Hello everybody! And may I just say Merry Christmas to you all! I know that some of you may not celebrate Christmas, which is perfectly understandable, but as I write this, it is 9:56 on Christmas Day, so for those of you who do celebrate, Merry Christmas! To everyone else, Happy Holidays! This chapter shows a lot of development between Rose and Scorpius. It's really not my favorite, but I hope some of you like it. Thank you so much to everybody who has reviewed! You are all so kind with your comments and I love hearing from you :)

Disclaimer: Not Mine, At All

Chapter 11: Maybe Not

A pounding, terrible pain in his head. That was the first thing Scorpius Malfoy registered as he slowly began to regain consciousness. For a moment, the pain was so bad, he couldn't think, and he groaned.

"Madam Pomfrey, I think he's waking up," called a girl's voice, very close to him. It was extremely familiar, but the pain in Scorpius's head was so bad, he couldn't figure out who it was. He groaned again.

"S'cuse me, ma'am, but he sounds in an awful lot of pain," said another male voice, this one also very familiar. Who was he? And who was the girl? And more importantly, where was Scorpius?

He slowly opened his eyes. At first, all he saw was bright white light, and then everything came slowly into focus as he stared at the stones above his head. Before he even had time to register where he was, a kind-faced woman in a starched white apron was standing over him.

"Hello, Mr. Malfoy. Nice to see you awake. Can you take this for me? It'll help the pain go right down." Scorpius opened his mouth, and she slid a sweet-tasting potion into it. He swallowed. "Good boy. That should take effect in about five minutes. You just relax for a bit, now." And she bustled off.

The pain was slowly fading fast from Scorpius's head, for which he was extremely grateful. He could tell now that he was in the hospital wing. He could also feel a warm, soft hand trembling in his. Slowly, he hoisted himself into a sitting position.

"Hey, Scorpius."

The entirety of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams was standing around his bed, all very pale and worried. Upon seeing his eyes open, many of them smiled.

"What happened?" Scorpius asked. "The last thing I remember is flying straight for the Snitch, and then blacking out."

"You and Rose were flying at the Snitch," Dan Thomas began, looking very white. Scorpius registered vaguely that this was the male voice he'd heard earlier. "And...I think it was one of our Beaters...but someone hit a Bludger at the two of you. It looked like it was heading for Rose, but it swept around and hit you on the side of the head instead."

"It was terrifying," whispered a soft voice, and Scorpius looked around to see Rose Weasley sitting next to his bed, her eyes red and puffy, face pale. He realized that hers was the female voice he'd heard earlier. "You were just flying, and we were almost there...I saw it hit you. I thought...I thought you'd died," she admitted, her eyes welling up again. "It scared me to death."

Scorpius was stunned. He'd never thought that Rose Weasley, of all people, would be one to worry if he died. In earlier years, he certainly wouldn't have minded if she had died. But, he reflected, despite thinking that at the end of his first year, he'd jumped into the Black Lake to save her not a week ago. Times changed. He glanced down, a little uncomfortable, and noticed that it was Rose's hand that was clasping his own. He felt his face burn.

"Sorry," Rose said, quickly withdrawing her hand. "But...I was just so worried...I think we all thought, for a moment, that you'd..." She didn't finish, nor did he want her to.

"I'm sorry I worried you," he answered softly. "Did you at least catch the Snitch?"

Looking slightly guilty, she nodded. "I'm sorry, Scorpius. I tried to call a rematch, but everyone on the Ravenclaw team agreed-Gryffindor won." She looked straight at him, blue eyes begging him to understand.

"It's fine," he sighed. "You were just doing your job. Besides, I would've done the same if-if-if it had been you." A sudden image of Rose Weasley in his position flashed into his mind, and he shuddered. For a moment, silence fell among the teens.

"Did they notify my parents?" Scorpius asked suddenly. Next to him, Dan shook his head.

"Nah. Madam Pomfrey said it wasn't that serious. That Bludger cracked your skull-" Rose winced horribly, "-but of course she mended that in about a second. She wants to keep you all of Sunday, but we'll bring you your homework and you can get back to class on Monday."

"That's not too bad. It'll be nice to have a change of scenery other than the library and Ravenclaw Tower. Wait, what if I need a certain book?" Scorpius inquired.

"She'll have a house elf get you one," Michael Davies replied.

"Right," Scorpius replied, leaning back on his pillows, suddenly feeling tired. "That's that, then. I think I'll take a nap..."

"Scorpius, don't!" Rose shrieked, and he jerked back awake. "You need to check with Madam Pomfrey and see if it's safe."

Everyone stared at her.

