Chapter 2:
End of summer holidays before 7th year, Weasley gathering at The Burrow.
The summer holidays went by quickly, and there were many chaotic Weasley gatherings to keep everyone occupied. First they were celebrating the unbelievable graduation of James and Fred, and the not so unbelievable graduation of Molly and her boyfriend of 2 years Jesse Thompson. Everyone gathered at the Burrow to toast the graduates, and much to Lily's and surprisingly Hugo's happiness Jesse's family joined them, including Ella, his younger sister. Ella was a Hufflepuff but was Lily's best friend; they shared nearly all of their classes together. Then, it was the long awaited engagement of Teddy and Victoire, and again friends and family gathered at the Burrow in celebration.
Now, of course they were at the Burrow again for the end of summer party before going back to Hogwarts, and Rose was very disappointed how quickly the school year crept up on them. The only comfort that Rose took from these holidays was that she had finished her study preparation for her upcoming and final year of Hogwarts and that she had spent a great amount of time in the kitchen. The rest of her holidays had been pretty miserable. She didn't even get much time to spend with her friends. Zoe was around more but she was spending most of her time with Louis, and Alison did stay for the whole holidays but for some reason she could never be found. To top it all off, she had to endure Malfoy for most of the holidays. He would not leave her alone, constantly making his presence know, insulting her, pulling pranks on her; it was never ending.
You would think that being a Malfoy that the only person to want him around would be Albus, but you would be wrong. Surprisingly, Rose's family really liked Scorpius. It took a while for them, namely her Dad, to get past the name but once they had they welcomed him with open arms. This really annoyed Rose to no end and Scorpius loved it. He, Ron, Rose's father and Arthur, Rose's grandfather, could most often be found in the shed tinkering with all of the muggle things they could find. In fact, over Christmas Ron talked Harry into pitching in to buy an old motorbike for Scorpius to fix up. Scorpius and Rose's father got on so well that usually, like at all the other holidays he spent with them; Albus would have to fight Ron for Scorpius' attention. However, this didn't happen this year. Albus would simply let Malfoy, his Uncle and Grandfather, to their own devices and disappear. Very much like Alison, Rose noticed.
Only now at the party, when they were all force in the same space, did Rose notice Alison and Albus sharing smiles at each other across the room. Rose and Alison went into the kitchen to get some more serving spoons, serviettes etc, and Rose saw her opportunity.
"So, Albus seems to be pretty happy tonight" she said casually, as Alison opened and closed cupboards and draws in search of their needed items.
"Mmm Hm" Alison mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact, "I suppose."
"He seemed to disappear a lot this summer, don't you think?"
"Ahh, I never really noticed."
"Nah, probably not," Rose said trying to keep a straight face, "since you weren't around much either." Alison finally looked at Rose, blush rising in her cheeks, opening and closing her mouth looking for words. "In fact, I'd say that you were both missing at about the same times."
Alison continued to open and close her mouth with no success in finding words. "It's funny that, don't ya think?" Rose smiled a knowing smile, and raised a questioning eyebrow. Alison finally gained a little composure to speak, though very little.
"Yeah funny that," she squeaked, her blush deepening.
"Mmm," Rose gave her a questioning look, but amusement danced in her eyes
"What a coincidence," Alison added hopefully, trying to brush off the comment as she resumed collecting what they came in for. Rose couldn't take it any longer.
"Oh, come on, you can't honestly think I'm that stupid!" Rose bellowed, counting herself lucky that she couldn't be heard over the music playing outside. "Alison, just tell what I already know," she added lowering her voice.
"Okay," Alison started with a sigh, "Albus and I have been spending more time together." Rose raised an eyebrow. "Alone," Alison clarified. Rose rolled her eyes at her friend's innocence.
"And?"
"And what?"
Rose let out a frustrated sigh and rolled her eyes again. "And…Are you dating now or what?"
"Oh," Alison finally caught on, "Ahh, I'm not really sure" she said knotting her eyebrows together in confusion.
"How can you not be sure?" Rose asked but could only see more confusion on her friend's face. "Has he kissed you?" Alison looked down in an effort to hide her blush, but she did not succeed. Rose smiled.
"Oh, he did, did he?" she said in a teasing tone. She couldn't help it; they were just so easy to tease.
"Yesterday, it was really only a light peck" Alison defended, though Rose noticed her looking disappointed as well "Nothing really."
"Well next time," Rose said in a sing-song voice, "make sure it's not nothing."
Outside, Albus and Scorpius stood with there dorm mates, Simon Goyle and Daniel Parkinson, on the edge of the dance floor for watching the female pickings of the night.
"What about her Al?" Scorpius said nodding to a blonde girl walking past, "She looks like fun" catching her attention with a charming smile.
"Nah, not interested" Albus replied casually, scanning the crowd for Alison. Scorpius turned to look at his best friend, noticing he was scanning the crowd for someone in particular. As if sensing that his friend was on to him, Albus asked, "Who are these people? I swear I don't know half them."
"I don't know but I am willing to find out," Scorpius replied looking at another girl walking past.
"It gets worst every year," commented Dan.
"Who? The strays or Scorpius?" Albus chuckled. The others joined in, laughing at Scorpius' expense.
