Plan to Prove It
Rose glided into the library with a surprising amount of grace, considering the rage boiling inside of her at that very moment.
And of course, the sight of silvery blonde hair across the room did nothing to sooth the anger.
Making an effort to keep herself calm, she strode over to him. As she got nearer, she sensed a feeling of distress coming from his hunched-over form.
Well, of course he's distressed, she snarled to herself. His gorgeous little girl friend has run off with another.
She grimaced, remembering the sad fact of her cousin's actions. Scorpius looked up at her just then, and his own face mirrored hers.
"What do you want with me, Weasley? Don't you think I've had enough torment for today?" he said in a surprisingly convincing tone.
"I don't think you've had enough torment in your whole lifetime, as a matter of fact. But that is neither here nor there. What are you doing at my table?" Rose said coldly.
Scorpius cocked an eyebrow (and Rose couldn't deny that the action made him look somewhat attractive). "Your table?" he said sarcastically as he stood up. He bowed mockingly before continuing, "Well, excuse me for infringing upon your property."
Rose glared at him. She had a mind to slap him just then, but she refrained. "Oh, shut up, you dimwit. Sit, for all I care. But you'll have to deal with the fact that learning may take place at one point or another. I know how you despise knowledge so."
To her surprise, Scorpius lowered himself back into his chair. Rose frowned and sat as well, opening her pack and removing a hefty book. She opened it, fully intending to drown out her thoughts of the boy sitting across from her.
"The Lethargus Root has been known for centuries to hold powers similar to those of the Poppy flower. It is used commonly in medical clinics for aiding sleep. Although it is difficult to locate, the root is highly useful because of its – Poppy flower. It is used commonly in medical clinics for aiding sleep. Although it is difficult to locate, the root – Poppy flower. It is used commonly in medical – Although it is difficult to – Poppy flower. Although it is difficult – Poppy – Medical – Poppy flower –"
"SCORPIUS WOULD YOU PLEASE QUIT HUMMING?"
Rose scowled at Scorpius as he frowned, looking somewhat hurt.
"Sorry. I was bored," he shrugged.
Rose made a noise of mock surprise. "Well, Scorpius, maybe you should find a place where the activities suit your brain level better."
"Oh, as if you're the most intelligent person in the whole world," Scorpius growled. "What are you reading about? I'll bet I already know about it."
"Fine," Rose agreed haughtily. "Lethargus Root. Go."
Scorpius frowned for a moment, then said, "Oh, please, that's an easy one. People use it as a sleep aid. It makes you lethargic."
Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "How did you know that?" she asked, somewhat amazed.
"The name," Scorpius divulged nonchalantly. "Lethargus, lethargic, it sounds the same. Was I right about what it does?"
Rose growled. "You were only guessing. That doesn't count."
However, the next time he began humming, she didn't try to yell at him.
Their time in the library that day seemed to change the dynamics of Rose's relationship with Scorpius. Somehow, those couple of hours spent in silent companionship had changed the way she saw him. Now, as she glanced out of the corner of her eye to see him stooping over his cauldron, she felt no hatred. She even thought, though she would never admit it, that she might be slightly fond of the arrogant, aristocratic fool.
For once, though, Scorpius was not the boy on her mind. A week before, the stocky, brown-haired Seeker of the Hufflepuff team had approached her and asked, very awkwardly, if she would meet him for tea during their approaching visit to Hogsmeade this coming weekend.
His name was Dirk Dimmerman, and he was a fifth year. That was basically all she knew of him, aside from the fact that he made a barely decent Seeker. He seemed to have been impressed by her skills, though, because he asked her out only minutes after she defeated his Quidditch team brutally.
She accepted, although certainly not because of her will to date him. She had never been asked out before, and there was a part of her than said 'If you say no, then no one will ever ask you out again'. Aside from that, it would have been awkward, even more awkward than it already was, if she'd said no.
