A/N: Ok, here we go! I think I wrote this before I even wrote Chapter 6, so it might be a bit different than the rest of the story. I tried to make it fit as best I could but this was one of those ideas I've had since the beginning of planning this story, so I didn't want to play around with it too much! Hopefully it still works out!

Chapter 10

My resolve to skip the party was crumbling by the day. Adrian seemed to be exerting every ounce of charm he had in the effort to get me to accompany him. That paired with Dom's incessant pleading and I caved Thursday afternoon.

"Finally! I'm so glad you decided to come!" Dom cheered as we left the Charms classroom that afternoon.

"I wasn't given much of an option," I reminded her good naturedly.

She shrugged innocently, pretending not to understand before she spotted Colin, her latest boyfriend, up the hall and scurried off to meet him. Scorpius fell into her place at my side as we headed back to the dormitory.

"So you fell victim to Dominique?"

I nodded solemnly. "I'm powerless against her and Adrian."

"That's a first. Rose Weasley, powerless. I never thought I'd see the day. Remind me to send Dom flowers."

I laughed, shoving his arm playfully. "None for Adrian?"

"I think he might get the wrong idea if I did."

"I'd say," Adrian's voice came from behind us.

I whipped around, surprised. "Adrian! I didn't see you. How long have you been there?"

"Long enough," he replied stiffly. I inhaled deeply, trying to maintain my composure and hoping he would do the same. I wasn't in the mood to fight.

"I'll, er, see you inside," Scorpius told me, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. I nodded, approaching Adrian once he disappeared.

"Please, don't let me interrupt. You two looked real cozy just now."

"Adrian, please. Let's not start this again."

"Whatever. I just came by to see if you wanted to head to the party at seven?" He asked.

I breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, standing on my toes to peck his cheek. "I'll see you then."

Adrian passed out about an hour into the party he 'so desperately needed me to come to.' He didn't even pay me that much attention; he spent the whole time knocking back firewhiskey and laughing obnoxiously with his Ravenclaw friends while I stood beside him, sipping a butterbeer and trying to appear as though I was having fun. I never realized how irritating I found being stuck on his hip before. I was friendly with his friends, sure, but I wouldn't say we were actually friends. We greeted each other in the corridors, but would never hold a conversation for any length of time. There were times, like now, that I wished Adrian and I had common friends, so that both of us could enjoy ourselves, or at least that he would be alright with me hanging out with my own friends across the room. Couples shouldn't need to be together all the time, nor should they need to be continually glued together when they are. However, due to the imminent recurrence of Adrian's bouts of jealousy over my friendship with Scorpius, I felt that having that particular conversation could wait. That left me to stand beside Adrian with his arm looped around my waist, faking a smile while wishing I was across the room with Dom and Emily. They were standing with Albus and Ben, all four laughing over their drinks. Scorpius and Gage came up to join them as I looked on.

Frowning, I had to ask myself why exactly I wasn't over there. Yes, I didn't fancy upsetting Adrian by going to join Scorpius, but it wasn't just Scorpius over there, and since when did I tread carefully to avoid hurt feelings? Truth be told, I only started treading more carefully this year because Adrian and I fought over it so much. If he was that opposed to it, he could come with me. After all, I'd spent all night not having any fun with his friends after he practically begged me to come here. Was it so unreasonable for me to want to go say hi to my friends?

Possessed by my sudden urge to regain the independence I'd somehow sacrificed this year, I turned to Adrian, smiling sweetly. "Hey, I'm just going to go say hi to Dom and Emily, ok?" I said, trying to make it as innocent as possible. He must have noticed I wasn't enjoying myself, and I didn't want to seem like this was an escape tactic, even if it was.

Adrian glanced over my shoulder, eyes narrowing as he spotted precisely who I didn't want him to. "Malfoy's over there," He stated, his words slurring from the alcohol.

"So? Scorpius and I are friends, Adrian, we've been over this. Besides, it's Dom and Emily I actually want to talk to. Scorpius just happens to be there. Not a big deal." So maybe it was a bit of a lie. I found myself wanting to talk to Scorpius more than I would have thought. He was… interesting. Aside from Ben and Adrian, Scorpius was really the only guy not related to me to whom I spoke on a regular basis.

His jaw clenched as he leaned in, swaying heavily. "Fine. Go talk to Malfoy. See if I care."

Fury lit a fire in my stomach, burning its way up as I lifted my chin. "Thanks, Dad, I think I will."

