A/N: Hey guys! So this is an idea I got while I was driving last night. I took a two day break from my current story, GRACE: The Next Generation, to write this. I'm having some formatting/spacing issues, but I'm trying to make it as easy to read as possible. This is my first Harry Potter fic, so I hope you like it!
"So," Scorpius Malfoy said casually to his best friend Rose Weasley as the two made their way to the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner, "my father took a step in the right direction."
"Right direction to what?" Rose asked.
"To accepting your family," Scorpius replied with a grin.
Rose replied with a grin of her own before saying, "Oh, do tell."
"Well, we were talking on those two way mirrors he got me for Christmas," Scorpius said, "and I told him about all our classes. I was telling him about Muggle Studies and he interrupted saying he's jealous of me because I get to take Muggle Studies with a professor as awesome as Hermione Granger."
Rose's face broke out in a huge smile. "That's quite a compliment," she said.
"I know."
"But..."
"Rose!" Scorpius groaned. "Why do you have to ruin every bit of good news with a but?"
"Because there's always a but," Rose replied, biting her lip.
Scorpius turned away. Rose biting her lip was one the cutest things she did and he always went red when she did, but he couldn't let her see. She could never know how he felt about her. Mostly because she would never feel the same way. And also, if by some miracle, she did feel the same way, nothing would happen between them. Scorpius and Rose becoming a couple was filled with 'buts.'
"Well, let's hear it then. What is it this time?" Scorpius asked when he felt his face return to its normal color.
"It's just that...we already know that your dad likes my mum. It's your dad liking mine that we have to worry about. And even if you dad does somehow accept my dad, mine won't be so easy. He's so stubborn and unreasonable sometimes."
Scorpius sighed. Like always, Rose's but made perfect sense.
When Draco Malfoy heard his son became best friends with the daughter of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in his first year, he was not pleased. Scorpius assumed it's because he held on to his 'pureblood pride' that his mother had long since let go on and spent most of Christmas break avoiding his dad.
It was two days before Scorpius went back to school that his mother Astoria broke her promise to Draco and told her son why his father was actually pleased. Draco's 'pureblood pride' died when Scorp's grandfather Lucius did. And Draco admitted to himself that he'd fancied Hermione Granger quite a bit. Of course, those feelings had long since disappeared, and he loved Astoria now, but he was just a bit jealous that his son managed a friendship with the clone of his childhood crush.
Scorpius was only eleven, and didn't understand how his father could be jealous of him, but didn't avoid his dad any longer. And when his family and Rose's went to King's Cross Station two days later to see their kids off, Draco and Hermione had exchanged smiles.
Of course everyone heard Ron say, "'Mione, don't smile at him! I still hate that Rosie's friends with his son."
"Dad! Everyone can hear you!" Rose cried, humiliated.
"Well luckily for Rose, you don't get to choose her friends," Hermione snapped at the same time, shutting Ron up.
Since then, Hermione and Draco always exchanged smiles-and most recently pleasantries- when they saw their kids off at King's Cross Station. But Ron could never get over his childhood hatred of Draco, and Draco couldn't seem to not sneer every time he saw the redhead. It wouldn't matter so much if Rose and Scorpius weren't so close, but they were. All of Rose's cousins invited their friends over for Christmas dinner and for visits of sleepovers during summer holidays. Rose wanted to invite Scorpius, and her mother was fine with that, but didn't think it was a good idea until Ron got over his petty hatred. So Scorpius and Rose had spent years trying to get their fathers to have a normal interaction with no success.
"Well, we're seventh years now. Once we leave school, our fathers don't really have a say in our lives," Scorpius said. "You can spend a few weeks with me at the manor. My parents would love to host you. And you don't need your father's permission to invite me over for Christmas dinner."
"Needing it isn't the problem Scorp. I want his blessing. I don't want to do anything to make him unhappy. I want him to accept my best friend. It won't be the same if the only reason you're there is because he has to accept it."
