I stared at his pale blonde head across the classroom. His hair was slicked back so tightly that it shined in the pale lights of the dungeons. If I had not been so transfixed, I would have laughed at the impromptu light show. Each time I saw his pointed features I was hit with an irrepressible shiver, although good or bad I had no idea.
I suppose I knew from the start that he was trouble. I mean, Dad had warned me multiple times not to trust the Slytherins, especially not him. I’d heard so many stories about his family and how horrible they had been during the dark days. Every time someone mentioned his father around my parents, my Dad would tense up and my Mum would go slightly pink in the face. His family was horrible, his reputation was unknown, and I had basically been forbidden to talk to him. And yet all this had done was make me sort of perversely interested in him. I was dying to know what he was really like, if he was anything about his father, or if maybe he was nicer, or more tolerant. At the same time, I wanted him to be rude and terrible so I could hate him like I was supposed to.
That was first year, and with five years of experience I have learned that Scorpius Malfoy is a complete waste of time. He was immensely conceited, he hated everyone, he had a fascination with himself, and he was completely vain.
Well, those were the conclusions I had drawn.
He was actually very quiet, I hardly ever heard him speak. He only had a few friends, his little “elite” circle. He was too good for the rest of us, too “pure” I suppose. If he didn’t talk to people like me then it was obvious that he thought he was better than us. It was disgusting. I hated him so much. At least I could be the good little girl that my parents wanted me to be and not associate with Malfoy’s.
“What are you staring at?” a voice interrupted my musings and I turned to see my cousin Albus staring at me with a curious look on his face. I felt my cheeks flush, ashamed that I had been staring so fervently at Malfoy. What was I thinking?
“Oh, erm…nothing.” I lied. “Just uhh, thinking about the essay due tomorrow.”
He gave me a knowing look and chuckled. I knew what he was thinking, me worrying about school work again. But it’s not like I could help it, it’s in my blood. It would be a disgrace to my mother if I didn’t care. My little brother Hugo, however, was following Dad’s footsteps perfectly. He didn’t care about work, he goofed off in the commons, he was rude to the prefects, and he was obnoxious. Dad is so proud.
“Alright class, enough talking. It’s time to get to work!” Our potions teacher Professor Kirkland barked out. Yes, barked. She reminded me of a little bulldog, short with a sort of flabby face and a brisk personality. But if you got her excited, she would leap about like a little puppy.
“So we’re working together, right Rosie?” Albus asked as he swept aside all the scrap paper that littered his desk. Albus loved to draw, and the parchment was covered with various doodles and such.
“Hmm?” I had missed the instructions completely. Stupid Malfoy and his shiny head. “Oh, right. Yeah of course!” We were amazing at potions, the dynamic duo. Our only competition was Scorpius. As stupid as I thought the boy was, he just happened to be a genius. He was a walking contradiction.
Albus was already flipping through our potions book, given to us by his father and property of one of the men Albus Severus had been named after. I smiled at him. Not only was he my cousin, he was also my best friend. We were ridiculously close. People who didn’t know us thought we were dating. We had a nice guffaw at that one! Now that would be different! It wasn’t as if he was my only friend. I had plenty, sometimes it seemed like I had too many. A girl can only divide her attention between so many people before she gets a bit stretched. That’s why I had Albus. I could always count on him.
“Hey, I don’t have any beetle eyes, will you run to the cabinet and get some?” he asked. I shrugged.
“Sure.” I started to walk across the room. I didn’t strut per say, but I always made sure to walk confidently. I didn’t want to be invisible. And I wasn’t. As I made my way down the aisle, heads turned like I knew they would. I couldn’t help it that boys found me attractive, I didn’t try to be promiscuous or flirtatious, I was simply confident. Some of the girls in our year didn’t like me. They said that I distracted their boyfriends. I usually told them to get over it, in the kindest way possible of course. It wasn’t like I tried or anything. I was starting to get sick of all the unnecessary hatred.
I walked right past Scorpius’s desk, but he didn’t see me. I suppose he was too good to look at a Gryffindor girl.
I reached the cabinet and started looking for the beetles eyes. Finally, I spotted them on the top shelf. Of course, they were way too high up for a girl with my delicate stature. I was about to levitate it down when a tall lanky boy bounced up to me.
“I’ll get that for you Rose!” he said excitedly, grabbing the jar and shoving it into my arms.
“Oh, thanks Rufus.” I mumbled, my cheeks turning red. The boy would simply not leave me alone. He had basically worshiped the ground I walked on since third year. It really was quite annoying.
