Scorrose

four - edit

Rose felt the tension between them ease up slightly over the weekend. She allowed herself to sit with Scorpius and Albus in the library to do school work, and he didn't make any advances or flirty remarks towards her. In fact, he was quite respectful and polite.

She found that by Sunday, she could look at him again without obsessively replaying that kiss in her mind, nor feel annoyed by those intrusive thoughts.

Unfortunately, there were other equally irritating thoughts swirling through her head. Like how Polly had asked Scorpius to the ball, and how she had kissed his cheek afterward. She was also starting to become unusually aware of other ball proposals throughout Hogwarts.

These proposals varied in intensity and seemed almost never ending. Like that one boy who set off fireworks near the Owlery to spell out his girlfriend's name and got detention for two weeks, losing Hufflepuff thirty points.

And there were others. Singing cards. Assistance from ghosts. Flowers that bloomed when the person said yes, but wilted when they said no. She had even heard that people were passing around chocolates laced with love potion, which most people had the sense to throw out.

One Tuesday, a girl arranged a choir of chocolate frogs which backed up one of the hallways and made Rose late to History of Magic.

She entered the class panting, trying to catch her breath from sprinting through several floors of the castle. Everybody's head turned toward her, although Professor Binns continued his lecture without noticing a thing.

Keeping her head down, she made her way to her usual seat. She felt a nudge in her arm as she pulled out her notes and turned to Scorpius in one of the seats behind her, sitting next to Albus.

He leaned forward and muttered, "You're late. So who've you been snogging, then?"

She rolled her eyes and looked away from him. At the same time, she felt a bit relieved that he was joking with her again.

The class took notes for half an hour, and Rose could feel herself slipping in an out of focus as she tried to pay attention to Professor Binn's dull, monotonous voice.

"And now, for the remainder of class," Professor Binns said. She perked up in her seat at the thought of class almost being over so that she could finally end the misery of listening to his droning voice. "I'd like you to find one partner to discuss the pros and cons of gnomes re-homing in the Amazonian rainforest. You will write a persuasive essay on this. It may be a joint paper."

He did not wait for his students to follow his orders before turning to disappear through the wall. Professor Binns did this sometimes, and most people used it as an excuse to leave early.

As the room exploded with voices of people trying to find partners, Rose turned to Albus and Scorpius. Before she could say a word, she heard a voice from the end of their table.

"Scorpius!" Polly Chapman was waving to him. "Do you want to be my partner?"

"Er..."

Scorpius looked at Albus, who shrugged. "Go for it," he said. "I'll find someone else."

"Sure," Scorpius said to Polly, who beamed in response.

Rose frowned, then looked at Albus. "You're stuck with me, then," she said.

They gathered their things with the rest of the class and made their way into the hallway, which were completely empty because nobody else had been released from their lectures yet. Rose and Scorpius flanked Albus on either side. She was glad that Polly had her own group of friends to walk with, so that she wouldn't be clinging to Scorpius' side.

"I hate partnering for things," Rose muttered. "Last year in potions, I had to work on the dual project all by myself. You two always have each other, at least. But nobody wanted to work with me."

Albus let out a single, incredulous laugh. "You know why, don't you?"

She looked at him curiously. "Why?"

"It's because you're unapproachable," he said. "People are afraid to come near you." He raised his eyebrows at her. "That's what you get when you scare everybody off."

"Hey, that's not true," she said, knitting her brows. "I am extremely approachable! I've spent every year at Hogwarts being careful about the way people view me—"

"Yeah, that's your problem," Albus cut off. "You're obsessed with how people view you. You try to show everybody up and wind up scaring away anyone who tries to befriend you because you're a control freak."

She stared at him in shock. He said the words casually as if this was common knowledge, but they felt harsh. Scorpius seemed keen to stay out of the conversation.

"I am not a control freak."

"Do you have other friends besides us?" Albus asked pointedly.

"Of course," she argued. "My Quidditch teammates."

"Teammates," he said. "Who you never hang out with."

"Don't act like you know about my social life," Rose said, crossing her arms now because the assumption stung.

"You're too uptight, Rose, and frankly a little scary sometimes," he continued. "The only time I ever see you spend time with people, it's usually just family." He nudged Scorpius in the side, as if asking for assistance. "I'm not exactly wrong, am I?"

Scorpius glanced at Rose and hesitated. "No," he said to Albus, finally. "You're not."

"Excuse me?"

Scorpius frowned, pausing again, perhaps unsure whether it would be wise to word his thoughts. "Well– yeah," he said. "During our first year, you refused to sit in the train compartment with me and Albus because you were afraid of what people would say if you were seen with a Malfoy. The son of a line of Death Eaters." He added the last part as if it were a bitter afterthought.

"That was not why," Rose said defensively. "Our parents, they hated each other—"

"So what?" Albus said. "His father was my dad's biggest enemy at school, but it hasn't stopped us from being best friends, has it? Just admit it."

Rose sputtered. She was being cornered two against one. How was this a fair argument? "Yes, well, we're all friends now, aren't we? So what if... if..."

"If you spent the first four years ignoring me out of sheer, blind repulsion?" Scorpius offered, when she trailed off.

Her face felt hot. She could hardly believe he had such an awful view of her.

As if all of this wasn't bad enough, Albus' next words only added salt onto the wound. "Not to mention, the only reason you started tolerating the pair of us was when we returned from time and our faces were all over the Daily Prophet, applauding us on our 'successful heroic pursuits' after we locked Delphi up. Up until then, you ignored Scorpius entirely— up until the rumors that he was Voldemort's kid finally stopped and everybody else started to be his friend. All along, you were following the crowd. And—"

But this time, Scorpius stabbed his elbow into Albus' ribs to shut him up. Rose knew her eyes were glistening with tears, and quickly turned her head so they wouldn't see. How pathetic of her to feel this way when she knew everything they'd said was true.

"If you think so negatively of me," she said, straightening her spine although her voice was quivering, "I suppose I'll leave you two alone."

"Hey," Scorpius said, his voice softer now and tinged with slight regret at putting her in this position. "I don't think—"

But Rose ducked into the nearest restroom before he could finish, just as the first teardrop fell onto her cheek.