A/N: Here we go! A new collection for my darling OTP, ScoRose. I absolutely adore the way this turned out and henceforth, my head-canon Scorpius will always be able to sew. Also, yes. I believe in Drapple. Enjoy!


Title: Trendy ties

Summary: Ever wondered how a tradition starts at Hogwarts? Well, it's quite easy: it starts with a trend. And ever wonder how a trend starts at Hogwarts? That's quite easy too: with something inconsequential, like Scorpius mending Rose's tie.

Word count: 2193

Genres: Romance, Humour/Comedy

Characters: Scorpius M., Rose W., Albus P.


The lightning cracked outside as two dripping wet teenagers hurried back through a secret door in the Second Greenhouse and back into the castle. The flash of light came, and the boom of thunder reverberated across the glass walls of their Herbology classroom as the pelts of water slammed on the roof.

"Oh Merlin, we're absolutely soaking wet!" complained Rose.

"Those are my robes that are soaking wet, stop complaining," commented Scorpius as he removed his jumper and wrung it free of water.

"You didn't have to give them to me."

"Of course, I did. You were absolutely shivering with cold." There was another crack of light and the Greenhouse lit up again. In the momentary flash, Rose could make out the droplets of water still hanging of Scorpius' eyelashes. "Why did you not bring your robes anyway, you knew it was going to be cold."

"Well, I didn't really think we were going to go outside when you told me we were going to go stargazing," Rose huffed.

"Where did you think we were going to go?" Scorpius asked and he cast a light water-repellent spell on himself.

"I assumed it would have been in the Astronomy tower, where we usually observe the stars," she groaned.

"Oh, yeah, that does seem like a more obvious option," he admitted.

"But then I assumed that was just code-talk for making out- "

"Oh, right." Scorpius blushed. "I really was planning on looking at the stars."

"But why you would even think that a good idea? Have you seen the sky? It's literally pouring and there were clouds all day."

"Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"You see why I jumped to conclusions, but evidently I have a stupid boyfriend."

"Hey!"

Rose cast a water-repellent spell on herself too. It was quite a useful spell, apart from the fact that it only dried the person, and not the clothes said person was wearing. There was a charm for that, of course, but one had to remove said clothes. Rose began to remove her (edit: Scorpius') robes.

"Woah, what are you doing?" Scorpius suddenly exclaimed.

Rose shot him a exasperated look as she proceeded to remove her tie. "Taking my clothes off, so I can dry them. Come on, strip, I'll do yours too," she told him.

Scorpius blushed which made Rose laugh more as he proceeded to remove his own tie.

"Oh shoot," said Rose.

"What's wrong?" Scorpius turned round to face her.

"I ripped my tie."

"How did you even do that? I thought those things were indestructible."

Rose shrugged and showed him the hole in her tie, it was only a small rip in the bottom. "It must have happened when I tripped over that bush when we were rushing back in from the rain."

"You are always lacking finesse," Scorpius commented as he remembered how clumsy she had been.

Rose hit him. "Hey! Not everybody is always so perfectly controlled as you. Oh well, I'll just another tie tomorrow."

"What?" Scorpius almost shrieked.

"What?" Rose was confused.

"You can't go around the castle with a ripped tie!"

"I told you, I'll get another one tomorrow."

"No, for tonight! You just can't!"

Rose looked at him in disbelief. "We are literally soaking wet, clothes all rumpled, and it's currently past-curfew so no one will see us and you're saying I can't walk around the castle with a ripped tie?"

"Rose," he said in a deadly serious way, "You can't. The tie is the expression of one's self. Besides, it'll make you look shabby."

"We are in rumpled, wet clothes and you think I'm going to be shabby?"

"Here, I'll fix it for you."

Rose sighed. "You are such a neat-freak."

Scorpius ignored her.

"But how are you even planning on fixing it. Do you know any good sewing spells?" she asked.

"No."

"So, you're doing it by hand?"

"Yes."

"You have a needle?" Rose asked incredulously.

"No, but I have a match. I always do."

"Why do you always have matches with you? I'm kind of worried."

"Shh."

Scorpius transfigured the match, an easy feat for the seventh year, as it had been their first transfiguration lesson. Then, out of nowhere, he brought out some green and silver thread and began to sow.

