The Flower and the Snake

Rose turned back to Albus, after watching Malfoy make his way back to the Slytherin table. Holding the basket tightly and ignoring the growing cold she said that she’d see him later in class and nearly ran out the hall, trying her best to ignore the whispers. She was more focused on the tiny creature in the basket however and thinking quickly on what she was going to do. She went straight back to Gryffindor tower and into her private room. As head girl she had never thought too much about her special privileges, but she was certainly grateful of them now.

Placing the basket on the floor gently she quickly transfigured her old brush into a nest with a small perch so that when the youngling was old enough it would have a place to sit. She opened the window and grabbed a handful of snow and placed it in the nest, keeping the area nice and cold. Then she placed a chilling charm on the snow, keeping it from melting until she decided to lift the charm.

When all of that was in place she turned to the basket, took a deep breath while pulling out the ice berries that she gathered the day before, and opened it. Inside had to be the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. The tiny Kooraisu fit into the palm of her hand, its scaly beak showing no signs of the teeth that would eventually grow when it started eating meat. Just as she had studied she held out the berries and when the bird looked her in the eye she did not falter. The bird studied her for what seemed like hours before it finally lightly touched the palm of her hand with the tip of its beak. She nearly gasped as the beak touched her. It felt like her palm was being frozen from the inside out.

Rose controlled her instincts to throw the bird away from her, and within moments it lifted its beak away from her, and made a small cry before diving into the berries. She knew without a doubt that the bird had accepted her and as proof was the small circular mark on her palm. Ice colored, it was cold to the touch and marked the new relationship that she held with the magical creature.

When it had finished with its berries, the small bird crawled into its icy nest, snuggling into the snow. Rose sighed as she watched it doze off, its eyes sedately watching her until they finally closed in slumber. Without a doubt she knew the chick was female, and with that same certainty she knew the name of her new friend. Andavil.

The young Malfoy heir had finished his meal off quickly before retreating to preform his prefect rounds.

Luckily for him, he was to patrol the edge of the lake and forbidden forest, his favorite spot on all of the Hogwarts grounds. It was one of the few places he could just let his mind go nub for a while, not really think about anything in particular. The sound of the lake water lapping against the shore eased all of his worries, and the whisper of the winds through the tree branches soothed his nerves as well.

The young blond frowned, rubbing his blue-gray eyes with a slightly bothered grunt. Truth be told, he needed glasses. Possibly more, though he played it off as nothing. a clear sight charm in the morning and in the noon kept him going, and no one knowing about his eye problem. Even his own family. After all, a Malfoy had to be perfect. He couldn't show weakness, especially one as common as poor eyes, or rather eye. It was one the one eye that insisted on hurting, while the other blurred thanks to the left being out of focus.

He pulled out his wand and closed his eyes, casting the vocal-less charm on himself again. In no time the pain vanished and when he opened his eyes again he could see almost as good as new.

For one reason or another, he felt as though he were being watched. Looking up and over, he frowned at the Griffindor tower, unsure if it was simply his imagination or not.

Rose watched the tiny creature for a while as she pondered her luck. For years she had never spoken to the Malfoy heir. In fact all she had ever heard about him was that he was a stuck up git from her brothers, a death eater in the making from most of the school, and someone to avoid at all costs from her parents. Yet, he had shown her in only a short time that not only was he not a complete stuck up ass, but a man of his word and helpful to boot. So she didn’t really know why he had helped her. The point was that he did, and not only that he had given her the most beautiful creature she’d ever seen.

She stood slowly as to not wake the sleeping bird and wandered over to the window. The grounds were beautiful in the winter. Rose loved staring out the window when she was deep in thought, the sights helping ease her troubled mind. Of course, it didn’t help when the sights happened to be of the boy who was currently harassing said mind.

Scorpius seemed to wander the grounds with no set purpose, though Rose figured it was probably his area to patrol that day. She could almost see his blonde hair whipping in the wind, his gray eyes surveying the land with that serene confidence he always had. She didn’t realize that she was staring until he turned to look up at Gryffindor tower. Rose ducked quickly before laughing at herself mildly. There was no way he could see her from that far away. So why was she so paranoid?

