Scorpius Malfoy isn't his father. (onemoreson) wrote in feinted, @ 2012-02-16 00:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, dominique-weasley, scorpius-malfoy |
NOW, PREPARE Y'ALL'S SELVES.
WHO: Scorpius and Dominique
WHEN: Wednesday evening.
WHERE: The Slytherin common room. Nobody was near them at the time, but feel free to say your character walked in on them and they didn't notice / were sitting awkwardly in the shadows far away the whole time, AWKWARD.
WHAT: Dominique is love-potioned for Scorpius; Scorpius, apparently, is not immune to basic flattery and even more vulnerable to the Veela charms. They snog. Trust me, I'm surprised too. Feinted, meet your new crackship: SCORM.
STATUS: Complete!!
As much as Dominique Weasley had insisted that she did not fall in love, even she had to eat her words. She didn’t even know how it happened. She just remembered she had been eating her breakfast that morning, when she saw his face two tables away and how lovely it (or rather, he) looked under the lighting of the Great Hall, even when he was surrounded by his Slytherin cohorts. And even when she tried to forcibly drag her gaze elsewhere, like her dinner plate, she couldn’t help but notice that how wonderfully orange her carrots were or the suddenly bright shade of green her broccoli had become. Anybody could argue that Scorpius Malfoy normally wasn’t her type, but Dominique was nothing if not a firm believer in the fact that everybody had a mischievous side, even if it was hidden under that disarmingly intense stare of his. Besides, the point of having a stick up your arse was so that it could be removed. The poor boy was simply repressed, that was all.
After dinner, she had asked Albus for all the basic tidbits about the boy, from his middle name (Hypotenuse? Hippocrates? Merlin, purists chose the weirdest names.) to his favourite hobbies (reading, chess aka boring people interests -- but that could easily be fixed, right?!), and while Albus might have given her an odd stare, she couldn’t be arsed to care because she was in love with Scorpius Hippo-whatever Malfoy.
Pursuing somebody was out of her element, but damned if there wasn’t a certain allure to this whole thing. This was a new sort of adventure for her, she reasoned, as she quietly made her way through the entrance of the Slytherin common room. It didn’t take long for her to spot Scorpius, who appeared to be reading in one of the armchairs in the corner. Well then. Having marked her territory, she marched over to the nearest vacant chair, dragged it noisily across the room without a single care given for the rude stares she suddenly attracted until she was right across from Scorpius, and plopped herself down.
“Scorpius! Just the person I wanted to see!” she exclaimed delightedly, as a terrifyingly wide grin spread across her face.
When Dominique made her typical ostentatious entrance into the Slytherin common room, Scorpius didn’t even notice, engrossed as he was in his book-- a recent release, recommended by the Daily Prophet, on the philosophical issues of being a wizard living in the middle of a Muggle-dominated world, aka fascinating. The day had been a weird one so far, with everyone whispering in the halls about Valentine’s Day and romance and love and other things Scorpius decidedly did not care about and therefore stubbornly was not hearing. It was, one could say, a very convenient time for him to get very lost in a book. It gave him a little bit of peace.
Of course, that could never last for long in Scorpius Malfoy’s life. A cheerful voice practically shouted his name-- or at least, might as well have shouted, for how startled he was, nearly dropping his book and losing his place as he made a jerky sort of motion. He looked up to see one Dominique Weasley grinning at him, and it was a testament to how off-guard he was caught that an actual expression of complete bewilderment passed across his face, touched by an instinctive reaction of fear tinged by suspicion; he’d heard stories about that grin, after all.
“Me?” he said, warily, face still unguarded, before suddenly remembering to regain his composure. Scorpius stiffened and sat back in the armchair, posture suddenly perfect, bookmark carefully placed between the pages of his book and hands pressing it closed. “How can I help you?” he asked, this time calm, though his mind was whirring. What was she doing here? Maybe it was about one of her family members? Albus? Lucy? Rose? Wait! Who even let her in? One of the prefects-- Jeremiah or Rosalind, then, because Scorpius knew Penny would hardly ever consider it. Why would-- Scorpius eyed her with renewed suspicion. Oh god, what if she had a Dungbomb under those sleeves? The dungeons would reek for days. He waited expectantly for an answer, eyebrows raised.
It was all Dominique Weasley could do not to laugh at the very flummoxed boy in front of her. The way his face had looked like she was going to stab the confines of his soul with pins and needles to the way he was able to quickly recollect his composure to that quirk in his eyebrow -- it was (dare she say it?) rather cute. And it made her smile all the more wider and blush all the deeper. She didn’t even think she was capable of blushing like that. Surely, she could get used to this.