I pushed my way through the crowd angrily. I hated Adrian when he got drunk and possessive. It was even worse now that he had a target to unload it all on. Last year it wasn't like this. Last year he didn't seem as though he was constantly looking over his shoulder. Last year he trusted me. Adrian had no reason to be acting like a jealous prat. I was a trustworthy person. If anything, I should be the worried one.

By the time I twisted through the swarm of people, I ended up facing the direction I'd come from, which put me right between Ben and Scorpius, and gave me a perfect view of Adrian across the room. Seeing him laughing with his friends as though nothing happened made me even angrier. He didn't even care that he was being stupid.

At that precise moment, Adrian turned his head to glance in my direction. Our eyes met and his narrowed as he took in that I was standing next to Scorpius. Stupid git. I was tired of this. I just needed to stop caring, and to do that, I needed…

Without thinking, I grabbed the nearest drink -which happened to be Scorpius's- and downed what was left of it in one gulp. Adrian's face twisted in anger and I smiled easily, feeling better after my petty action. The fact that it was Scorpius's drink made it all the more satisfying. Yes, I can be immature, too. I returned the now empty glass to Scorpius's hand, noticing the shocked looks everyone else was giving me.

"Well hello to you, too, Rose," Scorpius laughed.

Dom's eyes flickered from Adrian, to Scorpius, to me, then timidly asked, "Is everything OK?"

I smiled sweetly, "You bet! My boyfriend is a possessive prat, but other than that, everything's peachy."

I punctuated my words by grabbing the drink Scorpius had summoned to replace the one I finished, taking a large swallow and returning the cup to his still open hand.

"You know, there's no shortage of alcohol around here. We don't have to share." He sounded very amused.

The taste of the drink caught up with me and I grimaced. "What is that?"

"Firewhiskey and soda."

I shuddered in disgust. He laughed and waved his wand at the drink table, summoning a glass of something blue and fizzy. He handed it to me. "Here. Try this."

It actually wasn't too bad. Obviously I wasn't as well versed in alcohol as everyone else clearly was. Usually, I relied on Dom to put drinks in my hand, but she was far too busy staring at me as though I'd grown a second head. Albus looked impressed. I had to remember this was probably one of the only times Adrian and I had been on opposite sides of the same room since our last reconciliation. It felt… freeing to be away from him, almost like I could breathe again.

A half hour later, I glanced idly over to the corner the Ravenclaws occupied and was surprised to see two of them hoisting someone up. They hauled him toward the door, and I realized when they turned that it was Adrian. I tried, but just couldn't find it within myself to feel an ounce of concern. It was his own fault.

"Are you going to go see if he's OK?" Dom asked, following my gaze.

I shook my head and took another sip of my drink. Albus grinned. I imagined this was like an early Christmas to him. Tomorrow I would reclaim the title of Devoted Girlfriend, but tonight I just wanted a break. I realized that all of the jealousy and fighting was making me feel suffocated. I wasn't allowed to question things I'd taken for granted last year, and I clearly wasn't allowed to change my opinions. I felt like I wasn't allowed to be myself anymore. I had to be Red, the girl Adrian fell in love with last year. Those were the terms I agreed to when I told him I wanted to give it another go. It was an unspoken agreement, but an agreement nonetheless: we both remained the same people we were last year. I wasn't sure why at first, but I was beginning to see that it just wouldn't work if we changed. We were right for each other last year, but was that still true?

"Seriously, Rose. If you want to go check on him we'll understand," Dom's voice broke into my thoughts.

I shook my head again, this time to clear it. "I don't want to go check on him. I just want to forget about him for tonight."

Albus grinned. "Welcome back, Rosie."

"Don't call me that," I snapped, but grinned anyways.

An hour and a half later, my world was spinning. I laughed freely as Albus imitated Aunt Ginny when she walked in on him and Scorpius the first time they'd tried drinking. They, along with Fred and James, had somehow gotten hold of fire whiskey two years ago and decided it would be wise to try it out in Albus's bedroom. From the sound of it, Grandma's reaction to the flying car incident in Dad's second year didn't even compare.

"I thought for sure she was going to spontaneously combust!" Albus laughed.

"Mate, that's nothing compared to when my mum caught us trying to sneak out last summer," Scorpius said, grinning.

Albus laughed even more loudly as the two launched into the story of their attempt to sneak out to meet up with some girls from the Muggle town near Malfoy Manor. I was eternally grateful to now know that climbing down a trellis from a third story window wasn't the best way to go about doing it; especially if you were a very muscular, and therefore very heavy, Quidditch player, because a fragile apparatus such as a trellis tended to break under such weight, and falling tended to make a lot of noise. I also learned that Scorpius's mother had a temper to rival the Weasley women's.

