'Rosie, are we really still on last names? It's so first year, don't you think?' he asked, smirking.
'What do you want?' I asked him shortly, turning away from him. Inside I was fuming, trying to work out how on earth he had managed to get there before me.
'Ooh, harsh much, Rosie?' he replied, faking a flinch. 'I never knew you could sing.'
Most girl would flutter their eyelashes and flirtatiously assure him that "there are many things you don't know about me". But then I've never liked to follow the sycophants.
So instead I just gave him the look, making a dismissive noise in my throat as I turned back to him.
'Don't you have something better to be doing? Like talking with record labels or playing that guitar?' I suggested pointedly, as I grabbed a drink of punch. It was hot in Slughorn's party space and my irritation had made me thirsty so I drank two whole glasses in a few seconds before pausing and noticing the strange aftertaste. But I shrugged it off, throwing back another glass.
'That might have not been such a good idea, Rosie,' Scorpius said seriously.
'And why is that, Scorpy?' I asked, giggling. 'Did you spike it or something? That'll mean a few more detentions, I think!'
I giggled again, as the room spun a bit. I rested my hand on Scorpius' chest to steady myself, grinning widely at him as I noticed how close we were standing.
'Come dance with me!' I pleaded, grabbing his jacket and walking backwards towards the dance floor. He open his mouth to protest, so I placed the forefinger of my other hand on his lips. 'Please don't be boring Scorpy! We're at a party! Let's dance!'
'But Rose, nobody else is!' he said exasperatedly, his lips moving against my finger.
'Your lips are really soft,' I told him, forgetting what I had been planning to do. My finger stroked down his lips and ended up hanging by my side again.
He gave me an odd look, so I giggled.
'Come on Scorpy, buy me a drink!' I demanded, grabbing his hand a dragging him through the crowd.
'Firstly Rose, the drinks are in the other direction, secondly, they're free and thirdly, I don't think that another drink is such a good idea at the moment,' he said, dragging his feet even though I was pulling him with all my might.
I came to a sudden stop and turned round to face him, the corners of my lips turning down. We had arrived on the other side of the crowd, in a slightly dimmer, emptier area.
I looked up at him, ready to argue about the possibility of me having another drink when something above his head distracted me.
'Hey! There's mistletoe above us!' I declared, looking up at it. You're supposed to do something when you're standing under mistletoe with a boy," I remembered.
Then it came to me - you're supposed to kiss.
Me kiss Scorpy? That was strange. But then once the idea came into my head I couldn't stop my eyes slipping down his soft boy lips. They were slightly apart, and a soft raspberry colour that looked good with his light skin.
I felt myself lean in, rising on my tiptoes as I wondered what those soft boy lips would feel like on mine.
We were eye to eye now and I smiled slightly, not looking up from his lips.
Lips is a really funny word. I've said it too many times now and it's just making me want to giggle. Lips. Lips. Lipssssss.
A giggle escaped and broke the silence.
'Sorry,' I giggled, but he pulled away slightly, entwining his fingers with mine and leading me away.
'I think it's time you got back to your common room, don't you?' he suggested, not looking at me as he dragged me through the room.
Ordinarily I would have protested, but all I could think was how cool his long elegant hands were. They had the fine boned, long fingered feel of aristocracy, which I guess he was, being a member of an old pureblood family.
He pulled me out of the room without any interruptions, although I did see Tilda eyeing us from across the room. I grinned at her and she winked back.
Once we were in the corridor he slowed down and loosened his grip on my hand slightly.
I giggled and started skipping, pulling him faster.
'What are you doing?' he asked, giving me the strange look again.
'I'm skipping!' I declared, giggling joyfully. 'I'm just so HAPPY! Aren't you happy Scorpy Boy?'
He just smiled, shaking his head. The music from the party was still audible in the corridor, so I stopped abruptly, grabbing his other hand in mine.
'Dance with me Scorpy! Dance!' I commanded, swaying his arms side to side in time with my body.
'You're impossible, you know that Rose?' he replied, chuckling as he joined in. He let go of one hand and held up the other. 'Time for a spin I believe!'
I giggled and follow his suggestion, spinning under his arm again and again as we both laughed. But I got dizzier and dizzier until I fell into his arms, our faces mere millimetres apart.
The laughter stopped abruptly as our breathing deepened. At first I could look at nothing but his soft, soft lips.
