Warning! Warning! This is not betaed! There will be errors. Lots and lots of errors. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Disclaimer: So not mine. Not so mine. Mine not so.

Staring Contest

Rose had always hated staring.

Ever since she was a little girl, she couldn't stand when people did that. Whether it was a relative or a reporter, it made no difference. She just couldn't bear it. Whenever someone stared at her, she felt awkward and stupid, and sometimes, when she got really nervous, her throat started to close up and she couldn't breathe properly.

She seriously suspected that she was allergic to being stared at.

She supposed it was because she had been stared for her whole life. It didn't matter where she went, someone always noticed her. Whispers, autographs, pictures and stares. Especially stares.

When she was little, she never wanted to go outside of their house. There were too many people out there. Too many chances for someone to recognize her. Flaming red hair, pale skin, freckles. It didn't take Dumbledore to notice that her last name was probably Weasley.

And Weasley meant only one thing to some people – Fame.

Some people only saw her as a child of the war heroes and as a godchild of the Man-Who-Lived-Twice. Or as an icon of hope, like she had once been referred on the Daily Prophet. No one knew why. They were probably out of good stories at that point.

Anyway, when Rose got her Hogwarts letter, she knew that she was in big trouble. She had always been a smart girl. She knew that almost every student in there would know her name. And some of them would try to benefit from it. Her mother had told her about those people who wanted to be her friends just because they wanted something out of it. And Rose didn't want that kind of friends.

So she decided to make herself less noticeable.

First she cut her hair. Flaming red, curly, waist-long hair. It was practically screaming 'Weasley'.
So she demanded a haircut from her mother. Couple minutes and wandwaves later, her hair was reaching just below her ears. Her grandmother almost cried when she saw that, but Rose was still satisfied.

The next thing she changed was her hair colour. She wanted it to be hazel brown or darker. Unfortunately, her mother didn't have the same idea. She thought red looked cute on her, so all Rose got was a light, copper hair.
Rose would've pouted, but she knew it wouldn't change anything. No one wins an argument against Hermione Granger-Weasley. And besides, it was still better than flaming red.

The third thing she wanted was a name change, but that was where her father drew the line. And so she had to stay as a Rose Weasley. Period. Because as hard as it is to win an argument against Hermione Granger-Weasley, even harder it is to make Ron Weasley change his mind.

Therefore people still knew exactly who she was when she went to Hogwarts. And so her first day at school started with being stared at, like she knew it would.

Many of the first years wanted to talk to her and make friends with her and Albus. And all that fuzz just because their parents were famous. Rose couldn't understand them, so she tried to stay on the background. Albus was more than happy to get new friends, and he was the son of Harry Potter, so no one really paid that much attention on her anyway.

But after they had been sorted, it was a different situation. Albus was in Gryffindor with the rest of their relatives, and he was rounded by familiar faces.
Rose was in Ravenclaw, in the middle of strange people who all stared her and whispered behind their hands. She was feeling uncomfortable, and after the dinner she fled to her dormroom, leaving all the nosy students staring after her.

She kept doing that for couple weeks, only answering when someone talked to her first.
So she didn't get any close friends, but it didn't matter to her. Especially, when couple girls in her dorm asked her if she could get them Harry Potter's autograph. After that, she distanced herself from the others even more.

Soon all the Ravenclaws decided that she was a prude and an egoistical idiot and they wanted nothing to do with her. And when the other houses noticed that she was avoided by her own house, they thought she was a nerdy geek who didn't have any friends.

So instead hanging out with her classmates, she concentrated on her studies, and chatted with her relatives. It wasn't really that bad, she pondered. After all, she had wanted to blend in, and she definitely had succeeded in that. No one wanted to take pictures of her anymore. Rose was actually quite happy on her situation.

But as nothing good lasts forever, the destiny had obviously decided to mess with her little head.

It all started when she was partnered up with Scorpius Malfoy on their second Potions class. He was on a first year, like she was, but he was in Slytherin. He was handsome, intelligent and funny. Every girl's dream.

Rose saw her classmates and some older girls staring at him on the corridors, giggling and whispering to each other. First she wondered why the boy wasn't bothered, but soon she realised, that he actually enjoyed the attention. Every time one of the pretty girls smiled at him, he winked and waved his hand.

It wasn't actually a surprise that soon Rose was one of the girls who had a crush on Scorpius. Every time he laughed, her heart turned into goo, not that she would've ever admitted that to anyone.

