A/N: You guys. I have written this chapter over and over and over again, and I just can't get it exactly the way I want it. I might come back and edit later, when the story is finished, but... ah, we will see. Right now, it's giving me a headache.

A million thanks as always to my reviewers :)

Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine.

Caution: Mild smut ahead.


Four years earlier.

February 14, 2026.


Rose awoke to bright moonlight shining through unfamiliar thin lace curtains. She sat up, puzzled for a moment, looking around at her surroundings. The plush purple sofa she slept on sat in the corner of a living room that looked as if it may have belonged to her Nana Granger, but that wasn't quite right… there was a plant prominently displayed that was twisting and coiling around itself, clearly alive with magic. She scanned the room, her eyes coming to rest on a still sleeping blond man on the couch opposite her.

Oh, right.

The previous day's events rushed back to her with alarming clarity.

It had been a trap. The radical Death Eater group had known where they were patrolling, and had set up some form of magical bomb sensors around the area. But how?

Rose dug through her small, magically expanded bag that still contained their tent, some research books she had felt were prudent to have on the mission, and several days' stores of food. Finally, her hand found the bound bits of parchment she was looking for.

"Wrackspurt" Rose whispered, pointing her wand at the pamphlet, careful not to wake her sleeping partner up.

She scanned the documents, noting that one of the other Aurors' camps had suffered a similar fate. Rose quickly scribbled in their own notes the details of the previous day, urging the Auror department to look into wizarding bombs, and shut the pamphlet with a heavy sigh.

They could not resume patrols from a new campsite, since the Death Eaters knew of their presence in the area, but Scorpius would not be healthy enough to apparate for at least a few days. She thought briefly about using the floo network or a Portkey to get back to London, but they were dangerous methods of transportation, as either could be monitored and intercepted by the rebel camps.

They were stuck.

To her right, Malfoy shifted and his thick quilt fell off his torso, exposing a broad chest with a dusting of light-colored hairs that trailed down farther than Rose could see. Rose had spent the last few days sharing a tent with this man, but had never seen him sleeping. He always seemed to rise earlier than she did, and go to bed later. In his sleep, he looked much more youthful and carefree. The moonbeams streaming through the windows hit the hard planes of his face, somehow softening it, and his full lips were parted in a small smile. She giggled to herself, thinking he must've been having quite a good dream.

Rose blushed to realize that she found his slumbering image quite beautiful.

In a way, she wished that Malfoy had not saved her from the explosion yesterday. The idea of it had been doing her head in ever since it had happened. Here was a man she had determined she despised, whom she knew to be nothing but arrogant and self-serving, and yet he had risked his own life for hers. His actions didn't fit with her previous assessments of his character, and it troubled Rose greatly.

Carefully, she moved to the couch where he lay, checking that his gauze bandages were still wrapped tightly. His skin seemed rather warm to the touch, and Rose wondered if perhaps she should get a cold towel to cool his forehead. She daringly lifted a finger to his cheek, marveling in how smooth his skin was.

Malfoy stirred again, a small contented moan escaping his lips, and Rose froze, afraid he might wake up to find her hovered over him. However, he let out a contented sigh, and seemed to fall further into his sleep. Just as she got up and took a step to leave the room, she heard him quietly moan again, this time accompanied with a single word.

"Rose." He murmured, the word searing through her veins like wildfire.

She stopped where she was, her eyes wide. Surely she must have misheard him?

Rose turned slowly to find that he was still asleep, a wide smile playing across his face. In her utter surprise and haste to back away, she knocked over a lamp from the end table next to him, sending it to the floor with a clash.

Scorpius was awake in an instant, his wand out and staring wildly into the room, searching for the threat.

Rose straightened the lamp, her cheeks burning. "Sorry," she muttered to her feet rather than his face, "Didn't mean to… er, wake you… so sorry."

She glanced up to find that he had lowered his wand and was regarding her with the oddest expression. She felt a liquid jolt of heat course through her body as he looked at her, and found it suddenly difficult to breathe. She knew she should back away, or leave the room entirely, but she was rooted to the spot under his intense gaze.

