EDITED: I need help choosing an actor/male to be Scorpius. Personally, I love casting my stories but i am really struggling to find someone to suit my Scorp<3 Obviously, I appreciate that many people don't like to follow the cast but if you have any suggestions please let me know!
"You know, you could at least attempt to look like you're not staring at him."
Rose jumped, startled. She turned her attention from across the room, to the boy sitting next to her. Charlie King was smirking at her, a glint in his eyes that gave Rose nervous butterflies in her stomach.
Rose frowned, attempting to act nonchalant. "I wasn't staring at anyone."
Charlie snorted. "You're going to have to get more convincing than that if that's the story you're going with."
Charlie was right. She had been staring at Scorpius as he sat next to Marie Merryweather and worked on their joint assignment. When Professor Dobbs had first called out their names, Rose had been disappointed that it wasn't her he had been paired with for personal, not-school related reasons. Now, however, Rose could confidently say that her disappointment had become one concerned with academics. It was only the second hour of their double-period Potions class, but Rose was already losing her mind working with Charlie — not to mention something else that was bothering her.
She had quickly come to learn that Charlie... was hopeless. With no other way to phrase it, he had less brain cells than a mandrake. Rose had no less than demanded to see to his essay score when she sat down at the desk next to him. It had almost pained her to see that he had failed it, scoring only 43%.
She knew then that Professor Dobbs was torturing her — sabotaging her overall grade, she could even argue! Scorpius was second only to she, and Marie Merryweather was no Charlie. If Rose wanted to stay on top and beat the two of them she had to really push Charlie. And she would.
Just as soon as he stopped teasing her about Scorpius.
"What was up with you two on Saturday?" He asked. He was twirling his wand through his fingers as Rose sifted through the bundle of papers Professor Dobbs had handed out to each pair.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked innocently.
Their assignment was to write an improved and more detailed report on the potion they had already written on in the essay. They were to include the history of the potion, the creator of the potion, the ingredients and the method to brew said potion. When they had finished the report, which was to be handed in by the end of the week, Professor Dobbs would check it and, when it was satisfactory, they were to use their method to brew it. The pair with the most accurate report and brewed potion would gain twenty points each for their house.
Rose, as usual, was dying to win. In her mind, losing wasn't an option. Especially not to Scorpius and his little partner.
Charlie, however, didn't seem to care about their assignment at all.
He shot Rose a disbelieving look at her answer. "Oh, come off it!" He said. "You two were staring at each other like I'd caught you snogging or something—"
Rose sputtered, choking on the air she had breathed in quickly. Snogging?
"—You know, Scorpius told me that you guys are friends... but that was just weir—"
Rose blinked, recovering from her shock. "Wait! Scorpius told you?"
Charlie rolled his eyes. "Yes. Pay attention—"
"What did he say?"
A smirk quickly crawled onto his face. "Why does it matter what he said?"
"I'm just curious..." Rose didn't think Charlie and Scorpius were that close. In fact, she'd just assumed that she was his only friend.
Stupid, Rose thought. She had acted this entire time as though Scorpius had no other choice but to be friends with her. Of course he and Charlie were close. They were both Slytherin and both excluded from the main group. She saw them together quite frequently, now that she thought about it.
Charlie narrowed his eyes at her in disbelief, but hummed a noise of acceptance. "All he said was that you two have decided to be friends."
"That's all?" Rose asked. Nothing about his rudeness or her indifference? Nothing about the Hogsmeade incident? Nothing about their late-night chats on the Astronomy Tower?
"Yes, that's all." His eyes narrowed further. "Why? Is there something else I should know?"
Rose shook her head. "No, of course not. I was just double checking."
Not for the first time, it was clear that her partner didn't believe her. Rose doubted she would either, if she were in his shoes.
"So, now that we have established that I know about your little affair—"
Rose shot him an alarmed glance. Charlie just smiled innocently and continued on.
"—can you tell me why you were acting so unfriendly on Saturday?"
Rose swallowed all the truth that was threatening to burst out of her mouth. She wasn't sure how to lie to him but, judging by the impatience etched on Charlie's face, she would have to fabricate something on the spot — and quickly.
