Gather Ye Rosebuds (PG-13)
Title: Gather Ye Rosebuds
Author: sarahyyy
Prompt: 029. I'd tell him to go to hell, but it just so happens I'm stuck there and don't want to have to see him every day. - Jill Shilvas .
Summary: In which Rose is paranoid and Scorpius tries too hard. And, oh, Albus has been voted Best-Looking Wizard by Witch Weekly, but that's irrelevant, because he's not just a pretty face - he quotes poems.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None.
Word Count: ~3000
A/N: This was so much fun to write! Lots of thanks to R for the quick beta. I'd be so lost without you.
Albus laughs.
"You are a horrible cousin," Rose groans. "Can I get a bit of sympathy here?"
"He's not such a bad guy," Albus says with a grin. "You two should have a lot in common."
"Name one," Rose challenges.
"You are both annoying," Albus says and ducks when Rose throws a pillow at him. "You both know the best looking wizard this side of the continent?" he tries again.
Rose rolls her eyes. "Your narcissism is appalling."
"It's not narcissism if it's a fact," Albus says in the well-worn tones of someone who has had the same argument countless times. "And clearly we know it's a fact because Witch Weekly says so."
"Clearly," Rose repeats sarcastically.
"There!" Albus exclaims. "Sarcasm. Scorpius has a thing for it too. You will enjoy his company."
"I'd rather choke on mum's cooking," Rose deadpans.
"He really isn't that bad!" Albus says. "I have no idea why you think otherwise. He's never actually done anything to you."
"First year, he tripped me in the Great Hall after I got sorted into Gryffindor," Rose says. "Second year, he made Jinky the house-elf follow me all around, convincing my mum that I was enslaving house-elves. Third year, he tried to set Buckbeak Junior on me. Fourth year, he threw me off my broom in the Quidditch finals-"
"He did swoop down to save you, though," Albus adds. "He was very apologetic about that."
Rose glares at him. "His apology was 'I wouldn't have rammed into you if you hadn't been in my way', so no, he was not very apologetic about that."
Albus winces. "He's never been really good at apologies," he tells her. "But he was genuinely sorry deep, deep down in his shriveled, blackened heart."
Rose's lips tip up slightly at that.
Albus beams. "There! Now stop thinking about what a horrible person Scorpius allegedly is and start focusing on how to work with him to win your mother's campaign."
Rose deflates slightly at that. "I could have worked with anyone else," she groans. "Why did mum have to pick Malfoy?"
"He is the best political strategist and pollster around," Albus reminds her. "That and having a pretty face on the campaign would help to win votes."
"But I'm a pretty face!"
"You are a pretty female face," Albus says. "Scorpius is a pretty male face."
"But you're a pretty male face!"
Albus laughs. "Can I get that in writing?"
Rose glares at him.
____________
"Malfoy."
"Weasley."
Rose runs through the pros and cons in her head before she offers him a small smile and says, "I look…forward to working with you."
Scorpius snorts. "Not very well rehearsed, was that?"
Rose substitutes her smile for a scowl instead.
____________
"Weasley, could you get me information on these few members of the Wizengamot by lunch?" Scorpius asks, handing Rose a rather thick file, not even looking up from where he's scribbling furiously on his parchment.
Rose's scowl (which seems to be an almost permanent fixture on her face whenever she is around Scorpius) deepens. "I don't work for you."
Scorpius looks up at that. "I didn't say that."
"You implied that," Rose tells him.
"You don't work for me," Scorpius says seriously. "But if you want this campaign to win, you will work with me."
Rose takes the file from him and scans through it. "By lunch, you say?"
Scorpius nods. "I'm trying to finish up the other half," he tells her. "Can you manage?"
Something bristles inside Rose. "It'll be on your desk by ten thirty," she snaps and storms away.
Scorpius lets out a sigh.
____________
"I'm not trying to be mean to her," Scorpius says.
Albus nods. "I know," he says. "Rose is just really sensitive when it comes to you."
"I never did anything to her," Scorpius says with a sigh.
"Don't say that in front of her unless you want to hear her talk at length about how you tried to kill her on multiple occasions," Albus advises Scorpius. "She never did let the Buckbeak Junior incident go."
"I wasn't even the one who let him out," Scorpius groans. "I was trying to get him back! This is all Longbottom's fault."
Albus laughs. "He did explain himself to Professor Hagrid to get you out of detention, though, so you can't stay mad at him."
