Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Hello, my friends! I'm back again. I got some good feedback about the length of the last chapter so, where possible (because I'm a student and hahaha what's spare time?), I'll try to make the chapters on the longer side!

Thank you to my reviewers: Guest, Guest, BellaStoria, and LuciousNesha! I'm really glad that you're all still enjoying it, and wow thank you so much LuciousNesha! That's a super nice review, thank you so much! (I'm also massively jealous you actually got tickets for the Cursed Child - I've been trying for so long! I hope you like it)

So, anyway... enough of that.

Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Mia Clarke

The party that night was electric. Slytherin common room had never been quite so full of life - even the lake creatures were staying to hover at the glass windows. Surprisingly enough, the strange looking gryndillows were actually very fond of dancing. They were creeping Scorpius out, but it was nice to think that he'd actually helped to create something great for once, and hadn't caused a mess. His team had made all these people happy... If he'd told his eleven-year-old self this when he'd been forced to hide from bullies in cupboards, he never would've believed it.

"You know, Scorpius, this looks pretty great for The Rose Plan." Albus grinned, slightly drunk off the fire whiskey that Naoki had 'procured' for the team for 'light celebration'. That was, many pooled bottles from the seventh years that the Slytherins were now several deep in. Scorpius, also tipsy, laughed back.

"I hope so."

"'The Rose Plan'?" A voice that Scorpius knew very well by knew asked from behind him. He turned, to see Mia Clarke, looking at him through narrowed, unfocused eyes. "That sounds suspicious. What is it?" She leant lightly on Max's shoulder, who was only too happy to oblige.

"Oh- nothing."

Mia frowned. "Okay." She sighed, blinking her wide black eyes heavily. "So, you want anything from me? Now that you're the school's golden boy and all…" she trailed off, coming to stand nervously close to him, putting a hand on his chest.

Scorpius looked down at the hand, wondering whether to pick it off or run away. "Uh-… look, Mia." He gave her a sympathetic frown. "I think you're a nice girl, but I just don't like you like that. I'm sorry."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I still don't know why."

"I'm sorry. I know you're pretty, and I sure- you're a nice girl. But you sell yourself short. You'll end up with a good man, just calm it down."

"A good man. Right. Just not you." She looked down, eyes watering, nostrils flaring. "Fine." She declared, looking at him with red-rimmed eyes before marching off, up the stairs to the dormitories.

"Yikes." Albus hissed between his teeth. He and the rest of Scorpius' roommates gathered around him.

"Yeah, I feel bad though." Scorpius shrugged, taking the glass that Max offered him. "She's nice. She could do so much better for herself. She shouldn't just throw herself quite so plainly like that." Max rolled his eyes. "And I'm not interested anyway."

Max snorted. "Well, if you won't take her up on her offers, I will."

Alfie frowned. "Yeah, that makes sense. Go and comfort the girl that just got rejected by pulling all your moves on her." He raised a sarcastic thumbs up and stretched his mouth into a strained smile.

Max shrugged. "You do whatever you've got to do to get off. I'll do what I've gotta do." He followed Mia off up to the dormitories.

"You're still too nice to her, Scor. After everything she did."

Scorpius shrugged. "I'm sure she didn't mean to ignore me."

Alfie raised his eyebrows. "Is that really what you believe, or willful ignorance?"

"Oh, definitely willful ignorance. You see, I could always just chose to believe that she didn't mean to leave me with a massive burn."

Frankly, it was something Scorpius didn't even care about anymore. The seventh years who'd never acknowledged him came over to talk, and the fifth and fourth years he'd barely ever met congratulated him and asked him for Quidditch advice. He spoke as well as he could, but it was really Albus who knew about that kind of stuff - and he made sure Albus got his fair share of the limelight, too.

Surprisingly, even Sophia Davis came to talk to him. She was the other Slytherin prefect - but she was taciturn, to put it nicely. Quiet, but not in a shy way. More in the 'I know I'm better than you so don't even try' way. She'd always rubbed Scorpius the wrong way - or perhaps it was his effect on her. But tonight she was actually civil.

"Congratulations, Scorpius. You really saved us all tonight." She smiled at him awkwardly, the air between the two tense.

"Oh," he scratched the back of his neck. "Thank you!" He beamed.

