A little one-shot on my versions of Rose Weasley's life. I don't own anything you recognize.
Rose ran away from Alice, holding back tears. She didn't want anyone to know. But it seemed that everyone already did. She bowled over a couple of first years and hit a few statues in her rush to the dungeons.
Upon reaching the stone wall that she knew concealed the Slytherin common room, she realized that she did not know how to get in. Every time she had ever gone to the snake den was to wait outside for Al and Scorpius. She leaned her back against the cold stone wall and slid down to the floor, letting her tears fall. She pulled her knees up to her chest and dropped her head down. Her curly, red hair made a veil around her face.
"Hey, Rose," came a slightly familiar voice. Rose looked up to identify the person and saw it was Scorpius's older cousin Ella Nott. She gasped at the tears streaking down Rose's face, "Oh, sweetheart! What happened?"
Rose buried her face in her arms, looking every bit as vulnerable as she really was. Ella nodded and said, "I'll get Scorpius and Albus."
Ella must have whispered the password really quietly, because Rose didn't even notice until she heard the chunk of wall next to her slowly slide away. Ella scurried inside and the wall closed up behind her. It had been a long time waiting when Al and Scorpius were pushed out by Ella's pale hands. The wall slid shut behind the two boys and they looked around for her.
"Hey, Ella. I don't see-" Scorpius finally spotted her, "Rosie, what happened?!"
The two ran to her and crouched at her side. Albus calmly stroked her hair- he had experience with crying females- and pushed it to the side to see her tear-streaked face. Scorpius, on the other hand, was frantically looking at her with fidgety hands that didn't seem to know whether to touch her or not. He obviously didn't know what he was doing.
"Rosie, what happened?" Albus asked much slower and calmer than Scorpius had. Rose started sobbing loudly, so Albus pulled her towards him and held her against his chest on his lap. She curled into a ball and cried into his shirt. He kept petting her hair as she shuttered with choked sobs.
Scorpius had no idea what to do. Rose didn't cry. Ever. She was Rose. A thought struck him: someone must have done this. This wasn't about bad grades or too much homework. Someone must have hurt her. Scorpius started getting really mad.
"Who hurt you?" Scorpius said through gritted teeth, resting a hand on her shaking shoulder. Albus glared at Scorpius when Rose started crying harder. He mumbled, "Sorry."
They sat like that for a while: Albus cradling a crying Rose and Scorpius sitting next to them with his head on Albus's shoulder, stroking Rose's back. When she finally stopped crying, they sat in silence. She didn't get up from her position and neither of them expected her to.
Scorpius lifted his head of Al's shoulder and asked tentatively in a barely audible whisper, "Who hurt you?"
She sighed and sat up on Al's lap and looked both boys in the eyes. She didn't want to talk about it, but she could literally find no reason why they didn't deserve to know.
"You don't know?" she said bitterly, remembering how the pictures were all over the Gryffindor notice board. They shook their heads which surprised her; Slytherin always knew what was going on.
She ran her hand through her hair once and huffed. Scorpius pushed again, "Who was it?"
Rose sat back on her heels, sitting in front of Albus's folded legs. She looked over at Scorpius who had his legs splayed out in front of him. Both of their eyes were on her and her only. Merlin, she loved these boys. She never felt this close with any of the girls she shares a room with or any of the boys in her year either. It made her sad that her and the boys were in different houses, but at least they shared a bunch of classes. And sometimes a meal when the weather was nice. They'd do anything for her, she realized. They had never hesitated when she needed them most and the few times she needed a shoulder to cry on she had one. Two, actually. There is no way she could hold the truth back from them.
"Brandon," she answered, looking down at her folded hands in her lap.
"Who?" they both asked. That's right. She had already held the truth back from them. She never told them about Brandon and now she felt like the worst person on Earth.
"He's a seventh year Gryffindor," she replied, "Muggleborn. Brunette. Brown eyes. Tan skin. He plays keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. I tutored him in Ancient Runes for a few weeks."
"What'd he do?" Scorpius growled.
Looking up at them with sad eyes, she noted that Albus had a hard glare, ready to explode at any given moment for any wrongdoing this complete stranger did against her. Rose replied in a small voice, "He cheated on me."
"What?!" both boys exclaimed at the same time. They were already on their feet.
Rose stood up just half an inch shorter than Al who was the tiniest bit shorter than Scorpius- who ironically was the youngest- and exclaimed, "I'm sorry! I was going to tell you!"
"When?!" Scorpius accused, glaring at her, "When you decided to marry the bloke?!"
"I didn't want to tell you until I knew how he felt!" Rose yelled angrily back, "And I guess we know how he feels now, so... surprise!"
"He's seventeen!" Albus exclaimed.
Rose stopped her foot angrily, "And I'm about to turn sixteen!"
Albus groaned and ran his hand through his hair frustratedly. He turned to the wall and huffed in anger and turned back to her yelling, "Rose, he's a seventh year and you're a fifth year! He could have taken advantage of you or something!"
"Would you react the same way if it was Lorcan or Lysander?!"
"This is different," Scorpius defended.
"No! Actually, it isn't!" Rose yelled, "And it's not like I meant for this to happen! It's not like I wanted him or anything!"
