A/N:
Howdy, it's been a while! My life has been rather hectic this year but luckily insomnia has hit yet again (I blame the weather) and I have had time to do some more of this story. There will be one more chapter after this one so this is the set up for that really! Hope you like!Disclaimer: Not mine.
Rose was scared. She lay in her bed staring up at the ceiling, not knowing exactly what had occurred that afternoon. She and Scorpius had rules to their relationship. Granted, they had never discussed any rules, nor had they even defined what they were doing as any form of relationship, but Rose thought that they had a silent and mutual agreement that nothing was serious. When they were alone and either one of them called the other by their first name, that was the cue to abandon all usual pretences and act civilly toward one another, if not also a little hormonal at times. But that's what Rose thought this was; a relationship based initially on mutual experience with losing a loved one which had eventually morphed into more of an illicit attraction, aimed to satiate their somewhat building attraction to one another. What they were doing was taboo. It felt wrong when they were together so therefore it was wrong. What Rose couldn't figure out was whether the reason their 'relationship' was secret because they were only doing it to fulfil their normal teenage hormones, or whether there were actual feelings underlying it all and they kept it secret simply because Malfoys and Potters have never gotten along and they didn't want to have to have the task of explaining themselves to everyone. Rose was scared that their rules had been broken and Scorpius had developed feelings for her. She thought about the way that he had kissed her that afternoon. It had been gentle and slow, as if he had all the time in the world to kiss her and make her feel special. A kiss like that meant that there was no hurry. A kiss like that meant that there would be many more kisses to come to be caught up in passion and need. A kiss like that meant that he wanted to make her feel and let her know how she made him feel. In all the weeks that they had their secret rendezvous, they had never once had a slow kiss. Every kiss had been filled with urgency and need and was hurried. Him kissing her like that now, and the thoughtfulness of the picnic indicated that he was trying to tell her something and that he was trying to make her feel special. What scared Rose even more was that she completely believed that Scorpius was capable of saying he loved her. Why else would she accuse him of saying those three words if she didn't believe herself that he was capable of them? What scared Rose the most was that now whatever they were doing was quite possibly over now. It was this thought that confused her. How could she so adamantly believe that he may have feelings for her and yet when she mentioned that she thought he said 'I love you' he seemed just as adamant that he didn't?
Each of Rose's thoughts were jumbled and often conflicted with other theories she had which just made the situation even more confusing. They didn't know each other, not properly, so how could feelings be involved in the first place? Then again, if they didn't know each other that well, how could Rose so sure that all they were feeling was simple lust? Rose grabbed her spare pillow and forcefully covered her own face, as if to muffle the jumbled mess that was screaming inside her head. All Rose knew at that moment was for whatever reason, she was still scared.
The next day, Rose felt no better with the knowledge that she would have to sit with Scorpius during potions and act as though nothing had happened the day before while also mustering the energy to insult him as she usually did. What made her feel slightly better was that as soon as she took her seat next to the offending blonde, Professor Eaves announced that this week's task was theoretical and would require all students to spend both lessons in the library researching a particular potion. Rose perked up considerably and didn't even need to find the energy to be hostile toward her partner as it seemed to come so naturally.
"Right Malfoy, you can go into the restricted section and research the side affects of a poorly brewed draught of the living death and its uses in dark magic, and I will research the methodology of the brewing. We can collate our notes during Friday's lesson. And before you ask, I will be researching the methodology because I am better at following the actual instructions when brewing potions, whereas you may need to know what side affects to look for in your victim for when you make this potion poorly in the future and need to find them an antidote. See you on Friday."
Rose stalked her way out of the classroom and straight to the library without letting Scorpius even attempt a comeback. She didn't want to talk to him under any circumstances at this point in time.
Rose spared no thought for Scorpius during the week. That was until Thursday when she unconsciously made her way to the fourth floor and only realised where she was going when she saw the closet door in front of her. She had no idea if she wanted to open the door and wait as she had been doing, or whether she should run screaming in the opposite direction and never glance upon the blonde ever again. She stood there trying to make a decision for so long, that she ended up not having to decide after all. She heard the voices of Scorpius and Holly coming around the corner and had no choice but to open the closet door and hide within its depths. She sat on the ground at the very back until the muffled voices became clear.