"By the way, the prefect's rounds are changing in two weeks - just to let you know. I'm happy to swap with you if you don't like the time you're given. You saved our team, and the Hufflepuff girl, after all. I'll take Freya's wrath in recompense." And without waiting for a reply, she turned walked back to the group of serious-looking students she was sitting with. But Scorpius was thankful nonetheless; it was nice, being well liked by the people around him. He felt at home for once, not continually conscious of the people around him slightly hating him inside.

He went up to his dormitory that night, buzzing - both from the alcohol and the sheer excitement. He didn't even mind Theia trying to walk all over the blow-by-blow account he wrote to his father. Before collapsing into his bed, he put the letter into an envelope Theia had helpfully inked a pawprint on the back of. When he fell asleep that night, he was perhaps the happiest he'd ever been whilst at Hogwarts.

—-

It didn't just stop at the Slytherins, however. People who'd been rude to him in the past apologised to him, and people he barely knew were congratulating him on 'his' triumph. It was nice to see everything stop. All the strange looks he received, the stares from the third and fourth year's; the muttered conversations as he went past, everything. Now, when he walked between lessons, he wasn't concerned that something might happen to him. Instead, he was only interrupted by people say nice things to him. Even though it hadn't been as bad recently as it had been before their fourth year, it still used to bother him so much. To be compared with that monster - and the insult to his mother! Not to mention the pain it caused his father. That rumour was perhaps the most damaging thing his family had ever had the misfortune of receiving. But at last, it finally seemed to have almost disappeared.

The Slytherin table even gave him a fair round of applause the next morning at breakfast. He'd flushed, and sat down bashfully, brushing people off with a grin and reminding them that there was an entire team and hey look! There was Albus Potter - why didn't they go and congratulate him too? He liked that the attention he was receiving was positive - but not enduring this much. Especially all at once.

A first year even sat next to him one morning, pawing at his elbow and asking him shy, mumbled questions. The boy had been cute, no doubt, and probably a muggle-born, considering how he stared at everything with such large, wide eyes. Scorpius had answered them all with patience, but that patience was wearing thin. It made him feel odd and reminded him that now more than ever he was being watched at all times, like an animal in a cage.

It wasn't for a few days that he saw either Daniel or Isla, however. Isla had smiled timidly at him as their paths crossed one lunchtime, just outside the Great Hall.

"Scorpius, I, uh-..." she called to him as he went to enter the hall. He turned to face her and grinned.

"Hi, Isla! How're you doing?"

A broad smile grew on her face and she tucked her hair behind her ear, before her hands dropped to her lap, where she fiddled with them compulsively. "I'm fine, but all thanks to you. I might've been really hurt - maybe even died if you hadn't saved me. So, uh, I mean thank you."

"No! No, don't worry about it, honestly." He shuffled his feet awkwardly; he was vaguely aware of the slight crowd gathering. "Anyone would've done it." He shrugged. "Of course Quidditch matters but it's not worth anyone's life."

She chuckled softly. "Yeah, I mean, I guess. But, uh - thank you. You went to all that length to make me feel safe and you even helped Dan when he'd been— well, I won't ever be able to thank you enough." She left quickly, face beaming magenta, her friends with her, and the crowd disappeared slowly, mingling back into various social groups. But not before he caught sight of ruby red hair.

As always, it was gone before he could say anything.

—-

"Scorpius, please stop mooning."

Joshua snapped his fingers in front of Scorpius' face one night in the common room.

"Whu-?"

"For the sake of Dumbledore's saggy left—

"Ew"

"We've told you a million times. Just ask her, make a move, or come back down to earth. It's been ages since the game, your rock-star reputation will wear off!"

Scorpius rolled his eyes at Joshua. If he had been through all the sufferings of a typical, not-suave teenager, he'd understand. "Alright. Fine! Fine. And what the hell is a 'rock-star'? Don't tell me muggles actually do have a fascination with rocks."

"Oi! Only the weird ones. But you missed the point." He rolled as Albus snorted. Scorpius restrained the violent urge to snap back at Albus that he wasn't very much better at all.

"You are worse than Moaning Myrtle, in fairness." Max intoned.

"How the Hippogriff do you even know who Moaning Myrtle is?"

Max waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "I may have been taken there a few times."

"Was it Evie Lee?"

"Nope."

"Amelie Bennett?"

"Uh, nope."

"Then… Millie Longbottom?"

"Oh, not there, no."

Scorpius heard Albus' face hit his hand with a hard smack.

"Well, who do you mean then?"

Max giggled in that weird, dark way he did when it only meant terrible things. "Dominique."

