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Enjoy!

Chapter 19: Intoxicatingly Close

The path down to Hogsmeade with slippery with two-day-old snow. It crunched sickeningly underfoot, and every step made you slip ever so slightly closer to your doom.

"Are you okay?"

"Yep."

Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure?"

Scorpius nodded tersely. Not because he was angry with her, but because he thought he might fall on his face if he stopped concentrating on putting one foot before the other.

Rose put her arm around his, thing his shoddy balance to her much superior balance.

He must've had a look of utter bewilderment on his face because she only gave him a look of barely restrained laughter and said no more.

When they made it to Madam Puddifoot's the late-morning sun was shining over Hogsmeade, making the snow shine blindingly bright.

"Shall we?" Rose asked, peering in the windows of the obnoxiously pink café.

"After you," Scorpius held the door open for her, and was relieved when, as he stepped inside, the warm air hit him like a dense wall. "Oh, finally."

"I know. It's too cold outside." Rose sighed.

They looked around the café for a vacant table. Frankly, it was sickening. There was James and... Millie Longbottom? That was a surprise. And he was saying something so sappy to her that she blushed the colour of beetroot. In the corner, Leo Black was sucking the face off a girl Scorpius didn't know, and Patrick from the other Slytherin boy's dorm was watching with outright disgust, across the table from Sophia Davis, who gave Scorpius a smile they caught each other's eyes. And then Scorpius recognised one of the Patil sisters, sitting across from the back of a particular shade of sandy hair that could only be from the Finnegan brother.

"Let's sit over there." Rose nodded to a table in almost the farthest corner away. James turned at the sound of her voice, and opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and closed his mouth when Rose gave him a glare.

A treakly pot of shared tea later, Scorpius and Rose were both looking around the outrageously pink tea-shop in vague disgust. The sickeningly sweet harp music descended from above, and little Cornish pixies dressed in Cupid's togas flitted around the ceiling.

"This is..."

"... really something."

"It's not always this sickly, is it?"

"Oh yes, it's always been this hard to deal with." Rose sighed, looking careworn.

Scorpius gave her a look, which she matched immediately.

He'd had enough of his place, and he knew she had too.

"Shall we—?"

"Let's."

And without another word passing between them, they left the monument to all that is awkward about dating, stepping back out into the bitingly fresh later-November air.

"That was..."

"I know." Rose sniggered.

"Where do you want to go?" He asked, awkwardly, not quite able to look her in the eyes. Sure, she'd said that 'it was a date', but he didn't know if it was that kind of date. He wasn't about to go guessing this way or that, not now. He'd leave it up to her to say.

"Let's go on a walk."

"You know, my uncle ran this business in his own for a while." Rose said almost vacantly, looking up at the garishly bright Weasley's Wizard Wheezes as they passed.

"Which one?"

"Oh, yeah." She laughed, "George."

"But I thought your dad ran it?"

"No. He was only sixteen when it was established, and then didn't help out until he was in his mid-twenties."

"So your Uncle ran it all by himself for years?"

Rose shook her head. "He had a twin, once."

"Seriously?"

"Really. No one knows much about him, though. No one ever talks about him. Well - George does when he's drunk at Christmas."

"Oh?"

Rose gave that same smile that looked like she was just about to laugh. It made her eyes crinkled at the edges in that infectiously cute way. "He's very sweet, really, but he also clearly misses his twin. He..." the smile died, quickly. "He's... different, according to dad."

He could see how sad it made her to think about this. He'd never realised just how much Rose cared about her family; not when compared with all her other cousins. To hear Albus tell it - at least until a few years ago - she couldn't care less about any of them except the 'cool' cousins. Yet here she was, babbling on about her Uncles.

"And so Percy helped out running the business for a few years, with Charlie, too."

"Isn't your Uncle Percy really..."

They met eyes, and neither had to say aloud what they all knew he was going to say anyway: Boring.

"Well, yeah. He is a bit. He's actually quite nice, really, if you just engage him in a topic you care about. Of course, Albus never learner that - but I suppose he gets that from both his parents." She said, firmly, with a roll of her eyes. Scorpius said nothing, but tucked away the information for later use.