Scorpius nodded, knowing how she felt. He wanted to be accepted by Ron Weasley too, the way Rose was accepted by Draco.
The two reached the portrait hole.
"Password," a deep voice demanded.
"Gemini," Rose said to the Fat Lady. The door swung open.
"I have to admit though, I feel pretty lucky that we get to take Muggle Studies with your mother," Scorpius said as the two took a seat on the couch.
"You only say that because she's not your mum. I swear, I'm never going to humiliate my kids by becoming a professor at their school."
"Only because your dream is to become a healer," Scorpius said, rolling his eyes.
"Well yeah, but that's not the only reason," Rose insisted.
Scorpius just chuckled, then took out their current Muggle Studies book. "I do wish your mother would give us better books," he said.
"Just what is wrong with these books?" Rose asked, slightly offended because she loved her mother's picks.
"They're all about tragic women. First Anna Karenina. Then Madame Bovary, which we just finished today. And tomorrow we're going to start Romeo and Juliet, which I heard sucks."
"Romeo and Juliet is the best work of literature in the world," Rose defended.
"Oh, you've read it already, have you? Of course. Is there a single book your mother is going to teach us that you haven't read?"
"Well, I didn't read Wuthering Heights until I saw it on the book list this year," Rose said.
Scorpius rolled his eyes, making Rose laugh.
Both had to admit Muggle Studies had been better since last year. In their third year, both eagerly signed up for Muggle Studies. Scorpius took it because he thought it would be an easy A, and he wanted to take as many classes with Rose as possible (they were already diverging because he chose to take Divination and Arithmacy while Rose chose to take Ancient Runes and Magical Theory). Rose, much like her mother, thought it would be fascinating to see how a witch would teach young witches and wizards about Muggle technology, and unlike Hermione, who had a half blood Muggle Studies teacher, Professor Sparrow was a pure blood. But Professor Sparrow proved she had no idea what she was talking about. When she retired at the end of Rose and Scorpius's fifth year, Hermione, who decided being a curse breaker wasn't as fulfilling a profession as she'd hoped, applied for the teaching position, after getting a recommendation from Neville Longbottom, who taught transfiguration and was the Head of Gryffindor House, and immediately got the job.
Hermione wanted to teach her students everything she could about Muggles, and devised her own curriculum. The students each year would start with Muggle inventions and Muggle History. After Christmas break, they'd study Muggle literature and Muggle culture. As the years went by, the inventions got more interesting, the history got more boring, the culture got stranger, and the literature got harder. But the students didn't complain. Having a famous war hero teach at their school-a war hero who, after every test, told them stories from her youth-was very exciting. There were very few students who didn't take Muggle Studies ever since Hermione started teaching.
"What's Romeo and Juliet about?" Scorpius asked.
"It's a romance play written by one the best and most famous Muggle authors, William Shakespeare. They both live in the kingdom of Verona. Romeo comes from the noble family Montague, and Juliet is the daughter of the nobleman Capulet. The Capulets and Montagues have a longstanding, fierce rivalry, but despite all of that, Romeo and Juliet fall in love and jump through hoops to be together."
Scorpius was mesmerized, not by the story, but by the passion in Rose's voice.
"What happens in the end? Do the families accept their love and make peace?"
"No. The play is a tragedy. Romeo and Juliet know their families will never accept their love, so they plan to run away together, with the help of a Friar. Romeo is banished for killing a Capulet, so he tells Juliet he'll come back for her and they can run away. In order to help, the Friar gives Juliet a potion that will make her appear dead so that her family will bury her. The plan is for the Friar to give Romeo a message explaining the plan. That way, her family will think she's dead, and she's free to be with Romeo."
"Why do I sense a but?" Scorpius asked.