"Oh - mate! No!" Albus winced.

Max just carried on with his dark giggle, unrepentant in the face of Albus' splutters and wincing face.

"Oh I'm sorry - are we hurting the poor virgin's ears?" Joshua simpered.

Alfie cleared his throat. "Were you planning on failing your N.E. ?"

Albus abandoned his attempts to batter Max with his Herbology book, raving wilding about how much of a man-whore he was as he went. He growled lowly in a way that said this wasn't over, as he settled back down into the cosy armchair by the fire.

"We'd all have failed long ago without you, Alfie."

Max clapped the thin boy on his back, and went back to his Care of Magical Creatures book. Sinking lower into the sofa, Scorpius held the moderately engaging book on early goblin culture higher over his face to escape being pulled into any more fights.

They were currently most of the way into an all-nighter.

Sadly, October didn't only bring the colder weather; it also brought an unreasonable increase in the workload. Flitwick had declared their wandwork ineffective, and so had set a 12" essay on wand technique, the old git. Slughorn was giving them ever more complicated potions to brew that required hours of pouring over recipes and method techniques; clearly someone pissed in Professor Henrich's cereals the day when he set two essays - one on the laws of transfiguration and their development over history, and the transfiguration of Aviary creatures as opposed to reptilian creatures. And that didn't even begin to cover Professor Binn's never-ending list of reading, plus Charms and...

Frankly, it was upsetting.

"Next time you see Hagrid, Albus, tell him he's a pillock from me." Max whined, not thirty minutes of (semi-)silence later.

"Noted."

It seemed as though no matter what kind of preparation they did before term started - because of course Scorpius had prepared the best that he could - it was never enough. There was always a book he'd miss, or a potion he'd forgotten the exact method of, or a spell he'd completely forgotten. Then there was homework, and library-only books, and all of the extra things that professors only decided to set when it popped into their wonderful, sadistic minds that morning.

They seemed to disappear behind the mountains of books and rolls of parchment as the night went on, and it wasn't until the house-elves came in that they next stirred from their homework-induced comas.

"Master Albus?"

"Winky!" Albus started, voice thick with either sleep or fatigue.

"Why is you still awake? Winky was always told that students must go to bed early in the night!"

"We should, Winky. But the teachers gave us rather a lot of homework this time." Alfie explained - his voice, unlike Albus' wasn't thick from sleep. But his eyes were slightly blurry in the firelight, Scorpius noted with a slight degree of satisfaction. At least even Alfie, the paragon amongst their very flawed friends, was fallible in the face of this all-nighter.

Winky seemed to accept Alfie's answer with a sort of feeble trust, and nodded, her bat-like ears fluttering with the movement. "I see, Master Alfie."

Alfie smiled, and engaged Winky in a conversation about their work in the kitchens. He always was kind to those around him; and despite the calm, kind face he presented to the world, Scorpius had had an inkling for some time now that all was not well just under the surface. The trouble was that Alfie never gave anything away, and never wanted to talk about it, either.

—-

Their attempts to stay up all night had been successful, but it was only a few days later when the horrendous fatigue finally began waring off.

Scorpius yawned so widely and intensely it surprised Grace Hill next to him.

"Merlin, Scorpius!" She jumped away from him, already large eyes widening. "What the hell happened to you?!"

"N.E. , Grace. N.E. happened." Scorpius met the wide eyes with a gaze that portrayed how positively dead on the inside he looked - and felt.

She thawed out of her shock and fell back into step alongside Scorpius as they portrayed the corridors on their rounds together. She laughed. "I can appreciate that. Professor Vector's really stepping it up in Ancient Runes."

"Ah?"

"Yeah." She groaned with irritation. "He makes me sit with that Joshua, too. He never stops hitting on me!"

Scorpius tried desperately to not snort in laughter. "Yeah." He did consider adding something, but decided to drop it. "Yeah..."

"I'd much rather sit with Rose, anyway. I mean, who wouldn't?" They turned the corner into the Transfiguration corridor.

"Oh, really?"

"Oh-" She eyed him guiltily. "I forgot that you two don't really like each other."

Scorpius frowned. It was an open secret that she didn't like him - but he thought everyone knew that she was crazy about him!

"Um - we don't?"

She frowned in confusion, as though this was new information to her. "She said in Ancient Runes one day that she swore that your sole purpose in life was to embarrass her."

"'Suppose so."

