A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did!

Title: Dinner plans

Summary: Scorpius needs a date to dinner with his family, and Rose replies to his ad. However, they weren't exactly expecting each other… But, oh well, Rose'll do her best to pretend they've been dating for quite some time.

WC: 2,206

Genres: Romance, Humour, Family, Angst I don't even know

Characters: Rose W., Scorpius M., Draco M., Narcissa B. M.

Betas: VanillaAshes, Fires of Eden Red Rose Aurora, Aya Diefair, Glowstar826

As a rule, Rose did not go on blind dates. This, on the contrary to what appearances might suggest, was not a blind date. This was supposed to be a friendly helping out with a guaranteed good meal at a fancy restaurant. Unfortunately, it was not going exactly as planned.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Rose screeched. "You're S.H.M.?"

"It would appear so. And I suppose you're Rose G.?" Scorpius replied, looking quite as discontent as her.

"How the heck did you not know that I was Rose G.?" Rose shrieked even louder this time.

"Well, why is there a G.?" he asked her, crossing his arms.

"For Granger!" she exclaimed.

"But you go by Weasley!" he retorted.

"I wasn't just going to give my real name to a complete stranger. Also, where the heck does S.H.M. come from? It's just a bunch of random letters," she shot right back.

"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, it's not that difficult," he said, as if he was completely exhausted from this conversation already.

Rose paused for a moment and blushed when she realised that what he had said was indeed quite true. "Oh, right."

"Can you stop screaming now?" he asked.

"No! How the heck was I supposed to know it was you just from a bunch of initials?" she demanded.

"You weren't supposed to, that's the whole point of the thing! I wasn't just going to give my real name to a complete stranger, as you said so yourself."

Rose groaned. Here they were, dressed in their Sunday best. She had put on a rather pretty blue evening dress Lily had forced her to buy during one of her endless shopping trips. She had never thought she would wear it, but here she was, standing in the flesh, two blocks away from what probably was certain death.

"Honestly, I had never pegged you as the guy to put ads in the newspaper," she grumbled.

"Says the girl who answers them: you're not much better than me."

It really was a pretty dress too, midnight blue, with a little bit of sparkle. Cute little shoulder straps, and a reasonable neckline—Lily had pushed for a dress with more cleavage but Rose had insisted. And the worst was that for some absurd reason, Scorpius Malfoy had chosen to wear a half-suit half-robe, as was fashionable at the moment, that was the exact same colour.

"And how the heck do you have enough money to take random girls to ridiculously expensive restaurants?" she demanded.

"Do you want to eat the food or not?" he asked right back.

She'd put an effort into this. She'd applied make-up and even wore heels. And all that for what? The slimy blond git right in front of her. She should have known what was written in the newspaper was too good to be true. That would teach her to read the Daily Prophet, she should have stuck to The Quibbler.

"Also, 'Sympathetic young man in his twenties looking for a young woman to bring to a date to a fancy restaurant with young man's family. Pureblood etiquette necessary.' You could have mentioned said-family was the Malfoys?" she continued. "I'm not sure everyone would take it as well as me."

"Because you're taking it well?"

"You know what I mean." She glared at him. "I haven't started running in the other direction yet, have I?"

"And somehow you know pureblood etiquette?" he demanded, like this was her fault after all.

"Maybe you should have asked me before I agreed to this!" she snapped. "But as a matter of fact I do. We might be 'blood-traitors' but that doesn't mean my grandmother doesn't know the basics."

So, there she had it. One of Rose's poorer life decisions. Agreeing to go on a date with a perfect stranger and meet his parents. Except, it wasn't a perfect stranger after all, but her school nemesis—oh how she had hated the fact that he always beat her in potions!—and slimy blond git who went by the name of Scorpius Malfoy.

"Don't call yourself that," he said, frowning.

She ignored him. "Oh, and your disinherited great-aunt Andromeda helped too!"

"And this is exactly why I didn't mention my name," he groaned.

"Exactly," she replied spitefully.

And the 'family' was none other than the Malfoys, father and grandmother! Rose had peeked into the restaurant before going to the street corner that had been the agreed rendezvous meeting spot. She had been absolutely horrified to see that they were there, and hoped the two of them wouldn't notice her, that her date had picked a table far away from theirs.

Well, the exact contrary had happened, as she would now be dining at their very table!

"Look," he said with a sigh. "I'm sorry. You can go if you want."

Rose frowned as she sputtered, "What? No!"

Scorpius had been looking so crestfallen, almost ready to leave alone, that he looked surprised by what he had just heard. "Sorry?"

"Look, I'd say I'd go, and I won't go back on my word. Let's go."

"Really?"

"Yes, really!" she exclaimed, exasperated. "Before I change my mind."

He offered her his arm, and Rose figured she had better take it. After all, they were now on a date, it only seemed appropriate. Oh Merlin, this was going to be just lovely, wasn't it? She clung tightly as they made their way down the pavement and towards the fancy restaurant the Malfoys had picked. At least the food was going to be good, and he was paying.

"Why do you need a date anyway? Couldn't you get one by yourself?" she huffed.

He grimaced and blushed slightly. "I thought it would be a better idea to have a random stranger rather than to have to explain the whole situation to someone I would have to see regularly."

"The whole situation?" Rose echoed. This did not sound good. She wobbled slightly on her heels as they reached a cobbled section. Curse these stupid shoes!

"Well, we've actually been dating for four months."

"We've been dating for four months!" Rose shrieked, slowly understanding what was happening.

"We met at work and I asked you on a date, if anyone asks."

"Scorpius, what exactly is this dinner?" she demanded.

"Um…" He blushed and refused to look her in the eye. "My family meeting my girlfriend, which I made up to avoid Grandmother foisting some random girls on me?"

