They All Laughed

For those people who believe in true love.


They all laughed at me, wanting you,

Said I was reaching for the moon,

But oh, you came through,

Now they'll have to change their tune.

They all said we never could be happy,

They laughed at us and how!

But ho, ho, ho, who's got the last laugh now?


Laughing, stumbling, and clutching each other, two young adults burst through a set of huge double doors and into bright mid-day sunshine.

"Oh god," The girl tried to catch her breath, clinging on to his right bicep for dear life. "My father's going to kill me."

She sounded neither worried nor apologetic.

He grinned down at her, then stepped even closer to tentatively brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. "He'll kill us, you mean."

She nodded, bringing them to a stop atop the steps leading up to the archaic building. "At least we'll be together," She offered.

He sighed with an air of dramatics which proved he was teasing her.

"Just what I need… more time with you," He smirked. "Taking you to Salzburg was supposed to be a way to get rid of you, you know."

She grinned, then leaned up on her tiptoes to gently breathe into his ear, "Shouldn't have married me then."

"What was I thinking?" He whispered back, more loving than questioning, holding her gaze.

She grinned a ridiculous smile which lit up her whole face, then leaned forwards to gently place a kiss on his lips.

"I guess I'm just too hard to resist," She shot over her shoulder with a cheeky smile, before running down the chapel steps and onto the pavement.

He chased her, as always.

"Let me tell you something," He smirked, reaching out to take her hand in his. "My life would be an awful lot easier if you weren't."

She placed her sunglasses over her eyes, then leaned forwards to lovingly move his own down to cover his eyes.

"But much, much more uneventful," She pointed out.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, bunching a fistful of her summer dress, and pulling her against him. "Hmm, I guess you have a point. Maybe we should trial that hypothesis?" He grinned.

"What, take a while apart and see how uneventful everything is?" She smiled back, her tone teasing and sceptical, placing a hand gently on his chest.

"Maybe," He said, but it was clear he was just joking.

She actually threw her head back and laughed, her red hair tumbling about her face in wisps. "You would never last, Scorpius."

He let out an amused grunt, then closed the gap to continue their earlier kiss, albeit a little more eager.

As they pulled apart and begin turning towards the square, he nodded and agreed, "I would be bored out of my mind, wouldn't I?"

"Of course you would," She smiled, "I'm the light of your life."

He smiled at her giggle, but, again, had to agree. She was only teasing him, but it was true.

They carried on down a busy side street, past a street celloist and a few outside restaurants, in peaceful quiet, enjoying each other's company, until he said,

"You are, you know."

"Hmm?" She had been perusing the contents of a shop window - a book shop, of course.

"You are the most important thing in my life," He clarified.

She blushed beautifully, which only made him love her more.

"Scor…" She muttered bashfully, training her eyesight on their entwined hands and the cobbled pavement.

He let out an amused exhalation, saying, "Are you actually embarrassed I just said that?"

"No…" She muttered weakly, stubbornly.

"You are!" He continued, knowing he was teasing her, but in the way she loved. "You're embarrassed that I'm being romantic."

When she simply looked up at him with an expression conveying the message 'Okay, you win, and I know it's ridiculous', he said, "You know you just married me, right?"

She laughed at that, forgetting her embarrassment at his earlier confession.

"What was I thinking?" She repeated his earlier words.

He rolled his eyes, then placed a gentle kiss upon her temple. "Come on, let's go."

She laughed, carefree, as he gently pulled her down the narrow street.

"Where are we going?"

"To go on one of those horse and carriages, obviously," He grinned.


About ten minutes into the ride around the beautiful European town, half way between a long line of candid camera shots of them being ridiculous, she said, "So... are you finally going to move in with me, now then?"

He blinked, surprised by the sudden question, then focused on her rather than the landscape and busy shoppers. "Hmm?"

"House. Us," She simplified it, smiling softly.

"Rose," He rolled his eyes. "I'm not moving in to your tiny one-bed roomed apartment above your uncle's shop."

"Why not?" She folded her arms, ever defensive about her apartment.

"Well, for one, your family are suspicious enough as it is. There's been some pretty close calls, if you remember. I have a feeling that actually living there would probably be something they'd notice," He pointed out, turning his attention to the digital camera in front of them.

She creased her brows and said, "Scor, you do realise it's customary for married people to live together? You know, share a life, that sort of thing?"

"You already have my life, Rose," He pointed out, ever the cheesy romantic, but serious nonetheless.

She sighed, not annoyed, just… exasperated. "But-"

"Rose," He interrupted, briefly looking up from the camera. "I'm not going to move in to your cramped, hand-me-down apartment-"

"Why not?" She was a little perplexed, to be honest.

"Because I already bought us a house."

She was quiet.

Eventually, he had to look up from the camera.

She was staring at him.

He swallowed.

"You bought us a house?" Her tone was quiet, overwhelmed, soft.

He nodded, biting his lip. "Only a little one…" He tried to justify.

