Chapter 4

A/N: Thank you again to julymorning for her wonderful beta skills, to drcjsnider for coming up with the prompt, and to the reviewers who make doing this so much fun!

"Well, that was interesting," Astoria said with a smirk.

"Quite," Hermione agreed.

"What! Our son just indicated that he was going to MARRY Rose, and your reaction is 'Well, that was interesting'," Draco mimicked.

"Ut-oh," Ron said, having learned at a very young age that mimicking a woman never ended well, particularly mimicking her while she was within earshot.

Astoria merely smiled, turned to Hermione and said, "Shall we retire to the dining room?" Hermione offered Astoria her arm, which she took, and they headed off to the dining room.

"Not a good move, mate. You're done for and we didn't even fight," Ron said with a chuckle.

"Maybe you could say something disparaging, and I would have to protect her honor, and she will forget the whole thing?"

"Yes, but then we will have been fighting, and we'd both be done for."

"Male solidarity. We can suffer together."

"Screw that. You can suffer on your own."

With that, Draco stalked into the dining room. "So, what do you propose we do about this new predicament, love?"

"I don't think we should do anything." Astoria grinned. Draco looked confused, so she continued, "Why do you think he said that, darling?"

"Well, if it were me, I'd do it to throw my parents off. Confuse them."

"Really – after just receiving a Howler insulting your manly bits?"

"I suppose not, but it could have been staged."

"Oh, I don't think so," Ron piped in. "Rose was in quite a snit for a good hour this afternoon, slamming things and mumbling to herself. I've learned to steer clear when she's in one of those moods."

"I have to agree with Ron on this one," Hermione added. "As much as I love my daughter, she can't act worth a darn, and her temper is quite legendary."

"So, are you suggesting that we drop our plans for the party?" Draco asked.

"Not entirely," Astoria stated. "I think we should go forward as if we were going to complete the plan. We just won't actually go through with it. In addition, I think we should start acting suspicious around them."

"Now I'm confused. What is that going to accomplish?" asked Ron.

Hermione, though, just smiled and said,"Well, Ron, that's sort of the point, isn't it. To confuse them and get them so paranoid that they won't know what is coming at them. Actually, it's partially inspired by your plan. I imagine that they will be spending quite a bit of time with each other trying to figure out what we are up to and how to stop it."

"Brilliant," Draco said. "You have again reminded me of one of the many reasons for which I married you, my dear." Ron made a coughing noise that sounded suspiciously like 'suck up', for which Hermione kicked him under the table.

***

"Rose, let me in!"

"No."

"Please? I really need to talk to you."

"Sure, NOW you need to talk to me. Well, now I don't want to talk to you."

"Rosie, please, love, I just needed some time to think. I told Lily that. Come on, open the door."

"Not until you apologize."

"I'm sorry I said you had your head up your arse, and I'm sorry I left you so suddenly at your uncles' shop. Now will you please let me in?"

"Will you tell me what the clue means?"

"No, but I'll help you reason it out for yourself. Come on, Rose. Open the door. You know you can't stay mad at me forever."

"Oh, alright, but I don't understand why you just can't tell me what the clue means. That way we could both work together at coming up with a counter-plan." She opened the door and let him into the living room.

"Rose, the clue isn't about the plan, it's about the evidence."

"What?"

"I don't know any better now than before we went to your uncles' as to what the other plan is. The clue was about the evidence that your dad must have shared with your uncle to convince him to help trap us."

"Oh."

"Listen, let's talk through what we know, and hopefully that will give you enough information. Then you can tell me what you want to do next."

"Okay. So we know there are three plans, and that two of them have been executed without success, assuming making us as a couple is the goal of the plans."

"Agreed. We also know that your father and my mother were the brains, so to speak, behind those two plans."

"Leaving my mother and your father to work together on the remaining plan... ."

"Exactly, this is part of why I said earlier that we are fucked. Because your mum is brilliant, and my dad isn't too shabby in the brains department; but add his cunning, and you have a formidable pair. Let's review what we know about the plans so far."