She was not excited, however, about the idea of spending her Hogsmeade weekend sipping tea with a boy whose last name included the word "dim".
Saturday morning rolled around faster than she thought possible, and she was finding that there was no way to escape from her engagement with Dirk.
Hugo was excited, though. "Just think," he kept saying. "Both of us hooking up with Hufflepuffs. Who would have thought?"
"I hardly would call having tea with a boy 'hooking up,' Hugo. And I certainly hope that you aren't 'hooking up' with Hannah during all of those study dates you two keep having," Rose retorted smartly, although the blush that burned in Hugo's cheeks afterward scared Rose more than the thought of her date with Dirk. She really did hope that they weren't shagging yet.
Her cousins, however, were not as excited as Hugo was about Dirk the "Dimmest" Man, as they kept calling him.
"Really, Rose, this boy has a lump of spaghetti for a brain," James divulged, his tone of voice completely serious.
Rose very much doubted this, but it would not have surprised her to find out that he was not the highest in his class. He hadn't even used correct grammar when he was asking her to tea with him (he'd said something along the lines of, "They make their tea real good at Madam Puddifoot's, I hear").
She tried to have her boys shield her from the rest of the crowd as the school started down the path to the small magical town, but he found her anyways.
"Rose!" he called. "Rose Weasley! Over here!"
She turned, very apprehensively, to see him bounding toward her, somehow likened to a St. Bernard dog. He might have even been drooling a bit. Rose only hoped that she wouldn't have to get close enough to find out.
Bidding her company farewell with great regret, she walked next to him on the path toward Madam Puddifoot's.
"So, you're a great Seeker," he said. His tone was very flat. Rose couldn't tell if he was asking or telling her.
She only nodded. "I suppose," she said awkwardly.
"I'm not very good?"
She was sure that was a question, but really did not know why he would have asked it. So instead, she pretended like there hadn't been that slight inflection to indicate inquisition.
Maybe he is still having voice cracks, she thought with a giggle.
"What are you laughing about?" she asked. She was glad for a real question this time.
"Oh, nothing," she lied. "Just something my brother said this morning." The mention of her brother, however, made her remember the terrifying incident earlier, and sent unwanted pictures into her brain. She began to blush, and even in this snow, she wished her cheeks wouldn't burn so.
"You're in your fourth year, right?" he asked. She was about to reply, but he'd already started talking again. "I'm in my fifth. I'm sure you know that, though. But I am sixteen years old, not fifteen?"
Again, it sounded like a question, but she wasn't sure why it would be one.
"Uhh, no, I didn't know that," she agreed, thinking it a safe response. By this time they were walking in the tea shop and being beckoned to sit down, so she was saved from the conversation momentarily.
Madam Puddifoot's was an interesting place, to say the least. Aside from the overabundance of frills, laces, and hearts, it was cozy. Certainly cozy enough for almost every couple in the place to feel comfortable enough to engage in full-scale snogging sessions, which, incidentally, served to make Rose feel less comfortable than she would have otherwise.
Then Dirk grabbed her hand, which intensified the discomfort. His hand was sweaty and fat, and his fingers reminded Rose of sausages. She normally liked sausage, too, but she was afraid that she would no longer be able to eat it again after this. He started caressing her hand with his thumb, and thank goodness he did, because she was able to pretend a giggle and grab her hand away, saying that it ticked.
She kept her hands hidden the rest of the time.
It was an hour later when Rose was sure that he would let her go soon. He had talked almost the entire time about his Muggle family in Germany, and how proud of him they all were. Which, Rose found all very sweet of course, but was not all that interesting.
Then, something outside the window caught her attention.
Scorpius walked by with Bleekly and a few other Slytherins, and the gleam of the sun off of his blonde hair caught the light stunningly. The flash of light made Rose glance in that direction, and just then Scorpius glanced in hers.
Their eyes caught. For once, Rose wished that she was with Scorpius Malfoy. For, if she was with him, she would not be with this great ogre of a Hufflepuff.
