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“Look, I know you don’t actually like me. It’s been 4 years of this nonsense, and since we met we have talked for.. what? 40 minutes? In total? You created a fantasy about me and you keep fooling yourself. What do you know about me? What am I like? What are my hobbies apart from quidditch?”
Scorpius didn’t know what to say. This exchange was unexpected and exquisite. “I…”
“So? Anything?” Rose interrupted him. “Yeah, I thought so.” She said wearing a triumphant smile.
Scorpius wasn’t going to give up that easily, no. Now that the initial shock has faded enough to let him think properly, he was going to get his message across, with all his might. He’s a slytherin, after all. And how come Rose thought he didn’t know her? He’s spent the last 4 years observing her, for Merlin’s sake!
“Well. Actually, no. I know about you. You’re fierce. You take no shit. You’re brave. You love quidditch and being right. You’re the top of most classes.”
“Yeah, and what else? Anyone in this school knows I’m like that. Those traits are obvious. What else you’ve got?” Her superior stance was growing at the minute.
“You… I… Well.. Ok, this is awkward” Scorpius was used to Rose’s harsh words towards him, it’s been 4 years of rejection. But this time… She wasn’t being cruel for the sake of it. She was trying to prove a point.
Finally, after this conclusion, Scorpius asked: “What are you trying to say?”
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m bloody tired of this mess! You don’t truly fancy me and it’s time to open your eyes! What you think you feel for me is just a projection, your fertile imagination saw potential in me and have been fueling your thoughts with what you would LIKE me to be. It’s pathetic.” As the last sentence left her mouth, Rose looked a little surprised and guilty for her comment and was quick to add: “But understandable, don’t worry.”
Scorpius kept looking at her with a blank expression. He couldn’t quite believe what he just heard, it was all too much, too soon. Even if those words made sense, they were tough to swallow. He didn’t know what to say and, worst of all, he didn’t know what to feel. He couldn’t understand what was going on inside of him; he was feeling odd, but not in a negative way. He wasn’t heartbroken, as he would have expected to be and he couldn’t understand why...
Rose wasn’t patient so she took Scorpius’ silence and frozen expression as she wished.
“I said before and I’ll say it again: this will only get awkward if you let it be. I decided Albus and I are going to become friends again and in order to achieve that, you and I need to have at least a civil relationship, considering the two of you live in each other’s pockets. Perhaps you and I could even become friends as well, whatever, I’m willing to make any sacrifice. But to get that, first you need to grow out of your childish obsession with me. Grow up and let me be, I won’t let your imagination get in my way.”
And with that, she sent him a last condescending look, turned around and walked away.
Scorpius was left alone in the hallway with a head full of confusing and overflowing thoughts he had no idea how to decode.