Scorrose

thirteen - edit

The following Monday, Rose put all of her efforts into Quidditch practice.

Everybody in her classes were still buzzing from the excitement of the ball, but she did her best to block them out. Siobhan was ecstatic about the boy she'd met, who she had kept in touch with; she'd become like a leech since Rose had asked her to accompany her to the dance – she'd never had such a close friend before, even though they hadn't known each other long.

The sky, clear and crisp today, was the one place she found solace from the jumble of baffling emotions she'd been feeling lately, and the one place she could be truly alone without feeling lonely.

She hovered in the sky, watching her other teammates scrimmage with the quaffle. She'd already caught the snitch in a matter of ten minutes, her record best. She'd never felt more focused and motivated than she did then— the game against Slytherin was approaching, and she was more than determined to beat them. If they won, it would be Gryffindor's third Quidditch cup since she'd been on the team, and she didn't want to ruin their streak.

And she had a terrible, crushing desire to get to the snitch before Scorpius in the final match— to have some sort of victory over him, after the way he'd left her feeling a few nights ago.

She needed her pride back. She needed to win.

Before she could decide whether or not to release the snitch and see if she could beat her new record, the captain, bellowed for everybody to stop the game.

Everybody froze in midair as the quaffle flew through the goal post. Rose spotted a group of students in black and green robes heading towards the field, broomsticks in hand.

"Slytherin's reserved the field from four!" The Slytherin captain, leading the group, yelled to the Gryffindors suspended in the sky.

Some of Rose's teammates groaned, giving each other looks of clear annoyance. The Gryffindor captain seemed to struggle not to do the same.

"Good game, team," the captain said, giving a strained smile. "We'll pick this up later this evening."

They all slowly descended to the ground, some of them glowering unabashedly at the Slytherin team members as they pushed past. Rose took a deep breath as her feet touched the grass, bracing herself for the inevitable moment she'd been trying to avoid all weekend.

Gripping her broomstick, she looked up and forced a polite smile onto her face when her eyes met Scorpius'. He paused in front of her, pressing his lips together into an awkward smile of his own.

All in an instance, the dance they shared flashed through her memory. She shoved it away, annoyed at herself. They hadn't spoken since then.

"Erm—hi," he said.

"Hi."

He glanced up as the rest of his team continued past, leaving the two of them to stand alone. "Ready for the match?" He asked.

"More than ready," Rose said, in a voice that sounded much more confident than she felt.

"Good," he said, nodding.

There was a level of formality to their interaction that had never existed before. Rose wished she knew the spell for opening up the ground below her, so it could swallow her whole.

"Yeah. Well, uh—good luck at practice."

Realizing the snitch was still in her hand, she abruptly held it out to him. He blinked at the suddenness of it, then reluctantly accepted it. They stared at each other for a moment.

"Okay, bye," Rose said, walking past him. Her face felt warm—why had that been so extremely awkward?

"Wait, Rose," he said.

She stopped in her tracks, wondering if it was worth it to turn and answer him. Hesitatingly, she did.

"Yeah?"

He looked like a deer caught in headlights, completely thrown off and unprepared. "Uh, I—thanks."

Something inside her deflated. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but she couldn't believe she had the audacity to feel disappointed.

"You're welcome," she muttered, turning back towards the castle.

Though she didn't turn back to glance at him, she could almost feel his gaze on her as she walked away.