I know, I know. I haven't updated in like a month! And I am so so sooooo sorry :S But here it is, the long-awaited next chapter. It's not as long as the other ones but I hope you like it anyway!

-----------

-CHAPTER FOUR-

Girls can sometimes be extremely odd creatures. Being one of the least girly girls I am acquainted with, I can safely say this. My proof you might ask?

Well, firstly, in the space of less than a few hours I have gone from a Ravenclaw bookworm hardly noticed by anyone at all to one of the most envied girls in all of Hogwarts. Not for my looks, of course. Merlin, no!

A seventh-year girl I swear to God has never even acknowledged my extistence before, granted me with a death stare that would hardly be deserved by Voldemort himself. And the reason for this envy (or in random-seventh-year's case – fury) is purely because I happened to stroll seemingly serenely into the Great Hall for dinner, my hand intertwined with none other than King of the Egos, more widely known as Scorpius Malfoy. Or Slytherin Sex God. But I'd rather not delve deeply into that state of affairs.

At least the egotistic cad on my right happened to find the situation amusing. He took a perverse delight in watching the faces of his former conquests form carious facial expression ranging from pure unadulterated horror, to a look of jealously mingled with disbelief. However, you certainly don't need to be a skilled Legilimens to know the exact sentiment that was flitting across their otherwise empty minds.

What the hell is Rose Weasley doing with Scorpius Malfoy? Cue dreamy look/swoon when they think of his name.

As we passed the Gryffindor table Abigail Greene (resident cheap girl) stood up with a flick of her long and blatantly fake hair and strutted over to us, her hips swaying in a weirdly unattractive manner, and her bosom thrust out. She placed on hand on her hip – perhaps hoping that this posture was alluring. For future reference, it is definitely not – and coughed haughtily.

"Scorpy, dahling!" she drawled in the kind of squeaky voice you'd expect to hear from a gender-confused rodent and not a teenage girl attempting to be seductive. Scorpius, I noted, with bizarre relief, clenched his hand slightly in mine when addressed thus and clicked his tongue impatiently. Abigail drew a long scratchy breath and allowed her gaze to fall on me for a split-second. Her already somewhat unpleasant feautyres contorted into what I imagine was an expression of disgust. It can be quite hard to tell, what with all the make up that she insists on plastering her face with.

She placed her scrawny hand on Scorpius' chest and, without bothering to lower her tone so that I would be saved the displeasure of her opinion and her ratty voice, said, "What are you doing with her?"

Scorpius, to his credit, acted very well at this point. I was beginning to think that he had forgotten the fact that we were supposed to convincing everyone that we were dating, with his allowing Abigail to stroke his cashmere jumper. With one swift motion he knocked Abigail's hand off him and with the other hand, wound his arm round my back so I could just see the tips of his pale fingers curled delicately around my waist. It was at that moment, with my side pressed up against his so I could feel the contours of his long lean frame, that I felt an unfamiliar lurch in my stomach that I could certainly not credit to hunger, especially since my heart had started beating unnaturally rapidly. A quick heart rate is generally not a symptom of hunger – not in my world anyway.

That was not normal, if it was what I thought it was. I was becoming increasingly aware of the hand snaked around my waist. It was so casually placed there. As if he didn't think it would affect me in the slightest. What am I saying? It shouldn't have affected me.

"That's my business," Scorpius said, with a demure raise of his right eyebrow. An action on his part, which caused a flow of blood to my cheeks, turning them the unmistakeable Weasley red of embarrassment.

Thankfully he didn't notice the flush in my cheeks, and with a slight tightening of that hand around my waist – my breath hitched at that moment, another worrying sign – we carried on our unaffected walk to the Slytherin table. When we reached the table, the hand around my waist withdrew and immediately my heart slowed to normal. Though my side now felt unnaturally cold. I sat down, taking care not to catch anyone's eye, for fear that I might blush. Once I had recovered and food was just beginning to appear on the table, I peered around to cast a look at the Ravenclaw table. My vision immediately latched onto Lorcan staring in my direction, his mouth wide open. However, as soon as he realised I'd seen him, and before I could draw any conclusions from his gazing, he coughed, blushed and returned his attention to his dinner, taking a suspiciously long time to serve his potatoes.

