Curiosity Is Not a Sin

Surviving to the Weekend

"Wow, Al. That's harsh. His cousins would mock him all break."

"That's the idea." He glanced at his brother, who had suddenly lost all interest in Roxanne and Marion and was instead directing all of his attention to Albus. "Oh, come on, James. I know it was you. You can own up to it, I won't write home."

"You told Scorpius Malfoy about our map?"

"That's what I said."

"You let him use our map?"

"That's also what I said." James was looking more outraged and appalled by the second, and Albus seemed to decide that it would save him time in the long run to tackle the issue head-on. "Look, James, I know you don't like him, but he's one of my best friends. He promised he wouldn't tell, and I believe him." James's expression didn't change, and Albus's voice took on an edge of irritation. "Oh, grow up. You've told several of your friends. It's my map, too."

James ran a hand over his perpetually messy hair. "That's different." Albus raised his eyebrows. "It is! They're trustworthy, and they're not trying to hex Rose!"

"And I know that Scorpius is trustworthy. I let him use the map to find Rose, not hex her. I was really clear about that."

"And you thought he'd listen?"

Rose hated to defend Scorpius Malfoy, but at that point, she spoke up - the last thing she wanted was for James and Albus to get into a fight, particularly a fight that she had inadvertently caused. "He actually did. He wanted to talk about - well, it doesn't matter. But he didn't try to hex me."

James opened his mouth and closed it again without speaking.

"He'll never see the map unless it's in my hands," Albus promised. "Will you please just calm down?"

James scowled, but couldn't see to come up with a reasonable response. He glanced back at the girls by the window instead.

Albus took advantage of his brother's momentary silence to turn to Rose. "What did he want to talk about?"

Rose shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't quite sure why she was so reticent to share their conversation - it had gotten fairly personal, but there hadn't been much about it that was objectionable. Given that, though, it was odd that Scorpius hadn't told Albus himself, and if he hadn't, Rose wasn't sure that she should. "Didn't he tell you?"

"Nope. I've asked twice, and he changed the topic both times."

She sighed. "He just wanted to apologize about the blood traitor thing." James whirled back around, and she hurried to add, "He didn't call me a blood traitor, James. At all. He was just afraid that he had, because his memories right after dinner were a bit... hazy."

"That's... strange," Albus said. "Why wouldn't he just tell me that himself?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't know, Al. He's your friend. Maybe he was just embarrassed that he gave half a thought to my feelings."

James was looking thoughtful but wisely held his tongue. Rose hoped Albus would head up to bed first - otherwise, the suspense would probably kill her.

As it transpired, Albus did go to bed first, though judging from James's drooping eyelids and steadily decreasing participation in the conversation, Rose suspected that he was hanging around specifically to talk about Scorpius, and otherwise would have gone upstairs a long time ago.

After Albus vanished into the stairwell, Rose waited to hear the faint click of his door open and close before turning to James. "So?"

He rubbed his eyes. "Give me a second to wake up."

Rose managed to keep her mouth shut, though with great difficulty. After a minute, her cousin threw back his head and laughed. "You look like there are fire ants crawling all over the couch. Calm down. I don't have anything earth shattering to say."

"But you do have something."

"Well, yeah." Now he was clearly just teasing her - there was a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth as he watched her. After a pause that lasted far longer than it really needed to, he took pity on her. "Merlin, Rose, that boy really does want to sleep with you."

She felt her face get hot.

"Sorry," James said. "I know it's kind of awkward when I put it that way, but there's not really another way to put it that's not deceptively delicate."

Sometimes Rose forgot that James was actually quite smart. It tended to come out most in one-on-one talks like this, or sometimes when the two of them were with Albus. It made her wonder how much of the personality they saw the rest of the time was him playing to an audience.

"I don't mean it's something he thinks idly about when he's bored in class or just has weird creepy little Slytherin dreams about. I mean that he genuinely wants to - well, I'm not sure what, exactly, and I'd bet that he isn't either, but he definitely wants to have his hands all over you, and on a regular basis."

"So he's trying to manipulate me by apologizing?"

James made a face; she wasn't sure whether it was at her tone or her words. "Much as I hate to defend Scorpius Malfoy, I'm not sure that's really fair. He's fifteen and a Slytherin, not a conniving monster. I don't think he's really trying to manipulate you - he just wants you to not hate him."

"He doesn't even like me."

"I'd bet galleons that it's not that simple. Rose, that boy is not acting like someone who straight up hates you. I don't doubt that he finds you annoying as hell - I just think he'd probably rather kiss you to shut you up than jinx you."

When Rose came downstairs the next morning, it was still early; she'd slept fitfully, and though she knew she'd probably need to take a nap that afternoon, she'd gotten up when she heard the birds chirping rather than lay in bed another hour trying to fall back asleep.

She'd been reading on the couch for about an hour when Alex emerged from the staircase. She greeted him with a smile. "Is Albus up yet?"

"Yeah, he should be down in a minute." Alex sat down next to her and cleared his throat. "Er - I was wondering. Would you maybe be interested in going to Hogsmeade with me? The first Hogsmeade weekend, I mean?"

Rose looked up from her book. "Oh, sorry - I'm probably going to be spending most of the day with my family. I'm find time to hang out with you guys next time, though, I promise."

"Right," he responded. He looked a little disappointed, though she could not for the life of her understand why.

"Hey, Rose!" Albus had reached the foot of the stairs. "Let's go to breakfast, I'm starving!"

Rose joined him. Her stomach was growling, too.

She surreptitiously checked the map throughout the day; her conversation with James the night before had left her very curious about what else Scorpius Malfoy might be saying. To her disappointment, he spent most the day alone in his dormitory, and when he left, it was only to join his cousins in the Slytherin Common Room.

Rose caught herself wondering whether he'd slept in or had just been reading all day. Then her conversations with James on the subject of Scorpius Malfoy came back to her, and she wondered what Scorpius was thinking about if he was awake. That made her face get warm again.

All of these thoughts were almost immediately followed by a realization that knowing where he'd spent his day was really quite creepy. By that point, her face was so red that Albus, who she was studying with in the Gryffindor Common Room, asked her what was wrong.

She didn't have time to touch the map again until after Quidditch practice the next day, and by that point, she already knew perfectly well where Scorpius was, because Albus had told her that they were going to go hang out by the lake. The idea of intentionally eavesdropping on her cousin did bother her conscience enough that she decided to stay in and play chess with Damien and Colleen. By the time she remembered the map again, dinner had come and gone, and most of the students had returned to their common rooms for the night.

Maybe she'd have better luck during the week.