"What? In the Muggle world, it's not good for your body to rest after you've had a concussion or head injury. I know this is the Wizarding World, but Muggles and magic folk have the same anatomy," she replied defensively. "Scorpius, don't!"

"Calm down, Rose," he sighed. "If it makes you feel better, I'll wait until she comes back."

"That would be much better," she answered, breathing a sigh of relief. Scorpius smiled gently at her. James Potter cleared his throat, elbowing his sister Lily as he did so.

"Right, well, if he's fine, then we'll just be, er, leaving. Lots to do...seventh year's not all easy," he remarked, grinning crookedly. The rest of the two teams agreed with him, and everyone left except for Rose. Now it was just her and Scorpius, alone in the Hospital Wing. He was looking everywhere but at her, feeling slightly awkward. What did you say to your archenemy who actually cared about your life?

"Scorpius...please don't be angry with me," Rose burst out all of a sudden. Scorpius jumped slightly and returned his gaze to her.

"Why would I be angry with you? Because you won? Rose, you caught the Snitch. Even if you tried, I don't think you could have stopped in time. We were both going too fast to try to stop. It just happens."

She was shaking her head as he finished.

"That's not what I meant. I meant, please don't be angry with me because I got us landed in detention. I hate that I was so stupid as to prank you, and then I almost lost us our prefect badges...I'm so sorry. It was stupid, and not a smart idea, and I shouldn't have listened to Louis, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry I got us into detention."

"Really, Rose?" he asked, slightly amused. "I think we were both active participants in the pranking war. It's not entirely your fault, and not entirely mine. We were both to blame."

"Can't argue with that," she sighed. "I just feel really bad...I mean, we were furious with each other and the next thing I know, you're nearly dead on the Quidditch field!" She shook her head as if to clear it. "I just wouldn't have wanted my last words to you to have been, 'I hate you' or something like that."

"So...truce, then?" Scorpius asked cautiously. Rose hesitated for a moment, then smiled.

"Truce."

Just then, Madam Pomfrey came bustling over to check on Scorpius, sending Rose off, as Scorpius "needed rest", according to her. Rose left the Hospital Wing, a small smile on her face. Maybe, just maybe, Scorpius Malfoy wasn't so bad after all.

For the rest of the weekend, Scorpius stayed in the Hospital Wing. His teammates all came to visit him again, as did the majority of Ravenclaw House. Even Rose came to visit him, leading to another awkward conversation. He could sort of sense that something had changed between them. Somehow, Rose Weasley didn't hate him as much any more. And that was something. He spent the rest of the weekend in the Hospital Wing, and was released Monday morning, cleared to return to his classes and play Quidditch. Almost nothing happened that week, as Filch was sick and the Weasley-Potter group was pardoned from their detentions. And so it was Tuesday morning of the following week that found Scorpius outside Professor Switch's classroom, discreetly watching Rose out of the corner of his eye.

He couldn't deny it any more - Rose was pretty. No, that wasn't it - she was beautiful. Maybe it was just the fact that they weren't fighting anymore and he no longer glared at her hatefully, but his mates were right about her beauty.

"Scorpius!" Dan Thomas cried, exasperated, waving his hand in front of Scorpius's face.

"Wha - sorry!" he exclaimed, jerking his head around. "What did you say?"

"I was asking you if you thought you'd be able to pass the test on Friday," Dan said impatiently.

"Oh - yeah, probably," Scorpius replied, shrugging. "Switch's tests are never hard."

"For you," Dan muttered.

"Oi, Scorp, who were you staring at?" Gregory Goldstein asked, sniggering. "There's a group of girls over there..." he trailed off as he spotted a certain red head in that group. "No way," he whispered. "No way. You were not staring at Rose -"

The door opened and Professor Switch came out.

"In, quickly," he said. "We've lots to do today."

Scorpius, thankful for the distraction, was one of the first into the classroom. He sat himself next to a fourth year Ravenclaw girl he didn't know and ignored his best friends as they waved to him. He needed to pay attention to the lesson today, as he hadn't entirely understood the homework last night.

And as Professor Switch began to lecture, he found he still didn't understand. The more Switch talked, the more confused Scorpius became, until at last he found himself staring blankly at the board, for the first time in his life.

"And now," Switch said, turning to stare at the students, "you will partner the person in the same seat as you on the opposite side of the classroom and see how well you can manage to understand the theory of Vanishing."

Scorpius sighed, then looked across the room to where his seat was, and found a pair of wary blue eyes staring back at him. Rose. For once in his life, Scorpius was grateful to be paired with Rose. She was sure to have understood what Switch said, and he could probably learn just by watching her.

"Hey," he said awkwardly as he sat down next to her.

