Playing Games (1/2)

[akashathekitty]

Title: Playing Games (1/2)
Disclaimer: JKR owns anything that is obviously hers. I own the rest.
Characters: Albus Potter, Lily Potter, Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy
Genres: Hogwarts Years, Humour, Romance, Smutless Smut
Warnings: Explicit Sexual Situations, Mild Kinks, Sexual Themes, Unrelieved Sexual Tension
Overall Rating: R
Summary: Rose Weasley accidentally crashes one of Scorpius Malfoy's secret naughty games. Winning this game is difficult, but Rose is nothing if not ambitious. She quickly realises that the consequences of her ambitions reach further than she had first thought, though; now the game won't stop.
Extra Note: This is a faux one-shot, meaning that one day when I have the time there will be more chapters, but not right now. This is also a convenient excuse for the weird summary. Speedily betaed by somandalicious; elyaeru's brain was picked for Briticisms; mazvn had a birthday which gave me a good excuse to try out something new again. Every issue that remains is on my head alone. And I "invented" a whole new genre that I called smutless smut (yeah, I know I didn't invent the concept). Because sometimes it's not just about sticking it in. Thanks to little_dollface for the lovely and very late implemented banner! Sorry! :)
Length: 9605 words of 17594 words.




* * *

As far as cousins went, Rose mused, Al was actually pretty ok. He had been one of her best friends before they went to Hogwarts, and even after they had started there, the familiar connection had been present. It was just that with them being sorted into different houses and all, they didn't actually see each other a lot.

That didn't mean that when they did see each other, he should be allowed to be such a git, though.

Looking back on her own actions, however, she acknowledged that perhaps she shouldn't have thrown pumpkin juice in his face at tea last Wednesday. It had been a waste of good pumpkin juice, after all.

Also, she wasn't enjoying her detention very much.

She would probably have gotten away with only losing some house points if it hadn't been for Al being head boy and the headmistress witnessing the event.

Oops.

So now she was utilizing her brilliant mind doing filing that a monkey could do. It was beneath her. When she had very subtly tried to point this out, she had just earned another detention. Blah. She wasn't arrogant, she was simply...under-appreciated.

Al was a dork. A Gryffindork. Ha ha. Oh, she had to find some new material soon. It was just...in the last couple of years, he had begun acting more and more like their Uncle Percy. It really wasn't fun with a cousin who acted as if he had something long and unyielding rammed up his bum.

She missed James. Now, James knew how to have fun. He had been head boy too, damn Potters, but he had been so much more fun about it. He sure hadn't been trying to tell her how to live her life.

Truth be told, she was a little bit--ok, a very lot bit, if she had to butcher the English language--jealous. She had been counting on becoming head girl herself, but had been passed over. The headmistress didn't like her attitude. It stung and made Rose not care half as much about presenting herself nicely anymore. She would get straight O's on her NEWTs, because she was smart enough for that, but as to the rest of school life...meh. They could stick that where a wand shouldn't go.

When she had whinged a bit to her mother about the unfair state of the world, her mother had reminded her that she was a Ravenclaw because she treasured knowledge. She shouldn't be so preoccupied with status symbols because that never led anywhere good. Much as Rose loved her mother, she just didn't understand. Rose had worked hard to become head girl, she had put in the effort to become a stellar example of what a young witch should be, but then...the headmistress had chosen a Gryffindor...k. There was a serious bias in favour of Gryffindors in this place.

And that was the only place where she had failed. She hadn't even managed to get into Gryffindor. That first year, Al had told her on the train that his father had told him that if she just wanted to be sorted into a particular house, then the Sorting Hat would make it happen.

She had never forgiven Uncle Harry that lie.

* * *

Scorpius squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the spot between his eyes. What time was it? He wasn't sure. The library would be closing soon. He closed his book. He didn't understand this. He was supposed to be smart, wasn't he? Then how come he only ever managed to get Exceeds Expectations in most subjects? He studied and studied and studied, but it was as if it didn't matter. He was stuck with the E's. If anything, when he stopped studying, he slipped down to an Acceptable.

His mother told him that she was proud of him and that straight E's was more than she ever had, but that didn't really matter. Scorpius noticed the way his father looked at him with disappointment in his eyes. He needed to find some way to excel, but so far it just wasn't working out. The O's were as elusive as ever.

Aside from not making top grades, he hadn't managed to get sorted into Slytherin. He had been so disappointed that night six years ago when his fate had been decided. Ravenclaw. Since when had their family spawned Ravenclaws? They were ambitious; they were cunning; they were manipulative megalomaniacs and they loved it! At least it was better than Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, he supposed. Imagine having to be in either of those two loser houses!

He hadn't managed to be very good at Quidditch, either. He was decent. He could hold his own. But he was in no way spectacular. This year, he had only made it far enough to become a spare Beater--he did actually pack a pretty good punch--and needless to say, his father hadn't reacted with any great enthusiasm to those news. Draco Malfoy had been a seeker, after all. And not just a spare, either. The Malfoys weren't spares waiting around for other people to make room for them; they were at the front making things happen. Scorpius just hadn't figured out how to do that yet.

"Hi, Malfoy," a blond witch whose name he couldn't for the life of him remember said as she was floating by.

He automatically smiled at her, because that was what he did, but as soon as her back was turned, he grimaced. There was that. Those stupid twits seemed to like him. He blamed his mother. His father's features were too pointy to ever be anything remotely resembling pretty, but, indeed, his mother was very pretty and had decided to give him those genes.

And, yes, there was no use denying it. He wasn't handsome, at least not really yet; in spite of his height and the fact that his build wasn't exactly girlish, he was pretty. This was quite possibly why he made a decent beater. Having to assert your masculinity over and over and over again meant that you usually did the stupidest and most far-fetched things as well as got a decent workout.

