DISCLAIMER: I don't own Rose, Scorpius, anniversaries or feeling happy.

Conclusion to Getting it Right.

Blurb …

Six years later, I'm still best friends with Bea, still cousins with Al and still in love with Scorpius Malfoy. Oh, and still trying to get it right. My conclusion … oh, I don't bloody know. :Scorpius/Rose sequel to GIR postDH NextGen:

Chapter 9: The Christmassy One.

Naturally, in pure Rose and Scorpius fashion, we ignored everything that was awkward between us. In other words, the whole idea of moving in together was completely dropped and we both pretended that the whole conversation had never happened.

"He threw up all over you?" Bea tried desperately not to laugh about a week later, but she failed miserably. "Oh, god, Rosie …"

"I know!" I cried, slamming my tea down on our coffee table. "Then he just kept moaning, pretending he didn't know what I said and now we can't even talk about it …"

"I must say, when you two botch something, you really don't do it halfway."

"You've only just started to notice?!"

We really needed to find a better bitching place than the sofa in our flat. Anyone we were talking about could just come bursting in through the front door, or be listening in and hear everything we were saying! But we had been doing this ever since we moved in, so we could hardly stop now, could we?

"Well, maybe just let that issue die down for now …" Bea suggested.

"Die down? We're not even talking about it!"

"Then that's a good start!" Bea assured me and I almost laughed at that, draining the last of my tea.

"Besides, it's your fault anyway." I said.

"What? How is screwing up your relationship MY fault?"

"You were the one who suggested we talk about it in the first place!" I cried. "You know, with your 'ooh, we should swap flats! You'll be totally fine living together!'."

"Look, Rosie," Bea grabbed my arm, stopping me from getting up and ignoring her explanation to get more tea. "It had to come up sooner or later, right? If not now, then soon. Maybe in a few months, or maybe in few years … but eventually, you were going to have to talk about it."

It was the truth that I really didn't want to have to deal with. "Ugh, I know," I admitted, rubbing my eyes. Glancing at the clock on the wall, I realised I had an hour until my next shift at work. I had been given a whole lot of really long day shifts recently, starting at about nine in the morning and ending at seven or eight in the evening. I would come home exhausted, fall asleep and then get up to do the same thing the next day. I think I've had a constant headache for the past week, ever since the whole 'why don't we move in together, throwing up' incident and Scorpius and I had been bickering basically every second we were alone. "I feel like we haven't spoken in ages, Bea." I whined.

"We haven't." Bea pointed out.

"It's bloody work's fault!" I said. "They're making me work all day so when I get home, I'm too tired to have a life! Scorpius already thinks I'm a freak who loves my work more than him. I'm telling you, I'll be happy once this year's over, no matter what result I get. At least the insane shifts and supervisors breathing down my neck will be gone. Unless it's Healer O'Hotness, then I really wouldn't mind …"

"Ooh, that really fit Healer from potion mixing?" Bea grinned.

"Ah, so you do listen to my work rambles."

"You were basically gossiping," Bea rolled her eyes. "You know I can't resist gossip."

"Guess it's a good thing you're a journalist with Witch Weekly then!" I said, without really thinking about it. Of course I regretted it immediately, once I got the glare. "Oh, bugger," I muttered. "Um, I mean, you're so going to move onto better things! And you're brilliant at writing … Monica Dodge is a bitch who should rot in hell …?" I tagged on the end. Any insult towards Bea's boss was a guaranteed point-scorer.

Bea smiled. "That's better!" she said.

I sighed. "Bea, if you honestly hate working with her so much, why don't you quit?" I asked her. "You've had issues with Dodge ever since you started working there!"

"Because I love writing!" Bea insisted. "I just got a promotion; I haven't had the chance to rub it in her face, yet! Besides, Dodge has been trying to make me quit ever since I arrived! I'm telling you, I'm not going to do it! Either she goes, or … well, she has to go!"

"I seriously doubt that this is the time to be stubborn, Bea–"

"Rosie!" Bea snapped and I accidentally kicked the coffee table as I jumped. "I thought you were on my side?"

