"Knight Errant" - A Gift for rotae
Title: Knight Errant
Author: doctoraicha
Summary: Scorpius stars in Rose’s directorial debut. Live at Hogwarts, it’s the Fountain of Fair Fortune!
Rating:PG13 for make out scenes.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2,723
Author's Note: I am borrowing characters owned by JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros, and possibly other companies for a bit of fun. I am making no money here. Thanks to Tash AKA nowgold on LJ for the beta!
********
“Oh, come on, Al! It would be lots of fun!” she said, coaxingly.
“No,” he said, once again.
“It would be fun! Come on!”
“No, Rose. I am not going to play the part of the knight in your play. I don’t care if the Spinnet triplets are going to play the three witches, I’m not going to do it,” he stated, not looking up from his book.
The cousins were ensconced in comfortable overstuffed armchairs before the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Though it was late September, there was a chill in the air, and Albus Potter and his cousin and best friend Rose Weasley were discussing the possibility of putting on a school play, for only the second time in Hogwarts history.
Well, Rose was discussing, pleading, and wheedling, and Al was refusing to get dragged into another of her schemes. “You’re as bad as Aunt Hermione,” he grumbled, when she continued to bother him. “I won’t be in the play, but I will help with props or whatever. Ok?” he offered.
She squealed. “I knew you’d come through!” she said excitedly. “But who am I going to cast as the knight?” she asked aloud, though she was speaking to herself.
“Get Malfoy, for all I care,” Al suggested. “Just let me finish my potions reading, would you? You know Advanced Potions is my best chance at an O in the NEWTs.
“That exam is ages away. Now you’re starting to sound like my Mum,” she said, as she rose to leave. “I’m going to find Scorpius.”
Albus Severus Potter smiled at her back as she ran to the portrait hole. Ever since the summer before their fifth year, when her Grandmama Granger had taken Rose to New York City to see every show they could manage in a two week period, Rose had gone up to London as often as possible during holidays to see shows in the West End. She was well and truly hooked on theatre. She’d finally succeeded in starting some kind of drama club at Hogwarts, but the only members were girls.
“At least she knows she’s hooked on theatre,” he murmured to himself.
Al had a secret - or at least, he knew something about Rose that she categorically denied. She was also hooked on Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. Albus had realized this somewhere toward the end of their fifth year. Scorpius was a good friend of theirs, despite the house differences, but Rose was…
Albus gave short, staccato, humorless laugh. His dad had told him all about Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione’s courtship… how Aunt Hermione had told Uncle Ron that he had the emotional range of a teaspoon… how Uncle Ron didn’t get it until seventh year. Al reflected that it was too bad Rose didn’t have her Mum’s perception, because it was seventh year and denial wasn’t just a river that their Uncle Bill took them down in a dahabeeyah last school holiday.
But Al wasn’t - as his father had been - content to wait it out. Nor was he focused on saving the world when he was barely old enough to sit for NEWTs.
Albus Severus Potter had a plan.
***
Hogwarts Head Boy Scorpius Malfoy was buried deep in a stack of books at the back of the library, just as Rose had known he would be. He caught sight of her freckled nose and red hair, and cool grey eyes met determined brown ones.
“What do you want me to do now?” he asked.
“Not even a hello? Why do you suspect my motives?”
“Perhaps because I know you. Since you aren’t revising for Arithmancy, I know you must be on some kick or other. Drama club?”
“The Headmaster is going to let us put on The Fountain of Fair Fortune for the whole school just before Christmas!” she exulted. “I’m directing.”
“Of course,” he acknowledged. “Where do I come in? Need help painting scenes, or something?”
“I want you to be the knight.”
He sat back, Advanced Arithmancy for Fun and Profit dropping from his hand and falling closed on the table. She didn’t glance at it; neither did he. For a moment, neither of them spoke. “Why?” he finally asked.
“You’d be good at it,” she hedged. He raised an incredulous eyebrow. “And practically everyone in the year already said no,” she added, looking down.
Scorpius sighed. He knew he was going to end up making a fool out of himself acting the part of a knight errant in Rose’s play, but he couldn’t say no. He had never been able to tell Rose Weasley no. This failing had led him into far too many scrapes over the past six years and change. But he would end up doing it, just because she asked. He might as well give in now.
“Alright, then,” he said, looking up at her. She leaned down for a hug. The angle was all wrong, and her cheek pressed the side of his head as her arms went round him. His nose was pressed to her neck and his mouth pressed the point just at the juncture of her collarbone. He froze, resisting the impulse to touch his tongue to the spot.