And it just made the twits like him more.

He was more than mildly disgusted.

He was not just the product of his mother's genes, his father's money, his boundary-pushing behaviour and his pathetically average performances...was he?

* * *

Detention finally over, Rose decided to take a longer way up to the Ravenclaw dormitories. She wasn't really sleepy and she needed to walk off some righteous indignation anyway. Four hours she had been kept there. Four hours! And on a Friday, too! Not that she had any plans, but she definitely could have had. No reason for the headmistress to snort when Rose had pointed that out.

At the very least, she could have had plans to socialize with the cousin that she actually liked, Lily.

Except, of course, that Lily had a boyfriend now.

Apparently having a boyfriend meant 'never having time for your favourite cousin anymore'. Rose was very glad she didn't have one if she had to be quite honest. They seemed to steal all of your time and several points off of your IQ. Besides, in Rose's experience, males were quite overbearing to boot, so...no thanks.

She hadn't come further than third floor when she heard something from further down the hall. Muffled conversation between several parties that ended just a bit too abruptly to be natural.

Someone was using one of the old offices and they apparently weren't keen on being caught, seeing as they had just cast a spell to not be heard.

Naturally, this meant that Rose had to try and catch them. She just loved to have blackmail material on people.

It didn't take a whole lot of effort to find out which room had been charmed, but then the question arose whether she should check for booby traps, find a way to eavesdrop, or just barge in. Rose normally loved to brag that the reason she wasn't in Gryffindor was because she knew the difference between courage and recklessness, but she found that she wasn't feeling very patient tonight, so she decided to just barge in. It took her about half a second from making the decision to acting upon it.

"The hell--" someone exclaimed, but Rose didn't notice who, because she was too busy being disappointed.

It was a group of people playing some sort of board game. Talk about boring.

"You didn't tell us more was coming." It was Lamont Lawley speaking, a Slytherin boy in her year. He was not bad-looking, really, but he tended to be a really big prat. There was another Slytherin boy as well: Damian Cleaver. The same description applied.

"She's not invited." Ah, her housemate Scorpius Malfoy. That made three prats, then. But then again, weren't all boys like that?

"Shouldn't we kick her out, then?" Oh, now, wasn't this interesting. Rose didn't recognize either of the two girls present, meaning they must be younger and not in Ravenclaw. Just from looking at them, she decided she wasn't missing out.

Malfoy didn't respond but just frowned slightly at her. He was probably trying to figure out what to do about her.

"Yeah, I was on my way to visit my cousin," she lied.

"Who's her cousin?" the ditziest-looking girl asked. The other one whispered something in her ear. "Albus Potter?" Ditzy then exclaimed.

So, they knew her. Or, at least one of them did. Odd. She really couldn't place them.

"All the Potters, you numb-skull," the slightly less ditzy girl with the remarkably prominent cleavage chided.

"Oh, yeah...." Ditzy blushed.

"James Potter was dreamy," the other one said. "What's he up to? I wouldn't mind playing this game with him...."

What a doxy!

"He's engaged," Rose lied. James engaged, hah! But she figured she was doing him a favour in this case.

"We can't have that..." Malfoy absent-mindedly muttered, his frown deepening. She doubted he cared about James' relationship status, so he was probably referring to her running to Al, telling him about their little game. He really didn't seem happy. She didn't blame him. She wasn't the kind of witch that a bloke like him liked to have around. Too many brains and too little boobs.

It was sort of a pity that he thought that way, because he was...pretty. She liked looking at him. He hadn't actually always been this nice to look at, but it didn't matter; he'd never really been worth knowing. Back when she had had what she referred to as her 'incredibly stupid and overly naïve and trusting befriending' phase (what Al referred to as her 'human' phase), she had wanted to be friends with him. He'd just taken one look at her hair and snorted, "A Weasley?" before going on his merry way.

That had hurt. Because it had been her 'incredibly stupid and overly naïve and trusting befriending' phase. But she got over it. And it wasn't like he'd been mean to her since. They honestly just hadn't had anything to do with each other. Well, except that one time they had been paired off in Charms, but even then they had just done their work and pretty much ignored that the other one was a person. At least she had, and she assumed he had too.

She'd heard that his social skills had somewhat improved since her friending attempt, but, really, to her it just seemed like he had learned to manipulate people better. Not that she had anything against manipulation, it was her favourite pastime, but it wasn't exactly the definition of 'improved social skills'.

"She could join," Lawley suggested. "We're one witch short, anyway."

Malfoy slowly smiled as if the thought genuinely amused him. "This isn't her thing." Directed at Rose, he asked, "What do you want in exchange for not telling anyone?"

She felt a nagging irritation at his assumptions about this not being 'her thing'. "You could start by telling me what I'm not supposed to tell anyone," she suggested, venturing a little closer to the board, just to annoy him.

"I really think the less you know, the better," Malfoy said.

Wanker. "Fine, then tell me why it isn't my thing," she replied.

Ditzy giggled and shot Malfoy a look and Rose couldn't help but make a face. "Oh." It was that kind of game, then. So, this not being 'her thing' was code for 'sorry, not pretty enough'? That...rankled.

Malfoy was just looking rather dismissive. "Ten galleons, I'll give it to you later."

"No, I want to join."

Rose was feeling as surprised at her own words as Malfoy was looking, but then she shrugged it off. She was bored and watching people making fools of themselves was always fun. Besides, it would be interesting to see if he would call her ugly to her face.

Yeah...really interesting.

She resolved to not let his words hurt her. It would be stupid to give a superficial prat who didn't know her at all that power, anyway.

"Girls can always be paired with girls," Cleaver injected. "That goes for you, too."

"No girls," Rose calmly stated. Really, having to even go near both two Slytherins and a Malfoy was bad enough without making a fool of herself snogging Ditzy and Doxy.

