Mr R Weasley

The Auror Department

The Ministry Of Magic

Dad,

If Al sends you a letter, can I just tell you that it is NOT TRUE. Hugo dared him to do it.

On another note, can you tell Mum to owl my muggle book on the theory of fractal imaging? I need it for Arithmancy.

Love, Rosie.

MR D MALFOY

Malfoy Manor

Wiltshire

Father,

I believe that my friend, Albus (or 'the Potter boy' as you call him), has sent you a very unamusing letter. Don't even bother opening it. Just chuck it in the fire. Straight away.

And tell Mother that I miss her loads, and ask her if she can owl one of my grey cashmere jumpers over.

Yours, Scorpius.

Mr G Weasley

Weasley Wizard Wheezes (WWW)

Diagon Alley

Uncle George,

You are going to bloody love me for this. Check out these pictures I've sent you! Our very own bookworm, Rosie, in lip-lock with a very Malfoy-ish Malfoy. This is going to brighten up all of our Easters!

You know what to do…we talked about it last summer.

Plan Give-Uncle-Ron-A-Heart-Attack is underway!

Yours sneakily, Albie.

Albus Potter

Gryffindor

Hogwarts

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

You are my favourite nephew for a reason, young Potter! Get me as much details as you possibly can…I can't wait until Valentine's day now.

Uncle George

"Did you send it?" I demanded immediately off of Malfoy. To tell you the truth, I was rather panicking at this point. My father would not be able to see something like this as a joke.

And besides, that's all it is. A joke.

I'm not seriously considering dating a Malfoy because that would be utterly ridiculous and entirely against my moral compass. Malfoys are bad news, mainly because they are tall and have sneaky little beady eyes that are always up to something Slytherin-like.

"Of course I sent it," Malfoy informs me, giving me a degrading look with his beady little glare. "We just have to hope that the superior breeding of my Owl will mean that it arrives before Al's does."

I mean, what plausible reason would I even want to date Malfoy anyway? Granted he is pretty good looking. Actually, he is very good looking, but I am not a shallow person and I would never date someone purely for looks.

And, I suppose, he's quite intelligent. He did get 10 Outstandings at OWLs, but you don't date someone just because of that, do you?

"Uh…Rosie?"

His ears are sort of weirdly shaped as well. They remind me of little elf ears actually, because they're slightly pointed. You know, if he grew his hair really long and tied it in a plait, he would look like that guy from that muggle film about elves and short people with big feet and afros…

Not that that's a bad thing, he's a pretty good looking character.

I tried to draw my thoughts away from thinking about Malfoy's elf-like qualities, and squint at him through the bright sunlight that is filling the owlery. "Yeah?"

No, there is no way I could ever date Malfoy. Even if I wanted to. Which I don't. Of course.

Even if I did, my dad would murder me, let's face it. I would be betraying the family name and whatnot, and he would probably disown me. Especially since this Malfoy is such a spitting image of his dad.

"I think we need to talk," he said, shuffling his feet slightly, and I got the feeling that he was a little bit nervous which is weird, because he is a Malfoy and therefore the concept of feelings and nerves are not familiar to him.

"Talk?" I squeaked oddly. "Oh yes…about the fake relationship! Well, the three weeks are up so you're safe to go back frolicking with your little…" I cast around for the right term to describe his 'cupboard partners', "…girlfriends."

Malfoy's jaw nearly dropped open.

"Oh, by the way, can I borrow the notes from that Charms lesson I missed because of my University interview? Professor Flitwick said he had a feeling Indigestion Charms might come up on our summer paper, because…"

Malfoy held up one pale and quite manly hand. His eyes flickered slightly in a manner that I am oh-so-familiar with. That is the look that gets into his eyes when he something isn't going quite the way he planned it to. "Hold on. Were you present in that common room, or was that an evil clone of you that I was snogging?"

Ah.

I had been attempting to avoid any conversation on the matter, because the question I do not want to be asked (though I have been mentally preparing an answer in my head for the past ten minutes) will undoubtedly come up: Shall we go out? Or some other variant on the sentence.

But I can't exactly tell him that I can't date him because he has funny ears, and is too good-looking.

Hold on. This is Malfoy we're talking about here. What am I thinking! He's not going to ask me out because he is Scorpius Malfoy and he just doesn't ask girls out. He just snogs them and moves on. Which means, he has moved on now. Our snog has ended, and as lovely as it was, according the Malfoy rule-book he must move on.

