Chapter 22: You Could've Knocked Me Out With A Feather or, Some Nights I Call It A Draw

Rating: M mainly for language, and I can't discount any funny business later on

Disclaimer: I work with only what J.K. Rowling has given me.

4th June 2023

Miss Rose Christine Weasley

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Scotland

Dear Miss Weasley,

I am delighted to inform you of your admission to the London Institute of Health for this coming academic year.

You were selected from a pool of exceptional candidates, of which each application was scrutinised with the utmost care. We have admitted you because we believe your personal, academic and professional values align with our own school's value system: collaboration, perseverance and dedication, above all. Your academic performance is also a promising indicator of your ability to flourish in the challenging environment that a career in the medical field will doubtless require. In turn, we hope that you will find a home with us, and together, make your stay here very rewarding.

Congratulations again on your admission! We look forward to hearing from you, and hope to see you in the fall.

Yours truly,

Jennifer Marlowe

LIH Admissions

Scorpius read his acceptance letter twice.

Once his eyes had followed the words through for the second time, he'd wandered towards his bed and slowly sat down. His eyes found his name again at the top left corner and they held there, tethering the carefully printed script to his mind. Dimly, slowly, he let himself feel it: the unmistakeable thrill that was glowing in his chest, burning brighter and brighter the more his eyes traced the words.

Scorpius didn't often hesitate on his successes, mainly because he was never surprised by them. But as he stared at this piece of paper, he was filled with such a feeling of achievement, of fulfilment, that it took him a moment to understand. He'd wanted this so badly; maybe he'd never let himself realise just how much.

Delighted, it said, in its perfect script. He couldn't stop looking at it, and as his eyes flickered back up to take in his name again, his brain suddenly flashed to her and wondered if she was sitting in her room, reading the same thing, wondering, wondering, just the same as he was.

"I believe congratulations are in order. The London Institute of Health has just acquired two outstanding students."

Before he could think about it, Scorpius' head had snapped to her, at the exact moment she had done the same. When their eyes met, he was suddenly overcome by a blinding flash of euphoria, the moment of pure relief he'd been forcing himself to hold in since he'd held his own letter in his hand three days ago.

They had more time.

It was then that he heard it. Her breath leaving her in a diminutive, near-imperceptible exhale; the overspill of the sheer amount of emotions that were suddenly coursing through her body manifesting in that one, tiny noise, but as he watched her eyes flicker between his, he couldn't parse out which emotions those were. She broke their gaze, her eyes casting down to the table, and that happiness twisted.

The mere possibility that she could be upset about this almost killed him. He wished McGonagall wasn't here, he wanted to talk to her, to ask her how she felt when it was only the two of them, alone, but he couldn't.

McGonagall was smiling, something she rarely did. "I must confess, the two of you have made me exceedingly proud. It really is my most sincere congratulations."

"Thank you, Professor." His brain had automatically pushed the words out, and her soft voice had echoed in perfect unison.

"Of course. Now, to business. As we spoke about before the Easter holidays, we will be having two prospective exchange students arriving on Wednesday who are interested in completing their final year of schooling here. If you recall, a young lady from Beauxbatons and a young man from our sister school across the pond, the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They will be arriving at ten o'clock, and will be spending the remainder of the morning and the entirety of the afternoon in your good hands. There is no official itinerary for the day; you may take them around the castle and grounds — and can make use of the empty classrooms while the exams are ongoing — and answer any questions they may have. Please make sure you show them to the Ravenclaw dormitories as they will be staying there should they decide to enrol."

"What means of transport are they using, Professor?" Rose asked, and Scorpius' eyes flickered. Her voice was a breath away from being perfectly composed.

"They will be arriving by Floo Network into my office. If the two of you would be here to greet them with me."

"Of course, Professor," they replied with a nod.

"Thank you. Now, we must briefly discuss the upcoming ball that is suddenly just around the corner. As you know, there is little required of the two of you at this point — the prefects have got things well in hand — but if you wouldn't mind just dropping in on the day to make sure everything is up to standard, no last minute disasters and the like." She cleared her throat. "The last I heard, Miss Blake and Mr Carter are having issues agreeing on the choice of silverware. Not that it surprises me; you'd be hard-pressed to get those two to agree on anything, however — and I tell you both this in the strictest confidence — they are my top candidates for the Heads positions next year, so try and force them to come to some decision, if you can." There was the smallest hint of a smile on her face as she consulted her notes. "I do think that's everything," she said after a moment of scanning.

"What's happening with the entertainment, Professor?" Scorpius asked.

"Ah yes, thank you for reminding me. The band will be setting up a few hours before, but not to worry, Filius will be handling them. Our singer will be arriving a few hours after as she won't be performing until later in the evening. Any other questions?"

They exchanged a quick look — too quick — and shook their heads.

"Wonderful. I am quite assured that it will be a spectacular evening." McGonagall straightened and put away her papers. "Now, I'm sure the last thing the two of you want during your last week of school is to have a meeting with the headmistress." She paused. "With that in mind, this will be our last meeting of the year."

Scorpius blinked. It was odd, but he was actually going to miss these meetings. They'd become a part of his routine, being in this office with the headmistress and…and her, this shared element of their duties. He would miss those too.

McGonagall hesitated, most uncharacteristically. "May I be frank for a moment?"

Scorpius felt himself tense a little, and he saw Rose straighten slightly.

"You two were the perfect candidates for these roles, I've known this for many years. However, the only thing that stayed my hand from absolute certainty was the knowledge that, although the Heads position is a demanding and time-consuming responsibility, it is also supposed to be a reward of merit, not a punishment." A little, mischievous smile played at her lips before she continued, "The fact of your…differences, shall we say, was not exactly the school's best kept secret. Indeed, I have not forgotten our first official meeting in that Charms classroom all those years ago, though I am glad to say that our subsequent ones have been under somewhat better circumstances."

Scorpius could see Rose's cheeks as they tinged just the lightest pink, and in that moment, he suddenly missed her so much that he thought his heart was about to implode from it.

"I knew, of course, that you would be able to overcome your differences in order to work — and live — together, but the Heads role by nature is designed to be shared; it is not supposed to force two people to work together unnecessarily and well, to be quite frank, it wasn't my intention to torture you both by placing you in this situation together." She paused significantly, leaning back, and Scorpius thought that she had no idea that, despite the best of her intentions, that was exactly what she had done. He couldn't describe how he'd felt in these last few months as anything less than torture. And ecstasy; both far worse than he'd ever known.

"That being said, the quality of the work you have produced this year seems to me to be a result of far greater than two people putting aside their differences and deigning to work together, but rather two people who genuinely connect and collaborate in a way that is greater than the sum of its parts, which you already know to be a very high bar to begin with."

Scorpius wondered if it was as difficult for her not to look at him as it was for him not to look at her.

"This is exactly what I had hoped from you. And I…I do not believe that another two people could have done as good of a job as the two of you have done together. I want to thank you both most sincerely for your extraordinary work over this past year, and I wish you all the best in future." She paused for a moment, and then said, with another rare smile, "Do stay in touch and let me know how you get on in London."

The silence that punctuated the end of her speech was almost tangible. Scorpius was pressing his legs into his chair, trying not to shift; his brain was swirling in a bevy of emotions so wildly that he thought if he relaxed even the smallest fraction, they might all come pouring out, and then Rose cleared her throat.

"Thank you for everything, Professor," she said, the slightest tremor detectable in her voice. When her eyes flicked to his for the briefest moment, Scorpius knew he wasn't imagining the sadness within them, and he saw her chest constrict before she immediately turned away.

"Thank you, Professor," he swallowed.

McGonagall had a little knowing smile on her face, and she spread her hands. "Well, thus concludes our meeting. I will see the two of you here on Wednesday morning."

Rose got to her feet quickly with a soft, "Goodnight, Professor," and Scorpius was about to do the same before the headmistress looked at him and said, "Mr Malfoy, if I could keep you a moment longer."

Rose hesitated for a brief moment in her surprise, but she recovered and spared Scorpius only the smallest of glances before she gave a final smile to the headmistress and left. The door rumbled softly as it revolved shut behind her.

Scorpius too was hiding his surprise, his heart pounding softly as he sat back in his chair and waited for the headmistress to speak.

After a pregnant bout of silence, McGonagall cleared her throat. "Miss Weasley was not very good at concealing the fact that she wanted Luke Cresswell to be chosen as Head Boy."

Scorpius blinked.

"Oh, he would have been a very good candidate," McGonagall continued lightly, seemingly responding to the confusion on his face, "and they would have worked together very harmoniously." She paused significantly. "But Mr Cresswell would never have challenged her, and she would have never gotten better." She looked him squarely in the eyes. "I have only ever met one person who challenges her in the way that she needs to be challenged."

Her gaze was piercing, and Scorpius suddenly felt like she could see right through him, all the way from his racing heart to the clammy hands he was clenching against his jeans.

It took a long moment, but he finally found his voice and swallowed. "Professor, I don't th-"

"You do, Mr Malfoy. I am most assured that you do."

Scorpius slowly closed his mouth.

"You will need a date, by the way."

"A date?" he asked, barely listening, his eyes foggy with thought.

"For the ball," she clarified.

Scorpius blinked, and his brain clicked again. He looked at the headmistress; she was stacking more papers on her desk. "Oh, I know, I-I remember."

"Excellent." She pulled out a slim envelope from one of her drawers and slipped the stack neatly inside. "If you wouldn't mind passing on the message to Miss Weasley as well. To ensure that she also remembers."

Scorpius stared at her. After a moment, he nodded numbly.

He stood, turning to leave, and then belatedly remembered his manners, his voice another mumble as he managed out, "Goodnight, Professor. Thank—thank you again."

He made it to the doorway before her voice stopped him once again.

"Mr Malfoy."

He hesitated for a split second before turning.

"You may never again meet another girl like her, but she will never again meet another boy like you. That I can guarantee you. Goodnight."

"He got in."

Rose heard the muffled noise as Gen abruptly stopped moving in the stall next to her. After a moment, Gen's voice said quietly, "You knew he would." There was another pause, and then, "Did he tell you?"

Rose sighed, hesitating before she continued to roll her glove all the way up her arm. "No, McGonagall did. She uh…offered her congratulations to us both at the start of the meeting."

Gen clicked her tongue. "That woman's losing her tact in her old age."

Rose set about unfurling her other glove, remembering Scorpius' expression the night before, how it had been uncomfortable to the point of near embarrassment, his words mumbled out in a strained, offhanded voice. McGonagall wanted me to remind you that we need dates.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it was a tactic."

Her mind once again flitted back to how the headmistress had held Scorpius back at the end of their meeting. She had no proof as to what they had talked about, of course, but the What if still whispered in her head nevertheless, and the mere possibility of anything in the realm of that subject had caused a wave of heat to spill from her chest.

"McGonagall's matchmaking now? That woman needs to find herself a better hobby." There was a scoff, but at length, the humour dropped from her voice, Gen asked, "Are you okay?"

She'd tried not to take it out this morning.

She had taken it out every morning since he'd given it to her. It was in her closet, hidden out of sight as she went about her day, until the moment she prised open the doors, and then it was always the first thing she saw; settled at the front of the middle shelf, her clothes shifted away to make room.

The first time, she'd hesitated for a long moment before giving it a small shake — it had been so long since she had seen herself cry, a mess of blinking and shaking as the tears had continued to run, one that only got worse when she realised how good it felt to actually do it — and as she'd watched the water lap in comforting patterns, just the way that it had in that tank in Greenhouse Six, she'd shook it more, and then suddenly it was beaming, a bright white brilliance all over her room that put the rising sun to shame, and she'd gasped and immediately pulled it underneath her shirt, casting her eyes towards the door and hoping to Merlin that he was still asleep in his own room.

Seeing it did make her sad; it sparked that same longing ache anew in her chest, but there was something terribly bittersweet about it too, because every time she held it in her hands, stirring the tiny glistening orbs awake, she felt like she was taking that tiny, almost tangible, piece of him that had thought of her and was stirring it back to life too.

She nodded, and then realised that Gen couldn't see her, so she said, "I think so."

She looked down and saw that she was still holding one of the gloves uselessly in her hands, so she pulled it up her arm to match the other, and then instantly wasn't sure how she felt about them. Her eyes drifted past the gloves, past the dress, and she gave a small sigh.

"I was just hoping to make it to the end of the school year, you know?" she said after a quiet moment. "Just get through these few weeks, keep him at arm's length and hope that, maybe after the summer, we'd be able to start in a better place."

That had been harder than she'd expected it to be. The gift had been a truce, and they were on speaking terms again, but only when they needed to. At least, those were the rules that Rose had set in her mind. She could tell that Scorpius wanted to talk to her more, to talk about things that actually meant something, not skirting around the safe and simple topics in the careful dance that Rose refused to stray from, but Rose wondered if he knew that, from where she was, she was drowning just as quickly and as inescapably as he.

There was still so much she wanted to say to him, all of it clambering up the back of her throat and threatening to spill over, but still she forced it all back down, keeping her answers as brief and as lifeless as possible and ignoring the glimpses of sadness so stark on his face. All she needed to do was to repeat the thought that trembled in the back of her mind, that if she got caught up and fed the aching part of her that wanted so badly to fall back into what it had been like before, the same thing would only happen again. There would be no upside to getting close to him now, even as friends, because despite what Scorpius had said, they would never be friends.

It'll only hurt more, she would force herself to think whenever she would feel her head slipping back underneath the surface, that same helplessness that had found her curled up on her bed in a shaking mess, and then the disappointment on his face was a little easier to bear.

Gen was quiet for a while. From the silence in her stall, Rose knew that on the other side of the partition, Gen was standing just as still as she was, staring past her reflection and not knowing what to say.

After more silence, Gen finally said, "The offer to kill him still stands."

Rose felt a little hopeless laugh escape her throat, because what else was there to do, and she shook her head, sucking in a deep breath. "Okay, I'm ready. You?"

"Yep."

Rose unlocked the door and stepped out, and she immediately smiled and said, "Gen, you look amazing," at the same time that Gen's jaw dropped and she said, "ROSE. Oh my God."

Rose waved her off. "Are you kidding? It's almost a shame you weren't born in the thirties. You'd have made an amazing flapper."

The playful look suited Gen perfectly, the blueish-silver of her dress and matching gloves giving her an understated sort of glamour while leaving enough room to show off the youth that peeked through. With her hair done on the night to match, she'd look even better.

Gen only shook her head, still looking shell-shocked. "You look unbelievable, Rose. Seriously, I didn't know black and gold could look so good."

Rose smiled bashfully, and her eyes instinctively trailed towards the mirror on the side of the wall. The black top was simple, the arm holes deep and curving elegantly at her ribcage, definitely exposing more torso than she was used to, but she liked it. There was just a glimpse of skin at her midriff before the separate skirt of the dress clasped around her waist, the same black but this time embellished in a rich and radiant gold that gleamed in stunningly intricate patterns all the way to the floor.

Gen grinned. "Come on, gimme a twirl. You know you want to."

Rose rolled her eyes good-naturedly but obliged her, doing a quick spin. The slit in the front of the dress freed the fabric to flower elegantly, and it bloomed outwards in a full arc before coming to rest, swishing softly against her legs.

Gen looked delighted, but after a moment, she cocked her head and squinted. "Maybe try it without the gloves?" she suggested, and Rose made a noise of agreement and instantly peeled them off.

Gen grinned in approval. "Headpiece," she said suddenly. "I saw a black and gold one somewhere near the front. Hang on."

She dashed off, and Rose smiled gently as she watched her disappear from sight. After a moment, she dropped her gaze, and her eyes began to drift back towards the mirror. She took in the gorgeous fabric, drawing her hand across the band around her waist, softly feeling out all of the textures and watching the different ways that they reflected the light and cast shimmering pearls against the wall, and she saw her smile fade.

Of course the moment they'd come up with the theme, she'd already been picturing him in his outfit. His striking, aristocratic features, his high cheekbones, the jawline that made her want to tear her hair out — he would only look more refined dressed in an ensemble of the time. With how much he would suit it, he would look unfairly good, even.

It was only natural that she would've expected them to go together, and here she was in a beautiful dress, one that made her feel beautiful too, and yet all she could think about was how his hair would be slicked back, his lean frame sculpted underneath a three-piece suit, a hat canted on his head at an angle where his eyes were only just visible underneath, and he would've danced with her, swooped her into his arms and twirled her around with all of those dance steps that of course he had been trained in, just like he had at the Christmas Ball, and it would've been wonderful, because this time they were here together—

Or maybe he just would've held her.

Under the warm lights of the dressing area, her skin began to prickle as she thought of his fingers brushing the exposed skin at her back, her neck, and God, she had to stop thinking about this, this wasn't helpful in the least, she needed to get a grip and stop thinking about him touching her, he was supposed to be a mere blip—he was a mere blip, Rose, BLIP—

"Found it!"

Gen reappeared in the doorway, brandishing the slim headpiece from the front of the shop, but as she caught the look on Rose's face, the belated moment it had taken her to slip back out of her spiralling thoughts, she slowly lowered the band and her expression sobered, her face falling in instant understanding.

She hesitated, and then stepped towards Rose, opening up the graceful band and fastening it gently across Rose's forehead. After she tied it behind her head, she guided Rose's elbow around slightly so that she could look in the mirror.

After a moment of silence, Gen let out a soft sigh and squeezed her friend's shoulders. "It'll get easier." It sounded like a promise.

Rose stared into the mirror, her eyes on the spot where the beautiful accessory newly adorned her head. "I guess I have five years to find out."

Gen smiled softly, her expression sad. "I guess you do."

Rose nodded slowly, meeting her friend's eyes in the reflection. She allowed a little smile to lift the corner of her lips. "The headpiece is beautiful, Gen."

Gen returned her smile and knocked her gently on the arm. "Come on, the quicker we pay, the quicker we can get out of here. It'll get crowded any time now."

Rose nodded again and returned to her stall, still deep in thought as she slipped out of her dress.

She hadn't wanted to admit it, but a part of her — maybe even a large part — had always known that this was the outcome she had wanted, even if it had been easier to think otherwise, and even though thinking about the next five years felt as if it was turning her mind into quicksand, somehow the deep-seeded fact that she wanted him to be there with her, no matter how excruciating it would be, seemed to be the only vaguely familiar thing that remained.

Toby twisted slightly to peer at the back of his suit in the mirror's reflection. Upon seeing the flattering lines it cast across his shoulders, he grinned in approval and re-straightened, leaning in satisfaction against his matching white cane.

"It really is a crime that you made us go so early," he said. He tossed the cane lightly into the air and caught it with his other hand. "There were only three other people in the shop who got to witness all of this."

"Any later, and you wouldn't have gotten your hands on that cane that you haven't put down since you bought it. Or this." To punctuate his sentence, Scorpius tossed Toby the boater hat that he'd been swivelling around his finger from his place on the bed. Toby caught it and immediately fitted it onto his head, then dramatically pointed his cane at the mirror. "Quick, what would someone from 1930s America say?"

"Something racist, probably."

Toby made a grim face of agreement, dropping his pose. "Don't you wanna try on your outfit?" he asked after a moment, adjusting his hat as he looked at Scorpius in the mirror's reflection.

"What for? I already put it on in the shop." And then he added, pointedly, "Not that that seems to have stopped you."

"Clothing stores have notoriously unflattering lighting," Toby countered, seemingly finding an angle that he liked. "I need to see a realistic picture of what I'll look like on the night."

"I'm sure."

"You know, for when I go around breaking hearts in this get-up."

"Uh-huh."

"What about you?"

Scorpius looked up. "What about me?"

Toby shrugged, his expression carefully nonchalant. "You didn't react back in the shop when Potter mentioned the amount of girls he knew were planning on asking you to this thing."

Scorpius moved his gaze to the ceiling, crossing his arms. "Well, I didn't think "I don't know why they bother" was a very diplomatic answer to give, and since I couldn't think of another one…" He let his voice drift off and gave a shrug of his own, still staring at the ceiling and kind of wishing he hadn't given Toby his hat back so he'd have something to do with his hands.

Toby hesitated. "To be fair, you have gone with girls in the past."

Scorpius met his gaze in the mirror for a moment, and then merely said, "Well, not anymore." He could hear the childishness creeping underneath his voice, which he hated, but he couldn't help it. He adjusted his arms, shifting, and then plucked at a stray piece of fluff on his shirt sleeve.

But Mr Cresswell would never have challenged her, and she would have never gotten better.

The silence had allowed his mind to wander, and once again his conversation with the headmistress had seeded up to its surface, as it had done almost obtrusively since he had left her office the previous night.

"Because of Rose?"

His ears picked up on the tellingly soft tone of Toby's voice, the one that subtly pleaded for him to open up, not for Toby's sake, but for his. Toby hadn't said much while they'd been out on that Astronomy Tower after the…well, after what had happened with Claudia — he hadn't exactly been up to it — but even so, there had been the slightest spark of understanding in his eyes when he and Al had found Scorpius still leaning back against that wall in the corridor, Claudia nowhere in sight.

I have only ever met one person who challenges her in the way she needs to be challenged.

