Discovering

Chapter One An Arrangement

"Rose"

I don't respond. Usually whoever has decided to bother me will go away if I just don't answer. Nine out of ten times they assume I'm asleep, and the tenth time it's usually Hugo, who doesn't give a niffler's behind what I'm doing.

"Rose."

The voice is still a whisper, and the tap is so soft I can hear it. I can easily pretend I haven't, so I continue to write my letter and ignore whoever is outside of my door. This letter is a very important letter after all. I have to write to Celia to let her know the horrible, and wonderful, news.

Celia,

The most horrible and wonderful thing has happened. Auntie Ginny and Uncle Harry are going to France this week, so Al and Lily are staying over, starting today. Al was pestering mum all night about how he promised Scorpius Malfoy that he could stay over the night before we go back to school, but his parents went off to France and ruined his plans. Mum, being the softie that she is, told Al that Scorpius could stay HERE that night.

"Rose? C'mon I know you're in there." The voice had stopped whispering and I could tell who was standing outside my bedroom door. It was Al. Shite. The nerve of him. It was his fault I'd locked myself in my bedroom in the first place.

"Whats'it Al?" I ask, loud enough that he can hear me through the door and I hear him shuffle his feet and something hit's the door, his head perhaps? I hope it hurt.

"Why did you come storming up here? You and Scorpius are friends. You're acting like I'm having Voldie over for a night cap."

"Albus! Do not joke about Voldemort in this house!" Score. Dad had obviously walked past as Al was talking. "Sorry Uncle Ron, really."

"Go away, Al!" I shout at him, begging him to get the picture, and then I go back to my letter.
Dad threw a bit of a stink about it, but Mum said Scorpius could come over anyway and something about Al feeling at home. What Shite! Al is here so much it might as well be his home. So, I've locked myself in my room to write to you, because you are the only one who knows the WHOLE situation with Scorpius. So, I need you here that night to. We can take you to Kings Cross in the morning. If you can't send a letter along with any advice. Anything is better than my own idea, which is to stay locked in this room for the next week.

Luv,
Rose

I sent the letter immediately with Jo, my red owl who stays perch in my room most days instead of in the owlery in the attic with mum, dad, and Hugo's owls. She nipped me affectionately and then she was out the window, and I was alone again.

I decided to try and go to sleep, even though it was barely eight o'clock. There was no way I was going out to face my famly. Mom and Dad were probably wondering why I had made such a big deal out of Scorpius coming over, which was an idiot move on my part. A flubber worm had more common sense than I did sometimes. I would have been fine with Scorpius coming over on most occasions, excited actually. Al was right, we were friends, until the end of sixth year, when everything was ruined.

We'd been in the library studying, as we usually did every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday with our friends. It had become a bit of a ritual that started back in first year. Al had been sorted into Slytherin and I into Gryffindor. He had thought it mad funny that he'd asked the hat to put him into Slytherin, but the rest of the family tended to agree with my dad's view that Al had gone mad. Because we'd been raised together, Al and I were best friends, along with Abby Longbottom, but as we were in separate houses we never saw much of each other. The study sessions in the Library were our times for the three of us to unwind, relax and share a few laughs, quiet ones of course, as well as help each other along with our subjects.

Overtime, we started to make friends with the rest of the students, and eventually the sessions had grown to include seventeen people. It started when Al brought Scorpius and Evan Roche, his best friends from Slytherin, and Abby and I invited Celia to come with us. The group now included students from both of our houses along with four Ravenclaws, our cousins Lucy and Roxanne and their best friends Natalie and Art. Madame Urline, the librarian, had tried to put her foot down, but as we were actually doing work, hadn't broken any school rules, and kept our voices down, she was powerless against us.

