Third Time's A Charm

Restaurant The Time Turner

When the door opened and the stuttering waiter who held the door was relieved by the restaurant's host, all the eyes of the room moved to one place. They were all looking at the entrance of the room, where one of the most gorgeous witches of the British Wizarding World was standing, looking for her date. The eyes of the room moved over her body, starting with her hair. Her untamed curls that usually hid her face, were now tamed by at least a dozen spells, carefully cast at different places in her long, bright red coloured curls. Her hair was placed to one side over her shoulder, elegantly pinned with a single golden clip that had a modest, small ruby on it.

The hair clip matched with the bracelet a small golden bracelet with five rubies on it. Her earrings were simple black studs, but her face was a piece of art. Her brows stood defiant, as if she was ready to verbally fight anything or anyone whatever for. Her light eyelashes were painted black to visualize the length which was unseen if they weren't painted. The colour of her lipstick was a little darker than her own colour, drawing polite attention to them, but not screaming for a spotlight. Her hazel brown eyes flamed already, radiating just as much defiance as the brows were emitting. That combined with the relaxed loose shoulders, one would easily get the idea that this girl, or young witch, was very comfortable. Yet, for the ones who studied her closer, they might find out that the young witch in fact was nervous. Given away by the awkward smile, that could have been planted there on purpose, to not come over as arrogant, and also by the feet that were placed a little too close to each other. But that could also be explained by the tight black skirt she was wearing, not wanting to risk tripping over by taking to big steps. Still, for the ones who took a closer look, knew.

Her champagne coloured blouse was loose in comparison to the tight black skirt and seemed to complete the ensemble, making it not too sexy, but not too casual either. The black heels she was wearing were shining, and contrary to the expectations, not thin high heels, but a little firmer and lower than one would expect. Though, the heels were still almost four inches high. The clutch that was held by her ringless fingers of her right hand was also champagne coloured, matching with the blouse.

Everything about this young witch seemed to radiate control, but appearances may be deceiving. The young witch was not in control. She was forced to go on this date by her cousin Lucy. Lucy, and all her other cousins for that matter, went to Hogwarts. Every one of the Weasley family had gone to Hogwarts except for this young witch named Rose Weasley.

The reason for Rose Weasley not attending Hogwarts was simple, Rose had anger management issues and needed special training and support for emotion control. Beauxbatons Academy of Magic had special programs for girls with behavioural problems, Hogwarts did not. When Rose Weasley graduated from Beauxbatons, she was turned into a stunning young witch with much more control of her emotions, mostly.

Rose Weasley almost didn't go on this date, but after more of her cousins ganged up to push her to accept this setup, she felt the need to accept. But what really made her say yes, was her boss. Her boss, the Minister of the Department of International Magical Cooperation had asked more than a few times about her not existing love interests and it bugged Rose to a certain extent that she needed to fix it before it had a chance to become a bigger problem. Even to shush her boss of asking about her love life, she had gone on dates with awful guys and even a girl once but it hadn't helped. All of her previous dates had been with unattractive, dumb people who just liked to brag about dating her like a trophy, something that made Rose need all her training handles of her anger management training.

And it hadn't gotten better when Rose had said to her boss that she didn't want to stop working for a partner or become a trophy girlfriend/wife or whatever. Rose's job came first, always.

Her boss, who Rose respected deeply had laughed and said that she never let her personal relationship interfere with her work. Minister Susan Bones had married Neil Randall, a Gryffindor who loved her deeply, but the minister insisted to do her work under her maiden name, not wanting to let the personal situation interfere with her work, like the minister's mother had done.

So if Susan Bones could do it, why not Rose Weasley, daughter of the Smartest Witch of Her Age?

She couldn't refuse and finally agreed to go on a date with a wizard named Scorpius Malfoy.

