Chapter Two

"I mean, what do you want me to say? It wasn't uncalled for, was it?". Roy rolled his eyes in response and looked away. Neither Linda nor June said anything. Both of them kept looking at their plate, obviously tired of them fighting.

They didn't always fight this much. For the first few months they were together they hadn't fight one bit, but lately it was like they felt the need to make it up for all the times they hadn't fought.

"What else could I do, really? I messed up. Pretty badly, I dare say. None of us take Divination seriously, but I was the only one that took a T" she added.

Since she told them what McGonagall wanted, Roy hadn't stop ranting about how she could have handled it differently if she just hadn't been so compliant. That morning was even worse than the day before. What had gotten into him? She had asked him multiple times why he was so upset about it, but he wouldn't answer. Why did he care so much when it was none of his business?

"You could've just told her that you were sick and stuff. She couldn't have given you detention!" he said, louder, banging his hand on the table. Linda coughed, clearly uncomfortable.

"Wow, calm down, you're being ridiculous" Rose said, slightly leaping back.

That behavior worried her. He wasn't like that all the time, but when he was, she couldn't help but wonder what would have been like if one day she pissed him off a little too much. She knew it was stupid, and that he wouldn't dare touch her, but there was that tiny, untrusting, part of herself that doubted that one could actually knew someone enough to trust them blindly.

"You're ridiculous! You passed last year with no problems when you had the lowest grades ever, but you couldn't convince McGonagall that you don't need that Malfoy guy to boss you around?"

Rose wanted to scream. They had been over this times and again, and she really couldn't take it anymore. Plus, people were starting to take an interest in that conversation and the last thing she wanted was making a scene.

"Could you please lower your voice, Roy? It's not like I want to be tutored either, I should be the upset one!". She pushed her plate in the middle of the table, then sighed, her head in her hands.

"It seems to me that you want to, actually" said Roy. She frowned.

"What does that mean?" she asked, oblivious.

"You tell me" he replied, crossing his arms. A great deal of people was now actively listening to their conversation, not bothering to hide it in any way whatsoever.

"You're out of your mind. Why would I ever want to be tutored?" was her frank answer. She didn't get him. What was he suggesting? The last time she was tutored had been a nightmare and he knew, they were just friends at the time but she had told him right away.

She shook her head slowly.

"Are you dumb? I'm-" but he didn't get to finish his sentence. Scorpius Malfoy, standing behind him, had placed both of his hands of Roy's shoulders, making him jump.

"I'm really sorry to interrupt, mate, but I need to talk to Weasley"

If someone had said to her that one day she would have been happy to talk with Scorpius Malfoy, she doubted she would have believed them.

She didn't wait for Roy to say anything, she just stood up, gathered her things, waved goodbye to Linda and June and started walking away from the Great Hall as fast as she could. All that Scorpius could do was trying to keep up.

"Hey! Weasley! Slow down for Merlin's sake!" she heard him say, but didn't stop untill she was out of Roy's eyesight.

"What the hell was that?" Scorpius asked panting, when he finally caught her, right at the bottom of the Grand Staircase.

"I needed to get out of there" she said, simply.

"What-"

She waved away his attempt at meddling in her business.

"What do you want?" she cut him off bluntly, hands on hips, her shoulder strap rattling lightly on her right leg.

"You're lovely as usual, I see" he snorted.

"I'm always this lovely to people I don't like" she bit back.

He didn't reply, but kept looking at her, in disbelief.

Why did he never fight back?

She knew she sounded unfairly rude, but she couldn't help it. She hated that she was trapped in that dreadful situation. She hated that she thought it fair. She hated that it was entirely her fault and that she didn't have anyone else to blame but herself. She hated that she wasn't mature enough to care before it was too late. She hated that Scorpius Malfoy had always his shit together while she was always struggling her way though anything. She hated that because of all of that she now depended on his help. She hated that she knew too well she needed to dump Roy but couldn't bring herself to do it.

Plus, he had made her life miserable the previous year. People wouldn't stop talking about how stupid she was. He deserved that.

