A/N: Standard written for The Houses Competition Year 10 round 6.
Prompt(s):
[First Line] We've spent too many hours, too many years, too many lives trying to figure out how we fit together.
[Dialogue] "It wasn't me!"
Scorpius Malfoy's Lost Owl
"We've spent too many hours, too many years, too many lives trying to figure out how we fit together."
"Sarah," Scorpius pleaded, and he moved as if to come closer, but she instantly raised her hand and stopped him.
"Scorpius," she replied in a tone that was more definitive than all the other words she'd said previously.
They were silently staring at each other for quite a while. Scorpius put his hand through his platinum blonde hair and thought back to the words she'd spoken last. It was not like her to use those words but also just like her to say it like that. She said the words in a controlled, calm manner, even though the words did not sound like the ones she'd chosen. It felt off for some reason. But he did care for her. He truly did. She was everything his family would want for him. From a good family and rich. Contrary to his grandparents, his mother and father did not care about blood purity and would even accept a muggle, as long as she was rich enough that she wouldn't rob him blind if they'd gotten divorced. Sarah Goodwill was a pureblood by coincidence, but that did not matter. She was the perfect housewife for Scorpius and his career, and his mother would love to have many grandkids, which Sarah also expressed interest in.
Meanwhile, the rain was loudly crashing on Sarah's apartment, and she stared at him. Her face was unreadable, so Scorpius took one small step forward in her direction.
"I love you," Scorpius said, barely audible above the nearly deafening rain.
Sarah smiled weakly at him and nodded.
"I know, but we don't fit well together. You need someone strong-headed. You need someone who challenges you, and you don't need a housewife. We would never be happy in the long run."
She sighed, and he waited for her to continue.
"The words I chose were from my favourite author. You know, that book I got you with all the poems and stories. The one you'd promised me you had read."
Ah. Now it all started to make sense. She was hurt, and he'd lied to her about it. The truth was, he had tried to read it, but for some reason, he couldn't finish a single story. I was written in a manner that felt too fancy and cocky for Scorpius' taste.
Scorpius' lips curled awkwardly upwards, and he smiled a painful smile. He said nothing.
"I'm sorry."
"You don't even know his name, do you?" she asked in an instant reply.
"It-" Scorpius started.
"It took you two months to know how I like my coffee," she said, again in a calm way that sounded accusatory but still completely respectful.
"I'm sorry," he said again.
But Sarah was on a roll now and gently moved her inky-black hair out of her face.
"You know, in the beginning, I thought you'd asked me out to hide the fact that you and Albus were very close," she admitted, her voice still barely audible over the crashing rain.
Scorpius raised his eyebrows and then slowly nodded once.
"I see."
It was silent for a second before he continued, "Contrary to what people might think, I am not into people of the male sex."
Now, it was Sarah's turn to raise her eyebrows. "Let's agree to disagree then."
"I am not in love with Albus Severus Potter!" Scorpius yelled.
"I know. You are in love with his cousin. Which is one of the reasons I'm not looking to continue this with you."
Sarah's face showed a deep frown and a hard-set mouth. Scorpius' face, on the other hand, showed nothing more than surprise.
"You think I am in love with Rose Weasley?" Scorpius scoffed, sounding almost indignant.
Sarah's serious face thawed immediately and turned into a smile just before she started laughing loudly.
Scorpius just stared at her, unsure of what was happening now.
"You realise that Albus has more cousins?" she asked after her first laughter subsided.
"Yes?" Scorpius replied, wondering what point she was trying to make.
"So, why did you assume that I meant Rose out of all of the possible cousins to choose from?"
"I-" Scorpius was dead silent.
Sarah looked at the thought process that was taking place in Scorpius' mind.
"Case and point," she said, not taking her eyes off of him.
She didn't sound spiteful, or mean, or ill-willing. Just factual, and to be honest with himself, Scorpius hated it.
Slowly, he nodded and said, "Alright then. If I cannot change your mind, I will go now. I just wanted to thank you for the good times we've had."
The melancholy had sounded very clear in his voice, and for some reason, it sounded louder than how he felt it.
Sarah nodded and smiled a little. "It was nice."
Scorpius felt the anger rising inside him with each word that she spoke and walked to the front door.
"Goodbye, Sarah."
"Goodbye, Scorpius."
Thinking of what he should do now, he debated whether or not to visit Albus when he reminded himself that Albus would be cooking for his date named Sapphira Finn. So, whilst standing in the pouring rain outside, Scorpius decided it was time for some shots and firewhiskey and made his way to the nearest wizarding club with decent music, the Smokey Dragon.
Rain blurred his vision from time to time, and the walk over there refreshed his mind a bit. He thought back to all the things Sarah had said to him and the way she'd said it. If Scorpius hadn't known it already, Sarah was a pureblood, through and through. It was clear that she wanted to say a lot more, and it was clear that she felt hurt, but even though she broke up with him, everything was still clearly pronounced in a calm and controlled manner. And for some reason, he hated the passionless manner in which she'd done so. It would've almost been more proper to yell at him and say things that weren't true in the hurt that she was feeling, and yet, the maturity that she'd displayed turned him off more than he had realised at that moment.
Musing a little more, and pondering all the effects of this decision, he entered the hall of the Smokey Dragon.
"Would you like a Drying Spell, sir?" one of the hosts offered as he looked at Scorpius' dripping wet clothes and hair.
Scorpius put his hand through his platinum hair once again and nodded, "Yes, please."
