A/N (24/09/2014 – I've tidied up chapters 1 – 4 slightly, the content remains exactly the same. Thanks for the support for this story!)

Chances

A Scorpius/Rose Story

Chapter 1 – What Started It All

Rose Weasley stood at the notice board, her brown eyes reading and re-reading the piece of parchment tacked on it, with a growing look of panic on her face. She gripped the strap of her bag, wringing it slightly before letting out a rush of air through her teeth in frustration. She let her eyes skim the writing once again, just to be sure.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me," she murmured, eyes squeezed shut.

"Is there a problem?" Rose instantly opened her eyes, and saw the Head Girl, Beatrix Thomas, giving her an odd look.

Rose swallowed uncomfortably, looking back and forth from the notice and Beatrix's static expression. "Well, you see," she started, not quite knowing how to explain her predicament to someone who had clearly not seen the problem, "I thought I would be doing night patrol with someone in my house…"

"Well, with Albus in the Hospital Wing tonight -,"

Rose shook her head, "No, I know that," her cousin had shattered a glass jar on his hand during Potions, distracted from lack of sleep. "I mean, it's just that I'll be patrolling with…Malfoy. That's the problem,"

With a raised eyebrow, Beatrix shook her head slowly, "I'm sorry Rose – I can't change anything now. The whole schedule will be turned upside down," Rose gripped the strap of her bag even tighter. "Besides, you don't have to talk or anything. Just…walk around for a bit. You know…he doesn't bite."

"I'll just, I'll just have deal with it when I get around to it then. I'll see you later?" she waved good-bye to the older girl before turning on her heel.

Even after five years of 'knowing' Scorpius Malfoy, Rose Weasley could not exchange more than two or three words with him, let alone have actual conversations. In her silence she had always made it pristinely clear that she despised the living daylights out of him. Her dislike had started with all her other cousins during her first year – but unlike them, she had yet to grow out of throwing him glares every time she saw him. Albus, her cousin, had tried to talking her out of it multiple times. Incidentally, he and Scorpius were close friends despite the given situation.

Her dislike had nothing – as she liked to believe – with the fact that he was in Slytherin and she in Gryffindor. It had nothing – as she liked to believe – to do with his blood ties to the supporters of the now deceased Lord Voldermort. She knew that her reasons were more personal than that. His grandfather, Lucius Malfoy – the name sent cold shivers up her spine – had endangered various members of her family on more than one occasion, even torturing her mum. Anyone directly related to him, she figured, was not worth her time and effort to befriend. After all, Rose was pretty sure that Scorpious disliked her as much as she disliked him, if not more, considering all the lies and prejudice towards muggle-borns that he was bound to be have been brainwashed by.

She couldn't understand why Albus had accepted him as a good friend. Something was bound to happen, something was bound to break and crack and then she would have her satisfaction.

Tonight's patrol, she knew, was going to be close to intolerable

Something was wrong with Rose Weasley, but Scorpius didn't know what. She'd arrived late, her knuckles white, her red hair disheveled, face completely flushed. If he didn't know better, he'd say her reason for being late had something to do more with a bedroom than a lesson – but Rose Weasley, with her academic obsessions, wasn't that type of person.

With a slightly sick feeling in his stomach, he noticed that the only space available in the classroom was the one next to him, a space usually reserved for Albus as it was one of the only lessons they shared. Her friends - it was obvious by the guilty look on their faces - had thought they had saved a seat for her, only to forget to actually save it. She ignored him as she dropped her bag and settled into her seat, launching into a potion-making frenzy almost immediately.

At the pace she was going in order to catch up to the rest of the class Scorpius sincerely hoped that her fingers were not as clumsy as her cousin's had been yesterday. He turned to finish off his own potion, humming softly as he did so.

Then, all of a sudden, the flurry of action beside him came to a sudden halt and he could see Rose bend over her cauldron, a confused look on her face. He took the chance to look over her shoulder to see what had happened. The liquid mass inside, which had previously been the right shade of pink, had turned to a deep midnight blue. Pretty but he doubted the professor would deem it as useful.

"What the hell?" he heard her mutter, her hands on either side of the cauldron, pressing into the table with her palms. She checked through her book, furiously flipping the pages, checking to see where she'd made a mistake.

"Uh, I think you've missed out step five," Scorpius said, regretting it as soon as she lifted her head to meet his gaze with a steely glare.

She narrowed her eyes and sniffed. "I know."

