the weight of living ⁂ scorpius malfoy

twenty five ⁂ long story

May 22, 2022 - prefect duties

Scarlett glanced at her watch to see it was 11:00. She picked up the bag of toiletries she left under a window bench in the corridor she patrolled and made her way to the prefect bathroom. Crescendoing footsteps cause her to turn her head to see Scorpius walking behind her with a black bag.

"What are you doing?"

Scorpius smirked. "I'm joining you."

Scarlett didn't answer, dumbfounded. Now she had to use her bathing suit, which she had to put on in a stall. When Scarlett made her way to the bath, it was already filled bubbles. Orange scents filled her nose as she noticed Scorpius already in the warm bath. Scarlett burst into a fit of giggles.

"What?" Scorpius looked at her.

"What the hell is happening?" She dipped into the bath, not being shy as she submerged herself, letting the sweet water wash her clean.

When she emerged, Scorpius replied, "I can't spend time with my fellow prefect and soon to be co-captain?"

"Shut up." She joked, smoothing her hair back and brushing off some of the bubbles. Sometimes she took showers, but the bubbles made her smell amazing, and there was just something about the orange that made her want to smell like it all the time. "Seriously, what do you want?"

Scorpius sighed, propping his arms on the sides of the small pool. "I don't want anything. I just owe you one, and I know you don't have a lot of friends, so I'm just proposing we could... I mean... I'm here if you want to talk."

"Wow." Scarlett crossed her arms, giving Scorpius mixed signals. "I think you just insulted me then actually offered to do something generally nice."

"Sorry, I'm not good with words, whatever. Fine, how was your day?"

"I can't believe this is happening." Scarlett let out a wry laugh. "And for your information, I have enough friends. But for my day: it was okay, I guess. I'm experiencing mild popularity among our house because of yesterday, but I doubt that'll last much longer."

"Me too!" Scorpius joked, making Scarlett roll her eyes. "But in all seriousness, anything interesting happening? I'm sure you hear a lot from your roommates."

"Jesus, you're just as bad as Gus! I swear guys like gossip more than girls. Excluding my roommates."

"Ouch."

"Alright, James and Alicia broke up. Not even Gus knows yet, but honestly, I don't know if he'll care or not." Scarlett said. She glanced around the room and noticed some muggle headphones peeking out of his bag. Weird, she thought. Why would he have muggle headphones?

"How'd you find out?"

"Long story."

"We have time."

"I just found James after it happened and he told me." Scarlett shrugged.

"That's not very long," Scorpius said.

"I guess not," Scarlett muttered, and Scorpius didn't bother carrying the conversation he had offered to have. To Scarlett, it seemed James was a touchy subject.

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May 25, 2022 - slytherin common room

Scorpius was tired. Of course, he didn't want to admit it, but he was. School, quidditch, and prefect duties had finally caught up with him. And to be totally honest, Scorpius was only in the slytherin common room because he wanted to get away from his energetic girlfriend.

He grabbed a book from the bookshelf and sunk into a chair in front of the fireplace. Despite the fact it was early spring, having a common room underground meant most of the time it was on the chilly side, so the fireplace was always lit. Scorpius opened up his book, ready to start learning about anything and everything before he noticed the person sitting across from him. He looked up to see Scarlett snuggled in a blanket on the rug closer to the fire reading a book. He sighed, almost getting up to leave, but realized he was trying his best to get along with her and that probably wouldn't help. Scorpius looked back to his book, letting the flow of words register into his brain before a figure strutting into the common room made him look up. It was James, walking towards the fireplace.

Figures, Scorpius thought. Why is he coming towards me? His question was quickly answered when James stopped right behind Scorpius and started to talk to Scarlett. Scorpius tried to listen to the conversation while 'reading' his book.

"Hey."

"Hey James. What's up?"

"So, since N.E.W.T.s are coming up, and you have O.W.L.s, I was wondering if you wanted to study together?" Scorpius had no doubt James was wearing his award-winning smile.

"Yeah, I really need to study." Scorpius looked up to see Scarlett following James to a table not too far away covered in books and papers. She sat right next to him, and Scorpius tried to stare at his book but kept being distracted by Scarlett's giggle and James's chuckle. Scorpius felt his blood boil, so he got up as soon as he could because he was sure it was just the fireplace that was causing him to sweat.