Sorry that not a lot happened, but it takes time.

Sorry for the late update :/ I was gonna update last night, but when I got in, I was deathly tired and couldn't check through it again. My eyes were burning XD

And if I haven't replied to a review (because I fail) I shall say THANK YOU NOW! :D I love every one of them!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter 15

Chi had found it harder than expected to snap Rose out of her funk. Chi's excuse for Rose's behaviour was that she had a blockage in her chakra flow and her aura had become cloudy. It had been enough to reduce Rose to laughter as she began to get into the positive uses of feng shui.

The true reason why Rose was in such a mood was because she couldn't completely admit to herself that she liked Scorpius. Admit it to such an extent in which she would accept an invitation to Hogsmeade, or at least let him finish his question.

It had taken a lot of convincing on Chi's part to at least let Rose think about the possibility of going out for a Butterbeer with Scorpius, even just as friends. It had in fact taken a whole pitcher of Butterbeer and several Cauldron cakes – Rose's one true weakness. And Chi narrowly missed having to make an unbreakable vow.

However, Chi had the distinct impression that she was just playing it up to get the free food. While Rose didn't eat like her cousin or brother, she did like a good selection of Honeydukes sweets. Sooner or later she would come around and say yes to Scorpius. Marianne was definitely hoping for sooner though, she did love her dramatic romances.

XxX

"So how was Hogsmeade, did you find anything nice?" Scorpius asked, taking a seat across from Rose on the Ravenclaw table during Lunch.

Marianne, sitting next to Rose raised an eyebrow, "interested in girls clothes, are we?" she asked, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"I never thought I'd see the day," Rose added, shaking her head but grinning.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and rubbed at the back of his neck, "well I would rather talk about girls' clothes than the day I've had."

Rose made a questioning expression, but was slightly distracted by Chi skipping over, her hair fanning out after her, and floating into the seat next to Scorpius.

"I heard what happened Scorpius, complete tragedy." Chi said shaking her head and pouring herself a glass of water. "I saw it in my ball, but I thought it was just my imagination."

Scorpius turned to Chi, "you saw that and didn't say anything?"

Chi grinned, and Rose and Marianne leaned further forward, wanting to hear exactly what had happened.

"What happened?" Rose asked eagerly.

He turned back to the two girls and sighed, "Albus. I thought I'd take it upon myself to get revenge and it didn't work out as planned."

An outburst from Chi made everyone turn her way as she started to laugh, gripping at her sides. Noticing that everyone was looking she halted quickly, "oh sorry it was Dino, he just sent me a note, quite hilarious." She said showing them the small piece of parchment. "Must be off then, I already know the story, well nearly everyone does. No longer Suave-Malfoy I suppose, maybe Train-Wreck-Malfoy?" she grinned again and stood up, flitting over to the Slytherin table and she began laughing with Dino.

"Now I'm sure it wasn't that bad, was it?" Rose asked carefully, unconsciously her hand moved across the table as a gesture of comfort. Scorpius looked down at it and his lop-sided grin appeared on his face, the look of discomfort completely gone. Rose also looked down at her own hand and quickly moved it to her goblet, and took a quick swig. She looked to Marianne who was grinning at the behaviour of both Rose and Scorpius.

Scorpius folded his hands on the table, "It wasn't terrible, it wasn't a 'train-wreck'" Scorpius said rolling his eyes at Chi's remark before she had gone. "I don't actually know how he did it, I definitely didn't expect it from Albus at least." He breathed again and started. "Well I was looking for him and he was in the lower grounds having a snow fight, I tried aiming a leek jinx at him. I was thinking, 'hey that would be the perfect punishment, leeks growing out of your ears isn't exactly desirable'. But when I cast it, that Jessica girl cast a deflecting spell and it hit me."

Marianne was holding back a laugh, "so you're saying that you grew leeks out of your ears in the middle of the lower gardens?"

He nodded, breathing out, "and they had to cart me off to the hospital wing, Madam Minstra had a right go at me and she sent a letter home to my dad. He is going to murder me, I just know it." He covered his face with his hands and shook his head.

"Well Scorpius... I'd have to say... that's a train-wreck," Rose said taking huge gulps of air to stop her from laughing. Though Marianne had already gotten up and ran across the room to avoid laughing in Scorpius' face. She was currently laughing on the Hufflepuff table, sitting next to a very scared looking first year.

"So Jessica is defending Albus?" Rose said calming down after Scorpius' glare, "that sounds suspicious, did he notice?"

"You mean notice that his best friend was sprouting leeks?" Scorpius said abashedly.

Rose rolled her eyes, "oh stop crying about it, we'll get him back, don't worry about that."