Scorpious had no idea what to say in reply, so he started to chop up another ingredient, a slight frown gathering. What was her problem? He chopped a little harder, a little faster. For as long as he could remember, she'd always looked upon him in distain, throwing him looks of disgust across classrooms and hallways. Over the first few terms at Hogwarts, it became clear that despite his civil friendliness with the rest of the Potter-Weasleys, Rose was a lost cause. She was stubborn, too stubborn, he thought angrily, throwing the ingredients into the bubbling potion.

Next to him, Rose was still staring at her potion furiously, not knowing what to do. "This is your fault," she snapped suddenly, pointing at him.

He turned around slowly, incredulous. "I'm sorry?"

"I've hardly ever gotten a potion wrong before," she said, hands on her hips, leering. "I only mess up when I get distracted."

"And how is that my fault?"

"Because," she began, "You – I… Beatrix has put us together for night patrol."

He was sure he had heard wrong. "We what?"

"Albus is in the Hospital Wing, so I got lumped in with you," she made no attempt to mask the scorn in her voice and Scorpius was getting more and more irritated by the second.

He pressed his fingers to his eyes until all he could see were painful, almost blinding colors that replaced the initial darkness. "Merlin's beard," he murmured, knowing how much of a disaster it was going to be.

"Exactly." she said, with an odd tone of satisfaction to her voice.

Scorpious resumed stirring his potion, turning away from her with a pained expression. He was not looking forward to tonight at all.

"What's up?" Albus Potter asked, looking up from the book he was reading in bed as soon as his cousin came tearing down the hall, earning a dirty look and a shout from Madam Pomfrey. She crossed her arms across her chest, towering over his reclining figure. "What's wrong?" he asked, looking at her angry expression as she glared down at him.

"You-," she began, poking Albus in the ribs. "You – why are you so clumsy?" she snapped, pointing to his bandaged right hand. He grinned sheepishly, a guilty look crossing his face.

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, you better be," she huffed, sitting down next to him. "Because of you, guess who I got stuck with patrolling in ten minutes?"

"Who?" Albus asked, knowing that it was probably Scorpius, with a reaction as livid as that.

"Fucking Malfoy," she said disdainfully, taking the opportunity to jab him in ribs again.

Albus sighed, closing his green eyes with a shake of his head. "Rose, Scorp's honestly not like you think he is, I swear." He said, drawing an imaginary cross over his heart to emphasize his point.

She pursed her lips. "You're only saying that because you're friends with him,"

"Well, I am friends with him for good reason," Albus said, knowing that she would never be fully convinced. He was partly glad that Rose and Scorpius had to patrol together – optimistically, it was the potential beginning of a new friendship. However, with the way Rose's mood was going, Albus highly doubted anything positive would come of tonight. "Would I be friends with a jerk?"

Her facial expression softened a little, and she sighed. "I'm sorry Al, I didn't mean it like that."

Their conversation was stopped short when both of them heard the doors open and close, footsteps nearing Albus' bed. "Hey, Al – are you -," Scopius Malfoy stared when his eyes landed on the hunched figure that was occupying the seat next to Albus. He cleared his throat, taking an uncomfortable step backwards. "R-right."

She stood up and brushed her robes, sniffing slightly. "What are you doing here?" she said, not looking at him.

Scorpius looked from Albus to Rose, "I was coming to see if Al's feeling any better."

"He's fine," she snapped, moving to act as a barrier between her cousin and the blond. "Besides, we have patrol tonight. You'll be late,"

"We can start after I talk to Albus."

"Rose, it's okay. We won't be more than two minutes," Albus tugged on his cousin's robes gently, a tired look in his eyes. He always got nervous when the two looked like they were about to decapitate each other. Usually Rose was calm and Scorpius good-natured, but around each other they were like different people. "Please," he added when it became obvious that Rose wouldn't move.

"You can talk with me here," she said acidly, never taking her eyes of the suspicious – in her opinion - looking boy that had moved to stand on the other side of the bed.

"Fine," Albus muttered, gesturing to Scorpius that there would probably be no other way. The blond sighed and shrugged before kneeling down so he was at the same eye-level as his friend.

A few minutes passed before Scorpius stood up again, running a hand through his hair. Rose continued to glare at him as she had done throughout his conversation with Albus, her brown eyes growing harder and colder with each passing minute. "Let's go. We're late," she said briskly before pushing past him.

"Wish me luck," Scorpius whispered to Albus before jogging down the corridor to catch up to Rose. Albus just hoped they'd come back in one piece.

