Rose hated Valentine's Day.

Not because she had no one to celebrate it with (she didn't), but because of how bloody commercialized the holiday had become. From the moment she apparated from her flat to a little café where she generally ate her breakfast to the moment her usual, plain muffin was replaced with a red-dyed, heart-shaped, plain muffin to the moment she arrived at her job at Gringotts as a Wizarding Security Supervisor, she couldn't move two feet without being bludgeoned in the head by some sort of flying Valentine's Day decoration.

Exhausted from battling her way through the swarm of hearts and streamers just floating around Gringotts, she slowly trudged up the stairs to avoid the singing cupids that had taken over the elevators.

"Are you serious?" She groaned, opening the door to the office she shared with her partner, Ryan Duncan, to find that her office, too, had been appropriately decorated for the holiday.

Ryan looked up from his coffee held in a paper cup plastered with baby angels holding hearts. "You don't like them?"

"Are they necessary?" She grumbled, swatted away an unsuspecting floating cupid that had unfortunately floated right in front of her face. "Are you responsible for this?" She asked.

He shook his head. "I think the goblins have had so much free time on their hands since we took over security at Gringotts that they decided to decorate every inch of the bank." He took a sip of his coffee, then added, "Either that, or they're trying to punish us for taking their jobs."

Rose walked to her desk and sank into her chair. "Well, they should just get over that."

Gringotts appointed wizards to take over the security at the bank after Damon Varick, a Dark Arts enthusiast, and his supporters flooded Gringotts one night, somehow circumvented the security measures set by the goblins, and cleaned out a large portion of the vaults to fund their campaign against the Ministry and to bring more awareness to more powerful (which also meant more dangerous) magic. They believed that the Ministry was holding the Wizarding community back from expanding into the Muggle world. Why should wizards, a more powerful being, have to hide away in the corners in the world, shielded by magic, while Muggles were out in the open, allowed to wander about freely?

The Ministry of Magic demanded Varick be sent to Azkaban immediately, but Varick had disappeared and no one was quite sure who exactly his supporters were as the ones that were seen were always covered in masks. It was 5 years after the break in, and still, no one knew where Varick was or who his supporters were. The only thing the public was aware of was that he was steadily gaining supporters for his cause.

"I don't want to encourage your hatred toward Valentine's Day decorations, but you need to see today's Prophet," said Ryan, gesturing toward the copy of The Daily Prophet that was delivered that morning from an owl and set on Rose's desk.

"Oh no," she sighed, picking it up. Little red hearts ran up and down the edges and weaved in between paragraphs of the paper. "How is one expected to read this?" she asked, infuriated. And as she opened the paper, she was almost choked by little heart confetti that burst from the seams of the paper. She sputtered, doing her best to rid her mouth of the horrid-tasting charmed confetti.

Ryan laughed loudly from across her.

She brought her paper down so she could glare at him from over the edge of her paper. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing," he grinned. "Nothing at all."

She shot him one last glare before bringing the paper up and flipping through the pages again, opening each page slowly to defend herself against any other surprises.

She skimmed through the paper. And between the bothersome successful love stories and the rubbish 'find your magical partner' ads, a headline and a photo caught her eye.

Scorpius Malfoy, esteemed Auror, taken away by Varick Supporters. And beneath it was a picture, taken three years ago, on the day he was inducted in the Ministry as an Auror. He was staring into the camera with a solemn expression on his face, his official Auror badge pinned to his chest.

Rose felt herself tense and the hearts floating around the page blurred. Suddenly, getting a hold of herself, she slammed the paper shut and tossed it on top of her desk.

Ryan looked up. "Something wrong?"

She looked away from the closed paper and to Ryan. "No," she shook her head. "There's nothing wrong."

Scorpius had left for America to attend an esteemed graduate school that specialized in Auror Training 2 months after he and Rose graduated with their friends from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

They had been a couple since their fourth year at Hogwarts and best friends since their second. And when Scorpius left, they promised to remain as close as they always have been. However, their lives began changing and eventually, as many relationships and friendships do over a period of time apart, they lost touch with each other completely.

He returned to England two years later to officially accept a job at the Ministry. However, to the surprise and dismay of Rose, he had changed completely. Her long time friend was gone and replaced with someone who was nothing more than a stranger to her.

"You heard?" Dominique asked, a sympathetic look on her face.

To get away from all the red and pink decorations, Rose and her only two single cousins left – Dominique and Albus – decided to have lunch in the corner of a pub located on a busy Muggle street. There were still decorations hanging on the ceilings and off the walls, but, much to Rose's pleasure, they weren't moving.

"Yes," Rose sighed. "I heard, but I don't care."

"But you do. Why do you always insist on denying your feelings?" Dominique replied.

Rose frowned. "I don't deny my feelings. Albus, tell Dom that I don't deny my feelings."

Albus looked hesitant.

"Albus!" Rose snapped.

"Rose, to be honest," he shifted in his chair uncomfortably, "you do tend to deny your feelings occasionally."