"I am!" I said, hastily. "Trust me, I've met her before, remember? I also vividly recall a moment where you punched her and I had to help the boys drag you off her. But …" I thought hard, Bea staring into her tea. "There comes a point where you need to step back and think about what you're going through. You've always said that you don't want to work at Witch Weekly forever. You might have an awesome feature all to yourself now and I get that, but every time you have to go to work, you complain. Monica Dodge will not 'win' whatever war you two have if you resign."

"I know," Bea said softly, talking to her tea. "It's a pride thing, Rosie. I would love to be a news journalist for the Prophet or a freelancer, but I'm happy where I am for now … except for her. I just don't want to be the first to crack, is all."

I knew that I'd said all I could for now. Bea had to figure this one out for herself.

"… Monica is a bitch, though." I admitted.

Bea burst out laughing and finally met my gaze. "God, I love you, Rosie!" she said.

"Love you, too."

"Y'know, I'm starting to feel like a kid with divorced parents," I pointed out, having left saying hello to Gerald and now dropping into the seat next to Ally. "I'm constantly running back and forth between you two, pretending that I haven't done anything cooler with the other!"

Ally glanced up at me with a smile, but didn't comment. "How are you?" she asked instead.

I rolled my eyes. About as good as one can be while wearing a Father Christmas hat and had spent the entire morning trying to bring back someone's memory of the last day thanks to an accident with an exploding telescope – courtesy of Uncle George – so they could remember what other Christmas presents they had to buy.

December had rolled around so incredibly fast that I have found myself two weeks until Christmas and still having done no shopping for anyone. I somehow find myself in this position every year, yet I still haven't bothered to try and find a better solution. Oh, well. St Mungo's was currently smothered in decorations, including tinsel, mistletoe, baubles, angels, fairy lights with actual fairies and a giant Christmas tree in the corner of the main waiting room. Even the three receptionist ladies were getting into the spirit by greeting every single person with, "Welcome to St Mungo-ho-ho's! Happy Christmas and how can we help make your day merry and bright?"

The Healers were a bit less than thrilled to be forced into Christmas hats and to wish every patient a merry Christmas, particularly us up on short-term memory loss; we were being asked every five minutes what all the decorations were for and I was about two seconds away from snapping and killing someone. Ally was luckily on potion mixing, so not only did she get Healer O'Hotness, but she got to hole herself up in a lab all day and not come out until her shift ended!

"Oh, you know," I rolled my eyes, leaning my elbows on the table in front of me. "Sick of trying to explain what Christmas is to someone who's only going to forget everything in another ten seconds. Trying to think of ways to convince Healer Williams that I can't work Christmas Day without him murdering me. You?"

"It's fantastic in potion mixing!" Ally said, her eyes sparkling. Wow, I don't think I've ever seen that spark, except for catching Ally's stolen glances at Gerald. I mean, potion mixing had to be the dullest cycle in the entire hospital. The only bright side of potion mixing was getting Healer O'Hotness as the supervisor! "I don't have to talk to people, mixing and measuring is so precise and it's been really fun trying to memorise the orders of the ingredients! I've managed to completely memorise about three different potions already, from order, to heat settings, to amount of stirs!"

"Sounds riveting." I said, trying not to laugh.

"I don't understand why none of the others like it!" Ally continued, probably completely missing my sarcasm. "I really think I've found where I want to work in the future, Rosie–"

"Good morning, trainees."

The five other trainees currently on break all leapt a mile as Healer Williams, also known as our cynical boss who hates people because he thinks they will all just turn around and eventually leave you to sleep with your brother (or something), stormed into the staff room. Everyone snapped to attention like they were being caught vandalising or cheating for an up-coming mid-year test. With his wide face, greying hair and glaring eyes, Healer Williams looked like an angry rhino with fairy lights strung around his neck.

Gerald on the other side of the room nearly fell off the sofa. Bethany, who had been busy trying to chat up one of the fourth-years, cut herself off immediately and leapt away from him. A third-year vulture jumped to her feet and I swear Ally just saluted. Healer Williams was Head of the Healer Training Department. He ultimately decided who stayed and who got the boot at the end of this year of training in this coming July. It really didn't bode well for our future careers that he hated everyone.

