A/N: Hey Guys, sorry about the wait on this one, the edit-ty thing wasn't working. Forgive any mistakes, this hasn't been beta-ed. If you like pictures, please go check out our deviantART (links on profile) where I will be posting some pictures of scenes from this - once I've blackmailed my sister into drawing them, that is ;) - also, if you like our writing, follow us on twitter! (links also on profile). I'll be writing more Rose/Scorp one-shot's as well as a massive story which will encompass the entire next-gen's journey throughout Hogwarts, and I'll be posting updates and picture links on twitter as well!
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Eldest28
"James, leave him alone!" scolded Rose Weasley, rolling her eyes at her elder cousin as he used his wand to move all of Hugo's food out of reach.
Hugo glared at James as the latter laughed uproariously.
"It's not funny," he grumbled. "I need to eat."
"Eat anymore, Ickle Hugikins, and you won't be so ickle anymore," said Fred, smirking at the flushed face of the fourteen year-old.
"Don't call me that!" snapped Hugo, causing the Gryffindor beaters to laugh even louder, before getting up from the table and walking away, James pausing to ruffle Hugo's hair, and Fred looking behind to call out,
"Bye, Hugikins!" he said winking.
"I hate them…" moaned Hugo, as soon as they were out of earshot.
Lily, who was sitting next to him patted him on the shoulder.
"It's okay, Hugikins," she said, keeping a straight face. "We understand."
"Not you too!" groaned Hugo, glaring at his best friend and favourite cousin.
"What can I say?" said Lily innocently, shrugging her shoulders and smiling. "They've corrupted me."
"As if," muttered Hugo darkly. "You were evil to start with…"
"That may be true," admitted Lily with a smirk. "However, I must go see what my dear brother and cousin are up too… they can't leave me out of the action!"
She got up fluidly from where she was sitting and darted out of the Great Hall, her pig-tails that she refused to get rid of even though she was fourteen flying behind her.
Rose, who had watched the antics of her cousins with a small smile on her face once she realized it was futile to stop them, turned to her younger brother.
"If you just stopped rising to the bait…" she said, raising an eyebrow at Hugo.
"Yeah, yeah," he said, scowling at her as he picked at his food. "Follow your own advice… you still rise to it."
"Whatever," said Rose, shrugging her shoulders, moving her eyes back to the book she was reading. She had made it to the next page when a shadow slid across it. She looked up to see Albus slide into the seat next to her, his face weary.
"Stupid test…" he said, piling his plate with food. "I think I failed."
"Oh well," said Rose. "Study with me next time then."
"And never leave the library?" asked Albus. "Rosie, you study months in advance!"
She shrugged her shoulders.
"Yeah," she replied. "But I don't fail. And don't call me Rosie, I outgrew that ages ago."
"Try telling your Dad that," said Albus, a grin on his face as she looked up to scowl at him.
"I have," she grumbled. "He said he could call me Rosie-poo instead. I gave up after that."
Albus laughed at the affronted expression on his best friend/cousins face.
"What did you expect?"
"Some respect for my ageing," was the reply he got. "Now shush, I'm reading."
It was another whole chapter before any of the cousins spoke again.
"Uh, Rose?" asked Albus, hoping she wasn't about to unleash her wrath upon him for disturbing her.
"Hmm?" she replied, not looking up from her book.
"It looks like it's about to storm?"
That got a reaction.
"Hm- What?" she said, her eyes automatically looking up towards the ceiling, and sure enough, there were clouds racing angrily across it, forming larger, darker storm clouds.
There was definitely a storm brewing, and it had been a long, long time since Rose Weasley liked storms of any kind.
Rose was six, and she had been walking in the woods playing explorer, when the sky had gone dark. It had happened gradually, but Rose had been so intent on her game that she hadn't noticed the darkening of the sky, it had appeared to Rose that the sky had blackened suddenly. Rose had looked around wildly to try and find her house when she realised she couldn't see it, or the way she'd come. Rose had panicked and started running through the woods, desperate for a way out.
"Mummy!" she had called. "Daddy!"
But she was too far out, and Ronald and Hermione Weasley were not able to hear the pleading cries of their only daughter.