Scorpius sighs. "I just want to do my job properly. I can't do my job properly when she's just glaring at me from her table every time I look up."
"One would think that you'd have gotten used to it," Albus says with a laugh. "Didn't she used to do that in Potions too?"
"That was because she hated that I was doing things faster than she was," Scorpius says. "This is just her glaring at me for no reason other than the fact that she thinks that I am the meanest coworker in the history of coworkers, which I am not."
Albus arches an eyebrow. "This bothers you," he says, amused.
"Astute observation," Scorpius says dryly. "10 points to Slytherin!"
Albus rolls his eyes. "Why does this bother you?"
Scorpius gives him a look. "Wouldn't it bother you?"
Albus shrugs. "I probably couldn't care less about whoever doesn't like me. But that's mostly because everybody likes me." He flashes Scorpius a smile.
Scorpius laughs. "You are incorrigible."
"And you, sir," Albus says, "need to be a nicer person to Rose."
____________
Rose is seething when Scorpius comes into work.
"What is the meaning of this?" Rose asks, setting down several files on his table.
Scorpius frowns. "Is there a problem with the figures?"
"What? No! That's not what I meant," she said. "You did my work for me. What is the meaning of that?"
Scorpius shrugs. "You had a lot on your plate. I was trying to lessen your burden."
"You are trying to say that I don't have what it takes to handle my own work," Rose says flatly.
Scorpius sighs. "That was not my intention."
"You are trying to make me look bad in front of my mum and everyone else in this campaign," Rose continues as though she hadn't heard him.
"I am not," Scorpius says forcefully. "I finished my share of the job, I saw that you still had some unfinished files, and since I had already planned to work late, I thought I would finish it for you. I thought you'd be happy about it."
"If this is about making yourself look more like an asset to the campaign, you can save it, Malfoy, because in my mum's eyes, you already are the most valuable member of the campaign," Rose grits out. "You don't have to make me look bad to achieve that."
"That was not-"
Rose is already out the door before Scorpius can finish his sentence.
____________
"I'd tell him to go to hell, but it just so happens that I'm stuck there and don't want to have to see him everyday," Rose fumes. "How dare he condescend me like that?"
"He probably meant well," Albus tries to reason. "Face it, if it'd been anyone else who did your work for you, you'd be dancing around in victorious circles."
"I would not!" Rose objects. "I heard a few interns talking about how I would not have gotten a place in the campaign if my mum hadn't been the one running it."
Albus frowns. "That's just mindless, water-cooler talk. You can ignore all of them."
"I know," Rose says. "But then there Malfoy was, doing all my work for me and it just kind of hit me that I wasn't really contributing much to mum's campaign except for being a pretty face."
"Don't be ridiculous," Albus says. "You're so much more than a pretty face. You can outtalk any one of those intern even at your worst days. And I promise you Scorpius meant to help when he decided to do your work for you. He floo'ed me to ask if you'd get angry and I told him to do it."
Rose frowns. "You're my cousin. You're supposed to help me!"
"I was!" Albus insists. "You've been so stressed lately. I thought a lessened workload would help you to feel happier."
Rose considers that for a moment before pulling Albus into a hug. "You're my favourite."
Albus snorts. "I am everyone's favourite."
____________
"I am being nice to her!" Scorpius insists. "She just doesn't seem to want to believe it."
"It bothers me that Rose not liking you bothers you so much," Albus tells him. "Do you have a thing for her?"
"What?" Scorpius asks. "What? No! Of course not! It just bothers me that she can dislike me so much even when I'm trying to be nice to her."
Albus narrows his eyes. "You have a thing for Rose," he concludes.
"No," Scorpius says, drawing out the word. "I do not."
Albus shrugs. "If you say so," he relents. "But if you did have a thing for Rose, you would tell me, right?"
"Not willingly," Scorpius says, rolling his eyes. "You pretty much just force everything out of me."
"Is that how you talk to your best friend in the world?" Albus says, placing a hand dramatically over his heart. "You break my heart," Albus moans. "You wound my soul!"
Scorpius snorts. "Clearly you missed your calling."
____________
In a stroke of luck, Scorpius manages to catch Rose alone in the pantry during lunch the next day. When Rose sees him approaching with a mug of coffee in hand, she starts to gather up her sandwich.
"Don't leave on my account," Scorpius says. "I'm sure the pantry is large enough to accommodate us both."