"Then you can't play." Cleaver was looking rather relieved to be making that announcement. Pig. His hair would turn purple in a few days, that was for sure.

For now, Rose merely raised an eyebrow. "Why not? I'll snog you!"

Cleaver blinked. "I vote that she's in." Oh, that had been too easy. His extremities would turn purple too. All of them.

"Out," Doxy said.

"Out." Ditzy really didn't have an independent thought in her head, it seemed.

"In," Lawley murmured.

So, in the end it was all up to Malfoy. He took a moment to apparently mull it over before he shrugged. "In."

The other girls scowled, but there was nothing they could do. She, Rose Weasley, was in.

She just wished she knew what she was in for.

* * *

It really was the strangest thing. Rose Weasley at one of his games? He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it. In fact, he still had problems believing it. He'd never met anyone quite as stuck-up and self-absorbed as the Weasley girl. It wasn't really that he disliked her, he didn't know her very well, but he certainly didn't like her, either. He would never have thought to invite her here, but honestly, that was mostly because he'd never thought she'd accept. He barely liked the two other witches.

He studied her, not feeling any great reaction to her looks. Her body was good. She wasn't flappy, but she didn't have bones jutting out either. Maybe a little more flesh could be desirable in some areas, but it was hard to tell. Her breasts seemed decent, but he'd been fooled by padded bras before. Her lips were full, but her mouth was always turned down in an angry frown lately. Her nose was slightly upturned with a sprinkle of freckles across it, making her look like The Witch Next Door more than anything else. Her eyes were a clear blue and always seemed to look at him accusingly. Her hair, however, was her most damning feature. He seemed to remember it looking softer and smoother at one time, but not anymore. It was big, bushy and red. He could imagine that hair trying to take over the world. It was just that scary.

He smiled at her. Because that was what he did. She seemed unimpressed, but he didn't let that faze him. It was a well-known fact that Weasley was not human.

She sashayed over to the empty spot at their table. "So, what is this? Some elaborate way of playing Spin the Bottle?"

He frowned. Why would anyone spin a bottle? "Eh, no. I don't think so." He picked up a card and a quill, and decided it was time to remind her that she wasn't as unique as she seemed to think. "First name?" he casually asked, noting down the other info on her. He didn't bother to ask about her preferences, because she really didn't have a say in that, and he was pretty good at telling the approximate size on sight. Padding or no padding. When she didn't respond, he looked up again. "First name?"

Her eyes were narrowed at him. "Rose."

He almost grinned, but instead he smiled politely. "Sarah, Nina, Lamont and Damian," he said, pointing at the other players. "We are on a first name basis while in here. Formalities just seem ridiculous. Outside of this room, however, none of this ever happened."

"And yours?"

He frowned again. The witch would give him wrinkles before his time. "Excuse me?"

"I asked, what is your first name?"

Now it was his turn to narrow his eyes. "Scorpius," he bit out.

She just smiled sweetly at him. Twit.

He put the card in the stack with the others and tapped them, making miniatures of themselves appear on the starting block. The game was on.

* * *

Rose tamped down her annoyance at Malfoy's...Scorpius's...arrogance. Her first name indeed. They had been in almost every class together, had eaten at the same table, and had lounged in the same common room for six years, and he expected her to believe that he hadn't even picked up on her first name? It was ludicrous! She wasn't invisible!

Malfoy...Scorpius...touched a glass half-globe in the middle of the board, making the miniature versions of themselves jump up and down in excitement. It was peculiar. "Nina, it looks like you're starting," he said.

Ditzy twittered and Rose frowned. Just like that? He wasn't even going to tell her what this was about?

"Mind telling me the rules?" she asked.

He glanced at her. "Oh, right." He looked like he'd already forgotten her--way to dismiss her again! "You move around the board. If you're caught by someone of the other sex, you have to either pay a token or do what the board tells you to. If you wait until you're told what to do, it costs two tokens to get out of it. You only get two tokens each go-around, so use them wisely. You also have one Stupefy and one Confound and can get more from this and that square if you're lucky. You may use that and other spells--not real ones, Damian, wipe that smirk off your face--you gain as you see fit. One use and then they're discarded. Clothes come off as the board tells you or you can exchange clothes for tokens. The worth varies. Knickers always stay on. At least while you're in here." He smiled sardonically while the other players sniggered.

Rose fought not to show any was maybe just a tad worse than she had thought. "And, um, the special squares?" she asked, annoyed at the slight squeak in her voice.

His smile widened. "There is 'The Dungeon', where the other players might do very interesting things to you, 'Knockturn Alley', where you may have some shady dealings, and 'Azkaban', where you might go if you're simply out of luck. The board will always tell you what to do. You'll learn as we go along."

Rose swallowed. So, she was about to get at least partially naked with Malfoy, two Slytherins and Ditzy and Doxy. No big deal.

Except, it sort of was. She wasn't quite that...decadent. She'd only ever kissed one boy and that was years ago. She couldn't even remember his name; he had just had the most soulful brown eyes, so she had let him kiss her. Once. One time. And now she was about to strip down with three boys?

"You can still leave," Scorpius smoothly said. "I'll even still pay you ten galleons to be quiet. But once the game starts, it starts. It gets annoying if people run off every time they get uncomfortable."

Rose hesitated.

"Aww, she's going to leave." Damian was looking disappointed. Just a minute before he'd been looking to get rid of her! She'd never understand boys.

"Quiet, Damian," Scorpius said. "I'm sure Nina and Sarah will be willing to kick it up a notch. Won't you, girls?"

Ditzy and Doxy tittered.

It was quite unbearable.

So, of course Rose had to stay.

* * *

"I'm staying," Rose announced.