Rose eventually stumbled her way towards a clearing. She collapsed to her knees, crying as the rain tumbled around her halo on bronze curls that were now plastered to her face. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, illuminating the sky for brief periods of time. Rose tucked her knees up and buried her face in her hands as the storm raged around her.
Suddenly a lightening fork flew down from the sky, hitting a point only mere feet from where Rose was huddled. A small piece of metal lingered there, obviously dropped a long time ago. Rose screamed as the lightening hit so close and started crying harder, the storm too much for her six-year-old mind to take.
Rose was still huddled there a few minutes later, when a loud crack sounded, announcing the arrival of her frantic parents.
"Rosie!" her mother had called, beside herself with worry. "Oh Rosie, darling!"
With that Hermione had rushed over to gather the sobbing child in her arms. Ron had arrived tense, and while Hermione attempted to calm her hysteric child, Ron had scanned the area, wand our and eyes wary, like he had always done during his job as an Auror.
Upon ascertaining that there had been no dark activity factoring itself into his Rosie's disappearance and that Rose had merely panicked at not being able to find her way home in the middle of a storm, he hurried over and put his arms around his wife and daughter, apparating them all home.
Mrs Weasley was waiting anxiously for them, having been floo-called in a hurry to watch Hugo while Ron and Hermione rushed out to find their eldest.
Rose was hurried inside to get changed into warm, dry clothes. Afterwards, Rose's rules were changed, so that she was not allowed to go exploring unless with Teddy or Victoire, but the damage had been done. Rose was now completely terrified of storms.
So Rose scarfed down the remainder of her lunch and excused herself quickly, Hugo throwing her an amused look as she left the Great Hall.
Rose headed up towards her dorm planning to curl up in a thick blanket with her book, and a block of chocolate from her secret stash.
She reached her dorm as lightening flashed, causing her to jump and scurry over to her bed and dive on it, burrowing herself into a warm cocoon of blankets. Rose only snaked her hand out to grab her chocolate.
Rose's eyes skimmed the pages of her book as she desperately tried to block out of the sound of thunder crashing, wishing that her muggle iPod worked near Hogwarts' magic. But even the Tale of The Three Brother's couldn't block out the storm entirely, and she started to get up nervously, the blanket still wrapped around her shoulders securely.
Rose peered out the window to see if the sky showed any sign of letting up, but apparently not as the purple storm clouds were still hovering over the stone castle. Her eyes were still scanning the grounds when she saw a flash of blonde. Her eyes darted back.
It was Scorpius Malfoy. Rose couldn't quite decide what he was doing, as her eyes couldn't make it out. Rose had never had much to do with Scorpius. She had a vague memory of her father telling her to stay away, but as they had been sorted into different houses it had never been a problem, or something she had to think about. He was quiet, she concluded, he didn't draw attention to himself. Albus had studied with him, she remembered, after straining her memory.
"Hey James," she called out, seeing her cousins unmistakable head of hair across the common room. His head glanced up once he heard Rose's voice.
"Yeah?" he asked, looking distracted. He was surrounded by textbooks, Rose noticed, and she suppressed a smirk as she imagined James working.
"Have you seen Al at all?" Rose asked. She wanted to ask if he wanted to go for a fly – or – at the very least – let her use his broom.
"Er," said James, screwing up his brow in thought. "I think he's studying at the library…" he trailed off as he looked back towards his stack of homework.
Rose doubted he heard her thanks as she quickly left the common room, as he was already buried in books again.
It didn't take her long to reach the familiar haven of the library, and soon she was looking around for Albus.
"Hey Al," she said, hurrying over once she spotted him. "Want to go for a fly?"
Albus looked up. "Wish I could, Rosie, but I haven't finished my Charms homework…"
"Oh," said Rose, her hopes falling. "Well, do you want my help?"
"That'd be great!" said Albus, his eyes lighting up. He pushed a sheet of parchment towards her. "Is this alright?" he asked. "I'm not so sure about the introduction… Scorpius said it was alright, but he's not nearly as good as you."
"Hmm?" she said, already busy looking through his essay. "Scorpius who?"
"Scorpius Malfoy, Rosie – you must know who he is, your Dad hates his father..."