Rose seems to ponder over that for a moment. "I'm not sure I want to willingly spend my lunch hour with you."
"Look," Scorpius says with a sigh. "I know you don't like me."
Rose snorts. "Whatever gave you that impression?" she asks, voice heavy with melodrama.
"You avoid looking me in the eye unless you are glaring at me," Scorpius starts, "you try to avoid talking to me as much as you can, and when we do talk, the conversation is hostile at best."
"That was a rhetorical question," Rose says. "You do realize that, don't you?"
Scorpius looks at Rose, unamused.
Rose rolls her eyes. "Those are all circumstantial evidences. They will not hold up in a court of law."
"I haven't done anything to warrant your dislike since we started working together," Scorpius says quietly. "I want this partnership to work," he tells her, "but I can't be the only one trying."
Rose doesn't say anything.
Scorpius pushes the mug in his hand towards her as he stands up. "Two sugars, no milk," he says. "Enjoy your lunch."
____________
"You complain when he's nice, you complain when he's not," Albus says, shaking his head. "You are a very hard woman to please."
"He made me coffee," Rose repeats.
"People do that sometimes for their coworkers," Albus says lightly.
"Not Malfoy!" Rose exclaims.
"He's trying to be nice to you," Albus says. "Try to return the sentiment. Did you like the coffee? Scorpius makes some good coffee."
"I didn't drink it," Rose says.
Albus' eyebrows climb up. "Why not?"
"I had a sample sent to Lily to check for laxatives," she says simply. "The test samples aren't back yet."
Albus bangs his head on the table before him. "This is hopeless."
____________
"Malfoy," Rose calls out. When Scorpius looks up, Rose tosses him a paper bag. "Albus made me apologize."
Scorpius frowns. "What for?"
A blush makes its way onto Rose's face. "I, uh, sent a sample of the coffee you made me to test for laxatives. The tests came back negative."
Scorpius lets out a laugh at that. "Am I really that horrible in your eyes?"
Rose shifts slightly in her seat. "You're not. I was too paranoid. I'm sorry for mistaking your gesture as anything other than a friendly one."
"Did Albus have you practice that in front of the mirror?" Scorpius teases.
"He did, actually," she says with an easy grin. "You have to admit it is a better apology than the 'I wouldn't have rammed into you if you hadn't been in my way' that you gave me after that Quidditch incident."
Scorpius winces. "I've gotten a lot better at apologies since then."
"Let's hear it, then," Rose says.
Scorpius sits up straighter, looks right into Rose's eyes and says, "I'm sorry."
Rose waits for more, but when it doesn't come, she blinks. "That's it?"
Scorpius nods. "Sincere and straightforward with no room for misinterpretation."
She rolls her eyes. "There's a turkey sandwich in the paper bag," she tells him. "No tomatoes, no lettuce, extra mustard. Enjoy your lunch."
Scorpius smiles. "I will."
____________
"Why are you grinning?" Albus asks, bemused. "Did you strike the lottery?"
Scorpius shakes his head. "Rose and I have reached a truce."
"That's what's got you grinning like an idiot?" Albus blinks. "You do have a thing for Rose!"
Scorpius rolls his eyes. "I don't have a thing for her."
"Then you wouldn't be interested in knowing that she has a thing for you too, would you?" Albus asks slyly.
Scorpius' eyes snap to Albus'. "She what?"
"Aha! You do have a thing for her!" Albus repeats. "Is this where I tell you to gather ye rosebuds while ye may for old Time is still a-flying?"
"You are ridiculous," Scorpius says. "And I'm late for work."
"This conversation is not over!" Albus calls out after him.
____________
"Spit it out," Rose says, perching on Scorpius' table.
Scorpius looks up at her, surprised. "Sorry?"
"You've been looking at me weirdly the whole day," Rose says. Her eyes narrow then. "Did you send my turkey sandwich to test for laxatives?"
Scorpius laughs. "No, I didn't. I figured that even if you did put laxatives inside, it would even out that Quidditch incident. It was delicious, thank you."
"Then what is it?" Rose asks. "Did I forget to do anything?"
"No," Scorpius says. "I hadn't even noticed that I was looking weirdly at you today, actually," he lies. "I promise not to look at you weirdly any more today."
Rose arches an eyebrow. "Only today?"
"One good sandwich only deserves one day of good behaviour," Scorpius says with a grin. "Make me another sandwich and we'll negotiate terms."