Shaking herself out of whatever had taken hold of her she stood and grabbed her book bag. Before leaving she petted Andavil lightly on the head, infinitely pleased when she nuzzled back in her sleep.

“Be back soon.” she whispered, running out the door to her first class, Transfiguration. Her mind conveniently forgetting Scorpius also had that class at the same time.

Dismissing the feeling as nothing more than a slight case of paranoia, Scorpious skipped one last rock across the lake before headded back to the castle. He had a class, he undoubtedly woudl be late for, though he wasn't worried. He was always late and honestly enjoyed detention when it was given to him. It was time away from his house mates. Time away from having to be perfect.

By the time he made it to class, the professor was already collecting their home works.

Without any thought he took his seat next to Edgar who slipped him a scroll of parchment. Not that he had done the homework for the blond, but another friend has.... To repay a debt actually.

Rose arrived early to Transfiguration as was her usual. It was one of the few classes that she actually took to naturally, ironically the class that neither of her parents were any good at. In fact, most of her friends were rather horrible at Transfiguration and if she hadn’t helped him out, Albus would have never passed his exams with a high enough score to make it into the advanced course.

Today she was in an even brighter mood what with the arrival of the Kooraisu. Sure, she was utterly confused over what was happening between her and Scorpius at the moment but she couldn’t quite bring herself to care at the moment. She turned in her essay knowing that even though she had stayed up late working on it, she would get top marks on it like always. Albus on the other hand looked uttery miserable as he handed it in.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered as he reluctantly handed it over.

“Ill be lucky to get a D on that one…” he whispered back, horrified at himself.

“Oh come on it cant be that bad?” she asked, lightly punching his shoulder.

“I was sick remember? And besides, I couldn’t really ask you for help.”

Rose froze as she realized that in her distraction she had completely forgotten that he had asked for her assistance.

“I’m sorry… I don’t know what I was thinking yesterday. I totally spaced.”

“Its alright. I figured it must be pretty important. You looked like someone had killed a cat or something and then brought it back to life right in front of you.”

Rose chuckled lightly. Albus always had the best metaphors for things, especially expressions. She still felt bad forgetting about him like that, especially since she knew why she had forgotten. Before she could say anything else though she head Albus mutter something else under his breath.

“Damn it. Malfoy’s cheating again.”

“What did you say?” She asked, looking to see where Albus was staring to see Malfoy hand in his paper with a cocky grin on his face.

“He cheated. I saw his sidekick hand him an essay to turn in.”

Rose sighed. Sadly, it was the norm in Advanced Transfiguration for students to cheat at times, since Professor Huffly was so strict. She was like McGonagal all over again, except now McGonagal ran the school instead. Today it happened to be Malfoy, sadly like it usually was. How he was able to pass the in class demonstrations she had no clue.

“What happened with you and Malfoy today anyway?” Albus asked, his expression telling her quite plainly he would accept no lies.

“Later.” She mumbled, as Professor Huffly began her lecture.

Scorpious turned in his scroll, still grinning slightly from the joke his friend had made about Albus' hair and boggots.

The teacher took it and set it aside with all the others, never seeming to notice his lack of know how in the class.

"Today class, we'll be learning how to transfigure your class mates into an arm chair." she anounced after all the papers were collected. "You will alternate who will be casting the spell andhwo will be the target. Once transfigured, however, you are to undo it yourself. Now then, shall we get stared?"

Edgar frowned glancing at Scorpious. "Sorry, Malfoy.... But I know how you can botch up transfiguration." he appologized lightly, partnering instead with the girl beside them.

Lovely.

Scorpious scowled at that. So much for loyalty among friends.

Albus laughed softly as he watched people start pairing up.

“What are you laughing at now?” Rose asked, her eyebrow raised as she sat back in her chair.

“Oh nothing.” Albus said, a mysterious glint in his eye. Rose shrugged and went back to looking at her textbook studying the spell they would be using for the millionth time. She was so engrossed in her book that she didn’t notice that Albus had snuck off to partner up with another student leaving her without a partner, nor that Malfoy also didn’t have a partner.