That is it then. Any misguided feelings I have for the god-like boy standing in front of me are officially buried. Though I may permit the odd morsel of friendship to shine through, out of politeness, you know. After all, we have exchanged bodily fluids, in a manner of speaking.

"No, no…that was me. As I was saying, I asked Professor Flitwick…"

Malfoy looked slightly flabbergasted. "Is that it?"

"What do you mean, is that it? Is what it?" I asked, slightly annoyed that he wouldn't just let me change the subject matter, after all, neither of us really want those feelings I just buried to come popping up again, do we?

Especially not him. Having a Weasley fall for him could severely lose him 'cool points' – a point system that I have not just invented for the sake of this conversation. It is in fact a system that was invented by Al, Zabini and Malfoy in first year.

I had zero cool points. They had upwards of 750. Each.

"That. The common room."

I smiled half-heartedly. "Malfoy, you snog girls all the time. I'm not under some deluded impression that that meant anything to you. I should probably go find Lily anyway, she'll need me to help her study. Or, in fact, to force her to study."

A quick side-step past a comeback-less Malfoy, and three further steps to the door led me out of the owlery and I made my way down the stairs, taking two at a time.

Five minutes later I had reached the Gryffindor common room, and managed to locate Lily in her dormitory, where she was pacing up and down the length of it, muttering various words under her breath that I shall not repeat due to their rude nature.

"…prat! Who does he think he is? Bloody marching in there…"

I jumped on Lily's bed and finally she was aware of my presence.

"Where have you been?" She demanded instantly, apparently forgetting any problems of her own. "I have sent a search party of the two biggest twits in the world looking for you after you vanished with dork-breath." I gave her a look. "I mean, Lorcan. And please don't tell me what Al said about you and Malfoy going at it like rabbits in the Head's common room was true."
I hate that boy.

Hate him with every fibre of my being.

"We were not going at it like rabbits," I informed her, and her eyes widened as she realised the tone in my voice implied that we were in fact doing something.

"You kissed!"

"I…er…may have done. But it didn't mean anything," I said, twirling the corner of her four poster curtain around my finger, "Well, that's what I told him when he asked about it a minute ago."
Lily stopped pacing altogether. "You told him it didn't mean anything?"

"Yes."
"You idiot!"

I blinked. "I'm not an idiot. It was the truth, well for him anyway. I know it didn't mean anything to him, he's always kissing girls left, right and centre. And besides, I couldn't date a Malfoy…"

Lily smiled slightly, and sat down on the end of her bed. "Why ever not?" she said, a slight tone of amusement, knowing that my answer would no doubt cause no end of hilarity for her.

"He has funny looking ears."

Cue uncontrollable laughter.

When her laughter had finally subsided, she spoke slightly more seriously. "It's not that is it?"

"Well, that's a contributing factor," I admitted.

Lily contorted her features slightly that implied to me that she was thinking, and thinking rather deeply at that. "If I ask you a few questions, do you promise to answer them honestly?" I nodded, just to appease her.

"Do you like him?"

I gulped. "Nooo…" Lily raised her eyebrows at me. "Fine…yes, I do, but if you tell my dad I'll feed you to Hagrid's blast ended skrewts."

"Do you think he is attractive?"

"We've been through this. Yes, I find him attractive, and No, I do not want to find him attractive."
"So you like him, and you find him attractive?" she confirmed. I nodded. "And you don't want to go out with him because…"

I stopped, and thought for a second. Truthfully, I can't base not wanting to date someone purely on the shape of their ears, however oddly pointy they are.

And I'm not the sort of person that would refuse to date someone whose family disapproved.

I sighed. "Lily, if Lorcan cheated on me, and like you say, Lorcan isn't exactly Brad Pitt, then are you telling me Scorpius wouldn't? Every single girl under this roof has a crush on him, I suspect even Professor McGonagall does, otherwise he would never have made Head Boy."

"You are one thick girl, Rosie Weasley." I glared at her. "And you have to figure out why on your own. In the meantime, you can try explain to me why that bloody Zabini creature took it upon himself to punch my new boyfriend in the face!" Thankfully the conversation was dropped from then on and I was confronted with an hour long rant on the inappropriateness and annoyingness of Guilliano Zabini.

