For the rest of the week Scorpius managed to sit next to Rose in all of their shared classes, and even managed to sneak himself into her library study time. The whispers died down as the sight of the two of them together started to become normal, and Rose's family, as well, seemed to take it in stride that Scorpius was always around when they wanted to talk to Rose.
Rose was still a bit surprised at how casually Scorpius was able to converse with her extended family, especially Albus. She and Albus were in the same year, so they had been very close since childhood. Rose knew that, unlike many of their other family members, Albus tended to keep his opinions to himself, and reserve judgements until after careful consideration.
But Albus and Scorpius seemed to get along surprisingly well, to the point where Rose suspected they may have already been casual friends before she began "dating" Scorpius.
"Well, that sounds like it's going to be interesting" Scorpius said to Rose after all of her friends and family left them alone in the library.
Rose looked up from her Care of Magical Creatures book and realized she had been tuning out the conversation Scorpius had just finished having. Out of all of her classes, Care of Magical Creatures was the one she didn't share with Scorpius. She had discovered earlier in the week that he had Arithmancy at that time instead.
Because she wasn't studying in tandem with Scorpius for this particular subject, she hadn't been paying attention to any of the exchange which had just taken place.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, what's going on?" Rose asked.
"I told James we were going to go to the Halloween Party he's throwing. He was trying to invite me to hang out at Hogsmeade, but obviously I told him you had already reserved that day for a date."
"A what? I was going to go shopping with Dominuque to buy a costume." Rose replied.
"Yes, and I helpfully offered to replace her so we could spend some 'quality time' together. She seemed quite agreeable about the whole thing."
She would, Rose thought to herself.
"Oh, well I guess that makes sense. We have to go on a few dates in order to be 'dating.'"
"Exactly. So, I will see you bright and early tomorrow. I'll tell you right now though, I get final say on your costume, so the less material, the better."
Rose's face took on it's now familiar shade of red. "We'll see about that."
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Saturday morning dawned slightly brisk. Students were gathering in the Courtyard, getting ready to make their way into Hogsmeade.
Rose spotted Scorpius easily, his height and light blond hair stood out in the crowd. She walked over to where he was waiting. He smiled at the sight of her and grabbed her hand, a gesture that still made her heart race a bit, but was slowly becoming comfortable.
"I figured we could head to Gladrags first and then make our way to Madam Puddifoot's." Scorpius said.
The mention of Madam Puddifoot's, make-out-capital-of-Hogsmeade, made Rose look up at Scorpius in a panic. "You want to go to Madam Puddifoot's? Isn't that place a little… pink… for your tastes?" Rose said uncomfortably.
"It is, but you should have seen your face. We can go to the Three Broomsticks, Butterbeer's on me. After all, we are on a date." The lopsided grin that Rose was beginning to think of as "Scorpius' amused-at-Rose's-expense face" was firmly in place.
"Yes, ha-ha. You seem to get a lot of entertainment out of messing with me," she said.
"See, we're getting to know each other better already!" he replied.
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Entering Gladrags, Rose and Scorpius began to browse various Halloween costumes.
"So, if you get to choose my costume," she asked him, absently picking up a plush hippogriff with bat wings instead of eagle wings, "does that mean I get to choose yours, too?"
"You wish" he said jokingly. "I'm finding you the skimpiest outfit here and then I'll dress to compliment. For example, here's a 'pillowcase dress'. You can go as a house-elf, and I'll just wear my regular clothes and go as your master. It's perfect."
Rose laughed despite herself, and hit him over the head playfully with the hippogriff. "No. Definitely pass. Try again."
Scorpius made a "tragically wounded" face at Rose, which she rolled her eyes at.
"Fine, here we go." Scorpius said, pulling out two more costumes. "You be a racy mediwitch, and I'll dress as a healer." He held up two costumes side by side. The male healer costume consisted of fairly regular looking healer's robes, but the mediwitch outfit stopped much higher up on the thigh than Rose would be comfortable with ever wearing in public.
"I'd rather be the healer, thanks" Rose said.
"I knew that, I was just teasing you." Scorpius replied in a slightly serious tone, surprising her.
"You knew that I wouldn't want to wear the short skirt, or that I want to be a healer?" she asked.
"Both" he said simply.
"How-" she began to ask, but Scorpius cut her off.
"It's not exactly hard to tell. You're always trying to take care of everyone. And you're taking all the required O.W.L.s for it, plus Care of Magical Creatures as an extracurricular. And you were the only person to notice when I got sick last December. You even forced some Pepperup Potion on me. Albus had been sick and you were bullying him into taking it too."
Rose vaguely recalled the incident. She had been concerned about Albus being able to make it through the day without the potion, so she decided to carry it around in case he needed it. When he started falling asleep during Charms she had forced a dose on him.
Albus had been her third family member and fifth friend to catch a cold in a two week period, so Rose had gotten pretty good at recognizing the signs. When she had noticed after class that Scorpius' eyes were a bit glassy and his cheeks slightly flushed red, she had looked at his ears. No steam was coming out, meaning the flush was probably caused by a fever, and not by the warming potion. The boy had still brought his Quidditch gear to class, and by all accounts looked like he was about to go practice.
Rose had marched right over to him, still in 'nurture mode', and thrust the flask of Pepperup Potion under his nose. "Drink it" she had said, "I don't want to feel guilty when you fall off your broom and I could have stopped it."
He had given her a searching look and seemed to debate with himself. But eventually he took the flask, and a dose of potion, before leaving with a short, "thanks."
"You figured it out just from that?" she asked him, coming back from the past to the present in her mind.
"Why? Were you trying to hide it?" he asked.
"No, I just, didn't think you paid that much attention to me" she said.
He grinned at her again, and went back to looking at costumes. Scorpius pulled out a "sexy Kneazle" outfit and said, "You have to try this one on."
Rose snorted and kept browsing. She found that she was actually having fun hanging out with Scorpius, and wasn't sure what to think about it. Was he acting differently towards her because they were pretending to date, or was he just naturally nice to be around? How much was real and how much was for show? They weren't exactly the only students shopping for outfits in Gladrags, maybe it was all just a front.
Eventually, Rose and Scorpius came to a compromise about the costumes. He insisted on matching, and that he had promised Dominique he would make her get something that "looked good". She insisted that her costume had to adequately cover her body. They settled on outfits as 1920's muggles. Scorpius bought a pinstriped suit with a hat that should have looked ridiculous, but somehow just emphasized how handsome he was. And Rose got a flapper dress that showed off her figure, but went down to her knees.
After purchasing their respective costumes, they started to make their way through the chill air over to the Three Broomsticks.