"You are ridiculous," Rose says, throwing her head back with a laugh.
Scorpius watches her with a knot in his stomach and thinks two consecutive thoughts: 'I'd do anything to make her laugh.' and 'Oh, bloody hell.'
____________
"What do you think about Scorpius now?" Albus asks.
Rose shrugs. "He's pretty okay. Do not say 'I told you so'. I will hex you, Al."
Albus arches both eyebrows. "Only pretty okay? I heard that you two have been really chummy."
"We get along better than with other people, I suppose," Rose tells him. "Is this an interrogation?"
"That depends on whether or not you have anything to hide," Albus says with a wink. "An anonymous source may or may not have let out to me that you used to have a crush on Scorpius in sixth year."
Rose gapes. "I can't believe Lily told you that! I told her that in strict confidence!"
"I can't believe you kept it from me!" Albus tells her. "I thought I was your favourite!"
"It was too short-lived to warrant telling you," Rose says dismissively. "That was the week before he locked me in the greenhouse."
"By accident," Albus adds, almost heatedly.
Rose sighs. "By accident," she relents. "After that, having a crush on him seemed really ridiculous. So I stopped."
"And now?"
Rose stares at him. "What now?"
"Will you start having a crush on him again?"
Rose blushes. "No."
Albus hums, doubtful. "Scorpius is going to be so pissed," he murmurs to himself.
____________
"Aunt Hermione told me you were working late," Albus says in lieu of a greeting, "and I thought to myself that you hate working late. You only do that when there's something on your mind that you desperately want to ignore."
Scorpius doesn't even look up. "I'm ignoring you in favour of working now."
"I'm your best friend, Scor," Albus says. "You don't ignore your best friend."
"I don't know where you got that notion that you are my best friend, but I can assure you that you aren't," Scorpius says with a sigh. "I do have other friends, you know?"
"But none of your other friends have that bond we do!" Albus crows. "Is this about what I said about Rose?"
Scorpius finally looks up at that. "I don't have a thing for her," he says for the umpteenth time.
Albus cocks an eyebrow. "Are you sure you believe that?"
Scorpius lets out a resigned sigh. "She does this…thing when she laughs, where she throws her head back and just laughs? I never thought anything of it before but she did it today and I just… I just lost it."
Albus shrugs. "So you have a crush on my cousin. So go get her! Do I need to recite the whole poem to you, right down to for having lost but once your prime, you may forever tarry?"
"Your cousin hates me," Scorpius grits out.
"Hated," Albus corrects. "I heard you guys have been sharing sandwiches. That's not what Rose does with people she hates."
Scorpius groans. "I don't know. It took eleven years for her to start seeing me as a friend. How long do you think it would take for her to see me as something more?"
"She had a crush on you in Sixth Year," Albus sings out. "And then you locked her in the greenhouse."
Scorpius gapes, confused. "I… I locked her in a greenhouse?"
Albus shifts on his feet. "Well, technically I did. But she thought it was you and I never corrected her. She was angry for weeks."
Scorpius blinks.
"To be very fair," Albus adds hurriedly, "I didn't think it would do any harm to your relationship since she pretty much already hated your guts. If I'd known that she was having a crush on you then, I'd have totally manned up."
Scorpius shuts his files slowly, still looking at Albus with a sort of calm that belied his inner turmoil. "I am going to see Rose now," he says, "and when that's done, I'm going to look for a new best friend."
____________
"I didn't lock you in the greenhouse!" Scorpius blurts out when Rose opens the door.
Rose blinks. "Sorry, what?"
"I didn't lock you in the greenhouse," Scorpius repeats, slower this time. "It was Al. I didn't even know there was such an incident until ten minutes ago."
"Okay?" Rose says. "Uh. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say here."
"Al said you had a crush on me in Sixth Year," Scorpius tells her.
Rose's eyes go wide. "I am going to die of mortification now," she squeaks. "And then I'm going to resurrect myself to come back for Al's life."
"He said your crush waned after I locked you in the greenhouse," Scorpius continues, serious. "But I didn't. I didn't lock you in the greenhouse. So you had no right to stop having a crush on me. I demand that I get some sort of compensation out of being wronged like this."
Rose stares at him for a long moment before her lips quirk up in a smile. "One good cup of coffee only deserves one day of good behaviour," she says with a grin. "Make me another and we'll negotiate terms."