Even her parents, two third of the Golden Trio had said that Scorpius Malfoy was a 'good kid' and a 'modest and smart boy who was ridiculously good in potions' Rose tried to remind her parents of the feud they had with his parents but neither had fallen in that trap. And since he was one of Albus' best friends, he came over to the Burrow often.

So here she stood, all nicely dressed, actually making an effort. When the restaurant's host guided her to the reserved table, under the Malfoy name, she sat down at an elegantly made table. The host had pulled out her chair and she had thanked him before he left again. Even though Rose always hated being late, and always prevented to be able to come late, she had allowed herself to arrive at the exact time of their date, 7 o' clock. To her surprise there was no one sitting at the table. Albus had assured her that he was always a gentleman, yet it seemed that the young wizard didn't care if he was late.

After two minutes the waiter had come by to ask if she already wanted something to drink. Rose had politely declined, not wanting to be rude and order ahead of her date arriving.

When minutes passed another waiter walked up to her table and asked if she wanted something to drink and again Rose declined, feeling the little anger in her gut growing.

Fifteen minutes later, Rose had enough. She stood up vigorously and took her clutch from the table. The host who had watched the table and young witch closely had hurriedly taken her coat to bring to her when she stormed out of the dining hall. At the entrance of the restaurant the host handed Rose the coat.

"Thank you," Rose muttered when she took the extended coat from the restaurant's host.

She was busy putting it on, ready to leave to the apparation point when the restaurant's host smiled a little sly. "Miss Weasley, one must be crazy to stand you up. And if I may say so, you look too beautiful not to enjoy an exquisite meal. The young wizard who reserved the table already paid for the table and the food, so please, stay."

"He already paid?" Rose repeated, one brow now risen high out of interest.

"Yes, Miss Weasley," the host answered.

"Alright… wait, what is your name?" Rose asked him interested.

"Jean-Paul," the host now responded with a widening sly smile. Rose Weasley now smiled back broadly, her eyes stood satisfied and her expression was smug.

"Very well, Jean-Paul, please make sure you give me the finest champagne and the most expensive dish on your menu. And feel free to tip yourself a hundred galleons. You are very good in your job, which deserves a reward" Rose said, patting his shoulder friendly and handing him the coat back after which she marched back into the dining room.

"As you wish, Miss Weasley."

Seven glasses of champagne, a dragon pate as starters, coquilles with vanilla sauce and caviar as main and three pieced of crème brulee as dessert later, Rose Weasley thanked all of the staff and rose to her feet and left with the rest of the second bottle of champagne.

When Scorpius Malfoy got the bill, he would most likely be very very angry, and that was just what Rose Weasley counted on while stepped into her apartment, smiling broadly. She turned on the fireplace and picked up her favourite book. Even with the slight buzz from the alcohol she rose her wand to the fireplace and locked it for incoming floo calls or travellers. She had a wonderful evening.

St. Mungo's

"Next time tell me beforehand, Thomas," Scorpius Malfoy warned the emergency healer on duty in St. Mungo's.

"You're a peach, Malfoy," Hunter Thomas replied smiling while walking back to emergency room three.

When Malfoy removed the sweat from his forehead, he headed back down to the potions laboratory. As soon as he entered, Charisse Benson looked up surprised.

"Wow, I didn't expect you back so soon, was your date so bad? I thought Potter had said that all guys wanted to date his cousin. He was lying then?"

There was only one thing going through his mind. Shit, the date.

His eyes quickly moved to the huge clock in the laboratory and saw that it was nearly ten in the evening.

His colleague, Charisse had apparently figured out what had happened.

"Don't tell me you forgot?!" she demanded.

"The emergency Potioneer on duty didn't know what to do, and then the emergency healer on duty called for me. Someone was on the verge of dying and as soon as I had a blood sample I had to brew a mixed poison dissolver without using a bezoar because the patient in question was allergic to anything goat," Scorpius Malfoy explained hastily.

