Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.

[Rose's POV, by the way]

Rounds. They were enough to kill someone.

Whoever appointed me Prefect obviously didn't know that I was a miserably unhappy fiend when I was up for too long. So, these midnight escapades down the elegantly creepy corridors of Hogwarts always got me in a bad mood.

It was even worse when I actually had to confront someone about being out too late.

Because, let's face it, people hardly take "authority figures" seriously if you're the same age or younger than they are.

This, unfortunately, was one of those terrible nights that got me in an invariably grumpy mood.

'Cause I heard a noise. In the corridor. At what must have been one in the morning.

The noise attracted me to a "supposedly" empty corridor. My stomach turned over unpleasantly as I heard urgent slurping type noises…

I never liked to have to chastise people for snogging in the middle of the night, but it was my duty as a Prefect to keep children in bed… maybe that wasn't the best choice of wording…

A feminine moan came from just around the corner. It made me sick, the noise. I slid my wand back into my robes. I'd unconsciously wielded it when I heard something, but I obviously wouldn't need it now…

Exhaling impatiently, I rounded the corner, opening my mouth to tell these people to go back to bed.

My throat closed as my heart stopped.

Scorpius Malfoy's shiny blond head reflected the moonlight streaming in from the windows. There was an equally blond bird in his arms, clutching onto his annoyingly fresh robes.

There they were: Malfoy, the arrogant, yet undoubtedly gorgeous, pig who was always with one girl or another, and one of his poor victims. Snogging each other senseless. It was rather disgusting, the way their tongues were visible outside of their mouths and all. The noises that were coming from the girl were almost too enthusiastic.

Rather roughly, he pushed the girl against the corridor wall, their bodies pressed together without an inch of space between them. There was a glob of drool running down her chin.

Disgusting.

I didn't know why I couldn't walk away, why I just stood there with my mouth agape, but I did. There was a sudden pressure on my ribcage, threatening to suffocate me. I reached my hand up to my chest to make sure my heart was still beating.

With another overly-excited moan, they made a quarter-turn of direction. Scorpius's face was now facing me. The girl was practically jumping onto him.

Now that I could actually see his face, I saw something that genuinely surprised me.

He looked almost bored.

Sure, his head was tilting back and forth expertly, his mouth opening and closing in rhythm with hers, but there was a lack of expression at all behind his eyelids. There was no passionate furrowing of his brow. There was no tension in the hands that clutched her waist.

Leave it to Malfoy, the heartless Slytherin, to kiss a girl but have no feelings for her.

I let out a small exhale. For whatever reason, the pressure lessened on me. My feet still wouldn't budge. My heart was, thankfully, still beating.

Then he made it stop again.

I'm not sure if he knew I was there the entire time, or if he suddenly heard my breath, but either way, his eyes snapped open.

His cold, silver eyes pierced into mine. I couldn't look away. Neither did he.

He kept snogging her senseless, of course, but his eyes didn't leave mine as long as I stood there.

Just as I regained some sense, my face burned. Giving him a stern look, I raised my hand and mouthed "Five minutes". He gave me his famous smirk, even in the middle of kissing, as I rolled my eyes and stalked away.

When I came back five minutes later, there was no trace of them.

"Weasley!" His voice echoed down the empty corridor.

Exhaling in exasperation, I stopped but did not turn around. Unconsciously, I gripped my books across my chest even more tightly.

"Malfoy," I heard him step beside me, and I continued walking.

"What, the perfect Prefect didn't snitch on two students out of bed after bedtime, doing unheard-of acts to said perfect Prefect?" His robes billowed around him as he walked, jerking his head to the side to move his hair out of his eyes. I was sure he was smirking, but I didn't give him the satisfaction of knowing I saw any of this.

"I did you a favor, Malfoy." Despite my distaste for the cocky boy,we had a sort of "I-love-to-hate-you" relationship that sometimes bordered on friendship. "Plus, I didn't want to interrupt. She seemed to be enjoying herself," I said coolly.

He grimaced, but didn't say anything.

"Where'd you go, anyway? When I came back, you weren't there." I glanced over at him.

He raised an eyebrow and gave me the pompous "you're-seriously-asking-that-question?" look.

"Slytherin Sixth Year Dormitories. Right," I sneered, "Learned a few Silencing Charms, have we?"

What caught me off guard was when I was suddenly pushed against the wall much more gently than I saw him do only with a different girl. My breath caught, and confusion, I'm sure, was blatant on my face.

He was startlingly close, with his palm against the stone beside my face.

"No, and yes," His trademark smirk was on his face as he spoke. "If you must know, I broke up with her directly afterward." He paused and chuckled coldly. "I'm surprised you didn't hear: she slapped me rather hard,"

I opened my mouth to speak, but he only put his other hand on the wall beside me, trapping me there.

"And yes, I do know a fair few Silencing Charms." With an eyebrow raise of what I suppose was supposed to be seductiveness, he added, "So I know at least five ways to get you into that classroom," he jerked his head to the room directly beside us, "without anyone knowing you were in there, Weasley."