"I was just having a bad day," she settled with. "What with McGonagall and Lily and Lysander... if I'm quite honest, I wasn't having the best week towards the end of it."
Charlie scrutinised her closely as she spoke. He was silent for a few minutes following her excuse, and then he snorted. "Okay, Rose, let us, for a moment, pretend that I believe that excuse. If it was just a bad week then why did you only ignore Scorpius? You were perfectly normal speaking to me, but I didn't see you utter one word to him. That doesn't seem like a very healthy friendship to me, Rose Weasley."
Rose stared at Charlie like he had suddenly sprouted a hippogriff beak. Who did he think he was? Why did he think he had the right to confront her about this?
As Rose felt her irritation with the boy in front of her growing, she could sense another feeling developing in the pit of her stomach.
Guilt. She could pinpoint it so easily by now. In fact, she felt it so often nowadays that she couldn't remember a time when she wasn't guilty about something or other. Rose knew that a portion of her anger at the situation was directed at herself. She was the one complicating things by making a big secrecy out of everything. She was the one fabricating lies so to stay away from the prying eyes of her classmates. She was the one who suggested that her and Scorpius be friends and, yet, she was the one who scampered away from him at the first sight of another student.
Rose's head was a mess and her thought pattern a constant loop. She wanted to talk about her situation.
Her problem was that she didn't have anyone to talk to. She couldn't talk to Lily or Albus or the rest of her family because they wouldn't approve. She couldn't talk to Scorpius because he would be hurt and offended. And she couldn't talk to Charlie because he was, first and foremost, Scorpius' friend.
She continued to stare at said friend, at a loss for words. He regarded her in return with a knowing look.
"You know I'm right," he said.
He was.
By the time Potions class finished, Rose was extremely unsatisfied with the amount of work she and Charlie had done on their assignment. She was partly to blame, yes, although she would never admit that to Charlie. Rose had been frantically sifting through her mind, sorting out her thoughts.
As usual, it had gotten her nowhere.
"So, we should probably meet over the next few days to get this done, right?" Charlie said as they left the classroom together.
Albus was up ahead, chatting away to his assignment partner. Scorpius was a little behind him, Marie Merryweather by his side. His head was slightly turned as Marie spoke to him but Rose couldn't see any form of expression on his face besides his usual blank one. Her stomach flipped. It was nice to know that he was different around her.
She glanced at Charlie. "Yeah. Let's meet tomorrow in the library and just work until it's finished."
Charlie groaned. "I was afraid you would say that. You see, Rose, I'm not the most... studious, shall we say. I don't have the greatest attention span."
Rose rolled her eyes. That, she had noticed. "Well, lucky for us, I do. I'll make you a deal. We meet at the library tomorrow. You come prepared with research and I'll write the essay based on what you give me."
Rose wouldn't admit to his face that she would probably end up rewriting the entire thing in the middle of the night before it was due.
He shrugged. "Okay. See you later, Weasley." He saluted her, before sauntering off down the corridor in the direction of the Slytherin common room.
Rose sighed. She was almost certain that her brain would implode working with Charlie before they even finished the assignment. Maybe that was Professor Dobbs' goal. It was working, that was for sure.
Rose turned on her heel and headed away from the Potions class and back to the Gryffindor Tower for a much needed nap before dinner.
— — — — —
The sensation that churned Rose's stomach as she entered the Great Hall wasn't one of nerves, as it so often was. This sensation, in fact, was one of anticipation.
Anticipation of a the explanation she was moments away from prying out of Lily, who was sitting at the Gryffindor table, making googly eyes at Lorcan, who was shooting her cutesy little smiles in return.
Rose narrowed her eyes. She couldn't believe Lily. What had happened in the ten hours since they had eaten breakfast together in that very same spot? What progress had her and Lorcan made since Saturday that she hadn't informed her about? What was she hiding from her?
"Lily Luna Potter." Rose slammed her hands down on the wooden table. She planted herself on the bench across from Lily, effectively breaking whatever trance she was in.
Rose's cousin blinked at her. "Yes, Rose?" She said calmly.
"Either I'm seeing things or you have some explaining to do."