"I don't know if you know Scorpius, but if you stand someone up, especially someone of one of the most important families in the wizarding world, they are not happy. And I know you are friends with the Potters but that makes it even worse! There are even articles about Rose Weasley not wanting to date because she distrusts people in general. You have officially destroyed hope for the female body of the wizarding world to meet a nice, respectable guy who IS ON TIME!" Charisse exclaimed with a smile, yet Scorpius knew there was more truth in her words than he had wished.

Gulping, Scorpius got his coat and pursed his lips together. He was going to apologize for eternity to Albus, and Lucy...

Albus' Apartment

When Scorpius stepped out of Albus' fireplace, Albus sat up straight on the couch and put away a quidditch magazine. Scorpius looked like he was debating about something and to Albus' surprise, Scorpius didn't look happy. Maybe the date didn't go well? Albus really thought they'd be perfect for each other. Still, it was three hours after the time they'd met, so they didn't leave immediately after the dinner.

"Scorp, what are you doing here? Didn't you have a good time?" Albus asked his best friend, who simply looked miserable. Scorpius mindlessly scratched the back of his neck, not looking at Albus at all.

"Well, I uhh…"

"Yes?"

"I have to confess something, but you have to promise to help me instead of getting angry. I had a good reason."

This caused Albus to raise his brows high in anticipation of what was coming. Scorpius raised his own brows as if to ask for a confirmation, to which Albus nodded.

"I might have pissed off Rose…" Scorpius stuttered.

"Ha! That was not unexpected, but I did warn you about her anger management issues. Did she hit you?" Albus wondered amused.

"Not exactly."

Scorpius face now betrayed much more and now Albus caught the severity of Scorpius crimes.

"What did you do? Did you insult the French? Did you show up late? Did you mock her red hair?"

Albus had seen Scorpius' face pull at his third question. Albus opened his mouth in shock and then shook his head.

"I told you three things about Rose; don't insult the French, don't insult anything that has something to do with the Weasley family and don't don't…"

"-…be late," Scorpius finished with his head hanging.

"How much time?" Albus now asked a little bit worried, moving his eyes over Scorpius' body to check for physical harm.

Scorpius swallowed uncomfortably.

"Three hours."

Albus understood immediately, Scorpius hadn't shown up at all.

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah."

"H-how?" Albus stuttered in utter shock.

"I forgot. There was a severe poisoning and the Potioneer on emergency duty wasn't qualified, so I had to step in. I just forgot the time. I am really sorry," Scorpius replied honestly.

Albus calculated his sincerity and apparently believed Scorpius, still it could be the tiredness that made Scorpius seem so sincere, but Albus believed him.

Scorpius had learned the hard way not to go against Lucy Weasley. For some reason Lucy Weasley knew things, it wasn't like being a Seer but she knew things and if she warned you or told you to do something, you would do it. And when Lucy had sent him an owl to go on a date with her cousin Rose, Scorpius had politely declined, not knowing it was anything more than a suggestion. But when she arrived the next morning in his bedroom, with angry eyes and told him he had to go on a date with her, because he needed to. Scorpius immediately apologized and nodded, being wide awake suddenly. He needed to go on a date with Rose, because he didn't want to face the consequences if he didn't. A small shudder ran over Scorpius' spine, remembering the last time he hadn't listened to Lucy's 'urgent suggestions' and he hastily turned to Albus.

"So what is the plan now?" Scorpius asked quickly.

"You are going to stay away from Rose for the next few days. Until she had her revenge. Then, you can send her an apology and I'll set up a new date."

"Revenge?" Scorpius wondered.

Then, a house elf appeared between Albus and Scorpius. The house elf worked for the Malfoy family and it bowed to both of the young wizards in the room.

"Master Scorpius and Mister Albus. Sorry to bother you Master, but Squeaky has a message from Gringotts."

Scorpius furrowed his brows in confusion.

"That is weird- Squeaky, what is the message?" Scorpius asked the house elf.