"Oh yeah," said Rose, still not looking up from Albus's homework. "Well, it looks fine to me, Al," she said, referring to his essay.
"That's what I said," came a quiet voice as a smallish blonde made his way to the table with a stack of books.
"Well you were right," said Rose, giving the boy a small smile. She turned her attention onto her cousin, so she missed the faint red glow Scorpius' cheeks gained.
"Anything else, Al?" she asked her cousin.
"Not really, I just need to finish the last part, but I can do that myself, it was the introduction I was worried about. I'm helping Scorpius with his,"
"So no flying?" asked Rose, already knowing the answer.
"Nope, but you can use my broom," he said. "I know that's what you were really after - just ask Frank to get it for you if you don't want to enter the boys dorm."
"Thanks Al!" exclaimed Rose, not looking back as she dashed out of the library.
Yet none of that explained why he was sitting near the lake while a storm raged around him.
Instantly her thoughts were thrown into turmoil. What if he's hurt? she asked herself, I can't just stay here! The larger part of her brain was saying, but it's a storm! Don't go out there!
She stood at the window for what seemed like ages, debating the problem. Finally her more courageous and noble side won. Gathering that courage, she slipped the blanket off her shoulders, swapping it for a thick robe. Rose kicked off her slippers as well, opting instead for thick boots. Lily would probably have a fit is she saw what Rose was wearing, because it wasn't exactly fashionable.
Rose cast a longing look behind her at her chocolate and her book as she left her dorm room. She walked silently down towards the front doors. She wasn't exactly sure why she was sneaking, she just knew she wasn't willing to stop.
She slipped into the Entrance Hall without being stopped or stepped on by her family. A pretty good achievement, she figured. She froze as she stood in front of the doors. Rose could still hear the storm raging around the castle.
Swallowing hard, she pushed open the doors to be with an icy blast of wind and rain, and she nearly turned back around on the spot.
But Rose pulled her cloak tighter around her face and started stumbling to where she had seen the flash of blonde.
It seemed like hours that she walked through the storm, jumping at every flash of lightning and every rumble of thunder, but it was only ten minutes later that she reached Scorpius and realised that he wasn't hurt, he was painting. What a strange thing to be doing in a storm, she thought.
She approached the rock on which he was perched slowly. The rain didn't seem to be hitting his easel, yet he himself was soaked, his blonde hair plastered to his pale face.
"Rose Weasley?" he asked confused, noticing her out of the corner of his eye.
Rose nodded her head silently.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes and accidently dabbing his forehead with blue paint.
"I wanted to make sure you weren't hurt," she replied quietly, hoping he would drop it.
Scorpius smiled slightly, but soon his brow was furrowed with confusion.
"I thought you hated storms?" he asked slowly.
Now Rose was confused.
"Well, yeah, but how do you know that?"
Scorpius flushed lightly, his cheeks faintly pink.
"Just something I noticed," he said, not quite meeting her eyes.
Rose noticed how uncomfortable he looked, and decided to drop it, like he had done for her, but she was still curious. Instead, she changed the subject.
"What are you painting?" she asked.
Scorpius smiled shyly.
"Nothing overly exciting," he said, some of the pink fading form his cheeks as his embarrassment faded. "Just the lake."
"In a storm?" asked Rose, raising an eyebrow.
"I like the rain," he said calmly. "And the clouds and ripples are interesting to paint."
"Interesting? Sounds bloody difficult, I can't paint," Rose admitted. "There isn't an artistic or creative bone in my body."
"Sure there is," replied Scorpius staring at her. "You're plenty creative when you're cursing James or Fred.
"Well yeah," said Rose. "But I can't paint."
"You're amazing at schoolwork," pointed out Scorpius, feeling like this conversation was shifting slightly.
Rose shrugged her shoulders.
"I like your picture," she said, ignoring his statement.
Scorpius got the hint, and they both sat in silence for a little while.
Finally, Rose spoke.
"Can I have a look at some of your other pictures?" she asked, gesturing to the sketchbook propped up on the easel.
"Ummm…" said Scorpius flushing deeply. "Do you have to?"
"Why not?" she asked, confused slightly.
