A/N I hope you enjoy it, I know it's been a long time, but I've been working on the Seven Days of Whouffle event! I do not own HP but I would very much appreciate a review and I do respond to them :) Thank you for your continued support!

The following day, after classes, Rose and Scorpius bid a gloomy goodbye to their friends, although Rose's mood picked up slightly at the fact that they would be together and it wasn't like Professor Jamieson was too strict, so they'd probably be either practising charms, doing lines or just helping him to prep his lessons, maybe by cleaning his classroom.

Rose even skipped the last few steps to his room, knowing they'd be done by 9 at the latest, so she'd have some time to do her homework.

When she knocked and entered, Scorpius was already there, and he and Professor Jamieson were sitting on either side of his desk, waiting. Professor Jamieson's arms were crossed, in a disapproving manner and Rose wasn't sure if it was because she was late or because he had two prefects in for detention.

"Sorry sir," she muttered, slipping into the seat beside Scorpius, waiting for the sentence to fall. Scorpius seemed quite relaxed and unconcerned; he was sitting back in his chair, his arms down the arm rest and he seemed to be the epitome of calm. Rose, however, sat nervously, her back straight and her hands in her lap.

"I'm surprised to have to have you two here," said Professor Jamieson, looking at them, annoyed, or irritated, or just disappointed. "I thought we could trust our prefects to be on time to classes." Rose felt about 10cm tall, but Scorpius seemed unconcerned, as if Professor Jamieson's words hadn't quite penetrated his calm exterior.

"Sorry, sir," murmured Rose again, but Scorpius didn't react.

"You'll be writing lines," he told them. "I will not be late to class. The parchment is on those two desks, please fill the front and the back, then you may leave." He looked down and began to carry on with his work, marking students' tests, while Scorpius and Rose silently moved to the desks, got out their quills and began to write.

About half an hour in, Rose and Scorpius had finished their first page and were just starting on the back when Professor Jamieson got up. "I'll be back in 5 minutes," he said, sweeping out of the room.

"Scorpius," hissed Rose. He didn't look up. "Scorpius! Scorpius, will you at least look at me?" He reluctantly looked up from his work.

"I got a letter," he said, heavily. "From my dad. He'd heard about us being friends and he's not impressed." Rose was confused.

"I thought he changed, I thought he was different…" she said, puzzled. Scorpius let out a short laugh.

"He did, but he really hates Ron. He's not as strict, but some things are hard to forget, and grudges are one of them. I'm supposed to stay away from you."

"And you're going to listen to him? I get that he's your father, but you're old enough to make your own decisions! Do you not like me, is that it? Is this an easy way out of our friendship?"

"No-" he began, but at that exact moment, Professor Jamieson came back in and he had to return to his lines. Rose sat, angrily brushing away tears and Scorpius wished he could speak to her, to tell her that he wouldn't listen to his father, that he had been confused and trying to work out the best thing to do, rather than trying to hurt her.

Rose finished first, and by the time Scorpius had scribbled out his last few lines, she was long gone and he didn't know where to find her, so he desolately walked back to the Ravenclaw common room.

The next day, Scorpius got up earlier than usual, so he'd have more time at breakfast; usually he only had time to eat before he had to go to class, but he wanted a chance to speak to Rose. As soon as he was dressed, he combed his hair so he looked presentable and dashed down to breakfast.

Meanwhile, Rose was sitting in the Great Hall, as she was always there early enough to have a good chat with Kat and Bryony while she ate. When she saw Scorpius come in, she looked away deliberately, engaging in conversation with Kat and Bryony, wishing he wouldn't come over but, of course, he did.

"Rose, we need to talk," he said, while she persistently ignored him. He stood awkwardly while Rose finished her conversation with Kat and looked up, looking completely disinterested.

"I thought you'd made it perfectly clear I'm not worthy of your friendship according to your father, who you seem to think is always right. What is there to talk about?" The cold expression on her face really hurt Scorpius. As soon as he had mentioned his father's opinion, he had wished he hadn't. Because of how shy Rose was, he'd had to work quite hard to build up their friendship and he'd destroyed it all in just one minute. It was quite obvious that she was not comfortable with him anymore.

