So when I posted the first part of this story, surprisingly a lot of people said "Oh, what happened to Jamie?!" "How did he leave things with Jamie?!" And then the other day I was re-reading the story, the reviews, and the messages, and this snippet just popped in my head. It's not really about what happens to Jamie, but it does show Scorpius's POV for the last section of Diagon Alley; that is, the one that takes place before seventh year. And it does answer how things with Jamie were handled. It was fun to write!

Also, while I did copy/paste some segments of the DA, I also edited them a bit to put in more of Scorpius's voice, so if you skim them then you will miss that!

Enjoy!

This last year had been miserable, Scorpius thought morosely, walking into the Leaky Cauldron. Having to avoid Rose at every opportunity had been painful, to say the least, not to mention the difficulty of avoiding all of her relatives, many of them angry. Albus Potter and Hugo Weasley had been the worst, frequently stopping him in the halls to yell at him about mistreating their precious Rosie.

"Scorpius!"

For a brief moment, his heart soared, thinking it was Rose's voice. Then reality intruded, and he realized that he and Rose weren't speaking, so it couldn't possibly be her. His heart sank back to the region near his stomach where it had been residing frequently.

"Scorpius!" It was Jamie, the girl he had started dating shortly before school had ended. He had hoped that dating someone else would move along his process of getting over Rose…but no.

He pasted on a smile and headed towards the table she was waving at him from. "Hi Jamie." He bent down to give her a perfunctory kiss on the cheek. "Ready to go shop?"

She smiled at him brightly, standing up and slinging a purse over her shoulder. "Of course! Where should we go first?" She laced her fingers through his and it took everything in Scorpius not to wrench his hand away. Three months dating her, and he still hated doing anything relationship-y with her. It wasn't her fault, he reminded himself as she led him behind the Leaky Cauldron and tapped on the bricks to open the archway. It was his fault, his unwillingness to let go of Rose Weasley, and it wasn't fair to her to have to deal with it.

He really needed to end things with her. He never should have started them up.

"How about Flourish and Blotts?" Jamie asked cheerfully, and Scorpius felt a sting in his chest.

She was pressed against the bookshelf, with one of his hands on either side of her. She swallowed nervously, staring at him. She was easily the most beautiful person he had ever seen. "How about just Scorp?"

Scorpius tilted his head thoughtfully, staring absentmindedly at her lips. They looked so soft and tempting, and he felt himself move forward a fraction of an inch. "I can live with Scorp. It doesn't sound like something my great aunt would call me while pinching my cheeks."

Rose's hands found their way up to his hips, resting there lightly. He could feel the points of contact tingling. "Scorp it is then. Ferret spawn."

He chuckled and leaned a little closer to her. "I can live with ferret spawn too, Rosie."

Rose tilted her head slightly, chewing her lower lip but not moving away. "You have my permission to call me Rosie whenever you want, you know."

Scorpius jerked back an inch, his heart pounding. "What?"

"Well," she ducked her head, not quite meeting his gaze, "you're my best friend. That gives you the right to use the nickname."

His brow furrowed, and his heart slowed considerably. She couldn't be saying what he thought she was saying, right? There was no way she saw him only as her best friend and not something more, not with how close they were standing together. "I thought Al was your best friend."

"Well, he is." Rose clarified. "But you're my non-cousin best friend." That didn't make him feel any better, but he couldn't chicken out now. Not when he was so close to having what he had wanted for years.

Scorpius leaned back in. "Alright then…Rosie."

"Scorp."

"Scorpius? Scorpius?"

He snapped himself out of his daydream, meeting Jamie's concerned gaze. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, sorry," Scorpius smiled half-heartedly down at her, "just lost in my thoughts. How about we leave Flourish and Blotts until later?"

"Alright," Jamie agreed, but the concern didn't leave her eyes. "Actually I need to go to Gringotts before going anywhere else."

Scorpius gestured with his free hand. "Then to Gringotts. Lead the way."

They were halfway down the street when a hand landed on his shoulder and whirled him around. He found himself face-to-face with Rose Weasley for the first time in over a year. His heart skipped a beat before pounding double time in his chest.

"Scorpius," she said. She was out of breath, her face flushed and her hair a mess, but he still thought she was completely gorgeous. He could see Jamie staring at them out of the corner of his eyes, her brow furrowed.

"None of it matters," Rose said, sliding her hand from his shoulder to lace her fingers with his, much like Jamie had done earlier. Only this time his palm tingled and he had to fight the urge to tighten his grip, to make sure she couldn't get away. "My dad said we have his blessing, and you already ruined our friendship, and I think if we're honest here we both know I'm the one that's not good enough for you. None of it matters because I'm in love with you too, Scorp. Not as long as second year, but probably at least by fourth. So that's what's important, not any of those other things."

His heart was going to rip right out of his chest. Rose Weasley, his former best friend and the girl he'd had a massive thing for for about five years now, was standing in front of him telling him that she was in love with him.

A noise came from his left, from the person still holding his other hand, and Scorpius remembered Jamie with a jolt. He turned to face her, still feeling dazed.

"Rose, this is my girlfriend Jamie. Jamie, Rose Weasley."

Rose's face turned red instantaneously, and before he could say anything, she had wrenched her hand from his and taken off running down the street with what looked like tears in her eyes.

Scorpius watched her leave, shellshocked.

"What the hell was all that?" Jamie practically shrieked next to him, and he jumped. For the second time in less than two minutes, he had completely forgotten about his girlfriend. Gritting his teeth, he turned to face her again.