On that particular Thursday, the last study session of the year, all seventeen of us had piled into the library for a last minute cram before exams started. I was working with Scorpius that night because he needed help with Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, and I needed help with Defense. We were in the library until close, long after our friends had left, wishing us luck the net day, one by one. By nine, we were the last two people in the library, which was more often than not the case, and also the reason we had the highest marks in our class.
Our conversation had drifted to the summer ahead and what sorts of mischief we would be getting into together along with our nearest and dearest friends. And then, the stupid thing happened. My head fell forward in laughter and when I looked up again there was hair in my face. I reached up to move it away, but Scorpius beat me to it, and his fingers slid across my face to place my curly red hair back behind my ear. After that, I stared at him for a few moments, and he looked back at me and I got a really brilliant, stupid idea.

I leaned towards him, slowly, and he smirked, which made me laugh, and then he finished what I had begun by leaning in the rest of the way and pressing his lips to mine. We kissed for what seemed like an eternity, a blissful, perfect never-ending kiss. After a few moments, or perhaps ten minutes, his tongue slid across my mouth, and I parted it, allowing him to tease me with his tongue more thoroughly, and he was an artist at using his tongue. By this time, his hand was on my cheek and I was sitting at the edge of my seat.

"Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Weasley, I do believe it's time for you both to be in bed." Madame Urline was standing next to us, holding a stack of library books, with a small smile on her face. Embarrassed, we both scooped our books into our bags and headed out of the Library. As he had every time we were late in the library, which was pretty often, he walked me to Gryffindor tower, without speaking. When we reached the portrait he had stared uneasily at my shoes and I had bit my lip, staring at his ear.

"Good night." I muttered and turned to the Fat Lady, only to feel his hand on my wrist, so I faced him again, for only a second before he was kissing me again, this time against the wall next to the Fat Lady, and his entire body was flush against mine. I wrapped me arms around his neck, pulling him deeper in to our kiss. His hands were fighting there way into my robes and then up my sweater. It was hot, and fast and even more amazing then our kiss in the Library, because I could feel his body matched with mine and his hands sliding to touch anything they could reach. When he leaned back to breathe, I smiled at him and he laughed this time. "I've wanted to do that for a very long time, Red." He told me and I frowned. I hadn't thought this through, and now all of my thoughts were catching up to me. I had no idea what this meant to him, or really what it meant to me. "I want you, Red." And then we were kissing again, like our lives depended on it, but it was my turn to stop it, and I did.

"Scoprius." I whispered, afraid my voice wouldn't work. "What … I mean …"

He leaned in to me again, but his lips found my ear this time, and nibbled it for a moment, and then spoke. "I want you to be mine, Rose Weasley, only mine."

"You want … to date?" I ask him, moving to the side, to get out of his hands, they were distracting me.

"Well…" He smirked, and leaned against the wall. "That is what people do when they like each other, isn't it?" And there it was. I didn't like Scorpius like that. I liked him very much as a friend, and as a study partner. I respected his abilities as a wizard and as a prefect. I hoped that we would be heads together the following year, because I thought we would make an excellent pair, but I didn't want to date him. Yes, kissing him had been amazing, but it was just kissing, and it didn't mean that I had feelings for him.

"I, well, I don't think we should. I mean, our friendship." He had stopped smirking, and lifted himself off the wall. He was staring at me like a lost puppy and it was tearing at my heart, he was one of my best friends, and it was clear that this was not the response he'd been expecting. "I don't want to ruin anything." I finished and he was full out frowning now.

"Then what was all of this about? Why did you …"

"I don't know." I was still whispering and his words seemed to be louder than possible. "I'm sorry; it was just in the moment. I mean, I enjoyed it, really, it's just I don't feel that way." And then he was walking away, without another word. I called after him, but he waved me away and rounded the corner, disappearing. The Fat Lady had given me a stern talking to about being a scarlet woman and leading on a poor kind boy before letting me in to Gryffindor tower, and I had poured my heart into the first friend I found, who happened to be Celia, who had relocated her studying in the tower by the fire.