What did she even mean by that? he'd asked himself as he'd stared up at his ceiling as the sun rose outside of his window. But as he'd watched the shadows dance above him, some crazy part of him thought that he knew exactly what she meant.

One person, he'd thought again, the words echoing in his head and twisting his brain into incomprehensible pieces.

The thought that she was insinuating that there was some sort of…soulmate-level connection between them had maybe been the most terrifying thought that he had ever dared to think, because she was Rose Weasley, the most perfect girl he had ever met, and he was...

His brain had paused over that, unconvinced. No. That wasn't what terrified him. What had truly terrified him was that there was a part of him that knew exactly what McGonagall had kept him back to tell him, the part that had already had that exact thought. Maybe more than once, maybe more than twice — maybe it was all he thought about when he was with her, because something had to justify this, something had to explain why it was even possible to feel like this. Even if he didn't want to acknowledge it. Because an insane and incredibly selfish idea like that should be killed in its tracks, not encouraged to bloom and flourish and grow strong enough to tug at some warm piece of his heart that was still beating, still searching desperately, somewhere in there.

Or maybe she was just a kooky old woman who needed to find better ways to occupy her thoughts in her old age. At least, that's what he'd told himself before he'd thrown off the covers and decided to wake Toby up to go suit shopping, even though the sun had yet to fully rise.

Now Toby's expression mirrored his tone, careful yet silently hopeful, but no matter how much the disappointment on his face would turn to dull guilt in Scorpius' stomach, Scorpius didn't want to talk to him about this, because then Toby would either tell him that he had made the biggest mistake of his life, or he'd been right to do it, and both would only make him feel even more wretched than he already felt.

"To hell with this date thing," he said instead, leaning back and exhaling roughly. "If I have to, I'll sit out the dances and pretend that I sprained my ankle."

The disappointment came and went, and then, with the dependency of a ticking clock, Toby let out a long sigh and obliged him. "You'd rather limp around all night than dance with me?" he asked, feigning hurt as he pressed a hand to his chest.

The gratefulness that Scorpius felt was momentarily displaced by genuine surprise. "Are you not going with anyone?" he asked. He indicated the mirror with his chin. "What about your whole breaking hearts speech?"

Toby shrugged. "I figured I'd need to keep your lonely arse busy. Besides, who would I ask anyway?"

Scorpius paused, and then said quietly, "You could ask Liv."

Toby's features slackened in surprise, and for a moment he looked as if he were contemplating it. Scorpius knew that he had thought about it — how could he have not? — but after a few moments, Toby just shook his head and smiled a little. "D'ya think it would look suspicious if we say we both sprained our ankles?"

Scorpius had to let out a laugh despite himself, and only shook his head too. But he could see it in Toby's eyes; the joke hadn't quite reached them, and suddenly Scorpius thought that maybe Toby was just as relieved to have him as he was to have Toby. For all of his breaking hearts speeches, Toby didn't want to go with anyone else either.

He watched as Toby played with the buttons of his jacket. "Anyway, Anya Lazhar owes me from last year's ball. Worst comes to worst, I'll call in that favour."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Didn't she break your toe by stepping on you with her heels?"

"Well, yes, but it's very unlikely to happen twice."

Scorpius shook his head, letting out a soft noise of disbelief. But suddenly he paused, and then: "You know, if she does break your toe, you would have a legitimate excuse to sit out the dances."

"For Merlin's sake, Scorp," Toby sighed, turning around to face him. "Wouldn't it be less painful to just go with someone else?"

I could say the same to you, Scorpius thought immediately. But that wouldn't be fair. So instead he just uncrossed his arms and shifted.

"You were right. You do look far better in this light than you did at the shop."

Toby glanced back over his shoulder again in order to see his reflection. "You can just tell me how good I look and be done with it." He considered for a moment, and then did up one of the top buttons. "This time period just does something for the male form, you know? Even if you had a face like a dropped pie, you're bound to look hot in some way." He paused, looking unsatisfied, and then undid the button again before saying casually, "While we're on the subject: weirdly attracted to Potter in a top hat."

Before Scorpius could react to that, he adjusted his sleeves again and asked, "Will you really not try your outfit on at all?"

Scorpius merely grumbled incoherently.

"At least the hat? Come on, I'm getting lonely over here."

Scorpius grumbled again, but then said, semi-coherently, "As long as you don't tell me that you're weirdly attracted to me in this hat too."

Toby bent down and began rooting around in the bag containing Scorpius' purchases. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you, mate. You don't do it for me."

A hat was flung backwards towards Scorpius, who caught it deftly. "You know, that's the first time my date has ever said that to me," he said thoughtfully. "Clearly the night is off to a promising start."

"Now, if you were Potter, on the other hand…"

"Yeah, yeah," Scorpius groused. "Potter and his fucking hat."

He fitted his own hat over his head and turned to look at Toby, his expression dryly expectant. As he caught sight of his reflection, however, he had to admit that the appeal wasn't entirely lost on him.

You just want to see me in a fedora, Weasley.

Had she thought about that too? Had she spared him a thought in her mind, a thought that maybe he would've worn the hat and they would've gone to this thing together, just like the way he'd heard her voice in his head as he'd reached for the stupid thing and paid for it before he could've told himself not to. The sudden thought of what she would be wearing flitted across his mind.

Toby studied Scorpius' reflection, and then turned around to face him, nodding appreciatively. After a pause, he cocked his head contemplatively. "Actually, you know what…in this lighting-"

"No."

"-and the thought of those suspenders-"

"It's far too late to come grovelling back to me, Toby."

Rose folded up the copy of her acceptance letter and slipped it into the envelope on the table, already addressed to her house.

She sealed it and dug a hand into her pocket to bring out the treats she'd brought for Horus; she had just opened her mouth to call for him when the sound of movement on the upper floor caught her attention.

After some rustling, light footsteps began to tap their way down the staircase to her left, and Rose turned her head to see Liv rounding the last spiral.

At the sight of Rose, her foot hesitated for a moment in the air before she took the last step that brought them level.

"I didn't expect to see anyone here this early."

Rose shrugged, a little sheepishly. "Same reason I came."

Liv paused, her eyes flicking towards the envelope in Rose's hand. She inclined her head towards it. "Good news?"

It felt like an olive brach, and Rose allowed her lips to lift into a small smile before she nodded.

Liv returned her nod, if not her smile, and they fell into an uncomfortable silence. It was strange, but Rose suddenly couldn't help but feel that there was something unfinished between them, a nagging feeling that neither of them quite wanted to address but was giving them pause just the same.

Liv seemed to feel it too; she remained in the silence for longer than Rose had expected her to, but after another uneasy moment, she nodded again and moved to leave, slipping past Rose without another word.

An odd, dull sense of disappointment began to pool in Rose's stomach, and she sighed softly to herself before looking down at the envelope in her hands, turning it to double check the address before sending it off.

She had reached the third line when the tapping of shoes suddenly and conspicuously stopped. Rose's brow creased, and she instinctively turned around to see Liv lingering underneath the archway, under the squared slats of light that the sun had birthed all along the walls of the Owlery.

There was a protracted pause before Liv spoke. "We're not fighting, Rose."

Rose stared at her. After a moment, she tilted her head a little and replied, "We're not exactly friends either."

"Nor do we want to be." The smile Liv offered was rueful, though there was no doubt that it was a smile. But, as Rose watched, it faded, and Liv drew in the side of her mouth, her brow knitting for a long moment before she said in a careful, measured voice, "But if we were friends, I would tell you that you're making a mistake."

At the look of utter confusion on Rose's face, Liv merely fixed her with a knowing smile. "Don't you think I know what it looks like to be in love with Scorpius Malfoy?"

Rose felt her heart lurch at the sound of his name, that godforsaken heat still spilling across her cheeks, and her body instinctively tensed. Her eyes began to search the girl's opposite her, trying to discern something in them that might explain why Liv was willingly bringing him up with her. Was she about to rub it in her face, gleefully convey a litany of I told you so's? She had been right, after all.

He's gotten under your fucking skin, Weasley, hasn't he?

It was more than that now, Rose reflected softly, her stomach crushing. He was running through her veins, wringing out every thought that pulsed through her mind, the heaviest thing she could feel lodged in her chest, and he wasn't ever going away.

Rose looked at Liv then, and she finally saw something. It wasn't bitterness or glee in Liv's eyes, it was a brightness, an earnestness that she couldn't play down, and it was as clear as the day that was breaking around them: she was still in love with him.

At the sight, Rose felt the strangest feeling overcome her. It was as if a deeper part of her had awoken at that realisation, like the recognition of some kindred spirit, taking form in the most surprising way.

She suddenly felt the urge to avert her eyes — something about Liv's gaze was too intense, too familiar — but she didn't, and she finally asked, her heart pounding with curiosity, "Is that how you feel after all these years? That falling for him was a mistake?"

Liv let out an amused breath, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. "Maybe," she allowed quietly. But then, after a meaningful pause, she continued, "But what I meant was, you're still in love with him, aren't you?"

It wasn't a question; she didn't wait for Rose to answer before she said, "So why aren't you fighting for him?"

Rose's heart stopped.

"W-what?" she asked after a long moment, her voice fracturing.

Liv continued to stare at her with those intense eyes, unfazed. "If you love him, why aren't you fighting for him?" she repeated emphatically.

It seemed impossible, but despite the sheer amount of…everything she could feel thundering through her, so much that her body felt like it was being overwhelmed every second of every day as it tried to hold everything within it, her head was completely empty. She had no answer.

After a few long moments of watching Rose struggle, Liv's expression abruptly shifted, as if something had suddenly clicked in her brain. Her eyes widened.

"It's because you've never had to fight for anything, have you?"

Before Rose could react, she let out a sharp exhale, nodding to herself. "That's it, isn't it? Braithwaite trailed behind you like some wounded puppy, Goldstein went nuts for you after what, one date? And everyone knows McGonagall's had you pegged for Head Girl since before you'd even Transfigured a single paperclip." She shook her head, her eyes taking on a shade of bitterness. "Face it, Weasley, things just come to you, they…you only need to lift a finger for them to drop into your lap, and—and then with Scorp—"

Liv suddenly halted, exhaling a drawn out sigh. The furrow of her brow relaxed in rehearsed resignation, and she only shook her head again. "You know, I do everything for him, for so many years. All I wanted—all I did was show him how much I loved him, and I couldn't even get him to love me back. You just…you don't even have to fucking try." Something suddenly seemed to occur to her, and she looked at Rose again. "You haven't even slept with him, have you?"

Rose didn't answer, her eyes instinctively flicking to the floor, but she saw a wry little smile carve against Liv's lips, and Liv merely gave another small shake of her head.

Liv's reaction seemed to pale, though, in comparison to the sinking feeling that had been twisting its way through Rose's stomach at her words.

Maybe…maybe at times she had felt a little overwhelmed at the extent of the feelings that Nate had confessed to, at the guilt that had remained when she told him that she loved him. The joy on his face every time she'd said it had tried its hardest to displace that guilt, but it had never quite been able to, not really, because a part of her had loved him, but not as much as he had loved her.

Christian had been different. Christian hadn't loved her. He'd barely known her.

But still, when it came to the both of them, she'd always known somewhere inside of her that she'd never really had to try. It had been comfortable with Nate until it hadn't been, and with Christian it had become so abundantly clear that trying wouldn't get her much of anywhere that she simply hadn't. Maybe that was why she'd never mourned those relationships, not like now, not like this.

She suddenly felt awful. She was suddenly realising what this felt like — this felt like the worst thing in the world, and she hoped neither of them had ever felt like this.

Liv was quiet, watching the emotions flash over Rose's face as the thoughts continued to hurtle through her. But this wasn't about Nate or Christian, this was about Scorpius, it would always be about Scorpius where Liv was concerned. Why was she still standing here?

You don't even have to fucking try.

She wondered what Liv would think if she knew, if she knew an ounce of how Rose had felt that night, how she'd been curled up on her bed so utterly confused and more heartbroken than she'd even thought possible, because all she had ever done with Scorpius was try—

"Well, I think it's fairly obvious that Scorpius never dropped into my lap. You know, given that he was the one who ended things," Rose finally said in a clipped voice, her eyes trained on Liv's face.

Liv only shrugged. "Even Scorpius can do surprisingly noble things."

I don't want it for you. So I'm not gonna stand here and let you go on with it. At the memory, a pang of discomfort shocked through her.

She hadn't wanted to admit it, but a part of Rose had hoped for Liv to be as surprised as she had been, to see just a shadow of the blindsided feeling that Rose herself had felt that night, because if Liv could feel it too, then Scorpius had been wrong — he was still wrong, and, and they could've—

She had to put some effort into keeping her tone neutral as she said, "Well, clearly I don't know him as well as you do."

"God, are you blind, Weasley? Did you see the bags under his eyes those weeks you two were together? Surely a genius like you can figure out what that means."

Rose paused, staring at the incredulity on Liv's face, completely devoid of sympathy, and prompted, her brain began to spin, urging itself desperately to remember, to piece his face back into view. The bags? Did she even notice?

But try as she might, the face she saw in her mind from the weeks they'd spent together held an impenetrable shine to it, one that hadn't faded away, even now, and it was suddenly forced upon her with floor-shattering clarity that maybe she hadn't really seen him at all. She'd been so caught up, so stupidly happy, so naively happy that she hadn't even—

"One would wonder why exactly he'd be up all night, since you evidently weren't occupying his time with anything else."

There was a tiny bit of smugness discernible in Liv's tone, pulling at the corner of her lips.

Rose rubbed her hands together, interlacing her fingers. "He never told me any of that, or even…suggested that he wasn't…happy—"

Liv rolled her eyes. "Why would he? The last thing he'd want to do is upset you."

There was a moment of silence, and then, to her surprise, Rose saw Liv's expression suddenly soften. She sighed, her eyes finding the floor.

When she spoke a second later, her voice was even softer. "Sometimes I forgot he was human too. That…that there was something else going on underneath all of his…Scorpius-ness."

The familiarity of her words instantly startled Rose. Gen had said the same thing, all those months ago, in the abandoned stairwell that they had been sitting in on the night of the Quidditch final.

There was a little smile tugging at Liv's lips again, but it was nothing like the little smirk from before. Now, there was so much affection in her expression that even when her face grew serious it still lingered. "He's not bulletproof, you know. No matter what he tells himself, or however much he thinks he's above it all."

Rose suddenly understood why Liv and Scorpius had stayed together for so long, despite how little they had actually suited each other. No one else would've been able to do it, to see him as Liv had. After all, Gen had said the same words months ago, and Rose still hadn't learned a thing from them.

Liv shook her head in dry amusement. "I'm sure the last thing he expected was to be like every other guy you've left in your wake." Her mouth pursed against a smile. "Ultimately unworthy of being with Rose Weasley."

"You don't believe that," Rose said automatically, her eyes on the curl of Liv's lips.

"What does it matter what I believe?"

Liv's eyes drifted towards the right, tracing across the pattern of concrete along the arch she was stood underneath. "Scorpius and I…we weren't good together. We made each other worse, I guess. Being together made us shitty people who did shitty things, sometimes." Her eyes left the archway, and she turned back towards Rose before scoffing quietly, "What was the worst thing you ever did to Braithwaite, huh? Hurt his feelings when you ended things, break your promise of staying best friends forever?"

Rose's brow creased. She wasn't a stranger to what had happened between Scorpius and Liv for all of their years together. She knew it was less than virtuous. But, truthfully, she had never asked because she had never wanted to know, and because it wasn't like that with him. It was as if that part of him didn't exist when he was with her; he'd made it too easy to forget. God, she had been so naive.

She felt Liv's eyes on her, silently satisfied in knowing that Rose was mulling over her words.

And yet Rose couldn't help but think that there was a sort of tragic irony to it. Here Liv was, counselling her on all of the things that Scorpius had done, things that apparently made him so unworthy, while still being so obviously, so helplessly in love with him.

"It fucks with your brain a little, being in a relationship like ours," Liv said quietly, suddenly. Her smile was wry. "Kinda makes you wonder if you're the problem."

She sighed again, but after a moment, she straightened. "He's not that person anymore," she said simply. There was a pause before she allowed quietly, "Maybe he has you to thank for that." But then she shook her head, as if getting her thoughts back on track, and finished, "But he could use being reminded of it."

This conversation was ending, Rose knew. She could already see it in Liv's posture; it was hardening again, even in her eyes as the willingness to stay abruptly faded, but there was something Rose had to ask before it could slip away fully.

"Why are you helping me?" Her eyes flicked down, and she bit her lip. "If you're in love with him, why aren't you fighting for him?"

The astonishment was clear in Liv's eyes, and she blinked as her words were suddenly, gently, thrown back at her. Rose waited, her heart thudding, even though she didn't know why she was so anxious to understand.

After a few moments of genuine contemplation, Liv smiled, and like she had done before they'd spoken, inclined her head at the sealed envelope that Rose was still holding in her hand. "Congrats on LIH, Rose."

And then she turned around and disappeared beyond the archway, leaving Rose alone in the pressing silence, and as her eyes held on the space where Liv's shadow had lingered, she couldn't tell if her mind was clearer or more confused now than ever.

"This is the Charms Corridor," Scorpius said as their group of four rounded into it about half an hour into the morning's tour.

Landon stepped towards the closest classroom and peered in through the window, Professor Flitwick's squeaking voice dimly audible as he taught the mid-morning period.

Eva joined him, and then angled her head back around to where Rose and Scorpius were waiting. "Your castle all looks the same," she informed them, though her tone wasn't unkind.

Rose and Scorpius exchanged a quick glance.

"Well, usually a building does have some internal similarities…" Scorpius pointed out.

Eva waved her hand, moving back to join them in the corridor. "Every room looks the same. It is all wood and stone."

"I like it," Landon said, turning around too. "Gives it that real medieval feel, you know?" He shrugged. "Our school keeps trying to modernise everything. Kinda kills the magical vibe when kids are going around asking for the Wi-Fi password."

Rose gaped. "You guys have internet access?"

"Sure."

Rose shook her head in wonder. "What I wouldn't do for Google sometimes."

She caught Scorpius' gaze, and he instantly mouthed, "Google?", his brow scrunched in confusion. Rose smiled and mouthed back, "Search engine."

Scorpius shook his head again, and when Rose's smile widened at his obliviousness, they both abruptly seemed to realise the exchange that had just taken place, and Rose went pink and hastily cleared her throat as she turned away. "Eva, I've never been to Beauxbatons. My aunt said it's very beautiful."

Eva smiled. "You will not see a place more arresting. We do not use wood or stone like you do here; the entire castle is marbled. It feels very….timeless. And you should see it in the sunlight; because we use so much glass, the whole place sparkles like a diamond." She cast her eyes around the corridor again. "Plus, we do not have so many stairs. Our school stretches outwards, making use of the space."

"Is it true that the school is full of Veelas?" Landon asked suddenly.

"Rumour," Eva dismissed. "Only because our most famous graduate was part-Veela do people think that we have so many."

Rose briefly considered telling Eva that that most famous graduate was the aunt which she had been referring to, but decided against making a thing of it.

"What about you, Landon?" she asked. "What's Ilvermorny like?"

"Eh," he said, shrugging. "I'm trying to come here, aren't I?"

Rose smiled sheepishly. "Well, trust me, you'll miss the Wi-Fi. And your phone," she added a little wistfully.

"So what about Hogwarts appealed to the two of you?" Scorpius asked as he continued to lead them down the corridor.

Eva scoped out the walls beside her. "I wanted a change, to, how do you say—expand my horizons?" She paused next to a tapestry and studied it with interest. "I am also thinking about relocating to England when I begin working. Although this is not quite it, it will be nice to get a better feel for the place."

"What kind of work are you interested in?" Rose asked.

"I enjoy numbers; I am quite intrigued by the prospect of working within a bank."

"My best friend did a summer interning at Gringotts," Scorpius supplied. "I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you about it, if you wanted."

Eva looked genuinely surprised; Rose felt the same way, but she hid it well. "Thank you," Eva beamed. "That is very kind."

"I heard you guys have a pretty killer Care of Magical Creatures course here," Landon offered suddenly. He shrugged his shoulders. "It's not the best at Ilvermorny."

Rose cleared her throat. "Unfortunately, neither of us have taken Care of Magical Creatures in a couple of years, but the quality of education here is pretty high across the board." She paused as they reached the staircase. "Shall we head downstairs? The Defence classrooms are a floor down."

As they descended, Eva seemed to take note of the quiet castle. "It is very kind of you both to be showing us around," she said. "I'm sure you'd rather be outside with your friends on such a beautiful day. These Head duties seem quite extensive."

"It actually makes a nice change from lying around," Scorpius said. Rose, who had been about to answer in almost exactly the same way, couldn't help her eyes from flickering to him in surprise. "It's been weird to have so much free time, to be honest."

"Well, that is nice to hear. Do you both have future plans for after graduation?"

They had to look at each other for this.

After a moment, Rose said, carefully, "We're both going into medicine."

Landon looked up. "Oh, that's cool. My mum's a doctor. Well, for animals."

"Then you must be going into further education?" Eva pressed in interest.

Another look, quicker.

"Yes," Scorpius answered this time, after a beat. "We'll both be attending the London Institute of Health in September."