"Oh, sit down!" Healer Williams snapped and the vulture sat back down with a sheepish expression, playing with the end of her brown ponytail. "I have an announcement to make, which I want you lot to spread around to the other senior trainees. There will be an official statement made in the next scheduled training session next week."

We were all getting kicked out of the course! None of us would have any money, we'd get evicted and probably be forced to become homeless on the street! There's no other possible explanation.

"I have been approached by the Head of Healer Training at Brussels Wizarding Hospital in Belgium," Healer Williams glared at us all. "His trainee-Healers are coming to England sometime in early February for a block course in high-scale emergencies. His team is running it, but he has invited our fifth-year and fourth-year trainees to join them."

Ok, so maybe I need to stop being so dramatic. Ally gave me an excited look whereas Gerald looked appalled at the thought of having to do more work. The differences between those two were shocking. How the hell did they ever manage to fall in love?

"Would this count towards our final assessment, Healer Williams, sir?" the fourth-year asked.

"It would count as extra credit," Healer Williams rolled his eyes. See? So charming. "You would of course have to complete all the requirements for our training course as well. This block course would be like an extra bonus. I strongly recommend that all the men go."

The women in the room, Ally, Bethany and even the third-year vulture, who this news didn't even affect, exchanged confused looks. "Er, sir …" Bethany was the one to ask, thank god, since Healer Williams looked about ready to flip out. "Why do you say 'men'? The women can go too, right?"

"In Belgium, all Healing is carried out by men," Healer Williams explained hurriedly, like he had elsewhere to be. "It is a tradition that has been carried out for generations and as such, will only accept other male trainees on their course with them."

"But that's not fair!" Bethany cried out.

"Spare me, Healer Cowan," Healer Williams spat. "Not my problem. I said spread it around!" And he stormed off without another word.

"What the hell?!" Bethany cried, not even caring if Healer Williams was out of earshot yet. "Why should the blokes be given a boost up in the programme and not the women?!"

"That's just not on!" I agreed. "I get that it's tradition, but why not make an extra course for the women? I have half a mind to go give Healer Williams a good kick! See if he can heal that!"

"Oh, I'd give him more than a kick," Bethany muttered. "I'd make sure he could never walk again."

"Remind me never to get on your bad side …" the fourth-year that she'd been flirting with muttered and when Bethany sent him the coldest glare I've ever seen, even Gerald was sent quickly scarpering to the other side of the table, dropping down into the seat on my other side. "I think it's stupid," Gerald told us. "If you guys want, I won't go as a sign of protest? Rosie?"

"Nah, if you can take the opportunity, then do it," I said. "Maybe we'll be able to convince them! I know a few good hexes that might make them more persuadable …"

"Ally?" Gerald asked, hopefully.

Ally just rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she said, standing up from the table hastily and causing her chair to scrape loudly across the floor. "It's your life. Since when did you include me in it? I've got to go back to work."

"Oh, c'mon!" Gerald yelled after her as Ally ignored him completely, chucking on her green robe and storming out the door very much in reminiscence of Healer Williams. "Ally! What the hell am I supposed to do about her, Rosie?" Gerald asked me, desperately.

"Sorry, mate," I said, clapping a hand onto his shoulder. "You caused it, you have to fix it, I'm afraid! I'm just the shoulder to cry on when things go pear-shaped."

"What would I do without you?" Gerald muttered, sarcastically and I just grinned.

"You have to help me!" I practically screamed at the poor sales girl at the Tesco counter.

"Er, miss, you just pushed over an old lady …" The girl, whose name badge said Danielle, pointed out the crash I'd caused in the lane behind me. I just waved a hand dismissively.

