A/N: Hi everyone! Happy holidays—this is my present to you! I've had countless exams (by countless, I mean I can no longer count them with my fingers, because recently that seems to be all I can count up to) to write AND I now have been informed that I have carpal tunnel syndrome, so it's taken a while to get this all up. I apologize for the long delay!

Rose had always been the type of steady once-and-forever kind of girl. She considered it one of her least attractive attributes, her inability to bloody move on from one person. It had been years since she'd first met Scorpius. Their relationship had progressed from strangers to friends to pseudo-siblings, but it had never gone where she wanted and she'd known since long ago that she needed to, no matter how hard it was, to shift her obstinate heart from one person to the next.

It seemed, though, even as she walked down the picturesque street with Lorcan Scamander, probably looking very much like a fairy tale, that she was distracted by the distraught expression that had been on Scorpius's face.

What was bothering him so? What is it Lily's recent behaviour? Was he really so thick as to believe that Lily would change her games for him?

Lorcan's hand was clasped tightly around hers. It was a little too tight, a little suffocating. He, too, seemed on edge. His blue, blue eyes darted up and down the street, scanning for something, and he only ever glanced at her distractedly.

Ever since they'd left the candy shop, leaving Lily and Scorpius standing jealously in the distance, Lorcan had been distracted. She couldn't say that she wasn't, though, and so she didn't complain. She wondered what had spurred Lorcan's whirlwind attraction to her again but decided she didn't care, not when it made Score look at her like he'd never seen her before.

"Do you think she loves him?" Lorcan asked suddenly.

"What?" Rose said, dazed. She turned to Lorcan, who was looking terribly perplexed.

"Lily. Do you think she loves that self-interested ass?"

Rose felt the immediate need to tell Lorcan that Score was absolutely not a self-interested ass, that if he was calling Score that then maybe he should consider his own self-interested-ass-ness, but she held her tongue. "Lily doesn't love men, Lorcan, Lily likes them and then she leaves them." Rose peered at Lorcan for his reaction to her blunt words.

Lorcan only looked more troubled. "She can't love him. He's Draco Malfoy's son. He's a Death Eater's grandson."

Rose frowned deeply. "If you can't get past your prejudices, you're no better—"

"Lily could do so much better," Lorcan said, voice so full of contempt that Rose would have laughed if she hadn't had a sudden flashback to a bad Muggle movie she'd watched with her mother last year. She forgot the title but remembered clearly the jealous male lead, who had spent the entire time chasing after a supermodel like an idiot.

He had said "she could do so much better" in the exact same tone as Lorcan, who now looked off into the distance with the same angry gaze. Rose had a sudden revelation and felt stupid for not having realized it before—then again, everybody said she was good at work and at school but no one ever said she was good at life.

She had been right to believe that Lorcan had ulterior motives in wanting to see her. But she could use this to her advantage. It wasn't like she had genuine feelings for Lorcan and she knew now, with a solid certainty, that it wasn't like Lorcan had feelings for her. But she had feelings for Score, and what she had seen today buoyed her hopes of him returning those feelings—if only she could push him to see how he felt.

And Lorcan was the best way she had of doing that. Rose felt almost like she was deceiving Score, but she felt no remorse: she had waited long enough for him to open his own eyes and now it was up to her to open them for him.

With this thought, she gripped Lorcan's hand a little tighter and walked with more determination in her step. With this thought, someone began to shout her name from behind her.

"Rose! Rose!" It was faint at first, but definite. She turned slowly to see Scorpius dashing towards her. It was a sight to see, Score's blonde hair glinting in the setting sunlight like spun gold and his tall form racing towards her.

Her heart kicked spastically in her chest. She gulped. He skidded to a stop in front of her, hair tossed back from the run. He breathed frantically and had a crazed look in his eyes, as if he was about to do something reckless and he didn't give a damn.

He took her hand with an almost violent urgency and pulled her towards him. Lorcan dropped her other hand fast. Rose saw Lily strolling along from behind, slowly, like she didn't have a care in the world. A sense of unease washed through Rose. What stupid, dangerous thing was Scorpius about to do—and what were the repercussions going to be?

Rose looked at Scorpius expectantly, anxiously reaching for her wand in case she had to do some damage control. And then Scorpius took a breath and leaned in, and then before she knew it his lips were on hers and she couldn't breathe.

The first moment was frozen in time, though heat seared at her mouth. She was blindsided and she was sure that in that moment, even her heart stopped for a beat.

And then the moment was over and Score's lips were coaxing hers and his scent was permeating her senses and it was better than anything she could have ever imagined. Those proverbial fireworks swam in her vision like the sparks that seemed to be going off in her veins. It was like somebody had taken all her blood and replaced it with Firewhisky that scorched away her inhibitions and her fears and allowed her to finally tell Score—albeit maybe not with words—how she felt.

Her arms wound tightly around his neck of their own accord, although she had to stand on tiptoe to do it. His wound around her waist and she was suddenly aware of the fact that she was tiny, inside of huge, compared to him. Somehow they pressed together so tightly she could feel her body smashed up against his and still his smell, the smell of honey and safety and home, clouded her senses.

It was bliss. She was floating, she was sure it—or maybe she'd had a lot of Felix Felicis, she was sure of it. Maybe this was all a dream, but it felt too real, too stunning, her heart beating too fast in her chest, for it to be just a dream. She was lost in the sensation, in the delirious deliciousness of it all—he tasted of something unbearably sweet and wickedly addictive. She could not understand, for the life of her, why she hadn't just done this years ago.

She could feel his heart beating rapidly in tandem with hers. At this moment, she thoroughly exalted whichever idiot had come up with Quidditch, because she knew it was the endless hours of Quidditch practice that had left Score with the perfect muscles her fingers skimmed now.

She was just about to lean in a little closer, feel a little bit more, when suddenly indignant cries came from all around.

"OI! THAT'S MY SISTER!" Hugo.
"OI! THAT'S MY COUSIN!" Al.
"OI! THAT'S MY—WELL, SHE'S RELATED TO ME!" Who knew who this was?
"OI! YOU'RE DATING MY SISTER!" Merlin, Al again.

Rose felt something skim the side of her face and realized someone had thrown a jinx at Scorpius. She pushed him out of the way and pushed him down before someone threw an Avada Kedavara at him. He stared back up at her, lips swollen, eyes full of unsaid words.

Please review, everybody! :) It'd make my holiday. Also, is this chapter even believable? I was editing it and realized that it's a little trite and cliche? (I just got so excited for Rose and Score that I couldn't resist and couldn't torture them for any longer!)