"I didn't even know you knew how to sew."

"Mum always insisted that being able to sew was essential if you wanted to be able to dress well," he explained.

"Hear you go." He gave her back the tie and Rose smiled at him, not bothering to look at his handiwork before throwing her arms around him and kissed him.

"You're absolutely ridiculous and I love you," she told him.

Scorpius only rolled his eyes and enjoyed the kiss.


The next morning, Rose got dressed. She pulled on the same tie as last night, not quite paying attention to what she was doing. Morning-Rose was a zombie to the world until she had her three slices of toast and cup on tea. The action was more of an automatism now. One quick look in the Dorm's bathroom mirror assured her that her hair was not too much of a catastrophe, so she headed down to breakfast.

As she sat down at the Gryffindor table, as usual, her cousin, Albus slipped up next to her. Despite the fact that her beloved cousin was a Slytherin, this was not particularly shocking, as the Weasley brood met at the Gryffindor table, no matter what their House was (Lucy, a Ravenclaw, and Louis, a Hufflepuff, often joined them for their meals).

Albus grinned when he saw her. "I knew you had an affinity for Slytherins but I didn't think you would show it so blandly."

"Albus. I haven't had my tea yet. Please stop showing off the fact that you read the A part of the dictionary," Rose groaned.

He still had that annoyingly mischievous smile. "Are you telling me that you're in love with a certain someone?"

Rose looked at him in mild confusion and ignorance. Her relationship with Scorpius was still a secret from their respective families. And since that basically meant a quite important proportion of the school, no one at school knew. "Umm. No?"

"Oh, I see you are in denial. You're clearly communicating the opposite."

"I'm not in denial, and I have no idea what you're talking about," she huffed and turned back to her mug.

Albus gave her a confused look and opened his mouth, as if to say something, but decided against it. Instead, he turned to their cousin Roxanne and whispered something in her ear. Roxanne gave Rose a pointed look, but Albus whispered something more so she turned to her best friend, Angie, who was sitting in front of her and murmured something to her too.

Rose decided to ignore this whole exchange, preferring to go over the formulas for the Arithmancy test she was going to take mater that morning, and savouring the delicious taste of tea. Whoever thought coffee was better than tea was in serious denial, or deluded, according to her.


Rose had had a very particular morning. Her Arithmancy teacher had asked her if she was sure her uniform was perfectly following the dress code, but given the man's joking nature, she had preferred to think of it as a jest. Several students had asked her if it was true, while several others had wanted to know who it was. She had absolutely no idea how to reply and it was quite getting on her nerves.

As soon as the lunch bell rang, she went to the quiet nook of the library literally no one knew about. As usual, she found Scorpius sitting down, reading a book and eating an apple.

"I was just thinking about you," he told her with a smile, and she gave him a quick kiss of hello.

"You're always thinking about me."

"True," he took another bite of his apple. "How was your morning?"

"Really weird," she told him, frustration creeping into her voice, "People keep asking me questions I don't know the answer to."

"That's really strange."

"I know. But anyway, how was your morning?"

Scorpius shrugged. "So-so. I see you put your tie on, do you like it?"

Rose frowned. "Like what?"

Scorpius tugged on her tie and for the first time, she saw what Scorpius had done to her tie last night. After carefully covering the hole, he had then proceeded to embroider a little green heart and then a silver one a little further up.

"Oh, my Merlin! Did you do that?"

"Yes, I did." He gave her a smug grin.

"So that explains a lot of things," she muttered. "But don't the colours clash terribly?" Green and silver and gold and red rarely went together

"I like to think of it as a soft Yule blend."

"We're in the middle of March."

"Exactly."

"And you're supposed to be the one well-versed in fashion," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Scorpius asked even though he had clearly heard.

"Nothing, you big doofus." She rolled her eyes and laughed. "And of course, I like it. I love it. It's not often someone embroiders something for me. Even if the colours do clash horribly."

Scorpius laughed with her.


The next morning, Rose decided to go against wearing another tie. It was so sweet of Scorpius, no matter how tacky it was. But much to her surprise, when she reached the Entrance of the Great Hall, she saw another girl, a Hufflepuff with two little hearts on her tie. A gold and a red one. The girl gave her a small, almost thankful smile. Confused, Rose dismissed it.

