A very happy birthday to slightlysmall, may you have many more.
This Is the Place
Barely aware of the rain hammering down on her head, Rose Malfoy stepped across the threshold of the small suburban house that she had been living in for nearly fourteen years.
She was glad that Albus had offered to take the children off her hands for a few hours. It meant that she could spend some time alone with him.
She walked down the road, the rain soaking her to the skin and numbing her pain slightly, for this was the first anniversary, one year after his death.
The hot tears on her face mingled with the rain as she prepared to disapparate. She didn't know if she still could after all this time. She hadn't apparated anywhere in a year, everyone had always come to her with their cheerful faces and happy words trying to cheer her up. She had always acted strong, for her three children who were much too young to be dealing with a loss that big, but deep down inside she was an absolute mess.
She turned on the spot, concentrating hard on a riverbank. The familiar squeezing sensation that doubled with apparition washed over her and she knew that it had worked. She opened her eyes and found herself by the exact river bank that she had been thinking of. The rain still thundered down making the river overflow and slosh onto the forest floor, soaking Rose's shoes and socks. She didn't mind though, for when she closed her eyes she could still see it. She could see the ghost of a seventeen year old boy and a seventeen year old girl sitting on the river bank.
This is the place she thought.
"Are we nearly there yet?" Rose asked, annoyed as Scorpius lead her up and over boulders. "I'm thirsty."
"You can have something to drink when we get there. It shouldn't be far now." Scorpius responded, craning his neck to look for whatever he was looking for.
"How far is not far?" Rose groaned, "My feet are killing me."
"Here we are!" Scorpius said joyfully as they arrived in a small clearing.
"Oh finally!" Rose exclaimed, seeing the small freshwater stream running through it. She hurried over to it, fell to her knees and took a deep drink. "So is this what you wanted to show me?"
"Well, yes." Scorpius said, sitting down next to her and stripping off his shoes and socks and dangling his feet in the water.
"It's lovely." Rose said, mimicking him.
They had just sat there for a while, talking about the various dramas that were going on with their families, gossiping about people at school, laughing at each other's corny jokes until they ran out of things to talk about.
Rose narrowed her eyes slyly at Scorpius as he tossed his head back so that the sun could reach his pale neck. She reached down and scooped up some of the water and tossed it all over his perfectly styled blonde hair. Scorpius let out a girly scream that sent Rose into peals of laughter.
"That is your scream?" Rose mocked.
"Rack off Weasley!" Scorpius laughed, shaking his blonde hair so that the water went all over Rose.
"You scream like a bloody girl!"
"So do you." Scorpius grinned. Rose hit him. "So, what do we do now?"
"I dunno, I reckon we should get going, it looks like it's about to rain." Rose said, pointing up at the clouds. Scorpius threw his head back and looked at them.
"No it doesn't, we'll be fine here for another hour at least." He said.
"Whatever Mister know-it-all," Rose teased.
"You're impossible." Scorpius laughed as a few drops of water fell onto their arms.
"Oh, we'll surely be fine for another hour." Rose said sarcastically, "What do you call this, genius?"
"It's just a little water." Scorpius said, pulling Rose back to the ground as she made for her shoes.
"Why are you so eager to stay?" Rose asked suspiciously. Scorpius let go of her arm abruptly and looked at the ground. Rose immediately became concerned; Scorpius always had a witty comeback at the ready. "Are you alright?"
"I'm sick." Scorpius said softly.
"Sorry?"
"I'm sick. I have been for a long time, and I think it's time I told you."
"What do you have, the flu?" Rose asked, trying to figure out what type of sickness he could've had and been completely normal at the same time.
"No, not the flu." Scorpius said, still looking at the ground.
"What then?"
Scorpius finally looked up, his eyes meeting Rose's. "I'm lovesick." And by this time, Rose's face was so close to his that he couldn't help but lean across and kiss her. To his pleasure, she responded immediately, kissing him softly back.
That moment seemed to last forever in both of their minds and when they finally broke apart, Rose had a confession for Scorpius too.
"I'm lovesick as well. I've been lovesick ever since fourth year. I've just been waiting for the one to cure my sickness, and I tell you what, Scorpius, my sickness has been cured."
"Mine has too." Scorpius said, their faces still inches from each other.
"I love you, Scorpius Malfoy."
"I love you too, Rose Weasley."
"Now let's get out of here before we get soaked."
Rose dashed off, only stopping to pick up her shoes and socks just as the heavens opened and the rain bucketed down.
Scorpius shrugged, "Looks like we're stuck here."
Rose could only shake her head and smile.
This was the place that they had laughed, where they had danced and walked in the rain, it was the place where she had cried and he had wiped all the tears from her face. It wasn't the same anymore, not with him gone.
Every year, the two of them had visited that same riverbank, laughed, danced and remembered. It was their special place, a place that only they knew about.
Rose just couldn't help thinking that he never knew how much she really needed him in her life. But now that he was gone, it was too late. She had lost him.
It really wasn't fair for him to leave her alone in the big wide world with three children between the ages of ten and three in the house. She acted like she was coping, but at night the only way to let out her pain was to scream and cry into her pillow and hope that she didn't wake Martha, who slept in the room next to hers.
She wished that she had stopped him from going into work on that fateful day one year ago, the day that they were doing a raid and a bomb exploded right next to his head. If only she had made him ring in sick. If only, if only!
Her life was full of if only's right now, but she couldn't change the past.
"Mum?" she turned to look behind her, to see a small figure emerge from the trees.
"Antares?" Rose said, trying to keep the tears out of her voice as she looked in disbelief at her eldest child and only son, "Antares, how did you get here?"
"Portkey," Antares shrugged, "Uncle Albus set it up for me."
"I'm going to kill him." Rose said.
"No, mum, I made him do it. He didn't want to." Antares said, moving forward and placing a hand on his mother's arm.
"Why did you want to follow me?" Rose said, putting her arm around the ten year old.
"Because I wanted to tell you that it's alright to cry. Me and Lyra were talking about how you never cried when dad died and Uncle Albus told us that it was because you didn't want us to see you cry."
"Yes, I'm going to kill him." Rose sniffed, smiling slightly, looking up at the sky that had turned black during the time that she had stood by the river. "See that there, Antares?" she said, squinting through the rain and pointing at the stars.
"Yeah," Antares said, "What about it."
"That's the constellation Scorpius."
"Just like dad."
"Yeah," Rose said, rubbing Antares' shoulder, "Just like dad. And do you know where you got your name from?"
"No."
"Antares… it's the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius." Rose said, her eyes welling up with tears again as she realised something that she should've realised a year ago. She had Antares, the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation, he may be gone, but she still had the star to hold onto.
"Wicked." Antares said.
"So, when ever feel like you're alone just look up into the skies and know that your dad is watching over you, just look for the constellation." Rose said, losing her composure and letting some more tears roll down her cheeks as her body shook with sobs.
She felt Antares' arms wrap around her waist, comforting her. She looked down at him to find that he had tears in his eyes as well.
She had been so stupid! She had been so self-absorbed in her own grief that she hadn't realised that it was not only the first anniversary of her husband's death, but the first anniversary of Antares, Lyra and Martha's father's death. She bent down and hugged her son tightly, still trying to fight off her tears.
Antares turned his head to the side and whispered something in her ear that made her realise how lucky she was to have him. "He's watching over you too mum."
And for the first time in a year, Rose felt that he really was.
AN: In addition to writing this for the beautiful slightlysmall (I hope you have a great birthday by the way!) I have written it for: The OTP Boot Camp - Prompt #21: Lost
I would love it if you could leave me a review :)
Potter on
~The Original Horcrux~