"Hm, the closet seems to be quiet tonight Scorp." Rose heard Holly say. She could almost picture Malfoy's expression as she waited to hear his answer.
"It does seem that way Hols." There was another pause.
"So are you ever going to tell me who you meet in there or do I have to open the door and see who it is one of these days? Or should I say one of these Thursdays?"
Rose heard Scorpius chuckle.
"I'm meeting nobody, how many times to I have to tell you?"
"Hm, nobody. Sounds like its serious then?"
Rose didn't hear an answer and figured Scorpius was rolling his eyes in his usual manner.
"Scorp, how many times do I have to tell you that you really need to pick up your game? You are such a great guy yet no one, I mean, no girl is ever going to see that if you continue to have meaningless flings or treat girls the way that you do."
"Hey, I'll have you know just as many girls like to be 'flung' as what guys do. And besides, why would I need any other girl to see just how 'wonderful' I am if I can just hang out with you?"
It was Holly's turn to roll her eyes.
"Hols, I promise that I'm not hurting anyone. My situation with the 'closet chick' as you call her is strictly mutual and has unspoken rules that should not be broken."
"Sounds like someone broke one of those rules."
"No, not broken, just bent slightly and put back in place."
Rose hoped that Holly was giving Scorpius a very calculating stare at this point. Just then Rose heard a tapping on the door that she was currently, sort of, hiding behind.
"Closet chick? Hopefully you are actually behind there tonight, otherwise I'm talking to an empty room. I don't need to know who you are or why you have a mutual agreement with Scorpius Malfoy and I'm not even sure if you are the same person each time, but I just want to say that I hope this is exactly what you want. If its not, make sure you go out and find what you're looking for, because everyone deserves to get what they want."
Rose sat there in shock for a moment and listened to the scuffle that happened outside for a moment.
"See you downstairs Scorp."
There was a whole minute where all Rose could hear was Holly's fading footsteps. It wasn't until she saw the door handle turning that she decided she should probably stand up and at least pretend to look casual. Rose could hardly see the features of Scorpius' face due to the light coming in behind him. When he spoke, he didn't use any names so Rose wasn't sure which mode they were in.
"So is this what you want? All that you want, I mean?"
Rose knew he was referring to Holly's speech and subsequent advice.
"Yes." She paused. "What about you? Is this all that you want?"
Scorpius answered without hesitation, "Yes."
"Okay then." She replied. Scorpius grinned and then moved much closer to Rose.
"Good."
As his lips came down on hers, everything was as it should be. There was urgency. There was passion. There were no slow kisses or mixed messages. During potions the next morning, neither found it difficult to resort back to their surname personas.
Rose and Scorpius were back to what they considered normal over the next couple of weeks and things were continuing without complication. By the time school holidays came around Rose was feeling as though the fear she had felt after Scorpius' impromptu and slightly unwelcome picnic had completely dissipated. As she sat in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express waiting for her cousin Albus to join her, she thought back to what Scorpius had said about his 'closet chick': "It's strictly mutual and has unspoken rules that should not be broken." Simply by hearing Scorpius say this to Holly, Rose knew that their silent agreement was valid and respected. She had been reading so much into what happened that crazy Sunday afternoon and had feared she would have to confront him about it. But Holly had done that for her and now she understood the situation clearly and things were back as they should be. It was for this reason that Rose did not turn Scorpius away when she looked up to see him standing in the doorway of her compartment.
"Sitting with all your friends?"
Rose rolled her eyes.
"Unlike you, I don't need people to hang on my every word and be at my beck and call."
"So I'm guessing your last slave died of boredom then?"
"Witty Scorpius. Now come in and shut the door before someone sees you."
Scorpius did as she said and closed the blind that hung on the door. Scorpius sat opposite Rose and stared at her for a moment.
"You know, I don't think we can do what we normally do together in here. Al will be looking for me and I am not going to be caught in such a public place."
"Well that's what I was going to talk to you about."
