For my 5 Couples, 5 Days Challenge on HPFC.

Day 2: Rose/Scorpius

"-breakfasts almost over. You should probably get up, man."

Rose awoke, disoriented and confused, at the sound of the voice. Her head was pounding from having drunk one (or fifty...) too many of her cousin James' 'fireflies' – a drink that the seventh year swore only contained a dash of firewhisky. To add to the general ache, her stomach was growling angrily, having a bit of trouble dealing with the handfuls of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and Honeydukes Honeycomb Fudge she'd wolfed down last night.

With a groan, and still very unwilling to so much as crack open her eyelids, Rose rolled over, hoping to bury her head in her pillow and sleep off whatever communicable diseases she might have contracted. But, beside her, there was no comfy, squashy pillow from her bed in the Gryffindor dormitory. Instead, there was a rather bony shoulder, which stabbed her right in the face, making her flinch back with a moan of pain.

"What the-?"

The words startled Rose almost as much as the shoulder did and, knowing that she'd hate whatever she saw when she opened her eyes, she did so, her bleary gaze meeting that of the boy she'd been sleeping beside.

"G'Morning, Rose," Scorpius Malfoy slurred, apparently just having woken up. "What's'a'time?"

Rose blinked several times, trying desperately to make this horrible illusion go away. Not that Scorpius Malfoy, first thing in the morning was really such a horrible sight. His hair was sort of messy, mercifully free of the litres of gel that he appeared to lather on every day, and his pyjamas were, well... on. Which was a relief.

"Scorpius. Malfoy." Rose said the name just to confirm she was right, and this wasn't some really bad joke that her cousins were pulling.

"Yes, Rose Weasley?"

Somehow, his smile managed to be disarming even first thing in the morning. Even when he still had gunk in the corners of his grey eyes.

Slowly, Rose sat up, still staring down at Scorpius with a confused and slightly panicked expression. The dormitory was chilly for this early in the morning, and with a little gasp of recognition, she realised that she must be in his dorm. In Slytherin. James Potter was going to kill her.

Taking in her expression, Scorpius eventually sat up too, leaning beside her against the headboard, looking surprisingly relaxed considering he was in bed next to a girl that he'd barely spoken to before.

And okay, so there had been those late-night study sessions in the Library almost every day since 3rd year. And perhaps she'd hugged him once or twice, during the breakdown over OWLs when he'd caught her crying in the dungeons and wordlessly handed her a hanky. And maybe there'd been lingering looks exchanged, flirtatious banter engaged in, even a couple of sessions of healthy hand-holding... but still. Holding hands doesn't often lead to waking up in bed with someone. At least, from her very limited experience, Rose didn't think it did.

Trying to make sense of her thoughts, Rose inhaled deeply, licking her lips, and attempting to ignore the way Scorpius' eyes shot down to stare at her mouth at the action.

"What happened last night?" she asked.

"You don't remember?"

"What kind of question is that?" she shot back angrily.

Did Scorpius think she often awoke in the bed of complete strangers? (Okay, so he wasn't a complete stranger, given the one time he'd maybe-sort-of kissed her on the cheek, but still!) Did he think she made a habit of going to her stupid cousin's stupid, elaborate, infamous parties in the kitchens (a location specifically chosen because anyone from any house could attend)? Did he think- but when she caught his raised eyebrows, she settled for a simple shake of her head. "No."

Scorpius grinned, and once again Rose noticed those little bits of gunk the corners of his eyes. If only he'd get rid of them so she could concentrate! Before speaking, he threw the sheets off his legs (thank Merlin, he was wearing pyjama pants, too) and stood up, stretching so that his t-shirt lifted up a little bit, exposing a thin band of pale stomach that Rose was most certainly NOT staring at.

She quickly looked down at her hands when he turned back to her, starting to speak.

"Well, you told me about Potter's party a little while ago, that night when we were doing the Potions essay, remember?"

Rose was tempted to ask which Potions essay, but judged that, right now, it probably wasn't important.

"And I wasn't going to go, because your cousins hate me-"

"They don't hate you!" Rose interrupted.

"-all right, because your cousins terrify me." Scorpius said it in a matter of fact way, but Rose still blushed, embarrassed at the comment.

