Enclosed

Chapter Twenty-Five: Tarts

She was an idiot. A complete bumbling idiot.

Rose was no stranger to crushes. Throughout her life, she'd fancied many wizards. She always knew how to act around them. How to flirt coyly. How to put her best foot forward and how to not make a complete fool of herself.

That is until she began to fancy the bloody ferret.

Scorpius Malfoy, made her forget how to act.

In the month since Rose realized her feelings, she'd become a stumbling, blushing, idiot.

When Malfoy wished her good mornings, she'd forget how to speak and drop her coffee. When he accidentally touched her, she'd jump and knock over the nearest object. She'd blush and kick him out of her office when he did any act of kindness.

Rose Granger-Weasley was acting like an idiot all because of the blonde ferret.

And she hated it.

Instead of facing her feelings, Rose spent much of the last month trying to shut them off by throwing herself back into her work.

They met with Ruiz and the Wizengamot exactly four weeks ago. It was just as she suspected; they were setting a date. The public's fears after the attempted prison break were at an all-time high. The papers weren't helping by printing a highly dramatized version of the event that made it sound like Pious was almost out the door before being stopped.

The Wizengamot was hoping that by setting a trial date it would help reassure the public.

The date was set for the first of the year. A mere four months away.

Ruiz was ecstatic. He taunted Al that the case was a lost cause and Pious would be going free. His voice was so smug,Scorpius had to hold her back from going to the Ministry and slapping the cocky lawyer. Rose had to applaud Al for keeping a professional front.

Ruiz's attitude only lit a hotter fire of determination under her.

From Sun up to sun down, she was in her office going over the documents Al managed to send over. Ruby's report was alarmingly detailed, adding more strings and documents to the theories board. As they began to fill in the gaps, the unknowns about the case began to fade away along with Rose's anxieties.

If they kept going at this rate, she'd wipe the floor with Ruiz and Pious would never see the sunlight again.

Scorpius was doing his part of vetting St. Mungo's employment records. He hadn't found anything geared towards Pious but with over a thousand documents to go through it would be nothing short of a miracle to find any damning evidence.

She wasn't able to shake Scorpius' company at all. He insisted on working with her in the office unless specifically asked otherwise and Rose couldn't ask him to leave her alone every day. He'd get suspicious as to why she didn't want to be around him. Rose wasn't prepared to answer that question.

While she worked at her desk, he'd range from sprawling on the floor, pacing the room, or conjuring a rectangular table to work from.

He brought a form of chaos into the small space. Her bookshelves weand re covered with ink stains, discarded parchment, and used as storage for Scorpius' supplies. The personal pictures, hung on the wall were collecting dust in a box under her bed, to give Scorpius more room to place photographs related to the crime scenes. His jumpers and socks were left all over the floor and draped on the back of the office chair. Plates of uneaten food were discarded throughout the room.

The place was an absolute mess.

Strangely enough, Rose didn't seem to mind. Part of that may have to do with Scorpius' musky scent proving to be a distraction from the unkept room.