Lily smiled dreamily. Rose felt a little nauseous watching her.
"Lorcan and I had a fight this morning..." she said, a sickly sweet tone to her words.
Another one? Rose thought, cocking her head as she watched Lily on Cloud Nine. "If you and Lorcan argued again then why are smiling like that..."
Rose was simply baffled. Lily and Lorcan had barely made it out of their last argument as friends — and that was just Saturday! How had they managed to find something else to fall out about?
Despite knowing the basics, Rose was still being kept in the dark about what was said and done during Lily and Lorcan's chat at the weekend. Lily was being incredibly secretive and refused to tell Rose all the details. She did, however, float about for the rest of the day with a content smile on her face. For that reason alone, Rose was willing to let Lily keep her in the dark. As long as her cousin was happy, so was she.
This level of happiness, however, was far too much for Rose to handle.
Lily sighed dreamily. "Because the only reason we fought is because I was jealous."
Rose pursed her lips. She must have been missing something, because she simply couldn't understand why this was something to smile about in such a lovestruck manor.
Lily continued, oblivious to her cousin's confusion. "I admitted that I like him... and he told me he likes me, too... and then he asked me out..."
Rose blinked. She blinked again. And again.
And then she squealed. "Merlin's Beard! Are you tugging my wand? Lily! By the name of Dumbledore! Oh my god!"
Lily seemed to snap out of it then. She looked at Rose, her green eyes alight with happiness. She grinned back at Rose, who was almost crying with joy. "I know!" Lily exclaimed. "Who would have thought?"
Rose paused her celebrations to stare at her cousin in disbelief. "Are you serious? Um, everyone."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, I didn't expect it..."
"Well, you're stupid," James chimed in, plopping down next to me.
Lily glared at her brother as Albus filled in the seat next to her. "How do you even know what we're talking about?"
James shrugged. "Oh, I don't. But your stupidity applies to most things so..."
Lily was irritated now. Rose elbowed her cousin in the side. He rolled her eyes at her. "Nice try, Rosie."
Albus turned to Lily. "You're talking about you and Lorcan liking each other, right?"
"How did you know that?!"
"Lily, everyone knows that."
Rose shot her a pointed look. Lily pointedly ignored it. "Well, whatever," she huffed. "I know, now."
"Just think of how much pain and trauma poor Katie Waters could've avoided if you'd both just grown up and confessed," James teased his little sister, reaching over the table to ruffle her red hair.
Lily sulked silently with her arms crossed over her chest. Rose was shocked when she didn't make an effort to smooth her hair again after two whole minutes.
Lorcan was changing her already, after not even a day. Rose couldn't imagine how much Lily would mature after a long period of their relationship.
Lily snapped out of her brief mood fairly quickly and, by the time the food appeared on the platters in front of them, the four of them were having a great conversation about James' latest Quidditch practice.
Rose enjoyed a nice, relaxed dinner with her family that night. At one point, Hugo left his friends to come and join them for a bit, and the five of them laughed and made of fun of each other, cracking jokes and telling stories until everyone began to clear out of the Great Hall.
As they were leaving, Rose caught sight of white-blonde hair. Her footsteps faltered.
Albus turned to look at her. "Are you okay, Rosie?"
"Um, I'm just going to go and speak to Charlie about our assignment," she heard herself say in response. She took off towards the Slytherin table before she could get a reply, however.
Neither the blonde or chestnut-haired wizard noticed her heading their way until Rose was practically skidding to a stop in front of them.
"Rose!" Charlie blinked, then glanced around. "Where on earth did you come from?"
"The Gryffindor table," she muttered halfheartedly. Her attention was focused on Scorpius.
He was staring back at her, his silvery gaze setting off eruptions of nerves in her stomach. Oh, Dumbledore! What was she doing?
"Yes, but what are you doing he— are you even paying the slightest bit of attention to me?"
Rose glanced at Charlie. He was staring back at her with his eyebrows raised and a mock look of hurt. Rose wasn't affected in the slightest. "Charlie," she said. "Would you mind? I need to speak to Scorpius for a bit."