"And besides, aren't you and Mia Clarke a thing? And Rose and Mia don't exactly get on…"

He reached out a hand to Grace's arm to stop her. "Mia Clarke?" He slowly turned a finger to point at his chest, eyebrows pulling together in disbelief. "And me?"

Grace nodded. "She's pretty. You're hot. Everyone jut assumed."

Scorpius frowned even deeper. "Oh. Well, no. We're not."

Grace made a vague sound of interest. She was a gentle girl, with wide eyes and long, ginger plaits. But she couldn't half gossip, and she was just very slightly ankle deep in everyone's business. "Not your type?"

"No."

"She does look quite a lot like your weird twin."

Scorpius tried to restrain a flush. "I suppose." He felt half-flattered by the comment, but it didn't quite sit right with him. And he'd given this way, way too much thought. "W-Where did this even come from?"

"Somone said something about you and her in Greenhouse Five."

"And by someone, you mean...?"

She looked away from him pointedly. "Millie Longbottom."

"Oh, Merlin." Scorpius dropped his hands into his face. "I thought he said he'd forget that." He mumbled imperceptibly, but his heart seemed to flip-flop in and out of his mouth. Of course it was going to get around, and of course, he'd never heard about it, and of course, Mia never would've denied it if she discovered the rumour.

Oh, Merlin.

"So," Grace started walking again as soon as Scorpius recovered from his momentary breakdown, "this means you also don't hate Rose?"

"I've got absolutely no idea where you got that from in the first place, anyway."

Grace shrugged, made another vague sound of interest, and they went back to silence as they made their rounds.

As they reached the fourth floor, Grace decided that the silence had got stale, and so began to regale Scorpius with seemingly all the Hufflepuff's business.

"You know, everyone fancies our Louis."

"'Our'?"

Grace hummed, the now lit end of her wand throwing a waving pool of light before her. "He's the best Hufflepuff we've got. Both his sisters were Gryffindors, and they weren't exactly the kindest girls Hogwarts has ever seen."

"Oh?" Scorpius raised an eyebrow interestedly.

The Hufflepuffs hadn't been angry about losing the game at all - actually, they'd all be incredibly sporting about it. He supposed there really was a reason why they were the kind ones after all. Apparently, Daniel Wood had been disciplined by Professor Sprout and he'd had the captaincy taken from him and given to Leo Black instead. It only made sense why he'd been keeping such a low profile since the game, and Scorpius couldn't help but be a little bit happy about it- but in a guilty-pleasure type way. Leo Black had even come up to him the Monday after the game to shake his hand, and thank him for what he did for Isla and Daniel. He'd said that the Hufflepuffs would be cheering for the Slytherins in their next game - which was a big deal, since that never, ever usually happened. House segregation wasn't all that strict these days, but it could be absolutely brutal when it came to Quidditch - especially the final.

Grace's face spread into a grin, the sprinkle of freckles over her nose stretching out as she did so. "You didn't hear? Dominique got off with three seventh years in a row at their graduation party. And Victoire - well, I heard that she was close to other boys besides Teddy. And both of them could be ruthless when it came to getting the boys they wanted."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. He couldn't help but find it slightly unbelievable - these were the cousins that Rose liked, after all. "Well no, I didn't hear about any of this." He smiled, despite himself. "I wasn't exactly Mr Popular - until about three days and fifty minutes ago, at least." He added the last more for himself than for Grace, looking up at the painted ceilings. Hogwarts could be so beautiful in the strangest of places.

"Oh." Grace made an awkward sound that was half-way between clearing her throat and internally combusting. "I'm… I'm really sorry about all that." Her voice wasn't much above a whisper. "I'm sorry that I never helped. Or stopped anyone else."

Scorpius looked at her, mouth half open in shock. Grace had never stuck up for him or Albus - sure. But no one had. Grace was a little colder to him back then, of course. But in some strange way, he kind of understood. When there's a kid that no one likes, that just talking to will get you outcast, of course you look out for yourself. Kids can be cruel. "No, it's fine." He frowned. "I never held anything against you - why would I?"

"Because you don't treat innocent people the way that we all treated you. You stay loyal to the people who have never been mean to you."

Scorpius chuckled, not because he found it funny, but because it was something to fill the growing void of silence broken only by their footsteps down the main staircase. They'd almost finished their rounds by now - as usual, nothing had really happened, but Scorpius now knew much more gossip. "I don't blame you. I don't blame most people, really. Besides, it's all in the past."

