Greetings to all! Hope this finds you well. Just something that came to mind a little while ago. Enjoy!

"Alright, everyone to the showers!" Rose Weasley screamed at the sweating, slouching bunch of students. When several of them lazily stared at her, she reinforced her commands with a "NOW!"

Trudging over to the Quiddich kit, Rose bent over the case that was being shaken by bludgers and slammed the quaffle inside. She had about had it with her Quiddich team. No wonder Gryffindor was falling behind this season. McMillan couldn't keep the goals to save his sorry arse, Al was so distracted by Penelope Ford that he kept getting knocked to the ground by bludgers, and Hugo just didn't seem to have the Weasley gene for Quiddich.

Rose knew that the vein in her forehead was pulsing, as it always did when she wanted to vaporize all of humanity for being so bloody daft, but she really didn't give a weasel's arse about it. Her fingers gripped the case so tightly as she stomped over to the equipment shack that her knuckles turned white and her hand hurt. The pain was good though. Pain calmed her down.

"Umm… Ro—I mean, Captain?" a timid voice asked from behind Rose as she haphazardly threw the case into the equipment storage shack.

"What now, McMillan?" she shot at the small-framed fourth year.

"It's Connor," he visibly gulped and added, "ma'am."

"Well then what the bloody hell is it, Connor? I hope you have a good reason as to why you've been playing Keeper worse than my dead muggle grandmother."

"Y-you see," Connor started, "it's just that classes have been getting really difficult, and I haven't been able to follow your practice schedule exactly as you—"

"WHAT?" Rose yelled. McMillan took several steps backward; she could see him fingering his wand in the side pocket of his Quiddich trousers. Taking a deep breath, she coarsely rubbed her temples. McGonagall had warned her about keeping her temper on the field and not letting it 'influence her outside communications.' In fact, she was on her last warning; after that… well Rose didn't know, but she didn't intend to find out either. "McMillan, there is a reason I put you on this team and gave you that schedule. No one will remember you for your grades, they will remember your Quiddich. They will remember how barmy you look when Henry bleeding Radford scores on you and leads Hufflepuff to victory for the first time ever. The schedule makes us better. If you can't commit, then we should be having a different discussion right now. Are we having that discussion?" she growled.

"N-no, Captain. So sorry to bother you," his trembling legs carried him as he retreated to the lockers with extreme haste.

Rose sighed and let her hair fall out of the tight ponytail that she had kept it in for practice. Her left hand clung to her Swift 3000 while her right combed through her sweaty pile of dark red hair.

She could hear shouting in the boys' shower room, and she rushed to hear what the commotion was. A team couldn't work together if there was drama going around; that was a lesson she'd long been aware of, being a part of the massive Weasley clan and all. She had to find the problem and squash it like a beetle, just like every other problem on this team. Sneaking up to the outside wall of the shower house, she leaned against the brick just underneath the high windows.

"I am so sick of this!" the first voice she heard belonged to her younger brother. "It's not as if she's perfect either."

"You're one to talk, mate! At least she didn't owl your parents after the last game to complain about how your girlfriend is distracting you too much!" Leon Innsworth groaned. Rose sighed. It was necessary. Squash the beetle. "They forbade me from seeing her again." Yeah, like that made any difference. Rose saw them snogging every morning after breakfast.

"At least you didn't have to sign an agreement to refrain from dating anyone on the team," Al, Rose's closest cousin, grumbled. Rose frowned. That was completely necessary. Not only for the team but for Al, too. Penelope didn't even care for Al, he just didn't understand females enough to comprehend that.

Wait. Why was everyone questioning her authority?

Several minutes passed, all while Rose stood stationed under the open windows. The entire team, with the exception of Penelope, who was using the ladies' shower room, had repeatedly complained about how strict she was, how rude and mean she could be, and, worst of all, how she was unfit to be Quiddich captain. Her head was swimming.

"What about you, Scorp?" she heard Al ask. "What's your take on precious Rosie?" Eww. What a nasty nickname.

"I think you said it all," the voice that Rose had secretly been waiting to hear stated calmly. What? Even Malfoy? She didn't even yell at him… often. "Well, I'm out. I'll catch you later, mates."