Dom smiled smugly. "See?"

Rose leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest. "Name me one time."

Albus thought of something immediately. "The day your pet rabbit ran away, what did you do?"

Rose thought back to the day her beloved first pet ran away from home. "I didn't do anything."

"Hugo told me you shrugged when Uncle Ron told you your poor Bunnykins ran away."

Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "I didn't shrug. I said 'okay'."

Dominique stared at her. "You said 'okay' when your pet rabbit ran away?"

"What?" Rose asked, defensive. What were they trying to prove? Wait. "That does not count as me denying my feelings!"

Albus looked at her pointedly.

"It does not! I am perfectly in touch with my feelings," Rose protested.

"What did you do when you read about how Scorpius, a friend of yours for years and your old boyfriend, was captured by an evil," Dominique looked around at the Muggles and lowered her voice, "wizard."

What did she do? She remembered setting the paper aside, saying something or another to Ryan, and starting on her work.

"You did nothing, didn't you?" Dominique asked, feeling as if her point had been made.

"I didn't do nothing," said Rose quietly. She never thought of herself as someone who denies her feelings.

"You didn't try to find out more information?" asked Albus.

Rose paused. She didn't even read the entire article.

Dominique stared at Rose, studying her, and then gasped. "You didn't even read the article, did you?"

Rose looked down.

"You didn't read it?" Albus asked in disbelief. "Even I read it and I hate the bloke!"

"Fine," Rose snapped. "So maybe I'm not incredibly in touch with my feelings."

"You probably get that from Uncle Ron," Dominique nodded slowly, as if she were solving the impossible puzzle that was Rose's personality.

"But it's not at all the same situation," Rose realized. "I'm not on the same terms with Scorpius than I was with that rabbit."

"Are you saying that you're on better terms with Scorpius or the rabbit?" Albus furrowed his brow.

"I loved that rabbit, and I admit, I was slightly … stoic about my reaction to his running away. But Scorpius and I aren't even talking. The last time we saw each other was a mess. You do remember, don't you?"

Albus and Dominique shuddered at the memory of that night.

"If I remember correctly, it was a disaster. He said things, I said things, he said more things, and then I hit him. Scorpius and I just aren't on the relationship level you two seem to think we are."

Albus was silent.

After a moment passed, Dominique spoke. "But you two were wonderful together," Dominique said, softer than before. "You were best friends."

Rose looked at her and said, equally as soft, "We were."

Rose returned to her office a few minutes before her break was officially over. Taking a seat behind her desk, she glanced at the copy of The Daily Prophet she had tossed on her desk that morning.

She sighed and picked it up, flipping to the article about Scorpius. As she turned to the page, the picture of Scorpius stared up at her.

She frowned. Covering the picture of Scorpius up with her left hand, she leaned back in her chair and began to read the article.

The Ministry had been notified that supporters of Varick (identified by the masks they wore over their faces) had broken into the house of a wizarding family of four. Harry, the Head of the Aurors, sent out Scorpius and his partner, Scott Langton, to quietly take care of the situation, preferably bringing in Varick's supporters.

When they had arrived at the house, Langton got the family safely outside while Scorpius went after the wizards that had broken into the house. Langton caught a glimpse of Scorpius being dragged away before he himself was stupefied along with the rest of the family.

The Ministry was currently doing their absolute best to take control of the situation and the family and Langton were currently recovering at St. Mungo's.

Rose had just reached the bottom of the article when Ryan walked through the office door, whistling happily.

She looked up, folding the paper back up at once and setting it aside on her desk.

She smiled in greeting at Ryan and then turned to her work.

What had Scorpius gotten himself into?

As Rose was getting ready for bed that night, there was a loud knock at her door.

She glanced at her watch. It was almost eleven o'clock. She frowned, didn't people know that it was rude to knock on someone's door loudly after nine? Hell, she could have been asleep!

She marched up to the door, ready to tell whomever it was to bugger the hell off, but when she opened it the words fell from her lips.

"Hey Rose," Scorpius stood at her front door. His hair and robes were matted with mud and his face was badly cut up and bruised.

Rose's eyes widened as she stood, frozen, in front of the last person she ever thought would be on her doorstep at eleven o'clock at night. "W-what are you doing here?" she stuttered. She then paused, getting over her initial stage of shock. "Wait. Why aren't you holed in some dark wizard's evil lair?"

His eyebrows rose. "Lair?"

"Answer the question!"

"I escaped," he shrugged, as if it were that simple.

"You escaped?" she said, unbelieving. "What did you do, break the magical bonds that were tying you up, grab your wand, and stun them all?"

He nodded. "Pretty much."

She frowned. "So you escaped…"

He nodded his head yes.

"Why are you here? At my flat?"

He cleared his throat and looked at her hopefully. "I need a place to hide."

Author's Note: Reviews are greatly appreciated! :)

NOTE: This is a rewrite of Second Chances (which I currently have 3 chapters posted). However, I feel that it's a lot more developed and it'll be easier to work with in the end. Hope you enjoyed!