"What?"

Rose tried to wrap her mind around what she was being faced with. A curious Malfoy. And the thing that had piqued his interest? A car. Of which Rose knew nothing about beyond how to drive it, the basics of keeping it running, and that if there were issues she needed to bring it to someone who actually knew how everything worked together. Her best option would be to just say 'magic' and move on.

Scorpius gestured to the car, "Teach me about it. What makes it run? What are all…" he waved his hands at everything exposed under the hood, "...these things?" Then he quirked an eyebrow and shot her a sidelong look, the edge of his lips curling upward in the beginnings of a smirk, "Unless you don't know, that is…"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him, "Of course I know. I wouldn't drive it if I didn't know how it worked."

Well, that had gone well. Rose Weasley: Humblest Witch of Her Generation, at your service. She glared down at the car, mind spinning at the simple, honest exit that she had tossed aside because she couldn't stand to admit she didn't know. To Scorpius Malfoy of all people.

Throughout their years at school, Scorpius was among the competition in who knew the most in their year. She knew that Scorpius was too thorough in learning things to be satisfied with an explanation of tires and windshield wipers. He didn't pursue knowledge halfway. Her father had always told her to beat the 'Malfoy brat' in everything, but he hadn't ever told her how difficult that directive would be. It hadn't endeared her competitive self to him at all growing up and faced with his sole interest, she was dismayed.

Sure, her mother and grandfather had made sure she was in touch with her muggle roots, but she hadn't gone to muggle school . What she knew of muggle science and mechanics was what lessons her mother had found time to teach them when she wasn't busy at the Ministry. And even then, her mother had gone to school at Hogwarts - not much of a well-rounded muggle education there either. And Grandma and Grandpa Granger were dentists...not teachers.

Rose was well and truly screwed.

She started with the things she did know, thinking that would be safe. But this was Scorpius and he had in depth questions about everything. What are the tires made of? How does the steering wheel actually move the tires? How do the headlights actually turn on? Are there flames in them? Which was a dangerous path to go down to try and explain the fundamentals of electricity to Scorpius and how many ways muggles utilized it. Instead, she ignored that question and moved on to the side mirrors.

It didn't take Rose long to convince herself that she didn't actually have to give him real answers. If she used a bit of creative thinking, Scorpius would be none the wiser and she would successfully get through this without letting him in on the fact that she didn't know everything. Merlin forbid. She took comfort in the fact that the likelihood of Scorpius Malfoy being exposed to cars after this was slim to none.

So, thirty minutes later she was explaining, "...and that's the gravity controller. It allows the driver to take sharp turns at higher speeds without fear of the car flipping over," as she pointed confidently at the nondescript metal part under the hood. She was fairly certain it was one she hadn't pointed to before.

Scorpius was beside her, leaning his forearm on the edge of the propped-up hood above as he peered down at the labyrinth of parts on display before them. She had a horrible feeling that he was memorizing everything. It made her painfully aware of the fact that she had abandoned making things even sound plausibly muggle-ish about fifteen minutes prior. Making up things that sounded like they were ways that muggle things worked had quickly become tedious, so she added a bit of...creative flair.

Essentially, she'd been spouting absolute nonsense for a majority of the time and she was starting to feel truly ridiculous.

The pause after explaining the gravity-controller dragged on and she saw him glance at her out of the corner of her eyes. She cleared her throat and nodded, "Yeah. I think that's it."

"Already?"

She shrugged, "What can I say...there are only so many parts."

Scorpius lowered his arm from the hood and propped both hands on the edge of the car as he leaned forward. Rose watched him warily, trying to gauge how well she'd managed to pull off her little stunt. She took comfort in the fact that even as his gaze swept over the multitude of metal contraptions in front of them, he had no other information to compare her ramblings to. So there was a possibility he would take it at face value.

Rose couldn't help a bubble of amusement at the thought of most muggle men finding cars irresistible and here she was, standing with a typical wizard male who knew next to nothing about them. Not that Scorpius was really anything she would call 'typical'...

She frowned at the stray thought, but allowed herself to be distracted by Scorpius standing straight and smirking over at her, "How much of that lesson was pure fiction?"

Bollocks.

She felt her cheeks flush, but she summoned a glare, "Are you calling me a liar, sir?"