My eyes flicked up to his impossible light grey ones, noticing that they were looking straight at my lips before they swept up my face to meet mine.
He closed the gap, pressing his lips to mine while he pulled me up straight, walking forward until my back was pressed against the uneven wall.
My hands flew to his soft, messy hair as electricity flowed between us like our lips were the switch to close the circuit. His own hands moved down to my waist, pressing me against the cold stone.
I didn't know what was happening, but in those moments of blissful energy I didn't care either.
His lips left mine for an agonising second so I moved my lips to his neck, not wanting to break the current.
'Rosie,' he sighed, his hands pulling me closer.
I froze as the situation hit me. I was ROSE WEASLEY THE ENGLISH ROSE KISSING SCORPIUS MALFOY, SELF PROFESSED BAD BOY. In a currently deserted, but potentially very public corridor.
He noticed my stiffening, if the pause in movement was anything to go by.
'Rosie?' he said uncertainly, almost questioningly.
I didn't know what to do except flee. So I pushed him away from me, my hands shaking slightly before I turned my back on him and staggered away as fast as I could.
'Rosie!' he called after me, jogging towards my retreating back after a few moments of stunned silence. I ignored him, trying to move faster. It would have been a lot easier if the floor would stop rocking from side to side.
He was still a little bit off, so I took a sharp right down a little corridor, pulling off my stupid high heels that I should have never let Kate convince me to wear. So much for feminism.
I slipped into a tiny alcove behind a marble statue before I heard him speed up and round the corner at a run.
'Rosie!' he shouted, slowing down slightly before taking the right turn just after my alcove, thundering down it shouting my name. 'Rosie! Rosie! I just want to talk! Please Rosie!'
His footsteps slowed down after a while and soon completely disappeared.
I let out a soft sigh, slipping back out and heading in the other direction towards the stairs that would take me to the Gryffindor Common Room and bed.
After half an hour of uncoordinated stumbling, I made it to the empty Common Room and stomped up the stairs and into our dorm room.I was the first back and Kate was fast asleep so I just unzipped my dress, slipping out of it before curling up under the warm covers.
I fell asleep almost immediately, but not before I had the time to thank Merlin for small graces. The Hogwart's Express was due to take us home tomorrow, and I had already seen Scorpius' name on the list of students staying behind.
I reluctantly woke up early the next day, needing more than a little light persuasion from Kate. And that was even when taking into consideration the fact that to Kate "a little light persuasion" meant taking my covers, drenching me in ice cold water and screaming.
This time, even after all three, she literally had to pull me screaming by the hair into the shower, shoving a hangover cure in to my hand.
I drank it gratefully, before trudging back into the shower and having a quick wash.
As soon as I turned it off, she threw clothes at me, which I just managed to put on before Kate dragged me from the room.
'Slow down already Kate!' I told her, barely managing to keep up as she pulled me down the stairs, shoving a slice of toast at me. I took a bite while I was carried along in her wake.
'The train is scheduled to leave in five minutes,' she told me, throwing a pointed look over her shoulder.
Another teenager might have cursed loudly, but I had found that, in general, that did little to alleviate the situation, so instead I just started running.
Do you know how many flights of stairs are between the Gryffindor Common Room and the Entrance Hall? Seven. SEVEN. And each flight has at least twenty stairs, so that means that there are at least 280 stairs, and that's not even counting the ones from our dorm to the Common Room, which, as our dorm is the top one, is comprised of 35 stairs.
Do you know how hard it is to sprint down over 315 stairs when you have just woken up and the hangover cure hasn't quite set in yet? Let's just go for 'very', shall we? Although, admittedly it isn't as hard as running up 315 stairs would have been, but I would describe that as nigh on impossible, no matter what condition I was in that day.
We slipped through the imposing front door and onto the last carriage. I pretended not to notice money passing between Kate and a small boy, probably first year, who had been holding the carriage for us.
Well, that's capitalism for you - it corrupts us all.
'If we hurry we may still get there in time,' Kate said, peering out of the window in an attempt to spot the scarlet steam engine at it's berth in Hogsmeade station. She had just caught her breath while I was still panting for mine.
Well, that's what happens when one of a pair stays asleep till seven while the other is running around the lake. In case you hadn't guessed, I'm the one who likes a lie in.
'Sorry,' I said contritely, knowing that it was my fault we were late, but pretty certain that there was little to do about it.