"I would like to spend some time together," she declared. She levelled her gaze such that her eyes were deadlocked with his grey ones. As much as she would have loved to just stare at him forever like this, it was best to get straight to the point, and there was something so stiff about his current demeanor (all proper and polite and so pureblood) that made her want to cleanly cut the cord of self-restraint. Preferably now. "Look, I know we barely know each other and all that, since you spend most of your time bickering like an old married couple with my cousin that you barely have time to care about the other Potter-Weasleys, but trust me when I say that I'm like no other girl you've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I’m also better looking than Albus." She tried to widen her smile again, in a vain attempt to reassure him that she clearly meant no harm (or did she?!), but her face was beginning to feel like a rubber band.
Scorpius blinked in confusion. “Spend some time with--” he started, before cutting himself off, not wanting to sound like some sort of parrot as he repeated her words for clarification. His confusion only grew as she spoke, and he was slowly coming to the conclusion that she was either deranged or out for something. If he could only figure out what that something is so he could get back to his book!
So far, Dominique was proving everything he had heard about her right-- outspoken, vaguely tactless; he hid a frown at the suggestion that he only cared about Albus. But-- what was that? What? Was this some sort of joke?
Did someone put you up to this? Scorpius wanted to ask, but didn’t, in case she was serious (he couldn’t believe he was actually considering this an option) and he’d offend her, Merlin forbid. He stared at her a moment longer, before turning his gaze down (rather longingly) to his book, and let out a small, hardly audible sigh.
“All right,” he said, warily, the ”I’ll bite” practically implied, although unsaid. “What... would you like to do?” Scorpius almost winced at the question. Merlin, who even knew how she’d respond.
"Excellent!" she declared, clapping her hands together with obvious delight. Never mind the fact that he sounded rather unenthused -- it was only a matter of time before he would fall for her charms, she reasoned! "Well, I'm generally pretty flexible, but I'm guessing this is the stage where we have to get to know each other, so we should do something that you like. We could --" Prank somebody? As enticing as that would normally sound, she could already imagine the look of disapproval and exasperation, and that would just land her firmly in square one. Go sledding? Annoy Albus? Go ice skating on the Great Lake? The more she thought about it, the more her usual ideas of a "good time" seemed less desirable, and she was grasping for straws at this point. "-- we could have tea? Play chess? Talk?" There had to be something that this boy liked, damnit, and Dominique was going to get down to the bottom of this.
Book now nearly forgotten, Scorpius placed it on the side table next to him, then placing his hands carefully on the arms of the chair. “I do like those things,” he said, rather doubtfully, the former traces of suspicion still lingering. Reaching for his wand, still shooting her confused glances ever few seconds, as if checking to see if she’d yet left, he wordlessly Summoned the chess table (which of course there was one of in the Slytherin common room) over so that it was next to them. “I didn’t know you played chess, though.” Apparently there were a lot of things he didn’t know about Dominique Weasley.
He paused. “I don’t intend for you to take this personally, but did Albus-- put you up to this?” Another furrow between his eyebrows; he didn’t understand at all why Al would do such a thing, but it was possible.
"Of course I can play chess! I learned it from my uncle," she exclaimed, a touch of indignance to her voice. As much as Dominique often said things out of thin air that barely contained a grain of truth or even seriousness, this one wasn't a lie. Uncle Ron had taught her to play -- but of course, that didn't mean she had reputable chess skills to speak of. True, she knew the basics, such as the names of each piece and all the legal moves, but usually her idea of a chess game included pocketing chess pieces the moment her opponent looked away from the board or "accidentally" knocking over the chess board when it was pretty evident that she was going to lose. However, as she plucked one of her pawns and placed it gingerly on the next square forward with all the bravado of somebody who knew what she was doing, she felt a tugging feeling in the back of her head, as if she needed to impress him with her half-arsed chess skills.
She was making a mental note to resist tipping the edge of the table, when Scorpius’ question snapped her out of it. "Albus?! What does he have to do with --" Was he implying that her affections were a joke?! Her expression immediately recoiled into an offended one, as she blinked from shock. "Just because --" she began, regaining her composure. " -- just because I've never mustered the proper amount of courage to talk to you up until now does not mean that I was set up." She didn't want to play the pity card, but how could she not take this personally? These were actual feelings!