The house elf obviously felt uncomfortable and a little afraid for he stepped four steps back and bowed again.

Scorpius, who still hated his grandfather for scarring the house elves forever, waited patiently.

"Master, Time Turner restaurant sent bill from tonight."

The house elf shuddered visibly now, and bowed even deeper, not daring to look at his 'Master'.

"They sent me a bill? I didn't even buy…"

Then realization hit the two young wizards at the same time.

"S-she wouldn't," Scorpius uttered astonished.

"She would," Albus responded, grinning sly.

It took Albus one second before he started laughing uncontrollably. "How much, Squeaky?" Albus pushed between laughs and clapping his hand on the couch out of pure humour.

"742 galleons, Mister Albus."

Scorpius choked on a bit of air and started coughing. "You have got to be kidding me."

"No way, mate. That has Rose written all over it," Albus explained with a red face and tears streaming down his cheeks from laughter.

Squeaky excused himself and Scorpius had taken a butterbeer from Albus' stock. After a few minutes Albus was back to his normal state and he took a butterbeer as well. But even after the few minutes Scorpius still looked miserable.

"I didn't know the money was such a problem…" Albus started.

"It isn't- I just don't like using my grandparent's money. I only want to use what my parents made or what I had earned myself. I don't want blood money," Scorpius replied bitter.

Albus studied Scorpius' face and suddenly felt sorry for him. He gave Scorpius' shoulder a hard clap and stood up from the couch. "Look, I'll talk to Rose."

Second date

The second date had been a flop too. Just as Rose was about to leave her apartment to go to the date, her mother's patronus appeared in her apartment. The otter with her mother's voice hurriedly said that Rose and Hugo had to go to St. Mungo's because their father had been hit in an attack in Auror business, pulling uncle Harry out of the way just in time. She'd left the same second and never thought of the date again.

Scorpius, who had been waiting patiently at the entrance of the Scamander Magical Zoo in the middle of Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, looked at his watch. When she'd been late for half an hour, he decided to enter the park himself, not wanting to spoil his trip all the way here.

After the incident with Professor Sprout he had never doubted Lucy's suggestions again. And the ridiculous part of the incident was that the other Potter's and Weasley's had warned him, that if he didn't listen to Lucy's urgent suggestions, he would be sorry later. Scorpius thought this was one of their pranks they pulled on non-family members, but he very soon found out that she actually tried to help him. In that same year he still had to get straight O's to make up for the T grade Professor Sprout had given him for 'the accident'. Not to mention the detention that lasted a full month.

But now, while Scorpius was walking the through the Scamander Magical Zoo, he started to doubt Lucy's gift.

He'd never met Rose, not even once on a family party at the Burrow and he started to feel like maybe he wasn't meant to meet her. Scorpius forgetting the first date, Rose not showing up for the second date…

His eyes fell on two three-headed dogs and their pups, walking around in a garden-like setting. Two pups were play-fighting and with all the heads it was confusing to see which head belonged to which pup.

Walking further he came across a Augurey shelter, birds that had intrigued Scorpius since he was a little boy. It was only a small surprise when his patronus turned out to be an Augurey. He never heard of someone else also having the Augurey as patronus, but his mother had guaranteed him that it didn't matter if he was dating someone who didn't have the same patronus. His father was never able to produce his full patronus until Scorpius was born, and his mother's was a badger. Even though they didn't have the same patronus, they were still very happy together.

Shrugging the thoughts off of him, Scorpius walked to the sign of the shelter and read the information.

WARNING: Conditions in habitat are magically altered. Any spell casting at or in the habitat is prohibited and will result in full prosecution of the law.