I hadn't heard from Scorpius or talked to him since. The entire summer had passed and I had avoided the Potter's house, where I knew he would be periodically staying, and Al hadn't mentioned it either, so I had no idea how he was reacting. Suddenly, I want to know, I need to know, so I walk over to my bedroom door and unlock it. The outside hall is dark and vacant. I make my way to Al's room, and knock. It's not the lame tap tap that he had used, but a real 'open the freaking door' knock. His feet shuffle against the wood as he walks and then the door is open and he is staring curiously at me.

"Why the bloody hell are you crying?"

"I need to talk to you." I push past him and fall onto his bed with my head hanging off the side. Al lies beside me, his head off the side as well, and we stare at the dresser together. "Did Scorpius tell you what happened between us?"

"What?" Al's voice is pure shock, and I realize that he is probably assuming more than he should.

"Calm down. It's nothing that bad."

"What happened?"

"We kissed in the Library, on the last Thursday before exams, and then again by the Fat Lady."

"All right!" Al seems excited about this, which was not something that I expected. "So, are you two together now or what?"

"No."

"What? Why? He's so bloody in to you its disgusting." Al looks over at me and I begin to feel even worse than I did before.

"I told him I didn't feel that way about him."

Al scrunches his face up. "Ouch, Rosie."

"And we haven't talked since." Al sits up onto his bed then and I follow him.

"I get why you flipped out at dinner now, but I don't know what to tell you about what happened. Do you really not like him?"

"I don't know. I was in shock I guess. I never even thought about him like that, Al. He was just Scorpius. We've been friends as long as you have. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I care about him, and I don't want to hurt him, but I don't know if we could even … be together." I pause for a minute and then add in my real concern. "Dad would kill him."

Al glared at me, but I look at the wall to avoid acknowledging this. "Really. Your dad needs to let things go, move on. My parents got over Scorpius being a Malfoy about ten seconds after they met him. And if you're going to not date my kick-ass best friend because of your dad, I don't love you anymore."

I know he is kidding, but still, I already feel like crap. "Stop it, Al! That's not why I'm not dating him, I just never thought about him that way."

"Well, then don't date him. Scor is a big boy, I'm sure he'll be able to move on and you can be friends again."

"You think? Really? I miss him." Al rolled his eyes and pulled me into a bear hug.

"Calm down, Rosie. Everything will get sorted." I sniff loudly into Al's shoulder and he lets me go.

He's looking at me like a leper when I look back at him after wiping my eyes. "Stop acting like such a girl."

"I am a girl!" I grab his pillow and hit him with it, which was a bad idea as it caused him to push me off his bed and hit the floor with a loud bang. A pain shoots through my elbow and I clutch it to my chest.

"Rose? Al?" Mom opened the door and I started laughing hysterically in pain.

"What is wrong with you?" Al asks kicking my leg softly.

I can't answer so I just stay on the floor laughing my head off. "You kids are insane. Keep it down Rose. Your father and I have to work in the morning, so if you insist on beating each other up and laughing about it go outside or into the den." I look over to see her shaking her head as the door shuts and my laughter dies down.

"You are nuts." Al tells me when I make it back up to the bed.

"I'm a Wealsey." I respond smiling wide.
…

The morning of the 31st I woke up to someone jumping on the end of my bed singing loudly. I yelled something unintelligible and the person, who happened to be Celia, jumped down beside me and poked my cheek until I groaned and sat up to glare at her, which I am currently doing. "Morning, Rosie Posie."

"What are you doing here?"

"Saving you from an awful day filled with Al and Scorpius. Your mom told me to tell you breakfast is in ten minutes.",

"Did dad really pick up you and him both?"

"Yes. We had a lovely awkward car ride over."

"Any reason to drive his new car." I roll my eyes and touch my hair, which is obviously tangled and matted. "I look like shit don't I?" I look at her for the first time and she looks amazing. Her black hair is falling perfectly straight down her back and is frizz free. Somehow, even though it's only seven, she's put on make up and dressed in a cute jean skirt and a pink tank top. "What time did you get up anyway?"

