The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

“Presents!” a shout came that made me jump, effectively causing me to fall to the floor between the coffee table and the sofa.

“Merlin, Al,” I groaned, sitting up and rubbing my head. I heard a yawn nearby, and Scorpius slid down to the floor beside me purposely, dropping his head on my shoulder tiredly.

“Really, what time is it?” Scorpius mumbled, “Eight? Nine?”

“It’s eight-thirty,” Al said, looking as though he’d been scolded, but perking up and repeating, “but look! Presents!”

“Yes, Al,” Lily groaned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and stretching as Zack twitched into alertness on the floor, mirroring Lily’s groan in a much more agitated tone. I snorted, not suppressing my urge to idly play with Scorpius’ silky blonde hair as the rest of our comrades meandered or spoke in varying degrees of wakefulness and coherence.

“Here!” Al said, still excited, as he chucked a present at Joe, who managed to catch it one handed, with a dazed look on his face. After this display of impatience, Andy got up and talked to Al softly, convincing him to hand everyone their gifts and then come sit down so everyone could open them together. My cousin flushed at being reprimanded by his current oh-so-obvious crush, and nodded.

Within five minutes, we all had a miniature mountain in front of us - on the coffee table where Scorpius and I were sitting, ours had kind of morphed into one, as we were right next to each other and Al hadn’t thought to set them on the ground beside us.

Scorpius’ head was still laying on my shoulder, and he seemed content to let me play with his hair as Al searched under the tree quickly to make sure he’d gotten every present for everyone. A bit of rummaging disproved that he had, and he rushed over to drop another box on Joe’s pile (a fairly large box, I don’t understand how he missed it) and a smaller box onto Lily’s pile. I caught a slight flush hit the fifth year Slytherin boy’s face as the box fell onto the Gryffindor girl’s pile, and a grin spread across my cheeks. Glancing up, Scorpius murmured, “So you noticed, too?”

I nodded, still grinning and still absently playing with Scorpius’ hair. He chuckled, sliding an arm around my waist as we waited for Al to double-check the tree again - and come back with another box, medium sized this time, for Zack. This time Lily’s face flushed, and I suppressed the snort that I wanted to let through, if only just.

About three more minutes of Al’s re-checking under the tree (resulting in the discovery of seven more gifts, three for himself, one for Scorpius, one for Andy, and two for me), Al finally plopped back down on the floor in front of the sofa that Andy had conjured the previous night.

“Time to open them!” Al said, grinningly, to the rest of the room’s still tired occupants.

“Forgive us, then, if we’re slightly less enthusiastic,” Scorpius said, sighing as he lifted his head from my shoulder and reached for the top of his pile, his arm still around my waist, “but most of us are used to sleeping a decent amount of time, as we clearly have not been allowed.”

“Just open your presents!” Al grinned, ripping the paper off his first one, which turned out to be a broomstick servicing kit from his father.

“Whatever,” Lily muttered, grabbing a random gift from the middle of her stack, causing a few others to topple. She didn’t seem to care as she yawned, pulling the wrappings unceremoniously from the present. It turned out to be her gift from me - a book on fashionable hairstyles that I knew she’d like, because I’d seen her staring at it.

Scorpius unwrapped the gift he’d grabbed, revealing a traditional Weasley sweater - even though he wasn’t a Weasley, he’d been getting one for a few years now. It was the Slytherin shade of green - Grandma Molly wasn’t one for the old prejudices anymore, really, even though the ‘S’ for Scorpius made it obviously seem like a sweater made specifically for the Slytherin house.

Within moments, the dormitory common room was littered with scraps of paper, and Al’s excited chatter, soon joined by a few of the rest of us, who were waking up in the slightest by that time.

My Weasley sweater was a bit different than usual this year, which was surprising. Instead of the normal maroon sweater, to match dad’s, mine was made of white this time, with a red rose knitted on the front.

“How cliché,” I muttered to myself, shaking my head, but I grinned. I actually quite liked it - it was unique next to all the other Weasley sweaters, aside from a few of Uncle Harry’s. I, however, did as all the other Weasley children - and Scorpius - did, pulling it on over my pajama top.

What surprised Zack, Andy, Joe, and Beth was that they each received an infamous Weasley sweater, as well. I was surprised that Zack got one, but I’d already told Grandma Molly about Andy and Joe, and even Theresa, and I was sure Lily had told her about Beth. Actually, I think Beth got one last year, too, so I don’t see why she was as surprised as she was to get the periwinkle blue sweater with a B on the front. Zack’s was green like Scorpius’, a slightly different shade, though. Andy’s was a Beauxbatons blue, and Joe’s was Durmstrang red.

It was a half hour after we’d begun opening presents, now, and we were just getting down to the last three or four. We’d mostly woken up by this time, and were chatting among each other quite amiably, as compared to our grudge against Albus for waking us all up mere hours after we’d fallen asleep.