"So charming, Malfoy," I raised my eyebrow, trying to keep my eyes emotionless, despite the fact that my heart was pounding.

He looked somewhat defeated at my lack of enthusiasm, but didn't move any further away.

I was planning a way to duck out of this trap when he spoke again.

"I think you're defective, Weasley."

I would have laughed if this hadn't been so bluntly offending. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing works on you. I've tried everything I know how to do, but you still remain the hostile girl I met at King's Cross six years ago." His usually-cold eyes suddenly burned with something I could only recognize as a challenge. He had a point. He'd been trying to get me to date him since fourth year. Every time he asked, I shot him down.

"Maybe it's because I don't want to be another one of your games, Malfoy." I narrowed my eyes at him. This new "I-have-emotions" side of him was something I wasn't used to, even after six years of knowing him. I suddenly couldn't find the will the move at all.

He shook his head, chuckling lightly. He bent one of his elbows, so his forearm was lying against the wall. His head was dangerously close to my ear; his breath tickled one of my most sensitive points.

"Rose, you're the only girl I have ever been serious about," he whispered, both the words and the sensation sending shivers down my spine.

I couldn't breathe, much less speak.

When his lips lightly brushed the hollow beneath my ear, I had to clench my jaw to keep a moan from escaping. Malfoy shouldn't be enticing these reactions from me.

But, thankfully, with that, he swaggered down the hallway in the way he perfected at a frighteningly young age.

I blinked after him a few times, thanking Merlin that the hallway had been empty the entire time. Before I even realized my knees were weak, I was sinking to the ground. At the same time, I couldn't help but smirk at the fact that about half of the female population would kill to be in my position.

Rounds.

They're enough to kill a person. Especially a small, sixth year redhead who'd had an uncharacteristically confusing conversation with the object of her interest. I speak of myself and Malfoy, of course.

By the time I made it all the way around the castle for the second time, bright moonlight was pouring into all the windows. I didn't have the energy to marvel at the beauty. All of this Prefect duty was causing me to stay up much too late. Patrolling the corridors always made me exhausted.

I was nearly dragging her feet as I rounded a corner. Suddenly, a noise stopped me. Thank Merlin it wasn't the same disgustingly fierce slurping as the night before, but it was still a noise being made by a human. It sounded like people having a quiet conversation.

As I quietly walked closer to the same corridor as the night before, I realized that it couldn't be people having a conversation: there was only one voice speaking.

One voice that I'd heard too many times, whether in dreams or in reality.

Rounding the corner, I good-naturedly called, "Do you ever go to bed?" down the hall at Scorpius Malfoy.

He looked positively mortified as his head snapped up. Gray eyes wide as saucers, his mouth gaping open, I would have laughed if it wasn't a shocking sight. See, Malfoys had too much dignity and class, he'd told me one of the first times we spoke, to have a ridiculous look on their face, such as bewilderment.

Grandpa Malfoy must be rolling over in his grave.

"Are you okay, Malfoy?" I asked, walking closer to him.

He stood up straighter than before, where he was resting his back on the wall. "Yes, I'm fine, thanks. You just… startled me."

"That much was obvious." I smiled; I couldn't help it. All of a sudden, the Prefect in me broke out, and my arms crossed, my lips in a thin line. "What are you doing out of bed at this hour?"

"You could have McGonagall a run for her money with that look, you know," he smirked at me.

My question would not be deflected. Sternly, I cocked my eyebrow, obviously telling him I was still waiting for an answer.

"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you," his eyes looked anywhere but mine. For the first time, Malfoy looked uncertain.

"No I won't marry you. I'm still only sixteen." A smile was forming at the corner of my mouth.

"Way to ruin my dreams," he gave an honest smile, not a condescending smirk like always.

"What do you really want? I need to finish my rounds." The thought of my warm bed squirmed its way into the moment.

"I'll walk with you," he offered, and I simply shrugged, walking briskly once again.

"So?"

"Well, it's hard to really express…"

"Try?"

"I was just wondering… er…" His long-fingered hand rubbed the back of his neck. I'd never seen him this flustered. If I didn't know it to be fact, I wouldn't have believed that this was the same cocky boy who cornered me in the hallway only a few hours before.

I stopped, and waited. Whatever this was, it was obviously hard for him to get out. I wasn't too heartless not to humor him. In fact, my heart, as it always seemed to be around him, was pounding furiously.

"Sod it all," He mumbled as he struggled to find the right words. "Rose, er, Weasley, I mean…"

"Rose," I confirmed simply. The name sounded nice in his voice.

"Rose, er… what do you want?" As soon as he said this, he grimaced, as if he didn't ask it well enough.

My eyebrows rose. "Right now? Right now I rather want to go to sleep for a few days, I mean, this damn Prefect duty—" I was ready to rant when he interrupted.

"No, I mean, er, well, in a bloke. Yeah. What do you want in a bloke?" He asked, his confidence somehow soaking back into himself. He stood importantly.