"Oh," Eva said, smiling. "That is nice that you have each other. You must be glad of that when joining a new school — it is nice to bring something with you."

When their eyes met this time, there was something else in there, as if they were both trying to gauge how the other wanted to answer — it was their first opportunity to gauge how the other felt at all. Caught up as she was, Rose didn't have the sense to tear her eyes away. She hadn't looked at him very much today; she was still reeling from the conversation she'd had with Liv the day before, and this new, private sense of intimacy she was feeling from suddenly learning those secrets about him was infinitely more difficult to reconcile when she was staring directly at him.

The darkness under his eyes seemed to make the bright silver of his irises gleam even starker in contrast. When they'd met in McGonagall's office before Eva and Landon had arrived, briefly discussing the day with the headmistress again, Scorpius had asked what time they should aim to finish by, and Rose's mind had abruptly fallen out of the conversation the moment she'd looked at him.

He looks like he hasn't slept in weeks, she had realised with a start, their voices reduced to a dull buzz behind her ears as her brain swam. Her heart had begun to clamour feverishly as Liv's words had trickled through her head once again. Did he look like that the whole time?

Since that realisation, Rose had been trying to see Scorpius through this new lens, this new sense of awareness, but she was finding that all it did was offer more questions. Why hadn't he been able to sleep? And if he'd been suffering so much, why hadn't he said anything?

Part of the reason she'd been so devastated that night in the Library Corridor had been because she'd known that there had been things he wasn't telling her; his words had been carefully chosen to stand on their own, all the while refusing to betray the deeper, real confession that Rose was sure was lying beneath. It had been the same way after the end-of-exams party. His words had been as genuine as before, as real as the sadness that was steeped into his voice, but they'd deliberately failed to convey exactly what he was actually sorry for.

There's someone else, she'd heard him say to Claudia. The words still rang starkly in her brain, but no matter how high her heart had leapt with a sudden spark of hope, it didn't make them true, because there wasn't. He'd made sure of that.

She blinked, suddenly realising that neither of them had answered Eva's question. Scorpius seemed to break out of it a moment after she did, his expression shifting microscopically as she finally tore her eyes away from his.

"It makes the idea less daunting, for sure," she finally said with a little laugh. She felt Scorpius' eyes on her, but she didn't allow herself to hesitate again. "Shall we have a look in the classrooms?"

They covered the Defence floor quite quickly given its similarities to the Charms one above, which was a relief; Rose and Scorpius had stood mostly in silence as Eva and Landon peered into the classrooms, only speaking to answer any questions. They could each clearly feel the tension simmering between them, both knowing that something had shifted within that look, though Scorpius likely had no idea why.

"What would you like to see next?" Rose asked once they had finished. "We could take you down to the Potions classrooms."

"Oh, but it is so dark down there," Eva frowned. "It would be a waste of a lovely day."

"How about we begin the outside portion of the tour?" Landon suggested easily.

Rose glanced at Scorpius, who was looking mildly offended at the rejection of the Potions Corridor. She bit her lip, suddenly having to resist the instinctive urge to smile.

"Excellent." Eva clapped her hands. She gestured a little for Landon's benefit. "Perhaps we could see your animal collection? At Beauxbatons our winged horses have their own paddock, stretching all along the forest."

"Unfortunately we're all out of winged horses," Scorpius said wryly. "We only have Thestrals, I'm afraid."

Eva waved a hand. "I would not be able to see them."

"Well, I can," Landon said.

The three of them turned to look at him. Landon realised quickly that their expressions had sobered, and he immediately laughed. "Oh, no, I was, like, eight. Saw an ancient-looking guy on the street just have a heart attack all of a sudden. He just dropped on the spot. Next thing I knew: bam. I could see 'em. I feel for the dude, obviously, but…" He shrugged. "Thestrals are wicked-looking."

The other three were silent for a moment longer before Rose ventured, "Do you have them at Ilvermorny?" When Landon shook his head, she smiled kindly. "Well, we'd be happy to show you our paddock here. There's plenty to see outside," she added reassuringly to Eva.

"I will be happy enough with the fresh air," Eva said.

Rose and Scorpius took the opportunity to give them a brief tour of the Entrance Hall as they passed through, glimpsing into the Great Hall — which was practically empty at this time of the morning — before they made it outside. The day was warm, though a mild breeze spiralled every so often through the air.

"So you guys are kinda like school royalty, huh?" Landon said as they began walking down the hill. At the twin looks of confusion he was faced with, he cracked a grin and pointed to Scorpius' badge. "Those are some pretty pieces of gold."

"We don't wear them often," Rose said, blushing a little.

"Is there a Heads system at your school?" Scorpius questioned.

"No, but we elect student representatives. Last year they voted to abolish the point system. Said it was breeding unhealthy competition between the Houses or something." He shook his head. "Some real hippie shit."

"So is that why you want to come here? Get away from the hippies?"

Landon actually laughed at that.

They arrived at the Thestral paddock a few minutes later. As they stopped in front of the gate, neither Rose nor Scorpius heading nearer to the enclosure, Landon looked at them in surprise. "None of you?" he asked.

They shook their heads.

Landon looked a little taken aback. "Oh, well…thanks for letting me come and see them."

"Of course, go ahead," Rose said, smiling. At this point, the Hogwarts students were more or less desensitised to seeing other people interacting with the Thestrals, even if they couldn't see the animals themselves.

As Landon walked around, seemingly the sole occupant in the massive paddock, Eva sidled closer to the gate. Despite her earlier flippancy, her curiosity seemed to pique as she watched Landon's hands stroking down through the empty air.

"You can still touch them, you know," Rose said, smiling gently at her. "They like people."

Eva looked back into the paddock, fiddling with her hands.

Landon turned around and beckoned her over; Rose was surprised that he'd heard their conversation. "Come on," he said, his voice soft. He met Eva at the entrance and led her in. Once they were a few steps inside, he reached for her hand and guided it through the air, murmuring, "Alright, you're gonna feel one now."

As Rose watched them interact, the silence between her and Scorpius grew uncomfortably more obvious. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him — she did, God, that was the problem — but she barely knew how to navigate their situation at the best of times, nevermind when it was like this.

She sensed movement beside her as Scorpius came level with her at the gate, but still maintaining a safe distance away. The sight of his arm, resting on the gate not even close to touching hers, revived the ache in her chest all over again.

She felt herself wanting to do something with her hands and crossed them on the wooden surface to stop herself from fidgeting. She took a breath, deciding that she couldn't bear the silence anymore, and turned towards him. "So um…it's almost twelve-thirty. Should we break for lunch?"

Scorpius had turned in her direction the moment she'd started speaking. "Sure, I was gonna say the same." His brow furrowed a little in thought. "What do we still have left to cover?"

"Um…greenhouses, we haven't touched Astronomy or Divination, but they might not need to see those…" She paused, thinking.

"We haven't covered much of the upper floors," Scorpius pointed out. "Oh, and the Ravenclaw Common Room, of course," he added.

"Anything on the lower floors?" Rose asked. She suddenly felt the same smile from before threatening at her lips. "We do still have Potions…" She trailed off, pausing before peeking surreptitiously at Scorpius' expression.

Scorpius pursed his lips in a way that said her faux coyness was not lost on him, but when he met her eyes, it soon dissolved into a little smile. Rose blinked, her eyes flitting between his smile and the shadows underneath his eyes.

So I'm to think that this is all for my benefit? You would just selflessly push your feelings aside just like that?

If she didn't know better, she'd think it was for his. Except, as she continued to stare at those shadows, she wasn't so sure.

"Library," Scorpius suddenly added, and the corridor flashed in Rose's mind.

She hastily turned back towards the paddock, feigning interest in Eva and Landon's actions. "Sure," she said after swallowing.

Landon had never left Eva's side, and as she watched them, she suddenly remembered the griffin with its recovering leg, and she wondered what was in that paddock now, if anything. For a brief moment, she considered asking Scorpius, but she quickly pushed down the urge — which only grew it — and they simply stood next to each other in silence again, dust dancing in the sunbeams around them.

"So you guys all keep to your Houses, huh?" Landon asked, peering into the Great Hall, watching the bustling space as students chatted loudly over their lunch. "We did away with the House tables a while ago. Now people just sit wherever they want."

Rose smiled. "That sounds nice. I guess we're still pretty traditional over here." She shrugged with a little laugh. "The biggest thing they changed was taking the black pudding away from the roasts when it finally occurred to them that no one was eating any."

Landon turned back around to face her. "What is black pudding anyway? You British people are always talking about it—" His eyes suddenly caught on something past Rose's head, and they lit up. "Oh wow, is that a Cavaliér?"

Rose's brow scrunched, but from beside her, Scorpius immediately said, "Yes." He paused, half-impressed. "You like his stuff?"

Landon nodded, still staring at the painting. "I saw an exhibition of his a few months ago. Do you mind if I…?"

Scorpius gestured to it. "Of course."

Landon beamed and went off excitedly to inspect it closer.

"He has good taste," Scorpius said after a moment.

Rose's gaze was on the painting. "You didn't tell me you were into art."

Scorpius' eyes flickered to her before he followed her lead. "Well, at the beginning, I wasn't into art so much as I knew about it." He hesitated. "It's sort of a tradition in my family to have pieces passed down and shared. After a while, you get a little familiar with the bigger names."

Rose nodded, and then her head turned a little towards him, and she smiled.

His eyes were drawn to the movement, and he felt a rush go through him when he realised that this was the first genuine smile he had seen from her since the night he had given her the globe after the party.

Her gaze lingered on his, her eyes softening, but then she abruptly started a little, clearing her throat and looking off in the direction of the bathroom where Eva had disappeared to a few minutes before. As she turned, Scorpius' eyes caught on the area just above her shoulder blade, where a little leaf was clinging to the fabric of her shirt.

His heart gave a frenetic thump as his eyes darted back up to her face, and before he could change his mind, he cleared his throat. "You um…" She turned to look at him immediately, and he felt the heat creep up his neck. "There's just a little leaf, there, probably from when we were outside." Probably? he instantly thought wildly. Where else would it have fucking come from?

"Oh," Rose said. She twisted her head to see it, but the angle was all wrong, and Scorpius swallowed, steeling himself before he reached out to dislodge it. It was more stuck than he'd thought, the stalk of it caught in the threads of her shirt, so he had to bring up his other hand to get it out, being extra careful not to loosen any of the threads.

Rose seemed to have stopped breathing. It had been so long since they'd even stood this close together, nevermind him touching her again.

He managed to untangle it, and held it up to her briefly as some sort of awkward proof before discarding it onto the ground.

"Thanks," she said softly.

"No problem," he murmured back, finding it hard to get his mouth around the words.

The bathroom door swung open, and they both looked to see Eva coming out, a couple of other girls behind her. Her eyebrows furrowed when she reached them. "Oh, where is Landon?"

Rose and Scorpius instinctively turned to where he was standing, only to see him already making his way back over. "Here," he said.

Rose indicated inside. "Shall we?"

She led the group into the hall, but Scorpius lingered for a moment, trying to get his brain to function properly again before he took up the rear. As they walked, Scorpius' eyes trailed over to the Slytherin table, and then ahead to where Rose was leading them, and as his eyes caught on Al and Genevieve sitting together a ways up at the Gryffindor table, he had a sudden moment of realisation. Fuck, he thought.

Gen looked up curiously as they approached but she quickly smiled, her face friendly.

"Hey, guys," Rose said. "This is Landon and Eva, the exchange students I was telling you about."

"Oh, of course." Gen stuck out a hand. "I'm Gen." Al gave a little wave from the other side of the table.

"Hey. Al."

Gen's eyes suddenly moved from the two students to Scorpius behind them and her gaze instantly darkened, her smile dissolving before her eyes pointedly passed over him; much like over the past month, she seemed determined to go on not acknowledging his existence, nevermind his presence.

Scorpius inwardly sighed, and his eyes went to Al on the other side of the table, and he subtly said, to no one in particular, "I'll go round." Landon surprisingly followed.

Luckily, his reception was far warmer on this side of the table. "Hey, man," Al said immediately, and Scorpius said a quiet, "Hi," in response before seating himself down beside him.

"Please help yourselves," Rose said, gesturing at the serving dishes on the table, and everyone began piling food onto their plates.

"So what do you guys think of Hogwarts so far?" Gen asked, leaning over to grab the gravy boat.

"It's very nice," Eva replied. "I like the way the classrooms are set out, good for learning. I like all the statues as well. It makes the castle seem very exciting, with all of the hidden passageways and moving staircases."

"Really lends itself to the medieval feel," Landon chipped in. "The grounds are nice, too," he continued. "We're surrounded by a massive forest back at Ilvermorny so we don't really have the grounds that you guys have."

"How do you guys play Quidditch without a field?" Al asked.

"Oh, well, they specially made a pitch to play, but…" Landon shrugged casually. "People aren't really that into Quidditch where I'm from."

Al looked gobsmacked and exchanged an incredulous look with Scorpius, who cracked a small grin before taking another bite of food.

"It's a shame you guys are leaving this afternoon," Gen put in. "Hogwarts really cranks up the whole Middle Age thing at night, you know, with all the floating candles and lit chandeliers." Something suddenly occurred to her and she turned to Rose. "We'll need to get rid of all that in the Entrance Hall for Saturday." She waved her fork around lightly before adding, "Not gonna lend itself well to our theme."

"Oh yes, for the ball?" Eva asked.

When everyone looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. "I heard some girls talking about it in the bathroom. So what is this ball?"

Rose and Scorpius exchanged a quick glance before Rose explained, "It's our annual End-of-Year Ball to celebrate the end of exams and the school year. We come up with a different theme each time."

"Well, the Heads do," Al clarified. "We prefects just…make it happen."

"So what is the theme this year?" Eva asked with interest.

Another glance. "Old Hollywood," they replied in unison.

Scorpius indicated his head at Landon. "Your home turf," he offered lightly.

A smile pricked at Landon's lips, and he nodded. "Cool theme, but I grew up in Louisiana."

Scorpius' eyebrows raised. "Actually, we did Mardi Gras last year."

"Now, that's what I'm talking about. How'd it go?"

Scorpius looked at Rose. He remembered back to the day of the ball, how he and Rose, despite having started off the morning relatively civilly, had almost screamed themselves blue in the face by the end of the afternoon, disagreeing on everything from the positions of the towering floats to the colours of the candle boats on the tables. Even during the ball itself they'd sniped at each other every chance they'd gotten; ironically, McGonagall had chosen one of such moments to come up and congratulate them on their pristine work.

"A total success," he said, and Rose's lips lifted a little in response.

"So is this a formal event?" Eva asked before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. "With dancing? Does everyone need to bring dates?"

At her last question, tense silence settled over the table. Scorpius took his time swallowing his food, and then raised his gaze enough to see Rose in his eyeline. She was decidedly not looking at him.

After another moment where no one spoke, he cleared his throat. "We're instructed to, but it's not mandatory," he answered finally.

"So who are you all going with?"

Rose abruptly picked up the jug of water and began to pour herself another cup. Genevieve pushed around the sausage on her plate, giving a light cough before saying, "Well, Albus was asked by two girls this morning." She looked at him. "Did you say yes to either of them, Al?"

The tips of Al's ears went pink. "No," he mumbled.

Something seemed to click in Eva's brain, and her jaw dropped. "Grand Dieu, you're Albus Potter."

Landon looked up. "You didn't notice?"

Eva shook her head.

"That's pretty cool, though." He looked at Al. "We were talking about your dad in history class last week. He was kind of a badass."

Eva seemed to have recovered, and she speared a piece of roast beef on her fork. "Well, surely Albus Potter will not have any trouble finding a date?"

Al's eyes flickered towards the other side of the table where Gen was sitting, who quickly looked away, looking like she very much regretted bringing the entire thing up.

"I uh…haven't decided if I'm bringing one yet," Al muttered quietly, still looking uncomfortable.

"Well, it is nice to have that choice," Eva said, her tone genuine. "At Beauxbatons, if one does not bring a date to these formal events, they are seen as sort of….what is the word?"

"Losers?" Landon supplied without looking up from his food.

"Oh, yes. Thank you." She looked around the table before saying emphatically, "But I do not think that not having a date makes you a loser. You are all not losers."

From behind Scorpius, a familiar voice suddenly chimed in, "Oh no, he is."

Scorpius turned around to see Juliette's finger pointed at his face.

"I'm stealing your ketchup," she informed him casually. She leaned a hand on his shoulder for leverage before reaching out and grabbing the bottle.

Her prize in hand, she paused for a brief moment, and then, after flicking her eyes to Scorpius and back, said, "Hi, Rose."

"Um...hi," Rose replied with a smile, though she clearly looked bewildered.

Juliette looked back at Scorpius one more time, throwing him the tiniest of smug smiles before heading back to the Slytherin table and plopping back down.

"Your sister?" Eva asked, smiling.

"No, thank Merlin," Scorpius replied tightly, still mentally glaring at her. "I tutored her this year."

"She could be, though, she's like Scorp in female miniature," came a new voice, and the table looked up to see Toby standing where Juliette had been. He looked at Scorpius. "We're eating here now?" he asked, and then, without waiting for an answer, shrugged and sat down on Al's other side, instantly engaging him in conversation.

"So where would you guys be staying?" Gen asked. "I forget whose go it is."

"We'd be in Ravenclaw House," Eva answered. She shrugged lightly. "I already know how good I look in blue."

"We'll be going up to check out the dorms after lunch," Rose added.

Gen cocked her head. "You know, I've never seen any Common Room besides ours. Can I come?"

Al raised his fork. "Me too."

Toby furrowed his brow. "You guys have never seen any of the other dorms?" When everyone else shook their heads, a look of surprise flitted across his face and he shrugged before going back to his food.

"It might be nice for you guys to be able to meet some of the Ravenclaws too," Rose said. Her expression turned sheepish. "It's a bit silly that the only people you're really getting to know are the ones who won't actually be here next year."

As Scorpius lowered his glass, something in his periphery suddenly drew his attention, and he instinctively straightened. There was a group of seventh year boys a little further up the Gryffindor table, and one of them was being pushed to his feet amid hushed, urging whispers and laughter, him and the others throwing continuous covert looks at where Rose, Gen and Eva were sitting.

Scorpius watched as he — James Young, he recognised, the centre Chaser on the Gryffindor team — manoeuvred off the bench and ran a hand through his hair, messing it up somewhat as he threw another look back at his friends, who only encouraged him further. An unsettled feeling began to pit in Scorpius' stomach.

James approached where the group was sitting, looking convincingly composed, both arms firmly at his sides now. It was a mile away from the bashful, hesitant picture he had been only moments before. Scorpius felt his jaw tighten, and he took another bite of food to give it something else to do.

Al was the second to spot their visitor. "Hey, man," he greeted, inclining his head at him.

"Hey, Cap," James replied. He nodded politely at the rest of the table, and then gave the briefest of telling pauses before going, "Hey, Rose." The vague sense of dread in Scorpius' stomach solidified completely.

Rose turned in her seat and smiled. "Hi, James." Her expression turned playful. "You ready to be thrashed at wizard's chess third night in a row?"

James laughed but said, regretfully, "Unfortunately not tonight, as much as I would genuinely prefer to be humiliated by you again than the plans I have."

Rose laughed too, and James smiled, and Scorpius felt the cold metal of his fork digging deeper into his palm.

"Hey, but listen, Rose, I was wondering…" He paused and laughed a little sheepishly again, his hand finding its way back into his hair. His eyes suddenly flicked to Scorpius for the tiniest millisecond before he averted his gaze and asked, "Do you have plans with anyone? For Saturday, I mean."

"Oh! Um..." Rose said in surprise, in a higher voice than usual. Scorpius could only see a little of her face from the angle he was seated at, but it was enough to see the faint pinkness that had appeared on her cheeks.

Her head turned a little, almost automatically, and Scorpius thought for one tiny, stupid moment that she was going to look at him, but after a pause, she turned back to face James.

"It's really sweet of you to ask, James. Can I um...can I have a little time to think about it?"

A tiny seed of disappointment flashed across James' face, but in a second he'd wiped it with an easy smile. "Sure, no problem." He hesitated for a moment before casually saying, "Chess tomorrow?" Too casually; Scorpius could see right through him.

"Of course," Rose smiled.

"Alright," he said. "Sure. I'll uh…I'll see you."

"Bye, James."

Scorpius hadn't realised that he'd been holding his breath until James left their table, and he subtly exhaled. He'd suddenly lost his appetite.

Rose immediately picked up her glass of water, making a show of taking a couple long sips, and Scorpius was sure that she was avoiding meeting his eyes.

Eva turned to her with a confused frown. "Why did you not say yes to him?"

Rose started, instinctively lowering her drink. "What? I mean, I-"

"He is very handsome, very friendly. It is clear that he likes you."

Rose blushed properly now, shaking her head a little—

"You need a date for dancing, yes?"

"You don't need a date," Gen interrupted, leaning forward to catch Eva's attention. "It's not important or anything."

"Well, I think it is a shame not to have a date for dancing." Eva glanced at Gen before she shrugged casually. "If I would have stayed longer, I would have asked you."

Across from them, Al immediately began choking on his food, and Toby instantly started hitting him on the back.