"Lorcan was so obviously staring at you," Al announced to the otherwise silent table. "He's so unobvious, it almost makes me want to laugh." Guilliano chuckled slightly less obnoxiously than usual, and I noticed that his attention was far from completely absorbed by Al. In fact he was gazing at some point behind my left shoulder intently, and as I peeked round to follow his faze, the only thing that caught my eye that must be catching his was the sight of Lily flirting outrageously with the new guy in her year – a handsome curly haired boy.

How utterly…bizarre.

Scorpius also didn't seem to be paying much attention to Al. He was moodily moving food around his plate with his fork, his chin resting on one supporting pale hand.

Al hardly seemed to notice that his friends attentions were otherwise occupied and proceeded to engage us all in an extremely dull conversation about what foods were best for maintaining a quidditch figure.

"It's ridiculous," he declared to us through a mouthful of spaghetti. I gave him a withering look which he ignored. "That Rosie manages not to be fat when she lives off a diet purely consisting of biscuits."

"Biscuits aren't that fattening if you exercise as well," I replied defensively. "They don't contain that much fat do they?"

"Oh, no. Of course not," Al answered back, with a Slytherin inspired smirk and a sarcastic tone. Guilliano took the time from his frequent looks at the Gryffindor table to snort approvingly at Al's sarcasm. "Oh shit," Al suddenly said, leaning across the table to disguise his surprised tone. Scorpius who hadn't spoken so far all meal, looked up from pushing his peas around his plate.

"What is it?"

"Lorcan's coming this way," he whispered back. He tried to subtly convey the warning again to us through the use of wide-eyed expressions and significant nods in the direction of the Ravenclaw table. Sure enough, several seconds later, a gloppy blonde head dropped in the seat next to Al and greeted him in a friendly manner (as family friends, Al and Lorcan do actually know each other, but owing to the fact that Al likes to preserve his social status and Lorcan isn't commonly considered…well…cool, they rarely talk in school).

"How's it going Al?" Lorcan asked awkwardly. Al looked as though he was resisting the urge to fling a plate of pudding into Lorcan's face. I missed Al's no doubt polite (he has manners) reply because for some reason, Scorpius chose that inopportune moment to 'accidentally' place his slender hand on my leg.

Now, the stomach twisting that I'd felt earlier on was nothing compared to the gut-churning reaction that was currently going on in my stomach. I felt my cheeks redden slightly as my gaze dropped to my plate and then up to Scorpius' pale smirking aristocratic face.

Of course. He would find the situation amusing, wouldn't he?

I licked my suddenly dry mouth so that I could formulate a resposed, "Errr." Well, yes. That was the ever-so-eloquent reply I managed to achieve. Scorpius had inched higher up my leg and quite frankly, it distracts one's train of thought. Why couldn't I just slap him away? There was something in his slightly amused smirk that hypnotised me and stopped me from being able to think properly at all. Our eyes locked, but as soon as Scorpius raised a conceited eyebrow, the spell was broken and I was once again capable of coherent speech. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Malfoy," I whispered in what I considered to be a highly threatening manner. "Not unless you want me to hex your manhood off."

"I'd like to see you try, troll features," he whispered back in my ear, and to those who perhaps might not have known what we were discussing, it may have appeared a tad seductive. At least, that's what Al told me later, and judging by the expression that Lorcan was currently sporting – that was the impression he had gained as well.

"Shut it ferret-face," I replied in an undertone, before jumping up as calmly and serenely as I could manage at the time, with my heart beating unnaturally fast and all. As I strolled away, after granting Scorpius a patronizing smirk, I heard Albus say loudly to him, clearly forgetting that Lorcan was sitting next to him, "You were feeling her up under the table weren't you?"

I couldn't help myself. I automatically clasped a hand to my mouth to stop myself from laughing and looked backwards to catch Lorcan looking between Scorpius and myself in shock and disbelief.

"So what if I was. If she enjoyed it, it's not a problem, right?" was Scorpius' arrogant reply. And I pray to God that that was purely acting to make Lorcan die with jealousy, because that is the last thing I need Al passing on to my father.

-------

Let me know what you think of it in a review =]

Love you all, especially all my reviewers! You are all awesome!

G xoxo