The only sound Rose could hear was the soft tapping of their shoes against the stone surface of the castle floor, making this her most silent night patrol ever. Every so often she found herself stealing little glances at him to occupy her wandering mind. He, she decided, had nice enough features –if she didn't take in to account who she was actually dealing with, of course – light blond hair, stormy grey-blue eyes and a slightly boyish face.

"Um, why are you staring?" he suddenly said, making her flit away with an unwilling blush creeping up her face.

"I wasn't staring," she snapped. "I'd rather gouge my eyes out."

"Ah…" he murmured, tearing his eyes away from her and fixing his attention back to the flickering wall torches. They'd caught a couple of third years snooping around after hours, but Rose had dealt with them – a little too harshly, he had thought, but he wasn't going to intervene when she looked like she was about to blow up any second.

"We need to check the Astronomy Tower," she said to him in a patronizing tone, as if he was new to the duties of night patrolling.

"Weasley, can I ask you a question?" he said, finally deciding to take the chance as they climbed up the spiraling stairs. Before she could reply and before he could lose his bravado, he continued; "I was just wondering…why do you hate me so much? I mean your cousins - Albus, Lily, Molly – the lot, they don't…"

She stopped in front of him, whipping around instantly. "You sound as if this is my fault."

"W-well – it is, isn't it?" he said quickly, feeling a horrible feeling set in his gut.

Her eyes flashed dangerously. "Your family's actions speak for themselves." she said, hands tightening into fists.

"My grandfather and my father are not me," he said, stepping up a step.

"I'll believe it when I see it," she said haughtily before starting to walk again, this time at a much faster pace.

He took long strides in order to catch up with her. It was only a matter of seconds before he did and they entered the large Astronomy room. "I think your reasons are irrational," he said, standing directly behind her. At such a close proximity he could smell a flowery, comforting scent and was sure it was hers – it was slightly intoxicating and he had to take a small step back before his mind started drifting.

"They're not irrational." she said, staring at the inky-black sky.

"No?"

"No." she said firmly, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Scorpius' mind threatened to drift away again.

"W-well, I think it's the idea of me you don't like, not me as a person."

She thought about what he said, mulled it over in her mind a few times. It gave her a sudden, dreaded revelation and she closed her eyes, wondering if she'd been wrong all these years. "I…" She pinched the bridge of her nose, stressed. "Maybe you're right," she finally said, biting her bottom lip. "But then, maybe you're wrong," she added, just to make herself feel better. There was really no guarantee that Scorpius wasn't a haughty pure-blood maniac, whatever he said.

"Then - then you'll just give me a chance?" Rose's eyes shot open when she felt his hands close around hers.

"Give you a chance?"

"T-to prove to you that I'm really not like you think."

She yanked her hands away from his, a look of fury crossing her face. "Don't be ridiculous,"

"I'm not being ridiculous. I'm just asking for a chance to prove myself," he said, looking as if he'd just been slapped right across the face.

"There isn't anything to prove. My opinion on you is never going change."

Exasperated, and without thinking properly, Scorpious snapped. "You know what? You're just a being a fucking immature bitch on a constant power trip -,"

Rose was stunned, shocked and completely astonished. None of her own words formed as his echoed in her head over and over, like one of the broken muggle records her grandfather had. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that..." Scorpius said nervously, watching her regain composure.

"Bastard," she said venomously, shoving past him and running down the stairs. Before she could get to the bottom, however, sense caught up with her and she immediately stopped and forced herself to think it through.

He was probably right in this instance. She was being immature and unreasonable. What did she have to lose if she gave him a chance? Rose waited for Scorpius to descend, a guilty feeling building up in her gut as she waited. He finally did, his grey eyes growing wide when he saw her at the foot of the stairs, unsure of what to do. "Um," he started, once he got to the bottom, blinking nervously. "I'm really, really sorry."

"I'll give you a chance," she muttered slowly, not meeting his gaze.

"Sorry, what?"

"I'll give you a chance – one chance Malfoy. Just one," she repeated, a little louder this time.

"You will?" the genuine surprise in his voice was more than clear.

She nodded, albeit a little reluctantly. "For Al. Don't mess up Malfoy,"

"I won't," he reassured her with a nod.

For the first time in her life Rose Weasley felt torn and confused about Scorpius Malfoy.

A/N: Please review! They get me motivated. The more reviews, the faster I usually post.

Thanks for reading!

K