Chapter 17 -Change

The weather was consistently wonderful and Hogwarts, quite miraculously, hadn't seen rain for weeks. Rose and Scorpius quickly set up a routine of meeting by the largest beech tree by the lake at eleven in the morning every weekend to study, but mostly just to spend lost time together.

Rose was leaning back against the tree with the sun warming her legs while Scorpius was stretched out, boldly resting his head on her lap. After deciding her brain might just detonate with anymore revision, she unceremoniously tossed her pile of notes onto the grass and said, "test me."

"What does the spell Incendiodo?" questioned Scorpius, holding his own sheet of notes high above his head to block out the sun.

"Sets the target object on fire," she replied confidently.

"Correct. The effects of Sonorus is reversed using what spell?"

"Easy, Quietos."

"Nope," he said with a smirk. "Wrong!"

"What? What's the answer, then?"

"Quietus."

"Oh, come on," she whined. "That's what I said!"

"Nope, you pronounced it wrong. No marks for you."

"Oh, you're horrid," she grumbled, shoving his head off of her lap. "I would've spelt it right in the exam."

"Oi! I was comfy there." He sat up and turned to look at her adorably, pouting.

"Too bad," she dismissed. "You no longer deserve to have the luxury of my lap to lie on." He continued to pout.

Her eyes fluttered shut as a light breeze blew gently on her face.

The peaceful moment was spoiled when a warm pair of hands suddenly grabbed either side of her waist and she let out a high-pitched shriek, eyes popping out of their sockets in the process. "What are you doing?" She glanced down at his hands gripping onto her and gulped, feeling her face heat up.

This was appropriate behaviour between two close friends… right? The butterflies in her stomach begged to disagree.

His eyes were glinting mischievously. "If you're not going to willingly let me have the luxury of your lap, I'll have to force it out of you."

"Uh oh," she squeaked as he sprang on her and she was assaulted with tickles all over her stomach. She found it annoying how he was always the one with the upper hand. Being ridiculously ticklish wasn't so fun, either.

"What's wrong?" he asked with fake innocence while she was squealing with laughter. "Cat got your tongue?"

"N – no!" she wheezed.

"Well then, I guess you won't mind me doing this." He swiftly yanked off her ballet flats and attacked her feet with his fingers. Rose was wriggling around so much she thought she might wet herself.

"FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN! St-stop! PLEASE!"

But Scorpius wasn't even listening anymore. Absentmindedly, his fingers continued tickling her feet while he stared off into the distance and his eyes seemed to light up with an idea. She could almost see the Muggle light bulb illuminating above his head.

"Sc – Scorp?" she gasped while cackling uncontrollably, face contorting in pain. "SCORP? SCORPIUS HY - HYPERION M - MALFOY?"

"Yeah?" he muttered, returning out of his reverie to look at her.

"STOP TICKLING ME!"

"Oh, sure," he said, putting his hands on his lap.

Rose slumped back against the tree to try to regain her breath, clutching her aching stomach. "Laughing hurts."

"Rose, you know what I said the other day, about how the problem is that I don't want anyone hurt, or to let them down?"

She nodded slowly, feeling a little confused by the sudden change in topic.

"Well, I've decided that it's not working."

"I'm confused. What's not working?" she asked, sitting up straighter.

"Trying to please everyone all the time – it doesn't work. I think I should just be honest instead," he confessed.

Rose was still trying to get her head around what he was saying, but replied with, "honesty sounds good."

"Okay. So, I was gonna wait till after the exams were over, but… watch this."

He arose from where he was sitting, cleared his throat and began walking away from her.

She watched as he passed a bunch of fourth years splayed on the grass reading Witch Weekly, a group of first years sitting in a circle playing Diricawl, Diricawl, Phoenix until he finally reached the sixth year Slytherin girls where Rose spotted Scarlett for the first time, her hair looking slightly golden in the sun. Was he going to…? She didn't dare let herself believe it. Scorpius hesitated for a few seconds and turned back around to look at Rose who smiled at him brightly. He smiled back before tapping Scarlett on the shoulder and pulling her a little way off from her friends.

Rose delved into her bag and quickly dug out a pair of Extendable Ears she liked to carry around with her for moments like this (Fred had given them to her last Christmas). She stood up and threw them as far as she could, and they landed just a little way off from Scorpius and Scarlett. After cranking up the volume, she could just about make out their voices.

