Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I would probably actually be on time with my updates, and not fail chemistry tests on what seems to be a regular basis.

A/N: I'm so very sorry! I know I missed a week and this makes me a terrible person who doesn't deserve your reviews :'( but if you could drop me one I would love you forever. In my defence, I am up to my ears in work and other stuff going on but I know that doesn't really cut it. But here I am with Chapter 4! Woooop! Thanks to you guys who have reviewed me and the ones to favourite/add me to their alerts. Much love! okay I'll stop babbling and let you read (And review of course!)

Warning: Before I let you go on, there is a use of strong language further down and if this is going to offend you don't read! Okay, I really am done now.

The next morning, Scorpius, after having a restless night sleep decided that he wasn't going to be a girl. He, as Albus had pointed out, fancied Rose Weasley, and so he was going to walk right up to her as he had with every other girl he wanted to ask out and ask her to Hogsmeade with him.

Scorpius, to be honest, was never the subtle one when it came to girls. His philosophy was that if he just went up to a girl and said "Hey, I like you. We should go out." You could save hours of fumbling and wondering if she liked you or not. If she said yes, then he had a date. If she said no, it was her loss and for Scorpius the saying there's plenty more fish in the sea rang very true, after all, he did have his own fan club and numerous girls were literally falling over themselves to go out with him. He was confident and devilishly handsome if he did say so himself. What had he got to lose by just asking her?

He got up quickly, pulling his clothes on hastily and hurriedly sorted out his stuff for the day before legging it out of his dormitory to try and catch Rose before too many people arrived for breakfast. She was always there early, to avoid the rush and usually Scorpius scoffed at her, what was the point when the house elves always made more than was necessary? But today he wanted to avoid too many people, to save his embarrassment if – gulp – he said no. He punched Albus on the leg as he went past to wake him up and received a groan in response as he rolled out of bed and stood scuffing his hair and yawning.

"Going to breakfast!" Scorpius shouted as left the room and dashed down the stairs.

But when he arrived at the doors to the great hall he stopped, and in a very un-Scorpius like gesture, he began to panic.

He realised Rose wasn't like other girls he asked out at all. She wasn't going to be fooled by his smooth talking and superior smirk, she knew too much about him.

How he was terrified of heights, and couldn't touch mashed potato without feeling sick. How he never went outside when it was stormy and how he used to hide under the bed when his parents fought. She knew everything; no mask would work on her, no confident exterior. He couldn't play a part with Rose, and that terrified him.

Albus, who had quickly got dressed and followed him from the Slytherin common room, snickered behind his back. He knew what Scorpius was planning, and to see his usually over-confident friend start to breathe heavily and look around with desperate eyes as if he was trying to find an escape route was nothing short of hilarious.

He tapped Scorpius on the shoulder and he jumped about a foot in the air, having been interrupted from his reverie.

"What?" He snapped, nervously fiddling with the sleeve of his robe, a habit that Albus had associated with Scorpius since First Year.

"Nothing, just thought I should snap you out of this before you bolted back to the common room." Albus said with his signature smirk.

"Shut up Al."

"Just trying to offer a friendly word." Al sniggered.

"Shut. It."

"Alright, alright. No need to get your girlish knickers in a twist!" But seeing the glare on Scorpius's face, decided it would be best just to head on in on his own.

"I'll be in there when you're done with your panic attack!" He sung, strolling through the doors and throwing a wink at Alicia Longbottom sitting at the Gryffindor table.

Scorpius told himself not to be so stupid, steeled himself and casually walked through the double doors after Albus.

He walked between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw table, carefully looking for Rose. He spotted her at the Gryffindor table, sitting with the self-titled "21st century marauders", James Potter the 2nd, Fred Weasley the 2nd and Louis Weasley. Scorpius sighed. He wasn't looking forward to having an audience to this, especially not when that audience consisted of the 3 best pranksters in the school, who also happened to be in the year above Scorpius and super overprotective of their cousins.

Louis spotted Scorpius over Rose's shoulder, grimaced and nudged her. Rose turned around, flipping her hair over her shoulder. She raised an eyebrow at him, and flashed a half smile, testing his mood. Scorpius, having being temporarily stunned, was quick to return with an impish grin thrown in her direction. Rose grinned back, blushing beautifully and making him swallow.

Gah! He was being such a girl! He was going to go over to her and ask her out right now, he was -

Wait, what the fuck was Eoghan Finnigan doing, sliming up to Rose and squeezing next to her?

And why was Rose smiling at him?

And - well shit.

Why was Rose now snogging the daylights out of Eoghan Finnigan?