It Started With a Dare

It Started with a Few Terms and Conditions

"Weasley!" An excited call came from Scorpius Malfoy, who was quickly descending the stairs of his dorm. "I've got a plan." 

It was a bit late, some might've considered. But to Rose, she considered it early. 

Rose was only person who remained in the Gryffindor Common Room and as per usual, her eyes were glued to a book. 

But given the amount of people she surrounded herself around every day, Rose enjoyed the alone time. However, tonight was a bit more harder for her to concentrate. Desperately trying to use her time alone to distract herself, she couldn't help but be plagued by the whole situation she was in. 

Yet somehow Malfoy had once again roped her into his little scheme. 

Of course she'd been very firm with him earlier at pub, but he had been very convincing. Rose swears that he should've made it into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor.

Rolling her eyes, "A plan. You, Malfoy. Have a plan."

"Course I do, and it-- Are you seriously reading again?" He complained, plopping himself down at her side on the sofa. Scorpius could never understand why the girl would willingly read any other textbook aside from the ones required for class. 

The past week had been the most unusual for Rose. With Malfoy civilly associating himself with the girl, her usual routine around the castle felt almost unsettling. He was plopping down in open seats next to her, from left to right. 

But of course it wasn't as if it hasn't happened before. It's just that most of it had been done out of necessity. 

Now here was Scorpius, settling himself into her everyday routine comfortably. 

Rose's usual schedule involved arguing with the blonde haired boy and having Albus act as the border between them at the table. But the border was no more and the arguing decreased to a playful banter.

What is going on? Rose thought, bewildered.

Rolling her eyes once again, she snapped his fingers at him, not taking her eyes off of her book. "A plan, you said you had a plan." She replied in a rather bored tone. Malfoy was clearly interrupting her alone time. But she couldn't help but feel slightly amused by the boy. He looked like such a silly idiot compared to his cool exterior. She almost found it...Endearing.

Shuddering at the thought of finding Malfoy endearing, she decided to tune him out. 

Maybe he'll just talk and eventually leave, she thought, wanting to concentrate on her Jane Austen novel. 

But he didn't.

"Let me take that," He said after a silent minute, grabbing the old novel from her hands and tossing it to the side.

"Hey! Careful with that! That's the only copy I have of that book. It's old and the bindings are about to come undone."

Rolling his eyes, "Yes, yes yes. I'll get you a new one. But now that I have your attention, I need speak to you. Honestly, you have loads of time to read that old ratty thing. Besides, the entire story ends with the same typical result: Marriage to the introduced characters of the story. Of course Austen places the doubt of the two couples never getting together. But it happens anyway."

Rose couldn't help but be taken aback at the news, "You've read Pride and Prejudice?" 

To say that surprise was laced in her tone was an understatement. She was seeing a whole new side to Malfoy.

Scorpius tried to hide the slight embarrassment with a shrug, "So?"

"It's muggle." 

"Just because I'm a pure-blood coming from a particular family, it doesn't mean that I haven't read anything muggle. I'm sure that you can recall that I have one of the biggest marks in our year, Weasley." He huffed, "Besides, my mother believes that it's perfectly healthy to induce some sort of helping of muggle within out wizarding lives. Perfectly reasonable, if you ask me. And honestly, do you really think I believe in that whole Pure-blood superiority crap?"