Scorpius laughs, says "You're so ridiculous", and pulls Rose into a kiss.
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Author: sarahyyy
Prompt: 029. I'd tell him to go to hell, but it just so happens I'm stuck there and don't want to have to see him every day. - Jill Shilvas .
Summary: In which Rose is paranoid and Scorpius tries too hard. And, oh, Albus has been voted Best-Looking Wizard by Witch Weekly, but that's irrelevant, because he's not just a pretty face - he quotes poems.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None.
Word Count: ~3000
A/N: This was so much fun to write! Lots of thanks to R for the quick beta. I'd be so lost without you.
Albus laughs.
"You are a horrible cousin," Rose groans. "Can I get a bit of sympathy here?"
"He's not such a bad guy," Albus says with a grin. "You two should have a lot in common."
"Name one," Rose challenges.
"You are both annoying," Albus says and ducks when Rose throws a pillow at him. "You both know the best looking wizard this side of the continent?" he tries again.
Rose rolls her eyes. "Your narcissism is appalling."
"It's not narcissism if it's a fact," Albus says in the well-worn tones of someone who has had the same argument countless times. "And clearly we know it's a fact because Witch Weekly says so."
"Clearly," Rose repeats sarcastically.
"There!" Albus exclaims. "Sarcasm. Scorpius has a thing for it too. You will enjoy his company."
"I'd rather choke on mum's cooking," Rose deadpans.
"He really isn't that bad!" Albus says. "I have no idea why you think otherwise. He's never actually done anything to you."
"First year, he tripped me in the Great Hall after I got sorted into Gryffindor," Rose says. "Second year, he made Jinky the house-elf follow me all around, convincing my mum that I was enslaving house-elves. Third year, he tried to set Buckbeak Junior on me. Fourth year, he threw me off my broom in the Quidditch finals-"
"He did swoop down to save you, though," Albus adds. "He was very apologetic about that."
Rose glares at him. "His apology was 'I wouldn't have rammed into you if you hadn't been in my way', so no, he was not very apologetic about that."
Albus winces. "He's never been really good at apologies," he tells her. "But he was genuinely sorry deep, deep down in his shriveled, blackened heart."
Rose's lips tip up slightly at that.
Albus beams. "There! Now stop thinking about what a horrible person Scorpius allegedly is and start focusing on how to work with him to win your mother's campaign."
Rose deflates slightly at that. "I could have worked with anyone else," she groans. "Why did mum have to pick Malfoy?"
"He is the best political strategist and pollster around," Albus reminds her. "That and having a pretty face on the campaign would help to win votes."
"But I'm a pretty face!"
"You are a pretty female face," Albus says. "Scorpius is a pretty male face."
"But you're a pretty male face!"
Albus laughs. "Can I get that in writing?"
Rose glares at him.
____________
"Malfoy."
"Weasley."
Rose runs through the pros and cons in her head before she offers him a small smile and says, "I look…forward to working with you."
Scorpius snorts. "Not very well rehearsed, was that?"
Rose substitutes her smile for a scowl instead.
____________
"Weasley, could you get me information on these few members of the Wizengamot by lunch?" Scorpius asks, handing Rose a rather thick file, not even looking up from where he's scribbling furiously on his parchment.
Rose's scowl (which seems to be an almost permanent fixture on her face whenever she is around Scorpius) deepens. "I don't work for you."
Scorpius looks up at that. "I didn't say that."
"You implied that," Rose tells him.
"You don't work for me," Scorpius says seriously. "But if you want this campaign to win, you will work with me."
Rose takes the file from him and scans through it. "By lunch, you say?"
Scorpius nods. "I'm trying to finish up the other half," he tells her. "Can you manage?"
Something bristles inside Rose. "It'll be on your desk by ten thirty," she snaps and storms away.
Scorpius lets out a sigh.
____________
"I'm not trying to be mean to her," Scorpius says.
Albus nods. "I know," he says. "Rose is just really sensitive when it comes to you."
"I never did anything to her," Scorpius says with a sigh.
"Don't say that in front of her unless you want to hear her talk at length about how you tried to kill her on multiple occasions," Albus advises Scorpius. "She never did let the Buckbeak Junior incident go."
"I wasn't even the one who let him out," Scorpius groans. "I was trying to get him back! This is all Longbottom's fault."
Albus laughs. "He did explain himself to Professor Hagrid to get you out of detention, though, so you can't stay mad at him."