"And frankly, Uncle Charlie is quite reckless. But of course, he's one of Albus' favourites."

"He's reckless?" Scorpius prompted. He would've listened to her talk all day. He noticed that she had a very slight West Country twang in her accent over certain words. It just so...

He couldn't think of the word. The only suitable way to describe it was 'Rose'.

"He's a dragon keeper! Not exactly role-model of the year, is he? And especially when he used to bring us little baby dragons to play with at Christmas..."

She gave a huff, folding her arms.

"You used to play with dragons over Christmas?"

"Well," She unfurled her arms and gave a little smile, "they were pretty cute."

They came to a halt before 'Pet Emporium', and the cage of pink fluffy Pygmy Puffs.

"Aren't they so cute?" Scorpius cooed over the dozens of bright little puffs of fur, all squeaking around their enclosure.

"Oh! You like Pygmy Puffs, too?"

"Of course. I have a heart, don't I?"

Rose laughed. "Sure. My dad thinks they're kind of pointless - although I'm pretty sure he only says that to wind up my aunt." Scorpius gave her an inquisitive look. "She used to have one when she was younger."

"Seriously? She's so lucky." Scorpius sighed, enviously.

"And you know what she called it?"

"No?"

"Arnold."

"Wha- really?"

"Hey, I don't know if you've noticed Albus' name, but between them, Uncle Harry and Ginny aren't so great at naming things..." Rose said with a mischievous smirk.

Scorpius wasn't quick to argue with her.

"I've always wanted one of these."

"Why don't you get one, then?"

Scorpius gave an exaggerated sigh. "Theia would eat them."

"Oh. Right." Rose said, confusion and mild alarm evident on her face. She played with the end of her long plait. "Shall we...?" She walked on, leaving Scorpius to contemplate how stupid he sounded in her wake.

The woods at the edge of Hogsmeade town were constantly in one of two states: full of horny teenagers finding somewhere to get off, or utterly abandoned.

"Looks like it's totally abandoned today, huh?" Rose commented to no one in particular.

"Looks like it, Scorpius said, hurrying to catch up with her. She, for some unknown reason, had the grace of a swan on the icy paths. He, however, had all the grace of a pigeon.

"The Shrieking Shack looks kind of pretty in this light, don't you think?"

The golden midday light flooded through the trees and onto the dilapidated house, making it glow with an aura-like sheen.

"Yeah, it does." Scorpius panted, finally catching up with her to lean on the old fence.

She gave him that smile, eyeing him up and down, before she turned her attention back to the house.

Scorpius could feel it coming. He could feel the pressure building up in the silence. For some reason, every instinct was telling him to do the one thing that he knew he should not at all do. He turned to look at her, red hair escaping under a knitted hat, nose red from the cold and her breath coming out in clouds before her mouth.

History lesson time!

"You know, this house has been there since the fifteen hundreds, but the haunting rumours only began during the last century."

Rose turned to look at him again, that smile never fading from her lips, but her eyebrows raising ever so slightly.

It's not like neither of them expected this to happen.

"There were first reports during the 80s that there was howling coming from the house intermittently. But no ghosts have ever been sighted, so it's left the historical community in quite a conundrum."

"Hm. Has it, now?"

She had that look on her face that meant she knew the answer. Of course he knew that look; he'd watched her in class for six years now.

"What do you know?"

"Well," she looked back over to the house, "my parents have been in there, before."

Scorpius frowned. "Like— in, in?"

"Yep. My dad broke his leg in there once, apparently."

"What? How?"

Rose tilted her head. "I actually don't know. Mum just mentioned it once, and never told me about it again. Hugo might know, though."

Scorpius paused. He couldn't help himself from his next question. "But... the ghosts?"

"Oh, yeah. No ghosts. Well, says mum."

"And your dad?"

Rose shrugged. "The chances of him being right and mum being wrong are slim to none."

Scorpius laughed. It was widely known that no one crossed Minister Granger-Weasley, not when it came to matters of intelligence.