She pulled back, flushed, and refused to meet his eyes.
***
Scorpius raised an eyebrow at Albus in silent disbelief. A few moments passed before Al spoke. “Really. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“She told you that?”
“She doesn’t know herself. But trust me. The girl has it bad. ”
“But I don’t know whether to believe you if she didn’t tell you herself.”
“Look, Malfoy, there’s no question about it. In fact, there’s no question about anything at all, except one.”
“And that is?”
“What are you going to do about it?”
***
Rose noticed the large and rather elderly owl that dropped a gilt-edged letter on Scorpius’ breakfast plate. She also noticed that he didn’t look particularly pleased. A witch didn’t need a Divination O.W.L. to figure out what those facts meant. Scorpius’ paternal grandparents had written. She could only guess that they’d heard about the play. Considering that Lucius Malfoy had actually tried to ban Tales of Beedle the Bard from the library, she didn’t imagine they’d be pleased that a play was planned. She suspected that they would be less than pleased that Scorpius was cast in a lead role - the Muggle lead role at that.
She caught him up as they were leaving the castle a bit later for Herbology. “Alright, Scorpius?” she queried.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked, the color rising slightly in his sharp, pale features.
“Grandparents’ letter. I saw,” she added, in response to his uplifted eyebrow.
He sighed. “They just don’t understand. Their opinions lost so many people so much, including themselves. Dad will probably never really forgive them for teaching him all that hate, and it’s only thanks to Mum that I talk to them at all. I just… I just don’t know. Ridiculous opinions about irrelevant things aside, they’re my grandparents,” he added with a shrug, glancing at her. She knew what he meant.
“Family,” she said, shaking her head.
His arm went around her and pulled her close to him. “You always know when I need you, Rose, and you always understand. Thanks.”
He’d one-arm-hugged her before, but Rose found the color rising in her cheeks. She looked up at him, smiling down at her, and found there was nothing to say.
***
“Only three days, people!” Rose called from the front row of seats. The Great Hall had been transformed into a theatre for the final week of evening rehearsals. Given the previous attempt to stage the play at Hogwarts, in particular the exploding Ashwinder, all of the creatures in the play were costumed witches from the drama club.
The Spinnet triplets were coming along wonderfully. Although they were not identical, they wore different coloured robes so that the audience would be able to better tell them apart. They were running through the first scene, and Albus was painting the last bit of scenery behind them, wand out and concentrating hard. Other members of the drama club were marking robe hems, fixing lighting, running lines, relaxing in chairs, working on programs, setting up magical amplifying spells… all the things that had to be done, and would be done, before Friday night’s performance.
Everything was going brilliantly. Everything was going to go perfectly.
Rose had only one concern. Sir Luckless. She sighed. Scorpius wasn’t a very good actor. He didn’t seem to have his mind on it, or something. She couldn’t work it out. He was great, right up to the last scene, and then he just couldn’t do it. Something was really wrong with the way he flung himself at Amata, and if they couldn’t get that scene right, the ending would be off and their triumph wouldn’t be complete.
“Alright, then, everyone! Same time tomorrow night. Scorpius, can I talk to you?” she called, as everyone filed out.
He stood with his schoolbag over his right shoulder, left hand rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Still no good, right?”
She grinned, somewhat apologetically. “It’s just that one short scene, but it’s the height of the action and…” she trailed off.
“Maybe you could tell me how to say it,” he suggested.
“Good idea,” she returned. “Let’s run lines. I think you’re just not comfortable with the scene, and maybe if we do it over and over again, it won’t be so… weird, or whatever,” she said.
“Well, if I’m going to have to do a five minute scene with you reading all the parts except mine over and over again, let’s go do it in my dormitory. At least no one will be around to witness my humiliation.”
When they arrived at the Head Boy’s dormitory, Scorpius gave the password and stepped back for Rose to enter before him. It wasn’t the first time she’d been there. At the beginning of the year, she, Albus, and several of their other friends had insisted on seeing his new quarters. The area wasn’t large, but he actually had two rooms. One was a sort of tiny common room, with a desk, a couple of squishy chairs, and a small fireplace. The other was his bedroom, and the four-poster barely fit in, with room for his wardrobe and his trunk. He also had a tiny loo of his own.
With a swish of his wand, he scooted the chairs back against the wall. Standing in the middle of the room, they began to run lines.