Scorpius sighs. "I just want to do my job properly. I can't do my job properly when she's just glaring at me from her table every time I look up."
"One would think that you'd have gotten used to it," Albus says with a laugh. "Didn't she used to do that in Potions too?"
"That was because she hated that I was doing things faster than she was," Scorpius says. "This is just her glaring at me for no reason other than the fact that she thinks that I am the meanest coworker in the history of coworkers, which I am not."
Albus arches an eyebrow. "This bothers you," he says, amused.
"Astute observation," Scorpius says dryly. "10 points to Slytherin!"
Albus rolls his eyes. "Why does this bother you?"
Scorpius gives him a look. "Wouldn't it bother you?"
Albus shrugs. "I probably couldn't care less about whoever doesn't like me. But that's mostly because everybody likes me." He flashes Scorpius a smile.
Scorpius laughs. "You are incorrigible."
"And you, sir," Albus says, "need to be a nicer person to Rose."
____________
Rose is seething when Scorpius comes into work.
"What is the meaning of this?" Rose asks, setting down several files on his table.
Scorpius frowns. "Is there a problem with the figures?"
"What? No! That's not what I meant," she said. "You did my work for me. What is the meaning of that?"
Scorpius shrugs. "You had a lot on your plate. I was trying to lessen your burden."
"You are trying to say that I don't have what it takes to handle my own work," Rose says flatly.
Scorpius sighs. "That was not my intention."
"You are trying to make me look bad in front of my mum and everyone else in this campaign," Rose continues as though she hadn't heard him.
"I am not," Scorpius says forcefully. "I finished my share of the job, I saw that you still had some unfinished files, and since I had already planned to work late, I thought I would finish it for you. I thought you'd be happy about it."
"If this is about making yourself look more like an asset to the campaign, you can save it, Malfoy, because in my mum's eyes, you already are the most valuable member of the campaign," Rose grits out. "You don't have to make me look bad to achieve that."
"That was not-"
Rose is already out the door before Scorpius can finish his sentence.
____________
"I'd tell him to go to hell, but it just so happens that I'm stuck there and don't want to have to see him everyday," Rose fumes. "How dare he condescend me like that?"
"He probably meant well," Albus tries to reason. "Face it, if it'd been anyone else who did your work for you, you'd be dancing around in victorious circles."
"I would not!" Rose objects. "I heard a few interns talking about how I would not have gotten a place in the campaign if my mum hadn't been the one running it."
Albus frowns. "That's just mindless, water-cooler talk. You can ignore all of them."
"I know," Rose says. "But then there Malfoy was, doing all my work for me and it just kind of hit me that I wasn't really contributing much to mum's campaign except for being a pretty face."
"Don't be ridiculous," Albus says. "You're so much more than a pretty face. You can outtalk any one of those intern even at your worst days. And I promise you Scorpius meant to help when he decided to do your work for you. He floo'ed me to ask if you'd get angry and I told him to do it."
Rose frowns. "You're my cousin. You're supposed to help me!"
"I was!" Albus insists. "You've been so stressed lately. I thought a lessened workload would help you to feel happier."
Rose considers that for a moment before pulling Albus into a hug. "You're my favourite."
Albus snorts. "I am everyone's favourite."
____________
"I am being nice to her!" Scorpius insists. "She just doesn't seem to want to believe it."
"It bothers me that Rose not liking you bothers you so much," Albus tells him. "Do you have a thing for her?"
"What?" Scorpius asks. "What? No! Of course not! It just bothers me that she can dislike me so much even when I'm trying to be nice to her."
Albus narrows his eyes. "You have a thing for Rose," he concludes.
"No," Scorpius says, drawing out the word. "I do not."
Albus shrugs. "If you say so," he relents. "But if you did have a thing for Rose, you would tell me, right?"
"Not willingly," Scorpius says, rolling his eyes. "You pretty much just force everything out of me."
"Is that how you talk to your best friend in the world?" Albus says, placing a hand dramatically over his heart. "You break my heart," Albus moans. "You wound my soul!"
Scorpius snorts. "Clearly you missed your calling."
____________
In a stroke of luck, Scorpius manages to catch Rose alone in the pantry during lunch the next day. When Rose sees him approaching with a mug of coffee in hand, she starts to gather up her sandwich.
"Don't leave on my account," Scorpius says. "I'm sure the pantry is large enough to accommodate us both."