“Well well. Ms. Weasley, Mr. Malfoy. Partner up there since you both seem to lack the ability to find one for yourselves.” Said Professor Huffly as levitated the desks out of the way.

Rose looked up in surprise to see Albus waving from across the room with the biggest grin on his face telling her that he knew this would happen. She scowled and mouthed the words “Youre dead” before she turned to Malfoy with a nervous smile on her face. For once she was less nervous about him in general and more nervous about his general skill in Transfiguration. She really didn’t want to end up as half an armchair for the rest of her life.

Scorpious frowned, an apologetic sort of look clear on his face as he made his way over to her. "You go first." he said, planning on taking his sweet time to change himself back. Hopefully by the end of class she wouldn't have to fall victim to one of his botched spells.

He took his wand out and tapped his temple silently, casting another clear vision charm on himself, hoping at least seeing what he was doing might help the situation some. His issue was he simply wasn't imaginative enough to be good in transfiguration.

Rose nodded and took the necessary stance to begin the spell. She would never admit just how relieved she was that he wasn’t going first. Nobody was fooled about Malfoy’s transfiguration abilities.

Pulling out her wand, her expression hardened as she called upon the necessary images to do human transfiguration.

“Vissitudo.” She said, waving her wand in a small arch before flicking the tip. A small pop was heard as Malfoy changed into a perfect replica of a large green armchair.

“Well look at what we have here.” Professor Huffly said, delight evident in her voice. “Ms Weasley has done it, and with such style!”

Rose hadn’t just changed Malfoy into a emerald green chair, she hadn’t been able to stop herself from adding a few extra things. On the chairs back was two serpents intertwined, one black, the other silver.

“Absolutely beautiful.” Professor Huffly gushed, causing Rose to blush lightly as some of her fellow classmates patted her on the back for a job well done.

“Alright then Mr. Malfoy. Change back so we can see what you can do.” The Professor said, watching him expectantly.

Scorpious took his sweet time, slowly morphing back into himself, sighing a light relived sigh as she shook out his blond hair. with a slight frown, he rubbed his left eye muttering something to himself incoherently. Naturally a few of his house mates applauded him, though it didn't stop them from backing away when he pulled his own wand out of his robe pocket.

Scorpious looked to Rose finally taking his hand away from his eye looking to the teacher. "I'll have to owe you a transfiguration Professor." he said pocketing his wand again returning his hand to his eye. Of course by no fault of Rose,it had decided to act up, and at quite the opportune moment in his opinion. "I think I need to give Madame Poppy a visit." he stated, keeping his hand in place as he picked up his books.

Muggles were much farther along as far as optic medicine was concerned. While they had surgeries to fix blurry vision and things called contacts [ he had heard about them in Muggle Studies class], Wizards and witches for the most part were stuck with good old fashion glasses and specks. And thanks to his clear vision charms, He haddn't noticed the pain in his eye until now, when it seemed most continent.

[http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/o/optic_neuritis/intro.htm]

Normally Professor Huffly was strict when it came to students leaving her class. If they weren’t heaving or spouting blood she wouldn’t let them leave until she examined them herself. But Malfoy’s eye problems were known amongst the staff even if he thought he was hiding the issue well. As a courtesy to him they mentioned it neither to him or to his parents, but allowed him an easy pass from their class whenever he needed to visit Madame Poppy for some extra help with his eyes.

However, there was one thing that this Professor would not do that her colleagues did. That is, let him walk to the hospital ward alone.

“Alright then Mr. Malfoy. Ill expect you to complete the spell the next class. Ms. Weasley, please escort Mr. Malfoy to the hospital ward.”

Her tone brooked no protestations. In her mind Rose was the perfect one to take him, as she was the only one in the class that had accurately completed the spell and as such had nothing more to do that day. Rose nodded swiftly, thinking that perhaps she had botched the spell in some way and hurt him.

Scorpious didn't argue, simply holding his eye. Really, it felt almost as though it would pop out of his skull, and he simply wanted to get there quickly before, Merlin forbid, it should decide to do just that.

