A/N: Harry Potter belongs to JKR not me, and I'm not making any profits off this story.
Written for the Quidditch League competition (season 2, round 2)
Team/Position: Holyhead Harpies - Beater 2
Team's chosen character & action: Teddy Lupin drinking something.
Bonus prompts: "You don't tell me to relax!" (dialogue), Wonderful (word), Breezy (word).
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Also for the Favourite House Boot-camp challenge: pretty eyes
Ambivalence
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Rose pushed her untouched plate of food away from her and stared into her lap, absently chewing her lip and mumbling to herself as her friends watched on with bemused expressions.
"Hello?" Hugo waved his fork in his sister's face. Everyone gasped as a piece of bacon flew off it and bounced off Rose's shoulder, but she didn't seem to notice.
"Merlin, she must be really gone this time," Lily laughed.
"Leave her alone guys, she's trying to focus," James called from a few seats away. "If you distract her and make her mess up her try-out I won't be happy about not letting her on the team, because I know she's a good player," he flashed his red Captain's badge with a proud grin.
"Good luck today, Weasley," a voice said from nearby. Rose, who had been oblivious to all conversation until now, snapped her head up immediately.
Lily and Hugo exchanged smirks. They didn't believe for one second that it was just coincidence that the only person who could break her out of her impenetrable 'zone' was Scorpius Malfoy.
Rose eyed the Slytherin suspiciously. "What's your game, Scorpius?"
Scorpius just laughed and shook his head as he walked away.
"Bloody Malfoy," Rose muttered.
She had a strange friendship with the blond, if one could even call it a 'friendship', that is. She couldn't pinpoint exactly how or when it had started, but the two of them seemed to be engaged in an on-going contest to out-do one another. Rose was a sensible girl and initially ignored him, but two sabotaged potions and therefore two D's later, she was ready to retaliate. Suffice it to say, Scorpius had learnt to be more careful about where he stashed his Galleons when Rose was in close range with a Niffler handy.
"You didn't have to be so mean to him," Lily said, tucking a strand of short hair behind her ear. "He hasn't done anything to you in weeks."
"Which means he must be plotting something," Rose said through gritted teeth. "He's always his most dangerous when he's nice to me."
"Is that really what you think of me, Weasley?" Scorpius re-appeared, "I can't decide whether to be flattered or hurt."
"For Godric's sake, can you not do this to me now? I'm trying to focus. I want to be perfect at the try outs."
"You really push yourself too much, Rose. I know your Mum was a bloody brainbox but-."
Rose cut him off, "Is that supposed to be a subtle hint to not try as hard in lessons so you can beat me?"
Scorpius frowned, "What? No I-."
"Because I know all about you Malfoys and your hidden agendas," she tapped her head with her finger. Her parents had told her many stories about their time at school with Scorpius' father: the ferret anecdote being a personal favourite of hers.
"Merlin, just relax will you?"
Rose scowled, "You… you don't tell me to relax!" She mentally kicked herself as her mind blanked out; all of those evenings spent with Lily thinking up witty and insulting names for him seemed such a waste now.
Scorpius rolled his eyes and walked away again. Rose grinned triumphantly, but her joy was short-lived as she scanned the irresolute faces of her friends.
"What?"
"I think he was genuinely being trying to be nice," Lily commented.
"No," Rose shook her head. "That's not we do; we aren't nice to each other. Why would he be nice to me all of a sudden?"
Lily and Hugo exchanged another smirk. For a smart girl, Rose was very naïve.
It was a breezy morning, though the gusts weren't strong enough to be noticeable – perfect flying conditions. The gentle wind caressed Rose's face and she sighed in contentment as it encompassed her. She felt as if the pleasant bursts of air were swirling in her head as she flew, and thereby clearing the torrent of nerves that had swarmed there before. It was such a wonderful feeling, and Rose couldn't for the life of her understand why her Mother didn't appreciate it.
A whistle blew and she forced herself to focus. She flew back to the ground and awaited orders from James. With her feet on solid ground the anxiety began to slither into her mind again, and all Rose wanted was to get back in the air.
Eventually the try-outs for the Keepers began. As if being taunted by some unknown Quidditch entity, Rose was the last to go.
She had a shaky start: narrowly missing the first Quaffle and flying in completely the wrong direction for the second. But when the third flew towards her, Rose was filled with a new confidence and positive energy that spurred her to save it with ease. She smiled; maybe there was hope for her yet.
But then her joy morphed into an unexpected fit of the giggles. She had no idea what came over her but the laugher just kept pouring out of her mouth; thus throwing her focus and causing her to miss every shot from then on.
It was too late when the laughter subsided; Rose wasn't made the Keeper and she was left feeling ashamed and thoroughly confused. It must have looked like she wasn't taking it seriously… but she was.