"I'm a doctor, she'll be fine," I said quickly, well aware that I was in a Muggle shop. All of us had cover jobs that we could say to Muggles and we'd had a lot of fun picking them. Some of us, like Bea and I, had jobs that basically crossed over with the Muggle world, so it was easy for us. But others, like Al and Scorpius, spent about half an hour coming up with fantasy jobs. Now, whenever they were asked, Al was an astronaut and Scorpius was a lion tamer. Anyway. "Look, it's Christmas Eve, I need presents and I have no idea what to get! You're a personal shopper, right?"

"I'm just a sales clerk, but I can help you the best I can–"

"Brilliant! Just knew we'd get along, Danni! Can I call you Danni?" I asked.

"Um–"

"Great!" I cut over her and Danielle gave me a look that was faintly alarmed. I'm rather used to that look by now, so it didn't really bother me. "First of all, there's my cousin. Now he loves anything technological, like something that uses electricity. Then my best friend, who is getting married next year, my mum and dad, my little brother, my other cousin, my good friend and my other cousin, and my granddad and grandma, the rest of my cousins and aunties and uncles and good god, I can't forget my boyfriend …"

Danielle just stared at me and I actually waved a hand in front of her face. Shit, I've broken her! Now I'll never get any presents and my family will officially disown me! But then Danielle gave me a hasty grin and gestured with her hand.

"You lost me after you mentioned the friend getting married," Danielle said, bluntly. "But as for the cousin who likes technology, we've got the latest laptops from all your usual brands, along with phones and music playing devices …"

"Ooh! Music! Al likes music!" I cried and Danielle showed me the millions of small, square things that apparently played songs.

It was a long process of buying presents for my insane family and friends. By the time I left the store, Danielle was hugging me good luck and I had pretty much no money left. I should have been kicking myself for managing to leave all this until Christmas Eve, but really I was just congratulating myself, especially on Scorpius's present!. He'd been complaining about a serious lack of it for ages, after all, so he couldn't even be mad at the fact that I ignored the owl he sent me at work earlier this evening and basically ignored him when I sprinted home to change before plunging headfirst into the dangerous waters that was last-minute shopping.

Or, well, so I thought.

"Where the flipping HELL have you been?!" Scorpius yelled the second I got through the door.

"What?" I kicked the door shut with my foot and all my presents spilled out of my arms and onto the floor with a crash. "Scorpius, what the hell?"

"I haven't even seen you all week!" Scorpius countered, storming up to help me dump all my shopping on the kitchen table, despite his clear anger at me. "Then, you outright ignored my owl! I was actually worried up until you showed up out of nowhere, threw on my clothes and rushed out again!"

"Wow, you were worried," I muttered, spinning to face him. "Come on, you knew I was alive, didn't you? And what the hell are you doing just waiting for me? Don't you have your own flat?"

"God, sorry if I came here in hopes of seeing my girlfriend for the first time in days!" Scorpius cried. "I shouldn't have bothered! Screw this, I need another cup of tea …"

I leaned against the doorframe, watching Scorpius storm around the kitchen, using my teapot and my mug to make himself a cup of tea. He acted like he owned the bloody place! "For Merlin's sake, Scorpius, you don't live here! How many of my tea-bags have you used since you've been here waiting for me?"

Scorpius turned to face me with a scowl, his steaming tea in his hands. "You're arguing about using tea-bags? Rosie, we use each other's stuff all the time! Hell, you're wearing my bloody jumper!"

"Well, that's what you get when you leave your crap lying all over my room! You still haven't cleaned that mess up, by the way."

"And that's the reason we don't live together," Scorpius said, not looking at me. "You're insane …"

I didn't answer for a long moment. Scorpius had sat down at the table and had finished his tea by the time I actually figured out something to say. "You really think it'd be a horrible idea?" I said, trying to keep the scowl off my face.

Scorpius shot me a look. "We've discussed this already, Rosie," he said, shortly. "We don't need to have it again."

"We discussed it two years ago!" I cried. "I tried to bring it up again, you just kept pretending you couldn't hear me!"

"I was sick, Rosie! I wasn't up to hearing anything!"

"Oh, now you admit you were sick!"

Scorpius gave an exasperated groan. "Look, things are just fine the way they are," he insisted. "Aren't they? Why do we have to screw everything up by talking?"