Rose looked up from her book abruptly and eyed him suspiciously.
"What do you mean?"
"Well," he cleared his throat, "my parents are going to be away on the second weekend of the holidays and I just thought that maybe if you wanted to…come around?" Scorpius ended lamely. Rose's eyebrows were back in their usual position now and she answered whilst going back to her book.
"Sure. I'll just have to tell my parents that I'm going to a friend's place."
Scorpius' mouth twitched up at the corners as he took in the implications of Rose's answer.
"So…I suppose I'll see you in two weeks?"
"Yeah, no problem."
Rose saw Scorpius pause as he got up to leave the compartment. Just as he was about to open his mouth, she cut him off.
"Don't worry, I'm sure I can figure out where your place is. I'm sure you can see it in the London Skyline."
Scorpius nodded and left the compartment silently. As the door shut, Rose realised that she had said yes to spending a weekend with Scorpius Malfoy. Alone. Usually she would agonise over the implications of her decision but as she had spent so much of her time lately agonising over the tall blonde only to find out that he thought exactly what she did, she decided to just chalk this one down to intuition.
True to her word, Rose did not agonise over her decision during the holidays and on the last weekend, found herself quite calmly awaiting some form of acknowledgement in front of the wrought iron gates at Malfoy Manor. Rose wasn't sure if there was a button that needed to be pressed or whether she should talk into the hedges that surrounded the entrance to see if she could get a clue as to how to enter. She stood staring at a white peacock that strutted beyond the gate and had the amusing thought that this was probably the animal that Scorpius would produce as a patronus, or turn into if he were an animagus. Chuckling to herself, Rose leant against the gate and swiftly fell through them into the confines of the gardens surrounding the manor. She looked back and saw that the gates looked as solid as ever and went to touch them. She jumped back as her hand went right through the gate once more.
"Intruder charm." Rose said to herself. She knew that some wizarding families continued to be paranoid following the war, and none more rightly so than the Malfoys. Rose knew that the charm allowed in only those people who had been invited into the manor. Rose strolled up to the manor entrance and used the giant knocker to alert Scorpius to her presence. Rose had the sudden thought that she had not made contact with Scorpius over the past two weeks and started to fret that maybe his parents weren't away, or maybe she had gotten the wrong date or maybe…
The door opened wide and Scorpius could be seen in casual clothes, staring down at Rose.
"Oh, uh. Hey." He said.
"Hey yourself. You know, your gates kind of freaked me out. If I hadn't gotten so bored and leant up against them I would have never made it in!"
Scorpius simply nodded and moved aside, gesturing her to enter his house. She stood in the entrance way and looked around in awe. Everything about the furnishings was so ornate and beautiful.
"Whoah! I knew you lived in a big arse house but I never thought it would be this…"
"Nice?" Scorpius offered.
"Well, sorry, but yeah! I expected snakes and slytherin colours but this – " Rose was lost for words. The place had truly taken her breath away. She walked up to the balustrade and ran her hands over the marble finish. She turned back to Scorpius again.
"So, care to show me around?"
"Ah, sure. Follow me."
Rose couldn't help but notice that Scorpius seemed rather off. He wasn't insulting her like he usually would if she had been unwelcome, but he wasn't talking to her casually like he usually did when he was 'Scorpius'. Rose decided to let it go and simply basked in the glory that was Malfoy Manor.
Scorpius avoided showing her the ground floor, and led her straight to the first floor of the manor. Behind the first door, Rose saw an amazing lounge area which had French doors that backed onto an expansive balcony. Rose squealed and motioned towards the French doors.
"May I?" she asked. Scorpius simply looked at her quizzically and then motioned with his hand as if to say 'go ahead'. Rose couldn't contain her excitement. Not since her first day at Hogwarts had she seen such grandeur. She felt that over the years the castle's affect seemed to lessen with familiarity. But this was brand new and Rose still couldn't believe that the beautiful pastel palette of the manor belonged to the Malfoys. She wondered whether they had refurbished following the war but thought it imprudent to ask. Rose opened the magnificent mahogany doors and felt the wind rush her face as she went out on the balcony.
