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Chapter 17

"I wanted to tell you, I think you're fascinating, Rose Weasley."

I blink up at him. I can't help it; a laugh escapes my lips, and I quickly clamp my mouth shut.

A slow smile spreads across his face. "What?"

I shake my head, unable to contain my mirth any longer. It bubbles over into a stream of giggles and I pull away from him. "You think I'm… fascinating?"

Scorpius looks a little embarrassed. "Yeah?"

"Why?"

He shrugs. "Does there have to be a reason?"

"There generally is if you find someone 'fascinating'."

"I think you talk too much," he says, then bends down and shuts me up with another kiss.

This time he responds to my groping of his back by pulling me flush against him and running his hands along my waist and arms. I cup his face and kiss him back fiercely. He pushes me gently towards the wall of the tower while we kiss, and I feel the cold stone on my back. A moan escapes my lips as he breaks away and starts nipping at my neck. That seems to excite him more; he comes back up to meet my hungry mouth, and as we lock lips again, I feel his hands pulling up the hem of my dress to caress my thighs.

There are fireworks going off in my chest, my head is spinning, and there's a deep-rooted burning something I feel in the pit of my stomach.

Growing more brazen, I sweep my hands under his shirt and feel the contours of his muscled chest. He lifts my dress higher; I start unbuttoning his shirt. It's half undone when he pulls away from me and takes out his wand. He nonverbally conjures a blanket (through my foggy thoughts I'm actually impressed) and lays it on the stone floor.

He turns back to me and before I know it, he's picked me up, spun me round, and is laying me gently on the blanket. The flagstone beneath is hard, but he props my head up with his arm as he lays next to me and trails kisses down my neck. I squirm; it's unbearably tickly but pleasurable at the same time. He smirks and leans over me, pecking the end of my nose. I match his smirk with one of my own and let my hands wander lightly over his chest, his abdomen, then lower near his belt. His grey eyes are full of lustful need. I gasp when I feel his fingers wind their way up my thighs and along the hem of my underwear.

"Scorpius," I whisper, grabbing his hand.

Through my haze of desire, I've suddenly remembered I'm wearing my beige granny panties. And that I'm a virgin with a capital V.

"Rose," he says huskily.

That's not what I was trying to do.

"Scorpius," I say again, more clearly. "What are we doing?"

He blinks down at me. "Do you want me to stop?"

No.

"I think we should talk about it."

Scorpius is stone still for a moment, then he draws his hand out from my dress and rolls off me onto his back. I'm still lying on his other arm, though, and I peek over at him staring up at the ceiling. The image of the starry night sky has cut out, and the room is dark once more; I can make out the steepness of his nose, and his furrowed brow.

"Sorry," I say.

His head snaps to me. "Oh, Merlin no, Rose, it's not like that. I was just collecting myself. You can't do all that to a bloke and expect him to still be sane, at least not for the next few minutes."

"Oh," is all I can think of to say.

He smiles at me, then grips my hand and gives it a light squeeze.

I'm not sure how long we silently lie there on the floor of the observatory, huddled together against the cold, but after a while my eyelids start to feel heavy. I keep nodding off, then jerking awake and finding myself looking into a pair of grey eyes watching me rather amusedly.

"I'm… sleepy…" I say groggily.

"You don't say."

"I do say…" I mumble, and let myself be pulled under into a deep sleep.

xxxxxxxxxx

The weak light of dawn is filling up the Astronomy Tower by the time I wake up. I regain control of my body one piece at a time; my stiff back and arms are the first, which I arch and stretch, silently cursing the stone floor. My head thumps painfully at the motion and I quickly lie still again. Then my eyes flutter open and see the profile of a dozing Scorpius Malfoy.

A strange mixture of joy and regret bombard me, worsening the queasy feeling in my stomach. Holding my breath, I lift my head off Scorpius' arm and sit up slowly. He looks much younger when he's asleep; there's no hint of his usual scowl, his mouth is lax, and with his halo of blonde hair he looks almost angelic. I carefully draw my legs away from his, trying not to bump him too much, and stand up.

I observe him for a moment longer before patting down my hair and dress, slipping off my heels, and tip-toeing out of the Astronomy Tower.

xxxxxxxxxx

It's noon and my hangover has subsided to a dull ache. I'm in the library keeping up appearances (What? Rose Weasley getting drunk at a party? Never…) and doing what I do best - studying. I sigh and turn the page of the heavy textbook back to the previous one; I have no idea what I just read. So are poly-headed mintebues self-fertilising, or self-flagellating?