Before Rose knew it, she was face-to-chest with a shirtless Scorpius Malfoy. "Rose?" he asked. "What are you-?" he glanced between the window and Rose, piecing things together bit by bit. "Did you-?"

"I was just leaving," Rose sputtered. "Please tell everyone that practice is cancelled tomorrow."

"Are you sure? I was just—"

"Yes. I'm sure," she avoided his eyes and his (nicely) sculpted torso as she slipped past him as quickly as she could without looking too questionable.

She couldn't believe it. All of that hard work with the team, for what? Them to be hateful and dissatisfied with the captain who only wanted victory?

Rose pelted another snitch-sized rock into the lake. She was sitting in her favorite place. Nearly two miles away from the Hogwarts castle, it was usually fairly quiet. There was a beach full of stones and one large, flat rock near the water where she could sit and angrily throw her thoughts into the abyss.

"You're not thinking of drowning yourself, are you?" an unexpected- but not unwelcome- voice filled the silence.

"What if I am?" Rose kept her eyes glued to the ripples that a stone had made twenty feet from the shoreline. Intentionally ignoring the way that her neck tingled because of the new presence, she fingered another burdensome stone.

The bright-eyed blonde took a seat next to her on the large boulder. "Well then do you mind if I come with? I've always wanted to hear a mermaid sing." When he saw no change in her expression, he sighed. "Rose, I know you heard some things after practice today. It's just healthy for them to let off steam. You work them harder than any captain they've ever had."

"Yeah, well I didn't expect you to jump right in and agree," she angrily hurled several stones at the water and watched the multitudes of ripples float away. Her arm pulsed in pain from the exhilaration, but she allowed it to calm her and help her to breathe steadily.

"Please don't hold me accountable for what I say in front of the guys. I said what I had to in order to let them calm down. It was a more efficient way of squashing the cockroach, or whatever you say."

"Beetle," Rose corrected. She finally turned her head slightly to see him. His finger was tracing patterns on the rock between them, and his eyes were focused on the colorful sunset. She would never admit it, but she liked the way that his blonde hair was messy and fell onto his forehead. "Look, I don't expect you to like me. I'm your Quiddich captain, not your—whatever. I know I'm rough and abrasive, but I care about my team. So you all can just deal with me being a pain in the arse, alright?" she huffed out.

Scorpius laughed. He actually laughed. The skin around his blue eyes crinkled a little and his smile overwhelmed his face. "Rose, I already have."

"So… you can appreciate me despite my being a pain?" she asked confusedly.

"No," he responded a little too quickly. "I don't like you despite that."

Rose felt like he just poured salt in her wounds. False hope is a girl's worst enemy, she supposed. She was about to move away, but then felt a strong hand lightly grip her chin so that she could look at him.

"I like you because you're a pain in the arse, Rose," Scorpius said quietly while searching her face.

"Huh?" she muttered. She didn't quite register what he had said, she had been a little too preoccupied with the way that his lips moved when he spoke to her.

"First three words, Rose. I like you," he confessed to her. The soft pad of his thumb traced circles on her jawbone.

"Oh," was all that Rose found herself able to say. She felt like her head had just exploded while her stomach simultaneously combusted and shriveled into nothingness.

Rose felt his eyes comb over her face once more, his gaze landing on her lips. "And I would very much like to kiss you," he admitted.

There was a long moment of silence. Scorpius cleared his throat and dropped his hand from Roses' face. "I apologize, I shouldn't have—"

"Damn," Rose interrupted. "Now I'll have to change the team agreement that I made Al sign."

The look that gradually made its way onto Scorpius' face was one of surprise, "Does that mean—"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Rose threw her hands around Scorpius' neck and brought him down to meet her mouth in a slow, deep kiss. His hands slid around her waist in an attempt to embrace her more fully.

"You really are an arse, Weasley," he smirked at her when they parted slightly.

"I told you to shut up," she muttered breathlessly. "And that's Captain to you."

Hope you enjoyed it. I love hearing from you guys. Please let me know what you think with a review or favorite!

Blessings,

CompletelyDone