"Rose," he said again, lucid this time, his grey eyes burning through her. His hand found her wrist, and she felt herself being pulled back to the couch, on top of him.

They lay like that for a moment, scarcely breathing. Rose balanced with her knees spread on the couch, haphazardly straddled across him, and her chest coming to rest on his. Their noses were mere inches apart as they lay there, just breathing in one another. She wondered if perhaps she was the one who was dreaming, now.

Using the bright light from the moon, she could have counted every one of his blond eyelashes, or determined the exact shades of grey flecked through his irises, she was so close. In their exhausted state, all barriers had been broken down, walls that had been erected for years demolished in the events of an afternoon. Rose stared down him, seeing him for who he was for perhaps the first time in her life. She wondered how it could be that she'd met him years ago, but had never really bothered to get to know him at all. She breathlessly mused that the feeling she'd always associated with him was not hatred at all, but perhaps a fascination or some other form of magnetic attraction that she'd never quite understood until this moment.

Slowly, with tantalizing deliberateness, he raised his lips to hers, melting them with a scorching kiss. It was hard, and yet gentle all at once, his lips melding to hers so naturally. Rose sensed one of his hands tangling through her hair, the other coming to rest at the side of her face. His fingertips grazed along her cheek, drawing feather-light circles at her temple, and her eyes finally closed as she let herself come undone.

Rose kissed him back with all of the passion and hunger and fear she hadn't known she possessed, one of her freckled hands resting on an uninjured part of his chest. She delighted in learning that this part of him was just as smooth as his face had been. His lips parted her own, and his tongue began to mimic the circles his fingers were painting on her cheekbone, driving her crazy with the sensation. Rose bit his lip in approval, and was rewarded by his throaty moan into her mouth.

"Rose," he choked out with some effort, breathing heavily.

She had never loved her name as much as she did in this moment.

Scorpius hungrily captured her mouth again, then sent a trail of blistering kisses down her neck, making his way to her collar bone. Rose inhaled sharply as he found the sweet spot on her neck, sucking down hard until she was gasping for breath. His hand had left her cheek and was making broad sweeps on her lower back, dangerously close to her arse. She instinctively ground her hips into his, and his head rolled back with obvious pleasure.

"Rose," he moaned again, his voice two tones deeper than usual. The sound of it drove tingling sensations straight to her core. "Rose, I can't – I won't be able to stop if we go on like this-" he gasped out through heavy breaths.

She blushed, feeling uncharacteristically wanton.

"So don't" she said, nipping the side of his neck.

It was all she'd needed to say.

With a growl, Scorpius flipped her over onto her back, unexpectedly nimble despite his serious injuries, and covered her body with his own, his chest heaving behind the bandages. Rose felt a delicious tingle of anticipation cover her body before his mouth came crashing down to hers again, leaving her breathless. His obvious lust pressed against her thigh, and she wrapped her long legs around his hips, locking them together.

Scorpius moaned inside her mouth, and Rose flushed with victory. Both of their shirts were discarded in an instant, before she could register what was happening. She gasped as his trail of kisses led him lower and lower on her stomach, and Rose succumbed to the pleasure of it all, slipping further and further into the warm, intoxicating emotion that was unmistakably and uniquely Scorpius.


Rose woke with the sun, feeling uncomfortably hot with its warm rays streaming in through the window. She rolled over, taking care not to roll completely off the sofa, and met the grey eyes of Scorpius Malfoy.

He was close enough so that Rose could feel his warm breath on her face. He sent a cautious smile down at her, which she returned. His hair looked soft and perfectly mussed in the mid-winter sunshine, and his full lips were rosy from their wild kisses.

"Hi." He said.

Rose flushed at the memory of what they'd done in the hours before. "Hi." She said back, shyly.

"Oh good! You're awake." Pomona was already dressed, bustling around the house with her wand, watering each of the magical plants that adorned the shelves and various pots. She seemed either unsurprised or unconcerned to see the two Auror trainees sharing a couch, their limbs entangled.