She didn't really talk to him on the couple first weeks, since she was too shy to actually talk to him. She was sure that he talk to her, sooner or later. After all, he was an outgoing guy.

But when the months passed by, she noticed that he wasn't even noticing her. They brewed their potions in silence and he rarely acknowledged her at all. And when he did, he never remembered her name. No matter what she did, he barely even looked at her in the eyes.

Couple times she even mustered up enough confidence to ask him something, but he just gave her short answers and then turned away, like she wasn't there, standing next to him. The only contact she ever got was when he asked her to show him her homework so he could copy them. And because that was the only way he would talk to her, she let him.

And so it went on every year.

He would ignore her, and she would try to ignore him ignoring him.

It didn't take long for the other Slytherins to start to follow Scorpius' example. They would bump into her on the corridors, call her on different names when they didn't remember her name or pretend that they didn't see her at all.

She knew they were doing it just to tease her. Sometimes Rose thought that perhaps Scorpius was doing it on purpose too. She just couldn't figure out what was his reason. Was she really just a nerd? Not worth of his attention?

And the more he ignored her, the more desperate she was for him to notice her, to do something. She tried over and over again to talk with him, but he never seemed to realise it. He always interrupted her rudely, turned his back on her, started to flirt with some other girl or just walked away in the middle of her sentence.

It was like Rose was invisible to him.

And as much as Rose hated staring, she started to wish that Scorpius would just once look at her in the eyes and then never turn his gaze away.

Fifth Year

"Scorpius, stop it!" Giggle.

"Stop what?" He smiled charmingly and wiggled his quill on her blonde hair again. She giggled once more, and turned around.

"I mean it! That tickles!" She was whispering, but the professor still heard them.

"Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Clearwater. Could you please concentrate on what I'm saying? This is your OWL year and it is very, very important that you listen to me when I'm trying to teach you.." The class chuckled, since their Potions professor always thought that everything he said was very important.

Professor Floran didn't seem to notice their amusement, since he kept on glaring the interrupting pair with one eyebrow quirked up. Patricia Clearwater rolled her eyes, but turned around without objections, and Scorpius leaned back on his chair, looking nonchalant. Rose smiled secretly behind her hand. She could've kissed their boring professor on that moment.

She knew it was stupid, but she was insanely jealous to Patricia. Not just because she looked like a supermodel, but because she always flirted with Scorpius. And because he flirted back.

Somewhere along the years, Rose's little schoolgirl crush had developed into something more. Not exactly love, but it was definitely stronger than couple butterflies in her stomach when he smiled. More like a hurricane.

Because now he had grown into handsome young man, who still had the cutest dimples in the world, amazing sense of humour and he got along with everyone.

Well, he got along with everyone else but her. He still didn't seem to remember her at all. She was just some weird, nerdy girl, who was not worth of his attention. After all, Rose was not like Patricia Clearwater at all.

Professor Floran cleared his throat. "Okay, listen up everyone, this is important." Couple Slytherins on the background laughed again, and Scorpius turned to grin at them. Rose almost melted on her chair and she almost missed the professor's next words.

"I want you to write an essay of the Golpalott's third law. Analyse it carefully and then describe precisely how you would brew an antidote based on that law. Then I want you to ponder why that antidote would work and is there any reasons why it wouldn't. It is very important that you put your thoughts in this project. I don't want to read some nonsense about bezoars."

Rose smiled lightly. Her father had told her about his own sixth year, when her uncle-Harry had decided to take the easy road with Golpalott's third law. Her mum had not been pleased. Rose still remembered her mother's face when her dad had told that story on Christmas table.

Professor Floran interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh, and you'll be working with pairs, of course."

Her smile slipped of immediately. She had to work with Scorpius. How was that supposed to work if he didn't even look at her outside of the class? She had to talk to him. Her palms dampened at the thought.

The class ended and everyone started to pack up their books and cauldrons. Conversation filled the room and the potions professor had to raise his voice so they all could hear him.

"Now, I want these projects returned on my desk tomorrow morning, so use your time wisely. It is important that you stay on schedule, otherwise it's a straight T!"

Some people groaned, Rose amongst them. They would have to do the project on that evening and that meant that she was going to have to talk to Scorpius now. He was already walking out of the door, so she had to hurry if she wanted to catch him.

He was already on the stairs with his crew when Rose finally reached him. She tapped him on the shoulder gently and he turned around, with a questioning look on his face.

