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.
She edged her chair to the right to close the last few centimeters between them, and then she leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You know, I never noticed it, but she does look a bit like a toad, doesn't she?"
He started as she brushed her lips across his neck. "Rose, what the-" She bit down gently, and he nearly jumped out of his seat.
"Even with my awful personality, I can see why you'd prefer me to her," Rose said to him, still keeping her voice very low. At that, he threw back his head and laughed loudly. When Rose glanced over at the girls, they looked like a dungbomb had gone off in their vicinity.
She lifted up her hand and wiggled her fingers in a wave before raising her other hand to Scorpius's cheek and gently turning his head enough so she could kiss him. After he got over his initial shock, he wrapped both of his arms around her, pulling her over so far that she was virtually perched on his seat.
Albus cleared his throat, and Rose broke away to look at him. He had a politely bemused expression on his face. "As glad as I am that you two are getting along, could you try to - er - get along a little less?"
Rose felt her face flush. "Sorry," she muttered. She started to slide back onto her chair, but before she could, Scorpius tightened his grip around her and leaned in to whisper, "You know, your personality really is growing on me, Red."
She made a face at him. He laughed again and let her go.
As Rose had returned to her seat, Albus pointed out mildly, "You know, Scorpius, that's exactly the kind of display you used to complain about."
Scorpius shrugged his friend's comment off. "I didn't realize how much fun it could be. And besides, I wasn't getting anything out of it then."
Albus stared at him for long enough that Scorpius shifted uncomfortably despite himself. Then Albus looked back down at his essay and muttered something that sounded an awful lot like "Slytherins."
It was so uncharacteristic that it took Rose a moment to process what he'd said - Albus rarely poked fun at any House but his own. Once she did, she felt a gleeful grin spread across her face. Scorpius, however, seemed significantly less amused.
"What did you say?" he asked Albus.
Albus looked up from the parchment. "I think you heard me," he said. Rose saw a hint of a smile on her cousin's lips - he suddenly put her in mind of James at his most insincere appeasement. Scorpius seemed to be at a loss for words, and after a long moment, Albus said, "If you don't like it, don't act like it."
"I don't know how else to act," Scorpius snapped and shoved his chair back. "I'm going to go get a book. Or something."
Rose and Albus watched him stalk over to one of the bookshelves, and after he'd left earshot, Rose caught her cousin's eye. He tried to keep a straight face, but he was fighting a losing battle; as soon as she started to giggle, he broke into a laugh himself.
"I probably shouldn't have done that," he managed to say after a minute. "But I had to." Rose wasn't even trying to fight her giggles, and after a moment, Albus cocked his head to one side. "You really do like him, don't you?"
Her giggles immediately stopped. "I-" Her cousin raised his eyebrows, and she sighed. "Yes," she admitted. "I do."
Albus pulled his Herbology book toward him and ran his quill down the page. When he moved back to his essay, he said, "I told you so," under his breath. Rose kicked him lightly, and he grinned without looking up. "Well, I did."
Scorpius eventually returned, and to Rose's surprise, he actually had a book with him. He tossed it onto the table, where it landed with an audible thud, but rather than sit back down, he rested one of his elbows on the top of her chair and trailed a finger from his other hand lightly down her face. She shuddered involuntarily, and he let out a soft chuckle before beginning to play with her hair.
She was about to say something, though she had no idea what, when Albus spoke. "Mature," he said dryly. "Really mature, Scorpius."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Scorpius said, and she twisted around in her chair to examine his face. There was a slight but noticeable smirk on it.
"Oh," Albus said, and she looked back at her cousin. "Sorry. My mistake. I thought that you were trying to make me uncomfortable by flaunting how much you can get away with with my favorite cousin without her telling you to stop."
"I wouldn't do something like that," Scorpius said innocently, and Albus rolled his eyes.
"Good," he said. "Because it's not working."
Contrary to his claim, however, Albus was starting to look quite uncomfortable, so when Scorpius began to run his fingers through her hair again, she said, "Scorpius, stop it and sit down."
He blew out a breath and kissed the top of her head before returning to his seat, where he leaned back in his chair and opened the book. He seemed to be paying attention to it, but Rose caught him looking over the top of it at Albus several times, and after about twenty minutes, Albus sighed and tossed down his quill.
"I can't concentrate," he complained, throwing a dirty look at Scorpius, who glanced up, looking for all the world like he was completely innocent of any wrongdoing. "I'm going to go find that book for James."
Rose wasn't convinced that James had asked his brother to find any book for him, but she took advantage of Albus's absence to push Scorpius's book down and hiss, "What the hell was that about?"
To his credit, he colored slightly. "I got a little carried away," he said sheepishly. "I just wanted to make him uncomfortable. He insulted my House."
She stared at him. "Scorpius, I insult you and your House at least twice a day," she pointed out.
"And you'll notice that before you became my girlfriend - or whatever you want to call it - I didn't laugh it off."
"But Albus is your best friend."
He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "I already said I got carried away," he said. "I'll apologize to him." After a moment, he reached out and ran the same finger along her neck, and she felt another shiver run through her body. "But in my defense, you didn't stop me, did you?"
Rose looked away first and tried to direct her attention at her essay. Her face felt warm, and she could feel her pulse beginning to quicken.
Scorpius watched her for another moment before picking up his book again. "Good to know the feeling's mutual," he said lightly. "This is Rose Weasley, my girlfriend. You know, it really is getting easier."
She ignored him, and he seemed to get the hint. When Albus came back, she ignored their brief conversation in which Scorpius apologized and Albus ultimately accepted the apology as best she could, and when Scorpius got up to put the book back about an hour later, she muttered a goodbye to her cousin and rushed out of the library.
When she got back to the Common Room, she brushed James and Roxanne off when they started to question her about her face, which was apparently beet red again, and made her way upstairs to her mercifully empty dormitory.
She kicked off her shoes and stripped off her jumper. She tossed the latter onto her trunk with her bag. The books in the back made a loud thump when they hit the top, but she pushed all thoughts of the essay she still needed to write out of her head and flopped onto her bed. She would deal with it later. In her state of mind, she'd just do a lousy job and have to redo it anyway.
There was no way around it. She was really growing to like Scorpius Malfoy. She didn't just find him tolerable or amusing or even intriguing - she genuinely found him attractive. She liked kissing him. She liked the way he'd stroked her hair down by the lake. She'd even liked him leaning on the back of her chair running his fingers down her cheek - which was something that she never would expected herself to feel before this year.
Or even in mid-September.
She'd been curious at first. She'd found that once she stopped to think about it for a minute, she really did like looking at him, and she'd discovered that he was quite good at kissing. He was even pretty good company, once he'd stopped antagonizing her.
But she hadn't felt this.
It had been building gradually, of course, but something about today - something about their interaction by the lake and about how she'd felt in the library - had brought it all home.
It wasn't just that he was physically attractive, which was something she'd known since she'd first started to get interested in boys. She hadn't been particularly attracted to him, because he'd been very irritating, but she wasn't blind and she wasn't an idiot. It made sense that once she'd stopped finding him quite so irritating, she'd start to find him more attractive.
At this point, however, she had to admit that it was a lot more than that. She liked being around him, even when they weren't doing anything but talking. He made her laugh, he had an interesting way of looking at the world, and he had a sweet side that she was beginning to really appreciate.
She hadn't guessed at any of that before, and she was beginning to feel ashamed of herself. Albus had been right. She hadn't been fair. And she really couldn't understand why Scorpius seemed to have such strong feelings for her.