Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Hello again friends! Woo, we made it to the 10th Chapter! And we just passed an X-thousand hits milestone! I just want to say again that I'm super, super grateful to all of my wonderful readings and thank you for coming on this fic-journey with me! Anyway, enough of my gushing.

Thank you to LuciousNesha (wow, I'm so thrilled you liked her so much! Thank you!), Guest, Catwomannnnnn1 (indeed you will get more Rose in the future!), BellaStoria, Guest (yeah, I prefer Scorpius too... clearly no bias here!) and Guest for reviewing. And good timing, Guest - I'm posting today! Anyway. I did just want to clarify, Rose is totally not in love with Scorpius. Like, at all. She's just finding it strange and mildly alarming that she's so attracted to someone who she thought was like the most annoying person ever.

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Friends

"Malfoy… I…"

Scorpius took a silent step towards her, reaching out a tentative hand. "Rose? Tell me, what's wrong?" He murmured the words softly, but she shied away from his outstretched hand just as it ghosted her elbow.

There was a battle in her eyes. The same one he watched his father wage for months and months before he told Scorpius about his mother's illness. The same one that he watched his mother lose as she died, without another word. The candlelight flickered in Rose's watery eyes and, for a moment more, she hovered in indecisive agony.

And then, just as quickly as it began, it ended. Blinking fast, she righted herself; the colour dulled in her slightly reddened eyes. She swallowed, uncomfortable, but wouldn't dare meet his gaze.

"I... will see you in Transfiguration."

She turned and walked briskly down the uniformly straight rows of books, clutching all her belongings tightly to her chest. He watched her in the dim light; crimson hair swaying down her back with each step she took. He couldn't hear anything but a few sniffs and the sound of her footsteps padding on the old, worn carpet. He'd give anything to be watching as she walked towards him and not away. Just once.

He sighed heavily, and turned away from her departing figure, standing over the desk they'd been sitting at. Hands deep in his pockets, he closed his eyes and let his head fall wearily to his chest. Every time she walked away like that, it hurt just a little bit more. He wondered for the first time if his endeavours were selfish, or even entirely destructive. That he'd be stuck in this miserable state all because he was foolhardy enough to chase after a girl who didn't give a damn about him. He couldn't tell if it was icy anger or desperate dread that made him suddenly feel so cold.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes once more. And he slumped heavily down into a chair, head in his hands. Scorpius Malfoy didn't often feel stupid, but in that moment, he felt like the dumbest person alive. Asking her to Hogsmeade, never mind the Ball, seemed like a completely stupid idea. He gathered up the books on his side of the desk and put them back in his bag, slinging it over his shoulder with a frown. He was tucking his chair under the table and about to leave when his fingers brushed against something on the table.

He turned slowly to see what it was. A shining slip of paper. A photograph, lying innocently on the wooden desk. Worn at the corners and faded at the edges, he picked it up and held it to his face for examination. Rows of smiling people beamed back at him. Some frowned suspiciously when they didn't recognise the face peering closely at them. Twenty-nine, he counted in total - and most of whom he could identify. Albus, he saw quickly. And Rose. Brothers and sisters for each of them, and cousins who almost universally had that signature Weasley hair. A few Weasley uncles and one aunt, and the friends they'd married. They beamed, even Albus was smiling. Rose hung on the edge of the front row of people, but seemed to be shuffling back into her older cousin's legs - one of the two Veela girls, Scorpius didn't know which - a shy smile on her face. Well, everyone had their shy phases, he supposed with a smile. He unevenly worked his way through naming almost everyone but this one boy - this boy with vividly red hair and a bashful smile, who he couldn't quite place. It struck him how he knew so much about a group of people he'd never met. How many of them would've been able to tell who he was? It struck him how isolated he truly was. It was an uncomfortable thought, sticking to him like a leech and uncomfortably swirling in his chest.

Scorpius carefully slid the picture between the pages of his battered potions books and slung his bag back over his shoulder. Rose could have this photo back next time, when she wasn't about to cry at something he'd probably done.