Scorpius didn't really have anything to say to that, so he watched with his cheeks burning as Rose sat his sketchbook on her lap and started to flick through it.
The first few pictures were nothing exciting, just simple paintings of flowers that could be found outside his manor, and the occasional peacock, but Rose still poured over them, her eyes wide with astonishment.
"Wow," she said, looking up at Scorpius. "These are amazing!"
Scorpius simply nodded his head in response, praying that she had had enough and that she wouldn't be looking any further. No deities seemed to have gotten his frantic message as Rose looked back down at her lap and kept flicking through the pictures.
Images of his mother, his father, his grandmother and his younger cousins were all exclaimed over when Rose paused, staring at one picture.
The burn in Scorpius' cheeks seemed to heat even more as Rose stared down at the pencil sketch of a Gryffindor girl with curly bronze hair and blue eyes very much like her own caught in mid laughter.
Scorpius fidgeted as she stared at the picture, her expression unfathomable before she flipped to the next picture. This one was of two girls, Rose and a blonde girl giggling with their arms around each other's shoulders.
"It's me," she said, looking up to meet Scorpius' eyes. "It's Hayley and me."
He nodded his head, not trusting himself to open his mouth.
"It's beautiful," she said, looking back down at the picture of herself and her best friend. "But I look… different, prettier, I guess…"
Scorpius found his voice.
"You look exactly like that in my eyes," he said boldly, blushing right down his neck as Rose looked up at him with a half smile.
"You think?" she asked quietly, flipping to the next picture, another one of her.
She was sitting next to the lake, looking blankly out across its calm waters.
"I know," he said.
Scorpius began gathering his courage. It was now or never, he reasoned, plus, he'd never get the courage again.
"Hey Rose?" he asked, his voice sounding shy and nervous even to his own ears.
"You know the Hogsmeade trip in a few weeks?"
"Yeah," said Rose, looking up at Scorpius. It was her turn to blush slightly.
"Do you… that is… umm," he fumbled over his words, and Rose suddenly smiled, thinking how cute it was. No guy had ever bee nervous around her, she was just Rose who helped them with homework.
"I'd love to go with you Scorpius," she said, smiling brightly at him as her own cheeks flooded with colour.
"That'd be great," said Scorpius, a relieved smile spreading across his face.
They sat in silence for a bit longer, both feeling slightly awkward. Rose continued looking through Scorpius' paintings, a smile lifting the corners of her mouth every time she saw one of herself.
Suddenly Rose spoke.
"They're amazing," she said; standing up to put the sketchbook back on the easel, open to the page it had been before she started looking through it. Scorpius stood with her. "You're very talented!"
As she said that, she raised her hand to Scorpius' forehead, gently wiping away the smear of blue paint he had accidently put there before, before reaching up on her tippy-toes to place a small kiss on his cheek, pointing her wand at his picture as she did so.
When he turned to look, he saw that she had added to his picture. A miniature version of both of them was now standing on the shoreline of the lake, the girl gently kissing the boy on the cheek.
"Very artistic," he said, smiling down at her. Her cheeks were burning bright red, he guessed the colour matched his own. Rose was soaking wet now, he noted, though it didn't seem like she had noticed.
He pointed this out to her, and she smiled at him again before speaking.
"You know what?" she said lightly. "I guess storms aren't so bad after all."
And she reached up again to kiss him lightly on the lips, smiles on both of their faces.
"Look, Rosie-poo and Malfoy are sucking face!" exclaimed Fred gleefully from his viewing point at a castle window.
"Nasty…" said James, peering out the window. "Wouldn't Uncle Ron love to see that…"
"Oh yeah," smirked Roxanne. "I can see his reaction in my head…" Her voice trailed off, as a mischievous expression appeared on her face.
"It's really not that interesting," said Lily, casting a single glance out the window. "They're just snogging."
"Just snogging?" asked James with a slight edge to his voice. "And what have you done that's not just snogging?"
Lily sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Forget it James, we've got a prank to plan!"
James scowled, but dropped it.
"And I know just who the targets should be…" said Roxanne, throwing a pointed look towards the window.
"Oh yes," agreed Fred, a decidedly evil smile forming on his face. "Oh yes indeed..."
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