"This is where I get confused. Uncle George said we foiled plots one and three, leaving plot two incomplete or at least not foiled yet. However, we haven't seen any indication of a second plot."

"Which brings us back to the first part of the 'we are fucked' statement. They managed to initiate something without our knowing about it, and they are not done yet."

"Alright, but what does any of this have to do with smelling something interesting?"

"I think that was the first part of their plan."

"To have us smell something? What would that achieve? As far as I know, there aren't any potions that are dosed via scent."

"Come on, Rose, think about what the clue was for. I swear I will never know how you got higher marks than I did in Arithmancy; logic isn't your strongest skill."

Rose scowled at Scorpius, but replied, "Evidence. So, the purpose of the first part of their plan was to get evidence that we would work well as a couple. So, I repeat my question: how does smelling something provide evidence?"

"Rose, are you being purposefully dense? You are a fucking Healer! You use potions everyday. You got an O in it for fuck's sake. You know the answer to that question."

"Scorpius, I am a Healer. I smell thousands of things every day. While I have an excellent nose, I have a hard time remembering what my shampoo smells like, so forgive me if I can't remember the significance of what a potion smells like."

"Lilac and vanilla. Okay, let's take a different approach, shall we? Give me a hug."

"WHAT?"

"Rose, this isn't anything pervy, I swear, and there is a point." He held out his arms. "Come on, I won't bite... much."

Rose rolled her eyes and went into his embrace.

"Alright, smell me," Scorpius said.

"I thought you said this wasn't anything pervy?"

"Just do it, Rose." After hearing her take a whiff, he put her back at arms' length. "Now, how do I smell?"

"Gee, that was a lot of work for a compliment. You smell very nice. I've told you that before. I love your cologne; it suits you perfectly."

"Thank you, but that wasn't really the point. Now think; has your mum asked you to smell anything that smells like me?"

"I don't know." Rose paced. "She has had me sniffing stuff everyday for weeks! She's trying to make cologne for Hugo. Nothing is standing out."

Scorpius sat down on the couch, defeated. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was the only one who smelled her with the Amortentia, but she smelled something different. If that was the case, though, why did her uncle George ask her if she had smelled it?

"Dirty socks and baking bread!" Rose announced.

"What?"

"The first day she was testing out the colognes, she asked me what the difference was between the scent she was trying to mimic and the one she had created. That was the difference between the two scents. They both smelled a lot like your cologne, except for the dirty socks and baking bread. She hasn't made anything else like that. I assumed the dirty socks were an accident, but why anyone would put the smell of baking bread in cologne, I don't know."

"Bacon. For me it was bacon. Lilac, vanilla, and bacon; it was a very interesting scent," Scorpius said with a huge grin.

"Why are you smiling? I'm no closer to figuring it out!"

"You gave me a bit of a scare. I thought maybe it had only worked one way, but your memory jog fixed that. I'm sure you will figure it out now. Just let it simmer around in that brain of yours for a little while. In the meantime, you should know I've confused our parents thoroughly thanks to your little Howler."

"Your parents heard my Howler?" Rose's face started to turn red. She hadn't thought of that.

"No, our parents heard your Howler. It was up to full shriek by the time I actually received it. I'd be surprised if half the county didn't hear it."

"Oh, shit. Mum is going to kill me. Did they hear the whole thing?"

"Most of it. My dad Silenced it after you insulted my privates and said something about a sexy comment. What did the rest of it say?"

"I believe I may have called you a spoilt know-it-all git."

"It's nice to know that the tried and true insults still come to mind when you are furious with me. The Flobberworm part was inspired, though, even if it was completely unfounded."

"You are right; it wasn't very kind to the Flobberworms. I'll have to send the Society for the Better Treatment of Flobberworms an apology letter."