They came to stand, facing each other at the foot of the staircase. Grace fiddled with the end of her strawberry-blonde plait. Scorpius saw how awkward she was, and held out a hand. "Let's shake on it - we'll just forget anything that ever happened."

Truthfully, he was too tired to fight, or be angry anymore. He was just too tired for it all. Grace took his hand, and they shook on the past.

"You should've been a Hufflepuff."

Scorpius laughed, good naturally but felt a little twinge of regret deep down. He knew he was a Slytherin through and through, but there was just that hint of wonder that bothered him now and then. "No, I don't think so. I'll be nice to your face, but I'm secretly desperate to beat you in every test."

He would've liked to be in a different house, sometimes. He often wondered in his earlier years what life might've been like if he weren't the very picture of his father, in the same house as his House had been in for generations. It would've been nice to see life from the other side once in a while.

But the gnomes were always fewer on the other side of the fence, after all.

Grace smiled, and turning, he held up a hand as they went their separate ways. "I'll see you next week."

Upon returning to his dormitory, he found all but Albus asleep - and at that, Albus was almost passed out over his potions book.

"I'll just show you how to do it in the morning." Scorpius whispered at the tired, bespectacled boy. Contrary to his father, Albus only ever needed his glasses for reading - and only rarely at that. But it was weird looking to the face that had essentially occupied their family, almost unchanged, for three generations now. If Albus had a kid who looked the exact same as him, then Scorpius was just going to call inbreeding and go live in some weird forest in Albania.

Okay, so maybe not Albania.

Scorpius collapsed on his bed and quickly fell into the first sleep he'd had in a while that didn't involved Rose in some way, shape or form.

—-

By transfiguration the next day, it seemed as though his plan had worked. Although he did feel a little bad for using Grace so unwittingly, he excused it as using her talents - and boy did she have a knack for spreading gossip.

"So I hear that you and Mia Clarke aren't going out." Rose declared after thirty minutes of near silence. Scorpius had been rehearsing suave or at least remotely cool lines to say in his head, but they all got jammed in his throat, so he merely settled for an intense feeling of inferiority and watching the parrot in front of him getting increasingly irritated as he tried in vain to turn him yellow. He'd succeeded with a unique, sunset orange but nothing closer yet. He was so accustomed to this anyway, after about six years of silence and feeling awkward that it was essentially part of his personality now.

Scorpius shrugged. "Didn't realise anyone thought we were."

Rose gave him a looked that clearly conveyed that she thought he was the biggest idiot in the classroom. In fairness, he did feel like one when she looked at him sometimes. "So you just kiss all the girls you aren't going out with?"

"Only the ones as pretty as you, Rose."

Oh.

Oh, Merlin's beard.

Oh sweet Dumbledore.

No!

Why did his mouth have to get carried away like that sometimes? Why did he say the stupid things that only made him feel like a complete idiot and evidently made him sound like one. He braced himself for the hit—

But it didn't come.

He looked up at her through his eyelashes. Her mouth was slightly open, but she was smiling at the very tips; that way that a cat's always smiling at the corners - whether genuine or accidental, he had no idea.

The silence enveloped them again - and this time, Scorpius was just bracing himself for the delay-action bollocking he was certain to get. No one smooth talked Rose Granger-Weasley. Mostly because she could hand your arse back to you, but also partially because she always seemed to take it as either friendly banter or utterly reprehensible - the latter only reserved for if your name was Scorpius Malfoy.

When she drew breath, he sucked in a sharp breath and steeled himself. "How was your weekend?"

Scorpius turned his parrot bright blue. "Sorry?"

There was that slight smile again. And she was smiling at… him? Well, he didn't really care if it was at the person behind him; she set his heart racing madly, and he loved that feeling. Especially when she wasn't turning him down.

"The weekend. How was yours?"

"Quidditch." He blurted out all of a sudden. "Uh— I mean, Al and I had Quidditch practice." He looked away from her, blinking rapidly, and prodded the angrily squeaking parrot as he returned it to its normal colours.

"You just had the match, though."

"I know. Naoki is pretty intense sometimes.

Rose hummed. "Wasn't it raining, too?" Rose wrinkled up her nose. "I hate flying in the rain - it makes my hair even curlier than usual."

Scorpius failed to see how that was a bad thing. "Right." He inhaled deeply, steadying himself. He realised that he was always on the cusp of acting like a rational wizard or a jabbering twat, but he could never really seem to help himself from becoming the latter around her. "What did you do this weekend?"