Charlie frowned, but Rose saw the unmissable twitch of his lips. "Why, Rose Weasley, we're all friends here, aren't we? Anything you can say to Scorpius you can say to me, too. I'm hurt that you would even think to leave me ou--"
"Charlie," Scorpius muttered. "Give it a rest, will you? I'll meet you back in the common room in a bit."
For the first time since she revealed her intentions, Rose cast her gaze to Scorpius. He was staring right back at her, his expression giving away nothing. Rose was envious; she was almost certain that she was expressing every single feeling of angst she had on her face. It was unnerving to see how much of an expert her was at schooling his emotions. Rose was dying to know what he was thinking at that moment.
Charlie forced a deep breath out noisily. Rose wanted to snigger at the huff he was pretending to be in. "Fine," he grumbled, and spun on his heels, heading for the Entrance Hall.
Rose was watching him go, avoiding meeting Scorpius' scorching gaze, when he stopped. Charlie looked over his shoulder at them, a smirk playing on his lips. His eyes were glinting maliciously as they locked with Rose's for a split second. "Have fun kids," he said, and Rose could hear how smug he was in his tone. "But not too much fun."
And, with a snort and a wink, Charlie left a red-faced Rose and Scorpius to themselves, the former swearing to herself that she would curse the day Charlie King was born.
Despite the embarrassment that their, now, mutual friend had left them with, Rose couldn't help but wish he would come back. She wasn't sure how to even begin to explain how she was feeling to Scorpius and, even if she managed to convey it in someway, Rose wasn't certain that he would be able to make any sense of it.
Without another word, however, Scorpius began to walk towards the doors out of the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall. When Rose didn't immediately follow after him, he turned to raise an eyebrow at her.
"Didn't you want to talk?" He asked, his tone as secretive as his expression.
Rose could only nod in response. "Well, yes, but--"
"Well, come on, then."
This time, when Scorpius began to move again, Rose followed behind him obediently. Without having to discuss it, the two seemed to know where they were going.
The Astronomy Tower. Their place.
They remained in silence as they walked through the nearly deserted corridors. Much to Rose's relief, the few lingering students paid them nearly no attention. Even if they had, Rose and Scorpius hardly looked like they were walking together; his attention was focused straight in front of him, whilst she was walking a little way behind him, her gaze burning holes into the stone floors of the corridors they were walking.
Scorpius x Rose
"I didn't believe you, you know -- when you said that everything was okay," he said, casting her a sideways glance. His hands were grasping the railings and his trouser-clad legs were crossed left over right. His torso pressed against the rusting metal every time he rocked forward on the balls of his feet.
Rose nodded, moving her gaze from him to look out over the black lake. "I know."
"I thought about what might be wrong for a while... and I understand that you have a lot of things going on right now, but..." he pushed away from the railing and turned to her, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets. "Correct me if I'm wrong... I've begun to notice that you avoid being seen with me whenever it's possible to do so."
Rose bowed her head. Her stomach churned with guilt. So it was obvious then? Rose felt so shallow at that moment, knowing how awful it must be to be on the recieving end of the way she was treating Scorpius. To think that she had always prided herself on being a fair and kind, when deserving, person... that thought was almost laughable, now.
Rose was sure that Scorpius was a mind reader, as he stepped closer to her almost immediately, his hands going to her shoulders in a comforting gesture. "Oh, please don't feel bad, Rose! I - I understand, I really do."
She looked up at him, her face twisted in guilt and confusion. "You do?"
He nodded. "I had never really thought about anyone else when it came to us being friends but once I started to notice how you distanced yourself from me in public I began to consider why... I mean, our houses dont have the best relationship with each other, nevermind our friends and families."
Scorpius laughed suddenly, removing his hands from Rose's shoulders and dragging them back through his hair. They stayed at the back of his head, clasped. "Merlin's Beard!" He exclaimed through chuckles. "If my family found out about this?" He shook his head, dropping his arms to his side.
"Well, I wasn't exactly planning on telling my family..." Rose admitted quietly. Now that he was in on her thoughts and seemed to share them, she didn't see any reason to keep anything else concerning the matter to herself.
Scorpius sighed, his silvery gaze meeting hers. "I can't imagine they'd be very happy that you've befriended a Malfoy..."
