Hello, I'm really tired.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 12

"What do you mean Scorpius asked Zelda to the Ball?" Lorcan asked, truly shocked.

Chi shook her head and scratched it, "I shouldn't even be telling you this, but you're her best friend, and I am helpless."

"Is that why she is being so antisocial today?" Lorcan asked quietly, frowning and leaning closer to Chi on the sofa.

She nodded and sighed, "Scorpius sent Zelda a letter, and then when she was just getting over it, Albus went and made it worse."

"He keeps on doing that, he just keeps on making situations worse." Lorcan replied, "but why would Scorpius do that, I thought he liked Rose?"

"I know, that's what I am thinking, I would tell Rose to talk to him, but you know how she is."

"Stubborn as an Ox," Lorcan continued for her, "I'll try and speak to her, maybe some good old fashioned insults will snap her out of this."

"Thanks," Chi said getting up and smiling at Lorcan, he smiled back and she walked away from him.

Lorcan had never known Rose to act this way about rejection, though that may have stemmed from the fact that Rose didn't get rejected. There hadn't been one instance where she had been rejected, it probably always seemed like an impossible thing to her.

XxX Albus & Scorpius XxX

"You seen Rose yet?" Albus asked Scorpius casually, leaning into an armchair in the Gryffindor common room.

Scorpius rose an eyebrow, and was slightly distracted from playing with the edge of his trousers.

He hadn't been able to concentrate the whole day, he'd searched everywhere for the note he made, and he couldn't find it anywhere. Albus couldn't have found it he thought, because he would have said something, like 'who were you planning on asking'. Scorpius hoped it wasn't obvious, he hadn't written a name on it for a reason. He had written the note in a rush, he hadn't actually meant for it to leave his possession, and for all he knew someone could be walking around with his note, planning on setting him or someone else up.

Then his mind went to what Violet had said, was it that obvious? It was hard enough admitting it to himself; Scorpius Malfoy actually fancying a Weasley and Rose at that. It especially wasn't the most conventional pairing, seeing their families history and the various prejudices that went with being a Malfoy. It was just problems, problems, problems, not only Albus but his whole family.

So he decided, he wasn't going to ask Rose to the Ball, things happen for a reason, and if it's meant to be, then it's meant to be. Scorpius thought, finally clearing his throat to give his reply to Albus.

"No, why?" he said.

Albus shrugged and stretched his arms, "just wondering, she wasn't at breakfast or lunch, and because you were out running errands, I thought you might have seen her."

He shook his head and sat straighter, "she's supposed to get some files from me, but I didn't see her. What do you need from her?" he asked.

"Come on Scorp, I am her cousin, do I have to have an ulterior motive to see my own flesh and blood?" Albus said acting glumly.

Scorpius gave him a look, though Albus continued to make the face. "I suppose not," he said simply, standing up and giving Albus one last fleeting look before walking towards the boys' dormitory.

It was always a strange experience when Albus acted like a good and valuable family member, but it never did last for long. And it always ended up with someone very angry with Albus, the majority of the time it being either Rose or Lily.

Albus watched Scorpius walk through the door and smirked, folding his fingers together and leaning further into the arm chair.

XxX Rose & Lorcan XxX

After about an hour of searching the whole of Hogwarts, Lorcan found her sitting in the alcove of a statue on the 2nd floor, the statue completely blocking her from view.

"Hey Rose," Lorcan said, stepping into the small alcove and sitting next to her.

She was frowning and reading through her Transfiguration book, gripping the edges of the book tightly.

"I've been looking for you for ages, do you have to try so hard to hide?" Lorcan asked exasperated and nudging her with his shoulder.

"Lorcan," she said quietly and sternly, "I just want to be alone."

Lorcan smiled, "no you don't, you want my charming company."

Rose looked at him still frowning, she folded the book closed, tossing it on the floor in front of her.

"Come on Rosie, give me a smile don't be such a killjoy." He continued, "I'll use a cheering charm on you," he warned.

Rose folded her arms and glared at him her face turning red, "it's Rose!" she shouted, "and don't you threaten me Lorcan Scamander!" she continued, getting up and kicking at the wall in annoyance.

Lorcan got up grinning and Rose pushed him, "I hate you so much Lorcan, you are such an ass, just leave me alone!" she screamed.

He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, "I don't believe a bit of that, nice to see some emotion though. I was scared I'd have to give you a draught." Lorcan smiled and sat back down, pulling Rose by the arm next to him. "Now let's get down to business," he said calculatingly.