I sat on the couch as the stories wound down. Gage and Dom had drifted off to different groups and Emily excused herself to go to bed, though we all knew she was going to talk to James. Ben had left some time ago, and Albus was busy charming some poor sixth year. That left Scorpius and I. He sighed and dropped next to me on the couch.

"You feeling guilty about leaving Davies to pass out alone?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, he was being a prat. He's… different this year. Even when he's not being a jealous idiot. I can't really explain it." I paused to take a breath. "Sorry, you don't really want to hear this."

He waved it away. "Nah, it's fine. I have a feeling it's my fault anyways."

"No! It's his fault. He's the paranoid one," I muttered, glad my words weren't slurring. "Let's not talk about Adrian."

It was a strange conversation to have while slightly intoxicated. It was a strange conversation to have, period.

"So then what do you want to talk about?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

For some reason, this caught my attention and, before I could stop myself, I blurted out, "How do you do that?"

He looked surprised, and rightly so. "What?"

"Raise one eyebrow!" I exclaimed, gesturing to his face.

He laughed loudly. "I dunno… I just do?"

"No, seriously! Why can't I do that?"

"Because you can't?" He looked bewildered now. I couldn't blame him. I was attacking him because of his genetic ability.

Determined, I maneuvered my eyebrows into what I hoped was a single, raised eyebrow.

Scorpius burst out laughing. "You…look…" He couldn't even finish his sentence. He doubled over, clutching his stomach.

"Stop laughing at me!" But I was laughing too by this point.

"Glad to see you're having so much fun, Rose," Alex's cold voice stopped the laughter in my throat.

I looked up to stare into Adrian's sister's eyes. "Hi, Alex."

"Merlin, if he could only see you right now. Laughing away with him while he's in agony."

I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Damn alcohol killing my self-control. "It's his fault he's 'in agony.' He didn't have to drink so much. And what do you have against Scorpius?"

"She's upset I didn't want to snog her last year," Scorpius put in, probably thinking he was helping the situation. I barely contained my smirk as I remembered Al talking about that earlier in the week.

"I recall nothing of the sort," Alex snapped. "I just don't think this is appropriate while you're dating my brother."

She over-compensated for the effects of the alcohol by trying for sophistication. She failed.

"I don't have to sit here and listen to this. I'm leaving," I sighed, getting up and heading to the door. I was in no mood to hang around my boyfriend's crazy sister.

I was halfway down the corridor when suddenly there was someone walking beside me.

"I don't need an escort, you know."

"You didn't seriously think I was going to stay there with her, do you?" Scorpius asked incredulously.

"Why not? She'd probably snog you if you did."

"Do you think I would actually go there? She's crazy."

"Wow. Scorpius Malfoy has standards? I'm shocked."

"Ouch. That hurts, Rose," He said in a joking tone. Silence passed between us for a minute and then he spoke again, seriously this time, "Do you actually think I have no standards?"

Thrown off by the almost vulnerable tone in his voice, I considered my words carefully. "You just… have a reputation is all."

"A reputation?"

"You know… you're a Hogwarts Hunk," I replied, realizing how embarrassing that sounded after I'd said it. I blamed the alcohol.

His barking laughter confirmed it. "I'm a what?"

I felt my face go warm. "It's what girls call guys like you. You're all attractive and single and you snog a lot of girls –probably shag a fair few, too. You play the field."

"Playing the field? That's what people see that as?"

"How else are they supposed to see it? How many relationships have you had that lasted more than a couple of weeks?"

Silence.

"Exactly. You don't ever seriously commit to one girl; it's just a parade of them. And they all line up for it even though they know exactly what they'll get. It's sickening really."

We'd reached the portrait hole by this time, and we paused in our conversation to gain entrance. Though I'd intended to go to bed, I found myself sitting on the couch facing him instead.

"So who else is on this list?" He asked, grinning mischievously.

"Oh, Merlin I shouldn't have said anything…"

"Oh, come on! I have to know who my competition is."

I gave him an exasperated look but ran through the list anyways. "You, Albus, Gage, James and Adrian were, Reese Abbott, Tyler Verbont in Hufflepuff, and some sixth and fifth years."

"Seriously? What about Ben?" He asked, seeming actually interested as well as amused.

I rolled my eyes. "He's attractive, but he's actually a nice guy. Nice guys don't get the label."

"Nice guys? What makes him nicer than us?"

