SPOILER!!: comments

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurange

Have I ever told you that I love Scorpius' chill?

I do.

Well done, guys, I am so proud to know you wonderful authors.

He puts on a good act, he's not always so chill XD

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurange

As you all know, I am a huge HUGE fan. I am also the best fan. AHEM. And this chapter just slays. UGH.

Thank you, Ern, for that wonderful chapter. Who needs actual published books when we have the two of you writing fanfiction?

I hope someone actually sets fire to Yates Shacklebolt. It would make my day.

You are too nice. I LOVE writing with Ern, she inspires me so much.

Fire is interesting

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casey O

UGH THIS IS JUST GORGEOUS!!!!!

And...

I love that turn of phrase too, Rose is so vivid. Her sass. Love it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Optimist

Scorpius should. Seriously. They both dislike him and he is a creep. Ghost but groping and everything.

Such a creep. Too bad everyone else doesn't seem wise to it huh?

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I can probably do with editing this a bit more but I really wanted to get it up for you guys. Thanks for all your support! Fanfic trope reference in here for those who like Weasley/Malfoy pairings.

3.2 Everybody Crushes on a Weasley Girl at Least Once
"Do you have a death wish or something, Scorpius?" Ruby Winickus, fellow sixth year Slytherin, spoke in such a pleasant tone that she could have simply been commenting on the weather. Scorpius slowed to a walk.

Slytherin had a scheduled study session every Monday after dinner starting right then, but he had no plans to go. It wasn't compulsory, just encouraged. There'd be too many over-excited youngsters there this early in the term. Scorpius often did go along, he just preferred to go when people actually used the time to study.

"No, no death wish that I can think of."

"Nera said she's not sure that you're up to it." Ruby always did have a habit of hanging on to Nera's every word. Maybe Nera had nudged Ruby to come speak to him.

"Up to what?" Scorpius paused while a group of young Hufflepuff students weaved past them and detoured towards the kitchens.

"Well it is quite the risk." Ruby sounded cautious about it. "I mean, there are so many of them, and James Potter and Fred Weasley aren't exactly card carrying members of the Malfoy fan club."

"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." Scorpius said confidently, intending to imply that he did know. He was mostly sure, even if it was a spur of the moment thing, his motivations were purely to irritate exactly the people she had named, with emphasis on James Potter. He believed that Muggles called it 'for the lulls', though he wasn't sure if it would truly cause a lull unless the phrase referred to a lull which laughter would fill quite nicely. He would brandish his patented smirk, the one that Slytherin boys basically had in their arsenal from birth, and hopefully the elder Potter boy would develop a twitch or something.

As they descended the main staircase to the dungeons, Ruby continued as if he hadn't spoken at all.
"I doubt any of the others are either, even if she's come over all fond and wised up to what the rest of us already knew."

"And what might that be?" He prompted.

Ruby rolled her eyes pointedly, clearly not willing to compliment him outright, but Scorpius just grinned at her. They'd dated for a short time back in fourth year. Nothing serious, and it had fizzled out after a few months. They weren't especially close now, she was more Nera's friend than his.

"Well you've delivered your little warning, Rubes. Cheers for that." A third year in front of them spoke the password at the wall and went inside, Scorpius and Ruby followed him into the Common Room, neither turning back to watch the wall close up again behind them. "Don't tell me it’s out of jealousy?" He was teasing.

"Please, Malfoy." She scoffed at him good naturedly. “Been there, done that. I just don't want to see Slytherin's Quidditch Captain in a coma for pushing his luck too far and coming up on the wrong side in a fight. You're too refined for fisticuffs, Scorpius."

He snorted inelegantly but took her point. He'd push his luck as much as he found entertaining, but not to the point of Gryffindoring.

"Noted. Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight, Scorpius."

After smiling slightly in response he headed to his dorm and pushed open the door to find he hadn't been the only one of his fellows to choose not to attend the study meeting. Takeshi Haneda, Curtis Flint, Vincent Nott and Apollo Burke were all spread out around the room, the other two beds, belonging to Pucey and Goyle, were empty. Scorpius shut the door behind himself and went over to his own bed and began carefully unpacking his book bag. It was a process and he had a particular way of putting everything away just so. His part of the dormitory was the tidiest, which was why he and Takeshi had chosen beds near one another, Takeshi being possibly even more fussy and particular than Scorpius. Apollo was the next closest, but the gap by his bed was already full of all sorts of things- as if he'd spread his belongings out for easy access. He'd claimed the floor in the gap between Takeshi and Scorp's bed, and Scorpius had needed to step over him.

"I bet you've just been waiting for me to ask." Apollo said from the floor. He had watched Scorpius entered the dorm and immediately gone all smirky. "But you know, I've already assured everyone you know what you're doing."

"Besides." Nott chimed in, "She sat next to you."