She felt like such a failure. As if having saviours of the wizarding world as parents wasn't enough pressure on her to do well, but her Mother's intelligence and her Dad's accomplishment with Quidditch was just too much. All Rose ever wanted was to live up to something her parents had done. They always told her that they'd be proud of her no matter what, but they just remained empty words until she proved to herself that she was just as talented as them.
"What happened?" James asked as she made to leave the pitch.
"I don't know," Rose replied honestly with her head bowed. "I just felt happy about saving that third one then all of a sudden that happened."
James frowned, "It sounds like a badly cast Cheering charm to me."
"What, but who…?"
Rose's voice trailed off as she saw a blond head approaching beside Albus just behind Lily and Hugo.
She ignored her friends' sentiments of commiserations and pointed an accusatory finger at Scorpius.
"You."
"Er…me," he confirmed with a confused glance in Albus' direction.
"I knew you were up to something. You sabotaged me!"
"No I didn't. Not intentionally at least," he said, scratching his head.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I admit to casting the charm but it was only to cheer you up so you'd do well."
"And why would you do such a thing?" Rose asked.
Scorpius' eyes widened.
"I can be nice, you know," he answered after a pause. His hesitation was enough to convince Rose that he was lying.
"I'm so getting you back for this Malfoy, just like I did with the Niffler," she threatened. As she walked away it appeared as though she was the only one who was oblivious to the amused glint that was present in her eye when she addressed him.
An ambivalent relationship: that seemed to be the most apt description when it came to Scorpius and herself.
By the next morning Rose and her friends had come up with a suitable plan for revenge. It was farfetched, but definitely one that was worthy of her parent's misdemeanours during their time at Hogwarts.
The plan had consumed all conversations since the try-outs, so it was all the friends could talk about when they met up with Teddy and Victoire in Hogsmeade for one of the weekend visits.
"You're going to sabotage Malfoy's try-out too by using Polyjuice potion to impersonate him and completely mess up his performance?" Teddy cocked an amused eyebrow.
"Why not just slip him a potion? You know, something simple?" Victoire asked.
"I have my reasons," Rose said, thinking back to the story her Dad had told her about using Polyjuice to sneak into the Slytherin common room.
"Fair enough," Teddy laughed. He raised his glass of Butterbeer to his lips and took a sip. "But doesn't that potion take like a month to brew?" He began to drink again.
"James has vials of that stored up from when he made it to impersonate me to ask out bloody Scott Goyle as a joke," Lily muttered.
Teddy sprayed Butterbeer across the table as he burst out laughing. He clapped his hands.
"Priceless."
"It is not!" Lily bristled.
Teddy winked at her to indicate he was only joking but Lily still seemed offended nonetheless.
"How exactly do you plan to get Malfoy out of the picture while you're exacting your revenge, Rose?" Teddy asked after cleaning the mess he'd made with his wand.
Rose waved a hand, "Al can take care of that. He's a Slytherin too, and actually friends with Scorpius."
Teddy nodded, "So who is going to be 'Scorpius'?" he air-quoted with a wink.
"Actually, we were sort of wondering if you'd do it," Rose said, withdrawing a vial of muddy liquid from her robes along with a striking blond hair. "Al nicked this off his pillow this morning."
Teddy's eyes widened, "Why me?"
"We want Scorpius to do really badly, and you're the worst flyer we know!" Hugo explained, trying and failing miserably at making it sound like a good thing.
"Oh stop it you lot, you're making me blush," Teddy said sarcastically. "But hey, why not? It'll be like the good old days, only this time someone else will get the credit for my awful flying skills!"
Victoire cleared her throat beside him, "You can't go; we need to go and meet Andromeda in Diagon Alley."
Teddy groaned in disappointment and morphed his face into that of a puppy with big watery eyes.
"You can't keep doing that every time you want something, Teddy; I'm already beginning to grow a tolerance to how adorable you look when you do that."
"Dammit," Teddy's face returned to normal. "It was worth a try. Sorry to disappoint, guys," he said with a shrug.
"Great. Who's going to do it now?" Rose asked.
"I think you should do it," Lily said, "It's your plan after all."
"Ha. You know what I'm like Lil, I can't make myself do badly at something. If I do it I'll probably end up getting him on the team! I think Hugo should do it."
"Hey!" her brother protested, but then his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Yeah, fine. It'll be good to actually be on the pitch instead of being benched all the time like I am at home," he glared briefly at Rose.
"Yay!" She hugged Hugo across the table and planted a wet kiss on his cheek, which he wiped off immediately with a disgusted expression on his face.
"Gross. Save it for Scorpius."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rose flushed.
Teddy chuckled.
"What's so funny?" Rose demanded, the tip of her nose still a beetroot-red.