Silence floated over them like the first snowflakes of winter. It wasn't unpleasant. He quite liked it, actually. She was always so nice to be around... He'd thought, when he was younger, that if only she'd just talk to him, like him, go out with him, then they'd get on like a house on fire and they'd never stop talking. That there would be some magical moment that caused them to fall in deep, unceasing, unrelenting love for the rest of their lives. That once they were together, they'd never break apart. Perhaps reality was just so different or perhaps it was a sign of his ageing hat he didn't mind that they fell into silence quite often.

His eyes were draw back to the Shrieking Shack, that lonely house atop a plinth, the only thing in the crater of a valley that stretched down before them. It looked golden in the light, almost as though it had been abandoned fairly recently. Not for the first time, he wondered just who had lived there, once. Had they been happy? Why had they abandoned it? He'd always thought it was attacked by some big, huge, unspeakable monster when he was younger, but now he wasn't so sure. Now, he wished that it was some happy family who lived there, and stuck together when they moved out.

But, he realised with a grim sinking of his stomach, the window frames hanging off and the hastily nailed up wooden planks over the doors suggested otherwise.

"How's the Quidditch practice going?"

"Hm." Rose twisted her hands together in a nervous knot. "It's going fine, I guess. Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure. Ugh..." Scorpius fishes around for something, anything, to say. "Oh! Isabelle."

Rose looked at him suspiciously. "Yes?"

"Max was saying her drawings are really good the other day."

"Oh, yeah," Rose let out a deep breath, and let her hands fall relaxed over the barrier again, "yeah, she's always been amazing at drawing. Ever since we met."

"What was that, six years ago?"

She nodded her head. "We're dorm mates."

Scorpius didn't feel like saying that he knew that. It sounded awfully stalkerish as he thought in his head that actually, he knew who all her dorm mates were without her ever saying. And there being 11 Gryffindor girls in her year.

"Well, Max thinks she's really good at drawing."

"Is he into art or something?"

Scorpius shrugged. "No one really knows. Then again, no one knows much about Max."

"Apart from the list of girls he's shagged."

Scorpius chuckled, "yeah, apart from that."

"You know, I can never tell with him - is he from Yorkshire or does he just speak weirdly?"

Scorpius didn't think it was the exact right moment to tell the pit to stop calling the kettle black, so avoided saying anything. "Yeah, he says he's from just outside Mansfield, but he's actually from Skegby."

Rose crinckled her nose. "Oh. Well, I've never heard of Mansfield, but it doesn't sound much nicer than Skegby."

"I know." Scorpius shuddered. "Anyway, they're both up near Yorkshire."

Rose hummed, chewing on her bottom lip as she often did when in thought. "Where are you from, again? I'm not sure I've ever asked."

"Wiltshire. Somewhere out in the countryside."

"Try me," She said, with that enchanting, competitive smile that made her eyes narrow and the chocolate-brown irises shimmery a little more darkly.

"Rushall." He replied, unable to rid his face of a wide smile.

"Oh. Okay, fine."

He couldn't help himself but laugh, and thankfully, she joined in.

"What about you, then? Somewhere in Devon? Somerset?"

"North Devon. Libbaton. How did you guess, though?"

"Oh, just um," he thought very careful about how to phrase his next few words, "there's a little hint of an accent on a few words."

"Yep, one of my best friends when I was little was a girl from a few villages over. I picked it up then, I suppose."

He sighed, half with laughter and half out of relief.

"I don't know how those Muggle kids do it. The ones who live out on farms and stuff."

"I know," Scorpius sympathised, "it's bad enough with flop powder at the ready - never mind if you had to drive around places!"

"Can't they only drive when they're eighteen, too?"

"Something like that." Scorpius nodded. "Must be absolute torture."

Rose laughed. "You know, we thought Roxanne might be a squib when she was younger. George and Angelica got all worried about what life be like for her if she couldn't do magic. It would have been the worst."

Scorpius chuckled. "I suppose so."

