Chapter 16- The Truth

Not talking to Lizzie, Scorpius or Fabian was no fun. Al was off with Lara somewhere in the castle.

The only person Rose had to talk to was Dom, really, and even she got annoyed at Rose after spending the best part of an hour listening to her go on and on about what a horrible person she was.

Taking Dom's advice, Rose went down to the kitchens and politely asked Mitzi the house-elf to bake a chocolate cake.

"Here you go, miss!" she squeaked a short while later, awakening her from her daydreams.

Rose thanked Mitzi and then rushed back up to the common room where she saw Lizzie sprawled on a sofa by the fire chatting to Hayley. She attracted a few weird (and some desirous) looks from other students for bringing a huge cake into the room.

"Um, Lizzie?" Rose said feebly, causing the two girls to glance up at her. She passed her the cake. "I got this for you."

Lizzie froze for a few seconds before breaking out into a grin that could have rivalled that of the Cheshire cat. Rose was knocked backwards as Lizzie flung herself at her and they ended up a giggling heap on the floor.

"I'm sorry," said Lizzie once they'd sobered up a bit.

"I'm sorry," Rose echoed. They burst out giggling again, delighted to have each other back.

"I knew it!" Hayley exclaimed. "You were only hanging out with me because you were in a little tiff with your realbest friend. You know what, Lizzie? You're no better than your sister."

Hayley turned and dashed out of the common room.

Stunned, Lizzie turned to look at Rose and, with an apologetic expression on her face, she sprinted after her cousin.

Rose thanked Merlin this was her last year of high school. She didn't think she could cope with any more drama.

"Okay, who stole my pink fluffy bunny slippers?" roared Dom, glaring at each of the four girls in turn. "I know it was one of you."

Leila, Caitlyn, Lizzie and Rose were standing in a line in their dormitory in front of Dom, who had her hands on her hips and facial features arranged into a scowl.

"Was it you?" she pointed at Leila, who shook her head frantically. "You?" Caitlyn bit her lip anxiously and shook her head once. "It was you, wasn't it?" Lizzie stared Dom straight in the eye and calmly answered, "no." Dom moved to stand in front of Rose, standing on her tippy toes in order to intimidate her. Rose could see up her nostrils from that angle so, needless to say, it didn't work. "Rose Lavender Weasley, I know it was you," Dom growled.

"Nope. I did not steal your pink fluffy bunny slippers," said Rose with conviction. "Why would I steal your pink ones when I bought a matching pair in blue last Christmas?"

"You tell me," Dom said, running a hand through her golden hair in frustration. "You're the one that took 'em!"

"I did not take your slippers, Dommie," Rose said jadedly. "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a billywig sting in my eye."

Dom squinted her eyes. "Then how come I can see them lying all innocently UNDER YOUR BED?"

All the girls in the dormitory gasped appropriately, including Rose. "W- what?"

Sure enough, when Rose went to take a closer look, there were three fluffy items under her bed: two slippers and one Pygmy Puff.

"I honestly have no idea how they got there," Rose said quickly, looking unsurely up at her cousin.

"Oh, I suppose they just grew legs and walked under your bed then, did they?" Dom snarled.

"Wait, they actually did," announced Lizzie, who was crouched by Rose's bed surveying the slippers. "Look!"

She held the slippers in question up and everyone in the dormitory could clearly see two skinny little legs attached to each slipper, wriggling about.

"I'm guessing you bought them from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?"

Rose looked back over to Dom with pursed lips. "I stole them, did I?"

Dom suddenly became very interested in her nails. "Sorry," she muttered.

Rose smiled, victorious. Dom apologized! Where were the flying pigs?

"Hey, Rose, what's this doing under your bed?" Lizzie asked, pulling out a twinkling golden snitch with fluttering wings.

Rose's smile faltered. "Oh… it's a pot of ink that I bought for…"

Lizzie looked at her questioningly.

Rose looked around nervously and made sure Caitlyn and Leila had left the room. They had. "For Scorpius. Y'know, back when we were friends." The last thing she needed was gossip about them circulating round the school.

"Ah. What was it doing under your bed?"

"I don't know, really. I got it on the last Hogsmeade trip. Maybe I put it there for safe-keeping?"