Despite Kate's worries, we did get to the platform in time to jump on to the train before it pulled away. But I think that that was mainly because Hagrid had agreed to look out for me for my parents.
Even the teachers are on their side!
We found the carriage Matt had been saving for us all and fell in, grinning up at him.
'You two took your time,' Matt said, looking up from his book. Even though I couldn't see the cover, I knew that it was 'Quidditch Through The Ages'. It was the new edition so he had only got it a few moths ago, but it was already crumpled and worn from the number of times he had read it.
'Blame Ro - she had a bit too much fun yesterday and didn't want to leave her bed,' Kate told him drily, taking a seat and shooting me a look.
Since I couldn't deny it without telling them exactly what happened the night before, I decided to stay quiet, sitting down opposite the two of them. I looked down at my hands to avoid their curious gazes.
I didn't want to recount the events of the night before - which, unluckily, I could recall all too well - but I also didn't want to lie. And their looks told me that by the end of the train ride I would have done at least one.
'So, what did happen last night?' Matt asked. Well, that was quick - even faster than I had been afraid of.
'Er...' I began, oh so eloquently. 'Well...'
'I think that she's trying to hide something from us,' Kate said in a loud aside to Matt. I looked up to see him nodding.
'I agree, Kate,' he said, barely concealing a smirk.
'But Matt, what sort of thing do you think our best friend, the ever so honest Rose Weasley would want to hide from us?' Kate asked, quizzically. But I could see the teasing twinkle in her eye.
'Guys...' I said, looking between them.
'I don't know, Kate,' Matt replied, rummaging in his pocket and pulling out a crumpled newspaper cutting. 'Ooh, what's this?'
'Cut the dramatics, will you?' I pleaded, pretty certain what that would say, but dreading it all the same.
'Sure,' Kate agreed, grinning. 'If you tell us in detail what happened last night with you and a certain gentleman.'
Gentleman? That did not sound like Malfoy to me. But Kate was probably just being sarcastic. I paused for a moment, assessing the possibilities, but the only viable option was to come clean.
'Well, you see, Malfoy-' I began, stopped by the sudden change in their faces. 'What?'
'Malfoy?! What does Malfoy have to do with it?!' Kate demanded, leaning forward.
This is moment when other teenagers would swear crudely, probably missing the irony of their undoing.
'Oh... What were you talking about then?' I asked, my mind racing with distraction techniques that involved me retaining my clothes. I could come up with none. Wordlessly, Matt held up a picture complete with an article underneath.
It showed me and Tom- I mean, Mr Stark - dancing and talking before both bursting into laughter. The caption was full of crude implications that I enjoyed the company of older men, while the article talked of Slughorn's traditional, but sumptuous, Christmas party, trying to link me and several others with possible love interests.
I threw the piece of paper back at Matt with a noise of disgust.
'Do they have nothing better to write about?' I demanded, looking between Kate and Matt, who stared back unblinkingly.
'So what's this between you and Malfoy?' Matt answered my question with one of his own.
'Well, he tried to walk me back to the Common Room again-' I began, before being interrupted again.
'Wait, he tried to walk you back?! The only thing in the Daily Profit's Society pages was your duet!' Kate exclaimed, unable to stop the words tumbling out, if her expression was anything to go by.
'So, what exactly have you read?' I asked, straightening my robes.
They looked at each other and handed over a copy of the Daily Profit, my hands shaking slightly as I opened it to the gossip pages.
The train ride seemed longer than usual, thoughts of Malfoy and Tom Stark running through my head as we crawled ever closer to London and home.
Kate had just won the ambitious game of exploding poker (poker played with exploding snap cards) when we pulled up in next to Platform 9 3/4, a crowd already gathering by the barrier, ready to welcome us back.
Kate sighed, spotting her uptight mother near the front of the crowd, standing out starkly in a black skirt suit, probably Chanel, and big dark tortoiseshell glasses. She was a Muggleborn, but the great-great-granddaughter of some Queen's sister, making her the Lady of somewhere or other.
Kate's dad was once again conspicuous only by his absence, probably using the "too much work" excuse. But that was probably correct - he was the CEO of Gringotts, the only human with any authority. He hadn't seen his only daughter more than a dozen times since he and her mum split up.