"5:30 and you look awful. Not how you want to look when you go downstairs." Celia disappears into my bathroom and I force myself out of bed and look through my closet. Celia reappears with my brush and some of the detangler Auntie Ginny makes for me because of my insane hair. Grandmum Weasley tells me it's a perfect mesh of the mom and dad, but what she really means is I've inherited the awful bright red of dad's hair and the equally horrible frizzy mass from mum.

"I've come to save the day." Celia jokes holding her arms in a superhero pose.

"Just helping me last the day will be enough." I laugh at her and stare hopelessly into the closet. I suddenly feel as if nothing inside of it is good enough for breakfast. I don't know why I care so much, but something is nagging at me. Maybe I just don't want him to know how much it's been affecting me that we haven't been friends lately.
Celia puts the brush and the bottle on my dresser and searches through the closet, pulling out a white sundress. "Wear this. It's simple and you will look like you just threw something on."

"I love you." I tell her as I change into the dress. It does look rather fetching and I turn in a circle to get the full affect. "You are a genius."

"Your hair still looks like crap, Rose. Come here." And she brushes my hair as I put on a small amount of makeup, just enough to make it seem like I haven't only been awake for ten minutes.

"Al says he thinks Scorpius is a big boy and he'll get over it."

"You kissed him and told him that you had no intention of dating him after he made it clear that he wants you. I think it might take some time." Celia stares at me in the mirror, her hands on her hips.

"It's been two months." I protest.

"I don't know him as well as you do, so I don't know what to tell you." She sighs and goes back into my room. I take one last look in the mirror to make sure I look okay, and follow her.

"Come on let's go downstairs." I lead the way to the kitchen, where mum, dad, Al, Scorpius, Lily and Hugo and all sitting at the table eating.

"Hello, Celia! Morning, Sweetheart." Mum greets us, and my eyes wander over to Scorpius without my permission. He's staring at his plate and listening to Al talk about some nonsense or another.

"Hey, Hugo." Celia teases my little brother as we take our seats, and he blushes down at his own food. Hugo has had a crush on Celia for about three years now, and dad laughs without abandon at his reaction to her simple greeting. Mum gives him a look that clearly tells him to cut it out and I begin to pile food onto my plate, hoping that as long as I'm eating I won't have to talk to anyone.

"So, Rosie, Al says that you and Scorpius are quite a pair at school. He thinks that you two will do really well as Heads this year." Oh, did I forget to mention that our dream of being Head boy and Head girl came true? I found out when my Hogwarts letter arrived a few weeks ago and Al told me about Scorpius a few days ago, not that I was too surprised.
I glance at Scorpius again, but he's still avoiding me, instead looking at mum as if he thinks she's still talking.

"Yea." I mumble in response, not sure what to say.

"Rose and I work very well together, Mrs. Weasley. I don't think I would pass Arithmancy without her." I hear his words, but this time I don't look over at him.

"During our study group they are like a pair of encyclopedia's sharing information. Between the two of them it's amazing the rest of us ever learn anything." Al tells the table and Celia shakes her head.

"Maybe if you focused a bit more on studying and a bit less on Natalie, you might get something done." Scorpius snorts at Celia's words and even I manage a laugh.

"Lucy and Roxanne's friend? The one with the funny ears?" Dad asks, scrunching his nose and Al turns red as mom tells dad to 'Stop it, Ronald.'

"She doesn't have funny ears!" Al tells the table and throws his fork down.

"Yes she does!" Hugo tells Al with a giant grin, causing Lily to giggle. "They point at the tips. Even I know that." Apparently this is going too far because Al pushes himself away from the table and leaves the kitchen.

"Hugo Weasley!" Mum whispers sharply.

"What?" Hugo shrugs his shoulder. "It's true."

