Written for Pheebs (Ophelia Joane) and Sophie (Screaming Faeries) in response to Sophie & Phoebe's Gift-Giving Bonanza on HPFC. Hope you two enjoy this! A bit short and not remotely holiday-related, but it's my first Scorose, so hopefully it counts for something.

Rose had watched him from afar, ever since her father had told her to stay away.

She had quietly beaten him in every class. Answered questions before he did. Didn't get too friendly with him.

But she had gotten curious. Not once had he shown a sign of anger towards her actions. Not once had he complained about being only second in the class. Not once did he give her a dirty look for answering the question before he did. He showed no sign of friendliness or unfriendliness to her.

It wasn't like she could just walk up to him and be his friend, anyway. Her multitude of cousins stood in her way, like the bars of a jail cell. Never once did they outright say they were guarding her from him, but it was clear they were. A hurried pull to another corridor, a sudden loud interruption, a hastily started conversation. It wasn't hard to make the connection.

All her cousins, even her little brother, didn't say a word against him. But they didn't say anything good about him, either. They skipped around the subject, as if speaking about him would choke them to death.

So she'd taken it upon herself to observe him. The way his hair glinted in the sunlight, how he twirled his quill in his hand to think. The way he stood, in a sort of slouch, as if he were hiding from some nasty comment about his father. How he liked pumpkin pasties, and ate them as if they were a guilty pleasure, looking around for someone to call him out on it. The way his gray eyes seemed to swirl like a storm when he was in thought.

Perhaps the last one was just her imagining things, but she kept it in her mind along with the other details, like her Transfiguration notes. They nagged at her, and she always had new details to add to her collection.

She longed to reach out to him. But she couldn't. Not with her cousins in the way. But it was hard to sit in the shadows while he sat alone. He had friends, but they were the kind of people that abandoned him in favor of other people. Even in third year, he still did not have good friends. It made her ache to see him all by himself.

Eventually, she'd had enough. She could do whatever she damn wanted to, and her cousins weren't going to stop her.

And so, one day in Potions, she purposefully didn't lift her hand to answer the question the Professor had asked about the Cure for Boils, and why it was the first potion they learned. She knew the answer. It was because of the relative simplicity of the potion in comparison to the others. The range of heat that could be used to make it was very large. But she kept silent.

All the students, even the Professor, gave her strange looks. All except Scorpius Malfoy, who calmly raised his hand. The Professor let him answer the question, and he answered it exactly the way Rose would have. Rose watched him from the corner of her eye.

As soon as the Professor moved on, Rose caught it. The barest flash of utter confusion from one Scorpius Malfoy. Rose shifted her eyes back to the front, a small smirk playing on her face.

Her cousins wouldn't let her walk up to Scorpius Malfoy, but that didn't mean that Scorpius Malfoy couldn't walk up to her.

She continued the pattern. Every class she had with Scorpius (four – Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, and Muggle Studies), she didn't raise her hand to answer questions. Every single Professor gave her looks, but she stuck to her plan.

At the end of the week, their Charms Professor announced a pop quiz. Rose grinned.

After she had turned in her quiz with the rest of the students, the Professor quickly graded them. He raised an eyebrow at what Rose was sure was her quiz, and continued grading. After a moment, he stood.

"Congratulations to Scorpius Malfoy for getting the highest marks on the quiz." Both the Professor and Scorpius smiled confusedly. The entire class sat in shock.

When the bell rang, Rose took her time packing her bag and leaving the room. Just as she'd expected, Scorpius Malfoy was standing outside the room.

"Why did you do that?" he asked quietly.

"Why did I do what?" Rose asked innocently, beginning to walk away. Scorpius caught up to her.

"I mean, why did you purposefully not get the highest marks on the quiz?"

"Maybe I'm just not as smart as everyone thinks I am? Or did that never cross your mind?" Rose asked breezily.

"It's not just that. You stopped answering questions."

"Maybe I'm tired of answering questions."

"Maybe you were hoping for a confrontation."

Rose stopped, and Scorpius stopped as well.

"That obvious, huh," Rose said dryly. She couldn't help but notice the students glancing at them and whispering furiously. No doubt this conversation would get to her cousins extremely fast, which meant this was her only chance.

"I know you were trying to – wait, you were?" Scorpius asked, thrown off guard.

"So maybe I wanted to talk to you." Rose shrugged and began walking again. Scorpius followed her. Luckily they had Care of Magical Creatures next, a class they both shared.

"But why?" Scorpius pressed.

"Because I thought we could be good friends?" Rose suggested. "I think you're reading too much into this."

"I hardly think wanting to know why someone wants to talk to me is 'reading too much into this'," Scorpius said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, you got your answer anyways. So, how about it?" Rose asked. They were nearing Hagrid's hut, and she could see her cousin, Albus, standing in the crowd. She didn't have very much time to do this.

"I – sure?" Scorpius blinked. Then he narrowed his eyes. "You're not doing this on a dare or something, are you? Or a prank?"

"As if my cousins would let their 'baby Rosie' go anywhere near the terrible, horrible Scorpius Malfoy," Rose laughed, a bit bitterly.

After a moment, Scorpius smiled. "I thought that Lily Potter was the baby of the family."

"Oh, she's definitely got it worse in terms of how many people are watching over her, but I'm the one with the dad that personally asked every member of my family to keep me away from 'Ferret Junior'." Rose stressed the nickname out.

Scorpius stared for a moment. "Where did the ferret thing come from?"

Rose grinned. "Your dad never told you?" she asked.

"Er, no…" Scorpius trailed off. "Should he have?"

"Well, I guess he didn't want to embarrass himself," Rose said pleasantly. "I suppose I will take it upon myself to elaborate."

"Do tell," Scorpius raised his eyebrows. At that moment, Albus turned around and spotted them, horror clearly displayed on his face.

Rose took a deep breath. "ALBUS!" she bellowed. All the students turned and stared. "COME OVER HERE!"

Albus stalked over to them. "What are you – "

"Albus, why don't we tell Scorpius here why Dad nicknamed him 'Ferret Junior'," Rose suggested quickly.

Albus paused for a moment, glancing at Scorpius. Then he let out a small smile. "That sounds like a great idea."

Rose beamed, and at Scorpius' questioning gaze, beamed even wider.

"I think you're going to have a lot of Weasley friends very soon," Rose promised.