"Mmm. Well, there's not much point just keeping it under here to rot away."

Rose silently agreed and popped it into her satchel.

"And what's this?" Lizzie asked, bravely reaching an arm into the murky darkness of the bottom of the bed and pulling out a photograph with a ripped edge. "Oh, it's Scorpius… you keep a picture of him under your bed? That's kind of creepy," she giggled.

"Give me that!" Rose snapped, tugging it out of Lizzie's hands and abruptly halting her laughter. "Can you stop snooping through my stuff, please?"

"Sure, sorry," Lizzie muttered. She fled over to her own bed.

"Sorry," Rose repeated. She was getting déjà vu. Merlin, they'd only just made up; she didn't want them to fall out againover something as petty as this.

She looked down at the crumpled photograph she was holding. Scorpius was smirking at the camera before stealing a glance to the left of him, where Rose would've been standing but was actually the ripped edge of the photograph, and smiled cheekily. Then he turned back to face the camera and the cycle started again.

What was it Poppy had said? Maybe there's more to this than you think… talk to him, find out…

Rose found herself desperately wanting to see him again. Maybe Poppy was right; she should be the mature one and go talk to him. There was no point moping around and avoiding each other. One thing was for sure: he had some serious explaining to do.

She bit her lip. "I'm going to go find Scorpius."

"What?" Dom's head snapped towards her with an audible crack. "Ow."

"We're being completely ridiculous, skirting around each other. I want to know why he did what he did, and that's it. Don't worry, I'm not going to fall at his feet and beg him to dump Scarlett and run off into the sunset with me on a unicorn," Rose added at the look of horror on Dom's face.

"But Rose, you saw with your own eyes what he did!" Dom gaped at her.

"Poppy's got me suspicious that there's something else going on, though," Rose said, hope interlaced in her voice. "And besides, I miss our friendship more than anything else."

"Poppy, as in Poppy Parkinson? Mother of Merlin – what were you talking to herfor?" Dom demanded.

"She's pretty ace at advice-giving, as it turns out," Rose replied, mouth twitching. "She could give even me, the school's agony aunt, a run for my money."

"B- but she went out with Scorpius, and she's a piece of work, and she's friends with Lizzie's evil twin, and – and she's Parkinson!" Dom spluttered.

Rose tilted her head back slightly and couldn't help but let out a creepy cackle. "I know. It's crazy."

She swung her satchel over her shoulder and crossed the room to the door. "I'll see you guys later," she said, grinning over her shoulder at her friends' disbelieving faces.

Her good mood had evaporated completely by the time she got to the library. She had no idea where Scorpius would be lurking, but followed her instinct and the Room Full of Glorious Books seemed the right place to go.

Rose silently entered the room and spotted Scorpius immediately, sitting at his usual table by himself, scribbling away on some parchment. Her relief was quickly replaced by nerves. This is weird, she thought. It shouldn't have been this easy to find him…

She muttered a greeting to Madam Pryce and took a deep breath. Stomach squirming uncomfortably, she forced her legs to step closer to him until she was standing about two metres away. He hadn't noticed her yet.

Deciding to remain inconspicuous, she took a seat at the table closest to his and placed her bag rather heavily onto the desk in front of her. Still, he was absorbed in his writing.

She got out a textbook and began to – what else – revise.

As she was turning the page, a familiar voice spoke up. "Rose?"

She instantly looked up at him. "Scorpius."

"What are you doing here?"

"Am I prohibited from entering a public library?" she asked, giving him a calculating look. She didn't mean to sound so cold; it just came out that way after not speaking to him for a while.

He scratched the back of his neck. "Well, no, of course not. I just, er, I didn't notice you there."

"What's that you're writing?" she asked, glancing at the parchment in front of him.

"Oh, it's, well, I was writing you a letter," he said feebly, going a light shade of pink.

"Me?"

"Yeah," he handed the letter over. "I've been meaning to talk to you, actually…"

"Oh, you have, have you?" she scoffed, beginning to read the hastily written words. Even though it was short, there were many scribbles and crossings out. Scorpius coughed awkwardly as she read.

Rose,
I know you're probably really angry at me right now and I completely understand- you have every reason to be. But we need to talk, and soon. These past few days have been really sucky. Meet me in the restricted section at seven o'clock tonight?