"Oh— not that her being a squib would've been bad, just that they live out on the edge of Cornwall. As in, on the rocks on the edge of a cliff - several hours drive from the nearest town, apparently. She wouldn't have ever seen a human being until she was eighteen!"

Scorpius laughed with her. "That is... a weird choice of house."

"That's Uncle George."

The Three Broomsticks was quiet by the time they made it inside.

"It's nice and warm in here, isn't it?" Rose sighed, taking off her woolly hat and gloves. Scorpius nodded, unwinding his scarf from around his neck and taking off his mittens. He barely had time to look back up before Rose pulled him out of the path of a furious looking Mia Clarke.

"What?" Scorpius muttered.

Rose looked after her with a significant look, but said nothing.

Scorpius searches the pub for the others. And there he found them, a large group of them all, sitting in a booth some under a saggy looking beam.

Of course, Max was rolling his eyes, also walking over to join the main group of their friends, hands shoved deeply into his trouser pockets.

"Trouble in paradise?" Scorpius asked, knowing what the answer was likely to be, anyway.

"No chance. She's bloody mental." Max scoffed. "Hi, Rose." He gave a thoroughly uninterested wave to her, before plonking down heavily and moodily in a chair next to Lola. Lola, usually unperturbed by most things in life, looked thoroughly disconcerted at this. But nonetheless, she did valiantly try to strike up an extended conversation with him.

Scorpius and Rose took the last two vacant chairs, sitting across the rectangular table from Alfie, who was accompanied by Isabelle, Sabrina, and Jasmine.

"Joshua off with Amelie?" Scorpius asked, as Rose and Jasmine seemed to be having a silent, unfathomable conversation over the table.

Alfie nodded behind him, where Scorpius turned, and saw Joshua almost lying over the table in a desperate bid to be closer to Amelie.

"I know. They've been at it all afternoon. Well, he has at least." Isabelle said with a meaningfully raised eyebrow.

Scorpius turned back around, and cast his eyes around the table. Paige was missing, of course, as well as Albus and Lydia. And Alfie and Sabrina weren't cosied up together like all other dates... but by 3:40 on a freezing cold Hogsmeade afternoon, everyone seemed to be wearing better than usual. The second Hogsmeade visit was said to be the one with the most breakups, after all.

"So, where's Paige?" Scorpius asked, desperate to get some kind of conversation going that wasn't completely silent.

"Oh, I think she said she was going to Honeydukes then Marple's with Poppy and Grace." Lola answered

"Like Grace Hill?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "But... what about...?"

So much was left intentionally silent Scorpius wondered if he'd ever be able to have a conversation that fluent in 'girl-language' or whatever the hell it was.

"Yeah. He's busy. Off with Leo Black and people."

"Oh, is there trouble with him?" Alfie asked, apparently already clued in to this entire situation. Scorpius felt himself rolling his eyes at how well Alfie just seemed to understand social situations.

"Well," Isabelle said, suddenly becoming alert and leaning conspiratorially over the table, "he's a seventh year, after all. And we all know how much trouble seventh years are."

"Guilty." Jasmine raised a hand. "Go on, you too, Rose. You were so innocent with Jake Andrews."

Scorpius watched, half in horror, half in despair, as a blush spread across her face.

"Let's not. Please?"

Scorpius frowned. Jake. Jake Andrews? Jake Andrews!? She'd had a thing with quidditch-acing, too-scoring, lady-killing Jake Andrews!?

A part of his died inside. All of his hope of having a chance, gone. Of course he was being stupid. Of corse, she'd want to go for the handsome, ballsy, charismatic, dick-head Jake Andrews, and not someone so awkward as Scorpius. He watched them all carry on talking, but didn't hear a word they said. It was like he was underwater, drowning in his own despair. He hated it. He thought he'd been so close and... she never usually blushed like that. She never even seemed to care if he was looking at her, watching her, or ignoring her existence. He could never make her blush, only make her smile. His stomach flipped uncomfortably. But he knew better than to make a scene right here. Even if his blood pressure was probably shooting through the roof, he knew better than to wind Rose up in public. So he waited. And he let it marinade. And he let the disappointment grow, let a silent theif in the night, until it was dark outside and the wave of evening drinkers began pouring into the pub.