"Scar, you know I really care about you," Scorpius began, his voice calm.

"I know you do, Scorpy," Scarlett beamed, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "I love you."

Scorpius flinched involuntarily. "No, not like that. You see… you're a nice girl, but I care about you more like a brother would to their little sister," he admitted gently. "D'you get what I'm trying to say?"

Her smile dropped instantly and she simply stated, "You're breaking up with me."

He put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off. "Let's stay friends, yeah?" he asked unsurely.

She decided to switch on her famous waterworks.

"I can't believe it." A tear slipped down her face, which led to another, and another, and suddenly they were gushing out of her eyes like a toilet being flushed. "After everything… I wondered why you'd never return the 'I love you's. I thought you were just waiting for the right moment, but no, of course not…" Her head snapped up to look him in the eyes. "You really don't love me?"

Scorpius shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Scarlett."

Her bottom lip was quivering and she looked so vulnerable and weak; Rose couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for the poor girl.

"WHY DOES NO ONE LOVE ME?" she shrieked, pulling at the roots of her dark hair. Scorpius took a step back in alarm. Rose flinched and turned the volume down before the high decibel levels caused her to go deaf. "EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY RELATIONSHIPS HAS ENDED LIKE THIS. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?"

She was attracting a few weird looks, to say the least.

"It's not you, Scarlett, I promise," he replied hastily. "You're – you're wonderful; really lovely. We're just not right for each other. I'm really sorry."

Her chest was heaving up and down and she looked fit for murder. Scorpius gave her one last brief squeeze of the shoulder and strolled away, back to Rose. She ravelled up the Extendable Ears and stuffed them into her bag.

"Was that okay?" Scorpius asked anxiously, plonking himself down next to her.

"Well," she answered, smiling, "you're certainly better at handling break-ups than I am." She scooted over to him and leant her head on his shoulder. "You did the right thing."

"I think so, too." He took the opportunity to arrange his head back on Rose's lap again. She rolled her eyes but didn't do anything; she didn't have the energy for another tickle attack. Plus, it felt kind of… nice.

Ahem.

"So how do you like it so far, being a singleton?" she teased.

"Not bad actually," he smiled as he looked up cheerfully to the sky. "I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I should've done that agesago."

"Yup. I can see how Scary Scarlett isn't exactly, what's the word - ideal girlfriend material."

His gaze flickered up to hers. She looked down at him and grinned, playing with his soft blonde hair. "Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"I… really like spending time with you," he said in a slightly bashful tone. "Just thought I'd say."

A warm sensation filled her up till her insides felt all gooey. She didn't know what to say, but continued fiddling with his hair and staring at his contemplative, musing face. She wondered what he was thinking.

"Well, isn't this a cosy little scene!" spat Scarlett, marching up to them with her hands on her hips. The sudden interruption made Rose's heart do a back flip. She had guessed Scarlett would run into the castle to cry in the comfort of her own dormitory or something. Apparently not – that girl sure did like her drama.

Apart from the few telling smears of makeup on her face, you wouldn't have known she'd been crying her heart out only a few minutes earlier.

"You were planning to break up with me for her all along, weren't you, Scorpius?" Scarlett hissed, her dark eyes seething with red-hot fury and her whole body quivering with intense hatred. It was a side of her that Rose had never witnessed in this scale before; it was both intriguing and slightly frightening. She'd lost her bubbly, overly-excited exterior. "You used me like you used Poppy. How sickening."

She took a fierce step forwards and stomped on a branch. The snapnoise seemed to resonate around them.

Scorpius sat up straight and looked at her pleadingly. "Please, Scar. It's not like that."

"And you!" She pointed an accusing finger at Rose. "You're just a nasty little harlot. I always had my suspicions but decided to ignore the rumours about you." Er, what rumours? "Just goes to show what different kinds of people we are." Yeah, one of us can actually keep our moods under control, you stupid cow.

"Shut up, Scarlett," Scorpius warned, standing up.

"What're you going to do, Scorpy?" she snarled, flinging her arms in the air. "Rip my heart out and stamp all over it? Oh wait, YOU'VE BEEN THERE, DONE THAT."

"Scarlett, I think you should go," Rose said firmly with an air of I can't be bothered with youabout her.

