a/n: I finally wrote Rose/Scorpius! It was my first OTP so I did it for Ashleigh's Monthly Competitions [September: First OTP]. The first overall line in this is from Nina's story beginnings challenge. Thanks guys for the inspiration.

This is my first try at non-linear so I hope I pulled it off well. I added dates to make it easier to read, I hope that works too! The first snippet and the second-last are the same event...I hope that is clear enough. I was inspired wholly by They Don't Know About Us, so I put lyrics at the beginning but I'm not sure if they seem relevant...please let me know if they don't!

Please do review. Concrit is appreciated! :)

disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize.

Apocalypse

They don't know about the things we do,
They don't know about the "I love you"s
And I bet you if they only knew,
They would just be jealous of us

- One Direction, "They Don't Know About Us"

July, 2022

Her worn sneakers pounded the pavement, and she ran.

Right then and there, he thought his world came to an end.

(She was his world.)

September, 2022

Hogwarts Express. Steam. The morning of September the 1st.

He cornered her that afternoon in a compartment. Al Potter and Louis Weasley were with the other cousins, so he got her alone before she could leave and join them.

He didn't say anything at first. Opened the door to the compartment, slid down next to her and pulled her in for a long kiss.

She pulled back and he could tell that her heart wasn't in it.

"You fine, Rose?" he asked.

"Go away, Scorpius," she sighed. "You shouldn't be here."

"What?" he asked her to repeat, not believing the words.

"I told you to go away, Scorpius."

He was looking at her in bewilderment. Rose Weasley wanted him to go away. Just then, the door slid open. Both of them looked up, startled, to see a tall blonde at the door with an eyebrow raised.

"Malfoy?" Lorcan Scamander asked.

"He came to discuss a particularly difficult piece Professor Vector had assigned us," Rose covered up comfortably. "He's going now though, aren't you, Malfoy?"

Rose glared at him and he got up. Lorcan walked to where he had been sitting and collapsed on the seating. Then, Scorpius watched as much to his chagrin, Scamander leaned in and kissed Rose on her lips.

He stormed out of the compartment without a second thought.

October, 2021

Professor Vector was a scary teacher when she wanted to be. Majority of the students who took Arithmancy were frightened of her demanding personality and especially her threatening glares.

So when she asked Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy to tutor third-years together, it was really inevitable that they would end up doing that.

There were three third-years who had decided that they needed the help: Lily Potter, Hugo Weasley and Renee Corner. All three of them were Gryffindors and very good friends. The first day of tutoring, they promptly declared that all they wanted was to learn more Arithmancy than was taught in class because they loved the subject.

"Look, Rose, you know I love you and I know you love tutoring kids, but we aren't kids. We don't need the help. We just want to be guided so we can get ahead of the rest," Lily announced, Renee nodding at the back. Hugo looked like he could be anywhere but there.

"I don't mind helping you out, Lil. I'm sure Malfoy doesn't, either," Rose told her, glaring sideways at Scorpius.

"Actually," he said tentatively. "I really don't want to be here. However, also don't want to be in Vector's bad books."

And so, Rose and Scorpius helped the three third-years out. It was very clear that Lily Potter was a natural at the subject and this 'tutoring' had been her idea. He learnt that Arithmancy was one of the only subjects she did well in.

Renee Corner was a good student, and she was great at theory. When it came to actually solving the grids and patterns, though, she preferred guidance. Hugo Weasley was entirely average and he needed as much help as he could get. Scorpius was soon sure of the fact that he had been roped in by the two girls and he hadn't had much of a choice.

One and a half hours later, Lily declared that she was exhausted and that it was time for them to return to the common room.

"You coming, Rose?" Lily asked her as she was leaving the library.

"Na," Scorpius watched the redhead reply. "I'm gonna be here just a bit longer. Go through some stuff that's due tomorrow."

He had been planning to wait anyway, and he did.

"Weasley, could you look over my Transfiguration essay? I'm not too sure of the conclusion," he requested after gathering up a lot of courage, because Malfoys did not take help from Weasleys. Ever.

She was a bit startled at first, but recovered. "Yeah. S-sure."

He handed her his parchment and then started reading his Potions essay, looking for any mistakes.

"Malfoy, do you think you could look over my Potions one? I'm not very good at that, so…"

He looked up, startled as well, but took the essay from her nevertheless. Hesitantly at first, but then he surprised himself by reading it carefully and even discussing her mistakes with her. It was kind of shocking, because Malfoys did not help Weasleys. Ever.

/

Slowly but eventually, the two warmed up to each other. Once a week after tutoring was enough. It didn't matter that he was a Green and she was a Red, or that she was a Weasley and he was a Malfoy. Discussing their essays and assignments, correcting each others and doing homework together was enough.

Once, while he was in the library, his ex-girlfriend came by.

"Scorp!" Polly yelled, coming at him with such force that he was actually surprised he didn't end up on the floor.

She kissed him all over, and he had to push her off to stop her.

"Go away, Polly," he said gruffly. "You shouldn't be here."

