"Oi! Rose!" Professor Finnegan called across the hallway she was making her way down to the owlery.
"I need you to do me a favor."
"Professor, I'd love to, but now's not really a great time..." She glanced in the direction of the owlery.
"Rose, please?"
"Um..."
"It's Hagrid. He's sick and I meant to go check on him but I've got to attend this meeting with McGonagall, I think I've been invited to another conference, could you check on him?"
"Like I said, now's not really the best time, maybe you could find Albus?"
"He's got Quidditch tryouts. Hey, shouldn't you be there?"
"I'm Hufflepuff, Professor Finnegan, mine aren't until next week."
"Right, right. Anyway, I know Hagrid would love to see you."
Rose sighed. "Of course."
"Brilliant. I guess I can't send you alone, let's see," Professor Finnegan twirled about just in time to see Scorpius turn out of the owlery.
"SCORPIUS!" The professor yelled. Scorpius looked frightened.
"Yes, Professor? Is something wrong?"
"I need you to accompany Rose on an errand she's running for me. Off you go now, give Hagrid my regards." And he ran off around the corner, his head barely missing the wall.
"What are we doing?" asked Scorpius
"Checking on a sick Hagrid. Come on, hurry. I haven't got all day."
Scorpius smiled. "Okay, then."
As they rushed out of the castle towards Hagrid's hut, Scorpius couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut.
"I always seem to get stuck with you."
"Yes, it's very unfortunate."
"Very, I mean, what are the chances you'd be alone and I'd get stuck having to go with you? What are the chances you'd be alone, period?"
Rose let out a sarcastic, one syllable laugh. "I'm having a bad day."
"Aaaw, poor Rose," He meant it sarcastically, but his voice betrayed too much actual feeling. "Tell me about it."
"Girl stuff."
Scorpius stared long and hard at her, confused before it hit him.
"EEEW! GROSS!"
"It's not gross!" She smirked at him, "You should congratulate me."
"Ew, why?"
"I'm a woman now."
"Ew, ew, no thanks." Scorpius walked a little further.
"Aaaaww, don't run away, you're supposed to protect me, where's your chivalry?" She stole his arm and held him obnoxiously close as Scorpius tried to wiggle away. "I'm not Gryffindor for a reason."
Scorpius finally escaped and ran away with a smirk. "WOMAN COOTIES!" he shouted.
"What's that?" asked a bedraggled and very, very sick looking Hagrid.
Neither child realized they had arrived at the hut.
"Hagrid!" cried Rose, looking a little sheepish. "You should be in bed. How are you feeling?
"A'right. I should be teaching tomorrow. What day is tomorrow?"
"Sunday," replied Scorpius.
"Oh! Draco, you're here too. Thought you were scared of these woods."
"I'm Scorpius. And no, I find them fascinating."
"Are you sure? They're dangerous." Hagrid swerved a bit and had to balance himself on a wall.
"Hagrid." Rose tried to sound as firm as possible to a man at the very least four times her size. "You need to lay down. Do you need anything? Do you need us to make you dinner?"
"No, no," Hagrid finally laid down on his bed. "I'm fine, I promise, I just ate dinner, I've got sandwich fixin's I been eating from. You kids go back to class. Professor Snape won't like it when he finds out you left."
"Of course not. Feel better, Hagrid!"
Rose and Scorpius walked out of the hut awkwardly.
"Someone should probably tell Madam Pomfrey that Hagrid is calling you Draco and talking about dead professors."
"I'll go, you take care of your womanly problems." Scorpius smirked knowingly, as if he knew some scandalous secret.
"Really?! Thank you, thank you, thank you, that's such a big relief, thank you." Rose kissed Scorpius's cheek in excitement. Both blushed profusely.
"Okay, somebody is hormonal." Scorpius tried to laugh it off.
"Thank you." Seemed to slip out of Rose's grinning mouth before she could remind herself she'd said that four times.
Scorpius laughed. "No problem, it's not that big a deal."
"Okay but tha-"
Scorpius smothered her words with his hand, "NO! NO MORE GRATITUDE!"
Rose tried to wrestle herself out a bit but Scorpius was stronger than he looked so she had to resort to desperate measures.
"EEEW! DID YOU JUST LICK MY HAND?!"
"You were attacking me!" Rose giggled.
They argued about the definition of "attack" until they found themselves at the top of a hill, which Rose naturally pushed Scorpius down.
"AAAAS YOOOUU WIIIISH."
Rose laughed so hard she ended up falling over and rolling down herself.
"Someone knows their muggle." Rose's insane laugh faded into a calmish giggle as they lay next to each other at the foot of the hill.
"I knew I had to take the class, so I studied over the summer."
"That's one of my favorite muggle movies."
"How do you know so much muggle?"
"My mom."
"Does she miss it?"
"I don't think so, but she likes to show me things, she thinks a lot of muggle arts like novels and movies and music are superior because art comes from living, so wizards have no advantage and muggles have numbers. Does that make sense?"
"I think so."
"We should probably get going."
"Probably."
They slowly pulled themselves off the ground.
"Madam Pomfrey is this way." Scorpius gestured right.
"The owlery is this way."
Rose gestured left.
"Should I ask why you need to go to the owlery?"
"To tell my mom."
"Oh, okay, that makes sense. Well, tell her I say hello." He added with a sarcastic smile.
"I will. See you soon, Scorpius."
"Until then." Scorpius waved and started walking, trying not to look back.
As Rose waltzed to the owlery, she began composing her letter in her mind.
Dear Mom,
Scorpius Malfoy says hello. In other news...