"This is AMAZING!" she shouted as she twirled around the balcony. Scorpius simply sat patiently in the lounge while Rose basked in the glory of the outdoor area. Rose caught a glimpse of him when she was mid spin and figured that maybe she should tone down her excitement at exploring the manor. She closed the great doors behind her and smiled while trying to flatten her hair which had come loose during her twirling. She sat down next to Scorpius on the sofa and looked across at him.
"So, what else is on this floor?"
Scorpius seemed as though he hadn't been paying attention but eventually responded without looking in her direction.
"Just a drawing room and my bedroom." He answered. Rose was starting to get irritated with Scorpius' lack of hosting abilities.
"Well, the drawing room doesn't sound too thrilling. Show me your bedroom – hang on," Rose looked shocked for a moment and paused. As she did so, she briefly noticed Scorpius look down at the carpet instead of her.
"on this entire floor you only have an entertaining area, a drawing room and your room?"
Scorpius looked up quickly.
"Ah, yeah?" Rose stared at him.
"Holy shit, how big is your room?"
Scorpius managed a small smile and motioned her to follow him.
It turned out that Scorpius' room was indeed, rather large as it took up half of the first floor.
"If this is your room, I'd hate to see your parent's room!" Rose said, completely stunned. Scorpius' room looked more like an apartment rather than just a place to sleep. His king sized bed was set between two ornate window frames and was also elevated above the rest of the furniture as it stood on a raised platform. Rose had expected Scorpius' room to be decked out in Slytherin colours and be immaculately clean. She was pleasantly surprised to see that his sheets were a crisp white while his bed spread was a warming charcoal. Both pieces of linen looked as though they had survived some strange battle with one another during the night, and lay in a tangle on top of his bed. The rest of the room wasn't particularly messy but certainly not tidy. Hundreds of records were lined up along an expansive book case that stretched across the longest wall. Rose could tell which records were his favourites as they were the ones that were stacked untidily right next to the record player. Scorpius made his way over to his bed and sat on its edge. Rose looked around the room further and still couldn't believe her eyes.
"I can't believe you have your own bathroom and balcony and – Whoah is that a kitchenette? Man, you must struggle having to share everything at Hogwarts! Hm, maybe this upbringing is why you are such a snobby, pompous prat a lot of the time."
Rose missed the scowl that Scorpius sent her way and simply bounded over to the record collection.
"Let's see…Wizards versus Warlocks, hm not bad, Sorcerer's Stone, the Weird Sisters, I have to say I'm surprised you like a touch of retro, what else, Ignatius Swan, I like his acoustic stuff…oh wow!"
Rose quickly pulled a record out of its cover and put it gently onto the turntable once she had made sure to wipe the record down first. The song had a low bass line and after a few seconds, other heavy but slow guitars joined in. Rose closed her eyes and swayed as she walked over to join Scorpius on his bed. She sat down just as the lead singer's husky low voice could be heard.
"I've got to hand it to you Scorpius, you sure do know how to pick a good tune! This one's my favourite, I had to buy another record because I scratched my first one listening to it too much. You know-" Rose halted as she turned to look at Scorpius. He was looking down at his hands which were tapping incessantly on his knees. Rose could tell he wasn't listening. She let a huffing sound escape from her lips.
"You know, if you didn't want me to come, you could have easily taken back your invitation and I never would have been able to even get through your stupid iron gates! What is your problem?"
"What?" Scorpius looked up, startled as if he didn't know she was addressing him.
"I said what is your problem? You were the one who asked me over and yet all you've done is sit in cold stony silence and, and keep rolling your eyes at me and ignoring everything that I say."
Rose paused as if expecting Scorpius to retaliate at this point.
"Ugh, seriously! If I had wanted to stay in the company of Malfoy for the last weekend of my holidays, I'm sure I could have just effing waited until Monday's potions lesson!"
"Maybe-"
"Maybe what Scorpius? Maybe you shouldn't have invited me here in the first place? Maybe I shouldn't have come? WHAT?"
At this outburst, Scorpius put his head in her hands.
"Maybe this was a mistake."
Rose shot the boy a very disgruntled look.