Albus didn't notice Simon staring at his sister, who was also sneaking glances at the older boy while she was talking to Ella and Hugo. Simon was as tall as Scorpius reaching over six foot. He had a rugged roughness to him, and was well built like the Slytherin quidditch players and room mates that he stood next to. However, expensive, thick, black glasses framed his unshaved face which only seemed to complete the allure. Dan Parkinson, however, shared the same height as Albus at five foot eight and mastered the incredibly sexy but innocence look. He had short, lustrous, wavy brown hair and gentle hazel eyes that easily found Rose as she step back out on to the dance floor with Alison.
Albus and Scorpius also caught sight of the two girls entering the dance floor. Rose and Alison danced amongst the crowded dance floor, moving to the beat and twirling each other around, laughing at their own silliness. Rose sported a dark purple, clingy, low-cut dress that reached her knees with thin straps running over her shoulders to hold it up. Alison also wore a clingy, knee-length dress; however, it was cherry red in colour and backless showing off her creamy skin. Scorpius looked over at Albus, who hadn't taken his eyes off Alison. He smiled at his friend's giddy look. After the song ended the girls left the dance floor and walked over to Rose's brother Hugo, who was still talking with Lily and Ella. "Come on lads, let's go say hello to Albus' cousins, shall we?" Scorpius said as he made his way over to the group.
Rose and Alison were talking with Lily, Ella and Hugo; the three were all going into their 5th year at Hogwarts. Rose couldn't help but notice how her brother Hugo was looking at Ella. The Hufflepuff had long blonde hair, usually with some natural curls however tonight she had obviously straightened it. She was smartly dressed in a short, strapless dress, turquoise in colour. Hugo had surprised Rose by making more of an effort to in his appearance tonight. He was clad in dark denim jeans with an un-tucked, black button-down shirt, completed with a silk red tie. He had obviously borrowed one of their Dad's, because Hugo never wore ties except for school. According to Rose, everything was going great tonight; she hadn't even had to suffer Malfoy's presence so far. That was until she saw him walking towards them, with his signature smirk plastered across his handsome face. Much to her dismay, Rose realized that Malfoy must have help Hugo with his style tonight because he wore the exact same attire, with the exception of the silk tie; his was purple. It was with even more horrible disgust that Rose realized the same purple as her dress.
"Little Rosie Posie, fancy seeing you at a party. Run out of books to read?" Scorpius teased, coming up and standing right next to her. Rose just rolled her eyes, taking a step away from him and tired to ignore him. She hated it when he called her that. He had ever since Ron let the childhood nickname slip a couple of years ago. Scorpius turned to Hugo, "Hey bro," he stretched out his hand, grabbing it and pulling Hugo into a half hug. "How's everything going?" he asked as he pulled back, briefly glancing at Ella.
"Good, bro" Hugo replied and then in a very gentlemanly fashion he introduced Ella. "Ahh, Ella this is Scorpius Malfoy, Scorp this is Ella Thompson." Ella reached out to shake his hand, while Malfoy bent down slightly and raised her hand to his lips.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Scorpius charmed, and Ella blushed, not expecting such a formal greeting. "Yes, Hugo talks very highly of you, it is a shame we had not crossed paths before," he added as a he let go of her hand and took a step back.
"Oh, thank you" she said not exactly sure how to react.
The other boys joined them but Alison couldn't see Albus. They started a conversation, though there was really only Scorpius and Ella paying attention. Rose was ignoring them because of Scorpius, Hugo was staring at Ella in a complete daze, Lily and Simon seemed be having a silent conversation, while Dan and Alison pretended to be paying attention but unknown to Rose, Dan was eyeing balling her, and Alison was covertly looking around for Albus. The next song started to play in the background. A calm, slow-tempo song. Couples immediately started making their way onto the dance floor, including Rose's parents, Lily's parents and Teddy and Victorie.
"Excuse me," a familiar voice said from behind Alison, catching not only her attention but the rest of the people in the groups as well. Albus stood behind Alison, and she turned around to face him. "May I have this dance?" Albus asked, offering her his hand. Alison couldn't hide the blush that took over her face, as she smiled and place her hand in his. They walked out onto the dance floor, oblivious to the world around them. Rose smiled as she watched her cousin pull her best friend close as they swayed to the music. Movement caught Rose's eye, Scorpius was nodding his head at Hugo in the direction of the dance floor. Hugo was shaking his head from his spot beside Ella while Scorpius' eyes were saying 'yes, now'. Then Simon took his chance and grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her onto the dance floor, she giggled at his eagerness.
Hugo finally spoke up and turned to Ella. "Um…Ella would you like to dance?" he asked nervously.
"Yes, I would love to" she said with a stunning smile. Rose smiled as they left, but that smiled faded when she realized that she was left standing with Scorpius and Dan.
"So Rosie Posie," Scorpius turned to face her, looking her up and down, "what in the world made you think you could pull of a dress like that." He shook his head in disapproval to anger her. He smirked when he looked back to Rose's face seeing that he succeeded. She looked like she was about to explode with anger. Rose opened her mouth to rage at Scorpius when he interrupted.
"Is that Dom?" he said looking over Rose's shoulder. Not even waiting for a reply Malfoy had gone off after her. Rose groaned with frustration as she watched Scorpius run over to her older cousin.