This question took me aback. Malfoy had never exactly been subtle, but he'd never asked me anything so directly before, except, of course, for his hand in marriage, which had happened more than once. This new development was confusing to say the least. I'd never really given the question much thought before, actually. But still, I figured I would answer it for him. I summoned my Gryffindor courage and faced him directly. Vaguely, I wondered when we'd gotten so close, or when he'd gotten so tall…

"What I want in a bloke? Well, I've never really thought of it before… I suppose I want someone who likes me and doesn't just want me, to begin with… I want someone, obviously, who's good-looking, but they have to be nice to me, they can't turn into a complete arse as soon as we're in public, they would have to respect that I don't like public displays of affection. I want someone who won't be completely disgusted that I'm a virgin, because, frankly, I don't mind it. I like tall guys, I want someone who won't write me cheesy love poems on Valentine's or profess their undying love for me every few minutes, they need to be fun, with a good sense of humor, and they need to be my friend and not just my boyfriend. Plus, someone who won't pressure me would be nice. Though, I suppose, they are teenage boys… anyway, I like blokes who smile a lot. Oh, and I also have somewhat of a thing for blonds with pretty eyes." I was satisfied in my answer, until the last part. Blonds with pretty eyes… way to perfectly describe Malfoy, Rose.

After contemplating something for a few seconds, he sighed.

I looked up from my oh-so-interesting shoes and saw him with a fire in his eyes.

"I'm not going to change for you, Rose," He declared.

Something in my brain clicked in place at that moment. Words poured out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"Good," I said, "'Cause I don't want you to,"

Another smile crossed his face as he was suddenly leaning forward.

My eyes fluttered shut as all thoughts escaped my head.

Scorpius Malfoy was kissing me.

It was nothing like I'd witnessed him doing before: there were no spastic, wet noises emitting from either of us. There were no girlish moans coming from me, no way. And somehow, I just knew that if my eyes were open, I would see an expression exactly the opposite of what I saw the night before: I knew that he wouldn't be bored with me.

A simple enough kiss still made me see stars; it still made my knees go weak in an oh-so-cliché manner; the simple feel of his lips firmly on mine, in his sensual way, his hand on the side of my neck, coaxing it to stretch further upward sent shivers down my spine. My skin felt almost scaly from the Goosebumps he was causing.

As the lack of breath asserted itself, we separated. My eyes remained closed for a second.

Way to go, oxygen, I thought dryly. You got your way.

"Blonds, eh?" he seemed to have lit up.

I blushed for the first time all night. "Yes, I rather enjoy blond hair. Light blond is my preference, actually. Do you have a problem with that?" I cocked an eyebrow with a challenge in my eyes. This was masked somewhat, however, by the fact that my breathing was heavy and a smile was fighting its way to my face.

"No, I can't say that I do," his smirk turned into a genuine smile. He had such a nice smile…

"I don't want to write you poetry." He began slowly. "I'm not going to give you that dramatic type of love story that girls seem to like so much. I don't want to shag you just because I'm bored with my day. And I'm not going to be an arse around other people, because I'm an arse all the time." This little speech made me giggle and hug him around the neck.

"Scorpius Malfoy, are you trying to say that you like me?" I asked his neck playfully.

"No, of course not," He said seriously. My heart dropped a little bit. So I was just another one of his games… a challenge he'd just overcome.

"I'm trying to say that I love you, Rose," He stated in the most romantic, awkward way, and I swear I melted onto the floor right then and there.

"Oh," I said brightly, breaking away from him and beginning to walk back down the hall. "That's nice."

He just stood there. If I would have looked back, I would have seen the second look of shock on his face that night.

I was too busy holding back laughter.

"Are you kidding me?" I heard him mumble incredulously from a few meters behind me.

Walking around a corner, I was shaking with silent laughter. This poor guy just poured out his heart, and I felt almost bad for leading on this joke. I hid behind the wall, and waited until his footsteps were extremely close.

Tensing, and waiting half a second longer, I pounced.

He, obviously expecting that I'd made my way back through the halls by now, wasn't expecting it.

Needless to say, we were both on the ground in a few seconds.

Laughing, I sat up, straddling the confused blond.

With one of the soft smiles I was already hopelessly addicted to, he rose to his elbows underneath me. There was a new kind of sparkle in his light gray eyes.

I positioned all of my long hair to one side of my head. Leaning my head down the same way he'd done much earlier, I put my lips close to his ear and whispered, "You didn't think I was going to let you go so dramatic on me, did you?"

I felt him shiver beneath me.

"It's all right, though." I maneuvered myself correctly, and planted a chaste kiss on his smiling lips, "'Cause I love you and all,"

With that, I bounced to my feet and made my way happily to my dorm, where I instantly fell into a deep, restful sleep.

That night, I dreamt of Scorpius Malfoy.

A/N: First FanFiction in almost five years.

I'm proud. :D

Geez, I love this pairing wayyy too much.

Please review, even if you say that this is complete and utter rubbish and I should crawl in a little hole and die.

Love always,

KitKat Pyrophobia