. Or do you want to prove me wrong for actually considering that?" She spat back, hoping like hell she would trigger his arrogance back out.

And it did.

"You flatter yourself, red-head." He added with a pompous smirk, seeming to forget the state he was just in. Rose couldn't help but smile in relief. But then Scorpius turned away from her again immediately after, and her eyes to twitched.

'What the bloody hell is wrong with him?'

…

The class ended just before lunch, and the students walked to the great hall together. Lively chats have erupted with topics primarily about what they were going to do during the long break period to their next class. Their next class would be Astronomy held at the Astronomy Tower, but it would take place at nightfall.

Other than reading books, there was one other thing Rose would like to spend time in: Adventuring. Both of her parents loved it, so her predisposition was fueled by actually getting raised by a family who were famous for bending the rules.

'Adventuring and bending some rules... what's the difference?' She thought, amused. She knew the linguistic disparity of course, but in the magic world – the most fun adventures required overlooking of some (most) of these so-called 'school rules'.

"Why are you smirking like that?" Al asked nervously. His cousin was smart—really smart. With the long vacant time, Al just knew that she must be devising a way to have fun without getting caught. She was like a smarter Fred Weasley. Sometimes Al pondered how many times Weasley gene inside her would get her into trouble.

"Al...?" She called effectively making him cringe. She was obviously going to drag him into this… but oh, well. Al himself liked a good adventure; he was just not so sure at causing trouble during the first week of class… especially when his father just bent the rules because he needed to so he could solve mysteries regarding the dark lord.

She walked closer so only they could hear.

"Who has the Marauder's map?"

…

ASTRONOMY TOWER
a few hours later

Scorpius Malfoy could not help but wonder where the Monkey and her gang had gone all those hours... especially since the twins were all over Rose telling her how much fun they had.

Their teacher in the subject was Aurora Sinistra, a pretty copper-skinned woman whose stature was as proud as the headmistress herself. She was readying the tools when they entered. "Good evening class. I am Aurora Sinistra, and I will be your teacher in Astronomy during your stay here in Hogwarts. Today I will teach you how to use a telescope."

Her introduction caused quite a few murmurs around. Hogwarts' budget increased since the second wizarding war, so the students were no longer required to buy the expensive contraptions. The problem was, most students had no idea what it was.

Aurora pointed at the number of white tube-like tools placed on a tripod, amused. This was one of her favorite parts.

"I know some of you must have already seen this before." She stated, referring to kids born with muggle blood. "May I know who had already encountered this contraption?"

Rose, Albus, Heart, the twins, and another two random students were the only ones who raised their hands.

"I see…" Aurora muttered comprehensively as she did the Math. She nodded to herself and then looked at the students. She pointed at each of them and strategically placed them equally far apart from each other. She had to do so since she had to cover the topic quite quickly (considering she was being called to the Headmistress's office) and the ones who would most likely catch up were the ones already familiar with the tool. At least the students could have someone to ask questions to during her absence.

"The other students will pick the available telescope of their choice. Please ready yourself and listen to me very carefully because I will go over this quickly. I will be leaving afterwards and you can proceed to the great hall for dinner after the class hours… or at least until you have understood the concept."

A few students to fret at the complicated looking tool at her announcement. The professor ignored them and went on with her short lecture.

She was a good speaker, Rose noted about half-an-hour later. She remembered everything she learned before and gained quite a few insights in such a short time. She found herself nodding at everything the woman said.

"I will be counting on everyone who understood my lesson to teach the ones who are still catching up, okay?" She asked rhetorically and went out the door.

…

Rose enjoyed the telescope for the most part, but she didn't really mind the interference several of her classmates were giving her. They had many questions and Rose didn't mind answering them. Soon enough, she was left alone to marvel at the star-filled sky.

"Bloody—" She heard someone silently mutter somewhere from her left. The classmate right adjacent to her had already proceeded to the Great Hall. It had already been an hour after all, which meant the class was over. Time ran quickly and she saw there were a lot of students like her who had lost the track of time.

"Tsk." She heard him mumble to himself again. Rose sighed, he's really too stubborn to ask for help. She saw that the girl beside him from before as well as his cousin was having troubles as well—but at least they were being taught by a random classmate.

"It's time for dinner now, Rose." Heart called her as she followed Rose's line-of-sight. Heart just assumed that Rose was just watching passively out of boredom. Rose nodded slowly and looked away from her cursing rival, following Heart, although she was thoroughly considering muttering what he was doing wrong just to annoy him further.

…

A few hours later, way past the students' bedtimes, there was a certain red-hed who remained awake inside the Ravenclaw girl's dormitory.

She stirred in her bed. Eventually, with much chagrin, she finally admitted that she couldn't sleep. For some odd reason, she wanted to look at the stars again. They were one of her favorite things, of course, but to lose sleep over them?

Well... there was also the fact that she wasn't able to give him what she especially bought for him... she shrugged. It seems like a good time to walk around and maybe sneak to the Astronomy tower.

Hmm... Maybe she would...

Simply because she felt like it.

One would think that the Sorting Hat should've sorted her to Gryffindor.