She hummed to herself, tapping her soothed parrot once, until it went a brilliant yellow, deftly as ever. Scorpius raised his eyebrows - it was impressive, even if he was slightly jealous. "I hung out with the Gryffindors in the common room on most of Saturday, since it was raining, and then I went to see Hagrid with Al and Hugo and Lily and James on Sunday." She explained, as though having that much social interaction all weekend was a normal thing. "Oh, Roxanne and Fred, too."

He chuckled to himself, and she tilted her head with freshly narrowed eyes. "What?"

"It must be tough to remember that many cousins all at once."

She pursed her lips, and it was only by the slight crinkles a the sides of her eyes that he could tell he wasn't going to get yelled at. "I forget Lucy and Molly the most. But, well…"

Scorpius snorted, and he saw Rose bite her lip to keep from laughing.

"You know," Rose said, after a moment of silence passed again, "you're not quite turning your wand enough. Like this— see?"

She demonstrated, and he watched as she turned her wrist with just a slight flourish more than he had.

He hummed in understanding and mirror the movement; finally, his squeaking parrot was yellow.

"Thank you!" He beamed to Rose, and she, for the first time, turned to look at him fully. His heart seemed to sink through his stomach and then climb all the way back up again as she examined his face.

His heart stayed fluttering in his throat for the rest of that lesson. And all through History of Magic. The smile on his face didn't abate all day, and as he was walking back to the Great Hall for dinner that evening, there was a gait in his step that hadn't been there for quite some years.

"Oh fuck off, Malfoy. You're not the shit just because you saved one girl." Scorpius didn't even recognise the voice of the boy that called at him from across the fifth-floor corridor. Scorpius paused, the smile finally fading. One hand on his rucksack strap, he turned to face the voice. His other hand thumbed his wand in his trouser pocket.

"Okay?" He mumbled, turning to face a fifth year he didn't recognise.

"You're not the king of this school. You just watch, we'll remind you of your place when it's time." The voice was menacing, full of a hatred he hadn't heard since the game. He was a Ravenclaw, with a mixture of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws standing at his side. The anger on his face… Scorpius gulped. He didn't count himself a coward, but he knew when to leave; when to run to take care of himself. That was now.

"Alright. Well, I guess I'll see you then." Scorpius hurried off around the corner trying not to let the hammering of his heart affect him. He heard angry shouts and a scuffle, before hurried steps followed behind him. Furious, like a minotaur on a blood-fuelled rampage their footsteps fell like heavy cannon-balls in the corridor, and Scorpius felt his heart beating almost out of his chest, ducking behind a tapestry he knew to lead to a staircase. He saw the shadow of feet dash past, and then a group after that. Angry roars and frustrated cries accompanied them. Scorpius clamped a hand over his mouth to quiet his breathing. He couldn't seem to stop the heavy gasps he had to draw. Over and over again he panted and panted, doubled over and his head dropping down to the ground in a bid to take deeper breaths. This hadn't happened for years now. He hadn't been chased since third year. It wasn't the thrill of the chase that made him panic; it was the fear of the beating. He leaned against the wall, sliding down to the ground. His body felt exhausted; he couldn't bring himself to move.

It was easy, at times like this, to consider where it all went wrong. Was it when he was deemed the child of the Dark Lord, or when his mother's Blood Curse was activated? When he didn't stand up to the first, second, third person who beat him, or when he didn't care about any of it at all because he fell in love with Rose?

His head fell back against the chilly stone. He was aware that he was sweaty beyond what the October weather called for.

"Merlin's Beard." He sighed. He had never managed to understand why people hated him so much to this day. Couldn't they see that he wasn't his father? Couldn't they see that he wasn't the son of the Dark Lord, wasn't the source of all their problems? He didn't understand it. He didn't understand why this had happened, and what else he could do at this point to fix it all. He looked at his watch. It'd been twenty minutes since he'd left his last class. He didn't know whether he could chance going to the Great Hall or not - he didn't want to bump into those boys again. His heart almost beat out of his heart again as he approached the tapestry. Gathering one edge in his hand, he began to push it aside, poking his wand out into the corridor. It was already dark; the torches were lit.

"Homenum Revelio"

Nothing. Just the hum of students further down in the castle. He could hear his heartbeat in the silence. He took a cautious step out. Then another. Even magic couldn't comfort him like setting eyes on a thankfully empty corridor could.