Scorpius wasn't overly surprised. He'd never quite known that she could be played as easily as everyone else. It was a disappointment, really. He'd hoped that for once someone wasn't about to do exactly what he wanted them to. He'd hoped she would just stand up and walk away. In fact, the thought that she might had actually turned him on more than playing this game could anymore. He was terribly jaded and he knew it, but playing this still beat sitting around doing nothing.

"All right, Nina." He motioned for her to take her turn.

And thus the game began.

Scorpius secretly watched Rose for the first bit. She was looking slightly wary and constantly fiddling with her tokens. When the first encounter occurred, her eyes widened and she tilted her head slightly as if trying to understand what was happening. It was fairly mild; Nina and Sarah were the ones having the encounter and while Scorpius knew he gave a very good performance as the enraptured onlooker, he was inwardly rolling his eyes at the performance they were giving. The board had said for Sarah to remove Nina's shoes and socks while sensually massaging her feet and then working her way up to Nina's scalp, but they were exaggerating too much to seem natural in any way. He knew they weren't actually interested in each other at all; he'd just put them down as eligible for other females because he could. Obviously, they thought he was getting off on this. Yeah, right. He was almost regretting inviting either of them to the game at all. They were pretty but dull.

Sarah looked up and he smiled at her. Because that was what he did.

A few more turns went by and while he was bored out of his skull, it was obvious that Rose was quite fascinated. Apparently, her cousins had never pulled the old Evanesco trick on her in order to have a look and cop a feel. When Damian was tasked to kiss his way down her clothed body to remove her socks and kiss her feet, she actually blushed. There had been a few blushers at the game before, but mostly they were shyly shooting him glances, looking for his attention; she was devoting all of her attention to what was being done to her. It somehow made it much more interesting and he could tell Damian felt the same way.

Scorpius landed in the Dungeon and Nina was appointed his mistress and he was to get his feet slapped. Eh. Whatever. Outwardly, however, he raised a suggestive eyebrow at her and she flushed with pleasure. Too bloody easy. He stretched out his legs and when she was doing as instructed, he bit his lip and willed heat into his eyes. When she looked up, her eyes widened and her flush deepened as she retreated to her own spot with a grin. Almost laughable.

He wriggled his toes and glanced over at Rose, who was looking at him with a thoughtful expression on her face. He wondered if she saw through him or if she just thought he liked getting his feet slapped. Probably the latter. Nobody ever called him on his lies anymore. Well, except his mother, but even she didn't know him as well as she used to. Basically, he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. It was boring.

A few rounds later, Rose came up on the square where his miniature self was standing. Interesting. He was actually quite curious as to whether she would be as focused on him as she had been on Damian. He looked up at her, just to see her holding a token out to him.

He blinked. That was new. And it certainly wasn't a welcome turn of events.

* * *

Rose couldn't quite prevent the blush that crept into her cheeks as everyone around the table seemed to just go still and stare at her.

"That is how this game works, isn't it?" she asked, very well knowing the answer since Doxy had paid to not have a turn with Damian last round.

"It is..." Scorpius said, bending forward and snatching the token from her hand. He did not look pleased.

She'd figured he wouldn't. Honestly, that was most of the reason why she was doing it. He tended to look much too satisfied with himself. If she hadn't felt like he was looking down on all of them, she would have taken her turn in a heartbeat. She was curious as to whether there was actually any reason beside his face why these other two girls seemed to be more than eager for turns with him.

The scowl was really worth whatever she was missing out on, though.

Conceited git.

Also, her feet were cold. Couldn't they have brought blankets or something if they had known they were about to get bare feet in an abandoned office? It was rather drafty.

Still visibly annoyed, Scorpius took his turn. Rose wanted to tell him he was pretty when he pouted, but she doubted that was a good idea, considering...well, everything, really. He landed on Doxy's square and was told to kiss her--deeply--for at least thirty seconds. Doxy looked like she might faint. Rose did her best to kill the laugh escaping from her lips, she really did, but apparently she didn't do a good enough job because the glance Scorpius shot her was murderous. She then watched with great curiosity as he went up to Doxy.

It always surprised Rose a little bit how tall he was. Not that he was very tall, like for instance her father, but he was probably a good head taller than her. She supposed it might be due to how lanky most of her cousins were--except Al, of course, because Al was positively perfect, at least in his own mind. Scorpius wasn't lanky either. The best word to describe his build was...yum.

Where had that come from? He was not 'yum', he wasn't even all that muscular and his shoulders could have been broader, and...oh, who was she kidding? He was most definitely 'yum' or she wouldn't be salivating from looking at his backside. It was true that he wasn't bulky or anything, but who wanted that anyway? He was lean and fit and she knew he had stamina, because just last week she'd watched him take a bet with another boy on who would make it around the lake first with no stopping. He'd made it; the other bloke hadn't. Of course, he'd seemed close to dying afterwards, but Rose seemed to remember some green-eyed girl determined to nurse him back to health.

Why the thought of him having stamina made her squirm a little, Rose decided not to think too much about. That certainly was a non-issue. Besides, she didn't like blond hair. Or blue eyes. She had heard that his dad had grey eyes, which was at least interesting, but Scorpius didn't have those. No, he just had plain old boring blue eyes just like hers.

Except, they weren't really boring. They were the greatest thing Hogwarts had ever seen, according to some witches Rose had overheard the other day. But they really weren't all that. It was just that the blue of their house colours brought them out and made it seem more prominent on his dull, colourless person.

She really could give lessons in how to delude yourself.

She grudgingly had to admit that he seemed like he knew what he was doing now, too. His movements were precise--so much they almost seemed studied--and they all worked to further his goal. A hand on Doxy's waist and another one on her neck. A small smile and some sort of reassurance that Rose didn't catch, when the girl began looking nervous. The hand at the waist sliding back to slowly rub her lower back...and then the lowering of his head.