Scorpius' eyebrows raised, but he said nothing.

Gen went pink, but there was a little pleased smile on her face as she cleared her throat and abruptly began to spoon herself a few more potatoes.

Can I have a little time to think about it?

The words continued to echo in his mind. Somehow he had forgotten that just because he had decided to forego a date didn't mean that there was not the very real possibility that Rose would not be doing the same. But only, this morning they had, well, they'd—

They'd nothing.

If she wanted to, she was at perfect liberty to go to this ball with whomever she wanted. All Scorpius could do now was sit in silence and continue to unsuccessfully squash down the utterly selfish part of him that still dared to feel as if it had any bearing on her choices and wonder why she had not just said yes to him, because they did seem to be friends and no, he was regretfully not hard to look at, and maybe it would be a shame not to dance—

She had picked up her cup of water again and was taking little sips from it, her eyes on the table, and Scorpius thought that if only she stopped and listened, she would be able to hear the jackhammering beat of his heart as it continued to rail inside his chest, and she would understand that he had never regretted anything that he had done more than he did in that moment.

The late afternoon sun was glorious, but too strong, so Rose had retreated to the shade of the overhanging trees by the lake.

The lake didn't get the same light as it did in the morning, but the amount that it got still cut breathtaking patterns across the glimmering, fractured surface.

Landon and Eva had left about an hour before. Both had thanked her and Scorpius profusely for the day; she had a feeling they would both be back next year, and the thought made her smile. It faded though, as she reflected back on the afternoon hours of the tour, and she sighed quietly to herself.

Scorpius had been far more drawn than he'd been that morning, even as he'd showed the group around the Potions classrooms. When Eva had commented lightly on it, he'd said something about being full from lunch, and she'd dropped the topic and allowed him to lead her towards the cauldrons that had been left simmering on their stands.

Rose knew better, of course. She'd seen his reaction when James had come up and asked her to the ball. The memory of it heated her cheeks again.

James asking her hadn't been a surprise; she'd been able to tell what he'd been about to do the moment he'd shown up at their table. They'd had fun together, they'd been teammates, she'd known him for years. He made her laugh, he was a gracious loser. They would have a good time together at the ball, maybe even a great time.

She and Scorpius had returned to the Heads' dorm after Landon and Eva had left from McGonagall's office. It had been a quiet walk, spent talking only about Landon and Eva and the places they had shown them, and afterwards Rose had gone up to the Gryffindor Common Room, looking for James, and gently told him that she was very sorry, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to bring a date at all.

The lie had settled in, lodging in her throat as she thought back to the fedora, the slicked-back hair, the idea of his arms around her for another dance, and despite the gracious smile that James had summoned up, not quite hiding the disappointment in his eyes, she hadn't doubted her decision for a moment.

No, she didn't doubt her decision, but at the corner of her gaze, she could see two Ravenclaw boys who had stopped upon seeing her at the lake, instantly exchanging a look with each other. She deliberately kept her eyes on her book, even as they began to whisper covertly to one another before making their way down the hill. She knew them both — she'd had Charms and Defence with one, and Herbology and Potions with the other, and a part of her did regret it a little bit now. It would be so much easier to be able to say that, sorry, she already had a date.

You are all not losers, Eva had said. She felt a little like one, though. But, loser or not, she had absolutely no wish to bring any guy to this dance, even if it was only for the one night. She thought about Conrad. She didn't think guys got any nicer than he did, but the problem wasn't how nice any of those boys were, or even whether they would have a passable time if they went together. The problem was something that was completely out of their control.

You could go as friends.

Eva's face floated back up in her mind and Rose suddenly stopped, realisation hitting her — Merlin, she'd been so foolish, she'd wasted so much energy when the answer had been there all along.

She snapped her book shut and jumped to her feet, giving the two boys a friendly wave as she passed them by, and she hurriedly made her way up the hill, stopping only to pluck a blooming flower from the bushes by the path, and then she was back inside the castle, approaching the Grand Staircase, taking the stairs two at a time, relief flooding her body as she climbed. A few students gave her funny looks as she skidded by, but she paid them no mind as she reached the seventh floor. She spilled out the password to the Fat Lady and crossed through the dormitory, past the sofas and the fire that she'd visited only an hour before, and up the spiral staircase.

She stopped at the door she wanted and knocked.

The door opened, and her best friend looked at her in surprise before her gaze focused on the flower that Rose was holding up towards her.

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

Gen blinked, and then her face broke out into a beaming smile.

The next few days passed in a feverish, eager blur — as they usually did before a big event — and suddenly the ball was upon them.

Rose walked through the ground floor some hours after lunch, smiling as she admired the decorations lining the walls leading to the Great Hall.

She had been much calmer and happier these past days, since she'd no longer had to worry about finding a date, and she was feeling, despite herself, very excited for the festivities. The excitement in her stomach only grew with the dim chatter and noises emitting from the hall as she approached.

She noted that the knight statues had been removed from the Entrance Hall, and mentally ticked that off. Her eyes fell on the red carpet that had been rolled out, and when she looked into the room it was inviting her field of vision was immediately accosted by bustle. Prefects were rushing around with all manner of decorations — even the ceiling was a mess of flying ornaments, trimmings and lights being levitated to their correct spots.

She had only been stood in the doorway for a moment before one of the sixth years noticed her arrival and immediately grinned in amusement.

"When Scorpius arrived, we started counting down the minutes until you did too." She shook her head with a laugh. "You guys didn't have to come down so early, you know. We've got this."

Rose's eyes caught on him in the centre of the room; she could see the back of Cecilia Blake's head, and on his other side a very annoyed Jaime Carter.

"Oh, of course," she said distractedly, before she forced herself to pull her eyes away. "I was just…being nosy. Besides, I didn't have much else to do, so…"

"Suuuuuure." The prefect laughed again, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. She gave Rose another amused smile before she went back to setting up the camera stand near the door.

Rose's gaze moved further into the room, but she remained standing in the doorway. Her eyes passed back to him, but she didn't want to go over, not yet at least. She had just begun the search for an area to tackle when Scorpius' head suddenly raised in her eyeline.

After a pause, he raised a hand in a little greeting. Her heart thudded, and she responded with a quick, vague smile before instinctively stepping inside and turning abruptly to her left.

Luckily, she spotted Al straight away; he was tending to one of the gossamer chandeliers that would soon be hanging magnificently all over the ceiling.

When he saw her, he shook his head, sighing. "You two just can't help yourselves, can you?" he said with a wry smile.

"Oh, you can't blame us for wanting to see our vision through," Rose said airily.

"Just because we're cousins, I'm gonna pretend that neither of us have been acutely aware of your control-freak tendencies since we were in diapers so that you can tell yourself that."

Rose leaned down to jab at him lightly with her elbow, and Al laughed as he batted her away and went back to casting the gleaming silver surface of the chandelier to shine a deep gold.

Her eyes flickered over to Gen, who was a ways away helping with the table settings, and she paused before saying, in a much quieter voice, "What's this I hear about you and Gemma Hastings?"

Al's wand stopped moving. After a second, it resumed and he said, "I don't know, what do you hear?"

"Well, apparently, you have decided on whether to bring a date or not."

"She's not my date," Al said immediately, and then he sighed. "We have an agreement. We're dance partners, nothing more." He shrugged a little. "It would be a shame not to dance."

"With who?" Rose said quietly.

Al immediately shot her a look, but Rose saw his eyes flicker behind her, towards the tables.

"You know, maybe you should've taken a page out of my book," he said pointedly. When Rose frowned at him, he continued, "I'll have a fine time dancing with Gemma, she's a great girl. And there's no harm in it." He lowered his wand and leaned back to inspect his handiwork. "Why not go with a friend? Afraid of having fun?"

"I am going with a friend."

"You know what I mean." Al sighed again, shaking his head. "You can only imagine how much courage it took James to ask you."

Rose felt a tiny twinge of guilt in her chest, but her conviction stayed the same. "I'm not so sure that James only wanted us to go as friends. And I'm um…" She bit her lip. "Well, I'm not ready for that yet."

Al looked at her, and she saw the sympathy surfacing in his eyes. He exhaled softly. "I know."

In an attempt to brighten the mood, he added, "Well, he's going with Sarah McGowan, so I'm sure he wasn't too cut up about it."

Rose, who already knew this, nodded and gave him a half-hearted smile. She paused, her eyes wandering around the room, and then she sighed quietly before saying, "Don't use up all of your dances with Gemma. I'm sure there's someone who'll be wanting one."

Al blinked, but after a moment, nodded slowly, and before Rose could decide where to head next, a voice suddenly cracked shrilly in the air, and Rose turned around to see Cecilia Blake with a furious expression on her face. Scorpius was stood next to her looking entirely exasperated as she broke back into argument again, and before Rose could change her mind, she found herself walking towards them.

Scorpius looked up at her arrival and she tried her best to ignore the familiar face-heating sensation as he subtly shook his head at her, his expression one that said he'd long since regretted mediating.

"—And when I'm Head Girl next year, I will take the greatest pleasure in bossing you around," Cecilia was snapping.

"In your dreams," Jaime countered in an equally waspish voice. "McGonagall will never give it to you."

"Oh, and you think she's going to give it to you?"

"Do I think McGonagall's going to give me Head Girl? Well, I can't say I've given it much thought."

Cecilia made a noise of intense frustration, and Scorpius tiredly interrupted, "It would serve the pair of you right if you do both get it."

Rose looked at him in surprise, though the two didn't seem to read anything into his words, instead focusing their energy on glaring daggers at each other. "Now, can we get back to the matter at hand?"

They were standing by one of the tables, where one of the gold chairs also had a silver drape half-covering it.

Jaime turned to Rose. "Rose, don't you think these gold chair drapes look gaudy? Besides, I read that overexposure to gold can induce headaches-"

"What about overexposure to idiots?" Cecilia interrupted.

"Well, gosh, now that you've pointed it out, I have been feeling the slightest-"

"The matter at hand," Scorpius growled.

"Okay, sorry — they'll clash with the off-white roses too-"

"Which is why I said we should do red roses, Carter."

"Red and gold will look ridiculous, it's not a House colours party-"

"I never said it was-"

Before it could escalate further — and before Scorpius could fully lose the will to live — Rose cut in with, "What if we do silver chairs and red roses? Those will look great together, won't they?"

The two of them paused. After a ponderous moment, Jaime nodded and said, "That could work."

Cecilia rolled her eyes. "Fine."

"Thank you, Rose," Jaime said curtly, his eyes still on Cecilia. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm getting rid of those ugly fucking chairs, starting as far away from you as possible-"

"You don't need to be mean, we've already figured it out-"

They walked off, still bickering, in the same direction.

The moment they were out of earshot, Scorpius sighed. "Next year's going to be interesting. If they don't kill each other before then," he amended.

A little laugh slipped out of Rose. "Are you kidding? They're downright civil compared to how we were."

Scorpius let out a little chuckle of his own. "The floats?"

"And everything else," Rose pointed out. "At least they're only fighting over chairs."

"You're lucky you only caught the tail end of that conversation then." He suddenly grinned. "And I still maintain that that clown-faced monstrosity was the most horrific thing I've ever seen."

Rose's jaw dropped. "It was a jester and it was fun."

"It was a walking nightmare, Weasley, and the last thing I ever wanted staring me down as it came at me on the bow of a float."

"Well maybe it wasn't too pleased to see you either."

Scorpius paused, and then another grin cracked across his face. Upon seeing it, Rose smiled too. She suddenly realised that it had been the first time he'd called her that in months, and it filled her with a strange kind of warmth.

Scorpius was watching Cecilia as she prodded at Jaime with the stalk of the red rose, and the little smile Jaime had on his face where she couldn't see was wiped with a practiced glare before he turned back around to face her.

"I think they're going to do a great job," he said after a moment.

Rose smiled. "McGonagall hasn't been wrong yet."

"No," Scorpius agreed softly. "She hasn't."

Their eyes met, and Scorpius opened his mouth, as if about to say something else, and Rose felt her heart leap. Say something, a voice suddenly whispered inside of her. She looked at his soft gaze, the small smile lingering on his lips. Say something that will make me come back to you.

But then he closed his mouth again, lowering his eyes for a moment before he cleared his throat and looked ahead of them, while Rose instantly averted her gaze as well, completely alarmed by the thought she'd just had.

"It's nice we managed to get the band back from last year. They were great."

Rose followed his gaze towards the empty platform that would house the orchestra when they arrived, and nodded hastily, glad for the distraction. "They were." After a pause, she asked, "Do you know the singer?"

Scorpius shook his head. "No. Then again, I'm not much for keeping up with that sort of stuff."

Rose smiled softly. "Me neither."

"Toby does, though. Apparently it's quite a feat that McGonagall managed to land her."

"My cousins are actually on the hunt for entertainment for their wedding reception," Rose said thoughtfully, her eyes still on the collection of stands and chairs haphazardly set up. "If she does school functions like this, I wonder if she'd be available."

Scorpius hesitated before clarifying, "Your cousins that we met in Hogsmeade?"

"Well, technically one of them is mine and one of them is yours." Soon to be our shared cousins, she realised suddenly.

Scorpius seemed to be thinking the same thing; he only nodded slowly, his eyes clouded.

"Well, I'm sure there'd be no harm in asking," he said finally.

Rose gave him a little smile in agreement. "I suppose I could always get Al to do it," she considered. "I've yet to meet a person who's immune to his Favour-Asking Face."

Scorpius let out a quiet laugh. "I'd like to see him go up against Toby's."

"Maybe they can both ask," Rose joked lightly. "Then she might even do it for free-"

"Rose!"

They instinctively turned around together, expressions still holding the remnants of smiles, to see Gen standing with a small group of prefects, all gathered underneath the enormous chandelier that was serving as the centrepiece of the ceiling. Her face conveyed obvious concern, but there was an urgency there as well as her eyes passed between the two.

"Can you come help?" she asked.

"Sure," Rose called back. She looked at Scorpius. "Coming?" she asked automatically.

Scorpius' eyes flicked to the group and back, and he paused. "You go ahead," he said after a moment. "I haven't touched the far side of the room. I'd better make sure everything's up to form over there."

"Oh, right, okay." She felt the disappointment sinking in her stomach, and tried to quell it. She thought of saying, I'll catch up with you in a bit, but then thought better of it, and settled for a small smile instead. "Sounds like a plan."

"But um…" Scorpius suddenly continued. "Let me know if you need any help."

The genuineness in his voice softened her. "Oh, of course. Thanks."

There was the tiniest shade of resignation on his face, untouched by the little smile that he gave her, and then he turned away. Somehow she knew that she would not be asking him for help, and her gaze kept on him for a few more moments before she turned away too and joined Gen and the others.

It was hours later when Rose walked back into the Entrance Hall, her book in hand. She and Scorpius had finally relented when they'd really just been hovering, so she had gone out to the grounds to occupy herself.

Now, as evening approached, the castle was near silent. Everyone was locked away in their rooms getting ready for the ball; the last few hours of calm before the inevitable storm. Rose passed by the Great Hall, and since there was no one around, she would just take a tiny little peek—

Her breath stilled in her throat.

It was magnificent. Everything had been finalised in the hours that the two of them had been gone, and it looked exactly as Rose had hoped: a sultry, glamorous, open space that arrested the eye, imbued with deep and classic colours that gave the room depth and dynasty. It was a complete transformation from the rest of the castle, transporting the viewer to another, lost, relic of time. The prefects had outdone themselves.

Rose felt herself lingering for longer than she'd expected. It was to be her last ball here, and soon this room would be lost to time for her as well. Most of the hall was abandoned — the prefects were getting ready themselves, though the band had arrived and were setting up, the members chatting quietly amongst themselves with their instruments propped on their laps or on the floor.

Sunlight was streaming in from the windows, casting huge tiles of slanted light along the floor and the walls, making the place look strangely ethereal with the fading day. It would look starkly different in a few hours.

Suddenly, her eyes caught on movement near the back of the room, and she felt the breath that had stuck in her throat instantly leave her in a little sigh.

Scorpius was walking around the tables, subtly straightening forks, adjusting champagne flutes, smoothing out tiny creases in the satin tablecloths. The movement was almost affectionate — a little push here, a pull there, a tug elsewhere. The back of his white shirt was golden where the sun shone on it, his platinum hair half-gleaming and half-shadowed in a beautiful tangle of darkness and light.

Rose felt herself slump against the doorway.

Somewhere in the back, a saxophone was drawing out a smokey, jazzy melody, while underneath a piano dipped softly in and out in a lazy accompaniment, and she stayed standing by the door, watching as the Head Boy continued in his ministrations.

As he passed by a champagne flute, her eyes caught on it; it was slightly off centre, too close to the glass next to it, and she bit her lip. A moment later, he paused and stopped in front of it, shifting it a breath to the right, positioning it just so. Rose felt her lips turn up into a smile as he moved on, and she suddenly began to consider. Her eyes darted around the room for a little source of inspiration. The silver drapes again, maybe, how lovely the chandelier looked. Her ears held onto the comforting melody that backdropped him and she thought, I don't recognise the song he's playing. Do you know it?

Her heart raced at the opportunity, and it was then that she stopped, suddenly thinking better of it. She could feel herself slipping back into it — no, it was more like a free fall — just like she had all day, and she had to remind herself of the promise she had made.

But still, she lingered for just a moment longer, knowing that she was about to drag her eyes away. The prospect of watching him do such a mundane task shouldn't have been more appealing than getting ready and putting on the most beautiful dress that she owned, and yet here she was.

She could've stood there and watched him forever; so she made a mental note of the picture, tucking it away to keep in her mind always, and then she turned away.

From the back of the room, Scorpius suddenly frowned. He turned, a sudden compulsion within him drawing his eyes to the doorway, and as he stared at the empty space, his brow furrowed as he wondered why he had suddenly felt such a strong need to look.

The hall was finished, and Scorpius was stood in front of the large mirror in the Heads Common Room, adjusting the drape of his suit.

By design, it didn't really move, but he continued to scan the minutia of it, inspecting the fabric for wrinkles and little creases. It was a deep, navy blue pinstriped number under the light, though practically black if there wasn't enough of it. The cut suited him; the shoulders were broad, the suit tapering in at the waist. He had shifted to check the back when the portrait hole swung open and Toby waltzed in, clad in his white dress pants but with his top half merely covered by a light olive short-sleeved shirt, his cane and hat draped over his arm.

He paused when he saw Scorpius.

"You look like a mob boss who just walked straight out of a film noir," he said after a moment, nodding approvingly. He cocked his head in consideration. "Which is you to a tee, if you think about it. Minus the mob boss part."

Scorpius didn't have time to deliberate if that last part was a real compliment or not before he took proper notice of Toby's outfit. He turned around. "Where's your jacket?"

Toby shrugged casually. "I got bored with it. Besides, everyone's gonna look like that. We're gonna be a room full of stiffs." He grasped his boater hat and slanted it over his head, then swung his cane over his arm and leaned on it. "Much cooler, right? This outfit says, 'I'm carefree, full of life'."

"'I'm about to burst into a choreographed tap dance routine, comedy skit, or some combination thereof'?" Scorpius offered.

Toby pointed his cane at him in an excellent support of Scorpius' statement. "Just call me Fred Astaire."

"You looked that up."

Toby ignored him and planted his cane down again, doing a not-entirely-graceless twirl and catching it before it could fall. But with the cane back in his hands, he paused, sighing hugely and dropping down on the couch. "Merlin, I feel old."

Scorpius smirked at him in the mirror's reflection. "You are dressed about a hundred years behind the times, Fred."

"Ha. Ha." Toby sighed again, pulling off his hat and resting it on his stomach. "Our last ball. Who would've thought." He used the hat to lightly fan his face as he shifted. "No offence, mate, but this isn't exactly how I pictured it."

"How did you picture it?" Scorpius paused. "In a full cast being wheeled around by Anya Lazhar? I can still accommodate that, if you're so set on it."

Toby snorted, but he didn't reply, and when Scorpius saw how his eyes had drawn, his expression morphed into one of sadness and guilt, Scorpius immediately knew how.

This wasn't exactly how Scorpius had pictured things either. Well, not when they'd been planning this whole thing out, coming up with a theme together, sitting on the couches in their dorm. They had never decided anything, of course, but it seemed that they'd silently agreed that they'd be going together. Who else would he have wanted to go with more?

He would've been in this hat for her; he would've worn anything for her.

The ache that burrowed in his chest reminded him of Toby, how he was feeling the same way, and that drew him out of it. Scorpius stopped fidgeting with his suit and turned around.

"Tobe, about Liv…" he began, and then he trailed off, because he hadn't even considered what he wanted to say. He'd just been so overwhelmed with guilt that...

Scorpius thought he'd always known what to say, but it turned out that he was woefully unequipped to say anything when it actually mattered.

He continued to rack his brains, trying to parse out the words, until he suddenly realised that there was nothing he could really explain that wasn't going to be terrible in some way, that would completely absolve him of guilt. It would just put the blame on him in some other way. If he wasn't a heartless friend, he was at least a blindly ignorant one.

I shouldn't have asked Liv to Hogsmeade. I should've known that you still had feelings for her.