Almost an hour later, Rose was frustrated. “No, Scorpius, you’re still too stiff. You have to throw yourself onto your knees after you get out of the fountain, and beg Amata. You have to say your lines like you mean it. Look her in the eyes and know that if she says no, you will be crushed. Your heart will break right then and there,” she said, pushing her hair up out of her eyes. “Try it again.”
Scorpius looked at Rose. Her hair was falling down out of the ponytail she’d put it in at the beginning of rehearsal. A sweater he was sure her grandmother had made was clinging to curves she seemed unaware of possessing. Brown eyes were so earnest, so enticing…
He flung himself to the ground in front of her. He caught her hands, and looked up - meeting her eyes for the first time since they’d entered his room. “Amata, my darling,” he cried in his best stage voice. “Grant me my deepest desire. Give to me your heart and your hand, for if you refuse I shall call myself Luckless indeed! The Fates smiled upon the day which brought you into my life, and I shall never be the same!”
Rose looked down at him and forgot her line for a moment. She blinked, then replied, “Sir Luckless, you are a worthy man, and you need not ask for what you already hold - my heart is yours already, and my hand shall soon be so as well.”
Then, as Amata does in the play, she leaned down, and her lips met his in a kiss.
They had not been practicing the kissing part.
Scorpius was stunned, but for only a split second. Then he tugged her down to her knees and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her again and again, deepening the kiss.
Her hands flew to his chest and grabbed at his sweater. His hands slipped under the hem of hers to pull her against him.
How long they kissed, they didn’t really know. Rose pulled away, looked at him. He looked rather stunned. Rather as stunned as she felt. She raised herself off the carpet and jerkily packed her script in her bag.
“Rose?” He questioned.
“Do the lines like that on Friday, Scorpius,” Rose murmured, and rushed to the door.
***
Rose watched The Fountain of Fair Fortune from the back of the Great Hall. She was sure that directors usually watched from backstage, but she wanted to see the reaction of the audience. From what she could see, most everyone was enjoying the production.
As they came to the last scene, Rose’s apprehension grew. She’d only had one full run through since Tuesday night’s session in Scorpius’ room, and he hadn’t done very well. In fact, he’d blushed, and the whole final scene fell apart.
Scorpius jumped into the fountain in his rusty armour, jumped out again, and threw himself onto his knees in front of Ally Spinnet. “Amata, my darling,” he cried in his best stage voice. “Grant me my deepest desire. Give to me your heart and your hand, for if you refuse I shall call myself Luckless indeed! The Fates smiled upon the day which brought you into my life, and I shall never be the same!”
Ally Spinnet looked down at Scorpius and cried, “Sir Luckless, you are a worthy man, and you need not ask for what you already hold - my heart is yours already, and my hand shall soon be so as well.”
He looked up adoringly, and she leaned down for a kiss. As their lips met, Rose felt anger rising within her. Irrational, hot, red - the anger was directed at Scorpius, for being able to say those things to Ally Spinnet the same way he’d said them to her. At the same moment, the Great Hall erupted with applause. Her anger didn’t subside as the actors came onstage for their bows. It wasn’t until she was being called onstage to receive a bouquet of flitterblooms that she recognized the emotion for what it really was… jealousy.
***
The teachers had done their part to move chairs and add tables, and a Christmas-and-cast party was in full swing. Scorpius couldn’t find Rose. He met with congratulations at every turn, but not hers.
Then he caught a glimpse of her. She was slipping out the great doors. He finally cornered her in an alcove off the entrance hall outside the Great Hall.
“Rose?” he questioned.
She turned to face him. “You were really good tonight, Scorpius.” Her words were pleasant, but her manner was stiff - as if she were angry with him.
“What’s the matter, Rose?” he asked, rather mystified.
She turned on him with eyes flashing. “If you don’t know, I can’t tell you,” she said.
Suddenly he had a flash of understanding. “I pretended she was you, you know, so the last bit would come off. Er, I mean,” he added, seeing the light in Rose’s eyes, “it’s always been you, Rose, but I didn’t ever dare to hope. You seemed so…so unaware of me, somehow,” he said.
“It’s a failing I inherited from my Dad, apparently,” she said.
He caught her up in his arms and kissed her. One hand slid into his hair and the other cupped his neck. He pulled her flush against his body the way he’d thought about her since that kiss in his room, but hadn’t had the courage to do all week.
“Upstairs,” she whispered.
He didn’t have to be asked twice.
Albus, watching from the door of the Great Hall, grinned to himself. Then he shut the door behind him as he reentered the hall.
