Curiosity Is Not a Sin

Forming a Truce

Rose stared at him for a minute. "Sorry?" she asked finally, feeling quite taken aback.

"Can we talk?" he repeated. He was already fidgeting a little, and when she didn't answer him immediately, he scratched the back of his neck with the hand not clutching his bag so tightly his knuckles were white.

He certainly didn't see to be preparing to jinx her; she could see his wand sticking out of his bag, and it couldn't have seemed any further from his mind. "Sure, I guess." She dug her fingernails into her palms, struggling to remain calm. The memory of her dream the night before was roaring back, which made looking at him a little awkward. He didn't seem to notice her discomfort, though - either she was succeeding at hiding it, or he had more than enough concerns of his own.

Or both.

The day was clear and cool without being uncomfortable. When she fell into step with him, she took a deep breath and relaxed despite herself; it was difficult to be too tense about anything on a day like today.

"So what's up?" she asked him after they'd walked in silence for a minute. He seemed to be struggling for words, and she cocked her head to the side. "I thought you wanted to talk. Why didn't you practice in a mirror first, if you were so nervous?"

"I'm sorry I put you in the Hospital Wing," he blurted out. "That really wasn't my intention. I think I must have messed up the potion a little."

Scorpius looked genuinely remorseful, and Rose couldn't help but flash back to his apology the week before - for someone who said he didn't like her, Scorpius was putting an awful lot of energy into making her not hate him.

"I thought you were a potions genius," she said. "I didn't think you were capable of mistakes."

His glare made her bite back any further jibes. "I'm trying to apologize, you know. Even you're not dense enough to miss that, are you?" She bristled, and he sighed and held up his hands. "Merlin, Rose, I'm trying to make peace."

"Easy for you to say when you've gotten the last word."

He snorted. "I'll give you that what I did was worse, considering you ended up in the Hospital Wing, but I'm pretty sure you'll have the last word - is this hair ever going to fade?"

Rose felt a smile spread across her lips. "It's started to. Give it another couple weeks."

"Great." Scorpius stopped walking and stretched his arms above his head. As the sunlight fell on his face, Rose felt a strange twinge in her stomach and realized with a start that even with his ridiculous hair, Scorpius Malfoy really was quite handsome.

"Why are you trying to make peace, anyway?" she asked, trying to refocus on the matter at hand. It was difficult; the way his shirt fit his chest made her wonder what he looked like without the shirt at all, and she wasn't sure why she hadn't really thought about it before this year.

He sighed. "I don't know. I guess I'm tired of lectures from my best friend, and I know that I can't really beat you if we get into a prank war - you've got plenty of cousins to help you out, and my cousins like the rules. Noah and Andrew are prefects, and Evy's the Head Girl. I won't get their help anytime soon, and Albus certainly isn't going to back me up."

Given his conversation with Noah in the library that she'd eavesdropped on, Rose doubted that Scorpius's motivation was limited to that. She wasn't sure whether that was really something she should be bringing up right now, but she was too curious to exercise better restraint. "Those are your only reasons for wanting a truce?"

The slight tinge that appeared on his cheeks told her what she needed to know. "What other reason could I have?"

Rose stepped a little closer to him. She could hear him swallow now. "I don't know," she said, trailing one finger lightly down his cheek. "You tell me."