"I did it! I did it!"

"What? Finally accepted you serpentine nature?"

"Finally managed to catch up to our height?"

"Leave off, Joshua." Albus rolled his eyes. But it was true. Albus stood a few inches short of Scorpius, who was again an inch or two off Joshua and Max. Alfie was by far the tallest of them all, irritatingly, but at least he didn't often lord it over them. "No," a grin covered his face again, and suddenly all was forgiven, "I asked Lydia to go to the Slug Club with me!"

He flushed pink, looking slightly out of breath as he stood in the doorway of their dorm.

"You did what?!" Max shot upright on his bed, his Arithmancy book flying out of his hand and onto the floor in his haste.

"Professor Vector won't thank you for that."

Max scowled at Alfie. "This is the only time Al's ever shown his balls—"

"— well there was that one time with the showers…"

"—and I don't give a fuck if the book burns itself."

"Go on, what happened?"

"I asked her on the Prefect's rounds. We were talking about… I don't know, maybe butterbeer or something?"

"Butterbeer? So romantic!" Joshua chided.

"Shut up. Anyway, I just kind of blurted it out!"

"Scorpius-style?"

Scorpius shot Alfie a wounded look.

"No. I did it like a normal person. And it was amazing. I see why you two pricks do it all the time now."

Joshua and Max took a mock-bow in unison.

"What did she say?" Scorpius asked, shuffling slightly and getting an irritated meow from Theia in response.

"Well, she just kind of blushed at first. Then she shook her head and said yes." Albus seemed to be off in his own world, grinning to himself. "She's so pretty, I don't know why no one else has gone out with her before."

Scorpius caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. The widening of Joshua's eyes and Max' neck whip round with a slight shake of his head. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but it was a mark of how far they'd come these past few years that Joshua didn't feel the need to brag about whatever he and Lydia had done. If, two years ago, they hadn't become friends, Scorpius was certain that this moment would've got very, very ugly.

"So, that's one date down." Max recovered quickly, but that distinctive confidence in his voice that bordered on cocky sounded hollow. "Who're you taking, Scorpius?"

"Oh, yeah." He hadn't really focused on it. He'd been so focused on chasing down Rose that the Slugclub hadn't even occurred to him. "No idea."

"You've got the entire school at your disposal now, better choose well." Joshua pointed out.

Scorpius grimaced. Any choice he made would only come back to haunt him. If he took Rose — well, that wasn't even an option. If he took Mia, she'd get completely the wrong idea, and Max would perhaps not be okay with that - although for a couple going to the Ball together they didn't appear to be all that close. And anyway, any other girl he took would probably get the wrong idea at this point. Even Grace Hill, or Sabrina Gregg - but she'd be a bad idea on account of Alfie, anyway. And then, the idea struck him. "Alfie! You should come with me." He looked over at his tall friend. "Slughorn tolerates you better than Max and Joshua, and it's not like you'll get the wrong idea." Scorpius waggled his eyebrows, and Alfie rolled his eyes but chose not to comment, quickly diving back into the fragile looking astronomy book he held tenderly in his hands.

"Do you ever stop reading?" Max asked. Alfie lowered his book.

"Sometimes." He pulled the book back in front of his face again. "When you aren't being boring."

'...The ancient Pythia of Delphi is commonly believed to have been an epileptic woman who had fits that were understood as prophecies from the god Apollo - who is lord of prophecy, amongst other traits. However, magical records would suggest that it was actually a highly coveted role for young witches, who would do nothing but sit all day and be able to openly practice magic without fear of being ostracised. Furthermore, no matter what the Pythia was asked, she could reply as she liked and her attendants would interpret it for her. Over time, this job became so highly coveted that foreigners acquired the role, which led to the increase of oracles being written in remarkably broken Greek. Modern scholars, however, still insist that the Pythia was merely a particularly ill muggle girl with little ability to spell.'