"Rose, please. I wanted to say that I know what my father says, and I'm going to ignore the piece of advice concerning our friendship." His speech had become a lot more formal, mainly because of her discomfort. He too, was uncomfortable, and wanted to come across as sincere and his way of sounding sincere was to sound more formal, rather than use slang terms.

Rose picked up on the use of language and a sudden wave of sentimentality rolled over her. What had happened to their friendship? Struck away in mere seconds? She didn't want to do something she would regret later, so she sighed.

"Fine, meet me at break in the courtyard and we can talk then, OK? I want to eat my breakfast at the minute."

"Sure," he said, turning and heading off to the Ravenclaw table to eat his own breakfast, just pleased that she had agreed to talk to him. Also, he had a couple of hours to plan what to say to her that would best convey his feelings. Especially as he was a Ravenclaw, he found the best way to express himself via words and the correct use of them.

Rose spent her lessons between breakfast and break having an internal debate about whether or not anything he could say would make her feel differently about the matter.

When she reflected on what he had said, she realised he had never aired his own views on the matter, and had just seemed to feel that he should do what his father said, which Rose could relate to. Both their fathers were quite strict and were probably both opposed to their friendship. Certainly Rose's father had shown an initial disliking to Scorpius and had warned her not to get friendly with him, but he hadn't mentioned the subject since then and Rose had never been sure how serious he had been. But if her dad told her not be friends with Scorpius, because she trusted him, she would wonder about if she should listen to her dad and she assumed Scorpius had felt the same.

By the time break had come, neither Rose nor Scorpius had got any further on the matter. After an hour of worry, Scorpius had decided to just go for it, sure that anything he said in the spur of the moment would be sincere and exactly what he thought as opposed to what he thought he should say. Rose had decided to make a decision based on whether or not he came across as simply worried about what his father would think or whether he had actually thought his father was right.

They both headed to the courtyard at break, neither knowing what to do, or say, worrying about how the encounter would go.

When Scorpius got to the courtyard, Rose was already there, sitting, head down in a book, scribbling notes onto a piece of parchment. She hadn't been there long; the bell had only just gone and the parchment was almost empty.

"Hello," he said, taking a seat next to her. She closed the book and carefully set it to one side, resting her parchment and quill on top.

"Hi," she said, a bit more warmly than she had before.

"I wanted to apologise, Rose. I would like a second chance, I mean, my father is still a racist, prejudiced idiot, but that doesn't mean I have to be one too. I have been an idiot though, so I'm sorry for that. My father isn't right and I never thought he was, I was just… scared of disappointing him." He turned away, facing the other end of the courtyard.

"It's OK and I'm sorry I didn't forgive you sooner. You didn't do anything wrong, and I understand how you feel about your father; I feel the same, like by being friends with you I'd disappoint him somehow. But both of them are going to have to learn that there are more important things to achieve than being enemies with someone for no reason and they'll have to learn to be proud that we overcame the barrier of our background to be friends. Because we are, right?" Scorpius turned to her, shocked that she'd accepted his apology.

"Right, friends. Friends are allowed to have little fall outs, as long as they kiss and make up." Rose looked a bit wary, so Scorpius clarified. "I meant that metaphorically. We don't have to kiss. A hug's cool." Rose grinned and they hugged, still sitting down.

"Is this a private couple thing or can anyone join in?" asked a familiar voice.

"Kat, just drop it," Rose said, irritated. "We're not a couple, no more than me and Josh are a couple."

"Well that ain't convincing me of anything," muttered Kat as she sat next to Rose. "Here's your stuff." She picked it up off the arm of the bench and passed it to her. Rose gave her a very quite 'thanks' and shoved it back into her bag. Having Kat there was… awkward to say the least, because she was in default flirting mode, but Scorpius put up with it quite well, answering politely rather than flirting back. Eventually, Kat got bored and stood up.

"I'm going to find Bryony, so, ciao!" Rose rolled her eyes as Kat left.

"You know, it seems like you two don't get along. Why hang out?" he asked, confused about the complex relationship.

"We do get on; we're just having a rough patch. We'll straighten it out; we always do. Kat and Rose and Bryony. We're always Kat and Rose and Bryony." Scorpius nodded, standing up with his bag.

"I'm gonna head up to Transfiguration. Coming with me?" Rose nodded and bent down to pick up her bag.

She slung it over one shoulder and followed him across the courtyard, chatting, just as the bell went to tell everyone to get to class.