Rose was standing at the edge of the black lake in the shadow of dark clouds that promised a storm when Scorpius found her. Her long hair was granted the luxury of freedom it so seldom got and was celebrating by bouncing on the gentle air currents. The air was cold and damp. She was shivering slightly, still wearing her Pyjamas with only a hoodie thrown over it.
"Do you know it?" Rose asked, looking very much unlike herself when he reached her.
The way she was looking at him, the pain in her eyes and the tone in her voice, like she was about to break any moment, told him something was seriously wrong.
Cautiously, Scorpius shook his head. "What is it, Red?"
The ghost of a smile appeared over her lips at the use of the nickname.
It looked a hollow and diseased imitation of the smile she normally had, and even that smile didn't reach her eyes.
She looked down at her hands.
"I don't do pet names." She said like always, her voice missed the vitality it normally posessed.
"I do." Scorpius replayed, and very slowly took her hand.
She didn't look up. She didn't flinch away. She just stood there perfectly still, betraying none of her thoughts.
Her hand was cold in his grasp.
"Slytherins don't express any real emotions." She said, her voice wavering a bit. It sounded choked.
They didn't. They sucked them up and kept them inside until you didn't know anymore what you felt. It drove many-er Slytherins insane, but they did it anyway.
He wished she would look at him.
"We aren't allowed to be happy. We have to put that aside for our ambitions."
A loud thunder echoed over the great, blake lake and a lightning bolt split the sky. Scorpius looked up and felt the first raindrop land on his shoulder.
"Do you want to go inside?" He asked.
"I love our house, Scorpius." Rose said, not even hearing he had spoken.
A shiver passed through him that had nothing to do with the cold air around them. She never called him anything other than Malfoy. Even after they had become friends.
It was his punishment.
"I just can't hold it in anymore." She looked up and Scorpius looked deep into her deep blue eyes, getting lost in the colour as he always did, but never piercing them. Never able to read her.
They looked empty. Broken.
Hollow.
"Scorpius?"
The shiver went through him again.
He nodded when words stuck in his throat.
"Why did you start talking to me again?"
Her words took him aback, but he had half expected them.
"The bet." He said quietly, feeling himself die a little bit inside.
She already knew. There was no denying it to her.
"Why did you kiss me?"
Her voice didn't betray any emotion. It was a controlled whisper through the rain, hitting him with the force a thousand punches couldn't have.
How was he supposed to answer if he didn't know himself?
Because he loved her.
Love. You still love her, Imbecile.
But that hadn't been the reason he had kissed her. He would have left her alone if he did it out of love. Would have left her untouched. Unbroken.
He was the one to look away now.
Somehow, even in her broken state, she was still able to make him feel guilty about everything he had done to her.
"You know what is funny?" She asked when he didn't respond.
He shook his head.
He didn't even see any black humour in this situation.
"You're still as egocentric as always. You blame yourself for my state. You didn't do this, Scorpius. I brought it on myself, or life brought it on me. I haven't decided which i find more poetic, but it wasn't you."
Her voice had gained strength, promoted from broken to lifeless.
It was better to look around to see if anyone was coming then to look her in the eyes.
The rain was slowly soaking his robes.
"I made a bet. A bet that I could sleep with you the fastest." Scorpius said, disgusted with himself.
"I let life fuck me up. We all make mistakes."
He had said the wrong thing. Her mask was back up. With it back in place, he half expected her to start smiling the smile that never reached her eyes, but it never came.
She didn't even bother anymore.
She just pulled her hand out of his grasp.
"I just wanted you to know I'm sorry."
He watched her closely as she heard the words, but the mask didn't fall again.
He didn't know what had broken through it before, but he doubted it had been him. He had never been able to.
"I am too."
Her words caught him off guard.
She pulled her hoodie tighter around herself, and Scorpius shortly glimpsed her bruised shoulder.
"Scorpius."
The tone in her voice alerted him, something instinctive telling him something was even more wrong now.
"Red."
She looked away one moment and Absentmindedly rubbed her lip when it was split.
She didn't even try to conceal her wound anymore.
"I want you to know something."
He saw her mask wavering. He saw her eyes turn to him and opening up. For the first time in his life, he was able to look beyond the surface of the ocean that was her eyes, but he was unable to read what lay beyond.
It was too painful.
Too twisted.
Too confused.
"You can tell me anything."
"But I can't say it."
"Rose." He reached out to her, but she shrank away from his touch, and he remembered the bruises on her shoulder. The same bruises that, he was sure, covered her entire body.
She always jerked away when people tried to touch her.
He knew why now.
The bruises had told him.
"Just for this once, tell the truth." He said quietly.
The rain was pouring full out now, and the noise the water droplets splashing against the surface of the black lake caused, made him almost miss her next words.
"I love you."
He was sure his heart stopped beating. She looked him right in his eyes, waiting for him to protest her words. To defy them and trample over them, to strip them off their worth and meaning, reducing them to nothing.
He didn't.
He just stood there and watched with, not daring to believe his ears.
"I love you." She said again, her voice gaining some strength.
Scorpius wasn't sure if the droplets running down her cheeks were what they looked like, droplets fallen from the clouds, or if they were tear
After so long yearning to hear those words from her, he was unable to think now she had. He was unable to move. Unable to speak. The sheer emotions those three magnificently simple words extracted from him left him incapacitated.
When Scorpius was able to think and move again, she had long gone.
Scorpius sat down on the cold, wet grass and put his head in his hands, not even noticing the rain anymore.
He should be happy. Rose had forgiven him. She had told him she loved him. He could go to her now, say those words back to her, and actually mean them.
But she already knew he did.
Rose always knew.
He should be happy.
He should be dancing in the rain.
He should be telling the world the girl of his dreams loved him back.
But he didn't. He wasn't happy.
He had never seen Rose crying.
He had never heard her apologise.
He had never heard her use the word love.
She had just said goodbye to him, and Scorpius was sure she meant it this time.
This was goodbye, and he hadn't even been able to say his parting words.
Please tell me what you think! Not only if you liked it, but also if you didn't.