One-shot, written for a fan fic challenge.
Prompt: "It must be centered around a Valentine's Day theme. You must include a time-turner somewhere also."
Disclaimer: all things associated with harry potter belong to JK Rowling, not me.

Rose Weasley sighed contentedly as she laid her head upon her arms which were folded against the edge of the enormous bath. The golden taps that lined the opposite edge were sprouting festive heart-shaped pink bubbles that made the warm, steam-filled air smell like lavender. Being a prefect had definitely had perks. The first being that she could deduct house points from anyone who smart-mouthed her or made fun of her wild, flaming red hair and the second was being able to enjoy the luxurious prefects' bath.

While the rest of the students were no doubt sneaking out for late night rendezvous with their valentines, Rose took the opportunity to have the quiet sanctuary all to herself since it was way past curfew and her cousin James (the other Gryffindor prefect) was occupied with a cute Hufflepuff. Rose did not consider Valentine's Day to be a holiday but rather an excuse for students to participate in frivolous activities. Uncle Harry would have laughed at this and tell her (as he had many times before) that she was her mother's daughter. Rose liked to think so. It was a great honor to be compared to her mother who was the brightest witch of her age, a war hero, the head of the department of Magical Law Enforcement, had been asked to run for Minister of Magic (though she politely declined), and had received an Order of Merlin First Class as well.

This train of thought instantly sobered Rose up. She had enough time to relax and now it was time to catch up on all her NEWT level classes. She waded to the other side of the pool, twisted all the taps until they had shut off, and drained the bath. Getting out, she dried herself quickly with a towel (mum always said if you can do it without magic, then don't be lazy) and put on a simple white tee shirt with her standard uniform skirt. She squeezed as much as the water as she could from her hair, grabbed her things and hurriedly exited the bath.

Ducking into a dark alcove in the corridor which was obscured by a statue of a one-eyed witch (and thankfully devoid of a snogging couple), Rose tugged on a gold chain that hung around her neck. She knew she wasn't supposed to do this but she figured just this once would be okay, nothing drastic. She just needed an extra hour to finish her homework tonight. Pulling out the time turner from her blouse, she recited as many laws regarding time-travel as she could remember. Rose could hear her mother's firm voice in her mind as she spun the hourglass once, 'avoid being seen. Even the most minor changes can have drastic consequences'.

For a brief moment, her vision blurred slightly as time raced backwards and the world around her fought to keep up. When it was over, Rose stepped out of the alcove and headed for somewhere secluded to work.

Silently stepping through (in other words, unlocking the door and trespassing) the dark threshold of the vacant library (most students did not consider it a romantic setting in which to celebrate Valentine's), Rose made her way to her favorite table which was partially hidden by a shelf of history books and sat down to work, aided by the soft glow of a lamp which she lit with her wand.

After a half hour, she was nearly finished with her potions essay on Amortentia (she rolled her eyes at Slughorn's assignment) when she heard a quiet scuffle of footsteps and the twin creaking noises of the heavy library doors open and close. Fearing that it was Filch, Rose quickly dropped her quill in order to reach for her wand and extinguish the lamp but hadn't done so quickly enough. Scorpius Malfoy rounded the shelf that partly concealed her location and scowled when he saw her.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for being in the library after hours."

Rose sputtered incredulously, her face flushing a brilliant shade of red that she had inherited from her Papa.

"Are you serious, Malfoy? Ten points from Slytherin for being in the library after hours."

"Touché." He dumped his books and bag onto her table with a loud thud.

"Don't you have something better to do than bother me, Malfoy? Like your fan club for example? I'm sure they would be devastated to know you're spending your Valentine's night alone."

"But I'm not alone, am I?" Scorpius roguishly grinned and Rose's stomach traitorously erupted in butterflies.

"That's not what I meant."

"I know what you meant. What makes you assume that's how I'd prefer to spend my night? You don't know me, Weasley."

"B-but I saw all the cards and letters you received from your admirers during breakfast-"

"Are you spying on me?"

Rose's complexion instantaneously matched the fiery color of her hair.

"N-no! Of course not! The simple fact is that one would have to be blind not to notice the overwhelming pile sitting on the Slytherin table."

"Indeed. I confess though, most of the chocolate was my mother doting on me." Scorpius winked. He pulled a chair out from under the table, and sat down. After withdrawing a roll of parchment from his bag, he began to do what looked like an arithmancy assignment. Rose found the way his expensive quill scratched audibly against the paper extremely irritating and she could not help staring at the way he chewed on his lower lip and pouted adorably whenever he stopped to think about which symbols to write next. Rose glared at him and after a few minutes, she voiced her discomfort.