"I'm going to go make sure he's alright. I shouldn't have brought it up." Celia tells us and moves out of her chair, following Al. The rest of us continue our breakfast listening to Lily talk about her O.W.L.S and mum tells dad and Hugo to do the dishes by hand for upsetting Al, so I head towards Al's room, Scorpius at my side.

As we walk, I imagine different things to say to him like 'I'm sorry I don't want to date you' or 'I miss you like crazy and I need to be friends again,' but instead I just keep my mouth shut and wait for him to speak. By the time he does, were by Al's door and I have given up hope.

"Rose, Can we talk?" I barely hear it, but when I do I stop walking and look at my shoes. "Please?" He adds and I look over at the door to my room.

"Want to go to my room?" I ask, looking at him for the first time since we left the kitchen. He nods, so I cross the hall and we walk inside of my room, something we've done too many times to count before, but this time it's different. There is a weight hanging over our heads, and when I shut the door behind me there is a silence suffocating me. I watch him move around, stopping to glance at photos and books and then sit on my bed, looking at anything but me. I follow his lead, and take a seat beside him on the bed.

I think this might be the most awkward moment of my entire life. Even worse than when Grandmum asked me and Albus if we were 'aware of the repercussions of becoming active with the opposite gender' at Uncle Harry's birthday party last month. At first we hadn't understood what she was talking about, but then Grandpa explained that she'd seen a pregnant girl while they had been shopping in Muggle London, and had somehow gotten it into her mind that this meant all teenagers were 'active with the opposite gender.'

"Iamreallysorry." I blurt out after nearly five minutes of silence and avoiding looking at him.

He's quiet for another long moment and then he grabs my hand, which is probably sweaty and disgusting right now from my nerves. Great. "Me, too." He says and I don't know what to do. He's still holding my hand, staring down at our hands while I'm staring at him, trying to read him. Nothing is coming to mind. "I just don't understand."

"What do you mean?" I really don't know what he's talking about. He could not understand quite a few things. Like maybe why I don't want to be with him, or why I kissed him, or why I have a hippopotamus stuffed animal on my bed.

"Why did you kiss me?" Yea. I thought that might be it. What do I say to that?

"I wanted to." Honest. Simple.

"So you wanted to kiss me, but not to date me?" Why does he have to keep complicating this? Can't things just be the way they were before? I can't concentrate when he's rubbing circles into my palm like that.

"I guess. I don't know. I was just surprised. I hadn't thought about us being together before." Someone might as well hand me a knife so I can kill him faster.

"And now?"

Shit. "I don't think it would be a good idea." Please just stop asking questions.

"Any of it?" Huh? He's smirking again, a sign that he's back in his element.

"What do you mean?" I speak slowly, as I'm still not sure I really want to know.

Scorpius leans in to me and his breath tickles my ear. "I want you, Rose, any way I can have you."

"Are you suggesting…" And then he's kissing me again and I can't help but kiss him back. His tongue slides across my mouth and I part my lips, but he's moved on. His kisses are making a trial down my chin to my neck where he pauses to suck and bite my skin lightly. "Scorpius…" I push on his chest lightly and back up on the bed to get space between us. "What exactly are you proposing?"

"I guess I'm proposing that we keep kissing, as you seem to enjoy it, and we keep being friends, because you seem to enjoy being single." I can tell that he's thought about this a lot, and he is waiting for my answer, and he must already know what it is.

"No." I tell him clearly and he grins. Shit.

He moves closer and puts his hand on my chin, his thumb tracing my lips. "It's the perfect solution."

"What about our friendship? It means a lot to me."

"I know. This way we can still be friends, and I get to kiss you. If you decide," he pauses and some of the light in his eyes fades, "to date someone else, we go back to being friends just like before."

"Did Al put you up to this?" I ask suddenly, wondering just how much of our conversation earlier in the week was relayed back to the boy sitting next to me.