The Irish Phoenix who is also called the Augurey, is a greenish looking bird with darker (black) feathers on the bottom. It's vulture-like appearance and sharp beak made the common wizard afraid of them, thereby the common wizard believed that the Augurey mournfully cried when one was about to die, like a foretold death. This caused many wizards to avoid the Augurey until a wizard named Gulliver Pokeby found out that the Augurey only cried when it was about to rain. Since then, 1824, Augureys were used as weather forecasters. Their diet usually consisted of insects, flies and an occasional fairy, only hunting them in the rain. Because the Augureys are known to be incredibly shy, they live in a tear-shaped nest, made of thorn and brambles to keep unwanted visitors out. They will only share their nest with their one true love. Augureys are, like swans and black vultures, deeply serious about their chosen mates. It is commonly known that swans mate for life and can actually die of heartbreak if their mate dies. This also applies to Augureys.

The tear-shaped nests indeed contained a sad looking bird that was nestled deep into its cocoon-like nest. Then it made a deafening sound and Scorpius suddenly understood why they called it the mournful cry, Scorpius felt this cry all the way down to his core.

A few minutes later, rain started to poor from the sky and the three-headed dogs quickly hid in their 'dog house' that was large enough to fit at least five of those huge monstrosities the zoo called dogs.

St. Mungo's

"Rose, contact your grandfather, send him a patronus and tell him to come here immediately with your grandmother. Quickly!" Hermione urged her daughter while brushing the tears off her cheeks.

They stood outside the room, where three healers were working fast, pointing their wands at Ron's body that was not responding.

Rose drew out her wand, closed her eyes to think of her happiest memory and pointed her wand into the hallway.

"Expecto Patronum."

A huge, Irish Phoenix flew out her wand and she ordered her patronus to warn her grandparents quickly. The patronus flew off quickly, disappearing into thin air.

It took her grandparents only three minutes to arrive, but time seemed to have frozen. Rose just stood there, looking into the room where her father was being treated for whatever was wrong with him. Then, a hand wrestled into hers. Hugo had taken her hand after polishing his own angry tears away from his cheeks. Hermione had placed her hand against the glass and sniffed a little when her father- and mother-in-law came around the corner.

"What happened?" Molly's voice sounded so filled with worry Rose's heart nearly broke.

"I don't know. Apparently Ron pulled Harry out of the way of crossfire and then Harry apparated them here and fainted. They have tried to revive him but he is magically drained, so he will not be able to wake up soon enough."

They all stood there in silence when the sound of running footsteps got louder.

"Out of the way!" a small man dressed in auror robes yelled and everybody moved out of the way.

He ran into the room where Ron Weasley was being treated. The man pointed his strikingly short wand at the auror in the bed.

The healers responded shocked to an unauthorized person in the room but the man was too fast. He had pointed his wand and shouted so loud, the family outside the room heard.

"Spiritum Amovere!"

A *BANG* that sounded so loud filled the whole area around them and everyone was backwards from the blast of the spell. The glass tinkled but it held, apparently hospital rooms were able to withstand a small explosion. An intense white light, bright enough to blind people, arose from the body of Ron Weasley.

"Seize him!" a healer who now had blood streaming down his forehead shouted towards the other healers, but one of them had become unconscious because the impact of the blast. But the small man in auror robes, who looked crazy now pointed his wand to the white light, with a movement that made it look like it was 10000 pounds heavy. The small man started sweating immediately and the hand he was holding his wand with, started shaking so heavily that he had to use his second hand to stabilize the heavy shaking.

Meanwhile the white light had broken out of Ron Weasley's body, Hermione Weasley suddenly knew what was going on. Her children, who had been smashed against the wall, just like her parents-in-law now were struggling to get back on their feet.

"Get out of here, now!" Hermione Weasley hissed with so much need that Arthur and Hugo took the women's hands and pulled them away.

Then at that moment, the small man in auror robes had controlled the heavy shaking and shouted with all the power he had left in his body: "Conteret Perdere!"

As soon as the auror had spoken the spell for complete destruction, Hermione had braced herself for the blow that came only half a millisecond later. The hospital room that her husband was lying in exploded; glass had shattered and the window frame broke into a million pieces.