"Don't you ever want to live with me?!" I asked desperately, sitting down at the table next to him. "Look, I'm not saying it even has to happen right now! Al and Bea are still on a high from their engagement bliss, they're not thinking straight, otherwise they never would have brought it up! But I'm talking about the future here, Scorpius … can you ever see us being together like that? Like them?"

"Rose …" Scorpius just shook his head.

"Trust me, I don't want to talk about this any more than you do," I insisted. "But when something gets awkward, we just avoid it! You have to admit, it's not exactly good for our mental health."

"I don't think this is good for our mental health!" Scorpius cried. "The screaming and arguing that comes from talking about it!"

"So it's better that we just forget it ever happened, then?"

"Oh, hell, Rosie …" Scorpius dragged a hand over his face. "I can't do it. I can't keep screaming at you. I'll see you later."

"What–? Oi!" I cried as Scorpius hurled himself up from the table and stalked to the front door. "Get back here!"

"No!"

"We need to discuss this!"

"No!"

"Scorpius!" I yelled as he stormed out, slamming the door behind him. I rushed after him, yanking the door back open to yell at his retreating back down the corridor. "FINE! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY FLAT!"

"I'M ALREADY GONE FROM YOUR FLAT!"

I couldn't think of a better remark to that then, 'Fine!' so instead, I slammed the door shut as hard as I could.

Rather naturally, I wasn't happy the next day as I stomped into work. Working Christmas Day just seemed like Healer William's way of inflicting evil upon the world, but he was playing his cards well; by scheduling on the fifth-year trainees, rather than any other year, he was ensuring that everyone would actually show up for work, since no one this late in the programme in their right minds would risk skipping a shift just for a public holiday.

"Cheer up, love," Catie, one of the lovely receptionist ladies, said to me as I came down from the fourth floor to drop off about a hundred patient charts and to pick up the new ones. "You get off at five, right?"

"If I'm lucky," I told her. "Surely you're not enjoying working?"

"Dear, when your husband does nothing but snore in front of the fireplace all day and your son goes to his wife's for the holidays, Christmas is pretty much a normal day," Catie laughed. "Oh! Hang on, you've missed a chart …"

I tried not to be Miss Doom and Gloom throughout the rest of my shift, I honestly did. I even smiled at Healer Williams when he let me go home reasonably on time! However, despite my ache to see my family all together, the smile was wiped from my face the second I stepped through the Burrow's front door and my mum greeted me with a hug, saying, "Rosie! Merry Christmas! Oh, is Scorpius not well again?" having clearly noted my lack of Scorpius.

"No, he's fine, Mum," I said shortly, accepting a hot chocolate from her and collapsing onto one of the sofas in the lounge. The fireplace was blazing and the house was of course packed to the brim with my cousins ripping open presents and Uncle George belting out Christmas carols. Teddy and Victoire's 3-year-old son, Max, was climbing over Uncle Charlie, trying to wrestle him to the ground. Mum sat down next to me as I said, "We had another fight. I think he's at his dad's."

"Oh," Mum gave me a sympathetic look as I took a gulp of Grandma's comforting hot chocolate. "I'm sorry, darling. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll sort it out before the night is over!"

"God, I dunno this time …" I muttered.

"Do I even want to know what you did?"

"Hey!" I protested as Mum gave a small laugh at my indignation. "It's not always my fault! I haven't even been able to give him his Christmas present and it's not because I'm hiding it or something! He walked out on me! Refused to talk about something serious like he always does and just stormed out the door without another word!"

Mum was silent for a few moments as she stared at the fire. Then she said, "Rosie, if there's one thing I've learned about relationships," The light from the fire gave her face a warm glow. It made me feel slightly better. "It's that men are stupid."

"Don't have to tell me that."

"How was work?"

"Full of family arguments and tinsel strangulation," I rolled my eyes. "There was a surprising amount of short-term memory loss. The Idiot Twins blow up anything yet?"