There was no one there. He sighed. He was glad he was wearing a jumper because his shirt was clinging to his back underneath it. He felt cold in the winter air, his skin sticky and itchy. Pointing his wand up his shirt he mumbled, 'Scorgify' and he felt most of the sweat evaporate, and hopefully it didn't smell so bad. The smile was well and truly gone and his walk was even more cautious than usual, but his heart, finally, quietened down. He could breathe again - for now.

—

Dear Scorpius,

As always, I am keeping well, getting to work just fine, and the house is still standing. I did take the liberty of adjusting the paint colour of a couple of walls, however. How do emerald and silver suit you?

I'm glad to hear that you're so happy, and congratulations on the game! You really are your mother's son. I'm so thrilled that people are treating you better at Hogwarts. It's only what you deserve, you're a nice boy, turning into a fine young man. I'm happy that you've managed to overcome the stigma of our name, I'm just sorry that I can't do more to help you from the outside. This is what I meant by 'enjoy your year' - just continue on this track and don't deviate.

Congratulations again, son. I'm proud of you.

Love, your father.

It was the single nicest letter his father had ever sent him. He couldn't even process how happy it'd made him, reading it the first time. He felt like a little child again, meeting Theia for the first time, or when he and Albus became friends on that fateful train ride. It was pure Patronus fuel, no doubt about that. He grinned to himself all evening long.

"You know, Al and Scor," Joshua began as he clambered into his bed, "girls have started asking me about who you're going to the Ball with more than me." He whined.

Scorpius snorted. "Welcome to our world."

"I'm sorry," Alfie interrupted, "but that is purely my territory."

"Touché."

"Anyway - are you still guns blazing with The Rose Plan?"

"Of course."

"I wonder if Albus has anything to weigh in with..." Max wondered aloud. He had already secured Mia Clarke as his date - with his lack of social airs and graces - of course he had. Joshua claimed he was currently 'working on this one girl,' and Alfie was as quiet as always about this kind of thing. Albus was working out how not to get paralysed as he asked Lydia Griffiths - and he'd mocked Scorpius for his attempt!

No, that was still fair game, he remembered, cringing, as he accidentally forced himself to relive it.

Truthfully, however, he was getting a little bit desperate. He hadn't had time to think about it at all this week - he been almost consistently paired with other people, and aside from their Transfiguration lesson together on Monday, they hadn't had a chance to talk in Charms or Potions yet. It made him want to scream in anger from all the pent-up frustration.

Finally, the very next evening, he managed to talk to her in the library.

She'd been sitting alone, in the evening as the candles lit up the rows of books and the moon rose high in the sky.

It wasn't like last time where she was surrounded by friends, this time she was alone - and the long desk she sat at was otherwise unoccupied.

She acknowledged him with a small sort of smile, and aside from his stomach dropping out from underneath him, Scorpius managed a reasonably easy smile back. It was the library, it was his place. He knew what he was doing here.

They didn't say a word to each other.

He took out his book and got cracking on Slughorn's latest essay. 'The Advantages and Disadvantages of applying Moonstone to the mixture of Veritaserum.' Said potion was coming up as their first exam soon, and Scorpius felt slightly overwhelmed with it all - what with that, their essays, his History of Magic presentation, a the Defense charms to learn and not to mention the Herbology to memorise and the Transfiguration work he had to even figure out how to do. Oh, and more on top of that. It was all he could think about, these days. He could feel the stress building in his throat as he began to write his essay.

"Hey, Malfoy." Rose's voice was soft, and slightly sweeter than usual.

Scorpius looked up as though he had been stung by a passing scarab. He looked over at her, blinking confusedly. She never usually initiated conversation with him unless something was very, very wrong.

She smiled and shifted awkwardly in her seat, looking away. "I just.. wanted to say congratulations. You flew excellently, and what you did for Isla... if you hadn't caught her she would've been thrown to the grown and she would've been completely broken. And Daniel, and what you said..." she drew her eyes away from him, and couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence.

Scorpius smiled brightly despite her drawn face. "That is certainly high praise coming from you. Thanks."

She laughed dryly. "It's not just me, trust me."

"Still. It matters that you'd say that to me, regardless. So, thank you."

She smiled at him and flicked her eyes back down to her book - Runes, but the look of it. And by her stationary pupils, he could tell she wasn't reading anything.

He eventually slipped his eyes from examining her face to his book too.