The conversation was rapidly going in a direction that Scorpius was legitimately not equipped to handle. He recoiled a little bit, physically, as if in some attempt to give her space, and was half tempted to put his hands up in a gesture of peacemaking. “I see. I apologize for suggesting so, then,” he said, now getting pretty convinced that this was one of the more surreal experiences of his life, mustered the proper amount of courage, what?
“Why were you afraid to talk to me?” he continued, in part to change the topic and in part from genuine curiosity, as he made a standard first move on the chess board. “I’m hardly an intimidating person.” What he wanted to say was something along the lines of ‘You’re much more terrifying than I could ever be,’ but somehow, he refrained.
"I don't know," she admitted baldly. Why did Scorpius make her feel so swoopy? Maybe it helped to think about this out loud. "I mean, maybe it's because you're one of the most intelligent people I know. You're sensible, hardworking, and just -- miles ahead of me. Not even miles. Light years. And you're ridiculously modest about it, which is kind of amazing. Like, when I first walked up to you, you could easily have kicked me out of the common room or told me to go away, but here you are, playing chess with me even though I probably suck at chess and you hardly even know me and I'm a hundred percent sure you like that book better than you like me. Which I guess kind of sucks for me, given that I pale in comparison to an inanimate object. And you probably don't think I'm your type, but that doesn't stop the fact that I admire you a lot. And from that admiration came other thi ---" Oh no no no no no. She did not just give him that pile of word vomit -- or did she? She dragged her gaze away from his face and down to the chessboard. At least the chessboard wouldn't judge her for sounding as ridiculous as she just did.
It was only sixteen years of upper-class control, fine-tuned by repeated orders to sit still at the dinner table, that stopped Scorpius from dropping his knight. Instead he put it down carefully-- back where it was, having forgotten all about the part where they were, you know, playing a chess game-- and ran a hand through his hair. It was a gesture that he didn’t like, and thus one he only ever did when he wasn’t thinking (for once) about his presentation.
“I don’t know what to say,” he said, hesitantly, but it was clear he wasn’t offended or put off. Actually, as much as he’d have to be pressed to admit it-- it wasn’t often that he got compliments flooding in his direction this way, and it sort of felt nice. Was that terrible of him? Probably. He filed a note away in his mind to suitably repent later. “I’m, well, flattered,” Scorpius tried again at conversation, rapidly searching for something to say, although he was pretty sure anything would sound rather pathetic after that, “I was not quite aware that you knew who I was, let alo-- I don’t think I know you well enough to definitively say I prefer my book to you. Not to mention the fact that I haven’t yet read the ending of the book,” he gave a wry smile, or at least a flicker of one, before quickly reining it back in. Maybe he should make a resolution to judge people less often.
Immensely relieved that Scorpius didn’t immediately exile her out of the common room, Dominique looked back up him, just in time to catch the briefest of smiles. It was a sliver of time that didn’t even last a split second, but her eyes stubbornly refused to leave his face (especially his lower lip, huh) this time, in hopes of catching that grin again. “Good. I’m glad that you’re flattered, because I give credit where it’s obviously due.” Clearly word-vomit was the way to go, which was good, because right now, all traces of eloquence were escaping her. “Because, look, you deserved to hear everything I just said -- and then some. Seriously, you’re so -- wise and mature beyond your years, and I swear, you have this wonderful ability to make lesser people feel good about themselves. Like that comment you just made about the book! That was quite clever, and I live with Ravenclaws, so trust me when I say I’ve heard my fair share of witty comments.” Without even so much a care for strategy or even the game itself, she pushed her rook to the side, not even bothering to check if she had left any other pieces unguarded. “You often don’t give yourself enough credit, you know.” Why was she still so fixated on his mouth like that? She vaguely wondered if --- hmm. “And you should smile more. I daresay it makes you look rather handsome.”
It was perhaps a testament to a lingering Malfoy ego in his blood that he was beginning to warm to Dominique Weasley, of all people in the school. At least for right now, though he took a moment to warn himself that probably she would do something tactless and loud that would make him wince soon enough. Still. The flattering words kept coming and he almost felt like he was drowning under them, so he chose not to specifically respond to any of it, other then a nod of acknowledgement and thanks. (It was typical that he could, and in fact was used to, expressing so much in a nod. In contrast to Dominique’s talkativeness, one could say.)
