Scorpius

It felt like the switch back from Daylight Savings Time the day I was to tutor Rose, only ten times worse. The clock moved so slowly that each hour-long class seemed to take an age. I had wanted to talk to Rose during Potions, but Everell, the Potions Master, was in a bad mood, so it was "Study, damn it! You should be grateful, O.W.L.s are coming up," and "Be quiet right now, Mr. Malfoy!" This morning we had decided to meet in the library at eight.

Everell could stop me from actively disrupting the class, but he couldn't stop me from staring at Rose. Her hair was bound away from her face in a high ponytail, a few errant strands framing her pale, intensely focused face. That is, intensely focused until she looked up at me. What? She mouthed.

I miss you, I mouthed back.

She rolled her eyes. Do your work. I smiled. I could just feel the unsaid "useless prat" tacked onto the phrase. She didn't look up at me again, which was irritating because I did not feel that I needed to study for this class, and that my time could be more profitably spent if those lovely blue eyes just met mine once more. I knew that I probably shouldn't distract her either, but that was a secondary issue.

The rest of the day, I was bored out of my mind. It seemed like the only purpose for my getting up this morning was to tutor and possibly flirt with Rose.

I sighed. That was going to be… difficult. Especially seeing as I'd told her she was imagining it when she broached the subject three days ago in my tree. I put my head in my hands. Why had I said that, anyway? For someone at the top of his class, at least in his House, I seem to say a lot of stupid shit, I thought. But I did know why I had said it, really—the Malfoys were supposed to be unflappable. We didn't love a person, we manipulated them. We certainly didn't flirt, oh no. We were supposed to recline on our divans and just gesture at whatever woman we preferred: "Come."

But I wasn't going to be able to keep my new feelings for Rose inside for long. That just wasn't my way. I had once laughingly described myself to Isabella Zabini as being an inkwell in the middle of an earthquake emotionally—I couldn't help but spill my feelings all over the place. Oh, sure, I was a master of subtlety when I wanted to be, but when it had to do with something I really felt

I sighed. Slow the fuck down. You've only got an hour until she comes. I had barely done any of my homework. When I finally stopped thinking about Rose long enough to realize this, I jumped out of my skin and started buckling down. I made sure to do Potions first, so that I'd have my homework as a kind of answer sheet for hers.

At about fifteen minutes to eight, I set out for the library. I had just about everything I'd ever written for Potions in my bag, from notes to homework and everything in between. I stopped just outside, taking a deep breath. Come on, Scorpius. You're unflappable. You can have any girl you want. I smiled. Let's go.

Just as I was putting my hand on the doorknob, Rose Weasley flung the door wide and murmured, "You're late again, Malfoy."

I grinned at her. "Hope the anticipation didn't kill you."

"Anticipation? Do you even see how many weird looks we're getting? Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"All soft and 'you're so funny, Rose.' Now come on. I want to get this over with."

"Where are we sitting?" She led me to a table at the very back of the library. I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Weasley. Can't be that bad to be seen with me, can it?"

"It can. Someone asked me who I was waiting for while I was checking for you at the door, and when I told them, they asked whether I was fucking you."

"That isn't a problem."

She whacked me. "Just make with the fucking Potions skills, Malfoy." But she was smiling.

I sighed. "Okay, so I would have a better idea of how to do this if I knew what exactly your problem with Potions was."

Rose thought a moment, leaning her cheek against her hand. I recalled a certain line in Romeo and Juliet, something along the lines of Romeo wanting to become a glove so he could touch Juliet's cheek. For the first time in my life, I sympathized. "Well," she said finally, deliberately, "I just—I don't like the dodgy language they use when they're naming ingredients. It's all silly riddles that only make sense if you delve into arcane texts."

I was shaking my head before she even finished. "No, Rose, the dodgy language is what's interesting about it. And you just have to know certain things about the ingredients to decode them. Like… here. This was last Friday's potion that we had to memorize. Can you tell me what the first ingredient is?"

Rose frowned, leaning closer to me so that she could see the paper. I was tempted to draw it even further away, but kept myself in check. "Um… it says 'season's yield of seven waters.' A teaspoon."

"Okay, I'll give you a hint. What type of body of water is typically said to number seven?"

"What?"

I sighed, slightly annoyed. She's so smart, why doesn't she get this? I forced myself to be patient. "Think about it, Rose. Seven—bodies of water."

Her eyes lit. "Seven seas!"

I smiled. "Right."

The light from her eyes faded as she said, "But… season's yield of seven seas?"

"Ah," I said with a knowing smile, "but what if the word season didn't mean fall and winter?"

"But… I mean, the only other meaning is basically 'a condiment,' right?"

"Yes. So what kind of seasoning do you get from the sea?"

Her eyes went wide. "Oh my fucking god," she said, hitting the table with the flat of her hand. "Oh my fucking god! That's so—that's so dumb!"

I laughed. "So you think you have it?"

"It's sea salt, isn't it? One teaspoon of sea salt."

I hugged her quickly. It was a little awkward, but hey, it was something. "Exactly right."

We went on to decipher the rest of the ingredients, and then the homework we'd been given earlier today. Rose improved splendidly, and by the time we'd spent an hour, she was starting to work out the ingredients herself, only having to ask me less than five times per list. At nine-thirty, we decided to end our little session.

We had started packing up when Rose said, "So Potions is all about thinking in a slightly skewed way, right? I mean, obviously it's about mixing stuff up and whatever, but the ingredients part of it…"

I cocked my head, thinking about it, then smiled a bit. "Yeah. Yeah," I said, "it just takes a little imagination and the proper knowledge."

Rose nodded slowly. She had finished putting everything away, and to my surprise waited for me, even going so far as to help me. We walked to the door in silence, and down the hall. At the end of the hall, we'd part.

"Scorpius?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. You're a good teacher, when you get over yourself."

"I'm honored, Rose. Really." She laughed. When we got to the end of the hall, we stopped, studying each other for a moment.

Then, to my surprise and probably hers as well, she flung her arms around my neck, pressing her body close to mine for too short a time. "Good night, Malfoy. I… had fun tonight." She smiled, and in the half-light I couldn't quite tell, but I thought that she was blushing.

I returned her smile. "So did I. And it's a pleasure, really." I paused. "So are we, like, hugging friends now?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. You started it." Then she turned on her heel and walked away. That was the night I was dead certain that I had fallen like a boulder dropped into the sea for Rose Weasley.