There were too many of these, too many to even remember, but as they continued to surface in his mind, he realised that the reason he was finding it so difficult to find the words was because it wasn't Toby that he needed to say them to. In this instance there was only one thing to say, to capture all of this in a way that he rarely ever did.

"I'm sorry, Tobe," he said quietly. Toby's eyes flickered up to him, wide. "For all of it."

Instinct wanted to push Scorpius' hand to his hair, but he abruptly remembered that it had been carefully slicked back, and he lowered it, letting it awkwardly hang back by his side.

After a long stretch of silence, Toby took a breath, his eyes on his hat. "But you didn't know."

"That's why I'm sorry." He paused. "You would've known."

Toby looked up, and he cracked a weak smile. "All part of the charm."

Scorpius didn't smile back, and Toby sighed, opening his mouth and saying, "You're-"

"Don't. Don't say you forgive me."

Toby stopped in surprise, and he slowly closed his mouth, his brow furrowed. He seemed a little at a loss then, because wasn't that at the crux of who he was? The forgiveness, the moving on, the seeing the best in people even when people didn't deserve it.

But then Toby showed that there was more to him when he reasoned carefully, "You know, me forgiving you doesn't mean that you weren't in the wrong. You can have it both ways."

Scorpius only looked at him.

"Actually, if you think about it, the fact that there's something to forgive actually implies that you were in the wrong, so me doing that is actually very incriminating on you-"

"Alright," Scorpius interrupted quietly, despite himself, with a small smile. After a pause, he said, just as softly, "Thanks, Tobe."

Toby grinned at him, no trace of conflict in those bright eyes, and then—

"So are we gonna kiss or what?"

Scorpius groaned and turned back towards the mirror while Toby let out a laugh behind him, pushing himself to his feet and planting his hat back on his head.

"Stop looking at yourself and we can get going," Toby said, grabbing his cane.

Scorpius let out a quiet snort, but he picked up his hat from the desk beside him and lowered it onto his head, angling it forward. He did get a kick out of the look, to be honest. His eyes roamed over the hat, hesitating for a moment now that it was on, and, after a pause, his eyes flicked towards her door, slightly ajar. He sighed quietly.

Toby caught it. "Has she gone down already?" he asked.

Scorpius stared at her door for a moment longer. "She left a few hours ago. I think she went to the Gryffindor Common Room to get ready."

Toby paused. "You guys looked pretty chummy earlier." When Scorpius looked at him, he continued, "You guys talk about LIH yet?"

Scorpius shook his head. They were almost obtrusively avoiding any talk of it. It constantly felt like the elephant in the room, taking more and more space the longer it remained untouched. Thursday had been the closest they had come, when Eva had brought the topic up.

The conflict must have shown on his face because Toby gave another big sigh and lamented, "Why do we do this to ourselves?"

Scorpius blinked, his brain turning over Toby's words. He had a point. It was one thing for Toby to have forgiven Scorpius, but the fact that Liv had known about Toby's feelings and still did what she had done, was another thing entirely. He was still painfully in love with her, that he couldn't help, but he had chosen to forgive her too.

Scorpius remembered back to that exhilarating moment in the headmistress' office when she had confirmed to him what he had, in his heart of hearts, already known. The knowledge that they had five more years together, even if it was five more years of the careful conversations, the forced casualness, the constant desperation for something more that had already been lost, had been enough to fill his chest with a happiness close to bursting. He'd known right then that he would bear all of it, just so that he could be around her.

Toby paused from behind him, where he was playing with his collar. "What kinda sane person would willingly swallow poison, huh?" he asked, and though his voice was laced with humour, Scorpius could hear the very real question underneath it. Toby's eyes were distant again, for a moment, but then he shook his head, seeming to snap out of it, and said, "Ready?"

Scorpius followed his lead. "Ready."

They left the dorm, and as soon as they arrived at the staircase, joined the horde of students who were all making their way down, every one of them dressed to the nines. The castle was bursting with noise; the excited, nervous chatter of the students as they descended the stairs, and in the distance, the faint noise of soaring jazz, and Scorpius was suddenly so in the mood for this, especially with Toby by his side, the guilt having eased its hold on his heart.

As they approached the hall, Scorpius could see the bright red carpet underfoot, already bringing the night to life before he could even see the room. And then they rounded the corner to see both of the Great Hall's doors flung wide open, and he and Toby instantly paused in shock.

He had seen the hall only a few hours before — he'd probably been the very last to see it — but it was almost unrecognisable now, the room barely touched by moonlight and filled with people. The richness of it, the vibrance, was a world away from the soft, natural light that had covered it when he'd been here last. The music only added to the effect; the band was in full swing, filling the room with life and energy, pulling all of the bad thoughts away and into the ceiling high, high above until he could barely feel them at all.

"Whoa," Toby said, articulating his thoughts perfectly.

"Whoa," Scorpius quietly agreed.

Toby grinned and turned to Scorpius, fixing him with haunted, intense eyes. "I'm ready for my close up, Mr DeMille," he purred darkly.

A horrified laugh escaped from Scorpius' mouth and, upon seeing it, the beatific grin returned to Toby's face. He laughed too, and then tossed his head at the party, leading the way inside.

The dance floor was already teeming with people, and Scorpius' eyes began to move around the room, looking for somewhere to go. He had just turned towards Toby to ask him what he was thinking when Al suddenly appeared from the crowd.

Scorpius' eyebrows raised. He'd never admit it in a hundred years, but Toby kind of had a point—

"Evening, gents," Al said, his eyes glittering.

Toby sucked in a breath. "Well, hello, Freddy Eynsford-Hill."

When Al made a weird face, Toby raised his hands in defence. "What? I've seen My Fair Lady."

"Many, many times," Scorpius added dryly.

Al shook his head, smiling in disbelief. "Well, you guys look pretty dapper yourselves." He indicated towards the bar a little ways away. "I was gonna grab a drink, you guys wanna come with?"

As they made their way over and saw the billboard of drinks that had been erected behind the bar, Toby expressed a sharp noise of disapproval. "I do have to mention the one glaring design flaw, which is that this party, set at the height of all rebel and debauchery, contains no fuckin' alcohol to speak of."

"There's champagne," Al pointed out.

"Yeah, the meddled-with type that wouldn't get a child tipsy."

"You'll get over it and live, Tobe," Scorpius replied.

Toby turned towards him, placing a hand on his chest. "So I suppose I'm only Fred to you in private then," he sniffed.

"What," was all Al said. Scorpius merely shook his head.

"Oh, hey, matching canes!" Toby said suddenly in excitement, using his to point at Al's similar one.

Scorpius cracked a grin. "Now you have crutches ready for after your dance with Anya."

Al's eyebrows shot up. "Lazhar? Man, that girl gave me more injuries over the course of one dance than I received during my entire Quidditch career."

"That probably says more about your Quidditch career, mate," Toby wisecracked instantly, and then dodged the jab that Al made at him with the end of his cane.

"Play nice, children," Scorpius said, unconcerned as he looked up at the drinks menu. He'd already had his eye on a couple when they'd been setting up—

Toby pushed him to the front to order first, and when his drink arrived — something called a Stinger, though what was replacing the copious amount of brandy that it was supposed to contain, he didn't know — Scorpius moved off to the side and turned around, leaning on the bar as he sipped at it.

His eyes passed over the dancing crowd, the groups of students clustered at the black-and-white film reels, those lining up to enter the picture-taking area, and when a group of them went in, the crowd suddenly opened, and Scorpius' eyes picked up on something — someone — beyond it, framed next to the huge bouquets of stunning red roses.

He could only see the back of her, dark red hair rippling down in soft, classic waves, slips of pale skin showing where they were exposed by the cut of her dress — God, it was more skin than he was used to — but his stomach was already tightening in recognition, his eyes blinking as his heart rate began to pick up—

He saw Genevieve arrive, two glasses of champagne in hand, and then Rose turned to face her, smiling, and Scorpius' heart plummeted.

She looked more beautiful than he would've ever thought possible. She lit up the entire room, that was how radiant she was, but it had little to do with her beauty, somehow it was just her, it had only ever been her...

The jazz music, still soaring magnificently throughout the room, warbled to a stop in his head, and Scorpius only thought, I'd swallow poison if it tasted like you.

"I can't believe how amazing everything looks," Gen said in awe, speaking louder to be heard over the noise as she handed Rose one of the champagne flutes in her hand.

"I know." Rose looked around too, smiling. Her eyes cast towards the tables, teeming with people and noise and vibrance, and she remembered how that filled space, mere hours ago, had only been Scorpius, the sun filtering in from that window beside it, falling on him in panels of soft, caressing light.

That had been a wonder of its own.

Her heart clenched; she suddenly missed that image deeply, but she blinked, and the people and the noise and the vibrance came back. The music from the band that was soaring through the air was already putting her back into the party mood, filling her limbs with energy and her head with an exuberance that was waiting to be felt.

"Not a bad way to go out," Gen attested, nodding in satisfaction. She suddenly grinned and leaned in close. "Get a look at Flitwick. He's about two seconds away from wetting himself with joy." The tiny professor was standing next to the orchestra, his eyes glistening and his hand held to his chest as he swayed in time to the music.

Rose laughed fondly; she had a soft spot for the Charms professor.

"So what'd'ya wanna do?" Gen asked. She downed the rest of her champagne, twiddling the glass between her fingers as she peered around to look over the crowds. "We could check out the film area," she suggested after a moment.

Rose looked over to where Gen's gaze was. "Uh, we might want to wait until it clears out a little." The small area was teeming with people, all crowded in fascination around the projections on the wall. Little of them had access to televisions, and most had never seen anything like the movies that were being reeled out. Some headphones were mounted on the walls so that the students could enjoy the full experience.

Gen cocked her head. "Point taken." She suddenly lit up. "Oh, hey, let's go take some pictures while we're still fresh!"

Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Rose's hand and took off, while Rose, laughing, tried to finish her own champagne glass as she was pulled through the crowd.

Gen brought them to a stop by the thick velvet rope cordoning off the area. In this section of the room, there were flashes going off constantly, accompanied by excited chatter and squeals as students posed for pictures and then watched as they developed.

"How come Al hasn't resurfaced yet?" Gen asked suddenly. She looked around, trying to seem casual.

Rose glanced at her, containing her smile. She remembered how pink Gen had gotten when Al had walked down the stairs, dressed for Ascot in a top hat and tailcoat; he even had a cane. Rose had to admit that her cousin cleaned up well when he wanted to. There was little that kept Gen's mouth shut, but Al in early twentieth-century garb did.

"He'll find us soon, I'm sure." For his part, Al had paused significantly before taking that final step down once his eyes had landed on Gen, sitting on the couch and looking, as Rose had suspected, even prettier than she had that day in the shop.

The rope was suddenly opened in front of them by one of the hired staff working the event, and Rose and Gen thanked him as they made their way over to one of the red carpeted areas. Gen immediately rushed over to the camera set up on the stand.

She clicked through the pictures that had already been taken and grinned. "These turned out amazing," she said, beckoning for Rose to look.

Rose smiled as Gen went back through the pictures she'd been looking at. There were some couple ones mixed in with the group pictures, and her smile faded a little when she looked at them, but when she glanced beyond the camera's screen, watching the circles of friends laughing and taking pictures in the areas around them, she shook it off, determined not to let herself get upset by things like that when she was with her own best friend, having a wonderful time.

"Ooh, props!" Gen sang with delight, hopping away from the stand and towards the little prop area, immediately sifting through everything on offer.

Rose smiled, shaking her head. "You'd've thought you hadn't been in here all day setting all of this up," she said wryly.

"I didn't have anything to do with this area," Gen countered. "I was stuck on table duty, mostly."

"Well, they look amazing," Rose voiced supportively.

Gen flashed her a grin, and then held up a sleek black eye-mask and a megaphone, jiggling them at Rose to choose one. Rose, laughing, grabbed the mask.

Gen went back to the camera and pressed the button to set it up, and the connected projector behind it immediately began counting down from ten.

Gen pulled Rose into frame, and when the count hit two, turned the megaphone on her and pretended to scream into it, and Rose, initially startled, couldn't help but laugh hysterically at her friend's ridiculousness as the flash went off behind her eyes.

The camera went off four more times in quick succession before it stopped, and Gen rushed over to look at the pictures that had reeled out. She instantly beamed, holding them up for Rose to see.

"More!" she declared.

Gen's energy was infectious, and Rose grinned and motioned back towards the props table, putting the mask down and grabbing a comically-oversized moustache on a stick. She turned around with it held over her mouth and batted her eyelashes at Gen, who burst into laughter.

They soon lost themselves taking pictures, fuelled by the energy of the people around them having as much fun as they were. Rose honestly couldn't remember having this much fun in a long time. The props, especially, were an endless source of amusement.

Huge red lips for Gen, a golden crown for her—Flash.

Bright blue shutter-shade glasses that she couldn't see a thing through—Flash.

A bag of fake popcorn whose contents tumbled down through the air like snow—Flash.

"Congratulations, my dear," Gen said dramatically as she handed Rose a golden statue. "You really were most extraordinary."

"Oh, darling, an actor is nothing without her director," Rose affectionately drawled back. The camera was nearing the end of its countdown, and then Gen's eyes were suddenly arrested by something in front of them.

"Al!" she cried, a smile instantly cresting over her lips, and the camera flashed.

Rose looked into the crowd to see her cousin smiling at them in amusement from behind the rope, his arms crossed as he watched their antics. She immediately beckoned him over. Al shook his head, still grinning, and, given that Gen's face was still doing that whole pink thing, Rose strode over and grabbed him.

"This reel's gonna be a mess," Gen fussed as they joined her, but it did little to hide her delight that Al was back with them.

"Oh, we won't keep it," Rose said, waving it off. Al, meanwhile, had picked up the massive film reel on the props table and was holding it up behind him. Gen grabbed a director's clapper board as Rose went back to restart the camera. When she came back, she slotted herself in front of one of the empty portions, grinning widely, and the flash went off.

They messed around for longer, soon passing Al's hat between them as well, and since the waitstaff had begun walking around with food, a lot of the camera crowd had dispersed. By the time they'd finished, they were all sorts of warm, and breathless with laughter. They crowded around the photos that had come out, grinning and laughing sheepishly at the result of their antics.

"I'm gonna grab an envelope so we can put these away," Gen said after a while. "There are probably some we can throw, though."

She trotted off, Rose and Al still looking through the reels. Al unfurled a new one, and suddenly Rose saw him pause, his grin fading. Rose immediately recognised the pictures, remembered the flash that had gone off right when Al had arrived. The joy on Gen's face when she'd seen him was brighter than any of the lights around them, and the soft look she'd taken on as he'd been pulled over was less obvious, but no less affectionate. This reel's gonna be a mess, she had said.

Al was looking at the pictures with some kind of dumbfounded realisation. Suddenly aware of her gaze, he glanced over at Rose, his cheeks pink.

Rose smiled softly at him, and inclined her head towards his hands. "We should probably keep all of them," she said after a moment, nodding. "Wouldn't want to lose any of these memories."

Al bit his lip before he smiled back. "No—" he started to say—

"Got it!"

They both whipped around to see Gen holding up a large, slim envelope, expressions equally caught. Gen paused upon seeing their faces, her eyes narrowing slightly, but Rose quickly fixed a smile.

"Perfect!" she said, plucking it from Gen's grasp. "Let's get these safely put away. You put your name on it, right?" she asked, turning it over to check.

"Yep," Gen answered, though her eyes flickered towards Al for a moment before she looked back at Rose.

Rose deliberated for a moment, and her eyes swept over Al as well before she suggested, "Why don't you guys try and grab us a good table before they all get taken? I'll finish up here."

They both looked at her for a moment before Al took the opportunity. "Great idea. Gen?" he added after a tiny pause.

"Sure," she replied hastily, and he led the way out. As Rose watched, the brief awkwardness that had fallen over them soon evaporated, Gen elbowing him as she laughed in mock disgust after he'd leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Al's happiness was palpable, and Gen's own seemed to have lifted just by seeing Al so happy.

Rose slipped the pictures into the envelope with a smile and put it on the table to join the piles of others, saying a very earnest, "Thank you," to the man holding the rope as she left the picture-taking area.

She'd asked Al and Gen to grab a good table, but looking around now, she was finding it very difficult to ascertain which table they would've chosen; there were a lot of good ones situated all over the room, and she was kind of regretting not going with them and now having to go on a hunt for them.

She continued to crane around to look, her eyes peeled for a top hat, but they suddenly caught on something else, and she stopped.

He was passing through the black-and-white film reels, shadow and light rolling in waves across his face, too quick to see, masking his expression. Her gaze stolen, she didn't notice when Toby came up to him, pointing at something off somewhere in the room, until he suddenly turned.

Scorpius paused, still in front of the projector. Though his profile was starkly cast on the wall behind him, the light from the projector was soft, gently illuminating the planes of his face, half-hidden by the hat that was tilted on his head. Rose's eyes passed over the drape of his pinstriped suit, how it accentuated the broadness of his shoulders while preserving the leanness of his torso, the dark colour perfectly contrasted against the fairness of his skin and hair. He looked exactly as she had imagined, and yet the entire image still took her breath away.

The old black-and-white film continued to play fuzzily behind him — some sort of standoff, Rose dimly noticed — and she thought that there was a time when, seeing him dressed like one of those criminals in the film behind him, she would've thought that there was a ghoulish sort of fit to it, but now...now she could only see the irony of it all.

She suddenly wondered if he had dressed like that on purpose, or even subconsciously. She wondered if that was the way he saw himself. The thought saddened her a little.

He stepped out from the reel's possession, the dim light pulled from his face, and he was suddenly lit like everyone else under the golden glow of the chandeliers. He was laughing at something Toby had said, and as he shook his head, his eyes passed to look around the room.

Rose felt his gaze coming; she was almost holding her breath as his eyes drew closer, and then they landed on her.

Her heart rocketed up into her throat as their eyes met, and then it was thumping in her ears, dull but panicked, and her hands began to grow cold and clammy. She almost felt sick.

She watched as he turned to Toby for a moment and said something quietly to him, and Toby looked at him for a second before he nodded and immediately slipped away in the direction of the tables.

Her hands clasped together as he began to walk towards her, and suddenly there weren't any people to weave through, he was just cutting across the room, straight over to her, and she really did feel sick now, was it a fever? The room was quite warm, with the heat of bodies moving and none of the windows open yet, plus the picture-area had been quite warm what with all the lights, she could still feel her skin prickling—

It was only when he arrived in front of her that she suddenly realised that he had come without a date.

"Having fun?" he asked politely, inclining his head. His hat tilted at her, just so.

Rose instinctively summoned up a smile. "Absolutely. I think we were taking pictures for an hour."

He smiled back, his gaze passing over the picture-area before doing a more general sweep around the room. "It turned out pretty well, huh?"

The image of him by the window surfaced back into her mind, the careful movement of his fingers as he went around each table, backlit by the afternoon sun. His casual smile now held no trace of the fact that he had stayed longer than anyone else to ensure just that.

Her heart began to swell. "Everything looks incredible," she replied, and the feeling in her chest spilled over into an effortless smile.

There was a fleeting moment where he paused, seemingly caught by the genuineness of it, before he recovered and nodded in agreement. Then the smile he gave her was almost heartbreakingly handsome. "It's pretty far off from the speakeasy you wanted, but…I think it worked out okay."

Rose's eyes subtly glanced over his outfit, looking exactly like the sort of mobster who did nothing but operate speakeasies, and her heart went up in flames. Was there a limit? she suddenly thought. To how much a person could feel like this?

She looked at him properly, and it suddenly occurred to her that his smile was a little more careful than usual, his cheeks holding more colour than she was used to. She also noticed that he had tucked a hand into his pocket.

Was he nervous? she thought to herself, her chest glowing. The idea that she could put someone like Scorpius Malfoy on edge seemed ludicrous to her, but the mere thought that coming over to talk to her made him nervous filled her with affectionate warmth.

Her heart still pulsing brightly, she maintained with a smile, "No, Old Hollywood really was a stroke of genius. We wouldn't have been able to have half of these attractions without it as a theme."

Scorpius returned her smile with a small one of his own, silently acquiescing that with a nod.

"Have you seen McGonagall yet?" Rose asked.

"She grabbed me a little while ago, you?"

Rose nodded too; the headmistress had basically accosted her the moment she'd walked in, declaring the Hall an absolute triumph.

Rose smiled. "I think she's pretty happy with all of this too."

She was standing conspicuously near the front of the room with Professor Sinistra. They were staring up in admiration at one of the gossamer red fabrics that fanned out from the monumental chandelier in the middle of the ceiling, giving the room the subtle appearance of a marquee. They were both holding little plates of hors d'oeuvres, and—

"Is she tittering?" Scorpius asked in disbelief.

Rose laughed. "You know, I don't think there's another word for it."

"Well, McGonagall grew up in this era. She's probably more familiar with it than any of us," Scorpius pointed out.

"I'd never even thought of that," Rose admitted with a smile. "It must be like taking a trip down memory lane for her."

"Do you think she's ever stepped foot in a speakeasy?" His tone was humorous, though he seemed genuinely curious.

Rose considered that before she grinned. "Probably. She looks like she's seen it all."