Rose sighed, the rouge in her cheeks calming down, "what business?" she asked sceptically.

Lorcan rolled his eyes, "tell me, go on, tell me everything and anything, and I mean the truth Rose, I'm serious about this. I also give you permission to call me names and make declarations about your hatred for me. Just, I want the girl with 'the sun in her eyes' back."

He nudged her again and Rose's flat expression turned into a smile at the Beatle's reference.

"I prefer 'kaleidoscope eyes'," she replied, Lorcan smiled and she sighed again, pulling her fingers through her curls, lightly pulling at them. "Fine Lorcan, go on, shoot me with your questions."

Lorcan grinned and turned fully to her, "first of all, tell me how you feel about Scorpius, full truth please."

Rose started twiddling her fingers, staring into her lap, she whispered something incoherent and Lorcan frowned.

"Once more please," he said.

"I suppose you could say that I find him somewhat agreeable in more of a nonsensical way." She whispered a bit loudly this time, her cheeks going red.

Lorcan burst out laughing, "you're such a sneak Rose, so in layman's terms?"

Rose looked up, revealing an extremely crimson face, "I like him, like like him, and not even a little, I mean like a lot, like I want to rip out Zelda's heart and feed it to her." She said, Lorcan noticing she had her hands in fists.

Lorcan just about contained another laugh, "a bit far-fetched isn't it Roe?"

She shrugged and rubbed at the back of her neck, "there's something wrong with me, it's like I can't stop myself, I've never felt this way before and I don't know why I am so worked up about this all, it's not as if it's important at all."

He smiled and put an arm around her shoulder, "look what you've gone and done Rose, fallen in love with a Malfoy, or better yet, you have been in love with him for a while. I know a lot of people who are going to love that."

Rose harshly pushed his arm off and punched him in the shoulder, "I am not in love with Malfoy, that's completely illogical and unlikely."

Lorcan shrugged and leaned onto the back of the statue, "okay then Rose, I believe you of course," he said sarcastically, Rose not quite catching the mocking edge. "Next question Miss Weasley, why are you acting so insane?"

She frowned, "well seeing as I was completely rejected by the person in question, I don't exactly feel up to seeing him or others." She replied.

He nodded, "I understand that, but Rose, I'm your best friend and basically your brother, you can't just hide things from me, you have to speak your mind or you'll end up building it all up and you'll just explode. Even Chi, she understands you just as well as I do but you'd rather hide away and read your school books. So Rose Weasley, I am giving you a proposition, you talk to me or at least Chi about everything and anything. I don't want it to get to the stage in which I need to legilimens you, okay?

Rose laughed slightly and leaned her head against his shoulder, "yes Lorcan."

"You Promise?"

She smiled and nodded against his shoulder, "promise."

"Now hopefully you'll start acting normal again, starting with dinner," Lorcan said firmly, standing up.

"Well what about Scorpius?" she asked timidly, following his lead.

"You can either ignore him, or you can act completely normal and maybe he'll come around, remember you are supposed to be friends." Lorcan said simply, grabbing onto Rose's arm and pulling her out of the alcove.

"Fine," she said passively, allowing Lorcan to lead her towards the stairway and to the Great Hall for dinner.

Rose was still angry beyond belief, she was just angry that she had let herself believe that Scorpius had fancied her in any way. She couldn't believe that she had completely deluded herself, something she had never done before. It was therefore no surprise that she would blame Scorpius for her unrequited feelings. It was just so Rose.

XxX Scorpius XxX

Scorpius had gone up to the Ravenclaw common room to give Rose the files Violet had given him, to find when he was invited into the room, three of Rose's roommates sent him angry glares and the other roommate he didn't quite know the name of was grinning and winking at him.

He attempted to talk to Marianne who he knew was definitely Rose's partner in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

She snubbed him leaving him clueless as to where Rose was, and why everyone was looking at him with complete distaste. A very peculiar sight in his opinion.

XxX Albus XxX

"Oh come off it Lillian," Albus snarled at his sister who was sending Albus shooting glares.

"Don't you try and lie to me Albus I can see right through your facade, don't you dare try and cosy up to my friends when you have no intention of going through with anything! Plus, how dare you, you might be able to trick Scorpius into thinking you're all innocent, but I know you are not and I hope you understand one day that this won't go on forever." She shouted at him, she searched the area in front of her and grabbing a bread roll, threw it at his head.