Scorpius frowned, "yes, and just like you would expect, he laughed. He even high-fived Jessica, the ultimate betrayal I'd say."

"You were trying to Jinx him!" Rose said laughing and shaking her head.

He gave her a look, a very Slytherin-like look, Rose tried to look innocent, carefully looking around the room and starting to twist her curls around her fingers.

"Anyway Scorpius," she started again, "why is Jessica all of a sudden bouncing back to Albus, didn't she... well..." Rose scratched at her head.

"You have to ask? You know what Jessica is like, with everybody." Scorpius said, looking around the table for an empty goblet which he then filled with pomegranate juice.

Rose frowned, and took a long gulp of her pumpkin juice.

Scorpius saw her frown and smirked, "well except me, I have much stronger willpower Rosie," he grinned.

"Rose." She said adamantly. "And for your information, I wasn't wondering." She said shrewdly and took a pastry from the dessert platter that had appeared.

"Well to answer your question, I don't know," he replied, smiling behind his glass.

Rose couldn't help smiling with him, she felt the heat reach her cheeks and knew they were probably a bright red.

They were looking at each other for a couple of seconds, the blush on Rose's face growing.

"Scorp!" Albus shouted from across the Hall, he quickly turned, breaking eye contact with Rose and she looked down.

"I'll see you later Rose," Scorpius said sighing and getting up from the seat.

She smiled briefly, and as Scorpius walked towards the Gryffindor table – which Lorcan had been sitting at and looking very comfortable with Emma –, Rose swirled the juice in her goblet, imagining herself and Scorpius dancing at the Ball.

XxX Albus & Scorpius XxX

"Did you apologize to Zelda like I said you should?" Scorpius asked, slipping into the seat next to Albus and ignoring the remnants of laughter he could hear around him.

"Before or after you grew leeks?" Albus said loudly, trying to attract attention.

Scorpius made a pinched expression and rolled his eyes, "well did you?" he said exasperatedly.

"Well no, I was busy with Jessica," he said easily, waving a hand at Scorpius.

He glared at Albus, "you need to Albus, you're being a right asshole, and you shouldn't have done what you did to Zelda."

"Collateral damage, what are you going to do?"

Scorpius clenched his fists together and closed his eyes, breathing. Albus watched him do so and laughed offhandedly.

"You hate it don't you? I'm making Prince Malfoy feel like a pauper, sorry you can't be in charge of me, my friend." Albus said grinning, though his green eyes were looking strangely menacing.

"What's wrong with you? You seriously have some issues Al."

Albus shrugged and spooned some treacle tart into his mouth, he turned around and saw Rose was getting up from her position on the table, being ushered over to the Slytherin table by Violet and Alastair.

"Aren't you going to go off with Rosie to follow your cousin's instructions?" Albus asked, slightly sneering.

Scorpius stayed silent, taken aback by Albus' attitude.

"Now what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, now that you have Rosie, there is no need for you to be hanging around with me anymore, is there? Isn't it obvious?"

Scorpius couldn't help gawping at Albus, something his father had always drilled into him not to do. He unconsciously felt for his wand in his pocket, and his fists clenched tighter.

"You really need to stop that Albus, it's not funny."

"I'm not trying to be," Albus said slowly and surely, trying to get a rise out of Scorpius who was going red with anger.

"I swear Albus, you are so lucky –"

"That you were brought up to not use violence as a way to resolve issues? It wouldn't look too good if a Malfoy attracted a lot of attention, like say by sprouting leeks?" Albus said interrupting.

Scorpius bit down on his bottom lip until he tasted blood, getting up and slammed his fists down onto the table.

"Your weakness," Albus said smirking. Scorpius raised a fist looking at Albus intently before lowering it and stalking away, pushing past several second years as he walked towards the door.

XxX Rose XxX

"Well Rose, everything seems to be in order, we've got Forever Phoenix performing." Violet said, reading off a list she had written on a very long roll of parchment.

"Really?" Rose asked, slightly shocked, completely unaware that her cousin Dominique's band would be performing, especially since they had hit the big time last year. Roxanne must have talked her into it.

Violet nodded, "cool right? Who knew that Dominique Weasley, always strumming away on her guitar, would be big? Well maybe besides her parents, but that's what everyone's parents are supposed to think." Violet said absent-mindedly, Alastair nudged her and she snapped back into focus.

"Yes, well there isn't much left to do, we have to just tie everything together, double check the orders, make sure we have all the specifications for the decoration and the definite numbers. So do you think you could just have a talk with the house elves Rose?" Violet asked, biting her lip.

"Why?" Rose asked, pushing a couple loose curls from her face.