Rose hung back to walk up the path with him.

"Want to borrow my arm?" She joked, her face still rosy from the pub.

"Sure." He said, and they began the long hike back up to the castle in chilly silence.

"Scorpius," She finally sighed when they were half way up to the castle, "what is it? What's wrong?"

"Jake Andrews." He blurted out without even thinking about what a terrible idea that was for a moment.

"Jake Andrews?" She repeated, voice fully of confusion, "what's wrong with him?"

"I just... didn't know about all..."

Rose picked up on the meaning of his silences. She gave a disgusted sound of repulsion. "You mean Jake Andrews is your problem?" Her voice dropped with sardonic disdain. "Seriously? What is this, the 18th century? Do I need to be in 'mint condition' for you to even consider me that way?" She declared, her words tumbling out faster than she seemed to realise.

"What? No, no I just meant— I didn't know. I didn't know about any of that. That's all."

Rose sighed heavily through her nose. Clearly, it wasn't over yet.

"And what about Mia Clarke then? What about her?"

"Mia Clarke? I've been over this with you already! Nothing!"

"Oh really?" She huffed, "Well for nothing, you seem to be awfully cagey about it!"

Scorpius was taken back, mouth hanging open aghast. He paused as they finally made it to the bottom of the steps up to the bridge before the Castle. "I meant it."

"Really." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Fine! Fine, I'll show you then!" Scorpius declared, pulling her over to one of the lamps beneath the arched gate, stripping off his coat in the freezing December air.

"What? No! I don't want to—"

"Here!" Scorpius pointed to the patch of rough, pink skin on his back. "That's what Mia Clarke did to me. And that is why nothing has ever, or will ever happen."

Rose was silent in the still, cold air. But he heard her take two, slow, small steps towards him. And then he felt it. Her cold, thin fingertips running over the burnt skin.

"What... how did this happen?"

"A searing potion was 'accidentally' thrown at me. Mia was the only one to actually witness it, but she ran away instead of giving me the antidote."

"And she just... she just left you there?" Rose asked, her voice a weak whisper in the cold night air.

Scorpius nodded, turning back around and putting his coat back on. "She just left you, without even helping."

"Yeah. So that is the story with Mia Clarke."

Rose nodded, eye shimmering in the lamp light as she fought hard to look anywhere but him. "I'm so sorry."

Scorpius just gave a wave in the silence and, Merlin knows what compelled him, lifted her face up by the chin. Her eyes, they were so full of swirling, tempestuous emotions. Like a vat of the finest made living death, they'd suck you in in an instant, and hurt you all the worse for it.

"Jake Andrews and I kissed, just one time, at the end of last year. That's all." She said, her voice even and clean but oh so quiet.

Scorpius nodded, and with a smile, said "I like this way of solving arguments much better."

He was relieved to see Rose smile, too, and properly - her eyes crinkled at the edges. If they didn't, she didn't mean her happiness. "I can think of a better way, you know."

He'd never been so intoxicatingly close to her before, and it was almost suffocating him. Every breath he took seemed to last an eternity, every inch he leaned closer to her a mile long. He could almost see every freckle on her face, he was so close. Close to her beautiful eyes and cute nose and her wonderful lips...

"But I think we should save that for later." She whispered, and reached up an ungloved hand to cover his mouth.

He was stunned, taken aback by the sudden, darker look in her eyes and the suddenly extremely sexy smile she wore.

"Goodnight."

And she turned and left, walking a solitary path down the snowy bridge to Hogwarts before he could even move.

Without a doubt, she was the most enticing, enchanting, entrapping person he knew he would ever meet. There was never going to be another woman on earth like Rose Granger-Weasley.

And oh Merlin did he need an ice cold shower.

Mwhahahahahahaha. Yes, Yes I am awful. You're all welcome!

Also: shout out to my fellow countryside kids! Let's pour one out for all the cool parties we missed because we couldn't drive there and there was no bus. /3

Please review if you've got time (I suuuuper appreciate it) and follow for more. Thanks!