Except for that last part-- which despite himself did make Scorpius smile, although he quickly looked down, self-conscious, and a hand made its way over to cover half of his mouth as his elbow rested on the arm of the chair, not because Dominique was there in particular or anything, but because he usually did his best to keep a decent mask on around people who were not in his circle. He glanced at her again, for a moment, before fixating on the board, reaching another hand over to move the knight he’d been thinking about before. “I don’t like my smile,” he confessed, and then only felt embarrassed immediately after-- why had he even said that? It was hardly something he had ever admitted to anyone, if he recalled correctly. He was growing too relaxed. After finishing his move, he stiffened in the chair a little bit, in an attempt to reclaim a bit of his dignity.
"What." Was he seriously Confunded? Dominique stared at him dumbfoundedly, not even caring about how silly she looked with her mouth agape. She felt a slight pang in her chest -- it was awful, a downright tragedy even, that Scorpius Malfoy did not realize how handsome he was. Maybe if he were in her shoes at this moment, he'd be able to see that it was rather endearing how he'd immediately cover his face or mask his pride beneath a veil of modesty, because clearly, words were failing her. Maybe that was why she had enjoyed talking to him; it was both an exciting and fulfilling challenge to try and coax out a grin or even the slightest loosening of the shoulders. It was like those times as a kid when she would determinedly dig through millions of grains of sand in search for an elusive seashell; it took some time and effort and lots of fine-tuning on her part, but it was always worth it for the rare moments when she had uncovered what she wanted at the most unexpected of times. "You're kidding, right?"
He looked immediately uncomfortable after his confession (damn, back to square one) that Dominique's right hand instinctively reached out to his arm in a kneejerk reaction, as if to assure him that he had little to be embarrassed about. It was rather cute, she thought -- a far cry from the overbearing narcissism that most of her male classmates exhibited. "Well, I do." She smiled at him, but this time, it was not her usual maddeningly wide grin, but a small, appreciative one normally reserved for those moments of genuine affection. Maybe if she leaned in just a few more centimeters -- no, no. She had already embarrassed him enough just by calling him handsome; outright snogging him would shatter the boy into a billion pieces. The problem, she realized, was that he was too guarded. At this rate, Dominique would be like, eighty years old before she even got to third base with him, let alone first, and ew, who would want to think about that as an eighty year old? She had a dilemma.
Unless -- why hadn't she thought of it before?! -- she could slip in a bit of the old veela charm. It was hardly malicious, she reasoned; sure, it was mostly for her personal gain, but he did look like he needed to loosen up. It would do him lots of good, she thought to herself, as she stared back at him, this time with a newfound glint in her eye that was one part determination and equal parts genetic charm.
Scorpius was insistently avoiding her eyes, instead staring at the chess pieces and wondering how on earth he ended up having some sort of odd heart-to-heart of a conversation with Dominique Weasley. He was generally bad at dealing with physical touch, especially of people he didn’t know, but he managed to keep an instinctive flinch down when she touched his arm-- he knew from experience that people could get offended, and he didn’t want to make another faux pas.
He decided that that conversation ought to be put to rest, and so, searching for another topic of discourse, Scorpius looked up from the chess board to meet her eyes-- and there, everything somehow changed, a little bit. While it was nothing like the effects of the love potion that Dominique was undergoing, there was a definite change in the air. He noted, somewhat dazedly, that she was beautiful; he sat up a little straighter in his chair, finding the thought of looking away from her a little hard to handle.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and shook his head a little bit as if trying to clear his thoughts, but once he looked back her he felt as fuzzy as before, “did you say something? I just-- I might have missed it.”
"Oh, me? No!" she exclaimed, shaking her head and stifling a laugh. Clearly she was doing this right, as Scorpius was beginning to show the all-too-obvious symptoms of one affected by the veela charm: the look of bewilderment, the deadlocked stare of his grey eyes into hers, the involuntary shake of the head -- check, check, and check. The corner of Dominique's lip twitched in excitement as she could hear the wheels of her plan being set in motion. She began to speak. Sloooowly. "I was just saying that I --" The perplexed expression on his face gave her the green light to quietly inch her way closer to Scorpius with every word she spoke, until her face was only mere centimeters away from his. From this view, she could probably have counted the number of eyelashes on his lids if she had tried. She was so close yet too far and --
"May I kiss you?" she asked deliberately but sweetly, her eyes never losing sight of his.