The snog looked to be all right too, and Doxy certainly seemed weak-kneed. Rose almost felt bad for her. Scorpius's eyes were closed, but Rose was fairly sure he was acting. The kiss had no soul. Or maybe she was just projecting her own dislike of them both onto it. That could be. She doubted it, though. She came from a large family and someone was always snogging someone else somewhere. This most definitely looked less sincere.

But then again, this game wasn't about emotion. Maybe it just looked different when it was purely physical. She briefly wondered what the difference in feeling might be. It probably depended on how much you lusted after the other person. Doxy certainly seemed to lust for Scorpius, but whether it was returned was hard to tell. Scorpius generally had too many girls willing to do his bidding for his own good, and as a result, he always seemed to affect a certain degree of boredom.

The thirty seconds ended and the two of them parted. Doxy looked slightly dazed, but Scorpius just gave her a small smile and went back to his seat.

No, Rose decided. She did not want a turn with him. She didn't feel like risking making that kind of fool of herself.

* * *

Scorpius was feeling more irritable than he had in a long while.

Rose Weasley had refused a turn with him and had then laughed when someone else did want their turn. During the kiss he had felt her eyes on him and it had annoyed him more than he could justify. He'd had to make an effort to not take it out on poor clueless Sarah.

In retrospect, Sarah probably would have accepted any kind of kiss from him, even the more punishing kind. He didn't understand girls like her. They didn't know him and this game was a free-for-all, so why were they always looking at him like that?

Anyway, turning away from her to see Rose's thoughtful, almost pitying, look had royally pissed him off. Who was she to pity anyone? If anything, she should be pitied. Between her being a bitch and her cousin being the head boy, he knew that no boy at Hogwarts was interested in her. Not a single one. It didn't matter that she had it in her to look fairly pretty or that she could occasionally be kind (which she, of course, adamantly refused was the case), the fact remained that her very person put off anyone who might have had any interest in her.

Someone like her had no business skipping turns with someone like him.

Unless, of course, this was her version of being coy.

The thought gave him pause. Yes, that would make sense, wouldn't it? She was a fairly brash person and she probably had no clue how to act.

She wanted him just like all the other girls. She just thought she was being clever about it.

He smirked, having finally figured her out. He could play along with this.

He realized he'd zoned out when he'd apparently missed Damian doing things to Nina with a feather. Oh, well, that sounded boring anyway. Now, Lamont had caught up with Rose.

"I suppose you're going to pay your way out of it?" The way Lamont looked at Rose clearly said that he'd rather she didn't. It had been obvious that he had a thing for her all night.

The boy was so out of luck.

"No," Rose replied. "I'll do it."

Scorpius had the strangest feeling of his entire body freezing into place. She would do a turn with Lamont but not with him? Was this another part of her ploy?

"Really?" Lamont was sounding pleasantly surprised and very, very eager. It was stupid. Rose wasn't that attractive. Her nose was too upturned, her bra was probably padded and...did nobody else notice her hair?

"Sure. Of course." Rose got up and looked at the board. "What does it say?"

Scorpius bent forward to read and then couldn't help a snigger. "You're going to let Lamont sit behind you and fondle you and remove your shirt."

Rose's eyes widened. "My--?"

"And remember," Scorpius smugly interrupted. "Changing your mind now is two tokens."

Rose's lips thinned as she no doubt recalled that she only had the two left. "I'm not changing my mind." She determinedly stalked over to Lamont and sat down in front of him, pushing back against him to make him make more room for her.

She really was going to do it?

It appeared so, as she was wriggling a little in place to either get more comfortable or to get Lamont off. It seemed like she was achieving both.

Lamont slowly placed her hands on his knees and slipped his arms under hers to caress her spread them just a little further, and his hands slipped to the inside and up, up, up....

Scorpius found himself being strangely glad that she was wearing trousers. He didn't quite like the thought of Lamont fondling Rose's bare thighs and knickers, when Rose wouldn't even risk a turn with him, Scorpius Malfoy!

"Wow, she's really into it," Nina murmured.

"Who would have thought?" Damian asked, sounding a little bit strangled.

Scorpius let his eyes wander up to her face. She seemed very focused on the hands caressing her and there did seem to be a slight flush to her cheeks that wasn't from embarrassment. She certainly wasn't paying anyone else any mind. Lamont moved his hands high enough for his thumbs to just lightly brush where they had no business being, and then he softly massaged her thighs for just a few seonds longer, before moving them up over her belly and her midriff up to her breasts, where he stopped just below, gently stroking. Scorpius would have been bored, except...she was responding. And it seemed genuine. They hadn't had that at the game for a while now. Not from a girl. Clearly, Scorpius picked the wrong girls to join.

Rose's breath had quickened and she was still entirely focused on the hands on her. Lamont moved them back down and slowly began unbuttoning her shirt. It was excruciating. When he was finally done, he pushed the cloth folds apart and it became evident that Rose's flush went well beyond her neckline. It also became evident that the prissy little redhead might not be as prissy as she seemed when a red satin-and-lace bra was revealed. It wasn't padded. Furthermore, Scorpius would bet almost anything that those hard points weren't due to her being cold. He leaned forward to conceal that he was very much less than unaffected.

"Did you know you were coming here?" Sarah disapprovingly asked, jarring everyone out of the delicious scene before them.

Rose just raised her eyebrows, giving Sarah a condescending look. "As in to play with you? No."

"Then what's with the underwear?"

Rose smiled rather mockingly. "It's what I like to wear...."

She chose that time to look at Scorpius for the first time since she sat down, and the effect was profound. He had been prepared to make a crack of his own, but suddenly he didn't dare trust his voice. She looked so...dishevelled and aroused. The fact that she chose just then to moisten her lips with her very tempting pink tongue just exacerbated Scorpius's state.