“Oh, Albus, thank you!” came a sudden cry, and my attention was diverted from the package I’d just picked up and over to where Andy gave my flushed cousin a delighted kiss on the cheek, a golden something dangling from her hand. “Eet is gorgeous!”

“It…it’s nothing, really…” Al said, flustered, at a loss for words.

“ ‘Elp me put eet on?” Andy asked, batting her eyelashes. I sniggered silently, Scorpius making barely audible shushing noises to me as he suppressed his own at the blatant flirtatious devices of the French girl.

“Shut up, Rose!” Scorpius hissed as one of my chuckled got a bit louder.

“Make me,” I let out a laugh, stifling it quickly as Al agreed to Andy’s request, taking the delicate gold chain from her, letting the delicate heart-shaped pendant be seen by the rest of the also silently laughing room.

Scorpius snorted too, looking away from them and focusing on me. Another chuckle about to bubble from my lips, I turned to look at him, grinning with my fist to my lips. He lightly kissed the back of my hand, and turned to glance back at Andy and Al. Al had fastened the necklace, and had returned, flushing, to the few presents remaining in front of him.

“Thank you very much!” Andy cried, pressing another kiss to the flustered Potter’s cheek.

“N-not at all,” Al managed, smiling feebly, his cheeks turning redder.

I finally laughed, causing Scorpius to start chuckling, and the others to let out snorts, or giggles, or other things along those lines. We didn’t tell them what was so funny, but Andy wore the look that said she’d try to force it out of me later.

Finally, about five minutes later, I reached for the last gift. I’d purposely left it, because I knew it was from Scorpius, just as I knew he’d purposely left mine until last, as well, as he picked it up at the same time as I picked up the one from him. I knew that the necklace I’d worn last night for the Yule Ball from him was supposedly my Christmas present, but with a glance at Al and Lily, who were attempting to watch discreetly, I figured he must have snuck out when Lily told him about my dress and how good the necklace went with it, so he could get me another gift. Returning my attention to Scorpius, who grinned at me as I caught his eye, I smiled lightly. Still grinning, he said, “Cheers.”

“Cheers,” I agreed, grinningly, as I tugged on the little silver and green ribbon adorning my gift as he pulled the red and gold paper from his. It was a tradition we’d started years ago - my gift to him would be wrapped in Gryffindor colors, and his gift to me would be in Slytherin. It was a jest, just making fun of the old rivalry, and it was kind of stupid, but I wouldn’t change that little quirk for anything.

I didn’t notice the silence in the room as I revealed a little box. A bit more (also known as actually opening said box) showed a gleaming, gorgeous locket. Breathtaking, really. It was a heart shape, obviously, and had little engraved (cliché!) roses all around. There was a French engraving which I knew to mean, “I Love You”, and I grinned to myself, my face seeming to crack in half. I turned to look at him as he revealed, from the depths of his wrappings, a pair of socks. He looked at me with raised eyebrows, and I raised mine back.

His real gift, as only Lily, Beth, Andy, and I knew, was inside the socks. It was a silver pocket watch, engraved in Chinese characters. I hadn’t known when I picked it up for him that it said, “To Love and Prosper”, or something along those lines, but I decided that he probably wouldn’t know right off the bat and my secret would be safe. Not that my secret crush on him was a secret anymore.

“I love this,” I told him, cradling the locket in my hands. I didn’t want to be like Andy and Al and ask him to put it on for me, but I really wanted him to do it because he’d gotten it for me. “It’s beautiful, Scorp.”

“And I love this marvelously Gryffindor pair of socks,” he retorted teasingly, holding them up.

“Look inside them!” Lily piped up, and she, Beth, Andy, and I chuckled as Scorpius looked around at her confused. The room became slightly louder with more chuckles then, and it was then I realized the odd silence that had filled the room while Scorpius and I were opening the presents we’d gotten each other. Then something occurred to me, so that I looked at Scorpius so intensely that he gave me a strange look and asked why, his hand still immersed in the wrong sock.

“The locket,” I stated, lifting it up. “I - we hadn’t even - were you going to tell me today?” I asked accusingly. Albus burst into laughter as Scorpius casually reached into the other sock for the pocket watch.

“Actually, yes. I figured Christmas was as good a day as any to tell the girl you’ve liked for Merlin knows how long that you’re bloody in love with her.”

I froze, staring at him wide-eyed. We’d been going out for less than twelve hours and he’d already dropped the L-bomb.

“Love?” I whispered, so quietly that I barely heard myself. Scorpius’ cheeks flared up, redder than I had ever seen them, even when he’d lit his underwear on fire in third year with all his other clothes still on.

“Ah - well - I thought it was implied when I…erm, asked you to be my girlfriend…?” he supplied. He acted as thought I’d be mad at him, but really, I was flooded with a sense of completion.

I smiled. “Then, that’s good to know,” I said, pecking him on the lips quickly.

*~~~~~~~~*

Even with this already established, another L-bomb wouldn’t be dropped for the next few months.