"No. I swear he doesn't know." I know he's telling the truth because he has this horrible habit of looking at my hair when he's lying and he hasn't stopped looking at my eyes for a moment. "We don't have to tell anyone, and if you really don't want to we can just be friends. I'm okay with that too." He smirks again and I know he's imaging just how much fun we could have with this little arrangement because it's running through my mind at the moment.

Kissing Scorpius is divine, so I know that I wouldn't get tired of it, but is it fair to enter into this sort of an arrangement when I know that he feels a certain way about me that I don't about him. And what if I do get a boyfriend? He says that we'll go back to being friends, but that is easier said than done. I have been known to get around before. I mean, well, I'm not easy, but I've dated my fair share of Hogwarts fellows, including Aidan Pilne, a fellow Gryffindor, and Hunter Roberts, a Ravenclaw who graduated last year with James, both of who I considering going all the way with. In the end of both cases I'd decided to wait, but it's possible that another fellow might sweep me off my feet and interrupt Scorpius' little plan.

"We're quite a pair, remember?" He's breathing into my ear again, and I think I might die. There is a pit of desire in my stomach and I can't make it go away. Bloody hell, he's ruining my life in this very moment. I know I'm going to regret this. "We work well together." His hand finds my knee and proceeds to slide under my dress. He stops mid thigh, but I'm breathing heavily already and kisses on my neck are distracting me from thinking things through, so I give in to them and fall back against my pillows. "Tell me, Rose."

"What?" My voice is husky and soft, and insanely embarrassing.

"Tell me." He sounds just as ridiculous as I do, but I like it and I want him to keep talking.
I ignore his request, but he stops kissing my neck and moves over me, and hand on both sides of my body. "Tell me what you want." I want him to touch me, every inch of my body until this horrible need goes away but I'll be damned if I tell him that.

"You already know." I try instead, running a hand into his hair and one up his shirt. Maybe I can distract him into going back to kissing me.

"I want to hear you say it." He rubs our noses together and I place a quick kiss on his lips before he pulls back. "Tell me."

"You're so bloody stubborn."

"You know that."

"Why can't you just stop being such an ass?"

"Because you love me just the way I am."

"Maybe I would love you even more if you were easily manipulated."

"No way. Just say it, Rose."

"Fine. I want you." His lip crash onto mine so fast I nearly laugh, but I find it impossible to laugh while he's kissing me. One of his hands moves up to cup my face and half his body falls over mine, but it only intensifies the feelings rushing through my body. He bites my bottom lip, just hard enough to send a jolt through me and I moan into him.
His stops kissing me all at once and I feel his hand move out of my hair, down my cheek, graze my neck, and cup my breast for the slightest moment, during which his mouth descends to suck at my nipple though my dress and bra. His hand then continues its path down my stomach and thigh to the hem of my dress. Our eyes meet and I wonder if I'm going to stop him and I know he's thinking the same thing. I already feel like my entire body is on fire, and I don't know how kissing him for a few minutes can possibly make me feel like this, but I don't have to decide whether or not to stop him, because just as he reaches my underwear, there is a knock at the door.

"Rose?" It's Celia.

"Tell her to go." Scorpius pleads, but I know I can't. She' s my guest, one of my best friends. I slide out from him and move across the room, trying to fix my hair as I walk, but I'm probably failing miserably.

"C'mon in." I tell Celia when I open the door, and she gives me and Scorpius, who looks rather ruffled, the once over.

"Right." She takes a seat at my desk and I just stand in the middle of the room, staring between the two of them, not even fazed when Al walks in as well a minute later to sit next to Scorpius on my bed.

"I'm sorry we laughed at your darling Natalie." Scorpius tells Albus, who just shrugs. I look over at Celia and she shrugs as well.

We sit in silence again and I can feel it filling my brain as we just stare around the room at random things. "Want to go play Quidditch?" I ask and suddenly all four of us are walking out of the room and I feel something grab my bum. I look behind me to see Scorpius wink, and I can't help but wonder what the hell I've gotten myself into.