Rose seems to ponder over that for a moment. "I'm not sure I want to willingly spend my lunch hour with you."
"Look," Scorpius says with a sigh. "I know you don't like me."
Rose snorts. "Whatever gave you that impression?" she asks, voice heavy with melodrama.
"You avoid looking me in the eye unless you are glaring at me," Scorpius starts, "you try to avoid talking to me as much as you can, and when we do talk, the conversation is hostile at best."
"That was a rhetorical question," Rose says. "You do realize that, don't you?"
Scorpius looks at Rose, unamused.
Rose rolls her eyes. "Those are all circumstantial evidences. They will not hold up in a court of law."
"I haven't done anything to warrant your dislike since we started working together," Scorpius says quietly. "I want this partnership to work," he tells her, "but I can't be the only one trying."
Rose doesn't say anything.
Scorpius pushes the mug in his hand towards her as he stands up. "Two sugars, no milk," he says. "Enjoy your lunch."
____________
"You complain when he's nice, you complain when he's not," Albus says, shaking his head. "You are a very hard woman to please."
"He made me coffee," Rose repeats.
"People do that sometimes for their coworkers," Albus says lightly.
"Not Malfoy!" Rose exclaims.
"He's trying to be nice to you," Albus says. "Try to return the sentiment. Did you like the coffee? Scorpius makes some good coffee."
"I didn't drink it," Rose says.
Albus' eyebrows climb up. "Why not?"
"I had a sample sent to Lily to check for laxatives," she says simply. "The test samples aren't back yet."
Albus bangs his head on the table before him. "This is hopeless."
____________
"Malfoy," Rose calls out. When Scorpius looks up, Rose tosses him a paper bag. "Albus made me apologize."
Scorpius frowns. "What for?"
A blush makes its way onto Rose's face. "I, uh, sent a sample of the coffee you made me to test for laxatives. The tests came back negative."
Scorpius lets out a laugh at that. "Am I really that horrible in your eyes?"
Rose shifts slightly in her seat. "You're not. I was too paranoid. I'm sorry for mistaking your gesture as anything other than a friendly one."
"Did Albus have you practice that in front of the mirror?" Scorpius teases.
"He did, actually," she says with an easy grin. "You have to admit it is a better apology than the 'I wouldn't have rammed into you if you hadn't been in my way' that you gave me after that Quidditch incident."
Scorpius winces. "I've gotten a lot better at apologies since then."
"Let's hear it, then," Rose says.
Scorpius sits up straighter, looks right into Rose's eyes and says, "I'm sorry."
Rose waits for more, but when it doesn't come, she blinks. "That's it?"
Scorpius nods. "Sincere and straightforward with no room for misinterpretation."
She rolls her eyes. "There's a turkey sandwich in the paper bag," she tells him. "No tomatoes, no lettuce, extra mustard. Enjoy your lunch."
Scorpius smiles. "I will."
____________
"Why are you grinning?" Albus asks, bemused. "Did you strike the lottery?"
Scorpius shakes his head. "Rose and I have reached a truce."
"That's what's got you grinning like an idiot?" Albus blinks. "You do have a thing for Rose!"
Scorpius rolls his eyes. "I don't have a thing for her."
"Then you wouldn't be interested in knowing that she has a thing for you too, would you?" Albus asks slyly.
Scorpius' eyes snap to Albus'. "She what?"
"Aha! You do have a thing for her!" Albus repeats. "Is this where I tell you to gather ye rosebuds while ye may for old Time is still a-flying?"
"You are ridiculous," Scorpius says. "And I'm late for work."
"This conversation is not over!" Albus calls out after him.
____________
"Spit it out," Rose says, perching on Scorpius' table.
Scorpius looks up at her, surprised. "Sorry?"
"You've been looking at me weirdly the whole day," Rose says. Her eyes narrow then. "Did you send my turkey sandwich to test for laxatives?"
Scorpius laughs. "No, I didn't. I figured that even if you did put laxatives inside, it would even out that Quidditch incident. It was delicious, thank you."
"Then what is it?" Rose asks. "Did I forget to do anything?"
"No," Scorpius says. "I hadn't even noticed that I was looking weirdly at you today, actually," he lies. "I promise not to look at you weirdly any more today."
Rose arches an eyebrow. "Only today?"
"One good sandwich only deserves one day of good behaviour," Scorpius says with a grin. "Make me another sandwich and we'll negotiate terms."
"You are ridiculous," Rose says, throwing her head back with a laugh.
