Disclaimer: Once again I must face the 'facts' and say that I'm not J.K Rowling. Yeah, yeah, that's what the muggles think.

Scorpius believed it must be something in the food that Rose's grandmother gave them that made him so confused when he woke up. Today was the last day of the long, golden summer holidays and he was going to Diagon Alley with the Potter-Weasley families. They were going to meet Scorpius' parents there for lunch, give them a chance to see him before the start of term and to heal over some of the adults old wounds.

"Scor? Are you awake? Are you decent?" Al hollered up the stairs. Scorpius was accustomed to the sheer noise of the Burrow; the need to shout if you want to be heard was so different to the stony silences of Malfoy Manor.

"Yeah!" Scorpius yelled back.

"Come down then! The others are going! We're going with Dad!" Al called. Scorpius raced down the creaky wooden stairs to the fire place. Rose, Albus, Harry and Lily waited for him.

"Come on then." Harry led them out of the room. Scorpius was puzzled; surely they were going to use the floo network. Rose grabbed him, laughing.

"Uncle Harry hates Floo powder. Incident when he was younger, he doesn't entirely trust it so we always go by car. It's a muggle way of getting to places." She explained. Scorpius didn't entirely understand, but followed her all the same. He found himself being shoved into a metal cage with wheels and seats inside.

"This is a car. It's nice really; you might feel a bit sick first time though." Al informed him. He nodded as Rose slipped in beside him, his heart rate increasing at her closeness.

"Do your belt Scor." Rose instructed him. Scorpius checked his trousers and she sighed, exasperated.

"No you idiot, your seat belt. Here." Rose leant across him and pulled a black strap over his body.

"Watch it Rosie, you don't want to get too close after last night, he might get ideas." Albus warned.

"What happened last night?" Rose enquired. Scorpius was crushed, after all his endless circling of her, his fear of her reaction, was finally over, she didn't remember!

"You kissed Scor." Albus informed her. Scorpius felt Rose's body heat up; he could tell without looking at her that her face would be scarlet with embarrassment.

"I thought it was a dream, sorry. So you really did hex Al with our jabbing hex? Did it work?" Typical Rose, distracted by spells and magic.

"Yeah it did, trust me." Al replied. Scorpius was surprised that Rose didn't take out some parchment and write it down.

"Wow. Um, Scor?" Rose was suddenly bashful, nervous of him.

"Yeah." He answered.

"It, well, it wasn't bad, you know, erm, kissing you." Rose stared at her lap as she said this. Scorpius' heart leapt.

"Weren't so bad yourself, Weasley." Scorpius tried not to sound like he was having a small heart attack.

"Oh please, like you didn't go to sleep all smiley and soppy." Albus snorted at Scorpius. Scorpius ignored him and interlaced his fingers with Rose's. She didn't look up at him but he saw her smile reflected in the glass of the window. He also saw Albus pretending to be sick, but that was less important. The doors of the car opened and Harry and Lily sat in their seats. Lily flung herself into the car seat and turned to face Scorpius.

"Hi, Scorpy." She trilled. She seemed to be in high spirits. Harry winced at his daughter's behaviour.

"Lily, calm down." He tried to control her, for the saviour of the world he had very little control over his exuberant daughter. She rolled her eyes at him.

"I was thinking about the other night. I know you didn't mean what you said. Please don't give people I hold so close to me false hope." She looked pointedly at Rose and Scorpius' hands.

"Lily." Her father warned.

"I was just being honest and keeping my cousin's best interests at heart. She just isn't cut out for being in such a high pressure relationship; she's just dozy-Rosie." Lily drawled. Rose kept a tight hold on both of Scorpius' hands to stop him cursing Lily.

"LILY! Have you been taking lessons on the art of subtlety from your uncles? If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all." Harry scolded his daughter. Lily's charms had little effect on her father; he often seemed to prefer Rose's softer, funnier personality to his daughter's confident, ambitious air.

"Gah! Fine." Lily sat back down properly, pouting. Scorpius caught Rose's eye and they both had to fight back laughter. Albus was shaking his head and grinning.

Scorpius and Rose went to get the necessary equipment for the year ahead with Albus. Once they'd bought all the necessary items, they took their traditional trip to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Albus went to check on George and see if he could get anything for free, he was then meeting a friend and agreed to catch up with them at Dobby's where the Weasley-Potters was going for lunch with Scorpius' family, leaving Rose alone with Scorpius. Scorpius could feel the tension in the atmosphere.

"RoseIloveyou." Scorpius' long unspoken words came out garbled.

"What?"

"Rose, I've always had this connection with you. I thought it was the arguing when we were younger, then friendship, then in about fourth year I realised that I had a bit of a thing for you. In fifth year Albus found out then he went away and you were lonely and we'd always been close but all of a sudden you were there, permanently there. I realised I loved you. Then last night you kissed me and today you held my hand and what do you want?" After his long speech he noticed how much more sense it had made in his head. Rose looked a little confused, then asked him,

"Are you asking me to be your, eurgh I hate this word, girlfriend?" Her tone was unreadable.

"Yeah?"

"Was that a statement or a question Scor?" Rose teased.

"Yes I am asking a question, will you just answer me!" Scorpius was exasperated.

"Yes I will be your 'girlfriend'. " Rose answered. She added, her voice softer,

"I love you Scor. I have for a while you know." Scorpius leant in towards the girl he loved, her warm breath irregular on his cheek.

"FOUND YOU! You're late. Come on, what were you doing?" Albus came through the door of the shop. Scorpius groaned and murmured so that only Rose could hear.

"I think the world might be against us."