"But he asked her to sit with him at the Gryffindor tryouts tomorrow." Curtis Flint pointed out.

Ignoring them, Scorpius hung his empty bag up and loosened his tie before laying back on his bed with a notebook and quill, planning to get some notes down in preparation for his own team tryouts later in the week, including what he knew about who would likely be on the team and who tried out last year but didn't make it.

"Look mate, everyone crushes on a Weasley girl at least once." Apollo pointed out in a tone that suggested he was simply commenting on the weather. "Why are you so against it?"

Scorpius made a derisive sound, not quite a snort. He thought it was entirely clear that he did not agree in the slightest. He didn't respond to Apollo's mildly delivered question. The other boy had to know the answer, he was just asking to be infuriating, to get a reaction. It was hard not to give him one considering Scorp DID find the subject irritating and ridiculous all in one go. It wasn't a date or a crush. It definitely hadn't been planned. He was going to ride it out, irritate Potter, and then after that it would be the end of it.

"Statistically it is so." Takeshi agreed, looking up from his book. "Might I enquire which one was your downfall?" The Japanese boy asked conversationally and looked down at Apollo who was stretched out in his preferred spot on the floor. The prefect's legs long enough now that his feet seemed to disappear under Scorpius's bed. Apollo looked around the room, his eyes half closed like he was stuck somewhere between awake and asleep. Often, it caused people to underestimate him, like they thought he wasn't paying attention.

"Victoire." Apollo answered in that reverent sort of tone reserved for someone reflecting on a cherished memory. "Almost made me ask the hat to put me in Gryffindor so that some of that supposed braveness and stupidity would rub off and I'd have enough guts to talk to her." Scorpius hardly believed that claim. Apollo Burke in Gryffindor? There was no chance that Apollo could ever put up with that much concentrated stupidity and hardheadedness without snapping like an owl postal worker, resulting in a murderous rampage, whereby he would either Avada the lot of them or threaten death by owl pecking squad.

"Dominique." Flint took his turn and Scorpius dryly wondered why his dorm mates had collectedly decided to have a bonding session while he, Scorpius Malfoy, was trying to bloody focus. Perhaps they'd been talking about this whole Rose Weasley business before he'd come in? Now he was torn between being mollified that it mattered and irritated by it.

"That doesn't prove anything except that you two aren't immune to Veela blood." Scorp pointed out, trying to be reasonable and lead the conversation to a close without it seeming too forced. It also proved that Curtis Flint liked a bit of crazy harpy in his life. Each to their own.

"Diluted Veela blood." There went Apollo again, looking irritatingly pleased with himself, a smirk tailoring itself to his lips. Adept at leading talk in whichever direction he pleased, Apollo didn't do it all the time or without reason. Scorpius supposed Apollo was about due for a bout of string-pulling and he resigned himself to the fact that whatever the other boy's reasons were, the purpose behind it all would be obscure and Scorp would probably never find out exactly what Apollo was up to. As close as they were, Apollo still proved himself half of a mystery two thirds of the time. For all Scorpius knew, Apollo Burke had a secret crush on bloody Rose Weasley himself or something and was simply testing the waters to see what sort of reaction it might get. Equally likely: Apollo had been talking to Nera and the two of them had decided to violate the ban on experimental breeding, the first step in their unholy quest to create pink haired Malfoys, a concept that both prefects seemed to find highly amusing.

"I was always partial to Molly myself." Nott had always shown a marked preference for intellectual girls though, so even Scorpius wasn't surprised that Vincent Nott had at some point had an eye on the former Head Girl.

"The Ravenclaw ones aren't as bad." Scorpius maintained a disapproving air. He wasn't planning on entertaining any bit of the whole ridiculous notion for himself. Crushes on Weasleys? Please. Scorp wasn't the type to mope over any girl that wouldn't reciprocate interest, and in the going-on-six years he'd been at Hogwarts he'd discovered that Weasleys and Potters were better at showing disdain or outright antipathy in his general direction, like each and every one of them expected him to be the embodiment of those of his family members that probably were the stuff of their collective nightmares and the main feature in the stories told to scare one another as small children. Prejudice and all that. He was privately certain that the other children of former death eater parents didn't get half of the bad rap that he got. With the possible and sometime exception of Albus Potter, who could admittedly be alright, Scorpius had no interest in being on friendly terms with any of that brood, and especially not romantic terms with one of the Weaselettes.

"Alright Snowflake, feel special then, but you're no different." Apollo waved a finger at him in an older-and-wiser sort of gesture. "I'm just saying, you may as well hang for a Dragon as an Egg, right?"

“Thank you for your unsolicited advice, it moves me so.” Scorpius answered dryly, turning to a blank page in his notebook. If he couldn’t explain his reasons to himself, he wasn’t going to try and explain it to anyone else. “It’s just Quidditch.”

That was all it was.