Scorpius snorted. "Wow, how stupid."

"That's harsh."

His heart almost leapt out of his throat. "I-uh- I was just... Rose! Hi."

She paused for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Whatever," she mumbled softly. "Look, I, uh... I wanted to say something."

"Oh?" Scorpius pinched himself under the table. Was he dreaming?

"Outside?" Rose added in a whisper, looking at the table just across from them, where a bunch of third years waved shyly at Scorpius before their faces flashed crimson.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." He nodded with a wave back at the girls. How long had that been happening for, he wondered, slightly bemused.

Packing his bags quickly, he followed a particularly antsy looking Rose out of the library and through the dimly light corridors of the castle, drenched in the red light of the weak sun. Well, if nothing else, at least the weather tomorrow would be alright.

"Why're we going so far? Lost a niffler somewhere?"

He only heard a huff in response.

Finally, they came to a sudden halt on the far side of the third floor where a spiralling tower would take you up to the Gryffindor Tower entrance, if you hiked up two flights of stairs.

"Are you okay?" He asked reluctantly, watching her face for how badly he might have screwed thing up with just three words.

"Don't talk. Do not say one word until I've finished."

Scorpius' mouth dried in an instant. He couldn't talk. He just swallowed hard and nodded, praying all the while that she wasn't a good occlumens.

She began pacing in front of him. "So, I've been thinking. And I've decided that I was too mean to Al - and you. I won't explain myself to you, but I will say that I decided not to like you because - well, you know. It's obvious."

Scorpius watched Rose through narrowed eyes. She was going to have to explain that one. And whilst this hadn't gone in the direction he would've preferred, he decided that an interruption would be at his peril.

"I admit that I was not kind to you. I admit that I stood by and watched what people said to and about you - even agreed with some of it. I admit that they were ludicrous rumours and thusly it was unfair to blemish your character with. Furthermore, I did not even try to acquaint myself with your character. Whilst I assumed that you wanted to beat me every ounce as much as I wanted to beat you in every test, you never said as much. And whilst I assumed that you were a massive pillock, I never took time to discover this for myself. Therefore, the only logical conclusion is that I miscalculated my actions at the expense of your emotional wellbeing.

"So... well, what I'm trying to say is..." She stopped pacing abruptly, squaring her shoulders and tensing her jaw. "I'm sorry, Malfoy."

Scorpius blinked vacantly. "Okay."

"What?" She asked, utterly dumbfounded. She whirled around and stared him down where he sat on the remarkably cold windowsill. "That's it?"

He shrugged, nonplussed. "Yeah. You apologised, and I'm fine with it. It's okay. What's the big deal?"

"What's the big- Ugh!" She massaged her temples. "It took me ages to think up what to say!"

He bit his lips to keep from smiling. It was blindingly obvious that she had rehearsed the speech to perfection in her head. Only robots spoke as unnaturally as that, after all. "I appreciated the speech then. Thank you."

Rose rolled her eyes and gave him an irritated look - which, by his counting, was better than loathing! "Fine. And this absolutely does not make us friends. But it does mean that we can go back to square one. Deal?"

Scorpius already knew that he was in too deep to ever go back to square one with Rose. "Deal," he took her outstretched hand and they shook on it.

"I'm leaving. You can go back the way we came - it'll be quicker for you." Without waiting to hear a reply, Rose was gone. He smiled after her and waited until she was utterly gone from view to do his very own silent dance.

It was working.

It was working!

He had a chance!

It's the little things in life.

Scorpius stretched in his seat.

"Careful!" Max warned from next to him, as Scorpius accidently sent a cascade of snow from the end of his wand over Max.

"Oh," he brushed a bit of the snow off Max' hair, "sorry."

Max went back to staring almost crosseyed at the end of his wand and trying to produce some kind of snow. They had been working on elemental production spells recently - first with fire, then water, and now to produce snow as a natural graduation towards ice spells.