"No, but Fred did set the Christmas tree on fire at lunch," Mum snorted. "He claims it was an accident …"

Damn! I had almost made that my bet for this year's Christmas family gathering, but had decided against it at the last minute! Mum seemed to notice my disgruntled expression and clearly thought it was due to my stupid boyfriend.

"Why don't you talk to your cousins?" she suggested. "Lily's back for the day! And I'll bet you haven't seen the other half of them in ages!"

That was true, but what Mum didn't seem to realise was that there was a perfectly good reason for that. They drove me half mad, despite the fact that I loved them all dearly. Besides, there were some cousins that I just didn't talk to as much as others, like little Roxanne or Louis. Then, there were my older cousins who had their own families and didn't need me coming in and spreading my dramas throughout their lives. Al and Bea were talking to Grandma Molly, Al's arm flung casually around my best friend's waist like there wasn't the possibly that my deranged grandmother would flip out and eat Al's fiancée. I had talked to Bea about Scorpius being such an arse, but her advice had been, "Screw him, Rosie, now what did you buy me for Christmas?!" Naturally, she hadn't really been a comfort.

"Mum," I said. "I love my family, I really do, but honestly I just want to sit here and mope, ok?"

Mum supressed a laugh, I just know it. "If you want to talk, you know where I am." she told me before hurrying to the kitchen to prevent my dad from eating all the left-over food from lunch. Just when I thought I could get some peace and quiet to myself, a whirl of red practically jumped on top of me.

"My lovely Rosie! What's up, woman?!" Lily practically sang.

"Slowly dying under your weight!" I cried and Lily snorted, moving to sit on her knees next to me.

I got a good look at her. The girl had such a tan now from travelling in the sun that if it hadn't been for her hair, you wouldn't even think we were related. "You're so brown!"

"Yeah, that last sunburn really did wonders! Mum reckons I'm going to rot my skin or something!"

"Oh, I've missed you!" I said honestly, throwing my arms around Lily.

I hadn't really expected her to come home this Christmas; last I'd heard, she was in Australia where it was about thirty degrees every day and she could go to the beach at ten o'clock at night! Who in their right minds would come back to dreary England if they had that as the other option? But sure enough, Lily had apparently sprung out of the fireplace this morning, her usual bright self and toting a million presents for us. She had gotten me yet another key-ring, the latest being of a tall structure apparently called the Sky Tower.

"Oh, don't be a pansy," Lily rolled her eyes as she pulled back. "Seriously, how are you? Haven't seen you in person since … oh my god, last Christmas?"

"And whose fault is that?" I said to her and she just shrugged. "You need to come home!"

"Not happening," she said at once. Then she smiled. "C'mon then, ramble to me about your life! You had to work today, right? Are all the Healers still trying to kill each other?"

"Work was busy, as you might imagine, and murder is practically on the horizons all the time," I told her. "In fact, the other day one of the vultures actually stole all of Ally's notes and burned them!"

"Seriously? People actually do that?"

"Oh, yeah! Everyone's got their tactics: the vultures sabotage, Bethany sleeps with everyone who affects her pass rate and Gerald, Ally and I just try and stick together and back each other up. Although," I remembered having to run back and forth between them, like a school girl passing messages. "The fact that they refuse to talk to each other is kind of killing our alliance, but it's the thought that counts."

"Are these the two that are in love, but won't do anything about it?" Lily asked.

I nodded, rolling my eyes. "They're bloody impossible; I've pretty much given up. I almost thought I could get them to agree on something when our boss announced these training block-courses that only blokes are allowed to go to because of some Belgian tradition, but no! Gerald just had to stick his foot in his mouth again and I think he's offended Ally so much that she'll never talk to him again!"

"Block course for blokes only?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, we've all been invited to train with some Belgian Healers," I scoffed. "But in Belgium, only blokes are allowed to become Healers. It's like, tradition or something. Absolutely ridiculous, because now all the blokes on our course are given the opportunity for extra credit and the girls are left with nothing! But Gerald said something about respecting other cultures, I don't bloody know …"

"Well, you're still alive so far! I think that counts for something," Lily told me. When I didn't answer, just polished off my now-only-warm chocolate, she poked me in the side and said, "C'mon, what else is wrong? You looked so worn out when you arrived and now you're just sitting here all moody and depressed! Is it Scorpius? Did he hurt you? If you want, I could totally sneak into his room at night and–?"

