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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Obviously.

Chapter 4

Rose had screamed into her pillow when she finally got to her bed in the girls' dormitory. Frustrated at what Scorpius had done, and annoyed that she hadn't retaliated, and had actually admitted to herself that she liked the way he smelled.

"What was I thinking?" she said to herself, turning around and looking at her dark blue canopy. "He bloody turned my hair green, and I just give him a warning, what's wrong with me?"

Rose sighed and sat up, trying to fully mull things over.

She had never not reacted and retaliated to anything Malfoy had done or said. It was just what she did. If he jinxed her, she would jinx him back harder. Then what had changed today? This was the big question on her mind. Was it because she had decided to be his friend? But surely that wouldn't have drastically changed how she treated Malfoy.

It must have been something else, Rose thought, anything else.

Then there was his smell, he did smell nice. It's not like it was unexpected, he knew how to look after himself, she knew that much. And the way he talked to Myrtle, he was...nice. This was a whole other side of Scorpius Malfoy Rose was seeing, and she actually liked it, which was very worrying to her.

Rose heard laughter outside, followed by the door opening. Two of her roommates came in, smiling and laughing together.

"Hi Rose," Marianne said, jumping into her own bed next to Rose and kicking off her boots.

"Hey guys, did you enjoy the snow today?" Rose asked, sitting up against her headboard and looking towards Carina who sat on Marianne's trunk, moving it in between Rose and Marianne's bed.

"It had its moments, but what we'd really like to know Rose is what on earth was going on between you, Albus and Scorpius?" Carina replied, smirking at Rose, her head perched on her hands.

"Oh, well you both know about my occasional disdain for my cousin."

"And your apparent disdain for Scorpius Malfoy," Marianne added.

"I decided to befriend Malfoy, I feel it will be better this way." Rose watched as her roommates' eyebrows rose.

"You're friends with Scorpius now? Just like that?" Carina said leaning closer towards Rose, her mouth hanging open.

"Well yes, we've known each other a while, and we're not too different, he suggested it." Rose replied casually, folding her legs under her.

"You truly amaze me Rose Weasley, how you even manage to get Scorpius to even speak to you, engage you, and actually call you his friend." Carina said sighing, getting a far-off look in her eye.

"I assure you, it's not all it's cracked up to be, he really does infuriate me, and the amount of times he has embarrassed me in front of my family. I hate it." Rose laughed lightly, trying to make the situation sound less amazing.

"You must be the only one Rose, he is gorgeous," Marianne said loudly, "do you think he would go out with me Rose? Could you ask him, now that you guys are friends." She added, jumping onto Rose's bed.

"Uh, I, well that's not the kind of things we talk about, I'm afraid you will have to pursue him on your own Marianne." Rose said, just about containing a grimace at her request.

"Too bad really, and what about Lorcan? We saw him going off with Emma Wood." Carina asked.

"He is attempting to woo her," Rose muttered giggling to herself, the girls joining in with her.

"Look at him, he's all grown up, trying to get a girlfriend," Marianne said smiling, "now it's only Lysander left."

"I think Lysander is perfectly fine with chasing my cousin," Rose said nodding, causing Carina to burst out laughing, and nearly fall off of the trunk.

"Isn't your cousin getting married though?" Marianne asked, her face masked with confusion.

"Yes, but he seems to have been wrapped up in all of Victoire's Veela glory. Then there's Molly, who absolutely loves him, it's all a mess really." Rose sighed, and shrugged. "How about you go after Lysander, Marianne, and then Victoire can get off my back about trying to get me to tell Lysander to stop sending her letters." She continued smiling.

Marianne raised an eyebrow and shook her head, "I think I'll leave that to Molly."

She got up from Rose's bed and sat back in her own, Carina doing the same.

"G'night guys," Rose said taking her pyjamas and going into the bathroom.

Rose was glad that she had Marianne and Carina to talk to about the trivial little things about school life. The things she preferred to not talk about with Lorcan, just because he didn't understand girl problems.

Problems like; why she didn't bat bogey hex Malfoy after he turned her hair green? Was this really a sign that they were friends and would therefore treat each other better?

Rose laughed to herself and shook her head, there was no reason to treat Malfoy any better, he was just as annoying and infuriating as usual. Even if he did save her from falling to her death, and is thoughtful about others' feelings, even a ghosts. Maybe he is a tiny bit more agreeable, but still, he is Scorpius Malfoy, and he is still supposed to be one of the worst human beings in the world, beside Albus and James Potter.

XxX Scorpius & Albus XxX

"So traitor, how was the library with Rosie?" Albus asked, slouching in an armchair looking over at Scorpius who was reading through a Muggle music magazine.

"Oh, you wouldn't want to know, it may be a bit too heavy for your poor head to take." Scorpius replied not looking up, causing Albus to throw a cushion at him.