Fin
Author: doctoraicha
Summary: Scorpius stars in Rose’s directorial debut. Live at Hogwarts, it’s the Fountain of Fair Fortune!
Rating:PG13 for make out scenes.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2,723
Author's Note: I am borrowing characters owned by JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros, and possibly other companies for a bit of fun. I am making no money here. Thanks to Tash AKA nowgold on LJ for the beta!
********
“Oh, come on, Al! It would be lots of fun!” she said, coaxingly.
“No,” he said, once again.
“It would be fun! Come on!”
“No, Rose. I am not going to play the part of the knight in your play. I don’t care if the Spinnet triplets are going to play the three witches, I’m not going to do it,” he stated, not looking up from his book.
The cousins were ensconced in comfortable overstuffed armchairs before the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Though it was late September, there was a chill in the air, and Albus Potter and his cousin and best friend Rose Weasley were discussing the possibility of putting on a school play, for only the second time in Hogwarts history.
Well, Rose was discussing, pleading, and wheedling, and Al was refusing to get dragged into another of her schemes. “You’re as bad as Aunt Hermione,” he grumbled, when she continued to bother him. “I won’t be in the play, but I will help with props or whatever. Ok?” he offered.
She squealed. “I knew you’d come through!” she said excitedly. “But who am I going to cast as the knight?” she asked aloud, though she was speaking to herself.
“Get Malfoy, for all I care,” Al suggested. “Just let me finish my potions reading, would you? You know Advanced Potions is my best chance at an O in the NEWTs.
“That exam is ages away. Now you’re starting to sound like my Mum,” she said, as she rose to leave. “I’m going to find Scorpius.”
Albus Severus Potter smiled at her back as she ran to the portrait hole. Ever since the summer before their fifth year, when her Grandmama Granger had taken Rose to New York City to see every show they could manage in a two week period, Rose had gone up to London as often as possible during holidays to see shows in the West End. She was well and truly hooked on theatre. She’d finally succeeded in starting some kind of drama club at Hogwarts, but the only members were girls.
“At least she knows she’s hooked on theatre,” he murmured to himself.
Al had a secret - or at least, he knew something about Rose that she categorically denied. She was also hooked on Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. Albus had realized this somewhere toward the end of their fifth year. Scorpius was a good friend of theirs, despite the house differences, but Rose was…
Albus gave short, staccato, humorless laugh. His dad had told him all about Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione’s courtship… how Aunt Hermione had told Uncle Ron that he had the emotional range of a teaspoon… how Uncle Ron didn’t get it until seventh year. Al reflected that it was too bad Rose didn’t have her Mum’s perception, because it was seventh year and denial wasn’t just a river that their Uncle Bill took them down in a dahabeeyah last school holiday.
But Al wasn’t - as his father had been - content to wait it out. Nor was he focused on saving the world when he was barely old enough to sit for NEWTs.
Albus Severus Potter had a plan.
***
Hogwarts Head Boy Scorpius Malfoy was buried deep in a stack of books at the back of the library, just as Rose had known he would be. He caught sight of her freckled nose and red hair, and cool grey eyes met determined brown ones.
“What do you want me to do now?” he asked.
“Not even a hello? Why do you suspect my motives?”
“Perhaps because I know you. Since you aren’t revising for Arithmancy, I know you must be on some kick or other. Drama club?”
“The Headmaster is going to let us put on The Fountain of Fair Fortune for the whole school just before Christmas!” she exulted. “I’m directing.”
“Of course,” he acknowledged. “Where do I come in? Need help painting scenes, or something?”
“I want you to be the knight.”
He sat back, Advanced Arithmancy for Fun and Profit dropping from his hand and falling closed on the table. She didn’t glance at it; neither did he. For a moment, neither of them spoke. “Why?” he finally asked.
“You’d be good at it,” she hedged. He raised an incredulous eyebrow. “And practically everyone in the year already said no,” she added, looking down.
Scorpius sighed. He knew he was going to end up making a fool out of himself acting the part of a knight errant in Rose’s play, but he couldn’t say no. He had never been able to tell Rose Weasley no. This failing had led him into far too many scrapes over the past six years and change. But he would end up doing it, just because she asked. He might as well give in now.
“Alright, then,” he said, looking up at her. She leaned down for a hug. The angle was all wrong, and her cheek pressed the side of his head as her arms went round him. His nose was pressed to her neck and his mouth pressed the point just at the juncture of her collarbone. He froze, resisting the impulse to touch his tongue to the spot.