"Oh, now you can say this is a mistake! What kind of idiot – "
"Look I'm sorry!" Scorpius had finally found his voice. "I just, I thought that our agreement was – and I –" Scorpius paused.
"Well, spit it out!"
Scorpius sighed again. "Look, after you freaked out about the picnic that day I realised that we never actually made rules for what we were um, doing. And then that night that Holly talked to you through the door, well I figured that night we did make the rules, but they were just silent."
Scorpius paused again. Rose was intrigued and looked at him expectantly but he didn't continue.
"And?"
"Well, I thought that we never really get to be properly alone and remembered on the train that my parents were going away this weekend and, I don't know I saw you sitting there and saw an opportunity to ask you to – come over. And we wouldn't have to be worried about getting caught out."
Rose tried to hold back a smirk and wasn't sure how successful she was but decided to milk this situation for all it was worth.
"I don't understand. What would we be doing here that would be different than Hogwarts?"
Scorpius stared at Rose.
"You mean you don't – oh fuck, I'm a bigger arse than what I thought."
Rose tried not to giggle at his reaction to her feigning ignorance.
"Why, whatever do you mean Scorpius?" Rose asked innocently.
"Rose, look. I invited you here because we could be, well I suppose not ourselves, but ourselves when other people aren't around."
"And?"
"Well, I kinda thought that – " Scorpius finally had the guts to look Rose in the eye and he noticed the glint she held there. Scorpius narrowed his eyes at her.
"Agh! You - You knew all along why I invited you here!"
Rose beamed.
"Oh sorry, why did you invite me here this weekend?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice.
"Don't play coy Rose! You know I know you know!"
"Know what?"
Scorpius threw up his hands in frustration.
"You're going to make me say it aren't you?"
"Say what Scorpius?"
"You are infuriating you are! You're going to make me say why I asked you here."
"Well if I knew you had this much of an aversion to the word 'sex' then I probably would have just resisted you from the start."
"How can you just, just say it so – casually – like that?"
Rose burst out laughing.
"You mean to tell me that you invited me here under the pretence of getting some alone time and knowing we can't get caught, which in my mind translates to 'possible opportunity to have sex', and yet you can't even say the word. Oh, hang on. You aren't – "
"No Rose! I certainly may not be as – active – as the rumours make out but I am somewhat experienced."
Rose laughed out loud and Scorpius glared at her.
"I just don't see why you can't say the word!"
"Look, just calm down! I can say it!"
"Then say it!"
"I'm not going to say it Rose."
"Chicken"
"Oh for fuck's sake. SEX!"
Rose stared at him and then made to leave the room.
"Oh well, that just wasn't attractive. I think I'm put off, I'm going to go now!"
Scorpius simply glared at her and she sat back down.
"So now that you know you haven't lured me here under false pretences because I'm not stupid and I realised the possible implications for accepting your invitation, are you going to let me stay or do you want me to go?"
Scorpius looked down at his hands once more.
"I don't – I don't know. I just, don't think I can use you like that. I'm sorry."
Rose stared at him in shock. He still wouldn't look up at her.
"You mean to tell me that you're sorry because you thought you were using me?"
Scorpius nodded.
"Wow. Didn't expect you to say that." She replied, feeling mildly awkward now.
"I'm-"
"Stop saying you're sorry! Merlin, I accepted this offer knowing that there was the possibility of us, well you know. But that's not exactly why I decided to come. Why don't we just, get out of your room because, clearly the pressure is too much for you, and you can show me the rest of the manor?"
"Hey, I'll have you know that I am fine under pressure!"
Rose rolled her eyes and realised that maybe she would get to spend time with the side of him Holly had been talking about. She had seen glimpses of that side over the last few months and didn't exactly hate it. She laughed and dragged him off the bed by his hand.
"Well, maybe we'll never know!" she said teasingly. "So, what other treasures does your mansion offer?"
A/N: Sorry to leave this chapter here...it was going to go on but I think it was best to leave it here, otherwise the chapter would be getting too long! PLEASE review, I'd love to hear from those of you who have been with this story from the start! Peace out! Oh yeah, and REVIEW!