The Romance of the snake and the rose

The beginning of an unexpected friendship...

Hi there! Just wanted to thank you for choosing to read this story. :) Your opinions, comments, likes and votes mean a lot to me and I just want to say thanks. The other thing I want to say is GO READ MY OTHER STORY!!!!! It's called To Drown In Icy Depths and its like, a hundred times better than this one and not getting a lot of publicity. So please go and read it, tell me what you think about it and recommend it to others.

So just so you actually know what it's actually about, here's a quick summary/blurb/explanation;
Elide is sixteen years old and betrothed to the arcane and cruel Lord of Abluvion, the underwater city that borders Elysian, her home and the only place she has ever known. She is destined to meet the same fate as her sister, Lord Merikh's previous wife who washed up on the shores of Elysian, dead. Tasked with the completion of a vague prophecy that foretells the downfall of her husband to be, Elide must navigate and unwind the layers of mystery and deceit that lay in wait in Abluvion, or else find out what it was like to drown in icy depths...

Rose Weasley, daughter of Ron and Hermione, rushed through the winding corridors of Hogwarts school, her bushy ginger curls flying behind her. She was hardly looking where she was going, her sight blinded by salty tears as she dashed up the moving staircases. She didn't usually cry, but she'd been insulted by Emma, an arrogant raven claw girl who despised Rose for beating her at almost every subject. Rose was often told she'd inherited her mother's brains, and sometimes she hated it.

Emma had been teasing her all class, about her messy red hair, about her dusting of freckles, about the state of her robes. Finally, seeing as this has no effect on Rose, she'd spilt the ox blood they were supposed to be using for their potions all over Rose and exclaimed loudly that "Miss Weasley needs to go to the bathroom". Everyone had laughed at her and Rose had stormed out of the dungeons. The tears had started as she was stomping past the charms classroom and she'd began to run. She wasn't sure where she was going, first she'd thought of going to the Gryffindor common room, but it was bound to be full of older students with free periods, so she'd dashed past the fat lady (who was snoozing peacefully) and hurtled round a corner, not caring where it would take her.

She collided forcefully with another student and they both fell in a tangled heap on the stone floor. Rose's head throbbed painfully as the other student tried to get off of her. She caught a glimpse of a sly Slytherin tie peaking out from the other student's robes. Maybe it was Albus? He was one of her best friends and he would know how to make her feel better. But then the student stood up, and it was not Albus, it was Scorpius Malfoy, her long time enemy. Of all the people she could have collided with, it just had to be him. Today was definitely the worst day ever.

Scorpius looked alarmed, his cold grey blue eyes wide in astonishment as he took in the disheveled crying girl in front of him. Rose angled her head so that her curtain of hair hid her red eyes and glistening cheeks. Scorpius. Scorpius Malfoy was watching her cry. Watching her cry while she was covered in blood. She could almost hear the cogs spinning in his brain as he took it all in and came to the incorrect conclusion that she was on her period. She could not have been more humiliated. And suddenly, she couldn't help it anymore and she burst into fresh tears.

"Rose?" he asked softly, still staring at her, "Are you ok?"

"Leave me alone." she snarled, but her voice sounded pathetic, all choked with tears. And to make matters worse, Scorpius didn't seem to want to leave her alone at all. He leaned down and crouched in front of her. He brushed the hair out of her eyes. Rose dared to look up at him, expecting to find a wicked smile or a sneer plastered on his face, but she was instead met with his surprisingly intense sympathetic gaze. He took her hand and helped her onto her feet. Why was he being so nice?

"Here," he told her, "Follow me."

Rose hesitated for a moment, was this all some sort of prank? It didn't seem like one. Maybe Scorpius really was going to be nice to her. She didn't really have much alternative anyway, so she let him lead her down a corridor by the hand as she furiously tried to wipe away the tears on her cheek before anyone else could see them.

"Where are we going?" asked Rose quietly.

"It's called the room of requirement," he explained, running a hand through his platinum blonde hair and glancing back at her, "It'll have exactly what we need. My father told me about it."

Rose bristled at the mention of Scorpius' father; Draco Malfoy, former death eater, rival of her parents and an arrogant rich pure-blood. For a second, she thought she might go of Scorpius' hand and walk away, what was she doing walking with him? Letting him lead her though the corridor, trusting him on a whim? But he was best friends with Albus, her cousin, he must be nice, right? She didn't like being judged because of her parents, and her parents were respectable people. What was it like to be the son of the boy who was forced to kill Dumbledore?

Scorpius stopped walking, golden sunlight from the windows making his pale face look as if it were glowing. A door began to form on the wall in front of them. Scorpius led her through it, opening the large door to reveal a small room with a merry fire, a set of clean robes and a small sofa just big enough to seat the two of them.

They both sat down and Scorpius awkwardly, yet reluctantly, let go of her hand. Rose was uncomfortably aware of how close they were sitting, some of her exposed thigh touching his. She folded her hands in her lap.

"I come to this place whenever I'm sad," Scorpius told her, looking at his shoes.

"Does it always look like this?" Rose asked curiously. Thankfully her voice was back to normal.

"No," he said, "It changes to your needs. Normally when I come in here there's just one arm chair and no robes."

The two of them sat without saying anything for a couple of minutes, until at last Scorpius, who had seemed like he had been contemplating whether or not to say something for a while, broke the silence.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want too.." he began uncertainly, "But why were you crying?"

Rose blushed and looked at the floor, it was only fair to tell him, as he'd showed her the room of requirement. She took a deep breath.

"Do you know Emma Cullers?" she asked Scorpius, "The Ravenclaw girl in our year"

"You mean that two faced git?" replied Scorpius bitterly.

"That's the one." said Rose, laughing softly, "Anyway, she was teasing me all through potions today. I was ignoring her, and I think she wanted a reaction, so she...She spilled blood on me and told everyone that 'Miss Weasley needs to go to the bathroom'. And I just sort of stormed out." She glanced up at Scorpius; he looked absolutely appalled.

"I knew she was mean," he said, his brow furrowed, "but she seriously crossed the line. She's got it coming for her. She's definitely going to get what she deserves."

"And how do you know that?" asked Rose, teasing him slightly. Scorpius grinned at her, and she could tell there was an idea forming in his head.

"Because she's going to get what she deserves from me," he said, looking Rose in the eye, "And probably Albus as well, and maybe even you if you want."

"I'd like that very much," she told him, smiling. It seemed today was perhaps not the worst day ever after all...