A self-flagellating plant sounds rather grim, but you never know with Neville's classes.

"Rosie Posie."

I look up to see James looking his annoyingly chirpy self, as if he hadn't cleaned out the bar between himself and Tobias Wood last night.

"Jamsie Wamsie," I say. "Leave me alone. I have a test to study for."

James ignores me. He plonks himself down next to me, pushing a few of my things aside to place his own books on the table.

"There's room here for two, don't be a hog."

"How are you still alive?" I groan. I had three discreet pukes in the abandoned second floor bathrooms before coming here today.

James shrugs. "I'm a Potter. We're invincible."

I don't deign to comment on that. I turn back to the sentence I've been reading for the past ten minutes.

"So where'd you go last night?" James asks just as I think he's being genuine about studying with me.

I stiffen. "Back to my dorms."

James narrows his eyes. "I may have been arse-over-tit drunk, but I saw you leave with Malfoy."

"Shhh!" I say, looking around the library with alarm.

There's no one on this side, but still.

"Aye!" James says, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied grin at my reaction. "So something happened between you and Malfoy?"

"Nothing happened," I snap.

It still hasn't sunken in yet. His lips, his hair, his tongue, his body. It all seems like a dream. I need time to process this, not yabber to my cousin about it. Not that I'd ever tell James 'big-mouth' Potter even after a million years of processing.

James waggles his brows. "Denial is the first stage, my dear. Soon you'll be professing your love for each other."

"We're not in love-"

"Beside the point," James says, lifting a finger. "You have feelings, though, that much is clear. This is a delicate situation, Rosie Posie-" God, that name is worse than 'Red', "and if you like him, you must admit it to yourself."

"Who do you like?" Lily almost shrieks as she approaches us.

What. The. Hell.

Just my luck. Lily is never in the library and she walks in on this conversation. And she happens to be an even bigger gossip than James.

"Rose likes Scorpius," James tells her.

"I do not-"

"You like Scorpius Malfoy?" Lily exclaims.

"I do not like Scorpius Malfoy! You have no idea what you're talking about, just- Why are you touching me?"

I yank my arm away from James who has suddenly flung his hand onto it, clutching it with an iron grip. He's looking at something behind me, and my heart drops to my stomach. I turn, slowly.

It's Scorpius.

He's wearing that mask of indifference, his pointed features cold and blank, but his eyes are boring into me as he stands not a metre away from us. The shred of hope that he might not have heard dissolves as he jams his hands into his pockets and says, "Rose. I was going to ask, have you seen Albus?"

I'm still staring at him in shock. James elbows me roughly. "Oh! Albus… Um… No, sorry, I haven't."

Scorpius nods. "Right. Well… Have a good day."

Then he turns and marches out of the library.

"Do you think he heard?" Lily whispers into the silence.

Ugh.

xxxxxxxxxx

I'm in the girls dormitories. It's safer here, with zero chance of running into Scorpius, or my life being complicated even more by James. Lily hasn't dared come back after I started chucking pillows and levitating various beauty products at her.

"Rose, aren't you going to dinner?" Melody says, sitting at the end of my bed and whacking my leg through the sheets.

I pull my blanket further over my head. "In a minute."

"You can't hide forever," Melody tells me.

This morning I told her all about my tryst with a certain Slytherin (well, not all - I left out the part about the stars. And the blanket. And the clothes-removing. ...Okay, I just told her we snogged) and she's been silent on the matter ever since, until now.

"Who cares if everyone thinks you and Scorpius shagged? Its not-"

"WHAT?"

I leap out of bed so hurriedly Melody almost gets knocked off. "What do you mean, everyone thinks I shagged him?"

Melody pretends to be interested in taming her crazy blonde curls. "Er… I mean… They think you snogged him. And it's fine. It's completely fine."

I flop onto my bed again, face first. "My life is ruined," I say into my pillow.

"What was that?"

I lift my head off. "It's over! It's all over! And Hugo- Oh, God, he's gonna tell Dad-"

I leap out of bed again, and my head thumps painfully at the sudden motion. I wince and start pulling on a jumper.

"Really, Rose, it's fine, everyone's talking about Albus and Cynthia anyway-"

"What?"

Melody shrugs. "They shagged."

I feel sick. But my fight or flight instinct has kicked in, and I don't let a silly thing like wanting to puke at my cousin shagging a mean-spirited, horse-faced bully stop me from my mission. Must. Stop. Hugo.