He didn't bother to grab his things, knowing full well he had a virtual horde of Slytherin's that woudl be dieing to carry them on his behalf to his next class or back to the common area in an attempt to earn his favor. Instead, the blonde made his way to the door, holding it for Rose before slipping out of the class, keeping his hand in place as he began walking as a brisk passe.

"You realise you don't have to actually follow me." he said, though not with a tone of snippyness one might expect from him.

Rose followed after him swiftly matching his pace though she was shorter than him by almost a foot. For every step he took, she had to take two, but she managed to keep up with him relatively easy. One thing she was determined to do was not look at him clutching his eye like it was going to fall out. She felt terrible. She must have botched the transfiguration up somehow. After all, he didn’t have any trouble with eye before the spell and now he seemed like he was in a lot of pain.

She didn’t know of course that his eye was usually in pain, or that he needed to use a spell so that he could even see. In her mind, this was all her fault and she had every intention to try and help him in any way she could.

“I know, but it’s the least I can do.” She muttered, her tone betraying her sense of guilt.

Scorpious glanced her way, grimacing upon doing so. it sent a shooting pain through his eye and right to the base of his skull. "How is the chick?" he asked curiously, attempting to distract both himself and Rose from his eye issue. Even walking at their speed it would take another 5 minutes at best, if he stairways agreed with them, to get to the hospital wing.

He tentatively pulled his hand away from his eye, simply to place it back in front again. He supposed if anyone had to know of his eye issues, he would rather it be the ginger than someone in his own house. And if she blamed her self for it, all the better. She would never know the wiser.

“Andavil is doing well I think.” she said, grateful for the change of subject. Even with the distraction however she noticed his grimace of pain, and another wave of guilt washed over her. What if his eye was permanently damaged? It would be all her fault, and she had been so relieved to go first. To think, she had actually thought he would be the one to leave her permanently damaged.

“I made her a nest before leaving for class. The attachment went well.”

"Good, I'm glad to hear that." he said honestly. She would need to feed it a lot until it's feathers filled in, then it would be old enough to hunt on it's own.

"Mr. Malfoy, what am I going to do with you?" a voice scolded them from behind.

Scorpious frowned, turning his head instead of his eyes this time.

Sure enough, the elderly witch was making her hasty way towards them, wand drawn.

"Afternoon, Madame Poppy." he greeted, still with one hand over his face.

"Hand down, Mr. Malfoy." she insisted holding her wad up to the blonds face.

Reluctantly, he removed his hand, frowning at the hot, then cold feeling of the soothing charm the woman cast. "Mrs. Weasley, be a dear for me and get an owl for me? I told Mr. Malfoy here a month ago he should be admitted to St. Mungo's, but will he listen to me? Hn! Oh, stop your scowling- She's head girl. She wont be spreading any nasty rumors." she chided, steering the blond into the medical wing without giving either student much choice in the matter.

Scorpious glared though remained silent and poised as Poppy scolded him.

Rose froze, her mind going into overdrive. A month ago? But that would mean.. When Madame Poppy ordered her to fetch an owl, she reacted without thinking about it and headed straight up to the owlery. However, her mind was in overdrive as she fetched a large barn owl from the schools repertoire, calmly stroking its feathers to calm it before she started to make her way back to the hospital wing with the bird on her arm.

As she made her way to the wing she made three realizations. First and foremost it wasn’t her fault that Malfoy’s eye was hurting him. Secondly, this pain in his eye was something he was hiding from her classmates and that he had been in the hospital wing for it enough that Madame Poppy was on familiar terms with Scorpius over it. Third, he was so desperate to keep it a secret that he was willing to let her believe it was her fault.

Rose was a very interesting mix of absolutely furious and terribly concerned for this blonde Slytherin. When she entered the ward Poppy wasted no time in taking the owl from her.

“Alright then. Just need to send this letter off. Don’t go anywhere Mr. Malfoy you’re not done yet. You can go now dear.” She said to Rose, beginning to walk to her office.

“That’s aright ma’m. Professor Huffly asked me to stay with him until the end of the period.” She said in a lie so smooth a Slytherin would have been proud.

