Written for Bethhhhhh's 'Prompts, oh, Prompts' challenge of the 29th of Jan. Pairing: Rose/Scorpius. Prompts: Uncontrollable, smile, careless, life.
Oh dear, it's full of cliches. But for a ship I don't ship, not too terrible I hope.
She's a Weasley, and they're uncontrollable. Unpredictable. Dangerous. But there's something about uncontrollable, unpredictable and dangerous that appeals to Scorpius Malfoy, even though he knows it shouldn't.
He first speaks to her in First Year. He knows who she is, and the thrill of rebellion in actually speaking to her is too great to resist. But he's a Malfoy, so there has to be a superior sneer in his voice, even though all he actually says is "I've got a spare, if you want," because she's just snapped her quill.
She says "No thanks" and borrows one from Albus Potter instead.
He really doesn't have any sort of problem with her, so he doesn't understand why she starts this weird, one-sided competition where she just has to beat him in every lesson. It's not that she has to come first in the class (although she often does). It's just him. She sends triumphant grins his way every time she beats him. As if he actually cared. Scorpius is mystified, but then, she's a Weasley, and they don't make sense.
Her competitiveness dies down a bit in Second Year, and he's relieved because it was a tad irritating. That means they don't really speak at all though, and he finds himself watching her instead. One day, Danny Urquhart catches him at it, and looks at him as though he has two heads and asks him if he fancies Weasley. He laughs, because that's just ridiculous.
He doesn't fancy her. It's just that he can't make her out. He still doesn't get why she was (and still is, he thinks, she just doesn't show it as much) so desperate to beat him. And she's a mess of contradictions. She's clever enough to be a Ravenclaw, but he never sees her in the library. She gets top marks in most of her classes, and yet she always seems to be in detention. She appears to be utterly fearless, and yet the one time he sees her on a broom, she looks white and sick. She's scornful and sarcastic to him and his friends, and yet he hears her laughing with her own friends. Sees her smile, and it's a nice smile, just never directed at him.
And he still doesn't know what he did in the first place.
Of course, by Third Year, he's grown up a bit, and he knows why she hates him. It's nothing to do with him; it's just his name. It's because his father is Draco Malfoy, ex-Death Eater, and her parents are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Saviours of the World. And that's another contradiction really, he thinks scornfully, because she's a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors are supposed to be above prejudice, aren't they? He decides that he doesn't really like Rose Weasley at all.
By this time though, Danny has got it fixed in his head that Scorpius fancies Rose Weasley, and being Danny, won't shut up about it, because he thinks it's funny. Scorpius gets a squirming feeling in his stomach whenever he's in the same room as both Danny and Weasley, in case one of Danny's comments is a bit too loud and a bit too obvious, and Weasley hears and thinks it's true.
Some time in the middle of Fourth Year, he actually speaks to her again. She comes charging round a corner and crashes into him, dropping an armful of what looks like Potions ingredients all over the floor.
"That was careless, Weasley," he tells her mockingly (although he helps her pick them up anyway), "You need to look where you're going."
She glares at him.
"What is your problem with me, Malfoy?"
"My problem with you?" he is genuinely astonished, "You're the one who hates me, Weasley!"
They're on the floor, picking up her Potions ingredients, and they both stand up slowly. She's staring at him, and he's waiting for her to explain.
"I don't hate you," she says softly. And blushes.
And that, of course, is when Danny Urquhart walks round the corner.
She comes back for Fifth Year with her eyebrow pierced, and is told that it's inappropriate for school, but she refuses to take it out, and they give up and let her wear it.
It suits her in a weird kind of way, because she's Rose Weasley, and the one thing she never is is predictable. He certainly can't take his eyes off it, and it's at that point that he begins to admit, in some deep-down part of his brain, that he might actually likeheralittlebit after all.
But that's just impossible, because she's completely unobtainable and would never look at him (that moment last year really doesn't count). Anyway, he's not sure he could take going out with her; she's too volatile and fiery and, if he's honest, she scares him a bit.
So the following year, he kisses her little cousin, because Lily Potter is softer and simpler and has apparently fancied him for the last two years (who knew?). And Lily's nice and sweet and behaves the way a girlfriend should (somehow, he doesn't think Rose would). So they fool around a bit, and once, they're kissing in an empty corridor when Rose walks round the corner, and Scorpius sees her and doesn't quite know what to make of the expression on her face.
It's gone sort of frozen, and he kind of expects her to turn around and walk away, or else to tell him to get the hell away from her cousin, but she doesn't, she just stands and stares at them. And Scorpius looks at Lily, who's looking at Rose, and doesn't know what to make of her expression either, because she looks scared and defiant, and a tinylittlebit triumphant. As if she's won some sort of competition.
But then just before he's due to do his NEWTs and finish Hogwarts, Lily tells him that she loves him, and he opens his mouth to tell her the same thing, and he just can't do it. The words stick in his throat and he realises that they wouldn't be true. He doesn't love Lily and he never has. He's a Malfoy and a Slytherin, so he ought to be able to lie, but he thinks that if he speaks those words, there might be no going back. And that scares him.
So he doesn't say them, and he watches her face change. He sees the hurt, and the disappointment, followed by resignation. No surprise. It's almost as if she expected it.
So they aren't going out any more, but somehow (he doesn't know how it happened), they're still friends. And it's her who encourages him to apply for the Auror training programme, and surely, surely, she must have known at that stage that Rose was applying for it too?
And either it's a Potter conspiracy (Lily's father is head of the Auror Department, after all), or fate is laughing at him, because the very first time they are allowed out on active work without a Senior Auror present, they are paired together.
It's supposed to be a routine visit to a house to ask some questions about a fugitive who's been seen in the area, but then they catch sight of the fugitive inside the house, and the woman they are speaking to knows they've seen him and goes for Scorpius, not with a wand but with a kitchen knife.
She gets him too, and there's no doubt that if Rose hadn't got a body bind on her in time, it would have been much more unpleasant, because it slashes his abdomen, and a sliced open stomach usually means a painful death, unless there happens to be a trained Healer right on the spot. As it is, it's a shallow cut, and between them, they arrest both the man and the woman, and receive high praise from their superiors.
And now he owes Rose Weasley his life.
The first time they have sex, it's probably a mistake. They've just come back from a dangerous mission, they're both high on adrenalin and relief at being alive, and it's the only way they can think of to ease the tension. It just sort of happens, and she is, as he should have expected, amazing in bed.
It's a mistake. But somehow, it goes on happening and while it's great while it lasts, it always leaves him feeling slightly empty inside. She always gets up as soon as it's over, gets dressed and leaves, and he feels like a whore she's just using.
Then she tells him she can't do it any more. He assumes she's just tired of him. Maybe she's found someone else. He's hurt, but he's also a little relieved. It isn't exactly a healthy relationship, and it's better if it just stops. He knows he'll miss it, and he does. Like hell. But he tells himself it's better this way.
It's Lily, again, who tells him that Rose has gone all frozen and unhappy at home. Lily who tells him that all Rose wants is a proper relationship with him, and that if he only asked, the answer would be yes, without a doubt. The trouble is, Scorpius isn't at all sure he believes Lily, because she's drunk and emotional (she's given up on him, but he knows, guiltily, that she isn't quite over him yet). So he just doesn't know whether to risk everything – well, he's only really risking his pride, but that feels bad enough – on the strength of Lily's drunken ramblings, or to do nothing and lose any chance he might have.
In the end, he's braver than he thinks.
In the end, in return for her saving his life, he offers her his soul.
He really expects her to throw it scornfully away.
But Rose Weasley was always unpredictable.