"We need to talk about this later," I tell her, then race out of the room.

I practically fly down to the Entrance Hall. I stop just before the Great Hall to catch my breath, combing my fingers through my frizzy hair wishing I'd tied it back, before striding casually into the hall.

I don't know if it's just my paranoia, but I feel like everyone's eyes are on me. I scan the Hufflepuff table. It probably is just me being crazy, because Hugo clearly hasn't seen me; he's yelling through a mouthful of mash at Lysander.

"Hugo," I say, coming up to him.

Hugo turns to me and his eyes go wide. "Rose."

"We need to talk."

"I'm eating," he says.

Lorcan and Lysander are grinning at me.

"We- need- to- talk," I intone, grabbing his ear and giving it a slight twist.

"Ow- ow- ow!" he cries, standing up. "Okay, okay."

He throws his cutlery down and follows me out of the hall. I purposely take a round-about route towards the exit, avoiding the Slytherin table.

"What," Hugo says as I stop just outside.

"Er…"

I'm not quite sure how to say it. I can't say 'shag' in front of my little brother, especially about myself.

"Is this about you and Scorpius? Because if it is, I already know."

My heart sinks.

"So… What do you… think?" I say hesitantly.

Hugo frowns at me. "What do you mean, what do I think? He looked after you while you were drunk - he's a good guy. And my sister's a drunk."

I almost collapse with relief. "Yes, yes!" I say, way too enthusiastically. "I am a drunk! That's exactly… it."

Hugo looks me at me like I'm crazy. But that's because I am. Crazy with happiness; I did not shag Scorpius Malfoy, and the whole school doesn't think I did!

Then the thought occurs to me that while Hugo doesn't think I did, why the hell did Melody say the whole school does?

"You alright?" Hugo says.

I'm jolted out of my train of thought. I try to arrange my most likely horrified expression into a more pleasant one, but evidently I fail at that, as Hugo frowns at me again. "What is up with you?" he mutters, then says, "I'm going back to dinner."

I give him a sisterly hug, ignoring his protests ("Everyone's going to see") before he starts back to the Great Hall. Suddenly he stops. "Here's your lover," he says before scurrying off.

"What did you-?"

I turn to find Scorpius standing there. Again. That boy really needs to work on his timing.

"Hi," I say.

Scorpius nods at me.

"So…" I start. "Going to dinner?"

"Yeah."

"Well… What a coincidence. So am I," I say with a fake grin.

Scorpius just stares stonily at me. He's staying quiet on purpose, I can tell.

"I think they're serving lamb and-"

"What's wrong with you?" Scorpius cuts me off.

I blink up at him. "Excuse me?"

"What is wrong with you, Weasley? Leaving me there with a dead arm and a ripped shirt in the cold. And then that shit in the library? You really expect me to believe you don't have feelings for me?"

My first thought is, I ripped your shirt? Because I honestly thought I was unbuttoning it effortlessly. But I know, as clueless as I am about all this boy-business, that it's the wrong thing to say. I just don't know what the right thing is. Do I actually fancy Scorpius Malfoy? I've never thought about it before. And now he's here in front of me, demanding to know, now, whether or not that's true.

"I might," I say lamely.

He stares at me, his face unreadable. "You might," he repeats flatly.

I make a rather strangled noise. "Mmm…"

Scorpius drags a hand through his swooshy blonde hair. Blonde hair that felt so silky…

"Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me. Just don't expect me to wait around forever."

With that he starts marching past me. Then he stops abruptly, and I almost die of shock when he says, "Actually, fuck it, I'm done waiting," and swoops down and mashes his lips against mine.

I pull away from him when the distant chatter of the Great Hall comes back to me. I look around; there's no one, thank God. And we're hidden around the doors of the hall, so I'm pretty sure no one saw-

"Are you going to say anything?" Scorpius says quietly, his voice low and oh-so-sexy.

"No," I say, then throw my inhibitions to the wind as I reach up and drag him down to my level, giving him a fierce kiss reminiscent of last night's.

We break away, and he smirks.

"Didn't know you had it in you, Weasley."

"Don't call me Weasley."

"Rose," he whispers into my ear, causing a shiver down that side.

"Shut up, Scorpius," I whisper back, and peck him on the cheek.

He's looking at me like he wants to eat me.

"Got to go," I tell him, and before he can say anything, I'm fleeing up the marble staircase, lips burning from yet another confusing encounter with Scorpius Malfoy.