He frowned and Lily dragged her friend away who was extremely red in the face.

Just as Lily and her friend exited the Great Hall, Lorcan and Rose walked in looking warily at the pair and at Albus' expression which was one of fear.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked quickly, her caring instincts kicking in, which even went into action for Albus Potter.

Albus straightened his face out and grimaced, "nothing," he said simply and turned to the plate of food in front of him.

Rose turned to Lorcan and he shrugged, "how come you're here alone?" Lorcan asked, seeing that there were hardly any Gryffindor's on the table.

He shrugged in reply and ate a potato, "it's still early," he said mid-swallow.

Rose sighed and began to walk towards the Ravenclaw table, Lorcan following after her.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked, squinting as if trying to think very hard about something, she sat down and tapped her fingers on the table.

"I don't know, he seems to be getting a little crazier each day," Lorcan said laughing lightly, Rose smirked and nudged him playfully. "I suppose we can blame it on puberty." He added mock-seriously.

Rose covered her mouth quickly as she burst out laughing, knocking over a bowl of rolls with her elbow, and several of the others on the table looked at her questioningly.

"Miss Prefect, throwing food about are we?" Lorcan said seriously, "I might have to deduct house points for that."

She began to calm down and shook her head, "I really do love you Lorcan," she said smiling.

He rolled his eyes and stretched his hand out to grab a spoonful of steamed carrots.

"So Lorcan, while I was otherwise preoccupied did you ask Emma to the Ball?" Rose asked, gingerly putting the rolls back into the bowl and taking one for herself.

"Actually I did and she said yes, but really, who could deny me?" Lorcan said trying to be modest. Rose grinned and shook her head, she felt the seat fill next to her and it was Chi.

"Oh modesty is so becoming of you Lorcan, and I see you found Miss Hide-and-no-seek." She said smiling and taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

Lorcan smiled, "my one skill," he said taking a bite from his dinner.

"Sorry about earlier," Rose said quietly.

Chi smiled in reply and shrugged. "No need to apologize, I'm not angry at you though I really want to have words with that cousin of yours." She frowned at her mention of Albus.

"Don't worry about him, it's just puberty," Rose said slightly smiling.

Chi raised an eyebrow and started eating her dinner.

Marianne came running over and sat across from Rose and next to Lorcan on the table.

"Rose they found you, oh Merlin, you have missed so much," Marianne said quickly and out of breath. She stopped taking a few gulps of air and then started again. "I think I'm about to faint, the last 24 hours have been insane."

Chi gave her a questioning glance and Marianne smiled, "excuse-me while I breathe, I just ran all the way from the tower."

Rose giggled and finished her roll and started on the main bulk of the meal.

"Okay, I'm ready now, one word, Scorpius, in our common room, asking for you." She said still breathless.

"That's eight words Marianne," Lorcan said smarmily, Marianne gave him an ugly grimace and this time Chi laughed.

Rose was frowning and slowly started spooning the stew into her mouth, "now why would he be asking for me Marianne? He made it pretty clear in that letter that he likes Zelda." She said slowly.

"I don't know," Marianne said quickly, "it was actually kind of strange, he didn't talk to Zelda at all, he sort of just gave her a look of confusion."

Lorcan looked at Marianne and she nodded slowly, "I'd guess that he was probably confused that she had yet to give him an answer," Rose said simply, hiding her face away by leaning more closely into her bowl.

Marianne, Chi and Lorcan frowned at Rose who didn't notice.

"Well, I don't know about that Rose," Chi said slowly, "this could all be a big misunderstanding you know. I bet it's in the cards, I can read them if you like?" Chi asked.

Lorcan groaned, "don't start with that Chi."

Chi sent him a glare, "I hope you've been carrying around that chocolate bar," she said sternly.

He frowned and looked into his plate, feeling the Honeydukes bar of Choco-loco resting on his leg in his pocket.

Even though Lorcan didn't believe in the nonsense which was Divination, he wasn't going to leave it up to bad luck that he was wrong and was stuck in a really bad situation when he had been given guidance from the start.

"No thank you," Rose finally said, taking another spoonful and then resting her spoon in the middle of her empty plate. She leaned her head against her hand, which was propped up by her elbow and unconsciously began to stroke at the dark red curls at the base of her neck.