The two conscious healers now heard a loud gasp for breath from their patient, who was finally conscious.

Hermione grabbed her wand as soon as the blast removed a few pieces of glass from her arms. She stepped over the pieces that used to be the window frame of the hospital room and pointed her wand at the unconscious healer, reviving him. The small auror was blown unconscious and Hermione guessed that he was going to be diagnosed with the same condition Harry Potter was just diagnosed with. After a short look at her husband who was sitting up straight and looking around him confused, Hermione looked back to the small auror whose face was dripping in sweat, paler than the wallpaper that used to cling to the hospital walls and a small stream of blood coming from his nose. The wide eyed healers now set off the alarm, calling for the aurors and two of them started to tend to Ron and one of them walked over to the small auror.

"It's no use. He is drained," Hermione said quickly, now breathing heavily.

The young healer eyed Hermione sceptically but nodded.

"What was it?" the young healer asked softly.

"A ghost of some sorts," Hermione replied thinking.

Hermione walked over to her husband, who was extending his hand to her.

"Are you alright, Mione?"

Hermione Weasley laughed just a little.

"Me? Says you!" she joked and pinched his hand softly.

Ron Weasley smiled back at his wife who had little pieces of glass in every inch of her body, causing little bits of blood slowly pouring out of her skin.

"You have to see a healer soon," Ron said smiling slowly.

"I know," Hermione said, smiling lightly and kissing his cheek, "I just don't want to leave you yet."

Now Ron pinched Hermione's hand lightly, "I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry, sweetheart."

Then, aurors came running and all pointed wands all around the room.

"Copy to headquarters, we have Weasley, his body is clean and Smithers is passed out on the ground. We are doing an exile check now," a female auror stated and a husky dog ran away. All the aurors were performing spells and casting all kinds of charms. One was busy restoring the room and hallway when the Weasley's came back from around the corner.

The largest African auror, who Hermione happened to know as Azikiwe, nodded to the only female auror present.

"Falls for headquarters, exile completed. Doing a clean-up now."

"Weasley you are very lucky that Smithers knew about it," the deep voice of Azikiwe sounded, looking stern at Ron.

"Yes, I know Azikiwe."

"Next time call for back up. No more hero-acts. It almost got three of our best aurors killed."

Ronald Weasley nodded. Since the wizarding world entered the 21st century everything at headquarters was different. There was not one auror leader. In every project or task there were always two team captains on every mission. And every mission also had one of the newbies as a team captain, training them to make decisions for the group. One of the transfers from the African aurors was Azikiwe, an auror with a talent for strategic planning.

When Rose, Hugo, Molly and Arthur carefully stepped forward and the healers nodded towards the family members, who ran forward to hug Ron Weasley.

3rd date

Scorpius, who had heard of the unfortunate accident in the Weasley family, had sent a card to Mr. Weasley to get better soon, and to Harry Potter as well.

Rose had sent him a letter wherein she'd explained what had happened and apologized. Scorpius had written back, telling her not to worry because he had felt bad getting stuck in the hospital too.

Then, before he sent the reply, Scorpius went to Lucy to ask about if he still needed to go on a date with Rose Weasley. To which Lucy Weasley had replied with a simple 'yes' to send Scorpius on his way back.

This time, they decided to meet at the Time Turner restaurant again, but now they both promised to show up, on time. Another arranged Saturday evening at seven, at the Time Turner.

Scorpius had left fifteen minutes before seven, arriving there only three minutes later, simply because he didn't want to floo and get his neat robes all dusty from the fireplace. When he was shown to his table, Rose Weasley wasn't anywhere to be seen, but she still had twelve minutes to be on time.

The restaurant's host, who introduced himself as Jean-Paul from France, welcomed him and offered him the wine-list. Scorpius had politely accepted and waited patiently for Rose Weasley, to arrive.