They sat in their silence again, not a word passing between the two. And Scorpius wasn't sure about her, but he had to work twice as hard for anything to go into his head.

"Hey- Rose?"

"Yes?" She responded, quickly.

"When transfiguring a poultry animal into a mammal - is the final wrist flick up or down? It says down in the book and that's what I always do, but it never quite seems to work..."

Rose placed her book down on the surface of the table - an old copy of Beadle the Bard, it seemed - and to his surprise, she pulled out her own wand to show him.

"It's quite fast, so I'm slowing down what I usually do. But it's like this-" she demonstrated it slowly, "-you see?" Scorpius nodded his head slowly, trying to commit it to memory.

"Could you do it one more time, please?"

She sighed, heavily, but nodded. "Like this."

"Ah- I see!" He clicked his tongue. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She replied like a well-oiled machine, and immediately picked up her book again, holding it over her face.

Scorpius frowned. She was certainly a contradictory one. He was used to reading people's faces, sometimes it was the only way he could communicate with his father - but he was especially good at ready the girl who he had been watching for the last six years. He understood that of course his judgement wasn't going to be the most accurate when it came to her, but she was acting far stranger and inconsistently than he could expect to see. It puzzled him.

Her book was upsidedown.

"Rose, are you-"

"I'm reading."

"Uhh..." Scorpius looked at the book blocking her face. "No, you aren't."

"Well," She sighed, lowering her book. "I was trying to." She slammed the book shut on her side of the desk. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to talk to you."

"Fine. About what?"

"Just..." he shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted to talk."

She tilted her head back, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. "Are you going to shout something at me again?"

He couldn't tell if she was teasing or completely mocking him. "Uh, well..."

"It's fine." She waved a hand. "You are right though. We don't really know each other. And considering you're my cousin's best friend..."

"My favourite colour's blue." He blurted out, shocking himself as much as anyone else.

"Okay... mine's red."

"My birthday's November 14th."

"Oh, soon. Mine's April 12th."

He smiled, more to himself than at her. These were things he already knew about her, but would never admit to knowing. He didn't want to seem like some crazy stalker, after all.

"Once, when Albus and I were younger, we were playing together at our grandparent's house. It's this weird house, it sort of looks like it might fall over at any moment. We were playing exploding snap, and I'd just beaten him for the sixth time in a row. He got so angry at me that he used magic to shrink the house owl!" She laughed, holding a hand over her mouth, so they didn't get thrown out together by Madam Pince.

"He shrank the owl?! I did not see that bit coming."

"Yes, and it took Gran and Pops almost an hour to change the poor bird back!"

"I think I might start making sure that his owl's Okay..."

Rose laughed at him - and an actual, happy smile, too! He looked into her eyes, mesmerised that for once, he was the one she was laughing with, and not at.

She pursed her lips and twisted them half upright. "Hey, you were in the library a few days before the Quidditch match, weren't you?"

Scorpius nodded. "Yep. Why?"

"It's just... I remember you kind of slammed your book down and seemed sad. I asked Albus, but he was about as helpful as always. Is there... is everything okay?"

He nodded slowly. "Of course... why would there be anything wrong."

"You tell me."

"You aren't madly in love with me, are you Rose?"

She rolled her eyes, but instead of her usual biting comment, she just laughed. And he laughed with her. It felt so strange, but he couldn't have been happier.

Yet the smile slowly faded from her face, and the glistening happiness of her eyes was replaced by something else. It took a few moments as the pair slid back into silence, but when she swallowed thickly, he knew that something had gone wrong.

"I- I Uh..." she stood suddenly, jamming her books back into her bag and eyes growing slightly red.

"What's wrong?" Scorpius stood to match her, frowning as she packed her things and hurriedly left. Weren't they finally just getting along?

"Rose-" he called after her, but she was gone. Scorpius couldn't tell us it was anger or disappointment that flooded through his veins, making him more impassioned than he had been for a long time. He was taking short, sharp breaths now and felt his fists clench and unclench rapidly. What was her problem? What had he done? She can't have gone far, he decided and stood to chase after her.

But she was only around the corner, standing stock still. Her eyes were glassy as though full of tears, red-rimmed and her nostrils quivering ever so slightly.

Her mouth hung open as though certain words she'd rather weren't heard were about to come tumbling out.

"Malfoy... I..."

Ahh, the romance you've all been waiting for! And I'm happy to say that next week, we will finally hear from Rose!

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