Madame Poppy raised an eyebrow slightly before shrugging and walking to her office. She took the lie easily though it seemed a bit odd. After all, this was Rose Weasly who never got into much trouble. Once she was in her office and couldn’t hear them Rose turned on Malfoy with a fury that could have rivaled an insulted hippogrifs.

“How could you!?” She said angrily, keeping her voice down enough so that Madame Poppy wouldn’t come back sooner than necessary.

“God for someone who is supposed to be one of the top students in the school, you can be positively dense.”

Of course at the lie, Scorpious himself raised an eyebrow. By the time Rose had returned, Poppy had strapped a bandage to the blonds eye and nearly force fed him a potion to help with the pain.

He kept quiet as the elderly witch walked off, no doubt to write his parents. When Rose rounded on him though, his response was not what she may have expected from the calm boy.

"Same reason you let everyone think you're a genius in Potions. I have a reputation to keep up." he said sharply. "And forgive me for not telling all of Hogwarts I'm going blind." he added snippy with a hint of sarcasm. Judging by the ice he held up to the cloth on his face, Poppy knew the drill. What was more, so did he.

Oh, if looks could kill.... Scorpious could pass for part Basilisk with the glares he sent towards Poppy's office door. He didn't want any one to know he was less than perfect. Had done a lot to keep it a nice tight knitt secret, only to have his cover blown by the careless nurse.

“I’m not talking about telling the whole school you stubborn prat.” Rose snarled. She couldn’t believe that his only concern was his reputation. Sure she could understand it. After all, he was right, she worked very hard at making sure no one knew how bad she really was at Potions. But she was smart enough to not try and brew potions that were far beyond her level, ones that could kill or harm by messing up.

“You must be pretty bad at Transfiguration Malfoy.” She said, reverting to his proper name. From her mouth, the word Malfoy sounded almost like a curse. “Human Transfiguration requires the wizard to be in the pinnacle of health. Even a cold means you shouldn’t practice it. Changing your natural form takes more than just magic, and when your body is trying to heal something else massive complications could arise. Your eye could have exploded out of its socket you dimwit, or worse imploded, causing massive brain hemorrhaging and even death.”

She finished her tirade and sat down on a nearby cot, the anger slowly draining out of her. Sighing, Rose held her head in her hands.

“I thought I had really hurt you Scorpius, and now I find out that I could have accidentally killed you because you were too stubborn to at least ditch Transfiguration today.”

"Better you did it than someone else." he pointed out. "Anyone else and my eye very well might have imploded.... certainly felt like it was going to..." he rubbed the back of his neck frowning. "It isn't my school reputation I'm worried about anyway."

Scorpious swung his legs over onto the cot, laying down with a sigh. She did have a point.... he never was good at Transfiguration, Maybe he could get Poppy to write up a medical over ride to drop the class. "I've been participating in class the past two years without a hitch..." he pointed out. "And this is the first time my eye has ever acted up as a result...." he made a weak attempt to defend himself.

He was silent for a moment before finally speaking up. "I'm sorry."

Rose looked up at him in surprise. In all her years at Hogwarts she had never heard Malfoy utter those words, nor had she ever even heard of a single instance when he had said them to someone else. It was almost baffling to hear them now, though he did fully owe her an apology.

“Your eye never acted up because we had never done a transfiguration spell that involved your head dummy.” She said, the insult lacking the venom that had been in her voice previously. “And you’re lucky I don’t pretend to be good at Transfiguration.”

Sighing again she stood and walked over to the window next to his cot. She stared out at the swirling snow from a wind that had just started to pick up. It was probably going to storm that night, she thought to herself, letting the last dregs of her anger slide away.

“If its not your school reputation than what is it?”

"Family." he stated simply. "As heir to the estate, I'm expected to be flawless, a representation of the Malfoy's good name."