She pulled back, flushed, and refused to meet his eyes.
***
Scorpius raised an eyebrow at Albus in silent disbelief. A few moments passed before Al spoke. “Really. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“She told you that?”
“She doesn’t know herself. But trust me. The girl has it bad. ”
“But I don’t know whether to believe you if she didn’t tell you herself.”
“Look, Malfoy, there’s no question about it. In fact, there’s no question about anything at all, except one.”
“And that is?”
“What are you going to do about it?”
***
Rose noticed the large and rather elderly owl that dropped a gilt-edged letter on Scorpius’ breakfast plate. She also noticed that he didn’t look particularly pleased. A witch didn’t need a Divination O.W.L. to figure out what those facts meant. Scorpius’ paternal grandparents had written. She could only guess that they’d heard about the play. Considering that Lucius Malfoy had actually tried to ban Tales of Beedle the Bard from the library, she didn’t imagine they’d be pleased that a play was planned. She suspected that they would be less than pleased that Scorpius was cast in a lead role - the Muggle lead role at that.
She caught him up as they were leaving the castle a bit later for Herbology. “Alright, Scorpius?” she queried.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked, the color rising slightly in his sharp, pale features.
“Grandparents’ letter. I saw,” she added, in response to his uplifted eyebrow.
He sighed. “They just don’t understand. Their opinions lost so many people so much, including themselves. Dad will probably never really forgive them for teaching him all that hate, and it’s only thanks to Mum that I talk to them at all. I just… I just don’t know. Ridiculous opinions about irrelevant things aside, they’re my grandparents,” he added with a shrug, glancing at her. She knew what he meant.
“Family,” she said, shaking her head.
His arm went around her and pulled her close to him. “You always know when I need you, Rose, and you always understand. Thanks.”
He’d one-arm-hugged her before, but Rose found the color rising in her cheeks. She looked up at him, smiling down at her, and found there was nothing to say.
***
“Only three days, people!” Rose called from the front row of seats. The Great Hall had been transformed into a theatre for the final week of evening rehearsals. Given the previous attempt to stage the play at Hogwarts, in particular the exploding Ashwinder, all of the creatures in the play were costumed witches from the drama club.
The Spinnet triplets were coming along wonderfully. Although they were not identical, they wore different coloured robes so that the audience would be able to better tell them apart. They were running through the first scene, and Albus was painting the last bit of scenery behind them, wand out and concentrating hard. Other members of the drama club were marking robe hems, fixing lighting, running lines, relaxing in chairs, working on programs, setting up magical amplifying spells… all the things that had to be done, and would be done, before Friday night’s performance.
Everything was going brilliantly. Everything was going to go perfectly.
Rose had only one concern. Sir Luckless. She sighed. Scorpius wasn’t a very good actor. He didn’t seem to have his mind on it, or something. She couldn’t work it out. He was great, right up to the last scene, and then he just couldn’t do it. Something was really wrong with the way he flung himself at Amata, and if they couldn’t get that scene right, the ending would be off and their triumph wouldn’t be complete.
“Alright, then, everyone! Same time tomorrow night. Scorpius, can I talk to you?” she called, as everyone filed out.
He stood with his schoolbag over his right shoulder, left hand rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Still no good, right?”
She grinned, somewhat apologetically. “It’s just that one short scene, but it’s the height of the action and…” she trailed off.
“Maybe you could tell me how to say it,” he suggested.
“Good idea,” she returned. “Let’s run lines. I think you’re just not comfortable with the scene, and maybe if we do it over and over again, it won’t be so… weird, or whatever,” she said.
“Well, if I’m going to have to do a five minute scene with you reading all the parts except mine over and over again, let’s go do it in my dormitory. At least no one will be around to witness my humiliation.”
When they arrived at the Head Boy’s dormitory, Scorpius gave the password and stepped back for Rose to enter before him. It wasn’t the first time she’d been there. At the beginning of the year, she, Albus, and several of their other friends had insisted on seeing his new quarters. The area wasn’t large, but he actually had two rooms. One was a sort of tiny common room, with a desk, a couple of squishy chairs, and a small fireplace. The other was his bedroom, and the four-poster barely fit in, with room for his wardrobe and his trunk. He also had a tiny loo of his own.
With a swish of his wand, he scooted the chairs back against the wall. Standing in the middle of the room, they began to run lines.