…

ASTRONOMY TOWER

Several minutes later, Rose had arrived at the tower unharmed. It wasn't that hard, really. Argus Filch had gotten quite old—not that him being younger would've hindered Rose. After all, Rose was taught by none other than James and Fred themselves about the secret passages during their bragging sessions even before she entered Hogwarts. She even memorized the Marauder's map that they 'borrowed' from James earlier.

Having said that though, she was really expecting some time alone in the tower – not to find her rival still tinkering with the telescope.

Scorpius was then dressed in simple house attire – telling her he also sneaked out. She smiled at the fact that he was genuinely trying – even when he would never admit it. Rose knew he would be the type who would work hard but brag that he didn't even try.

She decided to watch him for a while since her presence would disrupt his concentration. As she stared at him, her mind wondered as to why he was acting so strange. She wanted the interaction they had during their first meeting – natural. Right now, he was obviously holding himself back yet he was pushing himself to appear like the biggest prat on Earth.

Not that she could be really certain of her readings. She's twelve. And teenagers (or Tweenagers) felt like they knew everything (she heard the adults in the house mutter that hundreds of times) who was to say she wasn't getting ahead of herself?

In any case, she and Scorpius continued that way for a while until Scorpius coincidentally turned his head around only to find that he was being watched. He flinched and tapped the telescope almost causing it to fall.

"W-What are you doing here?" He exclaimed as he caught the contraption.

"I couldn't sleep."

"So you decided to just go here?"

"Yes." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Scorpius' eyebrow raised in scepticism as he watched her. "I wanted to look at some stars, as well… as you were doing."

"I-I-was obviously just bored and decided to look at the stars."

"So you say…" She smiled, but Scorpius just frowned.

"Where have you been?" He asked, getting her to bat an eyelid.

"Pardon?"

"I asked you where have you been?"

"The Ravenclaw Tower… obviously." She muttered in a perplexed tone of voice making Scorpius instantaneously frown at the advent that his rival was probably thinking of how stupid his question was. He immediately attempted to clear his name.

"W—of course! What I meant was before the Astronomy class." He corrected and Rose let an 'Oh!' gesture with her hands. She answered his question bluntly afterwards.

"Hogsmeade." Scorpius looked at her suspiciously.

"Are you lying to me?"

"Why would I?" Rose asked tilting her head. Scorpius flinched.

"I could… tell on you."

"You would?" Rose asked confused at the possibility. She knew he could be quite a prat when he wanted to, but she simply couldn't see him doing something that could ruin someone else. They remained in an awkward silence for a moment, but Scorpius broke it by sighing in defeat.

"…No."

"I thought so." Rose smiled and his eyes widened at her odd sense of faith in him. He managed to shake his startled phase away and returned to his haughty façade.

"What is with you, Weasley?" He posed with as much distaste as he could muster.

"Why are you suddenly calling me by my last name?" Rose finally asked him the question that had been bugging her for a while. He sneered at her.

"You prefer me calling you a red-headed Monkey?"

"Well, at least you don't say it with distaste." She spat back, and Scorpius was no longer able to say anything.

"Do you hate me, Scorpius?"She questioned him, stepping closer. For some reason she just felt like asking the question. He really looked as if he was trying to hate her.

Scorpius gaped at her for a while berating himself for not being able to answer immediately. Wasn't this what he wanted? He was about to say 'Yes. I hate you, Weasley.'

But when he took his eyes off her to look at the telescope—for the sake of looking away—the contrary came out of his mouth. "…No."

"That's good to hear." She stated and he heard the rustle of fabric and he somehow knew she reached for her pocket. Pulling his eyes away from the lens, he looked at the small vial that she was then holding. It was a transparent bluish liquid that Scorpius was very familiar with.

"What is this?" He asked, pertaining to why she was giving it to him. But she just assumed he was asking another stupid question.

"That's the Draught of Peace. I bought it at the new Potions store beside Dogsweed."

"I know what that is." He spat. "I was asking why you're giving it to me."

"Well, you seemed… stressed out, I guess…" She muttered causing him to flinch – again.

She was concerned for him?

"No, I'm not!" He exclaimed frantically trying to find his composure. Rose blinked and commented cynically,

"I could see that."

He blushed.

"Ah. Now you're red."

"Shut up!"

"You don't want it, then?" Rose asked, an eyebrow raised, visibly trying to figure out which one it was. Scorpius didn't answer nor even look at her, so she took it as a 'yes'. She sighed quietly and was about to put the liquid back to her pocket (she was doing it slowly on purpose though) when Scorpius suddenly grabbed it away from her.

She ended up staring at him, before a small smirk crept up her face (no doubt telling herself a private joke at his expense).

"What?" He coughed out. "I wan—need it..."

Rose crossed her arms then and Scorpius gave her a quizzical look, until his eyes twitched at the realization.

"Thank you." He paused, rummaging his head for a counter that'd save him from further embarrassment. "Do you always buy stuff for your rivals?"

"Who says I can't?" "Although, I'd prefer buying thinks to prank them with, but I rarely ever had rivals."

"Am I supposed to be flattered?"

"Yes. Yes, you are."

He shrugged.

"Be careful." He said. "People might think we're friends."

And they grinned. Because, really, they knew they already were.

.
.

END

…

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