Rose didn't attempt to deny it. They both knew it was true.
"If my father found out..." Scorpius continued, closing his eyes in exasperation.
Rose bit her lip. "Things could be different now, Scorpius. Our families have changed since their time here. Everything is different now. They might not be as against our friendship as we think."
He stared her straight in the eyes. Rose's heart sank. She could see that he didn't agree with her in the slightest. His emotions were clear on his face, now. The regret and embarrassment.
"My father might not hold the same ideals he once did... but Rose, he's still not particularly fond of your family." Scorpius winced. "Honestly, I don't think he ever will be. They were enemies for so long... both sides of our families have done some unspeakable things to each other."
Rose knew that. She didn't want to admit it, but she knew.
"I don't think my family would approve," he said. "I can't speak for yours -- I think we both know that our relationships with our parents are very different."
"I think you could be pleasantly surprised," Rose suggested. "Maybe you're underestimating your parents a little too much."
Scorpius shook his head. "Rose, you don't know my parents. They wouldn't allow it. They would force me to break ties with you, I just know it."
Rose shook her head. "But it's your life, Scorpius?"
"Is it? I'm still in school, we still have one and a half years to go. I still have the trace on me... they still have a say in what I do or don't do."
Rose couldn't help but wonder if this ran deeper than just their friendship. She thought he was being rather frantic about his assumptions but, regardless, she was desperate to know what his parents could be like to make him doubt them so.
As much as Rose worried about her own family's reactions, she wasn't scared of them in the slightest. The way Scorpius was acting... it was almost as if he had reason to be scared of them finding out about something like this.
She frowned. "Well, we don't tell them then. We don't tell anyone. That way no one has a reason to be suspicious and our families won't find out."
Scorpius sighed. "But Charlie knows."
"He'll just have to be an exception."
He regarded her carefully with that captivating gaze of his. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Rose forced out a small laugh. "We don't have much of a choice, Scorpius. I want to be friends with you, I enjoy your company. Keeping our friendship a secret is the only way to continue doing that, and so be it."
Scorpius didn't say anything for a few long seconds. Finally, he nodded. "Okay. So we continue to be friends, but out of the public eye... that rules out speaking during class, walking to and from dinner, hanging out at the weekends or after class..."
Rose frowned deeply. "It sounded a lot easier when you left it at 'out of the public eye'."
Scorpius offered a slight smile. "We'll make it work. We've done pretty well so far."
She nodded and smiled back. As they looked at each other, their smiles gradually grew larger.
Rose's body was reacting to his blinding grin. Her stomach was flipping, her heart pounding, her mouth drying. She could feel her toes curling in her shoes. Her palms were sweating and the unmistakable heat of a blush was creeping up her neck to her cheeks.
"Do you have anywhere to be?" Scorpius asked. Rose shook her head in response. "Neither do I. Want to stay here for a little longer?"
She found her voice again. "Isn't Charlie waiting for you?"
He shrugged, giving her a closed-mouthed smile. "Charlie can wait."
Rose's chest squeezed.
Everyone could wait.
— — — —
(A/N)
Okay, so Uni is much harder than I thought it would be and honestly I've discovered that I'm not very good at uni hahahahahha. That being said, the reason I'm not updating very much is because I'm desperately trying to keep up with my workload and, because I'm living in student halls, a lot of my free time is spent getting drunk and chilling my friends.
I promise I will try to work harder on this book. It's got 10-20 more chapters left which I realise is quite a broad number lol but still I have the main plot sorted but everything else just rolls onto the page I write so what I plan to happen over 2 chapters ends up happening over 5, it is very frustrating but I just get lost in these characters...
It's a disease.
Anyway, I also feel the need to say that this book when planned before Cursed Child was released therefore it has not, in any way, followed the events of the play, even though JK herself has confirmed that they are cannon.
Oh well.
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE SONG ON THE SIDE! The lyrics are amazing I love them so much and I think they relate quite well to Rose and Scorpius' feelings....
Question of the Chapter: favourite band/singer/artist?
Answer: my favourite band is probably Catfish and the Bottlemen, but in all honesty Taylor Swift will always hold a special place in my heart. Love you T-Swift<3