You know, if I didn't know any better, I would have said that she was nursing a soft spot for him. However, upon voicing this view I was met with the following outburst: "Pshhssh! Just because you fell for the guy you despise the most in the entire world, doesn't mean I will! I'm not a character out of some warped romance novel you know."

Meh. She totally likes him.

"Have you seen Scorp around?" Al asked, as he approached the Gryffindor table at dinner that evening. The growing smirk at the corner of his mouth suggested he found the whole situation he walked in on earlier very amusing.

And presumably the fact that he now has ammo against me is even more amusing to him.

Oh and the fact that he wrote a letter to my father informing him of it. That boy is going down, as soon as I get juicy enough gossip on him.

"No, I haven't seen him since earlier on in the owlery," I informed him, eating my carrots with a dignified expression and trying not to reach forward and poke my fork up his nose. "You know, where we were trying to repair the damage you inflicted upon us with letters to our parents."
Al grinned widely. "You think I wrote to your dad, don't you?"

"Albus Potter, you are the most predictable person alive. I know you wrote to my dad. It is the kind of thing you do," I told him.

"Scorpius is by the door, Al," Lily piped up, pointing towards the doors to the great hall with an uninterested expression.

"What? Where?" Al said, turning his smirking little face away from me. Lily flicked her gaze up so it met mine and she grinned a very gravy-ish grin at me, whilst I peered down at my own plate sullenly.

"Well, what do you know? Now he's walking our way," Lily took it upon herself to inform us, her gaze never leaving mine as she waggled her eyebrows in the most crudely suggestive way that I have ever seen – apart from any expression gracing the face of Guilliano Zabini.

I poke my carrot anxiously, my heart beating out a samba against my ribcage. So much for those bloody feelings being buried, I am useless at this sort of thing. Ignore the feelings. Ignore the footsteps getting closer and closer to the table.

"Lily?" I heard his voice say, as I twirled a carrot around on my plate. I wonder who he's moved on to now? "Guilliano wants to talk to you about something, I don't really know what…something about punching, I think."

Lily dragged her chair back forcefully and it scraped along the floor making a ghastly noise.

"I believe he was referring to that knuckle sandwich I owe him." She grinned, and bounded off out of the hall, leaving her plate full of dinner on the table.

"Al, I love you, man, but can you go away?"

I chose now, of all times, to look up and catch myself faced with a downright handsome looking Malfoy. Not that he isn't always downright handsome, just that today he looks far more downright handsome than I have ever noticed him looking before.

"Is that a new jumper?" I said, gulping down my nerves. Why am I even nervous? Alright, we kissed, but it meant nothing. Nothing whatsoever.

Well, it might have meant a teeny tiny bit of something to me, but not to him. He has swapped saliva with half the girls above third year in this hall, of course it doesn't mean anything to him. I'm just another notch on the proverbial bed post.

"It is actually, do you like it?" He peered down at his chest and stroked the sleeve slightly, before shoving his forearm underneath my nose. "Here, stroke it. The cashmere is incredibly soft."

I am fair tempted to snort gravy over his sleeve, but I resist.

"Did you really come over here to discuss your cashmere jumper?" I asked, but I couldn't help it, his arm was still there, and so I reached out and stroked the soft fabric of the jumper, trying not to think about the fact that 7mm of expensive material was what separated my fingers from his skin. "You're right though, it is very soft…"

"Well," he murmured, pulling his arm away from me and leaning his elbow on the table, "as fascinating and alluring it is to have you stroke my arm so lovingly, we have matters of an important nature to discuss."

I swallowed and placed my fork down on the table, turning slightly to face him. "And these matters would be those concerning…"

"Concerning our impromptu snog in the Head's quarters, of course."

I've been working on trying to continue this story for a while, and now that my exams are officially over, I thought I'd get to it. I'm not sure how many more chapters I'll do, it depends whether I get the impression people are liking it or not, so drop me a review to let me know what you think.

In case you hadn't realised, Rose is a bit wary of dating Scorpius straight away because, obviously, she's just been cheated on by Lorcan and because Scorpius is such a playboy she's worried he'll do the same thing to her. But don't worry, in the next chapter all is sorted out :)

I really wanted to get this out there, so if there are any mistakes, or things that you think are wrong with it, let me know and I'll sort them out. :) Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed so far.

G X