For some inexplicable reason, Rose raised her hand to greet him. She had never done such a thing before, but she seemed to be going insane from her exposure to Dirk the Dim.
It was only a millisecond later that she realized she had done something stupid. However Scorpius was when they were alone in the library didn't matter. He was with his friends now, his fellow Slytherins, and there was no way he'd pass up a chance to humiliate a Weasley.
Scorpius made his way into Madam Puddifoot's, and made straight for the table Rose was sitting at.
Dirk seemed not to have noticed – he was in a very animated conversation with himself about the local traditions of his hometown in a suburb outside of Munich.
"So, Weasley," he sneered. Rose noticed that his friends were outside watching. "On a date, are you?"
Rose blushed, but didn't say anything.
"And with Dirk the Dimmer-witted-man, no less. Hello Dirk," he greeted mockingly. Rose was seething.
"Get away from us, you prat," she snarled.
"What I don't understand," Scorpius continued without acknowledging her comment, "is how you could date another boy, when you are so obviously keen on me."
Rose glared at him. "Who are you bloody kidding, Malfoy? I'm not keen on you and I never have been!"
They were causing quite the scene, and a few of the couples in the shop had even broken away from each other to watch the excitement.
"Oh, who are you kidding Weasley? You fancy me and you always have. Always will, I suppose," Scorpius said arrogantly.
Rose stood up from her place at the tea table, and subconsciously Scorpius wondered why she would be wearing such a short skirt when there was snow on the ground.
Don't you ever cover up those thighs, woman?! he thought urgently.
But it was too late. She had already seen his reaction.
"Oh, is that right, Malfoy? I fancy you, is that right? Then why, oh why, can't you take your eyes off of me?" she inquired angrily.
Scorpius gulped. "I'm just in awe of your hideousness, that's all," he retorted, although even he knew that the response was not convincing.
Rose nodded, her eyes like slits, and said, "I'll bet that's why." Then she turned to the other boy, who had been silent the whole time, and said, "Come on, Dirk, let's get out of here."
Scorpius watched as she walked away, and was absolutely sure that she was swinging her hips like that on purpose.
"I hear they're shagging," said Cosette, who had warmed up to Scorpius once again despite her sister's continued interest in James Potter, and Scorpius' indifference on the matter.
"I know, I heard that too!" Bleekly said enthusiastically. "They say she's a right maniac in bed."
Scorpius grimaced. "Come on, Bleekly, cut it out. I don't want to think about that."
Goyle frowned. "Why not?" he grunted. "She's really hot."
Cosette uttered a little scream of horror. "Goyle, don't defile the word like that," she scolded.
Scorpius glanced across the Great Hall, which was outfitted in all of its Holiday splendor at this time of year, to see Rose sitting with Dirk at the Hufflepuff table. She looked up at him as well, and he was sure he saw some sign of satisfaction in her face when she realized that he was looking at her.
"I don't think they're shagging," he said sternly.
"That's only because you fancy her and you don't want another boy to have popped her – "
"Ugh! Bleekly! Gross!" Cosette interrupted, which Scorpius was glad for. He didn't want to hear the rest of that sentence.
"Really, though, Malfoy," said Goyle, who was also staring at Rose. "You're a kinky guy, to have a crush on your own sister."
The whole table grimaced.
"She's not even really my sister," Scorpius mumbled. Then, realizing that he'd just admitted that he fancied her, growled, "And I don't have a crush on her."
Rose held Dirk's hand firmly underneath the table. As disgusting as it was, she was determined to show the arrogant little Malfoy prat that she did like Dirk, and prove to him that she did not fancy him.
She glanced over at the Slytherin table to make sure that he was still looking, then leaned in and pecked Dirk on the cheek.
That'll show him, she thought triumphantly. Than she realized that she'd just kissed Dirk, and her stomach practically flipped over. He'd better not try to snog me later on, she thought in horror.