Scorpius laughed at that, but after a moment of silence, he let out a quiet breath. "You know, I'm gonna miss that woman," he said, surprising her. He paused, his eyes travelling around the room. "There're a lot of things I'm going to miss."

He looked like he was taking everything in, committing it to memory, and Rose followed his gaze, around the band and the room, the hall that was completely transformed but no less of a home to them, and she swallowed. It had suddenly struck her how she would've felt if he was something that would've been left in this room too, something she had to commit to memory. If they weren't going to the same university, would they keep in touch? Or would he have just faded away, someone who she would think about all of the time and be desperate to reach out to, and maybe he would be the same wherever he was, desperate to talk to her too, but they never would—

But he wouldn't be, she thought, filled with relief. They would still be together, for five more years at least.

The intensity of the solace she found in that thought jolted her, and she realised with a start that she was so far past slipping back into this; she was already as far in as she could ever be, and she had no idea how to get out, but maybe that was the worst part about it, because staying in was warm and familiar and wonderful and…and so right, but nothing had changed, and there was only so much warmth and familiarity and wonder before they were right back where they started.

Her pillow had been so wet, warm and salty with her tears, and she had clutched it to herself as the shudders that had wracked through her body continued to course by, wave after wave, and she took in a quiet, sharp breath.

Nothing had changed.

She forced out a little laugh. "Oh, God, I was supposed to be looking for Al and Gen. I asked them to grab us a table."

A spark of surprise flashed across his face, a brief flicker of disappointment, but he quickly nodded. "Oh, of course."

Instinctively, they both looked towards the tables that were quickly filling, the vast majority of students in the room sitting and chatting over small bites of food. The two of them, standing in the back together while everyone else was seated, blared even more starkly in comparison, and the urgency to leave came sharply back over her.

She felt Scorpius' gaze return to her. "See you later, maybe?" he asked, after a tiny pause.

Rose tried to ignore the little shimmer of hope in his eyes, and instead plastered on a smile and nodded. "Oh, yes, sure," she said, the words already tasting bitter with the lie.

She turned away, the fake smile instantly dropping from her face, and she started to blindly look around the room, half-forgetting what she was even looking for. The glow that had overtaken her chest had retreated back within it, and she wanted more than anything to turn back around, forget the last few minutes had ever happened, and feel its warmth again. She was sure he was still standing there. It would be so easy.

But then Al's hat suddenly slipped into view, and she remembered what she was looking for. Her shoulders drooped as she let her eyes shut for a moment, and by the time she'd opened them, she'd forced out any urge to turn around.

The overly opulent clock on the wall said that it had just gone ten-thirty, and Rose was dancing with Al.

"Guaranteed Dad's gonna vote Tuscany again," Al said, shaking his head. "Remember how touchy he got about being out-voted last year? He really thought Mum was gonna back him up."

Rose laughed softly. "He should've realised she had her own agenda."

Al's brow furrowed. "You know, I don't think Mum's ever lost on the vote. Not bloody once." His eyes widened in realisation. "In which case, the key is to get Mum on your side, and then you're guaranteed to go wherever you want."

"You know, I don't think you should limit that philosophy to our holiday picking. Besides, she has generally impeccable taste." Rose paused before saying, "You know she adores Gen, don't you?"

Al's expression turned dry. "Ever tactful, Rose." But then he sighed, and continued in a quieter voice, "I can't imagine why she wouldn't."

"How come you haven't asked her to dance?" Rose asked softly. "The singer's not gonna be up there forever. You're going to miss your chance."

There was an unmistakable eleventh hour feel to the night now, a soft melancholy floating just above the calm, and now that she'd said it aloud, Rose couldn't help but feel like she'd made it true for herself as well. Her head tilted slightly as she drew her eyes across the room, looking, only a little. Maybe balls just called to the loneliness, the vulnerable sentimentality locked inside.

She'd turned back just in time to see Al's head turn back too.

"Because of how much I want to," he said finally. He paused for a long time, his eyes on their feet. "It's so hard to be around her. I just…I wish I knew where her head was at." He sighed and shook his head, adjusting his grip on Rose's hand. "I know what she said, about not…being sure of her feelings or…feeling the way she should be feeling, and that we were better off as friends — whatever the fuck that means — and sometimes I think she believes that, but…" He trailed off, hesitating, and Rose knew that he was thinking about the pictures. He sighed again and finished, "But sometimes I'm not so sure."

Rose was quiet as she stewed on his words. She sometimes forgot, but Al had always been more sensitive than he came across. He didn't share his feelings often; she knew how much Gen affected him. He was right, though, she knew. Gen was confused, terribly guilty, and harbouring more than a few regrets where Al was concerned. Maybe she had only realised how much Al had meant to her in that way after she'd lost him, or how much she'd wanted them to be together only after they weren't.

But it wasn't Rose's place to tell Al that, really, or fill his head with any kind of hope, so she swallowed her tongue and tried for a smile instead.

"It's the hat."

Al's unhappy expression instantly dissolved into one of amazement. "What in Merlin's name is it with people and this hat?" He shook his head. "I could stick it on a shrub pruned into the shape of a blobfish and people would still fawn all over it."

Rose laughed. "No, it's definitely you in the hat," she assured him. She smiled, gently knocking her elbow into his shoulder. "If you hadn't been so busy staring at Gen all night, you might've noticed how many girls have been staring at you. It's always been like that, you know." The topic pushed a question to the front of her mind, and she asked, "Where's Gemma, by the way?"

Al smiled wryly. "It turns out that dancing is just dancing when you don't really care who you're dancing with. It gets old surprisingly quickly."

Rose paused. "So the arrangement's off, then?"

"I think that's why I agreed to it, to be honest. No worries about any hurt feelings." He sighed. "Something tells me it suited her just about as fine as it did me. Neither of us got to come to this thing with the person we actually wanted to come with."

"There's a lot of that going around tonight."

Al looked at her, realisation surfacing in his eyes. He studied her silently for a few long moments, her own gaze on the floor, before he said finally, "He didn't think about saying yes to any of them, you know. Not for a second."

"Maybe he should've." That would've made more sense. At least, more sense than being miserable and alone.

At Al's silence, Rose shifted uncomfortably. "What did you guys talk about that first night? During your rounds?"

Al gave her an almost apologetic look. "Quidditch."

Despite everything, Rose couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Of course."

"And then…Gen."

She looked at him. "You talked to him about Gen?" She paused and then added, "On purpose?"

Al gave her a wry look and nodded.

"You barely knew him — actually, you kind of hated him — and yet you talked to him about something that important to you?"

"Actually, I never hated him. That was just you."

Rose paused at that and blinked. After a beat she asked, "Why him?"

Al shook his head softly at her. "It won't help, Rose. Asking me the questions you should be asking yourself."

Rose stared at him, the knowing look in his eyes making her feel ashamedly transparent. Pink-cheeked, she abruptly dropped her gaze. In the silence, her eyes passed over the fabric of Al's tails, and she noticed a tiny piece of lint near his breast pocket.

She hesitated, and then reached out to remove it. "Does he talk to you about important stuff too?"

Al sighed. "I don't know why he broke things off with you two, Rose. I'm sorry." He seemed to be mulling things over, and then he sighed again and shook his head. "To be honest, the only one who seems to know anything about that is Scorpius. He's not really the confiding type, it turns out."

Sometimes I forgot he was human too.

Rose suddenly remembered how it had felt to take those terrifying first steps towards him after the Quidditch final when they'd finally been alone together and she'd had no idea how he'd been going to react; after the Easter holidays when they hadn't spoken in weeks and she had no idea what they were. With Scorpius, at times it had felt like she was flinging herself off a cliff, and the only thing she'd hoped was that somehow she'd survive the fall, whatever else. She'd been truly vulnerable with him, she realised. But Scorpius…the closest he'd ever come to vulnerability like that had been that night in the Astronomy Tower, when he'd been drunk and talked about his family and kissed her.

Maybe they were only able to forget he was human because Scorpius didn't allow himself to be.

"But," Al finished wearily, "I do know that he's not exactly been having the greatest of times lately."

The dark shadows under his eyes flashed through her mind again, and the thought that something was still keeping him up at night, dangling the peacefulness of sleep out of reach, returned. Rose hadn't had problems sleeping — it was what followed that was the difficulty. She'd woken up with his arms around her last night, warm and wonderful as the sun had trickled in through the window, and when she'd turned towards him, he'd kissed her with a soft mouth, whispering words just as soft, and then she'd woken up in her bed alone, shivering, with a hole in her chest.

He's not bulletproof, you know. No matter what he tells himself, or however much he thinks he's above it all.

He'd run himself to the ground with that thought. No one could be so alone, hold everything by themselves, and God, she was so furious with him, for not relying on her, for not giving her the honesty she deserved, for not even trying to for the sake of something that could've been extraordinary. Claudia's face smiled in her mind again, beautiful and willing. There's someone else.

"Do you think he's a good person, Al?" she asked, her voice a hair above a whisper.

Al studied her for a while, and then he said simply, "What would you do if I said no?"

"Ask you again."

Al smiled gently at her in a way that felt like it was tugging her chest in two, because she knew it too, of course she did, but what about the past month? Her mind again replayed the night she had finally broken and cried herself to sleep, too exhausted to fight all of the anger, the sadness, but knowing it would come back; it always did. The painful, stiff glimpses of small talk between them that not even the most generous person would've called conversations that had turned the safe haven of the Heads' dorm into some kind of No Man's Land. The times when that small talk threatened to turn into something more, like out by the paddock with the Thestrals, or in this very room earlier today when they'd talked about last year's ball and he'd called her 'Weasley' again, like mere hours ago when he'd taken her breath away and shoved a hand in his pocket because he'd been nervous to talk to her...and Rose had had to be the one to shut every single one of those down.

I miss you, he'd said, and her heart had stopped in her chest, but why had he had to tell her that? As if it hadn't already been plastered all over his face. As if he hadn't known how much she missed him too. And then he'd had to give her that wonderful gift, the one thing she'd ever been given that had made her cry. He had to know she was miserable, he had to.

Cutting her out of his life would've been the unselfish thing to do, she thought to herself now.

Would it? her brain instantly whispered. Less painful, maybe, but infinitely worse.

But still, she...

"It feels like I relive that night all the time," she whispered. "Like I'll never get it out of my brain. I…" Her voice cracked. "I thought heartbreak was only supposed to be an expression, but…I don't think that's true anymore." She inhaled another breath. "Sometimes it feels like it won't fix itself, like it's just been splintered beyond repair. Like it just doesn't work right anymore." Her chest hitched as she spoke, and she swallowed. "Everything that should be so easy just starts to hurt so much." Breathing felt like shards of glass in her lungs, burning hot and cold. Her mind, even in sleep, felt like it never knew peace. She was so overwhelmed by the weight of everything; heartbreak seemed to be the heaviest thing in the world, but it somehow left only the biggest hole in her chest.

"It makes you feel alive, though."

Rose's head snapped up at the sound of her cousin's quiet voice, and as her eyes locked on his, softly burning with conviction, she suddenly remembered that he knew exactly what she was talking about.

A tiny, sad smile pricked at Al's lips, and he looked at the floor. "You know, the moment I realised I was in love with Gen…it was the most terrified I've ever been in my life." His eyes clouded over with the memory, plucking it out as if from a dream. "It was the beginning of fourth year, and I saw her standing on the train platform and it just…it hit me right there, all of a sudden." He let out a quiet, disbelieving laugh. "You know, I thought my knees were gonna give out on me right then and there."

I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun. She almost shivered again as she remembered the thrill she had felt hearing him say that under the orange-golden light of that Chinese restaurant in Hogsmeade. He couldn't have meant it like that, she'd immediately whispered to her swirling brain, trying to quiet it. But there'd been something in his eyes, something that looked like he knew why he had pushed out the words, even unconsciously…I saw her standing on the train platform and it just…it hit me right there, all of a sudden.

Al cleared his throat quietly. "He never would've wanted to do this to you, Rose. It…it would kill him just to know."

"I know that," she murmured, still soft from the memory. Her eyes caught on Al's hand over hers, and her eyes traced the veins she could see underneath its surface. "But I can't keep going on like this. Of being so scared to say anything or let myself feel anything." She let out a tiny, desperate breath and whispered, "I feel like I'm going out of my mind."

She felt Al squeeze her hand. "So don't. Set yourself free. Move on."

Her heart suddenly picked up, clamouring in her chest; even in this empty nowhere space of being her entire body still railed against his words.

As if he'd sensed it, Al paused. "Unless, of course, you don't want to."

It wasn't as if Rose hadn't had the same thought a hundred times over. She thought about it, she thought about it all the time, but what would be worse? This feeling never going away, or it actually going away, the space he took up in her mind lessening. It felt like a hole.

Which it was, in a way, she supposed. After all, it wouldn't only be her moving on from how they'd been in the past year, but from seven years of it all. He'd been taking up space in her mind for that long. They could've ignored each other, she suddenly realised. They could've erased the other from their brain, pretended they didn't exist, but instead they had chosen to fight, year after excruciating year. They had never been able to resist the pull to each other.

"I don't even know if it's about want anymore." She remembered what Al had confessed earlier and swallowed. "You said it's so hard. How do you do it?"

Al gave her another sad smile. "Not being around her would always be harder." Less painful, maybe, but infinitely worse.

Rose squeezed Al's hand back. "Ask her to dance, Al."

Al looked at her. She could see him searching her eyes, and maybe he saw something she'd tried to bury deep within them, like the fact that she couldn't take her own advice and it killed her. She felt a light pressure at her waist as he shifted his hold.

"One more song."

Scorpius stood near the edge of the dance floor, just looking. His eyes swept over the band, the singer in front of them, her bright red dress pulling focus towards her as she crooned invitingly into the silver microphone. Most people were swaying lightly on the dance floor, just content to be there, enjoying the bittersweetness of the night.

Scorpius' eyes passed over Toby and Anya. Toby seemed to be devoid of injuries so far, maybe that was why he'd picked a slow song—

His eyes kept moving along the space, and suddenly, they were drawn to a familiar sight standing by the sidelines, an arm wrapped loosely around herself as she watched the dancing crowd.

Scorpius stared at her, pausing, and after a long moment, he finished his drink and put it down. He began to weave his way over, feeling strangely calm — maybe the music was just having that effect on him too — and once he side-stepped the last few people, suddenly he was standing right behind her.

"Any room on that dance card for me?"

He saw Liv freeze, back tensing in recognition. She turned around, her expression stunned. Scorpius watched her search his eyes, wondering, resisting, but after a long moment she nodded, and took the hand that Scorpius was offering, allowing him to lead her out onto the floor.

Once they were there, though, it was obvious that Liv didn't know how to be; she placed her hands stiffly on Scorpius' shoulders, barely clasping him and standing a little too far away to be comfortable. Scorpius only gave her a little smile before moving her hands to rest lightly around his neck, and he felt her arms tighten reflexively in response as she took a step closer.

Liv's eyes were still filled with questions, but he let them sway for a few moments before he looked up above them, casting his eyes around the room. "So what do you think?"

Liv followed his gaze. After a moment she said, "It's beautiful. You guys…you guys couldn't have done a better job."

"High praise from someone with such an eye for design."

She looked like she wanted to smile, but didn't dare let herself. He could see a glimpse of a glimmer in her eyes — design meant that much to her, and he remembered how little he'd ever talked to her about it, how little he'd tried — but any hint of such a smile suddenly folded, and she looked at the floor.

"I know you hate me," she said quietly, her voice smaller than Scorpius had ever heard it.

He sighed. "For fuck's sake, Liv, I could never hate you."

Her eyes flicked up to his, a spark of hopefulness in them, but it seemed clear that she was trying to squash it. "I do." She soon cast her gaze away, unable to look at him. "The way I lashed out at you that night, I…I was upset about Horatio, and…and…" Her gaze moved to a specific spot in the room and held there, and Scorpius blinked, suddenly thinking that he knew exactly where she was looking.

She finally looked back at him and sighed. "The content was true — mostly — but the execution was a little…"

"Charged?"

Liv's eyes took in the little smile pricking at his lips, and she let out a shaky laugh before nodding regretfully.

"I never blamed you for it, Liv. Not at all." Scorpius paused. "How could you be in the wrong when everything you said was right?"

Her eyes widened in surprise, and Scorpius took a breath, finally, to steel himself for this.

"Liv, I never should've asked you to Hogsmeade."

It was like a pressure had been exhaled from his lungs the moment the words had left him, like he'd finally been able to put down a burden that he'd been holding for years. "Not when I knew how you felt about me, what it would mean to you if we went together."

Liv was quiet, and for a brief second Scorpius considered clarifying that he was talking about fourth year, that first time, but from the way she was reacting to it, he thought she already knew what he meant.

After a long moment, Liv nodded. "You weren't going to," she said, so quietly. "I knew you weren't going to."

She smiled ruefully. "That's why I dropped so many hints. I didn't actually want to try that French place." She paused with a soft sigh. "But I would've gone anywhere with you."

Scorpius looked at her, feeling his heart buzzing. Of course he'd always known that she was in love with him, how could he have not?

"The food was pretty good though," he said after a moment, lightly.

"Yeah," Liv agreed softly. "Shame it went out of business."

Scorpius looked at her in surprise. "It did?"

Liv nodded, smiling sadly. "Last year." She sighed. "How fitting."

Scorpius gave her a wry look. "Are you really comparing us to that snooty, overpriced restaurant?"

She laughed, but it barely lessened the tension in her; Scorpius could feel it in the arms around his neck.

So he took another breath, the humour fizzling out of him. "I should've been honest with you, Liv. From the beginning. It was unfair, and you were right; you never did anything to deserve that." Some strands of her hair had come loose from where she'd pinned it up, waved in a classic flapper look to match her dress, and he reached out and tucked it gently behind her ear. He felt the tiniest shudder go through her at his touch.

"You deserve better than me, Liv. You always have."

She hadn't broken eye contact with him once. From the way she was looking up at him, mesmerised, maybe she couldn't. He saw the movement of her chest as she exhaled, and felt the weight and warmth of her forearms as she finally let them rest on him.

She looked down and smiled, the soft expression on her face enough to thaw any heart. "You know, it took me seven years to face the fact that you can't convince someone to love you." She paused and then amended remorsefully, "You can't even get them to want you."

She looked up at him. "Because I didn't want you to ask me to Hogsmeade, Scorp. I just wanted you to want me." She turned her face a little away before she said quietly, "You don't get the monopoly on being unfair here."

"But I was always so good at Monopoly."

Liv's eyes flickered back to his, a hint of dryness within them before she relented with a smile. "You were, actually. I hated playing with you."

"Hey, I never wanted to play that game. Toby was the one who was obsessed with it."

"He just wanted to beat you." Liv smiled at the memory. "I just wanted a break from My Fair Lady."

Scorpius couldn't help but laugh at that, and his gaze instinctively swept the room for a top hat. "He played that movie all summer," he reminisced, shaking his head. "I'm surprised your parents didn't throw out your TV set by the end of it."

"I'm surprised they didn't throw him out instead."

Scorpius laughed, but he caught her tone; the fondness beneath her words was clear, and it was obvious that the last thing she'd wanted was for Toby to have been sent away. Liv had gone quiet again, but Scorpius wondered if it was because he had inadvertently brought up her parents. None of them ever did, by unspoken rule.

Liv looked deep in thought, so it wasn't a surprise when she swallowed and began, softly, "You know, sometimes it felt like you and Toby were all I had. But I…" She paused, shifting her arms before she started again. "It wasn't right of me to project all of my troubles on you, to ask you to hold all of the…shit I was going through. You could never have replaced my family, and I should never have tried to make you." She sighed, giving a small shrug of her shoulders. "You were just a kid, too."

Scorpius was silent for a while as he took it all in. Despite her words, he still felt some guilt bubbling within him.

"What are friends for?" he asked finally. He paused, capturing her gaze. "You needed me, Liv. There's nothing wrong with needing someone."

He suddenly recalled fifth year, when things had really gotten bad at home. Scorpius could remember the amount of times Liv had shown up at his door — he'd barely managed to get a word out before her lips had been against his, the door slamming shut behind her. There had been a franticness to her, a desperation that she'd never said but conveyed in the only way she thought she could with him. Maybe she'd just needed to feel something else, or to feel in control of something else. Scorpius knew when those times were; he spent them all on his back.

It really wasn't a wonder that their relationship had been so screwed up, when Scorpius really thought about it. Neither of them had ever quite felt comfortable expressing their feelings in ways that weren't physical; Scorpius remembered how he'd sought her out too in times he wasn't proud of. Their fights had dissolved in much the same way — there was something about the anger, the goading and taunting and getting into each other's space that had set them off again, and maybe falling back into that familiar pattern had been easier than trying to actually sort any of their issues out. A part of Scorpius, however small, had needed her too.

Maybe they'd been exactly what the other had needed them to be: the monster that kissed and wrapped its arms around you, and made you forget all about the ones hiding underneath the bed.

Liv's mouth formed a smile. "It came through," she said, and her words pulled him back into the conversation. "The emancipation. I'll be staying with my aunt and uncle over the summer, and then…maybe I'll see about getting my own place after I've built up some money from work." Toby had mentioned that Liv would be starting her first stint in interior design, revamping old buildings in London by the middle of July.