This time she really, truly groaned. The food had better be fabulous. They had arrived in front of the restaurant's door now. The warm light from inside, which had seemed tempting before, but now seemed like the light from the fire of the pits of hell. "Oh, Merlin's baggy y-fronts. How do you even get in these situations?"

"I don't know," he admitted.

"You owe me dinner for a week straight, I'm telling you," she warned and they made their way inside the restaurant.

"So, what do you do for a living, Miss Weasley?" Narcissa Malfoy asked her.

Act natural, Rose, act natural, she kept reminding herself. It wasn't at all like she'd just thrown herself into a swimming pool full of sharks. "I'm a Teaching Assistant at the Magic-Muggle University in London," she replied.

Draco Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "You don't work at the Ministry anymore?"

That's when she felt Scorpius kick her under the table, and suddenly she remembered that was not her cover story. "Oh, no! Sorry!" she said. "I used to work at the University but got a job at the Ministry recently."

He delicately took a sip of wine. "And how long ago was this?"

"Oh," she said with a very fake laugh, "Just two weeks ago, that's why I'm so confused!"

"But, you met my grandson at work four months ago?" Mrs Malfoy pointed out.

Rose could literally see Scorpius' mental facepalm. Hey, it wasn't her fault he was in this sticky situation! She was doing the best she could. Another breezy laugh escaped before she continued: "Well, we met when I was on an interview for my new job, and that was four months ago."

She nodded. "That makes sense."

"It does, doesn't it?" Scorpius replied, glaring at her. She glared right back when she thought neither of their other two dinner companions were looking at them. "Rose just gets awfully confused."

"It would appear so," Mrs Malfoy said, dabbing her lips with her napkin.

Oh, Morgana's tits. This was just going wonderfully. The moment Scorpius and her had made their way to their table, she had seen the other Malfoy's glance at her red hair and then raise a disapproving eyebrow.

They had sat down, Scorpius in front of her, Mrs Malfoy to his side, and Mr Malfoy to hers. Already, she had been feeling uncomfortable. At least Lucius Malfoy wasn't present, as he was home on bed rest. She wasn't sure she could have been able to deal with him too.

"And do you like your new job at the Ministry?" one of the sharks asked her. Rose made a mental note that it was in her best interest to stop calling them sharks in her mind.

"Yes, it's quite fascinating," she agreed, though she had strictly no idea what her new job was.

"The Research Committee is a very interesting place to work," Scorpius supplied helpfully.

Rose shot him a surprised look. The Research Committee? She had had no idea what he was doing in his life, but research made sense for him. It was a pretty selective branch too, so she was impressed he had managed to get in. But now you're also in, remember, she told herself.

"But why don't we talk about something else," she suggested, "It's never fun to talk about work!"

The server came around to bring the entrée. Oh, Merlin, they had only been here about fifteen minutes and she was already dying. This had better be the best food she had ever tasted. The conversation paused while the server placed their plates, but as soon as he was out of earshot:

"Of course, tell us more about… your family then," Narcissa Malfoy suggested.

Rose was delighted to see that she wasn't the only one to choke on her food when the elder woman suggested what might have been the most delicate subject of the evening.

"Grandmother!" Scorpius exclaimed.

"Just curious," she said with a smile. Merlin, this woman was onto them!

"You," she declared, poking Scorpius in the chest, "owe me dinner for at least three weeks."

"I know, I know! I'm sorry!" he said pleadingly.

They were finally outside the restaurant of hell after an absolutely unending two-hour-long dinner. She was pretty sure she would never be able to step into the place again without experiencing mild trauma. Which was a real shame, because the food was absolutely delicious. But then again, it was also completely out of her price range, so she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to eat there again. Still.

"You might have thought it would be easier to explain the situation to some random stranger, but it definitely wasn't easier to explain to your family!" she continued.

"I really don't know what Grandmother had tonight, she's not usually this bad," he said, looking uncomfortable. "Probably making up for the fact Grandfather wasn't there."

Rose grumbled.

"Look, I'm truly sorry. I'll try to make it up to you." He looked so pleading and worried she actually pitied him and gave him a small smile.

"Thanks. Also, the Research Committee? Colour me impressed," she said, trying to change the subject.

"I don't even know how I managed to get in, and in Potions, too. And what do you teach at the Uni?"

"History, Muggle and Magic," she told him.

"I always knew you had a thing for Binns," he teased.

"As if you and Albus weren't constantly drooling over that, what was it? 'The smoky-eyed' potions professor."

He blushed but laughed, and she joined in with him. "I can't believe Albus told you about that."

They walked down the pavement a little. There was absolutely no reason for this, as both could just Apparate back to their respective homes. But for some reason, they had both started strolling down the street under the moonlit sky and neither of them had stopped yet.

"So, dinner next week?" he asked.

Rose smiled. "I'll owl you." Then she added, "I hope you've got a trust fund because I'm planning on wasting all of your money on ridiculously expensive food."

He laughed. "You deserve it. You survived dinner with my family."

They stopped walking. "I did, didn't I? I even dressed appropriately, which is surprising."

"Yes, you looked rather pretty," he told her.

"And you were quite handsome yourself," she agreed. What was this, flirting? She needed to stop right now.

"And I had good etiquette," she pointed out.

"Grandmother was definitely surprised."

They paused and smiled at each other.

"See you around, Scorpius."

"See you, Rose."

Rose Apparated away. When she was back in her apartment, she was still smiling. This had been an absolutely terrible idea, but maybe, just maybe, she could get something good out of this. Free meals, true, but perhaps a little more…

For THC – Round 4

House: Slytherin

Class: Potions

Category: Standard

WC: 2206

Prompt: [trope] fake dating