He knew he was being played, but he simply didn't care anymore. She was good.

"We're not done," Lamont murmured, sliding his hands up Rose's arms and slowly down again, taking her shirt with him.

Her eyes never left Scorpius's.

He hadn't been this hard in a very long time.

* * *

Rose was by no means a shy girl. In fact, she'd done some pretty spectacular things for attention in her life. Sitting down this close to a boy she hardly knew, though, unintentionally rubbing against him even before they got started...it had embarrassed her a little. So she had chosen to try and block out the onlookers, and the fact that these boys would be in her Potions class first thing Monday morning, and just focus on the sensations. And the sensations were pretty good. She would never have pegged Lamont Lawley for someone who knew how to caress a girl in a way as to make her both aroused and relaxed at the same time, but he did. He didn't just grope her the way she had half-expected, but genuinely caressed her. When she squirmed a little against him, his breath caught, so she did it again and noticed that his hands were trembling.

It wasn't until her eye caught Scorpius's, however, that she felt truly naughty. There was no mistaking the intensity of his look; the way he hung on to her every move. She even imagined that his eyes held promises of pleasure from him. It was a little bit ridiculous, of course, but at least he seemed to have forgotten that Doxy existed.

Feeling a tingly tightening in her breasts and between her legs, Rose squirmed against Lamont again, making him quietly moan against her shoulder.

"I wouldn't mind losing to you," he whispered in her ear, before trailing little kisses back down her neck and her shoulder and letting his hands cup her breasts.

Lose? Rose twisted her head as to inquire, but got momentarily distracted as he lifted his head to kiss her.

"All right, I think you're done," Scorpius interrupted before the kiss could take place. "I don't recall it saying anything about snogging and the shirt is long gone. Let's move on, shall we?"

"Yeah," Doxy added. "We're bored." She didn't look bored, though. She looked slightly flushed. As did Ditzy. And Damian was squirming a little in his seat.

All in all, it seemed like they had provided some good entertainment.

"Oh, crap," Lamont groaned. "You couldn't just have given me a few more seconds?"

"Aiming to lose won't get you invited back," Scorpius warned.

There it was again. Losing. What did it mean?

Scorpius was indicating that she should take her seat again, and Rose raised an eyebrow at his high-handed behaviour, but decided to let it slide. For now.

She carefully sat down, absent-mindedly noting that her feet were still cold, but due to the tingling warmth of the rest of her body, she didn't particularly care. It was odd to be the only shirtless person in the room, though. A few more rounds went by with nothing spectacular happening, unless, of course, you counted Scorpius getting the ability to move anyone anywhere he wanted and that he decided to kick Lamont to Azkaban, where he would have to sit out several rounds. Lamont didn't look very pleased.

Then Damian took his turn and landed on Rose, his face lighting up in a way that both flattered and worried her a bit.

"No fair," Doxy grumbled. "She's getting all the turns."

She did not. In fact, in the last round, Doxy had gotten two turns, one of which had removed her own shirt, showing everyone that her idea of sexy underwear was tacky and too small.

Rose really had to work on her bias against witches with little to no self-worth throwing themselves at undeserving wizards.

"Don't worry, sweetheart," Scorpius said in what appeared to be his best placating voice, all honey, "you'll get your turns."

Rose had never much cared for honey. Too sticky and sweet by half. Doxy seemed to lap it all up, though. She should be careful or she might get toothache.

"What does it say?" Damian asked.

Scorpius checked the board, and so did Rose as it occurred to her not to trust his word. He obviously noticed that and frowned at her, but didn't say anything. As he finished reading the prompt, however, he smirked and leaned back. "Up for it, Rose?"

Rose had a hard time deciding. She was to go outside with Damian for five minutes, and whatever they did was their business, but he was to come back shirtless. It seemed fairly harmless, though, so she shrugged. "Sure."

Scorpius's eyes hardened just a fraction. "Make sure not to be seen by anyone else; there's a cupboard on the other side of the hall. Clock starts once you leave and I'll get you when the time is up." He turned to Damian. "Remember, underwear stays on or you're both out."

Ditzy sighed. "It's unfair that we don't even get to watch."

Lamont leered at her. "A voyeur, are you?"

Ditzy grinned back. "Oh, I don't mind joining in either."

Rose rolled her eyes and went outside and into the cupboard. Damian followed.

"We don't have to do anything," he was saying, unbuttoning his shirt. "Just tousle your hair and bite your lips and insinuate to the others that we had one hell of a time out here."

Rose turned and raised an eyebrow, not that he was likely to notice in the dimness of the cupboard. He didn't want to snog her? "That does sound dull..." she said.

Damian's hands stopped for a second before he undid the last couple of buttons, but he didn't take the shirt off. "I have to tell you, Weasley. It's almost worth losing to you."

What was with the losing? "How do you lose?" Rose asked.

"You don't know?" Damian asked, but then he grinned. "Malfoy is a bit of a control freak. This game is mostly a way for him to demonstrate his superior restraint. He's never lost. They say that if he ever did, he'd close down the game for good, but the rest of us just get uninvited for at least a few weeks. Not that he ever invites all of the same people every time. Except that one bird, but she got a boyfriend and now declines the invitations. I think he's been holding out for her to come, because otherwise there's no reason why we've been one witch short."

"Nice, but how do you lose?" Rose was losing her patience with the blabbering, even though it was actually pretty interesting blabber.

"Oh. Right. Sorry. You come."

Rose blinked. That was supposed to make sense? "What?"

"Well, not you. It really only apply to the blokes. Any of us come, we've lost."

Rose gaped. "That's ridiculous!"