"Malfoy, you're distracting me. Can you please go sit somewhere else?" she hoped her acerbic tone was enough to scare him away.

Scorpius looked up from his work to eye the Gryffindor with damp auburn locks and chuckled. Rose , irritated with herself, wanted to look away but she was trapped by his pale blue eyes looking up at her from behind the fringes of his messy blond hair.

"Distracted by my good looks?" He smirked, leaning back in his chair. Rose gripped her quill so tightly that it was near its snapping point.

"The point is that I was here first, Malfoy. Find… another… table…"she ground out impatiently.

"If I find another table to work at, I will have to light another lamp. Another lamp means more light, which means Filch is that much more likely to catch us here and strip us of our badges," he drawled in a lazy indifferent tone, "but if you insist on my immediate departure, I think you had the right idea…" he eyed her damp hair, "I wouldn't mind a nice, relaxing bath."

Scorpius stood and began to gather his things when a red flag went up somewhere in Rose's mind.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit… bloody hell.' Rose cursed (in a way that would no doubt make Papa proud and mum upset) as she tried to think of a reason to stall him before he made way to the prefects' bathroom where her past self was currently located. Scorpius would have to be denser than a mountain troll not to realize the impossibility that he had just left one Rose Weasley at the library only to come across another, naked, and taking a bath two floors below.

Her mind raced. At this point, she was desperate to find something to say that would make him stay. 'Just say something! Anything!' she urged herself. She grudgingly sucked up her pride.

"I'm sorry, that was rude of me to kick you out. You don't have to go…"

The pale-haired young man eyed her with a raised brow but said nothing and continued stowing away his belongings. Rose cringed. Apparently that wasn't good enough for him. Rose tucked a damp lock of hair behind her ear.

"Scorpius. Please stay."

"Why? I haven't done anything to make you upset and yet you treat me as if I had. I'd rather leave, thanks."

She narrowed her eyes, struggling to keep the infamous Weasley temper in check.

"The first thing you did was take away points from Gryffindor!" Okay, so she had to work more on the temper thing because it was not helping her case right now.

Scorpius hoisted his bag over his shoulder and turned to leave. Rose blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"B-be my valentine." She had no idea what came over her but it seemed to work. Scorpius stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, his eyes searching her hazel ones.

"Excuse me?"

"I said be my Valentine." Rose replied bravely. "I mean, there's only like ten more minutes left of today or whatever and I've never had a valentine before since I think it's a stupid holiday not because I haven't had, you know, offers, but you're pleasant to work with when we're partnered up in class and you have the nicest hands I've ever seen like ever so I'm sorry about being mean and for rambling on now and just like stay, okay?"

Scorpius ran a hand through his blond hair, disheveling it further. His facial expression lost its anger and instead an amused look replaced it.

"I'm sorry, did you say I have perfect hands?"

"I said the nicest. I didn't say they were perfect." Rose squeaked in embarrassment as her ears turned pink. Scorpius seemed to appreciate accidental the ego trip.

"Fine. I accept your apology."

She let out a breath of relief when Scorpius took his seat once more. Crisis averted. The red-head glanced down at the hourglass hanging from her neck. Only 5 more awkwardly silent minutes to go before her "past" self vanishes in a dark alcove in a deserted hallway and she can bid Scorpius goodnight and thanks-for-the-company-by-the-way -I-was-kidding-about-the-whole-Valentine-thing-heh-heh and go to bed. Yeah right, he'll never let her live it down. 'This is what you get for meddling with time.'The whole school will probably know by breakfast tomorrow that she made a complete fool of herself...

A sudden series screeches interrupted her thoughts as Scorpius slid his chair so that he was sitting closer to her… right next to her in fact, that Rose could feel the warmth of his body and smell the intimate combination of his personal scent mixed with his cologne. She had to admit, he smelled nice.

When he took her hand in his and began playing with her fingers, the butterflies came back full force and her heart caught in her throat. Rose stopped breathing altogether when his other hand found her inner thigh, and began tracing light circles on the sensitive skin.

Scorpius' lips brushed her ear.

"So my Valentine…" his warm breath tickled, "since you like my hands so much… let me show you what they can do."

Okay, maybe this once she'd consider Valentine's Day worth celebrating.