"B- but Scorpy, I love you!" she whined. Scorpius sighed tiredly at her.

"It's not real, Polly, now please go."

She stamped her foot on the ground and marched away like a moody bimbo. Scorpius heaved a sigh of relief and then looked at Rose besides him to see that she was unable to control her laughter.

"Merlin! That was just so-" said Rose, between laughs. "Crazy! The way she was kissing you-!"

Scorpius grunted. "You act like you've never been kissed, Weasley."

Then he watched as she stopped laughing and blushed a bright shade of red that matched her hair.

"Wait, you- you haven't?" he asked, surprised. It was quite unbelievable. Rose was pretty, he would've thought that she had a boyfriend and everything.

"No," she blushed. "I've not kissed anyone."

They went back to studying after that.

Later, it was nearly dark and she decided that she should be heading back to the Gryffindor tower. He got up though he had decided to go back to the dungeons later.

"Thanks for the help as usual, Malfoy. I really appreciate it," she thanked him while piling up her books. He looked at her smile and suddenly had a brainwave.

"Hey…" he said softly, making her look at him. He moved closer to her and cupped her face in his hands.

Then, he kissed her.

She kissed back.

"Wow...Merlin, Malfoy, what was that?" she asked, after pulling back.

"You said you hadn't kissed anyone," he shrugged.

She smiled at him, then picked up all her belongings from the library table. "I should, uh, be going."

"Yeah."

She walked to the end of the aisle and he watched her. She turned back a moment later and blushed a bit. She said, "It was one hell of a first kiss, Malfoy."

December, 2021

Stolen glances in the Great Hall; passing notes in Arithmancy when no one was looking. Kisses in the library between Potions and Transfiguration - that was how they worked.

The final Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas break seemed to arrive sooner than usual. That night, they snuck into an abandoned classroom.

"Um...Rose?"

They'd begun calling each other by their first names a while ago.

"Yeah?"

"I, um, got something for you," he said awkwardly. He took out a small notebook from his cloak. "This is a Booker. It's a search engine, you write any topic you want to research and it refers you to books and such."

Rose slowly took it from his hand. "I'm sorry it's not wrapped. You wouldn't have opened it had you seen the hideous wrapping."

"This is…" Rose examined it, speechless. She'd seen one of these with her mother, and she'd absolutely loved it. And now she had one of her own.

"Thank you so much, Scorpius," she said, meaning it. "I love it, and I love you."

He was a bit astounded but recovered. "You- ?"

"I love you, Scorpius," Rose repeated, more confident this time.

"I love you, Rose," he said, the words flowing out of his mouth like they were meant to be said. No hesitance.

February, 2022

It was their first fight, and on Valentine's Day of all days.

"I don't understand what's wrong in this, Rose," he said, a bit agitated. "I just want to tell the world that you're mine. Is there something wrong in that?"

"Yes, Scorpius, there is!" she retorted. "You don't know my family! Merlin forbid they ever find out!"

"And what if they do? We can't hide this anymore. My dorm-mates are already getting suspicious!"

"Well, mine aren't!"

"Rose," he appealed. "This can't go on forever. We love each other, that's all that should matter. Who cares about what your cousins feel anyway? I don't care about what my parents will say."

"I care about their feelings, Scorpius! You don't know anything about my family. They can't know, Scorpius, and that's final."

He sighed, then changed the topic.

July, 2022

"Hugh, I'm going out. I'll be home by eight."

…

"I missed you, Rosie."

"I missed you more, Scorpius."

…

"I need to get home, Scorpius. I'm sorry, it's just...Al and his family are going to be home for dinner and it will look suspicious if I'm not home when they come."

"I thought we had longer today."

"I wish we did…"

"I wish they knew, Rose."

"We've gone over this, Scorpius. They can't know."

"Come on, Rose! Just think about it. I don't want this anymore - all the secret meetings, silent conversations...I love you, Rose! Please just understand that!"

"And I love you too, Scorpius. But I need to go now."

"Please think about it, Rose."

"No one needs to know…"

September, 2022

The aisle between Magical Theory and Arithmancy Applications in the library was theirs. No one else dared to occupy it. It was just them and the kids they tutored together; sometimes Rose brought her friends there when Scorpius wasn't there and he brought his when she wasn't.

After what happened in the train, Rose stopped going there to meet Scorpius. He understood that she was avoiding him but kept faith anyway; he kept sitting at his regular place in the library hoping that she'd turn up with her bright red hair and beautiful smile.

It was weeks into the term when she finally did.

"I'm sorry, Scorpius," she said, genuinely. He didn't respond. "We were too destructive for our own good."

(That wasn't true.)

"Are you two dating?" Scorpius asked finally, in a low voice, not making eye contact with Rose.

"Yes," Rose said. "And I'm sorry about it, Scorpius."

He breathed out. "We didn't even break up, Rose."

Rose glanced at him longingly, but with an emotion that told him that she could never really be his. This was their final goodbye.

"I know, Scorpius," she whispered. "I know."

Right then and there, his world did come to an end.

dedication: for Pat because he's the Scorpius to my Rose :)