"Oh, yes, I'm leaving. I don't want to look at either of your foul faces for another minute. You know what, you deserve each other! I never want to see either of you again for the rest of my life, so stay away from me or else. Take my word for it; you will rue this day!"

And with that, she turned on her heel and stormed back to her friends, who sent dangers at Rose and Scorpius. They were no doubt exchanging scandalous rumours about her, but she couldn't care less. Okay, maybe a little if they were going to be spread around school, but at that moment she didn't give a Hippogriff's dung. She was with Scorpius, and she knew for a fact that he didn't judge her based off of silly gossip. He liked her for who she was, thank you very much.

"Well that was… interesting," he remarked.

"That's one way of putting it. Has a bit of a flair for the dramatics, that one." Scorpius murmured in agreement. "You don't think she's going to get revenge or anything, do you? She looked like she wanted to rip my head off just then."

"Nah, I think she's let it all out of her system now. And if she does, well, we can handle it." He sorted out his Charms notes and passed them to Rose. "Your turn to test me."

"I'm really sorry, Lara, but could I borrow Al for a minute?" Rose asked politely, smiling at the brunette who was currently sitting beside him eating dinner.

Unfortunately Rose had picked a bad moment to approach them, as Lara's mouth was half-full of cereal.

"Oh – uh – sure," she spluttered, spraying Rose with milk. She turned a delicate shade of pink and closed her eyes in embarrassment. "Ugh, I'm so sorry…"

"It's no problem," Rose replied, half amused, half grossed out.

"I was just about to go to the library, anyway," she said quickly, standing up and swinging her bag over her shoulder.

She gave a little embarrassed wave to Al and Rose and speed walked out of the Great Hall. After wiping herself off, Rose dragged Al up from the bench.

"Er, Rose?" he asked as he was dragged by the shirt collar alongside the Slytherin table. "Where in the name of Salazar are we going?"

They came to a halt beside Scorpius.

"Here," she declared.

He mumbled something incoherent under his breath.

"Er, hey," Scorpius tried through a mouthful of mashed potato. He stood up to face them.

"Hey," Rose replied, elbowing Al in the gut till he muttered a half-hearted greeting.

"Scorpius wants to tell you something, don't you, Scorp?"

"Yeah… look, mate, I'm sorry. I knew you liked Bell, but I – and I swear this is the truth – I didn't want to hurt her by dumping her so soon. You know how delicate she is. I realise now that I was stupid and you're now completely free to have her, if you want. Although, I've noticed you're with that small pretty brunette a lot nowadays," he said, raising his eyebrows, impressed. "Way to go, man."

After a moment's consideration, Al stepped forwards and engulfed Scorpius into a very manly hug, thumping him roughly on the back. "I missed you, dude."

"You too, man," Scorpius replied, giving Al one last thump before taking a large step back.

"Does this mean you're friends again?" Rose grinned.

They exchanged a look before nodding.

She squealed happily and threw her arms around them both. "I love you guys."

"You too," Al grumbled, loosening her tight hold around his neck.

"You too," Scorpius grinned.

Before she could even acknowledge what he had just said or go over what it meant, etcetera etcetera, a tap on the shoulder made her whirl around and let go of the boys. Fabian was stood before her, looking very nervous. As soon as she realised who it was her face dropped considerably. "Hi, Rose. Can I speak with you a second?"

"Whatever you want to say can be said in front of us, too," commanded Scorpius, crossing his arms and instantly narrowing his eyes.

"No, it's okay. I can handle this."

Scorpius nodded but kept an eye on them as they walked away.

"So, what do you want?" Rose asked coolly, stopping by the doorway to look at him and crossing her arms over her chest. He licked his lips before speaking.

"First off, I'm so sorry I made you cry," he began gently. "I can't stand watching girls cry, it was horrible. I made a promise to myself never to do it again."

He paused and she gestured for him to continue, looking bored.

"I just didn't want to leave our last conversation as the end of, well, us, you know?" Fabian said, patches of red colouring his cheeks. "What I did was wrong, and I'm sorry, and I understand if you don't want to be with me anymore. But I want us to be friends. Or not enemies, at least. Do you think we could put everything behind us and try that?" His big brown eyes were shining with hope.

She briefly considered this. Who actually stays friends with their exes? She didn't know anyone who did. Dom never spoke to hers again. That was just Dom, though; maybe it was different for other people…

"So, what do you say?" He was tripping over his words and fumbling with the sleeve of his jumper. Rose took pity on him and offered him a small smile while she mulled things over.

