The Romance of the snake and the rose

James Sirius Potter

Rose hadn't spoken to James in what seemed like forever. He was two years older than her, and always a prankster at Weasley-Potter family gatherings. She was going to need his help if she was going to try and permanently put Emma in her place. Rose still had zero ideas about how they were going to put Emma in her place, and was relying heavily on James for that part of the plan. But first she had to ask him.

He sat a couple of seats down from her at the Gryffindor table, with his large gang of friends. Rose couldn't help but be intimidated, and hadn't worked up the courage to ask him yet. James did have good morals, but he might still say no, and that was what Rose was afraid of. That and his 5th year friends. But she was going to have to ask him eventually, so on the morning after her encounter with Hinami, she gritted her teeth and walked up to where James was sitting.

He was engrossed in conversation with his back to her, so that only his friends sitting opposite him saw her coming. As she drew nearer they gestured to her, and she walked awkwardly up to him.

"Hi James," she said nervously.

"Hi Rose," said James, smiling at her, "There a prank you need pulling off by any chance?"

"How could you tell?" she asked him, relieved he'd introduced the subject so she didn't need too.

"Honestly...I think it was the look of having dodgy conscience," he told her cheekily. Rose rolled her eyes. "Should I meet you this evening in the common room?" he asked.

"Sounds good." she said, and walked back to her seat next to Alice. She felt like a huge weight had been taken off her shoulders and now she was free to daydream about her kiss with Scorpius. The two of them had potions together later with professor Slughorn, and Alice had suggested they pair up and she could work with some one else. Rose was glad Alice was just as enthusiastic about Scorpius and her as she was.

For now all Rose could do to appease herself was stare over at him on the Slytherin table, where he was busy staring at her.

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After sitting through transfiguration, charms, history of magic and divination, it was finally potions and a very distracted Rose headed down to the dungeons with Alice. They joined the rest of the students at the bottom of the staircase who were waiting for class to begin. Rose spotted Scorpius immediately, he was chatting with Albus, and looked up at her as she arrived. A smile formed on his face.

"Go suggest being partners for potions," whispered Alice excitedly, and walked off in the direction of Roxanne. Rose took a deep breath, and then began to walk towards Scorpius, he also began to walk towards her, and Albus walked off to join Alice and Roxanne. They reached each other in the middle of the crowd of students, both smiling sheepishly.

"I was wondering if you wanted to be partners with me in potions today?" asked Rose shyly, looking at Scorpius through her eye-lashes.

"I was going to suggest the same thing," he laughed. They were interrupted as professor Slughorn opened the door of the potions classroom and called them all inside. They all filed in, Rose and Scorpius' hands 'accidently' brushing each other a bit too often to be natural. The two of them were about to go sit at a desk near the back of the class, when professor Slughorn instead ordered everyone up to the front of the classroom. Rose and Scorpius were pushed to the front of the group of bustling students, and found themselves facing a large cauldron full of a pale pink potion with a pearly sheen and cloudy smoke spiraling out of it.. Rose was hit by the strong smell of pine wood and fresh mint. Just like Scorpius, she thought to herself, confused.