Scorrose

fourteen

Birds soared through the clouds on the bright warm day, chirping amongst themselves. Rose squinted up at the sky as she and her teammates congregated in the middle of the Quidditch field, knowing in a matter of minutes she'd be up there weaving through the clouds with them.

Her nerves had hardly settled since yesterday, and she had trouble containing her breakfast. The sight of Slytherin marching up the field to meet them only made her guts churn worse.

The stands were already brimming with students restlessly awaiting the game, holding up posters and shouting down onto the field. The captain had already given them the pre-game prep talk, although Rose had been so distracted she didn't remember a word she'd said.

Madam Hooch, who'd been refereeing the game even since her parents had been in school, appeared a frail elderly lady, but held her broom with a sturdy iron grip as she watched the two teams gather around her.

Rose avoided Scorpius' eyes, though he stood just a couple feet away from her.

"Right," Madam Hooch said. "Mount your brooms." As soon as they did so, she blew her whistle.

Rose shot up into the air fiercely, the wind screaming in her ears. The wind muffled the sounds of the commentator so that she only heard a few scattered words — "Quaffle- pass- diving to- Oof!"

Everybody, including Rose, turned to watch as a Slytherin player just barely missed crashing onto the ground, the Quaffle tucked under his arms. The Slytherins in the stand cheered.

Rose flew higher up, away from the heat of the game, searching the skies for a glint of gold. Now that she was up in the sky, the broomstick sturdy between her legs, she didn't feel quite so anxious.

However, her ease was immediately destroyed when she heard the words "Slytherin Scores!" causing a massive roar of approval from the stands, along with sounds of protest from the other teams.

Already?

She took a deep breath, trying not to let this phase her. Her team had time to catch up.

As she flew around on high alert, circling from one end of the field to the other, Slytherin scored two more times and Gryffindor scored once. After another twenty minutes of Slytherin still in the lead and a Gryffindor player almost being knocked out by a bludger, Rose was starting to feel panicked. It had been almost a full hour, her team was clearly struggling, and there was still no sight of the snitch besides a few false flags.

She noticed Scorpius in the distance, imitating her tactic and flying up higher into the clouds in search of the snitch. He looked over at her. Even though he was half a field away, something jumped in her. She was surprised when he started making his way towards her. She gripped the handle of her broom, watching him warily, until he had floated to just a few feet away.

He glanced down at the field, possibly to make sure nobody was paying them any attention, and back up at her.

"All right, Rose?" He asked.

She narrowed her eyes at him slightly. "I think we both know this isn't the most ideal time to have a talk," she said.

He hesitated. "I know," he said. "But I— it's been quite awkward between us lately, hasn't it?" He looked back down at the crowd sort of sheepishly. "I've been wanting to apologize to you about what happened at the ball without anybody else around, and I wasn't sure how to approach you."

Rose shook her head. "Scorpius, can't this wait until after the game?"

"It could." He moved closer, their brooms almost nose to nose. "But for now, can we just agree to be friends again so it's not weird?"