"Apparently we're friends now," Rose said to Dominique when they were both back in the tower that night.

"You and Scorpius? I thought you were going to play it cool and see what happened, not demand answers from him." Dominique said.

"He saw through that in about five seconds, Dom. You know I can't act to save my life."

"Oh no, what did you do?"

"Nothing drastic, I think I told him I was 'fine' about twenty times and then I spilled my ruined potion all over the place when he touched my hand. He pulled me aside to talk after class."

Rose fidgeted with the hem of her robes.

"And?" Dominique prompted.

"And he said, 'Sorry for snogging your face off, that was a mistake, heat of the moment you know? Won't happen again, let's just be friends, stop being a werido.'"

"He did NOT!"

"Calm down, of course he didn't. He did say he was sorry, and it wouldn't happen again, and let's be friends, though."

"That might actually be a good thing, you know." Dominique said thoughtfully.

"Good? I'm making backwards progress. I went from kissable to just a friend."

"But, you were less than friends two weeks ago," Dominique pointed out. "You went from nothing to friends, that's progress."

"Maybe. But two weeks ago I wasn't caught up in this mess and was making progress at my own pace."

"Progress at your own pace? I thought you said you didn't like him before," Dominique said, face smug.

"Well apparently I'm not completely hopeless with little harmless secrets then." Rose blushed faintly at this admission.

"Ah-ha! What did I tell you right from the start?" Dominique exclaimed.

"Fine! After Christmas Holidays last year he was in my peripheral vision everywhere and I didn't know what to do about it, so I didn't do anything, happy?"

"Yes!"

Rose rolled her eyes at her cousin.

"Anyway, then this mess happened and I knew I was going forward in all the wrong directions, but it was still forward, and now I'm backtracking."

"Oh sweetie, you just said you were doing things all wrong. Maybe backtracking is exactly what you need to do in order to go forward again, the right way."

Rose thought about that for a minute. "I hate that you're right about everything" she said at last.

"It's a curse" Dominique replied.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Rose felt awkward the next day as well, but true to his word Scorpius kept their displays of affection to nothing more serious than hand-holding. Rose fought her disappointment by clinging to her new title of "friend" and knowing things were better that way for them both.

Scorpius pulled back a bit on teasing her, okay he had pulled back quite a bit, but he was still charming and funny and nice to be around. Rose found herself opening up to him a bit more naturally, and by Wednesday she was glad they could still share easy smiles together.

This is how it should have been, Rose thought, if I hadn't started this whole mess I should have just started talking to him to find out what makes him smile.

Scorpius left her in the afternoon for Quidditch practice "Can't let those Puffs get the best of us first thing in the year, can we?" he'd said before carefully kissing her on the cheek and making his way to the pitch.

Rose smiled to herself about the kiss, thinking about how it was almost enough, if only she didn't already know what more felt like.

Scorpius' first game was the following Tuesday, Slytherin vs Hufflepuff. At the best of times Ravenclaws didn't usually side with Hufflepuff when it came to Quidditch, so she was really excited to go support Scorpius during the match.

She was so preoccupied thinking about it that, she almost didn't notice Adrien Cooper coming over to where she was.

Rose was in panic mode. Scorpius had just left and nobody else was around.

Get a grip, she scolded herself, I have a family full of Gryffindors, it must be in there somewhere. Pretend you're Lily. No, better yet, pretend you're Aunt Ginny.

"Still with Malfoy, huh Weasley? Thought you'd have tossed him aside by now. Isn't that what you do? Lead guys on then throw them away?"

Rose flushed with anger. The nerve of this guy!

"What do you want, Cooper?" Rose asked, keeping her voice even.

"Not you" he replied, like it was clever, like she should be upset about it.

Instead, Rose found herself done.

"Good, then move along."

"No, I get to have the last word here. I've been thinking about what you did to me and I want to tell you all about what I think of you now."

"What I did to you!?" Rose exclaimed. How dense was this guy? He'd literally been stalking her, and he was the one upset?

"Yeah. I can see now what kind of person you are. I must have been crazy to like you before. You're not even that good looking. I mean really. Just compare yourself to that hot blondish cousin of yours, I bet she knows how to treat a bloke."

That was it. Rose had had enough. She didn't have to sit there and listen to this.

"If you EVER come near any of my cousins I will curse you so hard you'll spend a month in St. Mungo's. Do I make myself clear?"

"Whatever, you don't have it in you. In fact, I think I'll go find her right now."

Under the thought process of "what would Aunt Ginny do?" Rose stood up and pulled out her wand, fire in her eyes. She had only just started to get the hang of nonverbal spells, but her fury guided her magic true. She sent a bat-boogey hex at him that even Aunt Ginny would be impressed by, and he ran away screaming and crying with his face in his hands.

She practically collapsed after that, every ounce of her courage spent.

I did it, she thought stupidly, I made him back off, and no one even helped me.

And I could do it again, she realized. He's just a person, less than, he's scum. I don't have to be afraid of him.

And she realized that she wasn't, not anymore.

It was like a weight she hadn't even realized was still there had lifted. She'd felt better about her Cooper situation with Scorpius by her side, but she had never truly felt like things were over with him. She did now.

I can do it all on my own, wait until I tell Scorpius, he'll be so proud of me!

Then Rose realized, she didn't want to tell Scorpius. Because if she told him Copper wasn't a problem anymore, what would happen to them? We'd be "friends" and nothing more, like we should be. I should stop this while I can. But…

But Rose knew what "more" felt like. It felt like kisses, and warm bodies pressed together, and brain fuzzies. It felt like Scorpius, and she didn't want to let that go.

"I'll tell him," she muttered to herself, "after his Quidditch game. That'll be fine, right?"