"I just told you. You guys have a constant stream of girls. Ben actually has real girlfriends. As in for more than a month," I explained slowly and clearly, ensuring that Albus's record of one month was my cut-off. I knew Scorpius would argue if I didn't.

"Wow," He said, taking a breath. "Girls think way too much."

I laughed, agreeing with him wholeheartedly. "You know, if my dad could see me right now, he'd probably have a heart attack."

"Why?"

"Because I'm sitting on a couch laughing with Scorpius Malfoy. I mean no offence, but I think he's made it very clear how he feels about you."

"Yeah, I'm used to it by now. Everyone judges me as soon as they hear my name."

"Me too."

"At least they don't assume the worst of you. A person hears Weasley or Potter and they know you'll do great things. They hear Malfoy and they scoff in disgust."

I'd never really thought about that. How was Scorpius going to fare in the job market when employers would make negative assumptions based on his last name? But Dom, Al, and I faced similar predicaments. Our last names would appear and they would immediately assume we would be great hires. What if we couldn't live up to that reputation?

"Sometimes assumptions of greatness are harder to live up to," I finally replied softly. "Al wants to be an Auror, but if he's anything less than perfect…" I trailed off, imagining my cousin's disappointment if he failed to live up to the reputation of the great Harry Potter. His father loved him, but his very name was a curse on Albus.

"I guess that's true. I have nowhere to go but up. Especially after I took the easy way out the first chance I got."

"How so? You're Head Boy, Quidditch Captain, very nearly top of the class. That's not exactly coasting through."

He smiled at the 'very nearly' comment. "That stuff all happened after I met Al. It happened after I realized that I didn't have to just conform to the Malfoy name. I didn't have to be what everyone expected."

"What do you mean?" I asked, still confused.

"Look, I've never told anyone this, but at the Sorting… The Hat gave me a choice. It wanted to put me in Gryffindor, but I asked it to put me in Slytherin instead."

I was silent, trying to process what he just told me. The Hat gave him a choice? And Scorpius chose Slytherin? "What?"

"Slytherin is where the Malfoys always go. It was what everyone expected. I had no idea what my father would say if I told him I was sorted into Gryffindor, not to even consider what the rest of the fallout would be. How would people treat a Malfoy in Gryffindor? So I took the easy way out, proving I truly do belong in Slytherin. Who knows, if I hadn't met your cousin I might have just stayed on that path and become a replica of my dad."

I had no idea what to say for a few seconds, still processing. Finally, I formulated enough words to make a sentence. "But you didn't."

"Articulate, Weasley," he joked.

I glared at him momentarily. "You didn't just become what people expected of you once you were Sorted. Doesn't that prove that you're braver than you thought? I mean, your best mate is a Potter, against all odds. Pretty brave to pursue such a friendship. You're exceeding all expectations. I've heard stories about your dad in school, and you're nothing like him, Scorpius." I punctuated my statement by reaching out and placing my hand over his between us on the couch. I squeezed it lightly and he returned the pressure. His skin was soft but rough at the same time. It was strange.

"You know, you don't have to do what people expect of you, either. I know you want to go on with your Alchemy. Your parents love you, and they'll support whatever you want to do."

I pressed my lips together. "I don't think they'd be pleased with me."

"It's your life, Rose. If a Malfoy can do what he wants, so can a Weasley. Don't be afraid to make waves. Go for what you want."

It was the exact opposite of what Adrian had told me. I flicked my eyes up to meet his, suddenly overcome by the same strange attraction that kept me up late into the night talking to him, and laughing with him, and wanting to see him smile. Everything I'd written off as drafts or tension flooded into my awareness in that moment, and I understood what it had really been. Without realizing what I was doing, I leaned in just a little. I hesitated for a second, wondering what I was doing in the back of my mind. What would my father say? But just as quickly as the thought came, I pushed it aside. Before I could change my mind, I closed the distance between us, pressing my lips firmly to his. He stiffened in surprise at first, before returning the pressure. I tangled my fingers in his hair as his free arm wrapped around my waist, our hands still clasped. Kissing Scorpius felt different than kissing Adrian. I felt twice as alive, as though my entire body was on fire. I felt-

I came to my senses suddenly. Adrian. My boyfriend. Whom I was currently not kissing. I pulled back sharply, eyes wide. Scorpius's eyes were just as wide. Clearly, neither of us had expected that. I clapped a hand over my mouth, pushing myself up and retreating to my bedroom quickly. I slammed the door behind me, leaning against it and closing my eyes. What did I just do?

A/N: This was originally supposed to just be a part of a chapter, but it kind of took on a life of its own so now it's a chapter all to itself.