Between all the time Rose had been spending with Scorpius and the frequent Quidditch practices, the state of her schoolwork had become truly dire. She was up for at least another hour and a half after everyone else had gone to bed, and even with that, she was going to need to use her free period the next day to finish her Transfiguration assignment.
The only reason she woke up the next morning was that she was literally pulled out of bed.
She had been up until the crack of dawn finishing her schoolwork, and when the other girls in her dorm had begun to move around only a few hours after she had fallen into bed, she'd pulled her pillow over her head and decided to ignore them. It wasn't a good plan, but she'd been pulling it off until Roxanne stuck her head in and, upon seeing that Rose was still in bed, had taken out her wand and unceremoniously dumped Rose out of her bed and onto the floor.
She ate breakfast with minimal communication with the people around her. When she got to Care of Magical Creatures and Scorpius greeted her with a smile, it was all she could do to keep from groaning.
He looked a little taken aback. "Are you okay?"
"Just tired," she said, yawning widely. "I was up late finishing my assignments."
Scorpius frowned. "If you had so much work, why did you spend almost two hours with me after hours last night?"
Rose was too tired to dissemble, so she simply said, "I wanted to."
Before he could respond, the professor called the class to order. He turned away, but she could see a smile on his lips, and when Woodmore turned around a few minutes later, he leaned down and kissed her cheek.
Rose saw Albus roll his eyes, and she quickly discovered that Albus wasn't the only person who had noticed. As soon as they sat down to lunch, Holly leaned forward and asked, "So what's going on between you and Scorpius Malfoy?"
"Do I have to talk about it now?" Rose asked, rubbing her temples. Colleen was all right - she knew a little of it already, after all, and she was almost sure that Damien had heard about it from Scorpius or Albus, if not both - but she wasn't particularly keen on discussing Scorpius Malfoy with the Gryffindor fifth years as a whole, especially not when she was so exhausted.
"Yes," Colleen and Holly said together.
"It's not a big deal."
Holly turned to Albus, her blonde curls brushing across her shoulders. "He's your friend. Don't you know what's going on?"
Rose's heart sank. The last thing she needed was Holly latching onto her relationship with Scorpius. Holly was a decent sort, but she could be very silly, very giggly, and very, very gossipy.
Albus shrugged. "No idea. No one ever tells me anything," he said blandly.
Rose made a face at Damien, who was looking very bored. "Does it really matter?" he asked. "Or were one of you thinking of asking Rose out?"
Rose snorted, and Colleen and Holly both shot him a dirty look. "You're not the least bit curious?" Holly asked.
"No, I'm not," he said. "And I don't see why you are." They scowled at him, and he asked Rose, rather more loudly than he had to, "How's Quidditch practice been going? I don't want to announce at a game Gryffindor loses."
"Fine," Rose answered. "Don't worry. We'll win." After a moment, Colleen and Holly allowed Albus to steer them off the topic, though Rose doubted that that would be the end of it.
At least her housemates were just curious, not attacking her - which was certainly preferable to Scorpius's situation.
When they got up to go to Potions a short while later, Rose deliberately hung back as Damien stuffed the book he'd been reading into his bag.
"Thanks," she said.
He slung his bag onto his shoulder. "No problem." They began to make their way past the other house tables in the Great Hall. "Do me a favor, though."
She glanced over at him. "What?"
Damien's mouth twitched. "Be nice to him," he said.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Rose exclaimed before she could help herself, and Damien's smile broadened.
"Who else has said that?"
"Albus," she muttered. "Noah." She thought for a minute. "His friend Claire, probably. I think even James has."
At her tone, Damien cocked his head to one side. "You're jealous of Claire, aren't you?"
"No." He stopped in the doorway of the Great Hall to frown at her, and she sighed. "Maybe a little," she admitted. She knew that it wasn't really rational, but according to her mother, romance wasn't rational. Rose was beginning to believe her.
"Don't be." Damien glanced around them before saying very softly, "I think he'd rather go out with the giant squid than her."
Rose was startled into a giggle. "We should keep walking." He nodded, and they headed toward the secret passage that would take them down to the dungeons. "He told me that, too, you know," she said. "About me, I mean. Before things... happened."
