The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

I, of course, being Rose Weasley…dozed off.

How did I know this?

I was woken shortly after the initial dozing by soft steps. I knew I hadn’t been asleep long because I hadn’t had a visit from Spunky. I pushed myself up a little, with a slight yawn, and shook my head. I glanced down at the comic, realizing that I’d reached the halfway point before I’d dropped off. Mentally shrugging, I picked up where I left off - reading about Martin and his crazy scheme to teach a wild tiger to tap dance.

Even a wizard isn’t stupid enough to try to teach a tiger something like that!

Maybe that’s why it was one of the things that the comic’s author and/or artist picked this scheme to be one of Martin’s…because, after all, it was the adventures of a mad muggle.

“Rose?” a voice asked softly, causing me to jump. I had somehow already forgotten the soft footsteps that had woken me up to begin with.

“Yeah?”

“So you are awake,” Scorpius sat in a chair, also with a book in his hand.

“I’m…finding it hard to sleep,” I admitted, sitting up and sitting cross-legged on the sofa. “So much going on, you know.”

“Yeah,” he ran a hand through his already messy hair, making my heart leap to my throat in an unexplainable manner, “I’m still finding it hard to believe the Goblet chose us. We’ve got so many things on our plates already!”

“My thoughts exactly,” I grinned, tossing my comic onto the table and putting my feet up alongside it. Scorpius took it as an invitation to join me, and I can’t say I had any objections.

He was in a pair of the muggle lounging pants that he’d grown quite fond of, and they were in his favorite shade of green. A bit more shocking might be his shirt - or rather, his lack of one. He usually at least wore a t-shirt of some sort, if what he usually showed up wearing in the middle of the night (when he made an appearance in the common room, which was every time I did) was any indication.

It was a bit distracting, with all these new thoughts in my head. Our arms were so close they were touching, and if I just reached out, I knew my fingers would brush across his perfectly chiseled abs and - why must my best mate be the human body’s equivalent of a Greed god? Perfectly chiseled. Have I ever mentioned the shape of his jaw? Much like his father’s, and quite handsome on him. His pale skin was more tanned than Draco’s, due to his hours in the sun for the Quidditch training that he was far more dedicated to than Draco had been in his school days. The tone matched him. It just worked on him. It clicked.

Merlin, Rose Weasley,I scolded myself. You are so lucky you can carry on an intelligent conversation while discreetly staring at the person you’re having the conversation with!

I could barely recall said conversation, granted, other than the fact that it had changed from the impending Exhibition and everything else. Now, it was about how we had both noticed that the one and only Albus Severus Potter was getting it - and bad - for little miss Andrea DuPré.

“He’s a bit obvious,” I nodded, trying to focus my entire being on the conversation at hand.

“A ‘bit’? Rose, I’m a guy. I’m not that sensitive to these things, at least not as sensitive as say, Lily is, because I bet she’s torturing Al right now, but I’ve totally got tidal waves of ‘Al likes Andy’ signals.” Scorpius laughed, partly at how ridiculous he thought he sounded. I had to rein my focus back to the conversation again.

“Hey, you’re a lot more sensitive than the other guys,” I said, and then I added jokingly, “aside from the gay ones, at any rate.”

He feigned a look of being insulted and asked in fake indignation as I just grinned, “Are you insinuating something, Rose Weasley?”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

Is it possible for two people to talk each other to sleep?

The answer is yes. Yes it is.

Granted, we both awoke with cricks in our necks at around eight, but we’d at least slept - and I hadn’t had a single image of Spunky to plague me all night! I don’t know if it could have possibly had something to do with being so close to someone while we slept or not. All I know is that my falling asleep in the first place was aided considerably by the arm draped over my all-but bare shoulders. It seemed to radiate comfortable body heat.

Scorpius and I woke up around the same time, and he removed the arm from my shoulders so he could stretch.

For what seemed like the hundredth time since the start of term, I noticed - in a more than friendly way - that my best mate was gorgeous. I noticed the way his skin rippled at he stretched his aching muscles, and I had to force my gaze away so I wouldn’t be caught staring at him.

I did this by falling of the sofa and somehow landing backwards. That is, my shoulder blades were pressed up against the coffee table and my feet were in the air, aided by the fact that they were propped up on the sofa.

“Ouch,” was the only thing that came out of my mouth.

“Rose!” Scorpius snorted, unsuccessfully trying to hold his serious and concerned face. “Are you okay?”

“Just peachy,” I rolled my eyes, unable to suppress a grin. Makin gmy way to my feet awkwardly, I said over my shoulder, “I am going to take my shower when I get back with my clothes. Unless you beat me to it.”

I challenged him. I should have learned not to do that by now, since he always took the challenge seriously and made it to his dorm and back to the shower before I did.

“I suppose I’ll just have to learn,” I said, tickling the kitten Nira under her chin. “But I think spending this time with you is a wonderful alternative.”

She purred, rubbing against my hand. I couldn’t help but laugh and pet her again, still tickling her chin. She got tired of this after a few minutes, though, and curled up to promptly fall asleep. That made me, in effect, stuck there. Anyone who doesn’t own a cat wouldn’t understand how I would be stuck if she just simply fell asleep. Anyone who does own one would know that cats find the comfiest places to sleep are often on their inconvenienced owners.

Nira had fallen asleep spread out across my chest. Chuckling lightly to myself, I continued to pet her as she slept, occasionally letting out the slightly uncharacteristic giggle when her whiskers tickled my nose.

“You’re too cute,” I whispered to her, before feeling myself starting to drift off again.