Lucy Weasley better be right about this or it's going to be really awkward, Scorpius thought.

After two minutes of looking at the wine-list, Scorpius had made his decision but he decided to wait, not order ahead like he usually did on dates, but he had a feeling that Rose Weasley wanted to have a say in everything. And besides, Rose Weasley wasn't comparable to any of the other date's he'd been on, because on forehand Scorpius had known about them being airheads and not being able to hold a nice conversation. But Rose Weasley, as employee at the Department of Magical Cooperation probably had some interesting subjects to talk about. At least to Scorpius' expectations.

After two more minutes he rose from his chair to straighten his tight, black evening robes, not wanting to make a bad first impression. Then, the door of the dining room opened and the host held the door for a young witch dressed in red.

"Merci, Jean-Paul. Vous avez été une aide formidable," she said softly towards the host.

Scorpius quickly translated in his head; 'Thank you, Jean-Paul. You have been a tremendous help.' And after that silently thanking his mother for forcing him to learn French.

"S'il vous plait, Madame Weasley. Suivez-moi, s'il vous plait."

'You are welcome, Miss Weasley. Follow me, please.'

She followed the host to the table Scorpius was now standing at and he automatically moved his eyes over her outfit.

She was wearing a red dress that stopped just above the knee, a deep red lipstick that was drawing more attention to her mouth once Scorpius had seen it, and a small golden bracelet with five rubies. Her hair was somehow charmed in an elegant updo, that matched the complete picture of a fine young witch. For reasons Scorpius couldn't fathom, his heart skipped a beat while he stepped forward to kiss her hand.

"Miss Rose Weasley, my name is Scorpius Senas Malfoy. It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

Her eyes moved over his tall figure and she sent him a wide smile in return.

"Mister Scorpius Malfoy, the pleasure is all mine."

He released her hand and walked over to her chair to hold it out for her.

"Allow me," he gestured to the chair for her to take place.

"Thank you."

Once they were both seated, Scorpius passed on the wine-list to Rose.

"Do you want to look for yourself?" Scorpius offered.

"Yes, I'll have the Chateauneuf du Pape, Domaine du Pegau from the '90," Rose said, handing back the wine-list to Jean-Paul.

"I didn't see that one on the list," Scorpius replied, now a little confused.

"I have asked the manager for a special wine off the menu and they had it. Have you ever had a Chateauneuf?" she asked, her voice friendly.

"Mais oui. But never one from before 2000." Scorpius replied smiling.

Now, Rose raised her brows, clearly impressed.

"Do you speak French, Scorpius?"

"I do."

"Good. We'll both have a glass of that one then," Rose said to Jean-Paul who smiled broadly and walked off after handing them both the menu card.

"So, I must say I found out last two dates rather unsatisfactory, since I don't know much about you," Scorpius started.

"What would you like to know?" she asked.

"You went to Beauxbatons-"

Jean-Paul arrived with two glasses of wine and left immediately after. Scorpius and Rose took their glasses and raised them before both taking a sip.

"Beauxbatons was nice. At first I was really angry for not being allowed to go where the rest of my family went, but soon after I started I found out that most of the anger comes from being bored, or being irritated by stupidity. So when I needed to learn French really fast, I didn't speak one word of French mind you, I was finally challenged. I followed fifteen classes instead of the usual eight and I was finally able to enjoy myself. And there were others like me as well, a friend of mine took all seventeen classes! And about that comment I made on stupidity; I personally find stupidity repulsive. And please don't confuse that with people who are trying to learn and are ambitious but are actually bound by the limits of their abilities, I can completely respect that. But what I mean is actual stupid people who feel no need to be better, doing everything with no effort. I find laziness and stupidity just…"

"-repulsive," Scorpius added, understanding exactly how she felt about it.

"Right, so what about you? How did you find Hogwarts?"