Scorpius

"How exactly were you planning to get into the restricted section?" she asked curtly, though she couldn't help the smile that was playing on her lips; he was planning on talking to her, after all!

"I have my ways," he said mysteriously.

She snorted. "Well anyway, I guess now's as good a time as any to have this talk, right?"

He hesitated for a few seconds but nodded all the same. They decided to move to a more secluded part of the library where they would be less likely to be overheard and sat down opposite each other.

"So," Scorpius began.

"So," Rose imitated.

Both of them refused to look at the other.

"I hate not talking to you." It came rushing out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Scorpius looked up at her in surprise; he stopped fiddling with his bag strap and gave her his full attention. "Oh?"

"Yeah," she replied, trying to control the blush that was creeping up her neck.

"I don't blame you. I've been told multiple times how much of a joy I am to be around –"

"This was a bad idea. I'm leaving," she muttered, standing up from her chair, but Scorpius caught her arm and pulled her back down.

"I missed you too," he said, eyes softening. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I really want to be friends again."

Her breath caught in her throat. "Me too," she answered immediately, "but for that to happen, we need to have trust, alright? No more secrets."

"No more secrets," he agreed.

"Okay, so, first thing's first. Why did you say you wanted to be with me when you… when really you love Scarlett?" she asked tentatively, afraid of the answer.

Scorpius's eyebrows crinkled together. "I don't love Scarlett."

… THANK MERLIN.It was music to her ears.

"What? But I saw what happened by the lake - you're both in love!" she spluttered.

"No, it's a one-sided thing. Unrequited, I guess… wait, what? You saw it?"

"Yeah," she replied sheepishly. "I was with Al outside the castle but we honestly weren't expecting to see you two there."

"Okay, well I was going to break up with her there and then, by the lake, just like I promised you I would. I swear on my mother's life. You believe me, don't you, Rose?"

He looked desperately into her eyes, begging her to have faith in him. She nodded once.

"But then she said she lovedme and I just didn't have the heart to break up with her after that. Who would? I'm not convinced she's actually in love with me anyway, I mean she doesn't really know me. She's the one that does all the talking, barely letting me get a word in."

"That's Scarlett for you," Rose muttered.

"I just don't want to let anybody down. It's hard, really hard, trying to please everyone all the time. I guess I learnt that the hard way."

"Then why are you still with her?"

He stared at the table in front of him for a while before finally replying, "I don't know."

Rose exhaled sharply through her nose, annoyed, but leant in to give him a hug. He wrapped his arms around her, a little awkwardly at first until he relaxed, and she smothered her face in his shoulder. She breathed in deeply and felt comforted by his familiar woodsy smell. "Well, thanks for finally telling me the truth. In other news, Fabian and I broke up."

His head shot up. "Why? What'd he do?"

She liked how he automatically blamed Fabian for the break up.

"Kissed Lizzie," she said with a shrug.

Abruptly, Scorpius stood up from his seat, his chair whacking into the bookcase behind him from the force. His eyebrows scrunched together in incredulity and his fists clenched together. "He cheated on you?"

"Yeah, I guess," she said quietly, not wanting to inflame his anger further.

"Always knew he was a prick. Where is he?"

"Um, you're not gonna do anything really bad to him, are you?" she asked uneasily. "I don't want him to get seriously hurt…"

"Fine, I won't seriously hurt him, then. Seriously being the key word," he answered firmly, marching out of the library and forgetting his bag completely.

Rose sighed and rested her chin into her palm as she watched him leave, the ghost of a smile playing at her lips.

Half an hour later Scorpius returned to the library and Rose looked up from her Transfiguration notes. He looked a bit flustered but was otherwise unharmed.

"Did you find him?" she asked as he took his seat.

"Yeah. I think the prick's learnt his lesson; I gave him a few of my best hexes. Looked like he was going to wet himself at one point."

"Hexes? You duelled?"

"Oh yes. I don't think anyone will be seeing Foster around for a while," he answered darkly.

"What? Oh Merlin, what did you do to him?" she asked, chewing on her nails anxiously.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "It's not like I killed him or anything, Rose. He was just talking so scornfully and I couldn't resist whipping my wand out, and then we duelled. I was able to dodge most of his spells but the Knee-Reversal hex got me unfortunately. Managed to fix it soon enough, though."

