A/n: The 11th chapter, the continuation of Rose's day.

Rose

After the shack we head to The Three Broomsticks, which is bursting with our fellow students. Scorpius manages to secure us a table and sweeps away to buy some butterbeers, refusing my offer to pay for my own. When he comes back he tips his drink towards a booth.

'You've caught someone's eye.' He says teasingly and I turn to see my cousins and captain watching me intently.

'I wonder what they did all day.' I say, sipping at my butterbeer, revelling in the feeling of heat spreading through my body.

'I don't know, but Perry doesn't look very happy.'

'She had to spend the day with my cousins – I hadn't expected her to. She despises James.'

'Who despises James?' Albus interrupts, suddenly appearing in the open chair to my right.

'Amelie.' I reply, narrowing my eyes at him. 'Were you sent over here to spy on us?'

'No,' Albus scoffs, punching Scorpius in the shoulder, a move that surprises both of us. 'Can't a bloke come say hello to his best mate?' I glare at him, watching with satisfaction as he crumbles. 'Well, maybe. Not spy though, James told me to come over here and break you two up. 'Getting too close,' are his words exactly. So, how was your day?'

'Great, mate, how was yours?' Scorpius asks, smiling at me over his butterbeer. I smile back and play with my near-empty glass.

'Alright, I guess. James made us run all over Hogsmead and we didn't even get any shopping done. I was hoping to at least make it to Honeydukes, but they're closed.' He steals Scorpius's drink and takes a swig.

'Is that why Amelie looks so sour?'

'Yeah, and James pushed her in a fair amount of snow banks.' Albus replies with a smile. 'I see that you guys got some shopping done though, stopped at every store in Hogsmead?'

'Almost, but I got my Christmas shopping done!' Scorpius says, waving his list in my cousin's face. He leans across the table for a high-five and I oblige.

'Brilliant. But you know that I'm going to drag you out to help me with gifts for all of my cousins next Hogsmead weekend.' Albus says, finishing off my drink. 'So, when are you two heading back to school? I'll go with you.'

Scorpius looks at our now empty glasses. 'Now, if that's alright with you, Rose.'

I nod and snatch my jacket, leaning close to Scorpius as Albus marches ahead of us.

'Does it seem at all as if he was trying to get us out of there?' I ask, watching my cousin's back.

'He drank nearly all of my butterbeer!' Scorpius complains. 'That's the best part of going to Hogsmead.'

I laugh and shrug it off, but my suspicions grow as James, Amelie and the rest of my cousins follow us to the carriages and insist on travelling to Hogwarts with us. My cousins are loud and rowdy, more so than usual, and there's hardly any chance to talk during the ride. I roll my eyes at Scorpius as he helps me out of the carriage and allow him to pass me some of the bags as we make our way up to the castle. My cousins struggle to exit the carriage behind us, each wanting to be the first out.

'So,' Scorpius asks me. 'Did you have a good day?'

He smiles down at me, hoping for a yes, eyes alight and lips turned up in a quirky way... I'm about to reply when a splash of snow hits the back of his head. He winces as the cold, wet substance slides down his neck and back and we both turn to glare at James. No one moves as I bend down and gather snow into two spheres.

'No.' I tell Scorpius, passing the snowball to him. 'I had a great day. And it's about to get even better.'

Together we pelt James in the face.

My other cousins, outraged at not being a part of our fight, quickly gather their own balls and begin to attack Scorpius and me. We take cover behind a large tree, dropping our bags and forming snowballs. But there are five of them, and only two of us. When it seems that all is lost, though, a group of small, Slytherin boys come flying out of a new carriage, see the fight, and join in. Their arrival distracts my cousins and allows us to regain our lost territory.

'Romeo!' Scorpius calls out to his own cousin, who has followed the boys out of the carriage. The Italian holds up a finger to signal one moment, and with the other hand he helps my teammate, Ruth, down the small steps. The pair stands there for a moment, watching our mini snowball war before choosing sides. Ruth is called by one of the Slytherin boys who is being pummelled by Fred and Romeo comes to stand beside Scorpius, dodging a ball thrown by Louis. He holds out a hand for me to shake, but the boy between us bats him away.

'Romeo, Rose. Rose, Romeo. Cousin, friend.' He says loudly over the shouts and cries of our opponents. 'Now make those prats eat snow!'

At some point we merge with the third years and Ruth, and James and Amelie break out into their own fight. Scorpius realises that we've been forgotten and nods his head towards the castle – a blessing because my hands couldn't have lasted another plunge into the freezing snow. We walk up to the school arm in arm, laughing about how James is being pounded to a pulp by Amelie and her wicked arm.

Scorpius gives me the chance to run to my dorm and change while he drops off his purchases. Not knowing what Dom would advise me to wear, I throw on a simple black skirt with a pair of warm knee socks, keeping the green sweater. My hair is as frizzy as ever from the snow, but I like it that way and I don't try to fix it.