But during the next week, the number of ties with hearts started to get more and more numerous, much to Rose and Scorpius' surprise. A Ravenclaw boy with yellow and black hearts. A Gryffindor girl with bronze and blue hearts. A Slytherin girl with red and gold hearts.

As the number steadily increased over the next month, Rose finally gave in and stopped Albus in the corridors one day as he was talking to a Hufflepuff girl silver and green hearts.

"Hey, Albus?"

"Yes, Rosie,"

"Do you know why everyone has ties with little embroidered hearts?"

Albus giggled. It was quite a strange thing to see him do. "It's supposed to mean that you're in love with someone from another House."

"What? Why would they even do that?"

Albus looked slightly amused. "Well, you see. When I saw your tie a couple of weeks ago, I knew it was to show that you were in love with Scorpius."

"How do you even know that?" Rose blurted before she could deny it.

"Please. You guys are my cousin and my best friend. As if I didn't know."

Rose sighed, deciding she was going to have to deal with this later. For the moment she preferred to sate her curiosity. "That still doesn't explain why everyone is doing this?"

"Well, then I told Roxanne that your tie was like it was because you were in love with a Slytherin."

"You told Roxanne I was in love with Scorpius?" Rose almost shrieked.

"No, don't be silly. But then Roxanne told Angie, who told Lucy, who told Robert, who told Timothy, who told Jia. But Jia is in love with Gideon, so she embroidered her tie like you did to communicate her love."

"Oh, my Merlin, I can't believe you," Rose groaned.

Albus shrugged. "It's kind of a trend now. Embroider your tie with the colour of the person-you-love's House and then everybody tries to guess who it is."

"You are going to die, clown," Rose growled.

"What's wrong?" asked Scorpius, who had somehow magically appeared out of nowhere.

"This idiot knows we're dating," Rose started.

"What? Did you tell him?"

"No, but apparently he guessed it because of the mending you did on my tie. And then he told everyone and it's now a trend to sew the colours of your love interest's house on your tie."

"What? That's absolutely crazy?"

"I know!"

"Well, at least it's promoting inter-House unity?" Scorpius offered weakly.

Albus had been watching their whole exchange with growing interest. When Scorpius said those words, a sudden sense of realisation dawned upon him and he suddenly interrupted them.

"Guys? Guys? That was our first moment of competence!"

"Your first moment of competence, I've always been very competent," Rose muttered at the same time as Scorpius asked: "Why?"

Albus chose to ignore his cousin. "Don't you see? Now everyone who is in love with someone of a different House is openly speaking of it! That is progress, my friends!"

Rose rolled her eyes.


And though Rose was sceptic, until this very day, when a person loves someone from another House, they communicate it via their tie. What had once annoyed the teachers for lack of respect is now considered a romantic gesture. And what had started out as an accidental trend due to a sweet mending of an article of clothing, is now one of the unspoken traditions of Hogwarts everybody knows and loves.


FOR ILVERMORNY SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

House: Wampus

For September assignment: Charms Task #3 – Knitting and darning charms: write about someone making or repairing clothes.

Bonus prompts: 7) [object] Robes – 12) [genre] Comedy


FOR HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

House: Ravenclaw

For assignment #5: Etymology Task #2 – Quiz: Write about making or setting a trend.

For writing club; character appreciation: 16) "Guys, guys? That was our first moment of competence!"

For writing club; record collection: 24k magic – 8) Finesse

For writing club; eras: 7) affinity

For writing club; show time: 8) deny

For writing club; liza's loves: 19) "You're going to die, clown."

For writing club; bex's basement: 11) write about a storm

For writing club; scamander's case: 6) laughing

For writing club; film festival: 30) "I was just thinking about you." / "You're always thinking about me."

For writing club; tv spree: 18) "People keep asking me questions that I don't know the answer to."

For writing club; forecast: 23rd) Frustrated

For gobstones club: Black stone – communication – 14) stargazing – 9) thunderstorm – 16) romance

For like a skyscraper: Floor 2 – 8) Albus

For founder says: Godric says 7) "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

For build a better breakfast: 16) thunderstorm

For pick a wick: 10) thunderstorm

For raking leaves: 28) neat