This was the last thing he had ever thought would happen to him. With his parents gone for two weeks on a vacation to Brazil, he had thought he would have some time to himself. There was a pile of books he wanted to read, not to mention the idea of getting a head start on the textbooks for the upcoming school year. Between Quidditch, his social life, and studying for the upcoming N.E.W.T.s at the end of the year he was already questioning how he would keep up with his regular studies.

Then the storm rolled in and he knew that none of that would happen. He would bring a book with him to his windowsill, but he would end up simply staring out the window at the deluge and lightning. There had always been something about powerful thunderstorms that drew him. Perhaps it was simply the idea of such unbridled power and the entirety of the world being at their mercy. That helpless vulnerability that he felt even within the confines of the manor. He had carefully built his life to protect himself from such forces, natural or otherwise, learning quickly from the mistakes of his father. After such turmoil and darkness that had sprung forth all around during his predecessors years at Hogwarts, Scorpius certainly did not want to follow suit. He had to live up to his father's expectations of redeeming the Malfoy name and reputation. He had to be the ideal student, the ideal man, and he had taught himself from a young age to avoid things that could threaten that.

So he had not been settled in his sill for ten minutes, starting to be drawn into the chaos that was the storm before Skilt, the family house-elf popped into the room behind him. Glancing at the small creature irritably, Scorpius waved his hand in impatient supplication of what was so important as to bother him. He supposed that since his parents were gone he was 'in charge,' but he had certainly hoped that nothing dire in the kitchens or any messes in the hallways would disturb him.

Skilt bowed sharply, blinking at him apologetically with his large eyes, "Skilt is sorry for bothering the master, but…but there is someone at the door, sir. And they are very wet…dripping all over the floor. Skilt will clean it as soon as they are gone, sir."

Scorpius stared blankly at him for a moment, causing the house-elf to start trembling slightly. Once he started muttering apologies, Scorpius snapped out of his dazed state, "Who would be here at this time of night?" Even as he was asking it, however, he was on the move. Without thinking, he grabbed a few items of clothing before starting out of his room, the house-elf following obediently. It was not even necessarily 'who' had arrived, but why. The storm was in full swing and no one in their right mind would have ventured so far out of the way to the Malfoy Manor at this time of night while that was going on. It was either something extremely important, in which he may have to contact his father on holiday, or it was someone who was completely bonkers.

He swiftly descended the stairs, even as he heard the telltale 'pop' of Skilt apparating to the foyer ahead of him. Running a hand through his hair, Scorpius took a small breath to steady himself before rounding the corner into the foyer.

What he saw stopped him dead in confusion.

She stood there with her arms crossed tightly in front of her, shaking slightly as the water dripped from her hair and clothes, pooling around her sneakers. She was looking around at all of the heirlooms in the foyer and he merely stared in shock for a few moments before she realized he was there. When she saw him, she gave a wary, polite smile of greeting.

"Hello, Scorpius."

He cleared his throat and mentally shook himself, frowning as he responded, "Good evening, Rose. May I ask why I'm being graced with the pleasure of your presence in my house?"

He supposed he could have been a bit more pleasant in his delivery. There was certainly a note of coldness to his tone that he hadn't necessarily intended to be there. After all, it wasn't as if he hated Rose Weasley…he just didn't really have a reason to like her either. She was practically a stranger besides the fact that she had made a distinct point of either avoiding him or being outright hostile at certain periods throughout their years as classmates. Which made him all the more curious as to why she was at his house, of all people's, on a night such at his.

She winced a bit, but regained her composure well, "Well, I'd love to answer you, but…" she gestured to herself, still shivering slightly, "I was wondering if I could borrow something dry to change into first?"

"Oh, right…" he mumbled as he quickly held out the bundle of random clothes he had grabbed. He wasn't even sure what he was handing her, just that all of the items were dry. He pointed through the doorway, "If you walk straight down the hall the bathroom is the first on the left. I'll…" he paused awkwardly, glancing around for Skilt, "I'll, uh, grab you a towel. I don't think that bathroom has any."

Looking back to her, he was surprised to find Rose smiling warmly at him. An instant later she was gone, sloshing down the hall, her sneakers making pitiful noises as they squelched across the marble floor. He blinked in stunned surprise for a moment after she closed the door before turning around and snapping his fingers loudly. Skilt appeared an instant later, bowing profusely. Quickly, Scorpius asked for him to bring a towel before the house-elf could utter any more apologies for disappearing.

When Skilt left, Scorpius moved toward the door and peered out the windows next to it at the storm, rubbing his face tiredly. There was nothing outside. No mode of transportation that Rose could have used to get to his house. Did someone drop her off? Had she walked here? With a small groan, he turned around just in time for Skilt to pop back into view holding out a bright green towel. Great, now Rose would assume he was trying to assert some sort of Slytherin dominance over Gryffindor.

"Thank you, Skilt," he said quietly as he took the towel and was surprised a moment later as the house-elf squeaked in surprise at something behind Scorpius and instantly apparated away. Turning around, the youngest Malfoy understood why.

Rose Weasley was padding into the foyer, hands wringing out her red hair casually while wearing nothing but one of Scorpius' button-down shirts. He blinked, felt the heat rise swiftly to his cheeks and opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut again as nothing was able to process.

She glanced down at the towel, "Are you going to gawk all night or give me the towel?"

He felt slightly better as he noted the flush that was present on her cheeks as well. He cleared his throat awkwardly, looking down at the floor and holding the towel out to her. "Sorry…I guess I didn't grab enough clothes."

She giggled nervously, "Yeah, all of them were shirts and this one was the longest so…"

He nodded, before turning around and summoning Skilt again, "If you could grab a tee-shirt and some flannel pants for Ms. Weasley, that would be wonderful." In a few moments, Skilt was back again and Rose was scampering quickly back to the bathroom. This time, Scorpius rubbed his face with both hands, trying to get the image of the scantily clad Weasley out of his head. His father had warned him about how much the Weasley's hated the Malfoy's and Scorpius had done his best to just avoid them altogether. It was safest that way to avoid any tensions or potential hostilities. He'd never pictured Rose Weasley as anything other than a creature to be expressly ignored.

With that recent image flickering behind his eyelids, all he knew was that ignoring her was now going to be a bit harder to do.