Scorpius meets me in the Entrance Hall with his book bag and leads me over to the Slytherin table to his cousin. Romeo is still soaked from the snowball fight, but looks quite happy. He tells us about what we missed: how much ice Amelie put down James's shirt, how the Slytherins teamed up on Freddie and pushed him in the lake, how the rest of my cousins gave up due to the cold and left James and Fred to fend for themselves.

'So,' He asks when he's done with his stories. 'What are you two doing for the last two hours of your day together?'

'Rose is helping me with my Potions essay.' Scorpius says, passing me the rolls.

'You can do better than that, Scorp.' Romeo raises a brow. His cousin simply scowls.

It doesn't escape my notice that many girls are openly ogling the two boys I'm sitting with. There's something to be said about families: they share their looks. In my family it would be the famous red hair. In the Malfoy-Zabini family it would be good looks. Both Scorpius and Romeo are in a league of their own, the former being the cold, quiet, mysterious type, and the latter being open and bright. The difference between them is almost laughable. In looks it's the same: Scorpius with his platinum blonde, brooding grey and deathly pale, in contrast Romeo is varying shades of tanny brown.

During the meal I also notice Ruth sitting a ways down the bench, cleaning up after the four third years who bought her. She looks our way quite a few times, and each time I smile at her, but her eyes never meet mine. She's always looking a little to the left – to Romeo. I tuck this piece of information away for another time.

We take off to the Library, securing a pair of large, squishy armchairs in the back. It's very quiet, but that is most likely due to the fact that it's a Saturday night after a day in Hogsmead and everyone is retiring to their common rooms.

At some point while I'm explaining a portion of my own essay I look up to find him simply staring at me.

'Nothing is registering up here.' He admits after a moment, tapping his head. He looks at his watch. 'I've only fifteen minutes left of your time. Do you want to do something fun?' He pulls out a bag of dungbombs.

'Where did you get those?' I hiss, looking about for the Librarian. Possession of a banned item is worth a week of detention.

'Romeo gave them to me at dinner. I thought we could go find your cousins...'

I grin. My prefect responsibilities obligate me to give him a detention and take points, but then again...

'You've still got me for fifteen minutes.' I sweep my books into my bag. 'I'll do whatever you tell me to do.'

Five minutes later we're standing outside of the Gryffindor common room, dungbombs in hand.

'Merlin, if we're caught I'm doomed.' I tell him before telling the Fat Lady the password. All of the prefects know them.

Scorpius plans to stay outside, he's too recognisable, while I go in and search for my cousins. This task isn't very easy, the common room is packed with students of all years.

'Rose!' Julien calls out to me. 'What are you doing here?'

'Looking for my cousins! Have you seen them?' I reply, slipping the dungbombs into my pockets and hoping that they won't go off.

'Took over the sofas.' He tells me, nodding in the direction of a large crowd. 'They've got your quidditch captain, you know.'

I nod grimly. I wonder what they're doing to her. I spot a tapestry next to the fireplace that is perfect for me to hide behind and slip over to it. From there I can see Amelie and James perfectly. The prat is feeding her Bertie Botts every flavour beans – and not just any beans, his stash of suspected foul tasting beans. For years he has collected the one's he thinks will taste the worst based on the colour. I always wondered what he was going to do with them.

Amelie's face is screwed up in intense displeasure as she places a pale blue one on her tongue. All of my male cousins are there, laughing their arses off at her expression. It's now or never.

Looking around to make sure that no one has spotted me, I remove the dungbombs from my pockets. Winding up, I hope that Amelie never realises that it was me who ended her auction day with a big stink. I don't stick around to smell the rank success of my mission, sprinting to the portrait hole. Luckily, everyone I pass is more concentrated on what happened to my cousins to stop me.

Scorpius is there when I burst through the portrait and I take his hand, keeping up my pace all the way down the corridor and the next one. When I'm sure that we're not being pursued I pull him into a secret hall and collapse on the ground in a fit of giggles.

'I'm going to assume that it went over well.' My companion says, regarding me with an amused air.

'Perfectly.' I breathe looking up at him from the stone floor. 'My cousins are going to ring my neck if they find out that it was me.'

He laughs. 'Come on, I'll walk you back to your common room. Your twelve hours are done.'

During the walk to the Ravenclaw common room I recount to him what my cousins were doing to Amelie. He admits that he has a stash of the same kind. It must be a boy thing.

'Seeing as we didn't get our essays done, do you want to meet in the Library tomorrow? In the afternoon – I have practice.' He asks, handing me back my bag as the spiral staircase leading to my dorm comes into view.

'Sounds like a date.' I say, the last word rolling off my tongue before I can stop it. 'After lunch?' I stop on the first step and turn to Scorpius, who is nodding in agreement. 'I had a lot of fun today, Scorpius.'

'So did I, we should do this again sometime.' He smiles one of those rare, uniquely Scorpius smiles, where he shows his teeth and his lips pick up in one corner and a dimple pops out in his left cheek. It's quite stunning.

After a moment I nod and offer a small, lame wave, rushing up the many stairs to the bronze door knocker. I wait a moment before entering, pressing my hands to my hot cheeks in hopes of cooling them.

Sounds like a date.

A/n: Next we meet Coraline's mystery buyer.