Scorpius' eyes roamed over her face, taking her in. "I'm proud of you," he said softly.

The song ended — how many songs had it been? — and there was some applause before the band slowly started up again for another. Neither he nor Liv had pulled away.

Liv smiled at him, a fully genuine smile. "I haven't had the chance to congratulate you for LIH," she said, her tone lightening. "Not that there was ever a doubt in my mind, of course."

The question of whether she knew about Rose briefly flashed through his head, but he only allowed a small smile to touch his lips. "Thanks, Liv."

She considered for a moment. "Head Boy and Head Girl both heading off to the most prestigious medical school in Britain, huh?"

Scorpius stared at her, and then, upon seeing the look in her eye, opened his mouth to say, "Liv-"

"Can you honestly tell me you won't regret it for the rest of your life?"

Scorpius stopped. His mind rattled with her words, impossible to ignore under the intensity of her gaze, and he finally sighed out a long, defeated breath.

"It's not about me, Liv. For fucking once, I'm not making it about me." Maybe that was a way of saying that, Yes, of course he would. He would regret it every moment of every day.

"Of course it's about you," Liv said. "Because if it was about her, you never would've let her go." She paused. "You can make it out like you're punishing yourself for what happened with us, or because you're doing it for her own good, or even that she deserves better. But you and I both know what the real reason is." She stared him directly in the eyes. "You're terrified, Scorpius Malfoy. You're scared out of your fucking mind, and you're running away."

The world felt like it had stopped spinning. They too had stopped moving; they weren't even dancing anymore. Scorpius couldn't have tried even if he'd wanted to.

Liv looked down. "I know I didn't help matters with what I said that night, but I was just so—" She stopped for a moment, and she shut her eyes for a breath before continuing in a quieter, calmer voice. "I was so mad at you, for making me feel like I was the one who had to be sorry, for making me feel like I should be grovelling for some shit-for-brains like Horatio, and then there was…everything that had happened with…with Toby…" Scorpius' eyes flickered up at the sound of his name, still lucid enough to register his surprise.

Liv paused for a long while, both of them silently entrenched in their own thoughts.

"I didn't really believe those things I said," she admitted finally. "I knew they held enough truth to…to hurt you, especially where you and I were concerned. I knew I could get into your head. But...with her…" She hesitated, and Scorpius looked up. "It won't be like that with her," Liv said after a moment, with a quiet confidence. "And I think you know it too. But it was easier to use those other things as an excuse instead of facing what was really going on."

It was a terrifying thing, to be staring into the eyes of someone who seemed to pull the flesh and bone off you until it felt like they were looking straight at your beating heart. Scorpius' brain swam, instinctively searching for the cracks between her words, but they'd planted themselves with all the force of a gravitational pull, because maybe he'd known all along that that's all they'd ever been: excuses, ones that he'd forced to the front of his mind, because those things were tangible, Liv had uttered them to him in a voice that clenched in his gut and filled him with guilt and they made sense. They made so much more sense than the things he couldn't explain, like how he'd never known that there could be this kind of torture, how it could seep into your bones and crush your heart, fill your head until you wanted to scream. No one ever said it was supposed to feel like this, like feeling sick all the time but knowing you would never get better, like every ounce of control was being dragged out of you before you'd even had the chance to try and hold onto it. He was Scorpius Malfoy, and he was above all of these stupid things. It was only the sheep around him who would succumb to things like this, not him. Nothing could touch him.

That's what he'd known, that's what he had built, but it was impossible to believe that anymore, even when he could barely fathom admitting it to himself. Not when…not when the mere thought of her sent his insides scuttling up through his throat, the suggestion of being near her so intoxicating that it was like the best high he could never come down from. Not when he hadn't slept in fucking weeks.

No, nothing had touched him, but something had stuck its hand all the way in and wrenched out everything inside, and he'd only been able to stand there like a stranger in someone else's dream and watch it all happen, until he was left alone with only the wreckage in its wake.

I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.

Maybe he'd never really thought for a second that he was doing this for anyone's good, neither hers nor his. Because if he was trying so hard, if he was doing it for him or her or both of them or for anyone at all, why did it feel like he was fighting himself every step of the way? Why did it feel like it was never going to get any better than this?

When, he thought finally, with a pounding heart, was it going to start feeling fucking right?

Liv hadn't said a word. She was still standing there, studying him. Maybe she could see the look in his eyes, spilling over from the feeling that was thundering through him, and she sighed, her eyes softening before she brought up a hand to skim across his cheek.

"God, you need to sleep," she murmured with a soft smile.

Scorpius looked at her, his eyes, no, everything in him, so tired, and he heaved out a long breath, nodding slowly. He let his eyes close, Liv's featherlight touch still against his face.

At length, he cracked his eyes back open and attempted a small smile. "How come we were never like this when we were together?"

Liv pretended to think on that and mused, "You're right." She paused before nodding a couple of times. "I think we should see other people."

Scorpius exhaled sharply in a laugh, the sound tired but genuine, and shook his head.

Liv smiled too, and he saw as her eyes lingered on his lips, but after a moment, her gaze moved, catching onto something over his shoulder. The same place as before. Scorpius paused; he recognised the look in her eyes, the softening of her gaze. Of course he recognised it, only he was more used to it being directed at him, and he suddenly realised that Liv had not brought a date to this ball.

He continued to watch her, the realisation still hitting him. He had clearly missed when it had happened, but Liv hadn't come alone because of him, suddenly this had nothing to do with him, it was because of—

"Liv. Go for it."

Her gaze snapped back to him, guiltily startled. She could see that he knew straightaway, and her cheeks flushed, her lips pressing together. "Scorpius-"

"It has to be you. He'll never do it."

She was still fighting that tiny smile, but then she drooped a little and shook her head. "I've hurt him so much, Scorp, I have so much making up to do-"

"So start now." He tried for another smile. "You'd better get in there before Anya trods on him in those massive heels and benches him for the rest of the night."

The smile finally broke across her face, her eyes shining, and she laughed and shook her head sheepishly, as if she couldn't quite believe it herself. She looked back at Scorpius, opening her mouth to say something else, but suddenly there was the loud, sharp sound of clinking glass, and they both looked to the orchestra stage to see McGonagall holding up her champagne flute and calling the attention of the room.

"Good evening," she announced with a little smile. "I would say that I hope you are all enjoying the festivities, but by the sounds of things, I think the answer is quite clear." A cheer went up from around the room in response, accompanied by the sound of laughs and scattered applause.

McGonagall gestured behind her, where the orchestra members had paused their playing, and the singer, who had taken a seat by the side. "We have been fortunate enough to have had the pleasure of listening to the lovely voice of Miss Cassandra van Keel. If we could please give a round to show our appreciation for her and for the orchestra, who has come to play for us for the second year running. This evening would not have been a success without their wonderful contribution."

Very enthusiastic applause followed her speech, and Cassandra stood up and raised a modest hand, smiling before she sat back down.

"As it is every year, this room was slaved over by the prefects, every one of them putting in their all to ensure that this evening was the best it could possibly be, and we are all immensely grateful for their dedication. I can only imagine what we will see next year." There was another round of applause for the prefects.

The headmistress paused before she said, "And finally, there are two other individuals who could not be more deserving of our thanks, not only for their contribution to this event, but for their hard work and dedication for the entirety of this year."

Scorpius felt his stomach tighten, especially when he saw Liv's eyes flick in his direction, a little smile on her face.

"We have been exceptionally lucky with our Head Boy and Girl this year, who have approached their work with endless poise and proficiency, balancing the added duties of their positions with grace, which, as I'm sure you all know, is quite a feat given the arduous requirements of a seventh year student. You have all greatly benefited from their contributions both in front of and behind the scenes. We will be sad to lose them this year, but wish them the greatest of successes as they both attend the London Institute of Health in the fall, a fantastic medical school well-deserving of their talents."

Scorpius felt more and more gazes shooting in his direction, but he couldn't look away from McGonagall, his stomach growing tighter and more twisted up the longer she had spoken. Suddenly, her eyes found him in the crowd, and he saw the tiniest of smiles pass across her lips.

"They might not have been the most obvious pair," she continued, and there were little laughs of agreement around the room, "but it only goes to show that even the most unlikely of people can come together, if only they find the reason to."

I have only ever met one person who challenges her in the way that she needs to be challenged.

He felt like he was back in her office again, trapped under her inescapable gaze, and he had the strangest feeling that she was still trying to tell him something, something more than what she had already said.

McGonagall smiled more widely, and raised her glass. "So will you all please give a hand to our Head Girl and Head Boy: Miss Rose Weasley, and Mr Scorpius Malfoy."

You may never again meet another girl like her, but she will never again meet another boy like you.

McGonagall's voice swirled behind his ears, behind his eyes, the memory continuing to ensnare him as he tried to make sense of it, but he was dimly aware of something else building outside his ears, and deliberately tuned into it. The sound barrier broke, and suddenly, a tidal wave of noise slammed into him, and he looked around to see the entire room on its feet, all applauding and cheering wildly, looking at him.

He blinked, still only feeling half-awake, and he turned his head to see Liv, her eyes shining and her lips spread in a wide, beaming smile for him. His head turned the other way, his eyes casting around the room. Toby was whistling through his fingers, Genevieve Chang was some paces away, not looking anywhere near his direction, and then suddenly Al's top hat was in sight, and, and—

His gaze stopped moving entirely, because in the midst of the raucous claps and cheers around her, she was looking at him like the world around her was breaking.

His breath left him — it always did, maybe it always would — and though the sound was still drumming against his ears, it felt hollow again, fighting ineffectively for purchase within his brain, because it might as well have just been her in the room, just her and him together. There was no one else in the world that mattered.

He felt his lips turn up into a smile.

He saw her eyes catch onto it, and it was as if his field of vision suddenly stretched too far and snapped away fully, leaving everything out of focus except for the look on her face. He saw a tremble, a minute shake of her lips, the tiniest hint of her expression as it crumbled—

He watched her turn around and walk away from him, and he knew. Only this time, he didn't fight it.

His legs were moving before he had time to think. The crowd moved for him, or maybe it didn't — he didn't know much of anything, he could barely even feel his feet hitting the ground — but that didn't matter, because he reached the back door that she had slipped out behind, following to where the bright lights of the party gave way to the darkness of the night.

"Rose!"

She didn't turn, though she must've heard his voice; there was nothing else out here.

"Rose!"

He saw her stiffen, but she still didn't stop, and Scorpius felt himself go faster. He had to tell her, he could barely contain himself, he was almost bursting with happiness, and he could tell her right fucking now if only she'd just stop—

"Rose! Oh, for Merlin's sake — Weasley!"

That suddenly stopped her, and Scorpius was forced to skid to a halt as she turned around to face him. The trembling expression was gone, though her chest was slightly heaving as she continued to breathe out short, hard breaths.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Scorpius' heart was thundering. It was one thing to feel as if it were only him and her; it was another thing entirely to be out here alone with her in the darkness.

And then her voice cut through the stillness of the night.

"I can't," she said, with a hint of breathlessness. She shook her head. "Scorpius, I can't do this anymore."

"Rose-"

"No, if you think we're going to have another talk about…about the party decorations, or some stupid float that we put up last year, or…or what McGonagall's childhood must've been like growing up-"

"I'm not-"

"Why do you think I even came out here in the first place? It wasn't for you to come and chase after me, and I know I said "Sure," when you asked if I'd see you later, but you can't actually think that-"

"I'm out here, wearing this ridiculous suit complete with suspenders, and a hat that I'm fairly sure Al Capone wants back. Will you just listen to me for one second?"

Her mouth closed. She was still breathing hard, tension held tight in her rigid frame, but she was quiet. Except now that it was silent, now that he was actually here, he had no idea how to start. The enormity of what he was about to say, what he was about to do, finally hit him, and he just stared at her.

His brain wasn't working; it felt like it had when he'd taken that Bludger for her and ended up in the Hospital Wing, only now he got the feeling that he'd never really left that hospital bed. He still felt battered and broken, covered in bandages with a head like a fucking landmine, waiting for the moment it chose to go off.

Rose sighed. "I'm listening."

He looked at her. Despite the hint of annoyance in her voice, the challenge underlying it, it did little to hide the insecurity in her eyes, the nervousness that they were out here together, and maybe beyond that, the resignation, the disappointment at what was to come, and it killed him all over again, knowing he'd done this to her. He had to say it again, because she had to know how much he meant it.

"Rose, I'm sorry for everything-"

She suddenly let out a sharp exhale, and a tiny, desperate laugh slipped from her lips as she shook her head. "I know, Scorpius, I know you're bloody sorry, but if you think it's going to make any of this better, if you think it's going to give me an ounce of peace after I spent the last few weeks, more than a month even, in…in absolute misery-"

Something finally snapped inside of him, and the landmine erupted.

He gaped at her."You've spent the—you wanna fucking talk misery, Weasley? I haven't slept well in months, I feel like I'm walking around half-awake like a fucking insane person, I've actually forgotten what it feels like to get one decent night's rest, and God, I need it because I feel like my body's gonna give out on me at any goddamn minute, and you know what, I wouldn't even be pissed because I swear to Merlin bodies weren't made to feel this much all the time, and I…I…I spend all my days and nights missing you, and it kills me that I can't do anything about it because it's my fault, and I…"

He paused for a breath, and looked at Rose. She looked like all of the wind had been knocked out of her, like she might sink into the damp, hazy grass beneath them, but if Scorpius stopped now, fuck, he might never fucking say it—

"I think about you all the time, and if you wanna talk peace, well, I haven't felt a speck of it between your laugh, and your voice, and your face in my head all the fucking time. I…I feel like I'm sick, alright? I've never done this before, I've never had to deal with any of this—this, ugh, I don't even fucking know—"

It was kind of awful how fucking good it felt to get it all out, and now that he'd started, like a wretched avalanche, he couldn't stop.

"I can't breathe, Rose. Not when I'm around you, not when you're gone. Not since that night. I feel like I'm suffocating with this constant, gaping hole in my chest that nothing ever seems to fill, and I don't even know if I'm happy or miserable when I'm around you anymore, but, fuck, it doesn't change the fact that I want to be around you all the time, all the fucking time, and I don't—"

The words almost slipped out, instinctively; the last ounce of control that his body refused to relinquish. And I don't know why.

But they stayed in, because he knew. Of course he knew why.

So Rose opened her mouth to say what the both of them were thinking, because she was braver; because she knew he wouldn't.

"You're in love with me."

And there it was.

There was an unbearable silence then, Rose's words hanging in the air between them, but both of them knew it wasn't because she was wrong. It was because the moment those words had left her lips, something between them — no, something in the very fabric of the Earth itself — had shifted, and there had never been anything more right in the world.

Scorpius blinked, exhaling softly. "I guess I am."

He suddenly felt a tiny, sheepish smile pricking at his lips, and he shook his head in bewilderment before he looked up at her. He wanted to kiss her so badly, wanted to close the few steps between them and take her into his arms, but something still felt wrong. He'd heard her let out a long breath at his admission, and she was still looking at him, but she wasn't smiling; her expression was partly masked by the darkness, but he could tell that much.

It still seemed as if she was waiting for something, and with a start, Scorpius realised what it was.

With a sigh, he finally admitted, "I'm no good at this, Rose. This…this…feelings stuff. I'm not good at having feelings like this. They terrified me, Rose, scared me absolutely shitless, so I ran, but I told myself that I was doing it for you, so that made it okay, somehow." He felt the little smile ghost over his lips again, the small, helpless shrug of his shoulders. "They should've kept me away, I know. I…I should've just tried to cut you out of my life, but I couldn't. I couldn't bear not being around you, or…or talking to you, or hearing you talk to me, because when I think about the rest of my life, I just…I just see your face over and over again."

Scorpius could feel himself shaking, but he didn't regret any of it. The relief he felt that he was no longer carrying all of this, no longer overwhelmed by the constant weight of keeping it away from the world, was just too great. He'd put it out into the universe now, and held it out to her on a silver platter.

Another endless moment of silence passed, and then finally he saw Rose's expression shift. She took a step towards him, and he held his breath.

"It would've been easier," she said softly. "To just cut each other out of our lives. If only…"

"If only what, Weasley?" he whispered, smiling.

She took that last step between them so they were standing face-to-face. "If only you hadn't turned out to be so wonderful," she murmured with a sigh.

Scorpius felt himself laugh — the sound was almost giddy in its joyousness, he felt drunk out of his mind, he had no idea what it was to laugh like this and be so deliriously happy — and that was when he kissed her, cupping her face with his hands and joining them together. There was nothing else like it, kissing her and having her in his arms again, and the happiness continued to burst inside of him, pure energy surging through his veins, through his very being, and he lifted her off the ground.

A laugh bubbled out of her lips and into the air as he twirled her, and it was the most wonderful sound he'd ever heard. The sweet, flowery scent of her perfume intoxicated the night around them, just as heavenly as he remembered.

He finally set her down, though her arms stayed around his neck, and when she caught his eye and blushed, it called directly to that warm part of his heart, snaking around it until the whole thing was pulsing a brilliant, galvanising red, lighting up his entire chest.

"Hey."

He pulled away from her, studying those shining, glorious eyes, and his expression suddenly turned serious. "You don't think you're in love with me too, do you?"

Rose sighed. "Oh, I hope not."

"And why's that?"

She grinned impishly, tightening her hold around his neck. "I'm not as good at speech-making as you are."

He laughed again, the sadness, the regret, the turmoil of a few minutes ago already nothing but a vague ghost of a memory, and he heard her quiet giggle join him. The night wasn't warm, but she was, and he couldn't help but marvel again at how perfectly she fit against him, how perfectly she had always fit there.

Her fingers brushed against the nape of his neck. "So the next five years, huh?"

A slow smile began to work its way across his face. "Looks like."

They had so much more time, they had forever, and out here, the world was the most beautiful and the strangest it had ever been. He wondered if she could feel it too, the night air humming with hope and promises, and finally calm. Scorpius had never felt more alive — he'd never been so happy to be alive.

He took her in again, still in awe at the sight of her, and he carefully brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. "You look beautiful, Weasley, by the way." He sighed, smiling wryly. "You almost gave me a heart attack, you know."

Rose smiled, her fingers sneaking downwards to tug at his suspenders, and her eyes roamed over his suit, his dress pants and shoes, before her gaze finally returned to his face, and she said quietly, with another smile, "Nice hat."

"I knew you'd think so."

Scorpius cut off the mock-gasp she let out with another kiss, the laugh dying in her throat as she made a little noise and sighed, the sound shooting straight through him. Her hands crept up into his hair, and he felt his hat leave his head, thudding softly onto the grass, and her lips smiled against his, but he barely spared it a thought, especially when her fingers clutched and her mouth parted for him. Scorpius felt like he was drowning in the kiss, deeper and deeper, but oblivion was glorious. He didn't need air; he only needed her.

She broke away when they were both dizzy and breathless, her forehead resting against his. Scorpius' eyes were closed as he breathed in and out, but then he felt the weight of her leave him, and he blinked them open.

Her face was suddenly shrouded in seriousness. Her eyes searched his, and she said, "This relationship can't just be on your terms, you know." She took a deep breath. "You can't just run away again."

Scorpius nodded. "I know." He looked at her, his chest so light it almost felt as if he were floating, like it could never have weighed anything at all. "I'm not going anywhere, Weasley."

"Good," she whispered. She shook her head. "I never want you to go away again."

It wasn't fear in her eyes, not terror, but it broke his heart just the same, hearing the honesty that bled from her quiet voice, honesty that betrayed how unbearable the past month had been for her. He couldn't take it back, but he stroked a gentle hand down her face, tucking her hair behind her ears, grazing his thumb over her temple. She shivered, and he brought her hands up and entwined them with his, warming them.

"I'm sorry for being scared," he whispered.

"It's okay to be scared," she whispered back.

He trailed his fingers along the insides of her wrists, up her arms, tingling across her skin. He almost felt out of body, but he couldn't be, because he could see everything, feel everything with so much clarity, so much vibrancy that he thought his body was going to burst from it all. Maybe it was just the believing part that he was having trouble with.

"I do love you, you know," he murmured instinctively. He'd never said the words aloud; they had swirled around in his head for months, pooling between his ears as his mind had done its best to dance around them and ignore their existence, but somehow saying them now gave them an entirely different colour, simultaneously the most natural thing in the world and yet something completely different and new.

Rose paused, and then her face slowly lit up into a small beam, so gloriously happy that she was still trying to contain it. She pulled herself closer, and her smile was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. "Say it again."

His skin was searing, his chest singing. He leaned in so their lips were brushing, so she could feel the way the words formed, how they felt as they left his. So she could have them as soon as they drew breath.

"I love you."

He could've easily said it again, he could've said it a hundred times and meant it more and more every single time.

She sighed, and then a grin slipped onto her face. "See? That wasn't so hard."

"Don't look so smug, Weasley."

"But you love me."

"I do," he murmured.

"Hey," Rose whispered. "I love you too."