Kate grabbed her bag and deliberately slouched more, shaking her hair to mess it up. I picked up mine too, before trying to get to my trunk. Easier said than done with the amount of stuff I had managed to shove inside it.
As one, the three of us left the relative calm of the compartment and made our way to the door with the rest of the sheep.
The rest of my cousins were already over by our parents, not one of them looking up or offering to help me with my bags. So much for chivalry.
I stopped to hug Matt and Kate goodbye. They wouldn't be able to meet up at all over the holidays since Matt's hippy parents were taking him on a backpacking trip around the Middle East with two nudists who live in his mum's commune. Kate's mum was taking her for a "finishing season" in Paris, and was planning to drag her to all possible society balls.
Surprisingly enough, Kate wasn't as enthusiastic as her mum had hoped.
They trooped of in search of their own parents as I continued the short walk to mine.
'Rose, dear!' my mum said, grinning as she enveloped me in a hug. So she had already seen the news. 'I was reading the Daily Profit today... Well done, darling!'
I tried to hide the disgust on my face. My mum, for all that I was supposed to love her, was so incredibly transparent in her desire to have me popular and well connected. My dad gave me a gruff hug too before loading my bag on to an already overflowing trolley.
I glanced over at the groups my cousins had split into, disgusted to see Albus pressing his little slip of a girlfriend up against the wall, while Lily was kissed sweetly by her new seventh year boyfriend. She definitely went for older men, and she was only in third year.
Lucy and Molly were giggling by the side, while James talked to one of his Quidditch friends about possible plays and Hugo chatted up another girl. My cousins are all about the opposite sex.
Our parents seem to have expected us all to be best friends after pushing us together while we were little. But what they don't understand is that we are not them; I don't secretly want to be popular, James doesn't want to fight battles and Lucy definitely doesn't want to be Head Girl.
As a group we trooped of, sneaking through the barrier in pairs so as to not rouse suspicion. Somehow I ended up going through last with my mum, leaving us at the end of the group.
Just before we walked through into the Muggle world, I pointed my wand at my shoes to untie my laces so that I would have an excuse to stop and not walk with her any more.
'So Rose,' she finally began after we had walked along the platform and were going up the steps so that we could cross the other train lines and get out.
'Oh no, my shoelaces have come undone,' I said, bending down to tie them up. 'You go on with out me, I'll meet you by the car!'
She paused for a moment before nodding and hurrying after the others, casting a glance back at me when she caught up with them.
I sighed, walking over to the edge of the bridge thing, so that I was out of the way. I put down my bag and retied my laces, wondering how I was going to get through the holidays with casting at least one unforgivable curse.
Once everyone else was out of sight, I stood up, picking up my bag and slinging it over my shoulder. It felt strangely light.
I looked in it and my purse wasn't there.
Again, most people would waste time swearing about now. Instead, I looked around at the crowds surging past, before I looked over the fence stopping me from falling off of the bridge.
Sure enough, I saw it lying below me, luckily enough in the middle of a platform rather than a set of tracks.
But then something else caught my eye.
A large group of heavy set men in dark suits were milling around, holding back a number of reporters and camera men. I leaned further forward, balancing on my tip toes as I tried to see who was standing in the middle of them.
I probably should have been more careful, should have thought about what I was doing. But then all it took was a slight pressure on back and I was falling through the air, speeding towards the ground, soaring into the arms of death.
I shut my eyes, the sudden horrible inescapable feeling that this was it permeating my bones. I hadn't said goodbye. To anyone. And mum would blame herself and I would never get a chance to talk to dad and I would be responsible for tearing my family apart.
I seemed to be be falling in slow motion, the ground slowly coming to meet me as I dived gracelessly towards it. Tomorrow's headlines hit my mind in a barrage of words, doing everything but comforting me.
I tried to move my hand to wand, but it was too slow, unable to grasp it as I rushed towards nothingness.
Then came the moment when my life should start flashing before my eyes, but it didn't.
And then I hit something. And it wasn't the ground.
Two strong arms cradled me to a sculpted chest. I felt my eyes flutter open, until I was staring into the face of my saviour.
Brown messy hair, eyebrows pulled together in worry, bright blue eyes full of concern, long aristocratic nose, small mouth with corners turned down in a frown. I stared up at him for a few more minutes before the darkness enveloped me and the comfort of his arms slipped away.
So, Cliffhanger :D
Review? Please? :)
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