She tried to keep her voice neutral, but it was hard when all the Slytherins were staring at her with sneers on their faces. And she still felt very uncomfortable when someone stared at her.

"Scorpius, hi, I was just wondering if we could do that essay today?" She congratulated herself for keeping her voice almost steady.

Scorpius stared at her for a long time, not saying anything. Rose fidgeted uncomfortably and was relieved when he finally opened his mouth.
Unfortunately, her relief quickly dissipated, when she realised the meaning of his words.

"Excuse me, but who are you again?" His facial expression was completely neutral.

Irritation bubbled inside of her, but she kept her smile on and continued. If this was a game, she was going to win.

"I'm Rose. Rose Weasley from Ravenclaw. I'm on a fifth grade, on the same potions class with you. I'm actually your partner. I mean, I sit on the same table with you and we have this-" He cut her off with a low chuckle.

"Okay, okay. Jeez, I didn't want to hear your whole life story, Rosane." The group behind him howled with laughter and few girls smirked at her evilly. One of the guys high-fived Scorpius.

Rose felt a blush raising upon her neck and she lowered her head. Their whole group was staring at her, and also some other students, who had stopped to see what was going on. Too many eyes, all drilling on her.

Air escaped her lungs, and she turned couple shades darker.

"Did you have something to say now, or something to say later? Because frankly, my dear, I don't have time to stand here all day and watch you blush." Now there were even more people joining in the laughter.

It was pathetic, and she knew it, but her ears caught only the words 'my dear.' She could hear Patricia's giggle when she blushed even more. The redhead opened her mouth to talk, but only a small squeak escaped her throat, and they all laughed once again.

She gathered herself.

"Uhmm, I thought that maybe we could do our project now."

She sounded like a loser, and she knew it. Scorpius had already turned his attention elsewhere, and once again he ignored her totally. Patricia stepped forward, swinging her golden locks behind her ear.

She lowered her face on a same level with Rose's.

"Listen, Rita, or whoever you are, we don't have time for you right now. So why don't you go back in the library where you belong, do that stupid project by yourself and leave us alone. Capiche?" Her eyes bore into Rose's and the redhead's throat started to close up. So all she could do was nod and turn around on her heels.

She spent rest of the evening in the library, desperately trying to get the project done on time

Next morning, she was exhausted and she had dark bags under her eyes. She had finally finished the essay at three in the morning, and all that it was missing was Scorpius' estimation of their antidote's effectiveness. She had been too tired to make that up, and besides, it was only fair that he participated in some way.

And therefore, she had to find him. Just that they could finish the project. It had nothing to do with the fact that she wanted to see him. Absolutely nothing.

So after the breakfast she headed down to the lake, where she knew the Slytherin group usually hung out on their free time. She hoped that this day wasn't an exeption.

Most of the school was outside, enjoying the weather before classes would start. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky. Rose lifted her face towards the sky and inhaled. She could practically smell the summer. Suddenly she felt completely relaxed and carefree. She continued walking with a smile on her face.

When she reached the lake, she noticed that the Slytherin group had taken over the best place under the huge oak tree. Scorpius was there too, surrounded by a group of girls. They were standing on a circle, laughing and talking happily.

Patricia noticed her first. She turned to glare at her fiercely and clearly wanted her to go away. And suddenly Rose's good mood vanished. She desperately wanted to escape. But it was too late already. Some other girl had announced her arrival to the group, and Scorpius turned his head slowly.

"Yes?" His tone of voice was rude and Rose became immediately nervous.

"Uhm, I don't mean to bother-"

"And yet you still do." One of the girls mumbled and the others giggled. Rose decided to ignore them all and continued.

"-but I need your opinion on our project before I can return it. So if you don't mind…?" She trailed off and extended the papers towards him.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. You can leave it here and I take a look at it. You can pick it up after my divination class and return it to Floran."

He made no movement to take the papers from Rose's hand. She kept her hand outstretched, waiting for him to make a move. Finally Scorpius rolled his eyes and sighed.

"You can put them on the ground, Ronah."

Such a harmless little comment, but it made Rose's blood boil. This was the famous last straw that cut the camel's back. She pulled her hand back and took a step forward.

"It's Rose, okay?" Scorpius looked surprised and that gave her some courage to continue.

"Rose Weasley. Try to press that into your thick little skull. Rose. Weasley. Not some nerdy little girl who will do all your work for you when you don't feel up to it. Not some Ravenclaw whom you can copy your homework when you're too lazy to do them and I'm most definitely not some idiotic loser who doesn't understand when someone is using her!"

