Scorrose

three - edit

It was during the last class of the week that the door to Transfiguration flew open and a flash of black robes and white-blond hair stumbled in breathlessly. Everybody's head swiveled at the interruption.

The professor paused in his lesson and sighed in exasperation. "Late again, Malfoy?"

The class snickered, and Scorpius shot the professor an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, Professor Titus. I was... er..."

"Find a seat, boy," Professor Titus urged, waving his hands impatiently. "We are already mid-way through class. And you can join me for detention this evening to make up for the time you've wasted."

Scorpius started towards Albus but paused, finding no seat available. Albus gave him an apologetic look from across the room and shrugged. "Any day now, Mr. Malfoy," Professor Titus said.

"Sorry, sir. Er, but I don't see any open seats."

"There is one right next to Miss Granger-Weasley."

Scorpius glanced at Rose and his shoulders slumped slightly, as if he'd already known his options and was not at all thrilled by them. "Any others?" The class snickered, and Rose felt her face redden in humiliation. "Not that— not that there's anything wrong with her," he said quickly, eyes widening. "But I know she prefers to sit alone, and I would rather not—"

"Mr. Malfoy."

Scorpius flinched and nodded. "Yes. Sir."

Rose didn't acknowledge him as he sat down beside her, and other than a timid sideways glance, he ignored her as well for the rest of the lecture. Rose had been avoiding him since the awful night he'd kissed her and even more so since she'd realized he'd not been lying when he'd claimed that Polly Chapman had asked him to the Yule Ball, and other than a few polite pleasantries he had not tried to strike up conversation with her either.

Once Professor Titus had finished explaining the instructions for the day's lesson, he dedicated the last twenty minutes of class to transfiguring a golden chalice into a goldfish. Transfiguration had always posed the greatest challenge for her because it required a higher understanding of magic and intensive focus than her other classes; a level of focus she could not quite achieve when Scorpius was not-so-subtly looking over at her every few seconds.

"What?" she said finally, when her chalice had, for the third time, grown furry legs and attempted to run away. Scorpius caught it right before it could throw itself off the table.

"I'm sorry, again," he said, not missing a beat. He handed her the chalice, which she accepted without a word. "For... er, for that night. I know it was wrong of me. I'll never do it again, I swear." He paused, giving her a chance to respond. She didn't. "And I'm sorry for sitting beside you, but you know as well as I that there were no other seats available."

"Perhaps if you were to get here on time," she replied drily, flicking her wand and muttering a spell. The little goblet swayed for a moment and she held her breath hopefully, but the legs only morphed into thin flippers. Close, but not quite.

She sighed, turning it back to normal.

"I have obligations."

"This is the second time you've been late this week."

She noticed his lips quirk up. "You've been keeping track?"

"No." She glared at him for an instant before turning away. "But it is hard to miss when you are disrupting class by showing up late."

"Like I said, obligations."

"Do these obligations include Polly Chapman?" She asked, immediately wishing she could take it back. He raised his eyebrows at the bitterness in her tone.

"And what if it does?" He said slowly, watching her carefully.

"It's none of my business," she said. "Spare me the details."

After a moment, he dropped his gaze. "You brought it up."

She shouldn't have fallen for the bait, but before she could help herself she said, "Believe it or not, Scorpius, but I have better things to do than hear about the girls you're snogging between classes. It's disgusting."

"Would it be less disgusting if I were snogging you instead?" He retorted. He immediately bit his lip, looking like he had regretted his words just as much as Rose had regretted hers.

She gritted her teeth in annoyance but decided to let the comment pass, knowing they were both saying things they maybe didn't mean to say. They fell into a strained silence as Rose waved her wand at her chalice, getting more frustrated by the minute as it refused to transfigure properly.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius said with a sigh for what felt like the thousandth time now. "Rose, can we just... forget all of it?"

She stared at her chalice with a frown, avoiding his eyes. She wasn't quite in the mood to deal with any animosity between them either. "Fine," she mumbled. "If we must."

She waved her wand again, quite fiercely, and noticed Scorpius' expression of alarm.

"Hey," he said, reaching out to touch her wrist softly. Something about the touch reignited the memory of his lips on hers all over again and her face flamed in embarrassment. But just as quickly his hand was gone. "It should be a circular motion with the wand," he said. "Not so jerky."

"I know how to do it," she said, irritated that he thought he had to teach her.

"I know you do," he said.

But she found herself watching him as he turned to his own chalice, muttering a spell and flicking his wand.

It turned into a goldfish on the first try.