Harry Potter One Shots

The First Party

Drunk people were less scary than Rose thought they would be. She wound her way through the crowd of people at the party, smiling as strangers called out and told her she was pretty, cute, beautiful. She laughed when someone said she was smart. They'd never even met, how on earth could they tell from one glance?
"Rose! Everyone's over here, come on." It was her cousin Roxanne, looking very pretty in a white dress that made her chocolate brown skin look even darker, her hair a wild frizz around her face, which was heavily made up, but Roxy could pull off the dramatic blue eyeshadow and red lippy. Roxy could pull off anything. "Can you believe we're at our first party, Rose? With alcohol and boys. I feel so grown up."
Rose giggled at that. She certainly wasn't acting her age. Her giggles grew as she spotted him in the crowd. Him being Scorpius, her boyfriend. She still couldn't believe he was her boyfriend. He waved from where he was standing talking to Albus, and she waved back, her hand fluttering around like a crazed bird. She didn't even bother trying to seem casual; she knew Scorpius would see right through her, as he always did.

"How do you not get tired?" He asked, just after he'd chased her around the room to get her to kiss him and they lay on her bed side my side, him panting slightly from the effort, her breathing normally, a grin stretching across her face.
"Maybe you just need to get fitter," she replied, poking him in the stomach.
"I meant in general. You're so full of life and so enthusiastic all the time... Don't you ever just want to give up?"
"Of course I don't want to give up. Life's hard, but it's life, and we were born to live it."
He looked across at her, his hair brushing hers as his head turned on the pillow they shared.
"I suppose. Now you're making me sound like a wimp."
She scrambled into a sitting position and leaned over him, sweeping her hair impatiently behind her as it tickled his nose.
"But- you don't want to give up, do you?" She questioned, forehead crumpling in concern.
He avoided her eyes as he said, "When it gets hard... You know, my life hasn't been so great, what with my dad going to jail and the whole Malfoy thing."
A sad smile touched his lips briefly as she reached for his hand, entwining their fingers, but it slid off a moment later.
"I'm really sorry about your dad," she said quietly. And she was, but only because she cared about Scorpius. She didn't believe Draco Malfoy had changed that much. It was hard to, growing up with a father who despised everything from his hair to his name.
When the order for his jailing had come through, Ron Weasley - Rose's father - had suggested a huge party. It had been at a family get together. Everyone from James Potter to Molly Weasley was there. Rose knew he'd been joking. At least she'd hoped he had. Even she didn't think it was fair to throw a party in celebration of someone being thrown in jail, especially when their son was probably falling apart as they spoke. Thankfully Scorpius hadn't been there, but Albus had been, and he'd stood up at his uncle's words, glaring at him across the table.
"A party?" Rose had never thought Albus would speak to his uncle like that, with so much disgust and anger in his voice Rose almost yelled at him. How dare he speak to her father like that? But then she'd seen the look on his face, and gulped, because for the first time - and what she hoped would be the last - she was scared of her cousin. "Yippee, let's all celebrate the fact that my best friends father is being taken away from him. What were you thinking, that Scorpius is going to be free now? That Astoria will be relieved to have her husband taken away from her, because otherwise he could commit the first crime he's committed in over 20 years? How do you think they feel? How do you think Draco feels, being taken away from his family? Imagine if it was you, if you were being imprisoned and you couldn't see Rose or Hugo, couldn't see Hermione."

Rose's stomach had grown cold at the mention of her name. She couldn't bear to imagine those things. And with his words hanging in the air like a grey fog clouding the previously cheerful mood of the dinner party, Albus had pulled his chair out with a clatter, causing it to fall over loudly, and run from the room.
That night, Rose had lain awake in bed with his words playing over and over again in her mind.