"I realize this makes me this biggest arse on the face of the planet," he began rapidly, "but I've been in love with Rose since I was twelve and she just told me she loves me too after this huge misunderstanding and I…" Scorpius watched Jamie bite her lip, her eyes watering slightly. "I'm so sorry, Jamie. But it's always been Rose for me and I know it wasn't fair or right of me to date you when I wasn't over her. So I'm really sorry, and if you want to hex me or hit me the next time you see me, I will stand there with my hands behind my back and let you do it. But," he gestured down the street where Rose had run, "I have to go after her now."

To his surprise, Jamie gave him a half-hearted smile, despite the fact that a few tears had made their way down her cheeks. "It's okay, Scorpius. I always knew…everyone always knew how you felt about her. No, it wasn't fair of you to date me when you loved her, but it wasn't smart of me to get involved with you when I knew you felt that way. I just kept hoping you would move on, but I should have seen that wasn't going to happen." Gently, she removed her hand from his and used it to motion in the same direction he had. "Go get her." She smiled at him again, biting her lip. "It's okay. Although I might take you up on the hexing and hitting offer later."

Scorpius smiled back and hugged her impulsively, grateful beyond words that she had been so understanding about the whole thing.

Turning, he walked quickly down the street, glancing inside each store for a glimpse of red hair. In the few minutes it had taken him to end things with Jamie, Rose could have gotten anywhere. She was seventeen now, she could have Apparated somewhere. It didn't matter, he told himself determinedly, he would keep looking until he found her. And even if he couldn't, school began in less than a week and she would never be able to avoid him there.

"Malfoy," a deep voice sounded from behind him as a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. Turning, Scorpius found himself meeting the rather irritated gaze of Ron Weasley. He swallowed nervously.

"Mr Weasley." He hoped his voice sounded calm.

"Looking for Rosie?" Ron asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. He inclined his head towards an alley to Scorpius's left. "She's in there, hiding out. Don't know that I should let you see her."

Scorpius gritted his teeth and made himself stand a little taller. "I'm going to see her whether you want me to or not," he replied boldly, hoping Mr Weasley couldn't tell that his hands were shaking. "Sir," he added.

It looked to Scorpius like Mr Weasley was trying very hard to fight back a smile. "As much as it would entertain me to see you try to get past me to my daughter, I think I'll let you pass without harm. Just know," he added as Scorpius made to step eagerly past him, "that if you hurt her again, there will not be a place in the world for you to hide from me. Rosie is my little girl, no matter how old she gets, and there is nothing I will not do – nobody I will not hurt – for her." With that, he stepped aside.

Those words echoed in Scorpius's mind as he stepped gingerly towards the alley where Rose was. As he got closer he could hear muffled sobs, and knowing that it was his fault, that he was the reason she was crying, made his chest ache.

Rose was crouched on the ground, her back pressed against the wall and her head ducked into her hands.

"Rose."

The look on her face as she shifted her gaze upwards to his was enough to break his heart. Because of him, she was sitting in an alley, her face red and blotchy, crying her heart out. It made him wonder for the first time how many other times she had shed tears over him during the last year, and his heart ached a little more.

"Oh, Rosie." Scorpius reached for her but she pulled back, standing up and shaking her head.

"I'm fine, Scorpius, don't worry about it. We'll just pretend it never happened." She turned away from him, like she was going to leave, and he caught her wrist. No way was he going to ever let her walk away from him like this again.

"I can't do that Rosie."

Rose looked at him, her eyes pleading. "Please, Scorpius, I'd rather not ever think about this ever again." She made to leave again but he held fast to her wrist.

"Well that could be a problem, you know," he said slowly, stepping towards her, "considering it's probably going to be all I think about for the rest of my life." Rose opened her mouth to interject but Scorpius shook his head. "It's not every day that the girl of your dreams tells you she loves you too, you know."

He could see the shock on her face, and he continued on, tracing circles on the back of her hand. "I wish you'd said all that last year when we were in the middle of the street and your dad showed up. You called me your best friend and I thought that was your way of saying it wasn't ever going to happen. I was really upset and confused because I knew that you had wanted to kiss me at Flourish and Blotts just as much as I had wanted to kiss you. But if you'd said those things then sixth year wouldn't have been so awful."

"It was pretty awful for me too," Rose hiccupped, "and I wanted to say all those things last year, I just…you caught me really off guard and then my dad showed up and I didn't want to send him into a panic. And you have no idea how badly I wanted to kiss you at Flourish and Blotts." His entire face brightened and her heart fluttered.

"Really?"

Rose let out a watery chuckle. "Yes really. Do you think I would have let you get that close if –"

Scorpius took a step forward and cut her off, pressing his lips to hers.

This was absolute heaven, he thought hazily. He could easily kiss her for the rest of his life and never want to stop, never get tired of it. Now that he knew what this was like, he was never going to let her go again, was never going to kiss anyone else again, and was definitely never going to let her kiss anyone else ever again.

"Alright," a voice interrupted them. "I can handle the two of you 'being in love' or whatever." Ron made air quotes around the words. "But I absolutely do not need to see you snogging my daughter's face off, Malfoy."

"Yes, sir," Scorpius murmured, his forehead pressed against Rose's. There was no way for either of them to contain the giant smiles on their faces.

Ron grumbled something else and wandered off to find his wife, shaking his head.

"Something tells me," Rose said softly, "that seventh year is going to be the best year ever."

"Well yeah," Scorpius replied, pressing a quick kiss to her lips, "you get to snog the Head Boy whenever you want. You'll never get in trouble for being out past curfew."

Rose grinned. "Of course I wouldn't. Nobody is going to give the Head Girl detention for being out late, especially if she's with the Head Boy."

Scorpius could have jumped for joy at that point, silly as it may have seemed.

"You're right," he agreed, "seventh year will be the best ever."

Ta-da! Hope you liked! I am working on the last chapter of SOV, for those of you waiting on that, I just keep getting stuck.

Review! Much love!