the weight of living ⁂ scorpius malfoy

sixteen ⁂ responsibilities

December 31, 2021 -
an hour later

They ended up on the bed, Scarlett wrapped in Scorpius' arms, laying in silence.

Scorpius' fingers paused from drawing shapes on Scarlett's hand when she broke the silence. "We usually play games. But I like this too." Scarlett whispered.

"Me too." He hummed in response. Scarlett closed her eyes, and slipped into a dreamless sleep.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

January 1, 2022

Scarlett woke up to Scorpius accidentally elbowing her in the shoulder.

"Sorry." He mumbled, getting out of the bed.

"Its okay. Where are you going?" She asked, taking in the orange scent of the warm bed and sitting up slightly.

Scorpius ran his hand through his hair, yawning. "We fell asleep, and are about to miss breakfast, unless we leave now."

Scarlett's eyes shot open in surprise. "It's morning?"

"Yeah."

"Happy New Year." Scarlett smiled awkwardly as soon as she realized she slept in the same bed as a boy. Scorpius Malfoy. "I guess everyone will be coming back."

His eyes widened. "Scarlett," Scorpius breathed. "You can't tell anyone about this week."

Scarlett was taken aback. She sat up in her bed, her eyebrows furrowing. "What?"

"This never happened okay? See you later." He spoke, putting on his robes and quickly slipping out the door.

"Scorpius, wait!" Scarlett yelled although she knew it was too late.

She looked over to her bedside table to an empty owl cage. Scarlett remembered last night, when Scorpius loomed over her shoulder while she replied to her parents. Daer actually started to like Scorpius, especially when he gave him a treat.

Scarlett didn't want to admit she missed him already. Her stomach churned from what had just occurred, which dwindled her appetite. Scarlett buried herself back into her covers, giving her quite the time to think because she could not fall back asleep.

She realized what was wrong. Scorpius Malfoy, the pure-blood, with a mudblood. Despite his mother's equal outlook on all wizards, Scorpius' father and grandparents drilled into his head how bad mudbloods are. Scarlett figured all this out while they were talking, but didn't want to point it out. Still jumbled in her thoughts, Scarlett fell asleep. She woke up to the loud chattering of her obnoxious roommates. Scarlett remained in her bed, pretending to be asleep so her roommates wouldn't direct their conversation to her.

"And he kissed me on the balcony! It was so romantic." Scarlett recognized the voice to be Paisley's.

"Ugh. Jeremy is the least bit romantic." Fawn complained.

Ella scoffed. "You should break up with him."

"I will not!" Fawn argued. "He's hot, a prefect, and smart. Why would I?"

"Whatever." Ella said. "Oh, look. Scarlett asleep. Again. Is that all she does besides study?"

"Yeah, because obviously she didn't find any time to clean up her side of the room." Victoria said casually, because the four of them knew perfectly well Scarlett stayed home every winter break. "She can't even put paper in the rubbish."

Scarlett heard someone's footsteps coming closer to her bed, and panicked, for the pieces of paper they were talking about were Scorpius' note and Clary & Olivia's letter. Scarlett jumped up, startling her roommates, and grabbing the two pieces of paper off the ground and shoving them in her pocket. She looked up to her roommates, who all had quizzical expressions.

"Uh.. I'll keep it more clean next time." Scarlett blurted, then turned around to swear at herself under her breath. She then quickly got ready for lunch, seeing it was about to start, and fled out of her room.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

January 2, 2022 -
frog choir practice

Everyone was back and finally settling back into classes and the sleep schedule, except Scarlett. She had managed to lose her ipod, and was excessively stressing about it. Scarlett then realized she had too many responsibilities. School work, charms club, frog choir, prefect duties, and quidditch practices. Free time did not exist in her life. She spent the whole frog choir contemplating on what to drop. Scarlett mentally crossed out quidditch and prefect duties, and school work (for obvious reasons).

Scarlett looked over to Clary for the first time in weeks. She glanced to Scarlett, but immediately looked away when she saw her looking. Her decision was made, Scarlett had to drop Frog choir. She reassured herself that it was better to have the weight of the endless rehearsals off her shoulders, and Professor Collins would understand. Plus, it was inevitable when her relationship with Clary was no longer even a relation. Also, she wasn't that great at singing.

Frog choir trudged on, and when it came to a close, Scarlett rushed up to Professor Collins and explained her troubles. She grudgingly accepted, and Scarlett rushed out the door to the common room, for she only had an hour left to finish her newly assigned homework before prefect duties.

Scarlett entered the common room to find it packed with kids, a thing that always seemed to surprise her after the vacant winter break. She spots Scorpius, who has a nose in a book but still is laughing and talking with his friends. Her mind goes back to their kiss, and when Scarlett realized she was staring, she shoves the image away and retreats to the Ravenclaw tower.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

"Hey Gus." Scarlett greeted her friend as she plopped down next to the boy when he was sitting alone in his common room.

"Hey Scar. What was the riddle this time?"

"Tear one off and scratch my head, what was red is black instead." She smirked. When Gus and Scarlett started to hang out in the ravenclaw common room, Gus managed to provide Scarlett with books full of riddles so she could easily get into the common room.

"A match. Easy." He smirked and Scarlett playfully groaned. "How long did it take you?"

"Not long. I remembered it from the depths of one of the books you loaned me. How was your break? I haven't seen you in forever."

Augustus smiled. "It was great, thanks. Speaking of the break, my mum made you some cookies. They're in my trunk, I'll grab them before you leave for bed."

"Yes!" Scarlett cheered, opening her book to the correct page.

"What about yours?" He asked, glancing to his book and scribbling something on his paper, then looking back for Scarlett's answer.

Scarlett's face became red, then she answered calmly answered, "Same as always. But my parents got me a bathing suit for Christmas."

"Did you go streaking in the empty halls?" Gus smiled.

"Maybe." He laughed at her response.

"I'm not one to gossip," Gus mocked one of Scarlett's roommates, and Scarlett giggled. "But I heard Scorpius Malfoy stayed at school too."

Scarlett chose her words carefully as she shrugged. "Yeah, but I barely saw him. I was too busy streaking."