"Because there is one. The message never gets to Romeo, and he only hears that Juliet is dead. He buys poison from an apothecary, and sees her body. He drinks the poison and dies beside her. Then, Juliet wakes up, and sees Romeo dead. She's distraught and cannot go on without her one true love, and she wants to die too. She kisses his poisoned lips, and when the remnants of the poison doesn't kill her, she stabs herself in the chest with Romeo's dagger and dies."
Scorpius's mouth dropped open. "And...and you like this story?"
"I love it!" Rose cried.
"Why? Rose that sounds terrible. They apparently jump through hoops for their love, and in the end, they both end up dead?"
]
"Don't you ever want to find someone you love so much, you'd die without them?" Rose asked.
'I already have!' Scorpius wanted to scream, but didn't. Instead he said, "If he'd only waited one more minute, Juliet would've woken up."
"And that," Rose said, "is the true tragedy. Not their deaths, but the miscommunication. Their deaths at the end are just their last attempt at being together."
Scorpius shook his head. "I still don't get it Rose. How can you like this story?"
"It's an amazing story of love. I'll grant you that Romeo and Juliet aren't people we should aspire to be. They fell in love in a day. But to find a great love like the one they had? That's something I've always wanted." Rose finished with a blush.
Scorpius frowned. Rose never talked about love. He was convinced she didn't care. And liking this story about two people who apparently fall in love in a day and kill themselves? It didn't sound like something his logical best friend would like.
"I'm sure there are lots of great love stories out there. If not in Muggle books, there are plenty of Wizarding love stories. So why this one?"
Rose thought for a minute, trying to figure out how to explain it. "Okay, remember what Mum said was Gustave Flaubert's thought process when he wrote about Emma in Madame Bovary? He said he put a lot of himself into her. His most famous quote is Madame Bovary, c'est moi."
"I am Madame Bovary. I remember," Scorpius translated, nodding.
"Well, that's how I feel about Juliet. I feel like I can identify with her."
"But if this play is a tragedy, then Juliet must be a tragic heroine. How can you identify with her? We identify with Emma Bovary because she makes mistakes and she's flawed, just like everyone else in the world. What do you and Juliet have in common?"
"Our families for one. Capulets and Montagues, Weasleys and Malfoys…it's all the same to me."
"So you identify with Juliet because of our feuding families? That still doesn't add up. Romeo wasn't Juliet's best friend. He was her…" Scorpius trailed off, looking at Rose with wide eyes.
"One true love," Rose finished shyly.
"What are you saying Rose?" Scorpius asked, hardly daring to believe.
"Are you really going to make me say it?" Rose asked, her face completely red.
Scorpius smiled at his adorable friend. "Well how will I know what you mean otherwise?"
"I really hate you," Rose said.
"No you don't," Scorpius grinned. "You love me!"
"Shut up!" Rose cried, embarrassed. Then she grew serious. "So this isn't going to change anything between us is it?"
Scorpius frowned. "Rose, this changes everything."
"Why does it have to?"
"Because what fun is it being in a relationship if we can't snog or hold hands or go on dates?"
Rose threw him a look of confusion. "Wait…you want to be in a relationship?"
"Of course! Rose, I love you. I always have. I just never said anything because I never thought you could feel the same way. But now I know you do. I love you."
"I love you too," Rose said.
"No but this time?"
"No but this time," Rose agreed.
Scorpius grinned, then leaned forward to kiss the redhead. When he pulled back, he saw Rose had the most beautiful smile on her face.
"That was nice," she said.
"I'm glad you think so," Scorpius grinned. He scooted closer to Rose and she lay her head on his shoulder, like she had done so many times before. But now it felt different. Better. Like she was at home.
"Rose?"
"Yeah?"
"What do we do about your dad?"
"We have to tell him."
"And if he doesn't accept?" Scorpius asked.
Rose lifted her head. "I guess we'll have to kill ourselves."
Scorpius groaned.
A/N: So what did you think? Leave me a review and let me know. Also, let me know if you want me to do more Scorose fics. I have three multi-chapter fics I want to write.