"I spoke with McGonagall yesterday-" he started, crossing his arms. "Tutoring is not as easy as it seems. For me to get my credits I have to teach at least four hours a week that we have to schedule beforehand by filling in this..." He slipped out a sheet from his bag, and handed it to her. She grabbed it. "... form, submit it to the Head Boy or Head Girl and wait for their approval. Well, I guess that since I'm Head Boy it won't be that hard to get". Rose rolled her eyes. He ignored her. "And then we can start with the tutoring sessions"

"Well, couldn't you tell me yesterday?"

He shrugged. "Apparently not, otherwise I would have"

"Since you're Head, can't we just skip the form part? I mean, you're obviously going to accept whatever's on it. There's really no point in filling it at all" she remarked.

He shook his head.

Now that she thought about it, he did seem a bit off, that day. His tie was hanging a bit more loosely than usual, and his shoes were laced differently. Not so perfect all the time, huh?

Maybe, if she played her cards right, she could've witnessed something amazing that day. Like Scorpius Malfoy proving he wasn't some random AI sent by muggles to spy on them.

Maybe she could make that torture worth something.

"By the end of the year each form will have to be on McGonagall's desk to be checked" he replied.

"I bet they'll have to. I wouldn't trust you a Water-Making Spell if my knickers were on fire"

He frowned, then proceeded to state neutrally: "Gross, but okay"

What was wrong with him?

It had now become clear to Rose that pissing him off was becoming more and more a priority issue.

"How can we possibly know what our schedule for the entire year will be?" she asked.

"We can obviously plan that week by week. No madman would expect us to schedule them all now"

Was he implying that she was stupid again? It wasn't obvious. It really wasn't.

"If you can't even schedule meetings how am I supposed to believe that you will be of any help?" she queried.

"I don't think I've ever asked you to trust me. You're absolutely free to doubt me all you like. I'm afraid it won't make you graduate any faster, though" was his laid-back answer.

He was good at this.

"Where will we meet? The Library?" she asked, overlooking the fact that she was beginning to be irritated by how difficult was to piss him off.

"No, we wouldn't be able to talk. Let's meet here an hour after our last period. The fist empty class we find will do"

He wasn't saying anything bad, or annoying, and she couldn't really tell why but she just couldn't stand him. No matter what. His all existence annoyed the living hell out of her. It was only fair for her to be obnoxious in turn.

"We will probably take some time to get used to it" he stated, shrugging.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to get used to you" she assured him.

He just took a deep breath.

"I don't get why you have to be such a bitch, but drop it. We've got a long way to go ahead of us, how do you plan on being tutored if you can't stop insulting me every two words you say?"

"I wasn't planning on being tutored at all, Malfoy"

"But now you're going to anyway, Weasley. Make it easier for both of us. Just nine more months and, if anything goes smoothly, you'll graduate and I'll be given my credits" he replied, flatly.

"I honestly don't give a flying fuck about your credits" she muttered, loud enough so he could hear.

"Charming" he offered.

But then he changed his mind. For some reason.

"Listen, I didn't come here to fight. But just so we're clear, I don't give a shit about you graduating, either, yet, here we are. Ironic, isn't it?" as he got through the last part of the sentence his voice grew increasingly shaking. Almost like he was fighting himself to keep his cool.

She couldn't help but betray a little smirk.

She'd done it.

For any other human being, that was nothing. But for him? To her knowledge, that was as far as his range of emotions went.

Buy the time she looked at him, he had already re-collected himself. Nevertheless, he was shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

She was felt incredibly satisfied. It had taken a lot of work and effort, but it had all been for a higher cause.

"See you on Monday. Be on time, or I will have to write it on your evaluation report." he said, then he simply walked past her.

She froze.

"Hey, what evaluation report? You didn't mention-" she yelled, turning around, but he was already gone.


A/N: Hey guys! Welcome back!

Here's another chapter, we're slowly getting into our story. I know it hasn't happened much, but it will in the next chapters.

I hope you've enjoyed it so far, and if you have, please let me know! If you haven't, let me know as well, I'm sure it isn't perfect, and it's the first one I write in English so it has to have some mistakes, idioms that make sense but aren't really used. I'm doing my best, but there's always room for improvement, obviously. If you have any suggestions/corrections, feel free to tell me.

See you all next time!