"Oh good, so it wasn't a serious duel then?"

Scorpius frowned. "It was an extremely serious duel! There were onlookers cheering us on and everything. Mostly second years, but still. You should've been there. He had to go to hospital wing thanks to my crafty wand work."

"He's okay though, isn't he?"

Scorpius nodded, albeit reluctantly. "He definitely got the message not to mess with you though, so I wouldn't worry about him hurting you again."

"Thank you, Scorp, I appreciate it," Rose beamed at him to which he smiled back warmly, melting her insides like Chocolate Frogs in summer.

They sat in a companionable silence for a while. Rose was bursting to ask about the Malfoys but she didn't want to suddenly spring it on him.

She swallowed and mentioned casually, "so I went to see Hagrid earlier."

"Yeah?"

"He told me about your," she looked up to meet his gaze unsurely, "family problems."

Scorpius's eyes widened. "He – he what? Hagrid has no right telling you my business!"

"No, no, he didn't actually –"

"Bloody hell, you can't trust anyone around here. Not even the kindly old groundskeeper can keep his trap shut!"

"No, listen –" she tried again.

"That's the last time I go bleeding my bloody heart out to that old oaf –"

"LISTEN TO ME!" Rose finally bellowed. He looked at her with raised eyebrows. "And don't call Hagrid an oaf!"

Scorpius crossed his arms. "I'm listening."

"Apologize for calling Hagrid an oaf first."

Now it was Scorpius's turn to roll his eyes. "Hagrid, wherever you are, I am ever so sorry for calling you an oaf. I didn't mean it."

Rose nodded, satisfied. "Okay, so he let slip that you have family problems – that was it. He never said what's actually up."

She waited for him to talk but he remained silent.

"Well?"

"What, you expect me to open up and give you every little detail of my life, like you're my diary or something?" he muttered scathingly.

"No. I'm just a little upset that you didn't trust me enough to tell me what's going on, and the fact that you chose to go to Hagrid instead of me."

"I just needed to get everything out of my system, and Hagrid seemed the best place to go to at the time," he muttered guiltily. She tried to search his eyes for an answer, a flicker of emotion, but he refused to meet her gaze.

"Scorp?" she nudged his arm. "You know you can tell me anything. But if you really don't want to tell me, then I understand…"

He sighed heavily. "I trust you completely, of course I do."

"Then why didn't you want to tell me what was going on? I thought we were best friends."

"We are. And we were. I wanted to tell you, really I did, but I was so confused and angry that you were going out with someone else. I was jealous," he admitted grudgingly. "I do actually wish I'd told you, though, it would've made things a lot easier. I should've trusted you. I'm sorry. So… there it is."

"I understand. But we've agreed to be honest with each other from here on out, right?" she asked.

Scorpius nodded fervently in agreement. "Okay, so the truth is… it happened on the day before the Hogsmeade trip. You know, the one where you went with Foster?" Rose nodded slowly. That was the day she'd bought Scorpius the Snitch ink pot, when he had red rings around his eyes…

"Well, I was away from school in the morning, at St Mungo's," he continued, scratching the back of his neck. "I was confused and angry and stuff, and I don't know, I just thought since you had Foster, you wouldn't care what happened to me."

"You were at the hospital?" she frowned, placing a hand on his arm.

Dear Merlin. What if his parents… Rose couldn't believe she hadn't been there for him when he needed her.

"Yeah." Scorpius lowered his head and looked grave. "The day before, I was sent to the Headmistress's office. My parents were there – they had some news for me."

Rose was getting confused with the change of topics, but went with it anyway.

"Oh, what kind of news?"

"Bad news."

Scorpius shut his eyes. Rose instantly moved closer to put her arm around his shoulders. "What happened, Scorp?"

After a while he opened his eyes again and stared intensely into her cerulean ones. "It's my grandfather. He got diagnosed with dragon pox the weekend I was in the hospital wing after the Quidditch incident."

Rose gasped. "Oh, Merlin! I am so, so sorry," she whispered. Sure, Lucius Malfoy had never been the best of buddies with her own family, but he meant enough to Scorpius for his illness to cause him pain. "There's a cure for it, isn't there?"