"Hi," she said, all business. "So I think the theory behind Vanishing is-"

And she was off, using all sorts of complex methods and evidence that made nearly no sense to Scorpius. He tried to understand, but the more he tried, the more confused he became.

"Stop!" he finally cried. "Stop, Rose!"

She did so, startled. "What's wrong?"

"I-I," he stammered, not sure if he could tell her. They may not have argued in the past week (a record for them), but Scorpius wasn't sure if he could trust her.

"Scorpius," Rose said, and he looked at her. "What's up?"

"I don't understand," he muttered, staring at the table. She didn't say anything for a long time, and just when Scorpius was thinking he should say it was all a big joke, she spoke.

"Which parts don't you understand?"

"Any of it!" he cried, throwing his hands in the air. "It just doesn't make any sense to me!"

She stared at him for a long moment, unsure of whether or not he was joking. What she saw in his grey eyes obviously convinced her that he was telling the truth, for she pulled out her notes and began to explain it slowly, in a much easier way than the textbook had. By the end of Double Transfiguration, Scorpius understood the theory and was even able to hold a bit of a conversation about it with Rose.

"Thanks, Rose," he sighed, leaning back in his chair as they finished up. "I actually understand it now."

"You're welcome," she replied, an odd tone in her voice. Scorpius looked at her to find her face carefully smooth and devoid of emotion.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Do you not understand something?"

"N-no," she replied, packing her books in her bag. "I'm fine."

The bell rang just then, and Rose was out of her seat and almost at the classroom door before Scorpius could question her further. He stared after her in confusion for so long, he was the only one left in the classroom.

"Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Switch asked gently, placing a hand on Scorpius's shoulder. "Is everything alright?"

"Wh-, oh, yes, Professor," he replied, flustered. "I was, er, deep in thought, that's all."

"Are you sure you're alright, dear boy?" he asked, peering at Scorpius with knowing brown eyes.

"Yes, Professor," Scorpius replied finally. "I'm fine. Sorry to bother you."

And with that, he was gone. It wasn't until later that evening, as he was going to bed, that Scorpius realized something: That was the first time he and Rose had worked together in class without arguing once.

The following afternoon, as Scorpius fought his way through the teeming corridors to reaching the library (he had given up his lunch period in favor of getting a head start on his homework), he was still pondering this strange new development. Thanks to Rose's explanation, he had understood his homework perfectly last night, and was very confident in the fact that he'd gotten all of his answers right.

As Scorpius made his way down the last corridor before the library, he heard soft, furious voices. Peeking around the corner, he saw Rose Weasley glaring angrily up at her ex-boyfriend, Darren Thomas, who was smirking at her.

"You don't know anything about me, Thomas," she hissed. "You never bothered to learn. You just wanted in with the Potter-Weasley clan."

"Too true," he smirked. "And I wanted to see if the rumors about you were true."

"What rumors?" Rose asked, her blue eyes dangerous slits. If she'd been looking at Scorpius like that, he'd have been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Darren Thomas, however, didn't even flinch.

"That you're a stuck up prude who doesn't know how to have fun."

Rose's mouth dropped open. "You-you-"

"And guess what?" Darren continued. "They're true."

Tears sprang to Rose's eyes as Scorpius, trembling with rage, burst from behind the corner.

"You take that back!" he yelled, his wand out and pointing toward Darren. Both he and Rose jumped.

"Why?" Thomas asked. "They are true."

Scorpius didn't even hesitate. Within a second, he'd Stunned Darren Thomas and sent him flying backward into the opposite wall, where he slumped down, unconscious. For a second, both Rose and Scorpius stared at him.

"Why did you do it?" Rose suddenly demanded, turning back to him.

"Wh-what?" Scorpius stuttered. Rose rolled her bright blue eyes.

"Why did you stand up for me?" she asked.

"Well, I just-he was being mean to you!" Scorpius exclaimed.

"I noticed," Rose replied sarcastically. "But why? You hate me."

"Why did you help me in Transfiguration, then?" Scorpius challenged, feeling hot around the ears. "You hate me, too."

"I-well, you needed help!" Rose said, clearly flustered. "It'd be horrid of me to sit there and let you struggle!"

"And it would have been horrid for me to stand there and listen to him say those things about you," Scorpius retorted. "So...we're even, now."

"I-I guess we are," Rose replied, stunned. Scorpius turned and began to walk away, but she called him back.

"What?" he demanded.

"I just wanted to say thanks," Rose said very quietly, looking at the ground. Then she turned and left. It was Scorpius's turn to be too shocked to do anything but let her walk away from him.

:) Hope you all liked it. Hey, did anyone go see the Hobbit? IT WAS SO AMAZING! I was really impressed. Can't wait for part 2!

Lovelovelove -D-