Curiosity Is Not a Sin

Pushing the Line

Rose gave it her best effort, but in the end, all she could manage was a strangled "This is my boyfriend, Scorpius." Her opinion about his family had reformed somewhat since the beginning of the year, largely as a result of her rapidly changing opinion about him - Scorpius clearly liked his father a lot, and now that Rose knew Scorpius better, she had a hard time believing that his father really could be all that bad.

Still. Four years of habit were difficult to overcome, and whatever he said about disliking the Weasleys, she thought that she had the harder time of it. He disliked Weasleys because he found some of them personally obnoxious; she had issues with the Malfoys because Scorpius's grandfather had definitely killed wizards and probably killed Muggles for sport.

"Sorry," she muttered as they stood awkwardly by the stairs that would lead her up to Gryffindor tower.

He shrugged. "I get it," he said cheerfully. "You can only call me by one name at a time. Now that you've moved on to Scorpius, the Malfoy bit had to go."

"That's about right." He smiled before turning to go back down the stairs. "Hey, Scorpius?" He stopped and looked back. "Do you - er - want to meet me in the library? In ten minutes?"

The smile hadn't quite faded from his lips, and now it broadened again. "I'd love to," he said. As she started up the stairs, he called after her, "I knew you'd come around."

She rolled her eyes and continued on without turning around. "You just keep telling yourself that."

She retrieved her books and made her way back to the library. Once she arrived, she found that Scorpius wasn't there yet, but it was significantly more crowded than it had been earlier in the day. Thankfully, there were still a few tables by the windows that were available, and she tossed her bag onto one of them and sat down next to the window.

Scorpius arrived a few minutes later, and unlike Rose, he was not alone. When the two boys arrived at the table Rose was sitting at, she asked, "Did you decide we needed a chaperone?"

Albus snorted as he slid into the chair directly across from Rose. "Still don't understand why I'm friends with him?"

"Yes," she said blithely. "You don't get to kiss him, and that's at least half the appeal."

Scorpius pushed one of the remaining chairs a little closer to her before he sat down in it. "No, it isn't."

She smiled at him, but turned back to her book rather than respond. She couldn't think of any witty comeback, and "You're right" just seemed to much like conceding defeat.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Albus turn his head slightly to watch someone across the library for a moment before looking back at his essay. She tried to ignore him, but he continued to fidget, and after about ten minutes of it, she snapped. "What is it, Albus?"

Scorpius looked up from his book in interest as Albus looked back at the parchment in front of him. "Nothing."

Scorpius glanced off in the direction Al kept turning toward, and his expression soured. "Great. Do you think their new plan is to just annoy me into breaking up with Rose?"

Rose decided not to quibble with her terminology, particularly given that she'd spent about ten minutes trying to call him her boyfriend that afternoon. Instead, she followed his gaze and saw two of the fifth-year Slytherin girls. Rose had never really paid attention to Vera Zabini before, but Scorpius was right: her nose really was very unfortunate looking.

She also remembered someone - she wasn't sure whether it had been Scorpius or Albus - telling her that Vera had tried more than once to convince Scorpius he really did want to date her and abandon all of his beliefs in favor of hers. While it was clear that Scorpius had not been remotely tempted by such a ridiculous proposition, Rose still found it thoroughly irritating.