"Fine, you can have my attention," Scorpius put his magazine down and turned to Albus.

"So, what did you do then?" he repeated, folding his arms.

"Uh well we decided against the library, she nearly fell down the stairs, we visited Moaning Myrtle, I turned her hair green, and surprisingly instead of hexing me, she warned me. It was a very strange experience, your cousin is quite unusual." Scorpius said, stretching his long arms and legs. Attracting the looks of a couple of 4th years his way.

"Well I suppose that makes up for that incident this afternoon. But I can't believe you agreed to be friends with her, what's wrong with you?"

"I don't see how that's got anything to do with anything Potter," Scorpius said quickly, Albus scrunched his nose up and stared at him.

"Why do you say it like that? Hmmm Scorpius," he prodded, "the fact is Scorp, it was meant to be me and you, versus my dear cousin." He continued, frowning.

"As 6th years and myself being a prefect, I think we have grown out of that Al, and it's the perfect time for you to be decent to your cousin again. You used to be really close, and she's the same as she always was. You just hate that she got sorted into Ravenclaw." Scorpius said casually.

"I'll have you know that I have not grown out of it, and it is not the 'perfect time' to be nice to my cousin, stop being a Rose sympathizer." He said huffing.

Scorpius laughed, "it's quite nice being a Rose sympathizer, she can be funny if she tries, it's nice to talk to someone who isn't you."

Albus made a fake laugh and hit him with another cushion, "you're starting to sound like you fancy my dear cousin." He said laughing for real now.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows and didn't say anything, "wha- what?" He stuttered, Albus giving him a questioning look at his sudden nervousness.

He hadn't even thought about 'fancying' Rose, but now that Albus had asked him that question it made Scorpius think about it for the first time, and he knew that he definitely couldn't deny it.

"You don't, do you?" Albus asked, staring at Scorpius.

"No, no, of course not," Scorpius said quickly, laughing statically.

Albus laughed along with him, "of course not, that would be crazy, you fancying my cousin, her dad would kill you."

Scorpius nodded, gritting his teeth, "yeah."

"And of course me too, even if I do like mistreating her myself," Albus added.

Scorpius laughed weakly, and opened up his magazine again. Stopping himself from slapping himself. Albus again reminding him of Rose's existence, and the fact that she smelled like jasmine.

"I have an idea Scorp, next Hogsmeade weekend we truly get our own back on Rose." Albus said triumphantly, "it may involve some banned WWW products, but it will be a spectacle, you can bet on that."

"Really Al, you really think I want to get detention just because you have this insane idea in your head that you should punish Rose 24/7?" Scorpius said sighing, closing his magazine once again. He looked over at Albus who was frowning.

Albus was his best friend, but seriously, the guy had issues when it came down to Rose Weasley. He had other cousins, why couldn't he concentrate on them too? The constant need to prank Rose meant that Scorpius had to spend the majority of the day talking about her, which meant thinking about her. At first it was thinking about the best way to ambush her, but it soon turned into thinking about talking to her, and being friends with her. Sure it wasn't exactly a bad thing (being friends with her), but Scorpius knew that friendship meant thinking about Rose Weasley even more, and he had only discovered that after becoming friends with her. It was a problem, seeing as he had found that he was liking her more and more. Liking her like he liked the girls he went out with. Which he felt was a really bad situation, especially when Albus was hell bent on keeping them as distant from Rose as possible, only getting close enough to prank her. Rose was pretty, he knew that, beautiful in fact, and of course he would never say that in front of Albus, but he couldn't help thinking about the many problems that would incur because of his decision to become friends with Rose.

"Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend? Last year you were completely up to picking on Rose, you don't seriously plan on picking her over me." Albus said shocked.

Scorpius sighed and rolled his eyes, "as a matter of fact I have a date on the next Hogsmeade Weekend, and I thought you did too. What happened to Emma?"

"You saw her with Lorcan, and don't try and lie to me, you don't have a date, you haven't had a date since the beginning of term."

"Well that may be as a result of your need to pick on Rose, and have me tagging along." Scorpius replied simply, crossing his arms.

"The fact is, next weekend, we will go to Hogsmeade and if we happen to stumble upon Rose, well that will be a different story."

Scorpius sighed again, "fine" he breathed out and Albus smiled.

"Glad you agree with me."

"I really do not like you Albus Potter."

Albus laughed and got up, and began to make his way over to the corridor of the dorms. Winking at the fourth years, and twinkling his emerald eyes at them before going through.

Scorpius rolled his eyes as the girls giggled and sank deeper into his chair.

Even with Albus' complex, he still managed to charm girls, who stupidly believed that being Harry Potter's son and decent looking meant he wasn't an idiot. But he was, oh yes he was.

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