Scorpius's eyebrows lifted and he leaned his hip against the vehicle, "Why, Ms. Weasley, don't you know what we do to liars around these parts? It's a very serious offense."

The note of teasing in his voice had her lips tempted to curl into a grin and there was a low flutter in her abdomen. Well, two could play that game. Rose planted a hand on her hip, "Even if I had been lying, I'm not afraid of you. You wouldn't do a thing to me."

The way his eyes trailed over her in a deliberate once over sent a flicker of warmth rushing across her skin. She felt a little breathless at how the air between them shifted from banter to something with more intent. Those flutters from before were melting into a low heat.

"I have a few ideas that would do," was all he drawled before turning away from her and moving around the car. He trailed his fingers lightly across the vehicle as he went, approaching the passenger's window and peering in. Her eyes followed his fingers along their path a beat longer than was strictly necessary.

She snapped her gaze back down to the engine and all its trappings, willing herself to calm down. The look in his eyes had been...intense. She had no doubts at all as to why Scorpius Malfoy was regarded as one of the most eligible boys at Hogwarts...and that was after pointedly banishing the image of him shirtless from just that morning. She needed to calm down.

"I can't blame you for lying, though. The thing became far more interesting when you started making things up," he called back to her as he came around the boot of the car, making for the driver's side.

Staring at him, Rose was trying to both calm herself down and process the sudden shift back to normalcy.

They had been flirting . She had been flirting with Scorpius Malfoy , of all the people in the world. Her father would kill her. His father would probably kill him. There would be a general mass killing of Scorpius and Roses if anyone found out.

What was even more appalling was how much she had enjoyed it.

"Uh...thanks?" was all she could manage. She was working through the topic whiplash, dragging her thoughts back to the car. The car and the things she'd made up. Which he enjoyed, but that also meant he knew she had made it up. Which meant he also knew he'd gotten under her skin by suggesting she didn't know how cars worked. Which was true, but still .

She ran her fingers through her ponytail, snagging on a stubborn curl. She took a deep breath and moved over toward him as he opened the door and slid behind the steering wheel, his eyes flitting across the dashboard.

"No problem," he mumbled absently. She stopped next to the open door, using both hands to work through the knot she'd found. It refused to relent, as if intentionally mirroring her currently tangled thoughts. With a sigh, she gave up, and pushed her ponytail back off her shoulder as Scorpius spoke up again.

"So, I assume this one is speed," he pointed to the speedometer before trailing it over to the gauge nearest. "What's the one with F and E?"

Rose came around, propping her hand on the top frame of the car as she leaned in to point with her other hand, "That's the gas gauge. It's…" She stopped as she registered the needle was well below the E. "Oh, hell," came out in a growl as she straightened and pressed her forehead into the back of her hand that was propped on the frame. Breathe. Breathe.

"Is it bad?"

Rose clenched her jaw briefly before grinding out, "Let's just say F means Full."

"Oh." He fell quiet and blinked at the offending gauge.

She pushed away from the vehicle, feeling the curl of self-loathing from this morning unfurl in her stomach, "I can't believe I didn't...Ugh." She stopped, leaning forward to place her hands on her knees. Breathe, breathe, breathe.

She heard Scorpius get out of the car, "Hey, you were upset."

Her jaw was clenched hard enough that the muscles were starting to ache.

She couldn't even run away properly.

Breathe.

Rose let out a shaky breath, forcing her jaw to relax before straightening, ignoring Scorpius where he hovered a yard or so behind her. She could feel the weight of his gaze on her back. She spun around and walked past him to pop the boot. Grabbing her duffle bag out, she hiked it onto her shoulder, "I'll get my trunk later. Let's go."

She was almost proud at how steady her voice was. It was clipped, but there were worse things. Rose moved past him without another word and started back toward the manor. Scorpius trailed a few yards behind her the entire walk back, silence suffocating as she focused on steady breathing and not giving in to the stinging at the edges of her eyes.

Whoa...was there...flirting? ;)

Really, Rose just needs a lot of hugs, poor girl. *sigh* The things I do to my characters.

I want to say THANK YOU to all of you whoa re following along with this crazy ride! It makes me so happy every time I get a notification for a follow or a review and I'm just so surprised and grateful that people are enjoying the story. So, thank you, thank you, thank you! See you in two weeks!