The shock was only there for a moment before it morphed into a beam that positively dazzled, and Scorpius twirled her around again with another radiant laugh, and no, only now he had no idea how it felt to be this happy, this alive. It was as if all of the cosmic forces in the universe had suddenly aligned to make this moment possible, this moment of happiness that no one else could've possibly felt before, because nothing bad could ever happen in the world if everyone felt like this.

The party was still going on inside the castle, the dim noises of celebration in the distance marking their last seven years, but Scorpius was right where he wanted to be; in this moment, out here, it felt like the world belonged to them, and they had all the time that it could offer.

A/N:

AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

In all seriousness, thank you for being so patient with me while I got this mammoth of a final chapter out, and thank you so much for sticking with me through this long long looooong period. The first chapter went up in 2015, and here we are 6 years later. Thank you for all of the reviews, follows, favourites and messages that always end up making my day, and for putting up with the fact that an unholy amount of my chapter titles come from Fall Out Boy songs. Case in point, chapter titles come from Fall Out Boy's America's SuiteHearts and Fun's Some Nights. Fun fact: the night that inspiration for this fic struck i.e. where I stayed up outlining this entire thing chapter by chapter, I had America's SuiteHearts playing on a loop, so it feels sort of poetic and circular that I'm ending the fic using the opening lyrics to that song. Along a similar vein, I had four songs basically on repeat for various portions of this chapter to help put me in the right mood: Sia's I'm in Here (the piano-vocal version), Postmodern Jukebox's cover of Stay With Me, Nothing But Thieves' Real Love Song, and Once There Were Dragons from HTTYD 3.

It seems silly, but finishing this story has become a really big deal to me, and it means the world that so many of you are still here; it makes it all the more special ❤

Now that this fic is done, I'll be moving wholeheartedly onto working on some original stuff that's been stewing in my mind for a long time, which I'm hopefully better equipped to tackle now that I've had some 260,000 words to work on my craft a little more! As some of you have expressed interest in my work past this fic (❤❤❤), I may post some info on here if anything ever happens in that regard (possibly as a temporary chapter), so if you are interested, don't unfollow this story just yet :P

But anyways, for the last time, thank you for all of your time, it's been a blast ❤❤❤

~ Rach

Q: Who fell in love first, Rose or Scorpius?

A: For me, it's always Scorpius. Always.

Q: [Carry-over from chp. 21] Lol I relate to scorpius in a spiritual level, he is awesome. Btw will we ever get to see his patronus in the fic? If not what is it?

A: Take 2! I did end up scrapping the entire scene for good as I couldn't find a way to organically work it or any of its parts into the story, but this was how it was supposed to play out (you totally didn't ask for a description but I'm still sad I couldn't put it in the fic so I'm taking this opportunity to share it lmao I'm sorry): basically Scorp asks John Wyatt how he'd ended up at Hogwarts and John tells him that Dumbledore found him decades ago in some rich American's attic, and because he liked him so much he brought him back with him. Scorp says something like, "I can see why Dumbledore liked you," and John replies that he thinks Dumbledore would've taken a shining to Scorp as well. Scorp then asks John if he knows what Dumbledore's Patronus was, and John says he heard it was a phoenix, but he doesn't know for sure, and he's never heard of anyone having the same. So Scorp thinks back to when he'd practiced in an abandoned classroom all alone, finally seeing a bird emerge and thinking it was an eagle at first, but then realising what it was, and he conjures one up for John (thinking about Rose obviously; see what I mean about the excessive cheesiness?) and John's just like, "Well, I'll be damned." (Tl;dr: It's a phoenix.)

Q: Omg I just thought of a really interesting question. What do you think would be the characters Disney theme songs?

A: GREAT QUESTION. I'd actually never given any thought to this, but it was amazing how quickly these came to mind! So: Scorpius = Strangers Like Me (it's ridiculous how perfect this song is for him), Rose = Almost There, Al = A Star is Born (the Jocelyn Brown version), Gen = I Won't Say I'm in Love or I'm Still Here, Liv = I Wonder or Part of Your World, and Toby = Stand Out or True to Your Heart (honestly, Toby was made for Disney songs, I could also say A Whole New World, Friend Like Me, or The Bare Necessities).

Q: What do you think are the main cast's greatest character flaws?

A: Oh, I love this question! I was asked this in regards to Rose and Scorpius specifically a while back, so to repeat my answers for them first: Scorpius = unless he likes you, finds you the least bit interesting, or wants something from you, you are essentially meaningless to him, and he will treat you as such; Rose = her fear of failure and how much her self-esteem and worth is dependent on her successes (she gets that from her mother, I'm afraid). And then: Al = incapable of picking sides, I think he's also guilty of too often just letting things happen to him instead of being more active in his life; Gen = stubborn and bullheaded, also definitely see her as a grudge-holder; Toby = too much of a doormat, and more importantly, doesn't consider his own happiness to be as important as other people's; Liv = jealous, overly reliant on validation from others, and when she doesn't get it, tends to lash out.

Q: Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that Rose is the character with the most love interests even tho she is never actually trying? Damn you Rose, getting guys just by being yourself.

A: lmao agreed can't relate

Q: yo the only characters who doesn't seem to be suffering in this fic are Gen and Al; they are the most drama-free. I don't know why it took till now to realize how intense this Rose/Scorpius/Liv/Toby situation actually is. Is this a love square or two separate love triangles Scorpius is part of ? (poor ScorpiusXD)

A: They definitely had their fill of it a couple of chapters back, but yes, overall, they've gotten off pretty lightly! Hmm. Interesting point! Definitely not a love square; Rose and Scorpius' relationship issues are their own beast regardless of Scorpius being influenced by his previous relationship with Liv. Now, Scorpius may appear to unwittingly be in a love triangle between him, Liv and Toby but I hesitate to see it that way because 1) Scorpius doesn't have romantic feelings towards Liv, nor does he ever want to be with her romantically again, and 2) Liv's feelings for Toby only really ever materialised once her and Scorpius' relationship had broken down. So because the two options were never viable at the same time for Liv, I think that discounts the whole love triangle thing.

Q: I love scorpius so much but honestly i'm really glad that toby kind of put him in his place here (in typical toby angel fashion ofc). but i want to know does toby think anything less of scorpius because of everything that happened with him and liv?

A: No, I don't think so. He's probably been very frustrated over the years because he knows that Scorpius has never and will never love Liv the way that she has loved him, but I think he took out a lot of his frustrations on Liv because in his mind it's almost like, "Why do you love someone so much who barely wants to give you the time of day?" as opposed to being mad at Scorpius for the way that Liv feels about him. Let Me Love You by Mario (the Glee cover is better though imo) is a great song for Toby — it sums up his feelings perfectly (in my headcanon, when he's feeling all angsty and dramatic he'd fantasise about singing this to her, boyband style, and then feel a little guilty later on).

(Also "angel fashion" omfg I love it.)

Q: One question I have is how different/similar are liv's feelings for toby and scorpius respectively?

A: Ooh what a great question! I would say that her feelings — and the root of her feelings — differ pretty significantly. Liv's love for Scorpius was a very intense, all-consuming type of love, probably even a love-at-first-sight kind of love. But I think Liv only loved the idea of Scorpius, or his potential, and her love for him obscured the person that he actually was when they were together. I guarantee that if you asked Liv why she loved Scorpius, she wouldn't be able to tell you. With Toby (and I'm going to answer this as if they've developed more in their relationship and are actually together at this point), it was much more of a slow burn, my-eyes-have-been-opened kind of love. There's a genuine connection and mutual respect between them; Toby fully gets her in a way that Scorpius never did, and she knows that. I think when she started seeing him through a romantic lens, he'd do little things and it would freak her out in that she'd suddenly be like, Oh shit, why am I getting butterflies when all he did was roll his sleeves up? So yes, definitely the kind of feelings that creep up on you and then suddenly it's too late to back out lmao. And if you asked Liv why she loves Toby, she would be able to spout out about twenty-five things without even thinking about it, and that's the real difference between them. (Also thank you so much for your lovely review, I'm so happy that you like these characters ❤❤)

Q: Tbh sometimes I think Scorpius and Liv take Toby for granted. They don't deserve his kindness on some occasions and I am glad they are starting to realise it.

A: Hmm, I'm not sure how much I agree with this. Scorpius has always been almost hyperaware of Toby's goodness in contrast to his own, but Scorpius has never done anything to even risk hurting Toby — he loves him that much. Although Scorpius does tell Rose in Chp. 19 that he wonders why Toby even chose to be his friend, he's kind of an unreliable narrator because he sees himself in such a poor light; Rose is a far more objective narrator who can clearly see why Toby loves Scorpius too. With regards to Liv, to Scorpius' knowledge, Toby didn't have feelings for her anymore (because he outright told Scorpius that that was the case despite having the perfect avenue to tell him otherwise) and he would never have entered into a romantic relationship with her if he thought that that wasn't the case. Liv is a little different. In a general sense, Liv gives as good as she gets with Toby because they have that banterous type of relationship. On a more serious level, Toby gives Liv so much extra slack because he's in love with her and he can't help it, so I don't think we can blame her for that or for not being able to return the extent of his allowances. However, she handled Toby's feelings for her very poorly and selfishly, and she has definitely realised this now (and, like she tells Scorpius, how much she needs to do to make up for it).

Q: who does scorpius love more, rose or toby?

A: Scorpius wouldn't choose, so neither will I. (Also, pleasantly surprised by this influx of Toby-related questions!)

Q: What was your favorite scene to write? What scene was the easiest to get through? And which one was most difficult? Either emotionally speaking or creatively.

A: Ooh this is such a fun question, and kind of super cathartic to reflect on the entire fic as a whole now that I'm done writing it. That being said, though, a lot of the scenes that I come up with will inevitably be from later chapters, just because they're the most readily accessible to me. I also couldn't stick to one scene per question, sorry! As for my favourite scene to write, I loved gearing up for their first kiss in Chp. 16, so that entire bit in the Astronomy Tower does stick out to me. I also loved writing Chp. 17's closing scene. One of my personal favourite scenes is when Rose goes into the Apparition exam and has that little moment of hearing Scorpius' instructions in her head while basically ignoring the examiner's; it wasn't planned, just something that happened very organically, and there's just something I really love about that small moment. Easiest scene(s) to get through actually took me completely by surprise when writing it (them): I banged out the Liv/Scorp and then Scorp/Rose ending scenes in Chp. 20 in a day over two 3-hr writing sessions, and they ultimately required very little editing. Scorpius and Claudia's ~scene~ in Chp. 21 also came very naturally despite how heavy it was (Scorp's a fuckin mess in that scene, man). I think maybe my brain just loves writing drama lmao. Case in point, Scorp and Liv's final scene spouted out of me like a fucking waterfall, all 3000 words of it. Hmm, now, for the difficult scenes. The Liv/Rose scene in this chapter was especially difficult and definitely took me longer than expected, same for the Rose/Al scene. I can't forget the Quidditch scenes in Chp. 17 — they were super dense content-wise, and I think I've admitted before to just inventing/improvising all those plays, so it was definitely a slog to get through. The other scene that comes to mind is Scorpius' late night introspective scene in Chp. 20 — there was a kind of challenge inherent in being able to express Scorpius' feelings in a way that struck the balance between what Scorpius could and wanted to identify in that moment versus what his true feelings and the true fear about the situation with Rose really was. Hope that answered your question! Thank you so much for asking it — I'm so touched that any part of my writing process interested you enough to do so — and for your lovely comment and support for this story ❤❤❤

Q: Since someone asked who does Scorpius love more between Toby and Rose, I am gonna ask who does Liv love more, Toby or Scorpius?

A: You guys like these kinda questions, huh? :P Liv likes Toby more, but she loves Scorpius more. Tbh I would argue that she doesn't even love Toby at this point; but when she does, I think she'll love Toby more. (It's a difficult question though, because she loves them so differently that it's almost too hard to compare.)

Q: look i love scorpius and all that but realistically speaking he was not only a terrible boyfriend to Liv (she had her own faults ofc but that doesn't make it better) but also a lame ass friend to Toby. how blind do you have to be to not realize your best friend has been in love with your "girlfriend" for 7 damn years. the least you could do is give him some appreciation and not indirectly to someone else but to toby himself. the same applies to liv honestly. just because you understand you fucked up and do not deserve him as a friend doesn't make it okay. go apologize to him and be there for him like he was for you. toby has absolutely no reason to deal with scorpius' and liv's shit, which ironically they brought on themselves but he still does because he's an actual decent human being who cares for his friends. and how do you show your gratitude? you just expect him to be there and comfort you even though he is hurting just as much as you are. but oh hey, who cares for toby's feelings right? i don't hate scorpius and liv, actually i think these flaws make them genuinely well-written characters but their treatment of toby is just infuriating. liv said to scorpius in ch. 20 "is that how you repay people who love you", well i could ask her the same thing. my advice for them both is to stop swallowing in their bubble of self-pity and self-loathing and do something to improve as people. if you feel like you don't deserve someone, try to be better a person for yourself first and then for that someone who cares for you. this also applies to scorpius' dilemma about rose. I've never been this invested in a fanfic before but i guess this just speaks on how great your writing is. cannot wait for the next chapter

A: Damn, I gotta say, I opened this first thing in the morning and was not quite prepared for it! It was also interesting timing since I received this review about a week after I'd laid out my plan for that Scorp/Toby scene, so it did sort of serve as a little reminder about the importance of what I'd just written. Disclaimer: I wrote my answer to this question before properly planning out Scorpius and Liv's final scene, so I hope a lot of this has been answered in-story, but this answer took me a while so I didn't want to delete it lmao. With that being said, onto the fun stuff! WARNING: LONG ANSWER POST.

While Scorpius was absolutely written to have glaring shortcomings as a person — like, seriously, I have been saying for ages that Scorpius is a fucking dum-dum — I feel like I need to defend my boy a little here. Liv and Scorpius were terrible to each other, terrible by virtue of being together; Liv was essentially trying to force Scorpius into loving her, while Scorpius was just not interested in that at all. Both terrible decisions, both terrible participants in a terrible relationship, so I'm not going to ladle the blame more on one side than the other. With Toby, there's far more to unpack. With regards to Scorpius not knowing that Toby was in love with Liv, well, Toby kinda hit the nail on the head already in Chp. 21: Scorpius never saw Liv as being worthy of love, so he never fathomed that someone else would love her. Feelings, you might have noticed, are very difficult for Scorpius, and he tends to become a bit of an idiot who inadvertently hurts people when said feelings are involved. And honestly, although Toby has been in love with Liv, he has also been incredibly frustrated with her over the years watching her dedicate herself so fully to someone who was never interested in dedicating himself to her, so this comes out often in their interactions. Scorpius would've seen a lot of sniping banter between the two, and when you compound that with Toby being incredibly supportive of Liv and Scorpius making up as quickly as possible, and Scorp's aforementioned dum-dum tendencies, maybe Scorp's understanding of the situation is more, well, understandable.

Liv, however, knowing the depth of Toby's feelings and still hurting him in that way is much less forgivable, in my opinion. That girl has a HELL of a lot of making up to do (she will do it, though). I also have to say that, despite the fact that Toby is a saint and can do very little wrong in my eyes, he also has a hand in all of this. Toby allows himself to suffer at the hands of others because — as I wrote a few answers up — he doesn't value his happiness as highly as the happiness of the people that he loves, namely, Scorpius and Liv. Toby had every chance to tell Scorpius of his feelings for Liv, or tell Liv of his feelings for her, without upsetting Scorpius because he knew that Scorpius never had genuine feelings for her, but he didn't. Scorpius has never been self-sacrificial in that way, and therefore doesn't really have the cognition to recognise it, especially to the extent that Toby has been doing it. And yes, I always meant for that line from Liv to come off as incredibly hypocritical; I mean the girl knows how much it hurts to be in love with someone who doesn't love you back and to crave that positive attention from someone who will likely never give it, yet she still inflicts that on someone else?

Anyway, that's sort of where I stand in all of this. I'd be very interested to see what you think now that this fic has ended and everything has been settled (with the rest having to be done offscreen, as it were). I also wanted to thank you for taking the time to write such a lengthy review with some really fascinating takes! I actually love replying to reviews like this. I'm also so happy that you like the fic and are so invested in it (seriously, it's just about the greatest compliment that a writer can receive ❤) — I hope you enjoyed its ending!

Q: will gen ever forgive scorp for what he did to rose?

A: I'm so happy that this question was asked because I totally have a headcanon for the way that Scorp and Gen's relationship plays out. For a long time: no. Despite the fact that Rose has forgiven him and he clearly makes her incredibly happy, I think the relationship would be very frosty and perfunctory on Gen's part, and they basically just get along and make small talk because they know it means something to Rose. Something very dramatic would have to happen in order for there to be a shift in their relationship. Sooooo...in my personal headcanon, the catalyst comes when Gen's water breaks, and Scorpius happens to be the only one there (say Rose and Al conveniently dipped out to the shops) and that boy SPRINGS into action and basically single-handedly delivers that baby on the floor. And then Gen shows up at his and Rose's door a few weeks later and is like, "I heard you like horror movies," and because Al is too scared to watch them and Rose merely tolerates them, it kinda becomes their thing. (They mainly enjoy shit-talking the dumb characters.)

Q: scorpius is my favourite character so please describe him in 3 words

A: Actual Human Disaster.

Q: forget scorp, toby is the man you need in life

A: Are You There, God? It's Me, Scorpius Malfoy.

Q: who is your fav character in the fic and in the Harry Potter series in general? my fav is Scorpius but I also have a soft spot for Toby and in Harry Potter my fav is Luna or Dumbledore ( tbh movie draco is so much more enjoyable than book draco so I also have a soft spot for him)

A: Great question! I mean, it feels basic to say that Rose and Scorpius are probably my favourites...but they're probably my favourites. Scorp does edge out Rose slightly for me just because of how much I love writing him and how much more I can empathise with him. But my love for the two of them is like the difference in the way that dog owners love their dogs and cat owners love their cats, you know? With Rose, I'm like, This is my angel, Rose, she's Head Girl, brimming with integrity, and is going to do amazing things in life. This is Scorpius, he's a bastard, and I love him more than life itself. HP-wise, I see countless posts of people being like, In Harry Potter No One's Favourite Character Is Harry Potter — well, MINE is. Harry's always been my favourite by a long shot; I think he's the best written, the most complex, the most realistic, the perfect mixture between empathetic and idgaf, and he's fucking hilarious (side note: I implore anyone who's only going off the movies and thinks that Harry is dry to at the very least look up some passages from the book). Fandom-wise though, James and Lily hands down; granted, I haven't read it in years, but Marauder!Era fic is just *chef's kiss*

Q: if liv truly loves toby she needs to do something because he will probably start moving on and then it's over

A: She's gettin' there dw. (But to be honest, Toby's had seven years to try and get over her; it ain't happening any time soon.)

Q: I think I know how all the characters would look like irl except for Toby. What does he look like?

A: Funnily enough, Toby is basically the only character who I could map onto a rl person (I've been meaning to change the image for the fic on the site for years since I don't actually see Rose or Scorpius looking like Holland Roden or Alex Pettyfer at all, but I'm too lazy). I like to think that, like Scorpius, he has the structure of an aristocratic face, but it's tempered by having very pretty, open features. I picture a very boyish, puppy-dog kinda face that just exudes happiness, so my go-to is usually (a clean-shaven) Sebastian Stan.

Q: do you think scorpius and liv have fooled around with too many people? also does liv really love Toby or is he just a rebound because she couldn't have scorpius? it would break my heart if it was the latter

A: Definitely less than you might think. And as for whether Liv loves Toby, see my previous answers above. (Your heart is safe :P)

Q: despite liv cheating on scorpius I think she would be a dedicated girlfriend with a guy who likes her back

A: I agree :)

Q: Maybe this Time is the PERFECT song for liv, wow. and yes! glee superiority haha

A: I know that this review was for Chp. 20, but I wanted to add that I basically had the piano-vocal version of Sia's I'm in Here on repeat when I was writing Rose and Liv's scene (and then basically non-stop for the rest of the chapter when I realised what a writing mood it put me in) and I think it's the song that really gets to the core of Liv's character, maybe even more than Maybe This Time.

Q: I just finished rereading the fic and I can't believe Liv really wanted to have a romance with a guy like Scorpius. I mean I know they say love makes you blind but Scorpius was straight up selfish, toxic and even abusive. I can't blame her for cheating on him but also I cannot understand why would she fall in love with someone like him in the first place. I love Scorpius as a character btw but his behavior towards Liv was just disgusting. Also I don't think Liv is in the right for cheating on him. The decent thing to do was just break it off. And finally they are both terrible friends to Toby. I honestly think they owe him an apology for being trash friends. However I gotta say, despite being so flawed Scorpius and Liv are easily the best written characters in the fic.

A: You got some feelings, man, and all valid! That said, I hope that this chapter (as well as the mega-lengthy answer to this same topic a few questions above!) was able to clear up some of your grievances with Scorpius, Liv and their respective behaviours. And thank you for your last comment! Scorpius and Liv are very complex people who are an absolute pleasure to write for, and I'm glad that I could do them some literary justice.

Q: what would u consider scorpius' biggest fear

A: Being ordinary. (And, he would never admit this, but ending up alone.)