Disclaimer: Not JK…

Chapter 2: Of all the times to suggest a truce!

Three days, fourteen hours, thirteen minutes and forty two seconds was remaining. And it was silently killing me. Sitting at the back of the class was against my principle, not taking notes injurious to my mental health and not listening absolute torment. Only three more days, only three days more, only three days more…I chanted in my head as I sat at the Potions classroom waiting for the rest of the class to drift in. I had had to rush from class to class to get a seat near the back so that the professors won't notice my non-note taking. That was the hardest part of it all. Seeing their condescending looks had pushed me almost to the edge and my pride had barely held on. My temper, though, was long gone. But of course, the approaching idiot and his friend and my traitorous cousin didn't know that.

"Decided to grace the best seats, Weasley?" the usual smirk was on his face, as if it was a permanent fixture on him. I wondered if he ever smiled. May be when he looked at his own reflection in the face. I refrained from answering him, resorting to stare at the cauldron before me, counting backwards from ten million.

When I was at Nine million something, his voice interrupted again, though it was much closer this time. "I missed you at patrol yesterday". I shivered involuntarily, repulsed by the proximity. It would have been a gooey thing to say but his voice held the faint tone of his laughing. He knew I had chickened out. He should actually have been relieved. I had skipped patrol simply because I hadn't wanted his blood on my hands. He would have continued but Al, finally deciding to act the protective cousin laid a hand on his shoulder. "Leave her alone, mate". So good of you to notice now, Al.

"Who would help her brew a potion, I wonder" he said, while tapping his chin as if he was deep in thought. I snorted. As if his thoughts could be 'deep'. He noticed this and smirked at me once again. I shuddered to think what was running in that crooked mind of his.

"I'll help" Al interjected, realizing at the same time I did that Scorpius had been about to make my life even more miserable than it already was. "I'm sure the professor won't mind if we have the right reason" he said, obviously peeved with his friend. I wondered if they had had a disagreement.

Scorpius shrugged and sat on the other side of Al, who was sitting beside me. Al turned to me, whispering, "Don't worry so much, Rose. Just wrap your hand with this" He handed me a roll of gauze and I complied, understanding his idea.

"Professor?" Al raised his hand, drawing his attention. "Can I team up with Rose? She has sprained her wrist and Madame Pompfrey asked her to not move it so much" the Professor had now reached the last bench, and he peered down at my hand which was expertly tied with gauze, thanks to my Muggle grandparents' training.

"Sure Mr Potter. Is that why you have not been taking notes too, Miss Weasley?" he asked in a kind tone. I knew he had a soft spot for me. "Yes Professor" I said in a muted tone, feeling bad lying to one of my favorite Professors.

"Take care Miss Weasley" was all he said before returning to the front of the class. I closed my eyes, trying to control the insane tears that had suddenly threatened me. There was no reason for me to cry now. Al had found me a perfectly good reason. Yet, a couple of drops of moisture escaped and I turned away before Al would notice it.

When I looked back, Scorpius was looking at me, his expression indiscernible. He wasn't smirking. He turned away to his cauldron, absently stirring without realizing he hadn't lit the fire.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was lying flat out on the sofa in the heads commonroom, my eyes closed, when the portrait hole opened to admit the only other person apart from me who could enter. This was the first time I was seeing him since yesterday. After that dreaded Potions class, he had disappeared from my view entirely. Not that I objected so much. Even when we were in the same class, he sat with his other friends, avoiding his usual spot beside Al, which made me suspect if he and Al had really had a fight. So, you can imagine my surprise at seeing him willingly enter the commonroom now. He did not seem surprised, so he must have known I was here. Or he must have been looking for me. Which he had no reason to since there was no heads duty pending as far as I remembered. Not that I could do any now anyway. And patrol was four hours away. I closed my eyes again. May be he had come to irritate me further. Hadn't he had enough? But I would not give him the satisfaction of breaking through my temper this time. I would hold my own. After the few tears I had shed yesterday, I had felt infinitely better, and I was in a better, more tolerable mood today.

"Rose…" his voice was filled with uncertainty, and my eyes shot open in surprise. For one, this was the first time he was calling me by my given name. And the other, more disturbing thing was that he had never sounded hesitant ever before. Confident to the point of arrogance, yes. Proud and haughty, check. Infuriating, sure. But never even the least bit diffident.

Either way, I sat up on the couch, and he took a seat on it at the other end, giving me some space, quite different from what he had always done. Now I was really suspicious. Either he was pulling another trick, or he had hit his head on something hard, that had made him go all soft, though I doubted even a hit to his head could achieve that.

"Yes?" I eyed him wearily, looking for any sign that he was pulling a poker face. I saw none. He must have noticed my search, for, he sighed, and it was as if he was feeling really bad about something.

"I'm sorry" he said, and his eyes avoided me, though I was happy for that. It wouldn't do either of us any good to notice the entirely gob-smacked expression on my face. I had righted myself a little before he lifted his head to look at me, his eyes perfectly serious. Looking into them, I couldn't really doubt his sincerity. There was no way anyone could miss the regret in them.

"About that other day. I knew you were tensed enough without me pushing your buttons that way. Al was right. Just because I … we, don't get along, doesn't justify what I did"

I knew he was editing, but I didn't press him. If he didn't want me knowing something, it was better I didn't. What if he was going to bring up my tears? But I did press on the Al issue, which had been confirmed by his words.