"Oh god," She smiled weakly. "I love you."

He let out a breath. "You do?"

"Of course I do, you idiot, you bought us a house," She tried not to tear up.

Placing one hand gently on his chin where his stubble was, she leaned forwards and engaged him in another kiss.

When they broke apart, the horse and carriage had arrived at it's destination, and the driver was hardly amused.

"Sorry," Scorpius tipped the guy as he helped Rose climb down from the carriage. "Honeymoon and all…"

The driver looked a little more forgiving, and offered them his congratulations, which they enthusiastically accepted, it being the first they'd recieved.

"You know," Rose sighed as they wandered across the busy square in the sunshine hand-in-hand. She leaned into his shoulder, "it's also customary to go on a honeymoon after the wedding, not to get married on holiday on the spur of the moment."

Scorpius smiled. "It's also customary to ask the father, but seeing as none of our families know we're even together, I would assume we've gone a little unorthodox with this wedding, wouldn't you think?"

She chuckled softly. "Touché."

"But," He continued as they made their way over to one of the outside restaurants serving pizza and cold drinks, "I know how much you like Paris in the autumn…"

She tried to suppress a smile. "A house and now Paris? What have you done wrong?"

He rolled his eyes and leaned forwards across the table conspiratorially, "Well, I'm not sure how, but I managed to find the most remarkable, frustrating, beautiful woman ever, and get her to marry me."

"Mr Malfoy," She smirked. "Are you trying to seduce me?"

He laughed.

"Well Mrs Malfoy," He replied, causing them both to smile as wide as was humanly possible. "I don't think that's necessary anymore."

They held each other's gaze in the sunlight for a few seconds, then she breathed teasingly, "I guess you'll find out later."

The waitress came over to take their order, inturrupting that conversation. It was Scorpius' job to order, being fluent in German. As he was finishing up, Rose's mobile broke the peace of their holiday.

"Oh great," She mumbled, checking the caller ID. "It's my mum. Again."

"Don't answer it," He suggested.

"She'll be worried."

"So was my mum, but I didn't pick up. You were a better distraction," He grinned, "If you remember."

She smirked, but didn't answer that. "One of us better answer our phone soon, otherwise they'll put two and two together at Book Club."

And with that, she answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Rose! Finally! I've been calling you all day. Where have you been?"

"Getting married," Scorpius tried to call in to the speaker phone. Rose gave him an exasperated, but largely amused, look and prayed her mother hadn't heard that.

"In a meeting," She said instead. "Sorry."

"Oh, of course. That's okay, Rosie. How has it been abroad? Have you had a chance to do some tourist-y things, or have you been working all week?"

"It's been…" Rose locked eyes with her new husband, and spoke the one word which aptly described the situation into the phone, "Eventful."

"I'll say," Scorpius mumbled as he leaned across the table to hear the other end of the phone call.

"Who's that?"

"Erm… it's…"

"Scorpius," He said, causing Rose's heartbeat to kick up a notch.

"Scor!"

"Scorpius Malfoy?!"

Rose had to admit it was true. "Yeah, we, er… walked in to each other at the convention. Turns out his boss needed eyes on the meeting too. We're about to get some lunch. It's nice to see a friendly face so far from home, you know?" She prayed her mum was going to buy that.

As far as excuses went, it did make sense: She knew from Astoria that he was going abroad too, and he did work in an overlapping profession. He was constantly sent away to observe whether agreements between clients were going to plan. Of course, her mother thought they were both in Brussels, where her employee's HQ was based, but still...

"Oh," Hermione said eventually, in a friendly tone. "Well tell him I said 'hello'."

"I will."

"And Rose?"

"Hmm?"

"Try to have some fun," Hermione told her daughter, then hung up.

Once she'd turned the phone off, and buried it at the bottom of her bag, Rose turned to her husband, who was still chuckling to himself.

"What was that for, you absolute idiot," She grinned, unable to repress the smile, and kicked him lightly under the table.

"If you'd have lied, it would have just buried us deeper in lies," Scorpius pointed out as the waitress brought their order out for them.

Rose considered that over her gin and tonic. "I suppose you're right."

"I'm always right," Scorpius smiled a lopsided grin. "That's one of the many things you love about me, remember?"

"Actually, I think that's one of the many things you love about me," She suggested.

"Oh, yeah."

They shared another kiss, until they realised their pizza would go cold.

"You know," She began. "I think I remember a quaint little hotel room a few streets from here with our names on it…"

He grinned. "Lead the way, Mrs Malfoy."


I hope you enjoyed reading this fic. It's the first thing I've written in a long, long while, but I enjoyed every second of writing it. Inspired by the song They All Laughed (At Christopher Columbus) by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, from the movie Shall We Dance. Just a little something for everybody who reads my ScoRose stuff, as I haven't been around for a while. Thank you all for your kind words. You remind me there are wonderful people in the world.

Much love, Sarcastic-Bones. x