"And sort of humiliating," Damian added, grimacing when she gave him a look. "Yes, I lost once...or twice. When you have three or four girls in nothing but their underwear rubbing all over you all night, it gets difficult not to. Unless you're Malfoy."

She wasn't sure she wanted to know about it. "So this is all some lame contest to see who can hold it in the longest?"

Damian grinned. "Well...it's a lot of fun too. Especially when we get girls like you that seem to actually have fun as well."

Rose pursed her lips. She would be lying if she said she hadn't had fun, but really! "And what do the girls get out of it?"

Damian shrugged. "The one that someone loses to, he calls her the winner, and she's guaranteed an invite back and...." He grimaced.

"What?" Rose gave him a puzzled look.

"Malfoy pays special attention to her until there's a new winner."

Rose felt suspiciously like gagging. "You're kidding me!"

He shrugged again. "It's a status thing, too. Popularity boost and all that."

Rose didn't know whether to laugh or begin ranting about why that was wrong in every way it could be wrong. Talk about being condescending and sexist and...conceited! The conceit was almost blinding in its sheer concentration.

"Hey, don't fret," Damian said, befuddling Rose by not just being an inconsiderate prat. "If you don't want to win, you won't. It takes a certain level of...enthusiasm, you know? And time should be up for us here soon."

Yeah, it would be, wouldn't it? And Scorpius would come out to get them, wouldn't he?

Rose suddenly smirked, knowing what she wanted to do. Damian looked a little bit like he suspected she had been possessed by the devil.

"We shouldn't waste time, then, should we?" she purred, walking up to him and grabbing a hold of his shirt tails.

"I really don't mind--" Damian was cut off as Rose began nibbling his neck and pushing his shirt open. "Oh, all right then," he murmured, and then he drew her closer for some more exploring. As it turned out, when you weren't wearing a shirt, there was a lot of bare flesh to stroke and kiss.

Rose couldn't stop herself from smiling again. This was all so strange and new and really fun.

The door opened and a throat cleared. "Your time is up. He's not supposed to be wearing his shirt anymore, Rose."

Rose grinned and bit her lip, looking up at Damian, who was already looking slightly unsteady. "I'm sorry," she said in a low throaty voice and pushed the shirt from his shoulders. "I got...distracted."

"Cute." Scorpius seemed unimpressed. "Mind getting a move on so the game can continue?"

Rose just smiled and went past both of them and back to the office. Oh, yeah. She was going to win this thing.

* * *

Following the two love birds back to the room, Scorpius fought another burst of irritation. Rose would rub against Lamont and tolerate his hands on her, and she'd snog Damian in a cupboard for several minutes, but she wouldn't even accept a turn with Scorpius himself?

Someone ought to tell her that that wasn't quite how coy worked. He wasn't likely to be turned on by her getting off on everyone else.

Except he kind of was.

But it was a coincidence. He'd be just as turned on if she'd take her damn turns already, only considerably less annoyed.

He'd been thinking, and he'd decided that the reason why he was turned on by this shrew of a female was that she was so obviously a very sensual being. Also, she had nice breasts. Really nice breasts.

She was currently looking insufferably smug. He only wondered what she'd done to poor Damian. He even briefly wondered if Damian had already lost--it wouldn't be the first time--but it didn't take more than a cursory glance at the miniatures on the board to know that it wasn't so.

The relief was strange. He supposed it was because he wasn't quite ready to end tonight's session.

Ignoring the turns that bored him, Scorpius set out to corner Rose on the board. It wasn't easy, considering that she didn't want to be cornered and that, well, it just went round and round, but he wanted to make her pay attention to him. There was a brief bout of indecision when he got the power to move another player again, though. He could move Rose to him, or himself to her, but, ultimately, he moved Damian to join Lamont, who was still waiting out his sentence in Azkaban. Now neither of them could get any turns.

One wizard, three witches. No wonder Damian and Lamont looked so petulant. Scorpius rather liked those odds, though. It made every turn about him and, really, even when he didn't particularly care for the witches, naked female flesh pressed against him was always welcome. Soon, he, too, lost his shirt to a rather eager Nina.

He liked the way the girls--even Rose--looked at his torso.

Life was good.

Finally, Rose landed in the Dungeon and with her having made the decision to only take turns with males and two of those males currently being incarcerated...well. Scorpius smirked.

"Oh, all right, then," Rose huffed as if she honestly didn't want to.

Twit.

Scorpius read the board and then immediately decided it didn't matter if she was being contrary. This would be fun. "Over here," he said, patting his own knee.

She made a face and reluctantly went nearer to him. "What? I sit down?"

"No...." He grinned. "You lie down, on your belly."

"What?" Her eyes were big and round and he was loving this.

"On your belly. You've been a naughty girl and you're about to get punished. Check the board if you don't believe me."

Rose did indeed check the board and then paled. He had some, not a lot, sympathy for her. She wasn't used to this, after all, and she was about to lose her trousers and she didn't have any tokens left. Of course, he could remind her that it actually wasn't tokens that would get her out of this one, but he felt that this was one of those cases where you only told if asked.

Besides, somehow, taking a hand to Rose's backside appealed to him.

"So, I let you hit me?" she asked, giving him a dubious look.

"Not hit," he said, rolling his eyes. "Spank." He grinned.

"Same difference."

He shook his head. "Not quite. Besides, I need to take your trousers off first." He beamed, knowing that the reminder wasn't welcome.

"Why don't you just--" Lamont started, but was cut off by Sarah.

"No, let her work it out for herself," she said. "She's so smart; let her figure out what she wants to do."

Scorpius smiled at Sarah, quite happy that she was such a petty bitch. No reason to let Rose know that there was a way out, after all.

Rose still looked doubtful. "How come I don't see you getting a prompt like that?"

He grinned, quite unashamed. "Because I won't. Just about every aspect of the game can be controlled. I decided long ago to not include this part, but tonight I decided to make an exception just for you. You're the only one it can happen to."