"Well, he was lying to you," Damien said. "It's true about her." Rose wasn't sure how to respond to that, but thankfully, he changed the subject. However, just before they entered the classroom, he added, "Oh, if you talk to him before I do, tell him that I wasn't trying to steal his girlfriend back."
Between Lindsay Pritchard blowing up her cauldron again and the nasty bite she got in Herbology, Rose was feeling quite awake as she left the greenhouse that afternoon, despite her lack of sleep.
She stopped suddenly when she saw Scorpius sitting under a nearby tree. He appeared to be completely absorbed in a book. Colleen and Holly, who had already left the greenhouse looked from him to Rose curiosity. Holly let out a loud giggle, while Colleen contented herself with a wink.
Scorpius looked up as she approached. "Hi," he said, putting the book away and standing up.
"Hi," she replied, feeling a little confused.
"Charms let out a little early," he said awkwardly. "I thought I'd come down here and meet you. To see if you wanted to do anything." He swallowed audibly. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah," Rose said after a moment. "Sure." He shifted uncomfortably, and she said, "Yes, it is. I'm sorry. I'm just a little slow today. Not enough sleep."
"Oh." He rubbed the back of his head. "Um. Well, we don't have to do anything, if you want to go sleep or something. I just thought I'd ask."
"I want to," she said quickly. "As long as you don't mind me being a little stupid."
He was shaking his head when they heard Albus's voice. "I'm feeling a little hurt, Scorpius," he said from the door to the greenhouse. He was leaving it with Damien and a Ravenclaw named Sawyer Ackerly. "All this time we've been friends, and you've never come to meet me after class."
Scorpius snorted. "I see you plenty, Al," he called back, "and I've also never wanted to kiss you."
"Whereas you've been dying for my cousin to discover your charm so you can kiss her," Albus replied, coming to a stop in front of them. "I get it. I get it. I'm feeling ignored and abandoned, but I expect I'll get over it."
Rose stuck her tongue out at her cousin as Scorpius said, "I have every faith in you."
The three boys walked away, and just as Rose was about to say something to Scorpius, the last of the girls left the greenhouse. They also giggled when they saw Rose and Scorpius standing with each other, and once they'd passed, Rose glanced over at Scorpius. She was amused to see that his face had gotten a little red.
"Embarrassed to be seen with me?" he asked.
Rose tried to stop herself from smiling, but she didn't manage to do a very good job. "Nah. People keep telling me you're really very fit and they're a little jealous."
This was clearly news to him. "Oh. Well, too bad for them, huh? I like my women red-haired and obnoxious." He slipped an arm around her waist before she could shove him. "Come on, I'm joking. What do you want to do?"
She thought for a moment. "Would you play a game of chess?"
"Sure," he said, looking a little taken aback. "I'll go get my set. Where do you want to play?"
She chewed on her lip as she thought. "We could just play in the Room of Requirement," she suggested tentatively.
"Sure," he said very quickly. Rose raised her eyebrows, and he widened his eyes innocently. "It's just a good idea. I'm not expecting anything."
"Good."
"Anyway, we did that last night," he added. This time, she did elbow him, and he grinned at her. "Admit it, Rose. I've grown on you."
"A little," she agreed. "Have I grown on you?"
"Well, maybe just a bit," he said as they approached the castle. Rose heard a brief roll of thunder in the distance, and she grimaced. James had booked the pitch for after dinner, and it would be just her luck if the lull in the rain ended right when she had to get to the field.
Once they got inside, she headed up to Gryffindor tower, and was glad to see that most of her yearmates, including Albus and Colleen, had dawdled elsewhere for awhile rather than return to the Common Room.
When she got to the room with her own set, Scorpius was already there. It was very similar to what it had been when he and Albus had wandered in on her enjoying a quiet cup of tea.
"Can I trust you not to poison me?" she asked as she sat down across from him. A mug of tea was sitting on the table next to her.
"Nah. I have a policy where I don't poison girls I'm involved with, especially not when it's you. I have a feeling it would make you less likely to want to go out with me, and I'm also pretty sure your cousin would jinx me again if I did... and my hair's finally back to the right color. I'd rather it stay that way."