"Yeah! We had a real fight. He was really ticked off. You should have seen him holler. I wonder how you didn't hear it all the way to the Gryffindor tower" he grinned, and then sobered up. "He made me see right and wrong. It just took me a day to gather up the courage to apologise. I'm no Gryffindor afterall"

He smiled, an unsure, testing smile, and I smiled back, not really irked with him anymore. I hadn't expected his apology at any cost and I didn't want to make this even more difficult for him when he was trying so hard.

"You needn't be so worried. It was nothing new. You always mock me and I throw it right back at your face" I tried chuckling but the suddenly grave look in his eyes told me he was remembering yesterday's events. "I'm fine really. Except for the not-being-able-to-read-books part but, hey, it'll be worth when I see you get stuck in the middle of my cousins" He was looking at me intently now, and it made me slightly uncomfortable. The way you feel when someone is using Legilimens on you.

"It's bothering you, isn't it?" he asked after a few minutes, and I had to take a moment to recollect the previous conversation.

"A bit. Sort of like you're stranded on an empty island, alone" I admitted. Somehow, it was easier when it was him I was confessing to. May be because he already knew my obsession anyway.

"We can call off the bet, if you want?" he asked, shocking me for the second time that day. I blinked, not really comprehending him. He chuckled, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately, before repeating the question.

"And miss the spectacle? No way!" I said, grinning back at him now. He sighed, as if he had been hoping I'd agree. "Cold feet?" I asked, still feeling odd that he seemed so…weird today. It was as if he was trying to act…friendly towards me. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling but it was …odd. There was just no other word for it.

"Not a chance. I just feel bad for your reputation. Going out with a Slytherin" he shook his head disapprovingly, though a smirk was threatening to burst, "The worst of the lot, nonetheless" He smirked at me openly now, clearly enjoying himself.

"Poor Rose" I nodded, smiling now too. It was almost too easy to be normal with him now, something that was bizarre in itself. I tried to not analyse it, appreciating his efforts at civility.

"So, I was thinking, since you are so eager to go on a date with me that you won't call off the bet…" I snorted audibly. Looks like his hope for the unattainable had survived the guilt attack. "…that I could teach you" he continued, dismissing my previous reaction as immature. I was honestly confused now. What was he getting at? The question must have shown on my face for his next words were explanatory.

"Sort of like…If you can't take the cure, immunize, right?" I couldn't help the giggle that escaped. He made it seem like I had a terminal disease. He smiled now too, obviously getting the hint. It amazed me how he could read my mind right from my face sometimes. When he wasn't otherwise engaged in thinking up ways to irk me, that is.

"What I mean is, you seriously don't know how to have a life outside books so I thought, why don't I teach you?" I was close enough to smack him, so I did. It didn't seem to have any effect on him, and he continued, "I mean, I don't understand how you think, and this might be the only chance I get to look into the enigmatic mind of Rose Weasley"

"Funny. I don't see anything 'enigmatic' about me. Just another loony nerd who trips over plain unpolluted air" I said, quoting him. He had said that a few years back in one of those all too frequent scraps we had had. He looked at me as if he couldn't believe what I was saying.

"You remember that. Worser still, you think that's true? I was just taunting you!" Now that was new. I'd always thought he had been saying the truth. And since I needed someone outside my family to give me a straight opinion on me, I'd taken his, tough as it had been. But of course, he didn't need to know that I valued his judgment so much. That's precisely the kind of thing that would go to his head.

"What do I get out of this?"

"You'll win the bet, obviously. Isn't that sort of what you're hoping for?" I nodded, though the thought of losing, of going on a date with Scorpius, or this side of him, didn't seem that repulsing now. Something was definitely wrong with me. May be this bet was messing up my rationale. I shook my head to clear the thought.

"It's okay, I guess. I'll have to go apologise to Al anyway" Oh! Had he been asking me something? "Scorpius!" He was already near the portrait hole when I called him. He turned, and there was a kind of sad expression on his face that somehow I couldn't stand.

"I was spacing out. I didn't listen, actually…" I didn't know how to explain without making a complete fool of myself. He smiled, he's been doing that so frequently I'm afraid I'm getting used to it, and came back to sit beside me. And the torturous 'training' began.

A couple of hours later:

"Ugh! I'm fed up! I'll never get it!" Rose screamed as she gave up, not for the first time, in the past two hours. "How do you do it?"

"What's so difficult about it?"

"It's a book"

"Yes"

"It's just sitting there"

"Yes"

"It's asking me to read it!"

"That is where you're wrong"

Scorpius sighed, wondering if any amount of practice would get her to understand. May be it was time he found another way than just keeping a book out of her reach. She was reacting like a magnet towards iron. That gave him an idea.

"I have an idea"

"Again? How many of your 'ideas' have we tried in the past hour? Fifty? Hundred? Admit it, there's no way around this"

"I'm sure this'll work. How about we go for a walk?"

"And this will help me how?"

"You'll see"

Rose stood up hesitantly, indecision clear on her face.

"Oh come on! It's not as if I'm asking you to murder someone!"

Rose sighed before she shrugged and stood up, and the two walked out the portrait hole.

They were most probably gonna give half the school's population a heart attack.

A/n: Review! Pretty please!