Rose gaped. "You spiteful son-of-a-three-headed-dog! Why?"

Scorpius ignored the insult. "Because you wanted us to make special rules for you and so we did. We all risk humiliation here...why should it be any different for you?"

She scowled at him, but apparently he'd made enough sense for her to hesitantly comply, lying down across his lap. He had to admit that a half-naked and soon-to-be-even-more-naked Rose Weasley in his lap was quite...exciting.

He moved his hands to her waist and then stopped, frowning because something was missing. "You're supposed to squirm, flail, anything to make it at least a little challenging to remove your trousers."

"Yeah, well, you're out of luck," Rose grumbled. "Not going to. Just finish already."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows, doubting that she quite realized the double meaning of her words. "I'm not going to," he announced, absent-mindedly stroking her back as if she were a pet, inwardly laughing evilly at her obviously trying to dodge his touch without doing any of the squirming he'd asked her to. "I have all night, and there's no time limit on this prompt. We might bore the others to death, but I'm game...." He let one of his hands stroke down across her nice little surprisingly well-rounded bum before lightly pinching her.

She squeaked and jumped and then let out a string of very unladylike phrases.

Scorpius patiently waited for her to become quiet and settle down. "Now, now," he then said in his most annoyingly calm voice. "That is not my sexual orientation; I can assure you my mother is none of those things and she's married to my father; I don't engage in bestiality; and what I do with my own hands on my own time is my own business. But I take it you're ticklish."

Rose had flushed a crimson hue that clashed horribly with her hair. It turned him on in the strangest way. "Just get this over with."

"I told you what to do about that," he said, lightly rubbing her lower back. She actually seemed tense. He knew she hated this and he half expected her to get up and walk out. It would be a pity, but this game was about boundaries and crossing them as well as staying in control while it happened.

"I wouldn't mind taking her place," Nina offered.

He smiled politely at her. He didn't doubt it. She would squirm and squeal and he'd do his best to get it over with as fast as possible. There was a movement on his lap and he looked down.

"All right," Rose muttered. "I'll fight you as long as you get started already."

"Yeah," Lamont was saying, frowning. "You seem to be drawing this one out, Scorpius."

Scorpius scowled back. He wasn't drawing anything out...much. And he most certainly wasn't intentionally fumbling with undoing her trousers, just because he was having fun. But finally he was pushing them off and....

"No way!" It was Sarah exclaiming this. "You had no idea you were coming here? I don't believe you."

Rose had gone red in the face again and was glaring at Sarah. "Trust me. If I had known about this, I would have worn white granny knickers!"

In that case, Scorpius was rather glad she hadn't known. This was hardly decent, but much as he enforced the rule of some level of decency, he was much too enthralled to object. It was probably due to the fact that the scrap of red lace only covered the very essentials and he had a prime view of her rear end. Not to mention that he was touching bare skin and very aware of it.

"You can stop lying now," Sarah huffed.

"You knew you were coming here tonight and could wear anything you liked, so why does it matter?" Lamont asked.

Scorpius was briefly puzzled by Lamont's consistent defence of their newest addition. He wasn't usually quite that friendly, even when he seemed to fancy the girls. He must really want to get this one into his bed. It was a bit hard for Scorpius to concentrate on someone else's motivations with an almost naked girl in his lap, though. Especially since now she was squirming from the indignity of it all and...well, Scorpius hadn't known he had a kinky streak, but he was quite enjoying this.

"Can we just get this over with?" Rose asked, doing her best to hide her flaming cheeks.

Scorpius couldn't quite resist tracing the edge of her knickers, lingering where it dipped down between her legs. "So, you wear this every day, then?" Seeing her around would never be the same again.

"No," she bit out. "I have other sets."

He smiled, wondering if she had any sets in blue. He thought their house colours would suit her. "How do you want this?" he asked, flexing his fingers and watching her flinch. Ten slaps it had said. It wasn't really a lot.

"Over!" she growled.

He pursed his lips. That wasn't very cooperative. Deciding to teach her a lesson, he brought his hand down hard, making her jerk with the sting of it. "Like that?" he sweetly asked.

"Oh, please, that just tickled," she muttered.

Raising an eyebrow, he repeated it a few more times, noticing that she was tensing to brace herself and letting her hair hide her face. Not feeling terribly generous, he brushed her hair away from her face, seeing that she was biting her lip and focusing hard on the floor. He almost felt bad for her, but she had refused her turns with him. It rankled on a level that surprised him a little. "What about now?" he asked, lightly moving his hand up and down her back.

"You're taking too long." Her voice was almost a whisper and he had to wonder at why she wasn't walking out if she was feeling that humiliated.

He brought his hand down again, feeling the sting and buzz in his own hand and then rubbed her backside for a few seconds before he struck again.

She remained quiet, even though she still jerked. It was almost over.

"Why didn't you leave?" he asked.

"It's a good reminder," she mumbled, seemingly more to herself than to him. "And, also," she said, raising her voice enough for everyone to hear, "I knew you wouldn't have it in you to make it interesting anyway."

Scorpius' eyes widened just a fraction while the others tried hiding their laughter in various ways. Even Sarah seemed amused. Feeling annoyance flood him, he brought his hand down harder than before for the last couple of slaps, ignoring that her behind was red and radiating heat, her face was flushed and her eyes were shiny. She brought it onto herself by pushing, constantly pushing. He hadn't even wanted to do it hard. "You're done," he coldly said, ignoring the beginnings of guilt nagging at him. She had asked for it.

She stiffly got up and walked to her seat, carefully sitting down, pretending that she didn't care. If she'd just been normal, he wouldn't have been so hard on her.

Damn her.

* * *

Playing Games (2/2)