Scorpius watches her with a knot in his stomach and thinks two consecutive thoughts: 'I'd do anything to make her laugh.' and 'Oh, bloody hell.'
____________
"What do you think about Scorpius now?" Albus asks.
Rose shrugs. "He's pretty okay. Do not say 'I told you so'. I will hex you, Al."
Albus arches both eyebrows. "Only pretty okay? I heard that you two have been really chummy."
"We get along better than with other people, I suppose," Rose tells him. "Is this an interrogation?"
"That depends on whether or not you have anything to hide," Albus says with a wink. "An anonymous source may or may not have let out to me that you used to have a crush on Scorpius in sixth year."
Rose gapes. "I can't believe Lily told you that! I told her that in strict confidence!"
"I can't believe you kept it from me!" Albus tells her. "I thought I was your favourite!"
"It was too short-lived to warrant telling you," Rose says dismissively. "That was the week before he locked me in the greenhouse."
"By accident," Albus adds, almost heatedly.
Rose sighs. "By accident," she relents. "After that, having a crush on him seemed really ridiculous. So I stopped."
"And now?"
Rose stares at him. "What now?"
"Will you start having a crush on him again?"
Rose blushes. "No."
Albus hums, doubtful. "Scorpius is going to be so pissed," he murmurs to himself.
____________
"Aunt Hermione told me you were working late," Albus says in lieu of a greeting, "and I thought to myself that you hate working late. You only do that when there's something on your mind that you desperately want to ignore."
Scorpius doesn't even look up. "I'm ignoring you in favour of working now."
"I'm your best friend, Scor," Albus says. "You don't ignore your best friend."
"I don't know where you got that notion that you are my best friend, but I can assure you that you aren't," Scorpius says with a sigh. "I do have other friends, you know?"
"But none of your other friends have that bond we do!" Albus crows. "Is this about what I said about Rose?"
Scorpius finally looks up at that. "I don't have a thing for her," he says for the umpteenth time.
Albus cocks an eyebrow. "Are you sure you believe that?"
Scorpius lets out a resigned sigh. "She does this…thing when she laughs, where she throws her head back and just laughs? I never thought anything of it before but she did it today and I just… I just lost it."
Albus shrugs. "So you have a crush on my cousin. So go get her! Do I need to recite the whole poem to you, right down to for having lost but once your prime, you may forever tarry?"
"Your cousin hates me," Scorpius grits out.
"Hated," Albus corrects. "I heard you guys have been sharing sandwiches. That's not what Rose does with people she hates."
Scorpius groans. "I don't know. It took eleven years for her to start seeing me as a friend. How long do you think it would take for her to see me as something more?"
"She had a crush on you in Sixth Year," Albus sings out. "And then you locked her in the greenhouse."
Scorpius gapes, confused. "I… I locked her in a greenhouse?"
Albus shifts on his feet. "Well, technically I did. But she thought it was you and I never corrected her. She was angry for weeks."
Scorpius blinks.
"To be very fair," Albus adds hurriedly, "I didn't think it would do any harm to your relationship since she pretty much already hated your guts. If I'd known that she was having a crush on you then, I'd have totally manned up."
Scorpius shuts his files slowly, still looking at Albus with a sort of calm that belied his inner turmoil. "I am going to see Rose now," he says, "and when that's done, I'm going to look for a new best friend."
____________
"I didn't lock you in the greenhouse!" Scorpius blurts out when Rose opens the door.
Rose blinks. "Sorry, what?"
"I didn't lock you in the greenhouse," Scorpius repeats, slower this time. "It was Al. I didn't even know there was such an incident until ten minutes ago."
"Okay?" Rose says. "Uh. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say here."
"Al said you had a crush on me in Sixth Year," Scorpius tells her.
Rose's eyes go wide. "I am going to die of mortification now," she squeaks. "And then I'm going to resurrect myself to come back for Al's life."
"He said your crush waned after I locked you in the greenhouse," Scorpius continues, serious. "But I didn't. I didn't lock you in the greenhouse. So you had no right to stop having a crush on me. I demand that I get some sort of compensation out of being wronged like this."
Rose stares at him for a long moment before her lips quirk up in a smile. "One good cup of coffee only deserves one day of good behaviour," she says with a grin. "Make me another and we'll negotiate terms."
Scorpius laughs, says "You're so ridiculous", and pulls Rose into a kiss.
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