"Nothing," he said unconvincingly. "It's just that you were always so sensible and mature, Rose, but when it comes to Malfoy you seem to find it worth your while to go through all the trouble of getting back at him."
"My parents always fought with his father so I'd feel like I'd be letting the side down if I allowed him to get away with everything," she protested. "Granted, Scorpius isn't a complete arse like it sounds like his father was. He's actually an okay person when he wants to be, but Merlin he does my head in sometimes!"
Teddy chuckled again and glanced at Victoire before squeezing her hand and playing with the ring on her fourth finger. "Now doesn't that sound familiar?"
Rose's eyes widened, "What? No. No, it's not like that! I feel ambivalent towards him."
Victoire and Teddy shared a look, as did Hugo and Lily.
"Mmhmm," Lily mumbled, averting her gaze and gulping down her pumpkin juice.
"Sure, sis," Hugo rolled his eyes. "As if you're still unsure how you feel about him after all this time."
Hugo was met with thunderous applause as he jogged off the Quidditch pitch, only just escaping in time before he morphed from Scorpius back to himself again.
"That was amazingly bad flying," Rose commended, ruffling Hugo's now-red locks and giggling at how baggy the green Quidditch robes now looked on him.
"Seriously, mate, if there was a grading system for bad flying, I'd give you an 'O'," James laughed, clapping him on the back.
"Thanks," Hugo smiled. "Although there's just that drawback of Scorpius getting the credit for it instead of me."
A ripple of laughter ran through the group. When it died down the sound of slow clapping met everyone's ears. Rose cringed; three guesses who that would be!
"Alright Malfoy? Sorry you didn't make the cut for the Slytherin team," she goaded, eagerly awaiting the usual protests and 'my-father-will-hear-about-this-yadda-yadda-yadda' speeches. Strangely enough, neither came.
"I know I should be angry, but by Merlin you did me a favour there. Thanks, Weasley," he winked.
"What?"
"I've never been good at Quidditch; I only ever pretended I was and signed up for try-outs to psyche you out," he paused briefly. "Polyjuice potion and a body-lock curse from Albus: that was pretty impressive."
"Er, thank you?" Rose frowned in confusion at this unexpected reaction.
"But I hope you know this doesn't change anything. I'm still getting you back for this, Rose," Scorpius shot a cocky half-smile in her direction, seemingly entertained by the idea.
Strangely enough, Rose felt as amused as Scorpius looked, which unnerved her slightly. This was the first time one of his announcements regarding plots for vengeance on her hadn't caused her mind and body to be filled with an all-consuming dread.
"I expected as much, Scorpius," she couldn't help but let out a small laugh.
The blond took a pace or two in her direction and closed the distance between them. He scrutinised her with piercing silver eyes for a while, during which time Rose did everything in her power not to let the blush become too evident on her face.
Scorpius looked down at her and spoke in a very low tone that only they could hear, "In fact, that plan was so impressive it makes me think Slytherin house would have suited you better."
His voice made shivers run down Rose's spine but she masked this well too. Scorpius began to pull away but apparently changed his mind at the last second and bowed his head again.
"And just for the record, you have very pretty eyes. Ssss-tunning, in fact."
He did pull away that time and said his goodbyes to the small group before sauntering away, leaving Rose utterly stunned. Was that a snake impression? she thought.
She turned slowly to face her friends.
"You guys will not believe what he just said to… what?"
Lily was clamping her lips tightly together, as though trying to prevent a bubble of laughter from escaping. James and Hugo just blinked rapidly at her; their expressions were otherwise blank.
"What did he say, Rose?" James asked, recovering first.
"Er," Rose faltered. She was a little thrown about the sudden strange behaviour of her friends. "Just some stuff about Slytherin house and um, my eyes being… pretty."
"Ah, well that would explain it," James smirked in amusement.
"Explain what?"
"You've kind of got snake eyes, Rose," Hugo snickered. "Wow, that boy works fast!"
"Oh bloody hell, I'm going to kill him!"
"On the upside," Lily said, "At least I believe you now about him being his most dangerous when he's nice to you."
Her friend's words suddenly made the annoyance fizzle out of Rose's system. She smiled at the ground and expelled a sound that was a cross between a sigh and a laugh before looking back at Lily.
"And I would expect nothing less; we are never just nice to each other, after all."
It would be Rose's little secret that a small – minuscule, actually – part of her believed that the recent encounter with Scorpius contained hints of a different kind of connection; one that wasn't just a mutual feeling of ambivalence towards the other and perhaps the one that Lily and Hugo had been endlessly hinting about.
It was only a matter of time before she would know for certain.
A/N: Thank you for reading! That was my first time writing that pairing so I hope it was okay :)
Word count: 2723