"No, but seriously, when has this spell ever been useful?" Albus mumbled as the snow from his wand immediately melted away into water and dropped down onto his lap.

"My brothers have used it a few times. When they didn't want anyone to see where they'd been or when they'd come back in." He blinked unabashedly at their blank faces. "Fill in the footprints in the snow, no one can see where you've been...?"

"Sneaky."

"So you mean to tell me that the only use for this spell is some insane espionage level shit?" Max groaned. "Why did I take charms?"

"Because you love being with us." Scorpius beamed to his frowning friend.

Max rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Scor," Albus nudged Scorpius from his left, "did you and Rose make up or something?"

"Kinda why-"

"Don't look! She's just staring at you is all."

"Why can't I look?" He looked over to the opposite set of benches and, sure enough, there was Rose, between Paige Finnegan and Jasmine Thomas-Taylor, and she gave him a shy smile. "Oh my god."

"Um... Are you going to be okay?" Max asked awkwardly.

"Yep." He said tersely. He gave her as much of a smile as he could back before she raised her eyebrows with a laughing look that said 'really?' and turned her attention to Isabelle, who seemed to be setting her snow on fire as she made it.

"Miss Monroe! No, please stop!" The ancient professor squeaked as he hurried over, but not before a small fire erupted on their desk.

"Oh... oh no," Alfie muttered.

"Everybody, calm down!" The professor squeaked. "Now, since only Miss Granger-Weasley and Mr Malfoy seem to be able to produce snow that does not immediately melt nor set on fire, let's have them demonstrate their work. Please, come to the front.

"Oh, you goody-goody." Max scoffed.

"Seriously, how? I just cast the bloody spell!" Scorpius whined as he stood and did that eternally awkward shuffle out of a narrow row of seats.

He and Rose made their way to the platform between the two long benches where all twenty-something students sat, and stood awkwardly next to each other. Well, Scorpius felt awkward, twiddling his wand between his hands. Rose, for her part, stood as confidently as always. But now and then, he could feel her eyes on him, and it did nothing to help alleviate his awkwardness.

"Please, individually demonstrate the spell." Flitwick asked them.

The pair looked at each other confusedly.

"What- like make a pile of snow here?"

"Yes, Mr Malfoy."

"Okay."

Concentrating hard, he channelled his energy into saying the spell loudly and clearly in his mind, and then it happened. A cold, clear shower of snow, falling prettily in the cold autumnal sunlight to the floor.

"Do you see? This is how the spell is supposed to look. Now," Professor Flitwick stood before the pair, "I want you both to create something with it."

"Like a snowman?"

"Yes, if you please."

"Or a snowwoman."

"Make a snow child, if it pleases you."

Rose and Scorpius looked at each other. "Snow child?"

"Yes."

They again started creating their snow, and, as they did, it began to take form beneath them. One small ball of snow on the ground before them.

"Let's do another next to it."

"Why should we?"

"Then we can put one on top of another and it'll look better."

"Ah."

And so they made another ball. And, wordlessly, another.

"Students, this is the effect of this spell. Whilst it may not have much value as a snow creation spell compared with the very high importance of fire or water,"

"Do you want to assemble the body and I'll conjure the coal?" Scorpius asked.

Rose nodded, and wordlessly levitated the three balls of snow, one on top of another.

"-it is another spell that can be used as a canvas on which other spells can be applied."

"Carbo compareo." Scorpius muttered, and several chunks of coal appeared in his hand. Shrinking them down, he gave several to Rose and with a keen eye for perfection placed them on the knee-high snow creation.

"You appear to be forgetting something." Professor Flitwick nodded to the little snow child.

Stepping back, Scorpius admired their work. It was cute and, oh- "It's got no arms."

Rose laughed softly. "Would you like to do the honours?"

Scorpius shook his head. "You go on."

Rose mumbled a spell softly and conjured two sticks which she placed into the snow child's body.

