A/N: Have some more scorose! Autumn is very inspiring season to write your OTP, as it turns out.

THC – Round 5

House: Gryffindor

Class: Astronomy

Category: Standard

Prompts: 8. [Food] Black licorice, 13. [Speech] "I'm mildly enjoying it."

Word count: 1,522

TW: Mentions canon character death

Beta(s): Copper's Mama, secretfanficlover

ode to black liquorice

It all starts in November of their sixth year.

More precisely, it's the third of November, the second Hogsmeade weekend of the school year and, most importantly, the first time Scorpius and Rose ever go on a date together.

Rose doesn't intend to say yes when he first asks her out, but she sees the hopeful look on his face, and for one tiny moment, her heart melts just a little, and when he asks her once more, probably thinking she hasn't heard him, he catches her in a rare moment of weakness and she says yes.

Well, that's before the third of November, and as the days grow closer, Rose wonders if it isn't too late to back out. It was a bit of a mistake to say yes, because she doesn't really fancy him. Truly, she almost manages to convince herself the only reason she said yes was because Albus insisted that she accept, should Scorpius ever ask.

But, the more she thinks about it, the more she realises how sweet Scorpius is. He is a bit of a nerd - not that she minds as she's a bit of a nerd too - . Since he's started Quidditch, he's just a bit less stick-like, which definitely suits him.

November the third is also World Kindness Day, and since Rose is not a cruel, heartless type of girl, she figures it really wouldn't do to cancel.

So, that's how she finds herself right outside Honeydukes, on the third of November, waiting for Scorpius to come out with what he has called 'a surprise'.

It's a lovely day in November, for once. It's actually quite rare, as the sun is now shining brightly, and there isn't a swish of that horrible, cold and biting wind that usually makes her eyes water and her lips chap during Quidditch practice. It's still cold, don't get her wrong, but there's something absolutely charming about the weather today, the way only lovely autumn days are.

"Sorry for the wait!" Scorpius exclaims as he bustles out of Honeydukes. "You won't believe how many people were in there."

Rose rolls her eyes, though not unkindly. "It's a Hogsmeade weekend, there are always tons of people. Honestly, I admire your bravery for even stepping into the place."

He smiles a little, and Rose thinks she hasn't paid enough attention to his smile, because it's really quite unique. Timid, but not so much that you could call it shy. It's almost as if it's a dare to make him smile a little more.

"Well, I got what I wanted, so it was worth it," he declares.

"Which is?"

"Here!"

He proudly hands her a packet of sweets, the Honeydukes logo shining big and bright on it. Rose delicately opens it, curious to see what's inside. But she doesn't even need to peer into it to know what it is, the smell is enough.

"Liquorice?" she asks, uncertainly.

"Yeah!" he exclaims, giving her another one of his smiles. "Black liquorice, it's the best, isn't it?"

"Well… I know a lot of people don't really like it," she says.

"Too bad for them, they don't know what they're missing."

Clearly, Scorpius isn't getting her message at all. Rose peers down the bag, and, sure enough, she spots those awful little black blobs she doesn't quite appreciate. No one in her family really does. As a matter of fact, every Christmas, her uncle Charlie brings back this huge box of assorted sweets for all of the cousins to share, and by the end of the holiday, only the black liquorice is left.

She's about to tell him she doesn't quite appreciate black liquorice as much as he does, when he tells her: "It was my mother's favourite sweet, you know. She used to say only the best people really liked it."

Rose smiles awkwardly and nods. "She was probably right."

Alright, she gets why she's never seen Scorpius date anyone before. He's got no tact, or maybe he's just too naive. You don't just say things like that to your date!

"So, you gonna try one?" he prompts her, and Rose doesn't quite know what to do.

"Alright, then," she finally tells him, and he smiles once more. Merlin, he really needs to stop doing that.

Rose reluctantly reaches into the small brown paper bag for one of the sweets. Oh, get over yourself, she tells herself, it's just a sweet, for Merlin's sake! She quickly picks one and brings the sticky thing out, before popping it into her mouth.

Scorpius, obviously delighted, takes the packet from her before taking one for him.

Meanwhile, Rose smiles uncertainly as she chews on the sweet. Oh, it's just as bad as she remembers. She hates anything anise-flavoured, and liquorice is no exception. She quickly swallows, and starts to wonder if they couldn't maybe go to the Three Broomsticks, so that she can order a butterbeer to wash the awful taste away.

"It's so good, isn't it?" he asks joyfully.

"I...I'm mildly enjoying it," she manages to say.

She refuses to lie outright, because her mother raised her better than that, but she can't exactly tell him the truth. It's World Kindness Day, after all, and even if that's something a little ridiculous she happened to read in Witch Weekly last week, maybe it's worth a little something. And of course he had to go and tell her all about his mother…

Oh, what has she gotten herself into?

"Great!" Scorpius exclaims, apparently taking it for the greatest of praises. "Here, have another one."

This time it's a little late for Rose to decline again, and she forces herself to take another one. "You know, why don't we go get a drink, or something. It's getting a little chilly, don't you think?"

Thankfully for her, Scorpius agrees immediately.

Despite the somewhat catastrophic start to their first date, things after that go rather smoothly, much to Rose's surprise. To be quite honest, she was planning on only going on one date, to make him happy (and to stop having Albus pester her), but the plain truth is, she quite enjoys herself.

Once he gets over his over-excitement and they manage to talk, she finds out they've got a few things in common, and the dialogue between them flows quite naturally. He's a very good listener, and somehow always has something slightly funny to say. And, of course, he's got that completely adorable little smile which truly does something magical to Rose.

So, she somewhat reluctantly takes the almost empty packet of black liquorice back to her room, and she lets him hold her hand, and she lets him ask her out on another date. Before she even knows it, she's now dating Scorpius Malfoy.

It's a little bit stupid, she knows.

After all, they're only sixth years, and they don't really know anything about life or love or anything else that really matters. They don't really publicise it, so it's fine. And the truly best part about all of it is that she gets to see him smile, and she gets to hold his hand, and does she really want more?

(The worst part, however, is that he always insists on buying her black liquorice, which is admittedly, not as bad as she once thought, but still so very, very far from being her favourite sweet.)

Quite surprisingly, by the end of the year, they're still dating. Rose never thought it would last this long, and yet, here they are, still together, and she's more than happy about it.

The even more surprising thing is, the newspapers haven't gotten a whiff of the whole story yet. You'd think a Malfoy and a Weasley dating would cause an uproar in the gossip columns, and yet, there hasn't been a peep.

"You'll write to me, won't you?" she asks, as they huddle up close together on the train ride back to London.

"Don't be silly, of course I will," he assures her.

"Oh, I don't know. You're kind of forgetful, you know."

Scorpius laughs. "That was once! I was really exhausted!"

"So exhausted you forgot our date?" she demands, though of course, she's only teasing.

"It was a study session, not really a date."

"Semantics."

He laughs again and Rose smiles a little wider. "You know what, I'll send you liquorice every week of the holidays to make up for it."

Rose doesn't say anything in response, she simply laughs and wonders what the heck she's going to do with eight uneaten packets of black liquorice.

Well, then again, that's not entirely true, is it?

The most surprising thing about this whole relationship is that liquorice is actually starting to grow on her. She doesn't exactly love it, or even like it. At best, she mildly likes it. The truth is, she'll even nibble off a few pieces every now and then, just because they remind her of Scorpius.

For some reason, Rose strongly suspects that one day, a day that might come even very soon, she's going to absolutely adore black liquorice.

It might even be her favourite sweet.