Rose started setting up her chess pieces. "Good instincts."
"The sorting hat seriously considered putting me in Ravenclaw, you know." When she looked up, she saw that he was grinning. "Just thought I'd remind you. The hat didn't consider you for Ravenclaw, after all."
She smiled back. "We'll see who's smarter than who after I win this game."
"If you play chess the way you go through life, I don't have anything to worry about," he said playfully.
Instead of answering, she directed one of her knights forward.
Rose was very good at chess. She was used to winning; it had been years since anyone but her father had beaten her, and since he'd given her and her brother his set to use at school - her mother had started to refuse to play with him when Rose was seven - she felt very confident.
Fifteen minutes later, that confidence hadn't dissipated. Scorpius put up a good fight, but once she'd feinted him into giving up his queen, it was only a matter of time before she maneuvered him into a checkmate.
He sat back. "You are good."
Rose smiled. "Thank you," she said. "So are you. You almost had me."
"No, I didn't, but thanks," he replied with good humor. Rose was beginning to realize that when he wasn't dealing with deeply conflicted emotions and what he'd assumed were unrequited feelings toward her, he really was fairly easygoing.
But it was another thing to shrug off a bad game, and she liked him more for it. She'd been wondering how he'd take it. "Do you want a rematch?"
He shook his head. "Not just now. My pride's already taken a bruising."
"Do you want to do something else?" she asked.
"Like what?" She raised her eyebrows, and he threw back his head and laughed.
When they arrived in the Great Hall for dinner, Rose paused at the end of the Slytherin table.
Scorpius gestured to the table with his free hand. "Do you want to join me?" he asked.
She snorted and pulled her hand away from his. "I'll sit at the Slytherin table the day I give up Quidditch and decide that my life's ambition is to join the Department of Magical Transportation."
He whistled. "Harsh. If you feel that way about Slytherins, I'm not sure why you're making time every day to sneak off and kiss one."
"Oh, shut up." She made her way over to the Gryffindor table. She found Albus halfway up the table, slid into the seat between him and Roxanne, and let herself be drawn into the chatter about the upcoming Quidditch match.
When they'd finished eating dinner and were waiting for the arrival of dessert, Rose stretched and asked, "Anyone up for a game of exploding snap after practice?"
James raised his eyebrows at her. "Don't you have schoolwork to do?" he asked.
Rose stared at him. He seemed serious. "You're joking, right?"
To her dismay, Roxanne joined in. "Rosie, you don't want to get to Sunday and have all of your assignments to do, and you know you're not going to want to do any after practice tomorrow."
Even the delicious-looking pie that appeared in front of them couldn't distract Rose from her sudden irritation. "But I'm tired," she whined. Her cousins didn't acknowledge her, and she sighed. "I'm so tired of work."
"Welcome to O.W.L. year," James said as he slid a very generous slice of pie onto his plate. "You'll survive."
"I hate them," Rose muttered to Albus, who made a face.
"I do, too," he said irritably. "I've already gotten the lecture." He tossed his brother a dirty look. "It's Friday, James."
James looked up from his pie at them and shrugged. "Just spend an hour on your Herbology essay or something," he said. "That's what I'm doing. Then we'll play." He popped a forkful of pie into his mouth. "Look, that's how you get things done," he said after he'd swallowed and Rose and Albus were still looking rather morose. "You spend an hour here and an hour there that you wouldn't have done much with, anyway. It adds up."
Rose really hated it when James was the voice of reason.
"I know you're right," she said after a moment. "I don't mind usually, but I'm just so exhausted." She'd gotten her second wind in Herbology, but it was starting to desert her.
Roxanne slid a slice of pie onto her plate. "So go to bed early tonight," she suggested.
"I plan on it."
Despite her and Albus's sentiments about James's suggestion, they both managed to finish their Herbology essays, and Rose even managed to get through half of Ancient Runes before she declared herself done with work for the night. James threw down his quill with gusto, and after a few minutes, Albus - who had been blinking wearily at his Muggle Studies textbook for the last half hour - and Roxanne did the same. After their second game of exploding snap, Rose headed up to her dormitory, knowing that she had a long day ahead of her.