Rose sat up at the sound of the older woman's voice, thankful that they had retained enough sense in their passion during the night to put their clothing back on after they had… well.

She blushed again.

Merlin, I had sex with Scorpius Malfoy, Rose thought to herself, shocked at her own audacity. And I liked it!

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Scorpius rub his eyes sleepily, and glance at her. He was seemingly coming to the same conclusion she just had.

Thankfully, they were spared the pain of morning-after awkwardness due to the presence of Pomona, who was now talking to herself distractedly, as she put her cauldron on to boil up some more potions for Scorpius' injuries.

"Miss Rose, be a dear and hand me that bezoar?" she said, rolling up her sleeves and tucking her wand behind her ear for safekeeping.

For the rest of the morning, Pomona kept Rose busy in her personal greenhouse behind the cottage, pruning several species of dangerous plants, and collecting the required clippings for her various potions. Rose emerged hours later, sweaty and sore, with dirt smeared across her cheeks, cursing Scorpius for being injured and therefore unable to assist.

The three of them enjoyed a nice lunch of baked potatoes that Rose had collected from the back garden, which were the admittedly the freshest and loveliest potatoes Rose had ever eaten, and then Pomona retired to her room for a little nap.

Rose and Scorpius suddenly found themselves alone, after hours of distraction and avoidance.

They sat on the plush purple couch – the scene of the crime, as it were- and Rose had to actively fight to ignore the feelings of longing that were now bubbling up inside of her. She was close enough to smell his fresh, woodsy cologne, and the smell was doing strange, befuddling things to her brain.

She truthfully didn't know what to think regarding their activities from last night. Though he had admittedly been slightly more bearable lately, this was a man who she had vowed to despise for the rest of her life. She had never known him to be anything but rude and arrogant, and so seeing this new, entirely likable – even fanciable – side of him was unnerving. And yet, all day Rose hadn't been able to keep her mind off of the blond man. It was as if all of her feelings of hate and disgust had been wiped away in the last twenty-four hours and been replaced with… she didn't know what. Though if she were being honest with herself, since partnering with him in September, those feelings of hatred had been rapidly dissipating. It just wasn't until he kissed her that she realized it.

At least Scorpius looked a bit unnerved as well, Rose thought. He was casually sipping his mug of tea, poring over their mission pamphlets, just as she was, but she could see that the tips of his ears had gone pink, and he seemed to have been reading the same sentence for the last ten minutes.

Rose sighed, tucking a stray curl behind her ear.

His gaze followed the motion.

She turned to him, her clear blue eyes staring into his.

He licked his lips.

She watched as his tongue flicked against his mouth.

His mouth had been so soft and so warm, last night.

What the hell, Rose thought, and kissed him.

It was as if an explosion had been set off in her brain. Suddenly, his hands were all over her, caressing her back as he kissed her, fully and with an unrestrained passion. Rose gasped into his mouth at the feeling of it, the swooping sensation that started in her chest and settled into her stomach, making it feel alight with fireflies. This is better than flying, she thought wildly, blindly. She flicked her tongue against his lower lip, and he drew a ragged breath, allowing her access.

Kissing Scorpius was unlike anything she had ever known. All of a sudden, Rose forgot why she had cared so much about hating him, or her changing feelings towards the man. The only thing she knew were the tingles his fingertips left on her skin, and the sweet sound of him whispering her name into her ear. Her body felt alight with the passion of it all, and Rose closed her mind off to the little voice niggling in the back of her head. There was no room for anything that wasn't Scorpius.

Wrapping her fingers in his silky blond strands, they fell back onto the couch, as one.


A/N: So there it is, the moment we have all been waiting for! I hope it didn't disappoint. There will be more with our Rosie examining her feelings to come, but for now they're just far too lusty for that. You know how it is ;) Also, I hope some of you caught what day of the year this all occured on at the beginning! Just a little fun for me. I know this has been a short one, but there is LOADS more to come in the next few chapters. Let me know what you think!