"Well, since my father was a non-convicted ex-Death Eater… it wasn't that nice until Albus became my friend. Since then everybody tolerated me."

"That is also something I find very stupid. How can someone your age, judge you for something your father has done? Or hasn't done? Ridiculous," Rose muttered before taking a sip of her wine.

Other guys might be irritated by Rose, but instead, Scorpius found it very refreshing, not being fake.

"So I heard you have eaten here before, is there something you can recommend?" Scorpius asked, looking at the menu.

Rose had the decency to look ashamed but that quickly disappeared when she smiled broadly and unconsciously placed her hand on her black clutch.

"This one is on me, Scorpius. Don't worry. And yes, I can suggest the…"

Three and a half hours later, Jean-Paul came by their table and asked if they were ready to leave.

"Yes, I believe so," Rose stated dryly.

"Very well, we will send the bill to your Gringotts account, Miss Weasley."

"Thank you, Jean-Paul. Give my love to Vierra."

"I will."

Scorpius, who had seen the who thing happening in front of his nose, held out his arm for Rose to take.

"I have a suggestion, but I have a feeling you are not able to keep up…" Scorpius teased.

"Now, you have certainly piqued my interest. But I can guarantee I can keep up with anything except quidditch. So tell me, what did you have in mind?" Rose asked while she took his arm.

"A liquor bar, I feel like getting wasted tonight," Scorpius stated bluntly. This made Rose laugh out loud and when she moved her hands over his muscled arms, she thought for a second and then pinched his upper arm hard. She was surprised by his change tonight. In the beginning of the night Scorpius held back, not saying exactly what he meant, but instead fine-coating it with honey and vague words.

But when Rose explained how she hated the accommodating nature of most of her conversations at work as employee of Magical Cooperation, she was glad she didn't have to do it in her personal life and Scorpius finally stated his true mind.

"Lead the way," Rose said, smiling broadly.

The next morning

When Scorpius arrives at Albus apartment to report how their date went, Albus is already waiting.

"Morning, Scorpius. So, how was your night?"

Scorpius moved his eyes over his best friend's looks. It looked like Albus just rolled out of bed and only took the effort to put on a pair of pants for Scorpius' sake.

"To my own surprise, really good. She is very refreshing in the way she speaks and thinks," Scorpius answered honestly.

"Yeah and drop-dead gorgeous, or so I've been told," Albus replied inattentive.

"That is not why I like her, it's a contributing factor, but not the reason why. She is actually quite… refreshing," Scorpius opposed.

"So, Lucy was right! Well, congrats Scorpius! Feel like a game?" Albus motioned to his Wizard chess set on the kitchen table.

"Sure. So how was your evening?" Scorpius asked while taking place at the kitchen table.

"It was alright-"

Then Albus' bedroom door opened and a gorgeous southern looking girl puts her head around the door. To Scorpius' surprise he recognized her as Michelle Goodwill, his father's assistant.

"Hey Al, do you know where- oh, hi Scorpius, how are you?"

"Just a second Scorpius," Albus said while quickly walking over to his bedroom and closing the door behind him.

Scorpius shook his head smiling and set up the pieces to begin.

At Rose's apartment

"So, how was your date?" Lucy asked when she poured herself a cup of tea in the kitchen and Rose a bit of Anti-Hangover Potion.

"It was not that bad. I actually enjoyed his company after a while," Rose replied while taming her hair and putting on some clothes.

Lucy smiled broad now, making sure that Rose wouldn't see it and shook her head. In Rose's language that was like admitting that she had a huge crush on him already.

"So when will you see him again?" Lucy wondered.

"Urgghhh, stupig pants- uhm, I think I'll see him Tuesday, were going to the Scamander Magical Zoo in Scotland. You know what is funny? Scorpius' favourite animal and patronus animal is also an Augurey!"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah!"

"I could've never guessed," Lucy replied with an all-knowing smile gracing her lips.