Scorpius falls in love for the first time in a toy store. He has never yet been in a muggle shop and he can't help but widen his eyes in amazement when he steps in and catches sight of the shelves laden with an unmatched selection of electronic toys that produce wondrous whirs and clicks. His dad immediately begins gaping at a toy based on something called a 'helicopter', muttering incredulously under his breath as the sales clerk shoots him dubious looks.

All of this goes over his head as his eyes fall on her. She is gorgeous; her soft, tawny hair gleams under the shop's fluorescent lights and her large amber eyes seem to stare right through him. He is suddenly overwhelmed with a sudden urge of desire, a fire running from the top of his head to the tips of his toes in what his five-year old brain can only recognize as love.

Quickly, he snatches the tawny stuffed owl from the shelf and drags his father to the cash register before he can protest about being separated from the current muggle toy of his fascination. On the way out, Draco casts a forlorn look over his shoulder and makes comment about what a missed opportunity it is, ending up with a stuffed animal when there are so many fascinating choices with 'bottleries'. Scorpius ignores him, his eyes only for the silky owl grasped tightly in his hand. He has decided to name it Andromeda, because the owl is much too pretty to be anything but a girl and he's always liked his deceased great-aunt's name.

From that moment on, Scorpius and his stuffed owl are inseparable. Nearly nothing can divert his attention-that is, until he is introduced to his second love.

The next time Scorpius falls in love, he is older, and decidedly wiser. By this time he has watched a couple romance flicks (the only thing his mom and Grandmother Malfoy seem to agree on during movie nights) and thinks he has a pretty good idea of what love is, as well what it entails. But when he meets the next object of his infatuation, he is a little blindsided. The smell wafts in to him from the kitchen, sneaking past the slightly ajar office door to entice his nostrils above his father's desk chair, where he currently resides. He sits upright and takes a whiff, then another. The intoxicating smell has him hooked, and he allows his nose to guide him into the kitchen where his mother is pulling a sheet of cookies out of the oven. At the sight of the golden dough, packed with melted chocolate chips, his mouth instinctively waters. He keeps his eyes locked on the magnificent pile of sweetness until they've been plated and he can snatch one from the still-warm pile. He takes a large bite, and his eyes widen. He hurriedly takes another, closing his eyes and almost moaning as the gorgeous combination of chocolate and cookie overwhelm his senses.

Now this, he concludes, has to be love.

When Scorpius falls in love a third time, it's to be expected. It is the summer he turns eleven-just mere months before he leaves for Hogwarts. In honor of this, his father has just bought him his first broomstick, the legendary Fireflyer 2000. It's a beautiful ride, sporting sleek, polished chestnut wood and fine bristles that make up the exterior of what Scorpius knows is one of the most advanced broomsticks ever made. He's in love with it from the moment he watches it zoom into his hand, and that's before he even takes off.

Leaving the ground is another experience entirely. He watches in awe as the ground beneath him falls away and before he knows it, he is up within the clouds, just him and his broomstick against the world. His father yells advice to him from the ground, but it is lost to the whistle of the wind in his ears and the feel of the wood grasped beneath his fingers. He practices maneuvers and dives to his heart's content, and even then his body yearns for more time in the air. When he comes down, his father is grinning broadly at him, with a smile he's sure matches his own beaming show of teeth. But even his biggest smile cannot match his adoration for his newfound love: flying.

Scorpius doesn't think he'll fall in love with anything as soundly as quidditch, at least not for a long while yet. Surprisingly, it's just a few months later when he admits his love of flying is equalled to a new, fourth love.

Really, Scorpius's next love is no surprise: Hogwarts. His first week, Scorpius had to admit, he was a bit nervous, not to mention homesick. But it's hard to wish for anything more inside the castle's great stone walls, somehow warm and welcoming despite the apparent vastness of space. The food is absolutely amazing, his teachers fantastic, and the people here (despite a few unnameable) were so very welcoming. It hasn't even been a month and yet everything-the Great Hall, the moving staircases, black robes, even the most stuck up of portraits-have come to feel like a part of home. At the sight of the common room door (Ravenclaw, despite what any of his peers might have believed) his heart buoys and he falls head over heels for this place all over again. And Scorpius wouldn't have it any other way.

But even the love he feels for Hogwarts, a place even more than his second home, cannot compare when he falls in love a fifth time.

In fact, Scorpius has realized that nothing can even begin to compare to this love-not hugging Andromeda against his chest (although, he will admit, it is quite nice to this day), not taking that first delicious bite of a chocolate chip cookie, not even pushing off on his broomstick that first glorious moment. No, when Scorpius falls in love for his fifth time, all other past experiences of love have reduced to nothing but a muted warmth in a part of his chest. His fifth love occupies his whole chest cavity, filling him with an inexplicable light that makes butterflies dance in his stomach and his brain feel like a mush of oatmeal. And anybody who knows Scorpius Malfoy would scoff right now, because Scorpius Malfoy is just not a butterflies and oatmeal kind of guy. He's immovable, with a kind but firm exterior steelier than his grey eyes. Nothing can ruffle his platinum hair (expect quidditch, of course) and it's a perfectly honest fact that nothing-and nobody-can bring the slightest flush to his perfect complexion. But then again, this fifth love isn't anyone. Because this fifth love, she's Rose Weasley.

Rose Weasley-yes, the intelligent redhead with the spattering of freckles and and a slightly too-big but all the same beautiful smile. A radiant smile, that, aimed his way, makes Scorpius Malfoy turn rosebud pink and go wobbly at the knees.

This is the Rose Weasley that Scorpius fell in love with, head over heels, completely, and utterly, in his fifth year.

It is a lovely autumn day and Scorpius has just returned from a exhausting, yet satisfying quidditch practice, in buoyant spirits. He cracks a joke with Al before walking briskly off toward his dormitory, dreaming of a refreshing shower. He is just about to enter the common room when she

steps out. Her ocean blue eyes are cast down at her novel, flicking across the page as she drinks in the words. Her hair flows in a disheveled, yet attractive mess over her simple cardigan. Her wand is tucked casually behind her ear and there is a tiny splotch of ink of her nose, probably from writing her runes essay earlier that afternoon. Scorpius notices all this-in fact, drinks it in-before he even has time to register the funny feeling in his stomach that arises at her appearance.

Rose was gorgeous, he had determined a long ago, but he lately even the mere mention of her brought forth feelings deeper than physical attraction. He genuinely liked her, maybe because he knew she liked him for him, as well (of course, they were best friends, wasn't this normal?). Scorpius knew he loved Rose, but it was in these few moments, staring at her, he realized that it was more than that. Scorpius thought that he, scarily enough, might just be in love with her. It was just as he reached this startlingly yet obvious conclusion-a million thoughts in no more than several seconds-that Rose looked up. It was then, in the presence of her eye contact, that Scorpius's insides flamed with inextinguishable warmth, and his stomach fell to what he thought might be his knees. And then, the most wonderful thing happened and Ros at him, a sincere grin that Scorpius swore crumbled his brain as he stared at its pearly brilliance. He vaguely recalled these feelings as Andromeda, chocolate chip cookies, flying, and Hogwarts combined. Scorpius didn't quite know what to call these new emotions, or what was happening to him, but he did realize one thing: He had just fallen in love for his fifth, and, as he suspected later, what just might be his final time.