She knew that Scorpius wasn't a big fan of her family. It wasn't that he disliked them, so much as that he felt intimidated by them. The Weasley-Potter clan was a big group, and tended to hold a bit of power at Hogwarts. With Dominique as the new Head Girl and herself, Albus and Louis as Prefects, Rose could admit that Scorpius might have had a good reason to be worried. But, honestly, she didn't think her family really knew he existed. He didn't try to take their places at the Gryffindor table, he didn't compete for their Quidditch positions, and it was really only her who noticed that he was beating Albus in classes.

"They have nothing against you, you know. I bet if you just..."

But she'd interrupted him again, and Scorpius shot her a look, which shut her up immediately.

"Well, I decided I would go, just to check it out. I mean, Potter's parties are pretty legendary. And Megan said she'd show me how to get there."

Rose nodded. Megan Wright was James' girlfriend – a Slytherin seventh year. She was a little eccentric, a bit too energetic in Rose's opinion, but also very nice.

"So we went. We didn't get there until kind of late, and most of you were already..." he searched for the right word, "...trashed. And then I found you, and you seemed a bit, uh, excited to see me."

As he said the words, Rose felt her face heating up. It wasn't so much that the memory was coming back, but a feeling had come upon her at Scorpius' expression, a feeling that made her quite certain exactly what Scorpius meant by 'you seemed excited to see me'.

"Did I kiss you?" she asked, wanting to save him from saying the words.

"A little." He admitted, ducking his head with a self-conscious grin. "Well, a lot, really."

"Oh, Merlin..." Rose buried her head in her hands, wondering what the chances were that she could spontaneously combust here and now, leaving nothing behind but a little charred patch on Scorpius' sheets.

The bed sank down as Scorpius came back to sit beside her, not touching her, but close enough that she could feel his warmth against her side.

He seemed eager to finish the story, and skimmed over the last few details.

"Anyway, eventually you decided that we should go back to your dorm, but I didn't think that'd be a good idea. But you wouldn't budge, so I suggested that we come back here instead, because at least, y'know, I could get us into this room. And the moment we got here you dropped onto the bed and fell straight to sleep. I think your cousin might have some ingredients he needs to fix in his drink. A bit too much parsley stem, if you ask me. Starts to work like a sleeping draught when you mix it with the firewhisky."

Head still buried in hands, Rose finally spoke.

"So we didn't- um... you know?"

"No."

She sighed in relief, dropping one hand down to her lap so Scorpius could see her scarlet cheeks.

He moved to touch the flushed skin, making her shiver as his cold fingers traced the freckles across her cheekbone. Slowly, he brought his other hand up to her face, pulling gently on the palm still covering her mouth until she let it drop. His hand fell with a dull thump onto the bed as he leant in closer, her brown eyes avoiding his.

"Rose," he whispered. "Please, look at me."

Bit-by-bit, her gaze crawled up to meet his.

"Don't worry about last night," he murmured, sliding his free hand across to grip one of hers. "It was a good thing."

Rose frowned, her lips pouting a little. "How was it good?"

With a grin, Scorpius touched his lips against hers, kissing her softly before pulling away. When he looked up, Rose's eyes were closed and her mouth slightly open in surprise. Taking the chance, he leant in again, this time kissing her harder, lifting her hand that he held up to his neck and draping it over his shoulder, where she gripped tightly, suddenly seeming to realise what was happening and tugging him closer.

Laughing, Scorpius pulled away.

"A good thing, right?" he asked.

She nodded and murmured breathlessly, "Very good."

"I thought so."

Again, Scorpius was grinning, and Rose shocked herself by rocking forward to his kiss him again, because the feel of it was just so addictive and she wanted more... But, of course, too much more would be a bad thing, and reluctantly she forced herself to stop after a time, letting her hand drop to his chest, where she could feel his heart hammering against his ribcage. A little like her own erratic pulse.

Sighing, Scorpius made to stand up, but she grabbed his collar and pulled him back so his face was close to hers.

"Wait a second," she said. "Close your eyes and hold still."

And, carefully, she lifted a hand to his face and, with the tip of her nail, flicked the gunk out from the corner of his eyes, wiping her finger on the sheet for good measure and kissing him quickly once she was done.

"There, now you're much more handsome," she lied. Because, really, eye-gunk or not, Scorpius Malfoy was, without doubt, absolutely perfect.