The redhead took a deep breath to calm herself down. She had no idea where that had come from, and she was just as shocked as the Slytherins. Suddenly she wanted to get away.

"Here's our project. You can return it to professor Floran, because from now on, I'm not even lifting a finger to help you."

She slammed the pile down on the ground with force and turned to walk back in the castle. But she managed take only couple steps before he stopped her with a cheery yell.

"Oh come on! It was just a joke. You can't seriously get that mad from such a little thing." His voice was full of humour, and he clearly hadn't taken her anger seriously.

Rose turned around to face him.

"Little thing? You call this a little thing?" Her words came out as a shriek, and she expected him to back down. She was surprised when she saw that he was still grinning. She exploded again.

"You've been ignoring me for six years! For six long years I've been sitting next to you almost every day, and still you won't even remember my name right!"

Her voice was now nearly a scream and more and more people edged closer, so they could see what was going on.

Scorpius threw his hands up on frustration.

"It was just couple harmless jokes, get over it Weasley."

"Oh, so now you remember my name? Of all the times, you remember it now?" People flinched when she hissed the last words, but she didn't pay attention to them.

"You certainly didn't remember it when you were supposed to bring me homework when I was sick. And you didn't remember it when I asked you tell the professor that I can't return my essay in time. And you most definitely didn't remember it on all those times when you bumped into me and didn't even say you were sorry!"

There were even more people around them now, all listening and staring. They clearly enjoyed the show and Rose wanted to slap them around their ears. What was wrong with these people? Fortunately they were all looking at the blonde boy now, wanting to know what was his comeback.

She too waited for Scorpius to defend himself, but when he didn't say anything, she snorted and started to walk away again. But of course he couldn't let anyone else get the last word.

"Alright, so maybe I don't remember your name all the time, but you're not exactly a memorable persona. You should work on that." People laughed and some of the guys wolf-whistled. They clearly thought that he was right.

Rose turned around again, but he had turned his face away, so that his profile was towards her. But she could still see that his expression had gone back into careless smile. Like their conversation hadn't even happened. Everyone else had also returned into their own groups and positions and no one even glanced on her way anymore.

And just like that she was invisible again.

Her mind went completely blank. Her feet started to work on their own. She felt like someone had toned all the voices down, all she heard was a small buzz. Her footsteps hastened and she sped up until that she was running. She kept running till she crashed into something.

Straight into Scorpius.

Small, surprised yelp escaped his lips, when Rose tackled him into the ground. He landed straight on his back, Rose ended up straddling him. She was crouching over him, her face just inches away from his. She had her palms pressing on his shoulders.

She didn't pay any attention to the other people, who were probably now watching them intensively.

All she could see was the boy whose attention she had tried to get for years. And now that boy was right there, lying under him, staring straight into her eyes, having no other option than to finally notice her. She felt alive.

She didn't think anything when she closed her eyes and pressed a hard, bruising kiss on his lips. She poured all her feelings and frustration and repressed emotions on that moment. Every single tear she had shed for him. Every single smile she had smiled for him. And every single hearttache she had suffered for him.

She could practically feel the heat radiating from her own body. She felt like thousand small fireworks were exploding inside her.

When he kissed her back, she was surprised. He pressed their lips together just as hard as she did, so that it almost hurt.

Maybe it was just a reflex, but at that moment, she didn't care.

His hands tried to find their place on her waist, but she pushed her fingers roughly on his shoulders and he dropped them helplessly on the ground. She had to show him, that for once, she was in control.

And just as quickly as she had started it, just as quickly she ended it. She just simply pulled her head back and got on her feet, not sparing a glance on the boy. She just walked away, not caring that everything behind her had frozen, including Scorpius, who just stayed there, lying on the ground, too astonished to do anything.

And on her way back in to the castle, she could feel their stares drilling on her back, but for the first time in her life, she didn't care.

AN: Okay, there it was. I had this music video that inspired me when I was writing this, especially on the kissing scene. I hope you watch it from youtube, it's Cuckoo from Lissie (the kissing scene is 1.28-1.58) Me likey. The girl in it is just too cute ;)

And for those people who read my other story, also named Cuckoo, I have to say that I'm sorry that I haven't updated for a while. I don't know where my beta is and I don't know whether I should wait for her to answer my messages or publish the next chapter without her help, full of errors. So, I'm stuck.