Curiosity Is Not a Sin

The Trouble with Cousins

After cornering her to ask her a few more questions before they went down to breakfast the next morning, Albus had kept his distance from her. After breakfast, she headed to Ancient Runes and then to Arithmancy. Noah seemed to have gotten a fairly thorough update from Scorpius, because he expressed sympathy for Albus avoiding her in the same breath as teasing her for spending quite so much time kissing his cousin lately.

Rose was dreading heading down Care of Magical Creatures - she usually sat with Natalia and Albus. Thankfully, Colleen, who seemed to have noticed the tension between her and Albus, caught up with her just as she was leaving the castle. They sat with Natalia and Daniel, which kept Rose from dwelling too much on Albus's disappointment.

Scorpius's scowl when he got to Care of Magical Creatures a few minutes after she did told her that Albus had probably chewed him out at some point during the free periods they'd had that morning. On the bright side, she felt a little less alone in her misery, but on the downside, she had a feeling he was going to want some answers from her - she'd definitely made it worse.

When class let out, Albus headed back to the castle with Alex and Holly without so much as glancing at her. She considered following them, but the idea of sitting there while Albus ignored her wasn't exactly her idea of fun. Instead, she beat a hasty retreat while Scorpius and Damien were packing up and headed up to the library, feeling morose every step of the way.

Scorpius found her there, and this time, he wasn't looking for kisses.

"What exactly did you tell Al last night?"

Rose winced and tore her attention away from the books on dangerous creatures. "Oh. That."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Yes. That. He informed me today that he was very annoyed with both of us. He didn't seem that annoyed when I talked to him last night, so you must have said something."

She sighed and stepped back a few paces to slump against the wall. "In my defense, I was really flustered." He continued to look at her, and she wrinkled her nose. "Let's not talk about it. Do you want to snog instead?"

She wasn't sure if it was a mark of self-control or simple irritation that made him ignore the offer, but ignore it he did. "You got me into hot water with my best friend. Tell me what you said, then we can kiss."

"One or the other," she said quickly, and he crossed his arms. "Oh, fine. Have it your way." She knew that he wasn't going to like this, though she thought it was worth noting that he'd started it by talking to Albus in the first place.

She decided not to point that out. Albus really had needed to be told something at some point, and she knew she'd been putting it off longer than she should have.

"I might have mentioned you kissing me in the hospital wing," she said. Scorpius made a face. "And when he cornered me first thing this morning, I might have let it slip that I'd caught you looking down my shirt."

That caught his attention. His eyebrows shot up and his jaw actually dropped open. "You - what on earth possessed you to tell him that?"

"I was flustered," she repeated. "And not all of us have lots of practice at lying."

Scorpius ignored the jab at his house - which was just as well, because Rose did have plenty of experience with lying to almost everyone - and rubbed his forehead. "God, Rose, that is the worst possible thing you could have said. Why do you think I've sanitized the hell out of every discussion I've had with him about you?"

"I also told him that I'd caught you out at it when we were looking at the map during lunch that day," she muttered. She wasn't about to admit it to Scorpius, but she was feeling exceedingly unhappy with how she'd handled Albus cornering her that morning.