Fixated on her, still in his (by now perpetual) state of confusion, almost falling deeper into the chair he was sitting in, if that were even possible-- Scorpius stayed perfectly still, and didn’t even seem to notice at all that she was getting closer to him. He just-- there was something absolutely mesmerizing--
“Hm?” he said, vaguely dazed, having missed the question, but after a moment of silence he realized he was expected to answer something and searched his memory, only gathering that it was some sort of request. “You... can do whatever you’d like,” Scorpius said helpfully. By now the situation should have sent up all sorts of red flags in every corner of his mind, but the details were a little fuzzy, and all he seemed to be able to think about was the number of chess tournaments he’d won and how he could find an appropriate moment in the conversation to happen to bring that up, but why was it relevant again? Or did it even matter? Huh.
"Now there's the answer I've been looking for," she responded coyly, the look of sheer delight never quite leaving her face no matter how hard she tried to suppress it. But why would she? Scorpius Malfoy had just told her that she could do whatever she'd like. He was such a gentleman, a generous one at that -- and to think! Genuine compliments and veela charms were the key to his heart! Having tucked away this handy bit of knowledge in her memory (if praise was what he wanted, then she would not mind piling him with all the compliments in the world), Dominique stared at his lips for one last second before her right hand instinctively went up to cup Scorpius' face, and the other hand gripped the table in a vain attempt to steady herself. Had Dominique not been deliriously in like with this boy, she probably would have noticed that she had clumsily knocked over a few chess pieces as she leaned over the table with a somewhat reckless abandon. She was on the very last edge of her seat at this point; any further and she would have found herself sprawled across an empty chessboard.
But no matter -- she found herself inexplicably drawn to Scorpius like the natural pull of a magnet, and when you factored in her usual gusto, it was of little surprise when she leaned into press her lips against his, with every intention of deepening the kiss.
For a moment, Scorpius’ heart might have stopped-- his experience with snogging was extremely limited, to Avery’s light kiss after the ball and to one experience over the summer with Audrey that he preferred not to think about-- and the feel of someone else’s lips on his was novel enough that it almost shook him out of that Veela-induced daze.
Almost. But not quite. He was perfectly still as she kissed him, but relaxed, in a contrast to his normal and previous stiff posture. A part of him was starting to act up, saying something about bad ideas and self control and how he hardly even knew this girl and what he did know of her wasn’t all of traits that were generally to his liking-- but it wasn’t loud enough to overcome the shocked, affected, and just generally passive state that Scorpius was in as his lips parted automatically to let her really kiss him.
As soon as Scorpius' lips, pliant and parted just for her, Dominique took it as her cue to deepen the kiss. Scorpius seemed keen on letting her take the lead, which was just fine and dandy for her, as she was enjoying every minute of it. Her hand moved up to thread her fingers through his hair as her body was pressing against his; the other hand that had been gripping the table grabbed his shoulder. She was kissing him -- really kissing him -- with a fervor that matched the level of excitement and delight that had been swirling in the back of her mind the whole day.
Never mind the fact that they were in the common room for anybody and everybody to see. Or the fact that she had never so much had a conversation with the boy before today. As her tongue met his, she couldn't help but think that she'd love to keep kissing him like this for the rest of her life.
By now, Dominique was practically on top of him in that squishy armchair that Scorpius was probably never going to be sitting in again in his life-- and the fuzziness in his mind by now could not be attributed only to her heritage; Dominique was a good kisser and as much as Scorpius could deny that snogging was inferior to reading a good book... he wasn’t complaining at the moment.
He felt sort of like a melted puddle of something in the seat, his existence limited to Dominique’s warm mouth and solid body and fingers in his hair that were erasing any resistance that tried to come up (apparently he really liked that, who knew?), the presence of the common room and anyone there (although last he had looked, there hadn’t been anyone in their immediate vicinity), completely irrelevant. Scorpius couldn’t tell you how long they were there-- but later he would look at the redness of his lips and the state of his hair and realize it had been quite a while.
It was a noise that (figuratively) woke him up-- the slow creak of the entrance door of the Slytherin common room. Scorpius’ eyes, which had automatically drifted closed when she had first kissed him; shot open, he jerked in the chair and for a moment they were no longer kissing but close, very close, air still shared in the space between their mouths, before Scorpius instantly went into full-out panic hyperventilation mode. They were in the common room. In public. He was snogging Dominique Weasley in the Slytherin common room, how did this even happen, what was he doing, what was he doing?
“Oh-- Merlin, uh,” he stammered, wide-eyed and blushing not for the first time that night (he was going to get those blood vessels removed, seriously), and carefully but urgently extracted himself from under Dominique, nearly stumbling over himself in the process, muttering some sort of vague see-you-later-sorry-have-to-go-do-this-important-thing before practically taking off at a run in the direction of his dorm room.