Curiosity Is Not a Sin

A Compromising Position

Rose would have jumped back, but she was so entangled with Scorpius that it took a moment to get loose. By that point, she'd fully processed who the voice belonged to, and she decided that staying between Roxanne and Scorpius would probably be a good idea. She didn't trust her cousin not to jinx him on principle.

Her eyes had begun to adjust to the light, and behind Roxanne's incredulous face, she saw James. He seemed caught between faint surprise and a smirk; Rose suspected that he'd been hoping to find her with Scorpius and embarrass the hell out of both of them, but that he'd been a little surprised by just how all over each other they'd been.

"Um." Her mind was blank; she had no idea what to tell them. There was absolutely no denying that she'd been making out with Scorpius Malfoy; her cousins had caught them kissing with her hand up his shirt. On the bright side, at least she'd been pushing him against the wall rather than the other way around - if he'd been the one closer to the entry, Roxanne would have almost certainly hexed first and asked questions later, and that might have made him less inclined to kiss her in the future.

"Rosie, Rosie, Rosie," came James's voice from behind Roxanne, who still seemed at a loss for words. "Really? I'm not sure which I'm more disappointed by, the secret passage or your choice of partner. I mean, Scorpius Malfoy? Really?"

His voice was too collected for him to plead ignorance - though Rose suspected he hadn't be planning to do so, anyway. Roxanne whirled around. "You knew!" she exclaimed.

The dark-haired boy shrugged. "Well, maybe a little. I didn't know that Rose was sneaking off to passageways to get quite this - er - intimate with him, though."

Rose glanced back at Scorpius. He was regarding her cousins warily; he clearly didn't trust them not to jinx him, yell at him, or both.

Or, worse yet, tell Albus.

Roxanne choked out a "Git" at James before turning back to Rose. "And speaking of gits-"

"He's not a git," Rose snapped before she really stopped to think about it.

"Oh, he's not?"

"I'm not?"

Roxanne's voice was laden with sarcasm and skepticism; Scorpius's sounded genuinely surprised and pleased.

"No." Rose decided to forge ahead. She'd already dug herself well into the hole. "Well, once in awhile, he can be, but he's really - sometimes he's funny."

"Is he also a good kisser? You seemed to really be enjoying yourself."

Rose wanted to smack James; he'd clearly planned this out, and from the twinkle in his eyes, she doubted he was anything close to done. "He's a great kisser. Now go away, please."

"So you can go back to kissing him? I don't think so. Come on, Rose, some standards, please." That was Roxanne again. Rose was more irritated with her right then than she ever remembered being before.

"I have standards," she said bristling. "I like him."

Scorpius slipped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him. "See, I knew you'd come around," he murmured in her ear. "I'm really very charming, once I stop being an arse because you're too pretty to ignore."

A giggle slipped out before she could stop it. "Oh, shut up."

Roxanne looked absolutely revolted, and at that point, even James looked a little disturbed. When Roxanne shot him an annoyed look, however, he held up his hands; apparently, he wasn't disturbed enough to back her up.

Not yet, anyway.

"Does Albus know?" she asked Rose. When Rose didn't say anything, her cousin beamed. "Oh, this is going to be a fun story to tell him. 'Hey Albie, guess who we saw snogging in a secret passage?'"