I moved to leave at the same time Rufus moved to let me by. So we were rather at an impasse. He would move the same way I did, trying let me by and instead blocking my way. Finally I put my hand on his shoulder, smiled and walked around him. I could see Albus laughing from the back of the room and I shot daggers at him with my eyes.
Several of my lady classmates were eyeing Albus as well, although with much less disdain. He was growing out of his awkward stage (finally) and he had actually become quite attractive. He was Gryffindor’s most eligible at the moment, and almost every girl wanted to date him. Except me of course, for obvious reasons.
I would admit that he was good looking tough. I was actually quite jealous of his eyes. They were startling green and very captivating. Mine were blue, not even a pretty ocean blue. They were really more of a navy-ish gray blue. It wasn’t fair. My hair did beat his though. It was dark black and very messy, although not half as bad as his brother James, who spent no effort trying to make his look good. On the contrary, he sometimes messed his up on purpose! My hair was my best feature, long red and silky, just like my Aunt Ginny’s. My cousin Lily had the same hair, although hers was more of a carrot red while mine was more Auburn.
As I walked past Scorpius again, I flipped my best-feature hair over my shoulder in the most graceful way possible.
Let’s see the little Slytherin ferret ignore that! I thought triumphantly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him looking at me. Smiling smugly, I returned to my seat.
“What are you so happy about?” Albus asked as I plopped down the jar of eyes. It made a satisfying thumping noise against the wood. I grinned.
“Oh nothing, let’s just say I enjoy taunting an enemy.”
If that little pointy faced jerk thought he was better than me, he had another thing coming.
“Alright, now for this project you are going to need to be in pairs.” The Defense teacher Professor Finnagin said in his Irish voice that made me so happy. Albus turned around and looked at me, raising his eyebrows as if to ask: Partners?
Duh. I wiggled back. We could pretty much read each others minds without reading each others minds. He flashed me a white smile, and I could swear the girl behind me swooned. I suppressed a giggle.
“However,” Finnagin continued. “Since last time we worked in pairs the outcome was disastrous, we will be counting off in groups.” A collective groan rose from the class room.
“But Professor…”
“No buts.” He interrupted. “Potter,” he pointed to Albus “start us off please.”
“One.” He said nonchalantly.
“Two.” said the boy next to him.
“Three.”
“Four.”
“Five.” I heard my friend Olivia who was seated next to me call out.
“Oh, Six.” I said.
“Seven.”
And so the class counted off until they reached thirteen, then the count started over again. My ears seemed to perk as I listened for who I would be partnered with.
“Four.”
“Five.”
I braced my self. With my luck it would be Rufus.
“Six.” No, not Rufus, the voice I heard was too deep and soft to be him. No, this was someone much worse. I turned around to see the piercing gray eyes of Scorpius Malfoy staring at me. I instantly flushed and turned back around, hating Professor Finnagin.
Once the class had been divided up, Finnagin returned to the front of the class.
“So everyone, look and find the person you have been paired with, because THAT is the person you will be doing a research project with over the next couple of weeks.” A collective groan went up once again, and the Professor raised his hands for silence.
“Tomorrow, come prepared to do a little experiment with your partner to prepare for the project.” The magical bell rang and students started gathering their books and assorted belongings. “Don’t forget, tomorrow!” he called as we started rushing out of the room.
My heart sank. A two week project with Malfoy? What was I going to do?
“Come on Rose, let’s go!” called one of my friends.
“Yeah, hurry up Weasley!” called another. My rather large group of friends and I always walked to class together.
“You all go ahead.” I instructed. I have to do something.
I walked up to Scorpius, determined to show him that I was neither afraid of nor impressed by his little snob-boy routine. He was carefully putting his books away when I approached him.
“Hi.” I said, putting on my most charming smile. He didn’t look up. I cleared my throat. “I guess we’re partners.” I continued. His gray eyes turned to mine and I got that odd shivery feeling again.
“Yeah.” He said finally, and then he scooped up his bag and walked out, leaving me utterly bewildered.
How dare he talk to me like that! I thought. It was absolutely insane how great he though he was. Well you just wait Scorpius Malfoy. My eyes narrowed. Just you wait.
A/N: Hi! So I'm adding this note in as an afterthought.
I just thought you all should know that even though Rose says she's not concieted, she really is. She just doesn't realize it yet. I know this seems like the story about a perfect little girl, but it's not.
so PLEASE DON'T WRITE IT OFF JUST YET!
read at least one more chapter before you decide whether or not you like it :)
and please reveiw ;)
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