Marianne saw that Rose was no longer fully paying attention so leaned into Lorcan, whispering in his ear. "I don't want to get her hopes up if I am wrong, but I don't think Scorpius actually knows about this note. I really don't think he meant to send it to Zelda, he doesn't even know her."

Lorcan nodded and folded his arms, he looked at Chi and she was holding her tarot cards in her hand and slowly shuffling them. She shook her head, not knowing the solution and the three sighed together.

XxX Scorpius XxX

Scorpius had been looking for Rose for a good hour before he bumped into Violet. She gave him an angry look.

"I'll take those, and I am very disappointed in you Scorpius," she growled grabbing the files from his hand and prodding him in the chest with her index finger.

"Ow, what did I do?" he asked, scratching his head in confusion, "I've been looking for Rose all day."

"What? So you can make it even worse?" Violet asked, sending him a menacing glare, "I heard what you did Scorpius and that was so stupid of you."

"What did I do?" he said defensively standing straighter so to not be intimidated by Violet's indigo eyes.

"I truly believed you weren't that type of person, it's really wrong to just convince everyone you are a certain thing, or think a certain way and then you just go out and ask her roommate." Violet said frowning her arms folded across her chest tightly.

Scorpius was completely lost in what Violet was saying, he didn't even know where to start to understand what she meant.

Violet took his lack of speech as a confession.

"Scorpius!" she said exasperated, "you are such a prick, and you better apologize to her because I don't want you ruining my Ball because she hates you and you can no longer work together." Violet gave him a shrewd look and marched away.

Scorpius had no idea what to say, he didn't even have a clue about what she was talking about. The only guess he could make as to why everyone was acting crazy, and as if he was evil, was that someone had spiked their morning pumpkin juice.

As he began his walk towards the Great Hall, he noticed that the people around him were whispering.

He was unaware that a substantial amount of the school populace knew that he had asked Zelda Brandt to the Winter Ball.

When he entered the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table, Albus was smiling, and quite a big smile at that.

"Why are you so happy?" he asked, peering around at the people sitting at the table, several of whom were giving him strange looks.

"I really like Treacle tart," Albus said, heaping his spoon with more tart.

Scorpius gave him a look of suspicion as he took some apple pie for himself, having missed dinner.

"Have you noticed everyone giving me weird looks? And Violet said something really strange to me." Scorpius asked Albus, frowning as someone shook their head at him from across the room.

"No," Albus replied airily, "maybe they want something from you," he suggested finishing his tart off.

He frowned and shook his head, "I'm getting some real looks of hate, especially from Rose's roommates, but then one of them is doing the complete opposite." Scorpius ran a hand through his hair, thinking.

"Sorry, but I don't have a clue what that means," Albus said sympathetically.

Scorpius groaned and finished his pie, "great, I'm going to go to the common room."

Albus shrugged in reply and Scorpius stood up. Breathing out he turned towards the door, however noticing red hair in his peripherals he turned towards the bright colour, and he saw that Rose was sitting on the Ravenclaw table, her back towards him.

He slowly made his way towards her, Marianne and Lorcan looked up at him with a look of surprise. Rose noticed that they were looking at someone behind herself and Chi, so quickly turned to see. When seeing that it was Scorpius she made a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second.

"Hi, I've been meaning to talk to you Rose," Scorpius said, Chi, Marianne, Lorcan and Rose gave him looks of shock and confusion.

"What?" he asked frowning weakly.

Rose bit down on her lip hard, grabbing onto the edge of the table and turning away from him.

Scorpius sat down, his movements being followed by everyone's eyes other than Rose's.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" he asked, fidgeting slightly under their gaze.

"Should you really be here?" Marianne started slowly, her eyes shifting from Scorpius to Rose's downturned head.

He frowned, none of them said anymore but they continued to stare. "I don't see why not? What, have I done something to offend you all?" he said annoyed.

Lorcan blinked, "well not us personally," he said, indicating to everyone but Rose.

Scorpius rubbed at his chin still confused, he looked at Rose, only seeing the side of her face. "Rose, what's going on? I couldn't find you before because you weren't answering your pages, but Violet said the strangest thing to me."

Rose grimaced, and straightened herself, "this, right here Malfoy, this isn't going to happen anymore, you can't have normal." She said confidently, she then got up and walked away from the table.

Scorpius looked after her, his mouth partly open. Lorcan let out a breath he was holding and got up, rushing after Rose.

I'm soooo tired. WOW, that took me AGES to finish XD

Well I hope you liked it ;)

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