His stormy eye locked onto her, the other hidden beneath the ice and bandage. Why he felt comfortable enough to say such a thing to, by most means, a stranger, he didn't know. It was almost as if being in such close proximity to her gave him a sense of security he lacked around the other members of his House. Both at school and home. He was grateful for that peace though.... It was tiring to keep up a facade 24/7. Even more intolerable than not being able to really turn to someone if he needed help.... He didn't have the safety net of real friendship.

No. The people he associated were more commonly known as fair weather friends. Only stuck around so long as things looked good. But should the shit ever hit the fan, he would be alone. he was alone.

Rose's presence was a sort of light in that dark thought. A small candle light at the moment, sure.... but it was enough to make out shapes at least.

That thought brought a frown to his lips. A light he felt he had bought, just like everything else in the world.... assistance in a potions class and a sweet pet were hardly the proper steps to form a friendship, he was sure of that.

“Like how your dad was flawless?” Rose asked, the question bursting from her lips before she could really think about how it might be taken. However, rather than try and fall over backwards to take it back like some would do, she decided instead to let it stand. That was just how she was. She was not the type to cater to someone’s feelings or ego.

Turning to him so that she could see the inevitable anger and resentment burning in his uncovered eye she continued. “Think about it. Your father wasn’t flawless. His father wasn’t flawless, and I bet every heir of the Malfoy name has not been flawless. Ill tell you why. People are never flawless.”

She paused for a moment, letting her words sink in, her brown eyes boring into his gray ones before she turned away to look back out the window.

“Look at me. My mother is bloody brilliant. She was the youngest witch ever to become a member of the Wizemgot, one of the greatest fighters during the war, and top student at Hogwarts all seven years of schooling. I’m supposed to be the apple of her eye, the next great witch to follow in her footsteps, and I can barely cast a simple charm, I suck at Potions, forget Herbology, and Ancient Runes makes no sense whatsoever. The only classes Im any good at are Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration. That’s it. There’s only two people that know this Malfoy and one of them might surprise you. My mom knows.”

Taking a deep breath, she turned to look back at Scorpius, her brown eyes filled with some unnamed emotion. She wasn’t sure why she was admitting all this to him. Everything she said was the bonafide truth and if he wanted to ruin her he could. Yet, she could do the same to him right now with the information he was admitting to her. She trusted him at that moment, and instinctively knew he needed a reason to trust her too.

“My mom knows and she’s not ashamed of me like I thought she would be for all those years. I know your parents wouldn’t care either. Like I said, nobody’s perfect.”

Scorpious simply smiled lightly as she spoke. He supposed, out of most people, she would be able to relate the best. However, he knew how his grandfather would react, and how his father would just stand back and allow him to belittle his son.

Glasses are a tacky invention used only to make sub-par persons less subpar, Scorpious. Thankfully, no one in fhte malfoy has ever needed them, or ever will for that matter."

His smile faded a bit at the memory, and Rose's words simply began to sound like sweet ignorence. "I mean no offence, but I think our family's a quite a bit diffrent as far as acceptence goes, Rose."

It was the first time he had used her first name, though he himslef didn't realise untill she looked at him with an odd sort of expression. "In my family, it isn't my parent's judgement I fear."

He left it as that as Poppy's door opened again.

Madame Poppy bustled into the room and took in the sight of Rose and Scopius talking amiably together with a suspicious eye. Since when did the prince of Slytherin associate with Rose Weasly? Unlike her predecessor Madame Pomfrey, Poppy had the bad tendency to want to know absolutely everything about her students. And when something was going on that she didn’t know about? Well, she made it her business to find out.

“Well, Mr. Malfoy I think you should be okay to go now. Take the rest of the day off however, and absolutely NO spells. Am I understood?” She said, as she carefully removed the bandage on Malfoy’s eye.

Rose watched the proceedings silently before piping up to answer Poppy’s question before Malfoy could utter a word.

“Don’t worry Madame. Ill make sure he does nothing to further injure himself.”

When he turned to her astounded she shot him a look that said quite clearly, ‘argue with me later.’ Then she turned away from me to go back to staring out the window, resolutely refusing to look at him again. As far as she was concerned their conversation wasn’t over and besides, knowing him he would probably do something stupid like try to go back to classes just so his stupid reputation wouldn’t be tarnished.