In the end she agreed to stay friends, knowing that they'd only really see each other in Muggle Studies and even then they didn't have to speak too much. Besides, it would be easier than blatantly ignoring him and make things less awkward between them.

"Great!" he said, looking genuinely pleased like he could finally breathe again. He must've been holding his breath for a while. "I'm really glad you're not angry at me, Rose; I never meant to hurt you and I've learnt from my mistake."

"I'm glad to hear it," she nodded before walking back over to Scorpius and Al in good spirits.

"Wait!" he called and she turned back to him with confusion etched on her face. "There was something else I wanted to ask you."

And just like that he was nervous again, flattening his hair down.

"There's a reason I kissed Lizzie in the kitchens," he said almost shyly. "I… I really like her."

If any other boy was saying this about her best friend, Rose would've burst out with a huge 'awww'. Instead, she felt an uncomfortable squirming in the pit of her stomach.

"I was wondering whether you think I should go ahead and ask her out?" he said eagerly, voice squeaking at the end. "Does she like me? Ever talk about me or anything?"

She stared blankly at him. When she didn't reply he added, "I also want your permission. I mean, she is your best friend and, er," he looked down at his shoes, "you told me to stay away from all those associated with you, if I remember correctly."

She rubbed at her forehead where an ache was forming.

"I'll allow you to ask her out under three conditions. One: don't cheat on her. Ever. That means kissing her, and only her." She looked at Fabian meaningfully. "Two: treat her like she's the best damn thing to ever walk the earth. Lizzie Martin is a very special girl. And three: DON'T HURT HER LIKE YOU HURT ME, or I'll get my Auror father on you. Got it?"

Fabian nodded once.

"And to make sure, let's make an Unbreakable Vow on it," she said eagerly.

His jaw dropped.

"A – an Unbreakable Vow?" he repeated. "As in, I'll die if I break the oath? Are you serious?"

She nodded. "Completely."

He cleared his throat and said, "Well, if that's what it takes…"

She smiled happily and guided him over to Scorpius and Al who, instead of catching up with each other, were stuffing their faces in a contented silence (not counting the slurping and gurgling noises). She noticed Fabian stiffen from beside her. Probably something to do with how the last time he encountered Scorpius, he ended up in the Hospital Wing.

"Can one of you Bond us for an Unforgivable Vow, please?" she asked casually as if no lives were at stake. "It's just so that he doesn't hurt Lizzie – he wants to ask her out," she added at the puzzled expressions on their faces.

"I'll do it," offered Scorpius, no questions asked, jumping up from the bench.

"What, we're doing it right here, right now?" Fabian piped up anxiously.

"What's wrong? Do you not want to do it?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, no, of course I do," he answered immediately. "Let's get it over with."

Rose grabbed his wrist and he held on to hers. She looked up at Scorpius who nodded and gingerly placed his wand on their interlocked hands.

"I think you're meant to give me the terms of the Vow now, Rose," said Fabian after a short pause. He'd gone a little pale but was holding on to her wrist firmly.

"You're really serious about treating Lizzie well, aren't you?" she said to which he nodded zealously.

That was all she needed to know. She pulled back her arm and let it fall to her side.

"You passed," she grinned, patting him on the shoulder. "I give you permission to ask Lizzie out."

"What? But… the Unbreakable Vow…?"

"You were genuinely going to go through with it, and that's enough for me."

Slowly, a grin crept up Fabian's face. "Thank you."

"Okay, well I think you're done here," Scorpius cut through, looking at him pointedly. Fabian took the hint and waved to Rose vigorously before leaving the hall.

"Don't forget what he did, Rose," warned Scorpius softly as they sat back down on the bench. "It's like you've forgiven him, just like that." He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

Rose laughed lightly. "Don't worry. I may forgive, but I don't forget. And please, never snap your fingers like that again."

She saw him smirking from the corner of her eye. "No promises."

A/N: And there we have chapter 17, finally with a bit of Scorose action… kind of ^^ Scorpius and Scarlett are no longer together! Al and Scorp are friends again! Fabian is hoping to ask Lizzie out! I'm pretty happy with this chapter, it was a nice break for me from exam revision and such (procrastination ftw!) Hope you enjoyed it too :)