"That's it!" Scorpius said and was up chasing after Rose in a flash. He caught her just as she reached her bedroom and tackled her to the floor. "Take it back, or I will tickle you until you are singing the praises of how well endowed I am to the heavens."

"I take it back; you would need to find something smaller than a Flobberworm to bugger."

With that, Scorpius growled and started tickling Rose furiously. This time, he didn't mind having a wiggling sexy witch in his arms and did nothing to hide his reaction to her. It took Rose a few minutes to notice that Scorpius was reacting to their proximity again. She realized that she wasn't all that concerned about it and continued to squirm around for a few more minutes, trying to get away.

"Okay, I give! Hippogriffs fly away in fear when they see you coming, knowing they have nothing to compare!"

"Much better. What is it with you and the anatomy of magical creatures? Anything I should know about?"

"Merlin, you have a dirty mind. Get off me, will you, you weigh a ton," Rose said and gave him a push. Instead of getting off her, Scorpius rolled them over so she was on top of him, and he was on his back. He decided he liked this position almost as much as the other one and wrapped a leg around hers to keep her from getting up for a few more moments.

"Better?"

"Yes, but not really what I had in mind."

"Tough. You might hex me still."

"If I promise not to hex you, will you release me?" Rose said, but instead of trying to get away from him, she just snuggled in closer.

"I suppose," he said, starting to rub small circles on her back.

She could get away from him now if she wanted but instead, she asked, "Do you really think I'm sexy?"

"Rose, you are one of the smartest, most beautiful, and sexiest witches I know."

"Why didn't you ever tell me this before?"

"You are my best friend. That's just not something you say to your best friend."

"You have told me plenty of times that I'm smart and beautiful. When did sexy happen?"

"About the age of fifteen."

"You've thought I was sexy since we were fifteen?"

"I've known that you are sexy since we were fifteen. I'm a man; we notice these things about everything with tits within a five-mile vicinity of us. It's what we do. I've tried not to think about you that way since about five minutes after I realized it. Seriously, how would we stay friends if I got a hard-on every time you sucked on your bottom lip or wore white knee-highs with your school uniform? That worked for the most part, as long as we kept the physical contact to a minimum, anyway."

Rose got off Scorpius with that confession and moved to sit looking at him with her back against the wall. The sign of his reaction to her was still there but growing less evident.

"I always thought you were sexy in your Quidditch robes, particularly after practice or a game, with your hair all windblown and breathing hard. You were a sight to behold."

Scorpius laughed at that admission. "Too bad I didn't know that. I was always in a hurry to hit the showers. Who would want a panting, sweaty, wizard?"

"Indeed," Rose said, laughing too. "What was the other reason you said we were fucked?"

"Figure out the clue, and you will know the answer to that one. I'm going to shove off before your parents get home. Let's get together tomorrow, and we'll start counter-planning."

Rose nodded in agreement and watched Scorpius get to his feet and cross the room. She gave him a half wave, thinking about the clue again. He dropped a quick kiss on the top her head, then headed down the stairs. Rose got up and went to her window to watch Scorpius go. She laughed as she saw him do a funny little dance step before he turned and Disapparated.

So their parents had tricked them into smelling something that smelled like the other person. One of the potions was obvious, as her mother was still toying with the scent synthesizing solution. So, that first time, the time her mother had said she was trying to recreate a scent, the other bottle had held a potion and not cologne. She crossed over to her bookcase and took out her volume of Moste Potente Potions and started reading. Fortunately, she started with the A's and not the S's, or she might have been at it awhile. She closed the volume and carefully put it away. She wrote a quick note to Scorpius, apologized to Anastasia, and sent her on the way.

***

Scorpius removed the parchment from Anastasia's leg. The poor bird was exhausted from making the trip for the second time that day. Morty sensed this as well and made room for the smaller bird right away, instead of putting on his typical show. Scorpius unrolled the parchment and laughed when he read Rose's note.

Amortentia. You are right; we ARE totally fucked. Talk to you tomorrow. Rose.