"What? So he forced you to date him?" Scorpius seethed.
"No!" yelled Rose, getting desperate, "It was a stupid dare! I was playing truth or dare with my roommates and Margaret dared me to flirt with him! Things happened and then we were dating!"
"And then he goes off and snogs another girl," Al finished sarcastically.
"Rose, what were you thinking?!" Scorpius was getting really angry.
Tears welled up in her eyes and she yelled, "I don't know, okay?! I don't know what I was thinking! I-I..." her voice quieted to a whisper, "I thought I loved him."
Rose gasped at the words she had been struggling to deny all this time. The comprehension dawned on their faces at what she had said. She glanced between her two best friends' shocked expressions in terror. The tears threatening to burst, she turned and fled.
"Rose, come back!"
"We're sorry!"
She shook her head and kept running. She'd have to hide well, because she didn't stand a chance in the chase. They'd catch her eventually. They were much faster. She turned a corner and saw the doors that led outside. She ran out the door and towards Hagrid's hut, but she didn't stop there. She kept running straight into the Forbidden Forest. She stumbled over bushes and cut herself on branches. She tripped over a large tree branch and fell to the ground. Rose whimpered as she crawled towards the tree and hid at the base behind the giant protruding root.
She spent a long time behind the tree. She didn't notice she had dozed off until she heard the footsteps. She ducked her head and curled into the tree.
"Rose!" It wasn't Albus or Scorpius. "Rose, where are you?" She knew that voice. "Everyone is so worried, Rose." A second later she was staring into his molten chocolate eyes.
He gave a sigh of relief and hugged her. He pulled back when she tensed up against him. "Rose, listen. I am so sorry for what I did. I didn't mean to do it. If I could, I'd take it all back. The last thing I'd ever want to do is break your beautiful heart. We were drunk at a party and we just kissed. I never would have done it if I was in my right mind."
She spent a long time in uncharacteristic silence, staring straight ahead. Without looking at him, she finally answered in a calm voice, "Would you?"
"Would I what?" he asked confused. She was being very vague.
"Would you never have done it if you hadn't been intoxicated?"
"Of course! I never would have kissed her!"
She finally turned to look at him and said, "Are you sure?"
"As sure as I can be, Rose. No one knows the future situations and consequences that can stumble into your life," he answered.
"True," she nodded, "The future is unpredictable. What do you see in our future?"
"Our?" Brandon asked, voice cracking. He liked the sound of that, but it was a scary idea.
She kept going as if she hadn't heard him, "Is there even going to be an 'our'? Will we have a future together? Will this mistake end it all? Or will we build over this and start anew? What then? Will you get drunk again and snog another girl?"
"Rosie-" he started.
"Brandon, what if I get drunk and snog a boy?" she cut him off.
Brandon sighed and answered, "I... I don't know what I'd do, Rosie. You're my everything."
"Brandon, we've only been dating for two months," she said, knowing full well where this was leading, "How can you possibly feel like I am your everything?"
"I don't know, Rose," Brandon huffed frustratedly, "It's just that... whenever I see you, my heart beats really fast and I get really nervous and then you smile at me and I feel like I'm walking on air and then you touch me and sparks zoom down my spine and then you're in my arms and I know exactly what heaven feels like. I have never felt that way towards any other girl before. I just love looking at you and talking with you and touching you. I don't ever want that to end. You are always on my mind. I don't understand it and it scares me and at first I didn't want it. But now I'm glad it happened."
Rose assessed his face and answered, "Have you considered that maybe I feel the same?"
"You-you love me?"
"Depends. Is that how you feel?"
Brandon realized that that is exactly what he implied. He was uncertain of how he was going to answer, but he had a feeling that the answer would come out on its own.
"I don... yes," he answered, his voice slowly getting stronger, "Yes. I love you. I love you, Rose. No matter what, I love you. No matter where, I love you. No matter when, I love you, No matter which direction the sky is falling, I love you. Lord, Rose, I love you so much."
"Really?" she asked with a small, hopeful smile, "Maybe I love you, too. We'll have to see."
"Does this mean I get a second chance?" he asked, his grin getting wider and wider.
She smiled as big as him, "Well... since you love me."
He beamed at her and wrapped his arms around her. He stood and spun her around in the air. She threw her head back and laughed. Capturing his face with her hands, she leaned in and kissed him. It was her first kiss and it couldn't have been more perfect. He held her above the ground and they stayed like that for as long as possible. Her hands snaked around his neck and into his hair. She felt the tree's bark press into her back. He had captured her between himself and the tree.
They had to come up for air and he put her down. Her arms stayed around his neck and he kept his arms around her waist. She rested her head against his chest, listening to his steady heart beat which was slowing down after such... excitement. He rested his face in her hair and smiled.
"It's going to rain soon," Rose whispered after a long silence.
He nodded and pulled away. They walked out of the forest hand-in-hand. Rose was right. The clouds were gray and fat, heavy with rain. They strolled leisurely to the castle with small, secret smiles on their faces and they ignored all the bewildered and shocked looks. Rose never though it a million years that this was possible, but... she was in love.
Before you complain, you should know that these two are some of the few romances of high school that go right. I hate sad endings, so I make most of my story endings happy. But I'm not saying you should always take them back.