Albus/Rose – cousinicest - well, sorta

I don't own anything

For their entire lives, Albus and Rose have been best friends. They were born eleven days apart, thrust together in the bustling world of the Weasleys and their many children. Not that they minded that, not whatsoever; it gave them a chance to form a friendship from the crib, one that would be unshakeable in the future. They didn't have the divide between them that most best friends have, the barrier that was known not to be crossed.

This friendship carried all the way through to Hogwarts without wavering, somehow even managing to be strengthened by the placing of the pair of them in Gryffindor, along with the rest of their family already at Hogwarts, as they had the chance to be together near as dammit 24/7.

They both made new friends but they never once wavered in their friendship as they approached their seventh and final year… until Rose went away with her family for the summer…

…

He loves her. He realises now, now he has been torn apart from her for the entire summer, that the intense longing he has felt for so long now for Rose is because he loves her. The almost numbness when she isn't around is because he loves her and he misses her… and now, now she isn't even in the country for the entirety of the summer holidays. No, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione decided that they would go away to France for the entire six weeks holidays because they needed to 'spend quality time as a family', rather than go on the annual holiday that the Weasley clan organise.

Sure, she writes but that isn't the same – it isn't the same as seeing her face in the morning as they head down to breakfast or listening to her humming her favourite tune. And he knows his responses are so paltry that she probably will stop writing back soon, because there is nothing to write back to.

His parents are worried about him: he refuses to come out of his room for anything other than meal times; he has even stopped joining in with the annual pranking of the adults by the kids, preferring to hide out in his room. They all know that he misses Rose, that they haven't been apart this long ever, but none of them realise that he loves her… or that he thinks he loves her. They just think that it is separation issues between friends.

He wishes his could tell someone. He wishes that he could go up to one of his family members and tell them how he feels. He wishes he could sit down with someone and ask them what he should do, ask them why he feels this way, and just be comforted.

Yet he is too scared to: he's scared that his cousins and siblings will make fun of him for loving someone who is supposed to be his best friend and his cousin – is that even legal? He supposes it is because Teddy and Victoire have been raised like cousins and they're together, yet nobody cares about that.

So he mopes away in his room for the entire summer, the contact between him and Rose getting less and less as each week passes by until, by the last week of the holidays, they don't speak a word. Rose's school things are being collected by his parents so she won't even be back to go to Diagon Alley for the last time in her school life. He knows he will see her on the train back to Hogwarts and that will be the first time that they see each other in the time span between year six and year seven.

He decides, as he packs his trunk using magic, he will tell her how he feels on the train to Hogwarts. He'll tell her almost as soon as he sees her so that he doesn't lose the bottle to do it; he'll tell her how he has loved her for years now and it took the separation of them to realise how much he needs her.

"Albus, it's time to go!" his Mum calls up the stairs, just as he finishes packing. So he uses magic to take his trunk, owl and broomstick downstairs, adjusting their size magically so that they'll all fit into the car to take them to the station. He smiles slightly for the first time since Rose left, knowing that it won't be long before he sees her again, when he can tell her how he feels about her.

They make their way to Kings Cross through the traffic, the knot of excitement in Albus' stomach increasing as they almost get caught in the traffic. But they make it to the station with fifteen minutes to spare – better, his Dad says, than they ever did, even on his first visit – and they unload the trunks and other stuff to get them through their year, the looks of astonishment on the Muggles faces etched in by now; after all, they've probably seen another hundred or so kids with stuff like this already.

They head through the wall and into the real Kings Cross station for them, Albus straining his head to try and find Rose.

"Hermione said that they'll get here for five minutes before the train," he hears his Dad telling his Mum, his heart sinking as he realises that there is a chance that he may bottle it before then.

"Bet she's more frantic than ever before," his Mum comments, a smile on her lips as she makes reference to Aunt Hermione's legendary fits of fear.

Albus decides to put his stuff in a compartment and save it for Rose to come when she arrives. So he puts all his stuff in there, along with a note on the door to show that this is a seventh year's cabin and to go in there would result in a hexing.

He climbs off the train and waits for the familiar sight of his family arriving, greeting Fred and Roxanne and all the other Weasley kids who all come and say goodbye to their younger relatives, secretly thankful to be shot of them for the summer so that they can get planning on how to get them back in the upcoming summer holidays. Pranking is a constant job – you never get a week off!

Finally, he sees Rose walking through the wall and relief spreads through his body as he strides forwards to greet her for the first time in weeks. "Hey," he says simply, a smile spreading across his face.

She looks at him and grins back, abandoning her trolley to move around and give him a hug. "Albus! I've missed you! I have so much to tell you!" she squeals, her Dad moving and pushing the trolley into her legs to remind her about it. "DAD! No need for that!" she protests, letting go of her best friend as she turns back to a father with a face like stone.

"You chose to date the Malfoy boy, Rosie, even though you know that I don't like-" he says to his daughter, evidently still annoyed at this turn of events through the holidays. But all Albus hears is the fact that his Rose, the girl he was about to ask out, is dating Scorpius Malfoy, someone who he never expected to even know Rose existed.

"Wait… you and Scorpius?" Albus confirms, the colour draining out of his face that his Rose could already have someone. She turns back to him from her Dad, blushing, and nods.

"Yeah… we all ended up going to the same place on holiday so we hung out like every day," she shrugs, as if it's nothing. "We're sharing a compartment if you wanna share with us?" she continues, breaking his heart further with the casual mention that they've already planned out the journey.

"B-but it is always just you and me, Rose, it's the tradition we've never broken," Albus protests, sounding like a petulant child but not caring because, well, his Rose isn't his anymore…

… She's Scorpius'.

"Things change, Al," she tells him gently, Ron moving further away to give them a chance to talk. He always thought he wouldn't have to worry about his kid being with a Malfoy because she would end up with Albus, but evidently both he and Albus were wrong.

"Yeah, I see that," Albus says bitterly. "Well, whatever, Rose, go off with Scorpius."

Her eyes narrow as she looks in his face, before she relaxes and nods. "You know what, I will," she says gently. "It was you who ignored me in these holidays, Al, not the other way around. For a bit, I thought that we were for each other… but then you stopped writing and Scorpius… he isn't as bad as he is made out to be. I really like him, Al, and I wish that you would give him a chance like Dad," she ends with a hard glare at her father who shrugs and turns away entirely.

Though his heart continues to tear into pieces, Albus realises that, though he can't be with her at the minute, he can be her friend. Perhaps in the future, when Scorpius breaks her heart, he can make his move then… but now isn't the right time. Now is too early.

They're still supposed to be friends now, not lovers. Friendship overcomes all…

… because relationships can end like that… but friendships… friendships are forever.

"Sure," Albus finally says with an attempt at a smile as he wraps his arm around Rose's shoulders. "I already got a compartment… I'm sure smelly Scorpius can come in as well," he references their old nickname for the blond boy and she smiles.

"Oh, one last thing," she says just as they board the train. "He's got a cat."

The smile fades from Albus' lips.

He hates cats.

Thoughts?

I didn't know how to end it, so I went for the clichéd 'let's be friends and if he breaks your heart I can help you through it' sort of thing.

Vicky xx