"Yeah, but the Healers say he's too far gone and his old age doesn't help. There's nothing they can do and it's slowly going to kill him. We weren't even allowed to see him because it's so contagious; we had to speak behind a curtain. He's only seventy. My grandma's going to be all alone- he's her world." There was no emotion in his voice as he spoke- he talked in a monotone.

Rose bit her lip and rested her head on his shoulder. She remembered visiting Malfoy Manor when she was younger and observing how absolutely in love the Malfoys were even after all these years, despite the struggles they'd been through. "I didn't know you were close to your grandfather."

"We're not – um, I mean, we weren't that close. But he used to be my hero when I was little." He cleared his throat before continuing. "We had an argument over the summer. It was about you actually, Al too; he still hates your family's guts and thinks I'm far too superior to be friends with you." Rose rolled her eyes. "Naturally I yelled and I shouted and I treated him so badly… I had no idea he was so ill. And I'll never get the chance to talk to him alone and apologize." His pale eyes were full of remorse and his eyebrows knitted together.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"You never asked."

They sat in silence for a while.

"My uncle died during the war. I never got to know him. Apparently he was really lively and fun, just like Uncle George. People have to move on and get on with their lives… but that doesn't mean you have to forget them."

Scorpius gave Rose a small smile. "That must be the corniest thing you've ever said."

"It's true though." She searched her bag for the pot of ink and found it at the bottom, wings fluttering madly. "Here, I bought this for you as a get-well-present when you got knocked out."

She placed it in his hands.

"Oh, thanks," he said, surprised, turning it over between his fingers. "You didn't have to."

Rose pouted. "You don't seem like you like it. I spent good money on that, you know."

"I've always wanted it, actually," he grinned. "Seriously, thanks! It's really cool."

He leaned in to kiss her lightly on the cheek, causing her to blush.

"Glad you like it," she smiled at him, keeping eye contact for a little longer than usual.

Wow… I have really missed this guy, she thought.

"Well," he announced, breaking the spell between them, "I guess we should really get on with our studying now."

"We should," she agreed. She straightened her notes but looked up at him once more. "Scorp?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad we're friends again."

He smiled at her warmly. "So am I."

Her insides felt so warm and contented, she held back the desire to giggle.

"But if we're ever going to become best friends again… you'll be required to take a little test to make sure you're suitable best friend material," she said a little playfully.

He cocked an eyebrow. "But I was obviously best friend material before, and I'm still the same now."

"Ah, I'm not so sure. Scarlett may have corrupted you," she said lightly, faking concern. "I want to see if you're still eligible to be my closest companion."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll do it. But what if I fail?"

"Then you'll be cut out of my life forever," she said simply.

"I'll ace it," he shrugged, cool and composed, although he was fiddling with his hair on the back of his head a little nervously.

"I'll ask you five questions, and you have to get at least five right to pass."

"Um, okay. No pressure, then. Shoot."

"What's my favourite colour?"

He leaned back in chair, stretching his arms back behind his head with a smug expression on his face. "Purple and dark green are your joint favourites."

"Correct. Favourite cereal?"

"Changes a lot, but at the moment it's… Pixie Puffs?"

"Correct. Favourite band?"

"The Golden Quills."

"Correct. Middle name?"

"Lavender."

"Correct. Last question; this one could make it or break it. Don't mess this up, Malfoy," she warned.

He took a deep breath and screwed his face up in concentration as he waited for the final question.

"Who is the cleverest, wittiest, prettiest, funniest, most amiable person in this entire school?"

"Oh, this one's easy: you," he winked.

"Yeah! I knew you could do it. You're officially my best friend. Again. Congratulations!"

"Wahey!" he grinned triumphantly. "What shall we do now, best friend?"

"Er, study for our NEWTs?" she offered.

"Sounds good," he agreed, jumping into his revision immediately.

Rose truly was glad they were friends again. It felt as though a stolen prized possession she once thought would be lost forever had been returned to her. However, she couldn't help but think it would take a little more than a friendship quiz to rebuild the level of trust and honesty with him that she so badly craved.

A/N: Wow, quite a lot happened in this chapter. And it was a super long one, for me – hopefully I haven't bored you all to tears. Tell me what you thought :D