"Well, Jessica," Violet looked over to the Hufflepuff table and Jessica was hanging off of Lysander. "She doesn't like the elves much, and I don't trust that she has done what I have asked of her correctly. Merlin knows why McGonagall made her prefect, she is the bane of my existence. I have a limited amount of trust for Summer, she is a Slytherin, and that Lyra Finnegan is way too insane for me. I think she has too much Gryffindor in her, and of course the other two are Hufflepuffs." Violet said practically grimacing.

"A tad discriminatory, isn't it Vi?" Alastair said, smiling, "I trust you and you're a Slytherin." He added.

"Well you shouldn't, I certainly don't trust myself," Violet said simply, "to get to the point, Jessica is not the best of prefects, while you Rose are prefect personified. I have heard about your stack of Honeyduke goodies in your room."

Rose blushed and looked away, "fine Violet," Rose got up to leave but Violet pulled her back down.

"So Rose, who are you going to my Ball with?" Violet asked.

"No one," Rose replied quickly, trying to mask her sudden nervousness with a chuckle.

"Still in the denial faze I see, isn't she Alastair?" Violet stated, Alastair nodded.

"It's not looking very good for my cousin, is it?" He replied, shaking his head.

"You need to reach acceptance at some point Rose, it's a much better look. You see, I'm taking Alastair and I am as happy as a hammock."

Rose rolled her eyes and laughed, "he's your boyfriend, Violet."

"Well Scorpius could be yours," Violet stated.

Rose turned thinking she heard her name being called, she turned in the direction of Albus and Scorpius. Albus was looking carefree and Scorpius was looking furious, his fists clenched, and the tips of his ears red.

"Bye Violet, Alastair," Rose said quickly standing up, and she began to make her way to the door.

They met just before the door, both walking out of it together.

As Scorpius exited he kicked the first thing he saw, which happened to be a bucket and a mop. They flew across the corridor and he continued kicking things in his way.

"Stop that Scorpius," Rose said worriedly, grabbing at his arm which he swiftly tore away.

"I swear Rose I'm going to strangle him, he's such a git. Please, let's just throw him into the Black Lake, come on, we can do it now while his heads still swollen with arrogance. It will weigh him down," Scorpius said sneering and kicking at a small statue that went flying towards a group of third year Hufflepuffs.

"If you don't stop it Scorpius I'll stun you and take you to the Hospital wing, you're acting insane." Rose said, her hands on her waist and giving Scorpius a glare.

Scorpius froze and tried to regain his composure, he breathed deeply and then turned to Rose, however the anger was only partially gone.

"What's wrong?" she asked, more soothingly this time.

"It's Albus," he forced out, his mouth screwing up in an ugly way. "I can't describe in words how much I hate him right now, he has sunk so low."

"Why? What did he say?" she asked pulling him over to a bench and sitting down with him.

He ran both his hands through his hair and breathed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The question is, what didn't he say? Insulting my intelligence, my family, everything."

Rose thought in silence, crossing her legs. Scorpius waited and watched her.

"I know that he isn't exactly ecstatic with us being friends, but I mean, you and him are best friends, why would he jeopardise that? Even when I have no effect on him, you always do. I just find it strange that he would push you further away like this, maybe he's just joking?"

"Well it wasn't much of a joke, he took a great kick at my ego." Scorpius leaned against the stone wall and shut his eyes. "I thought he was my friend, but he's acting like he doesn't want that anymore."

Rose mimicked his actions, folding her arms across her chest, "I suppose you could always do what he wants, stop being friends with him, and he'll probably just bounce back. He is very temperamental."

"But do I actually want to do that, is it really worth it?" Scorpius asked.

He felt his hand being grabbed as Rose entwined their fingers together, "Probably no man ever had a friend that he did not dislike a little" she whispered, a radiant smile etched on her face.

Scorpius opened his eyes and looked at their joined hands. "But aren't you supposed to hold a true friend with both your hands?"

Rose laughed, "you're such a girl Scorpius Malfoy." She opened her eyes, the smile still on her face and looked at Scorpius. "Anyhow, don't let Albus get under your skin, he's a softy at heart. Though you have to dig very deep, best friends don't just appear out of thin air, you have known each other for nearly 6 years and have been inseparable. I can testify for that, so just let it set for a while, he'll find his way back."

She let go of his hand and rested her hands on her now unfolded legs, "let's take a walk, I've got some house elves to see to." Rose stood up and straightened the blue jumper she was wearing.

Scorpius smiled and also got up. He swiftly looked down at his hand that he still felt tingling. And followed after Rose who had already began walking down the corridor towards the kitchens.

Thanks for reading :D

And sorry again for the lateness! :D

Might release 2 more chapters before Sunday!