"Excellent." professor Flitwick declared. "And now, the point: just as easily as you should be able to conjure something made of snow with this elemental spell, you should be able to destroy it with another. Incendio."

The snow child was gone before it even had a chance to live. Scorpius gasped in horror, watching as, in seconds, it was gone.

"There, there. It didn't even have a name." Rose rolled her eyes. That didn't make Scorpius feel any better.

"Thank you, Mr Malfoy, Miss Granger-Weasley. You may return to your seats."

Scorpius reluctantly parted from Rose, awkwardly shuffling down the isles until he sat back down in his slightly damp seat.

"Have you been making more water again?"

"I did try to evaporate it all." Albus offered, apologetically.

"That's the nicest I've ever seen Rose be to you." Max intoned as Flitwick began telling the class how he was disappointed in their efforts with this spell.

"I know. It's awesome."

"Always the optimist."

"...by next class, you must be able to form a spherical ball of snow. If not, then I will set you a 14" essay on the practical application of this spell - which, mark my words, will not be easy." Professor Flitwick gave them a stern glare which was surprisingly terrifying from the little old man. "Class dismissed. I'll see you all in a few days."

"So, Scorpius. What was better about that class - knowing you have no homework, or actually getting along with Rose?"

"C'mon. Is that even a question?"

"Well, as the ethical heart of Operation: Rose-"

"Um, it's actually The Rose Plan," Max interrupted.

"Whatever. I'd say that I'm more optimistic about its success than I ever was before."

Scorpius grinned to himself. Not to say that he was feeling chuffed, but if the world ended in that moment, he'd be pretty happy.

"So you mean to tell me that in the muggle world, these films where they have characters doing magic is explained as 'science'?" Scorpius squinted. "That makes almost no sense. They're just not the same. At all."

"I mean, sure it does. I told you how batshit it was when I discovered my powers, and some of my family actually had a concept of magic existing. For the people who don't think it exists at all, they've got to explain it somehow."

Scorpius, Joshua and Max posed at the top of an absent flight of stairs.

"It's still bloody mental that this exists in our world." Max added, before being distracted by a flirtatious looking lady from a portrait nearby.

"Yeah, and it's to them mental that our world exists in theirs. Anyway, you're the ones who asked about what 'them muggles do in their holidays'."

"I just wasn't expecting to be so well informed about 'Holly-tree'—

"— Hollywood—"

"Yeah, thanks, by the end." Scorpius finished. "Anyway," he began as they hopped down the stairs when they finally turned up and strolled down the Runes corridor, turning to make sure they still had Max with them, "it's not like that's all muggles do in their summer holidays, right? Like they've got to have some other hob—"

"Scorpius!"

Joshua's warning came too late, and he felt a shoulder whack right into his lungs and he felt all the air being pushed out of him.

"Ow! Oh..." he looked up to see Rose standing there, massaging her shoulder.

"Oh, Rose! Ah, oh my- I'm, I'm so sorry!" Isabelle stood next to her, looking like she might explode from containing her smile, for some reason. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, the frown easing. "Sure, are you?"

Scorpius nodded wordlessly. Mostly because it still didn't feel like he had the air in his lungs to do so. "Just watch where you're going, okay?"

"I'll certainly try to avoid anymore chesty-confrontations."

He could almost feel the power of Joshua and Max' cringes.

"Okay, sure, Malfoy." Rose sighed desperately as she left. "See you, Max, Joshua."

"Later." Isabelle declared, with a smile and a wink that could've been for Max or could've been for the gargoyle behind them.

"You have to step up your game, mate." Joshua declared with a grim-set face.

"Oh Merlin yeah, desperately."

And with a dopey smile he replied, "Still, though, I kind of have a good feeling about this."

Aaaand if any of you can guess my major then I'll be so damn impressed. But like, y'know, it's kinda obvious.

Anyway, do you guys think it's really going to be plain smooth sailing from here? Let me know!

Thanks for reading. Please follow for more and review if you've got time. Thanks!