Warmth spread on his skin and his hair and even eyebrows were dry instantly. He raised his eyebrows impressed at the efficiency of the Drying Spell cast by the host. Then Scorpius proceeded to have his identification papers checked, his wand registered and his coat neatly hung on a coat hanger. Scorpius thanked the host and loud music welcomed him when he entered the dance floor itself. He made his way straight to the bar, and to his utter surprise, he stared at the person he did not want to see right now.
Rose Weasley.
"YOU!" he nearly shouted when she looked up from the menu to look at the person approaching her.
She moved backwards a little, placed the menu back on the bar and raised her hands in surrender.
"It wasn't me!" Rose shouted back.
Scorpius opened his mouth to say something but she hastened to add, "I swear it to you, Scorpius! I knew that you wouldn't find it funny, and I said so, but he still did it anyway. I swear that it wasn't me!"
"This was Albus' idea?" Scorpius asked surprised and wondered what she was talking about.
"Yes, he arranged everything with The Daily Prophet, I just know about it. I swear, it wasn't me."
He looked at Rose, whose emotions were so easily readable that he found himself smiling.
"So, you're drinking elvish wine again? With a splash of vodka and mint?" he pointed at the empty glass in front of her on the bar.
"How did you know?" she asked, surprise so clear in her voice whilst raising two fingers at the bartender for a set of shots.
"You always order it," was his simple answer.
"What?! I have done so three times in your presence, not one moment more. And I have drunk way more firewhiskey, so I'm surprised you remembered."
She studied him for a moment and then asked, "You are quite perceptive, aren't you?"
"To some people apparently," Scorpius muttered.
The bartender, who had a gigantic dragon tattoo across his face, put two flaming shots in front of them and said, "Enjoy the heat."
Rose paid with a flick of her wand and gave the bartender a thumbs up. She handed Scorpius his shot.
He looked from her to the flaming shot in his hand.
"To revenge," she said, enthusiasm bubbling from her lips, and she let out an excited scream before picking up her shot.
She brought it to her lips, a movement which Scorpius copied and both of them downed the shot immediately.
She laughed hoarsely and slammed the shot glass back on the bar.
"That was so good! What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be celebrating with Sarah?"
The shot had nearly burned a hole in Scorpius' throat so he coughed to stop the burning sensation and blinked when he realised her words.
"Celebrate? Celebrate what?"
"It is your one-year anniversary, is it not?"
Oh. That was why Sarah had looked so expectantly at him when he entered her apartment this evening. Instead of congratulating Sarah on her endurance to be with him for so long, he started on why Rose Weasley is the worst prankster in the world.
He saw it now, Sarah's choice to break up with him. He understood it completely.
"So, what did you think of the description of the owl?" Rose asked, interrupting his thoughts.
"What?" Scorpius was dumbfounded.
"I mean in the advertisement on The Daily Prophet's lost and found page? Lost: A toy plush owl engraved with the text, my dearest mommy, I love you, love, Scorpius. The plush barn owl looks like a toy drooled on by an 8-year-old boy with an overproduction of saliva. Please inform me if you have found it, Scorpius Malfoy. No? It doesn't ring a bell?"
Rose continued talking after his face looked increasingly dumbfounded with each word she spoke.
"So why were you so angry with me when you came in here if you haven't even read The Daily Prophet yet?"
"Sarah accused me of being in love with you, and she broke up with me because of it."
Rose blinked and replied within a second.
"Well, that's just ridiculous! Yes, we joke around and pull pranks on one another but that doesn't mean that you are in love with me." The utter shock was audible in her voice, and it was clear to Scorpius that Rose was completely taken aback by his statement.
"And besides, I think that people of the opposite sex can be excellent friends. I have tons of guy friends, and I won't date any of them, so there!" she said, her tone sounding more vehement with every word she spoke. When Scorpius did not reply, she started yelling at him.
"You have ruined this evening for me, Scorpius! I was peacefully sitting here, plotting my next prank for you and now you have ruined it! You can't just come in here and say I ruined your relationship because you are in love with me! That doesn't even make sense! You want a rich housewife-type girl and I'm nothing of the sort! I am going to go down in history for being the person who has written the most laws in Ministry of Magic history! You can't keep me tied up at home! I need to work!"
She was breathing fast now and people around them started to look at the pair of them.
Funnily enough, Scorpius found himself smiling at the outburst of her thoughts and emotions. Maybe he was in love with Rose Weasley.
"Don't worry, Rose. I promise I will not make a housewife out of you. Also, I can just hire a Cinderella," he joked.
Rose's eyes went wide in happy surprise.
"You read it? The book I gave you with the muggle fairy tales?"
"I did. Some of it was quite disturbing and other stuff very funny. I mean, who names an imp Rumpelstiltskin? That's just plain ridiculous. Then again, if you listen to some of the names of the goblins in our history…" he lowered his voice since the words could be understood as discriminative and looked around if anyone had overheard them, which luckily no one did.
Rose started laughing, and he felt her relaxing a little bit next to him.
They were silent for a second, both thinking about the new information they'd gotten when Scorpius turned to her.
"It was a good prank, from what I've heard of it," Scorpius said, thinking back to the advertisement in The Daily Prophet.
"Thanks," she said, smiling.
"So, it was you, wasn't it?" he asked, raising two fingers at the same bartender.
Rose started laughing and said, "Perhaps."
They laughed, and after a while, Rose said, "We do need to talk about it later."
"I know. Just not now. It is all brand new information for me and, believe it or not, I do need some time to think about all of this."
Rose nodded understanding. "I'm here for you, and so is Albus."
"Thanks."
A very old song from the band The Weird Sisters came on, and Rose downed the next shot that the bartender had placed in front of her.
"I'm gonna dance!" she yelled at him and did not wait to sprint out onto the dance floor.
Scorpius slowly took his shot as well and followed her to the dance floor.