Almost an hour later, Rose was frustrated. “No, Scorpius, you’re still too stiff. You have to throw yourself onto your knees after you get out of the fountain, and beg Amata. You have to say your lines like you mean it. Look her in the eyes and know that if she says no, you will be crushed. Your heart will break right then and there,” she said, pushing her hair up out of her eyes. “Try it again.”
Scorpius looked at Rose. Her hair was falling down out of the ponytail she’d put it in at the beginning of rehearsal. A sweater he was sure her grandmother had made was clinging to curves she seemed unaware of possessing. Brown eyes were so earnest, so enticing…
He flung himself to the ground in front of her. He caught her hands, and looked up - meeting her eyes for the first time since they’d entered his room. “Amata, my darling,” he cried in his best stage voice. “Grant me my deepest desire. Give to me your heart and your hand, for if you refuse I shall call myself Luckless indeed! The Fates smiled upon the day which brought you into my life, and I shall never be the same!”
Rose looked down at him and forgot her line for a moment. She blinked, then replied, “Sir Luckless, you are a worthy man, and you need not ask for what you already hold - my heart is yours already, and my hand shall soon be so as well.”
Then, as Amata does in the play, she leaned down, and her lips met his in a kiss.
They had not been practicing the kissing part.
Scorpius was stunned, but for only a split second. Then he tugged her down to her knees and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her again and again, deepening the kiss.
Her hands flew to his chest and grabbed at his sweater. His hands slipped under the hem of hers to pull her against him.
How long they kissed, they didn’t really know. Rose pulled away, looked at him. He looked rather stunned. Rather as stunned as she felt. She raised herself off the carpet and jerkily packed her script in her bag.
“Rose?” He questioned.
“Do the lines like that on Friday, Scorpius,” Rose murmured, and rushed to the door.
***
Rose watched The Fountain of Fair Fortune from the back of the Great Hall. She was sure that directors usually watched from backstage, but she wanted to see the reaction of the audience. From what she could see, most everyone was enjoying the production.
As they came to the last scene, Rose’s apprehension grew. She’d only had one full run through since Tuesday night’s session in Scorpius’ room, and he hadn’t done very well. In fact, he’d blushed, and the whole final scene fell apart.
Scorpius jumped into the fountain in his rusty armour, jumped out again, and threw himself onto his knees in front of Ally Spinnet. “Amata, my darling,” he cried in his best stage voice. “Grant me my deepest desire. Give to me your heart and your hand, for if you refuse I shall call myself Luckless indeed! The Fates smiled upon the day which brought you into my life, and I shall never be the same!”
Ally Spinnet looked down at Scorpius and cried, “Sir Luckless, you are a worthy man, and you need not ask for what you already hold - my heart is yours already, and my hand shall soon be so as well.”
He looked up adoringly, and she leaned down for a kiss. As their lips met, Rose felt anger rising within her. Irrational, hot, red - the anger was directed at Scorpius, for being able to say those things to Ally Spinnet the same way he’d said them to her. At the same moment, the Great Hall erupted with applause. Her anger didn’t subside as the actors came onstage for their bows. It wasn’t until she was being called onstage to receive a bouquet of flitterblooms that she recognized the emotion for what it really was… jealousy.
***
The teachers had done their part to move chairs and add tables, and a Christmas-and-cast party was in full swing. Scorpius couldn’t find Rose. He met with congratulations at every turn, but not hers.
Then he caught a glimpse of her. She was slipping out the great doors. He finally cornered her in an alcove off the entrance hall outside the Great Hall.
“Rose?” he questioned.
She turned to face him. “You were really good tonight, Scorpius.” Her words were pleasant, but her manner was stiff - as if she were angry with him.
“What’s the matter, Rose?” he asked, rather mystified.
She turned on him with eyes flashing. “If you don’t know, I can’t tell you,” she said.
Suddenly he had a flash of understanding. “I pretended she was you, you know, so the last bit would come off. Er, I mean,” he added, seeing the light in Rose’s eyes, “it’s always been you, Rose, but I didn’t ever dare to hope. You seemed so…so unaware of me, somehow,” he said.
“It’s a failing I inherited from my Dad, apparently,” she said.
He caught her up in his arms and kissed her. One hand slid into his hair and the other cupped his neck. He pulled her flush against his body the way he’d thought about her since that kiss in his room, but hadn’t had the courage to do all week.
“Upstairs,” she whispered.
He didn’t have to be asked twice.
Albus, watching from the door of the Great Hall, grinned to himself. Then he shut the door behind him as he reentered the hall.
Fin