♟Promotions and Sacrifices [Scorose]♟

5th Year:

Rose sat at the very last table in the back of the library, glaring at her potions book. Was it really a surprise anymore? Of course he's late.

Since class time in potions was reserved for, well, class time, Rose and Scorpius had agreed to meet up in the library to do their research. Fortunately, Rose being the only one in the library gave her some much needed peace and quiet. Things have been much more hectic than usual because of the upcoming quidditch game- Slytherin vs Gryffindor. The two teams were equally undefeated and this game was a chance for them to settle the dispute on who was better. Many Ravenclaws put money on Slytherin winning, while Hufflepuffs sided with Gryffindor. Truth be told, she didn't mind the rise in excitement throughout the school for the game (something she never understood). It was her cousins that were driving her insane. About half of the Weasley-Potters at the school were on the Gryffindor quidditch team, which meant that chaos would only rise as game day grew closer.

Rose sighed and buried her head in the newest Charms book her mother had gotten her for Christmas.

The library doors flew open with a thud, and there he was. His hair was windswept and he looked slightly out of breath, panting just a little bit. He was dressed in his dark green quidditch robes with his broom hanging from one hand. He had immediately spotted her prominent red hair and jogged towards her.

"You're..." She looked down at her watch. "Twenty minutes late. Care to explain yourself?" It was quite self-explanatory but Rose didn't care. He looked down at himself, then back at her, throwing his hands out.

"What do you think, genius?"

She huffed in frustration. "I think you should've told me you would have practice around this time so I wouldn't have to sit here like an idiot."

"Oh Rosie, you do that by yourself." He grinned and pinched her cheeks just like Grandma Molly does. Uncontrollably, her face grew red and she slapped his hands away.

"Can we just hurry up and do the assignment. I don't have time for your games Malfoy." She flipped the pages of her book until she found the chapter about Wolfsbane.

"Okay, so it says here that the main and most important ingredient is 'aconite', a species of Aconitum. It is highly toxic and must be used with caution. Along with that, you'll need black quicksilver, a giant moonwort, and myrrh." She stopped and looked up. He was staring directly at her, with an unreadable expression. Did he even listen to a word she said?

"What are you doing? Write that down." She passed him her quill. "We need to figure out how to acquire these. I heard Professor Longbottom could help."

"Mmhum." He started to jot stuff down, but something told Rose that he was no longer writing the ingredients. By the way he quickly moved his wrist, she could tell he was writing down his own words, however, when she reached up to look at it, he moved his hand so that it was invisible.

"What are you writing? Let me see." She reached over, but he pulled away.

"No. Mind your own business, Weasley." He laughed as she attempted to, once again, grab his paper. Well it must be something interesting if he's being this protective.

She gasped. "Uh- my own business? This is my business! What did you put on our paper?"

"Nothing." He shrugged it off, but the mischief smile on his face said otherwise. As time passed, Rose continued to read out information from the book while Scorpius copied it down for future reference. She was in mid-sentence when he suddenly pushed his chair back and started to pack up his stuff. Looking up at the clock towards her, she realized it was past ten.

"I'm going to go take a shower then I'll meet you up in the corridors outside of the dining hall."

She nodded her head, and stood up to do the same. Scorpius walked towards the doors, turned back and flashed her a brief smile before leaving. She tried to ignore the feeling in her stomach when he did so. What was that? Surely he couldn't have been looking at me. She looked around the room and found that the only other person there was Mrs. Tursule, the old, grumpy librarian.