"As lovely as your offer is, LL," I cut in quickly. "That's quite all right. No, we just had another row, it's no big deal …"

"About what?"

Ah. There it was. Lily always was the only one who never had enough tact to not ask that. I wasn't sure how to answer her, so I ended up going with the truth. "The fact that every time we need to talk about something serious, like our future and shit, he clams up and refuses to say a word."

"Hell," Lily's eyes widened. "Bet that was an ugly one!"

"He got all pissed off at me and stormed out of the flat," I admitted. "He usually comes back sometime overnight, but I woke up this morning and he wasn't there …"

"Oh, hey," Lily seemed to notice my subdued voice. "Don't freak out! This isn't your usual 'forgot to put the rubbish out' row. He's probably realised that you actually do need to start talking about those sorts of things and his manly pride has been hurt at the fact that you were right."

"I've really missed you, LL," I said again, giving her a smile. "You always make me feel better."

"I try!"

"So. Enough about my dysfunctional relationship … where in the world are you going to be jetting off to after this?" I asked her. "Last time I got a letter from you, you were playing Quidditch in the outback."

"Oh, that's right!" Lily said. "That was brilliant! Nah, remember how I said that I met up with another travelling group? We had been in New Zealand all but a day before I had to catch the Portkey home! But I managed to get up the Sky Tower in Auckland to get you your key-ring. Auckland is adorable! It's their largest city, but it's nothing compared to London."

"You must have been to every continent on the planet by now!" I pointed out.

"Not every continent," Lily rolled her eyes. "I haven't been to Antarctica, though the boys and I plan on that! And I didn't get to see as much of Asia as I would have liked … but I like New Zealand so far and the blokes I'm travelling with are brilliant. Most of them went back to their hometowns for the holidays, but we've all promised to meet up again just before New Year's so they can show me around the country!"

I smiled at my little cousin's enthusiasm, but I couldn't help but feel a sinking sense of disappointment. It's not as if I'd be able to see Lily every day anyway … but every time she talked about jetting off to another country, seeing the sights and never coming home, a little part of me started crying. I loved Lily and despite the hundreds of key-rings she's gotten me, I would give them all up if it meant she would come home to me.

Course I knew that there was a reason Lily had taken off in the first place. It had partly come down to her cheating ex-boyfriend from back at Hogwarts, who she hadn't been able to get over as long as he was around. Getting out of the country had probably been the best thing for her and now, she seemed to love playing the single life out in the world. At one point I might have thought Lily would settle down, get married and all that, but she'd stopped believing in true love a long time ago … now, the idea of her in a proper house with a husband was laughable.

"Oh, go on then," I said when Lily looked ready to burst. "What's your favourite part of New Zealand so far?"

"Oh, hell, where do I start?" Lily said. "First off, the accents are so cute …"

I let Lily ramble for a bit, trying hard not to tune out as she told a story of the first New Zealand pub she'd been taken to. Apparently there had been a huge rugby match on and she'd been caught up in the patrons all screaming and yelling at the P.V. screens, or something.

"… then they scored this last try and everyone went flipping nuts!" Lily cried enthusiastically. "Seriously, there were blokes who had just met throwing their arms around each other and crying and everything! Even Dave hugged me and Matt threw his beer everywhere–"

"Uh, Rose?"

I suddenly sat bolt upright and Lily cut herself off entirely when we realised that Scorpius had, for some reason, turned up. He was standing a few feet in front of me, holding a small, gift-wrapped box in his hands and wearing an old Weasley Christmas jumper that Grandma Molly had knitted for him a few years ago. He looked slightly nervous.

"Scorpius?" I said in amazement. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Can I talk to you?" he said, holding out a hand. I exchanged a glance with Lily, who nodded encouragingly. Sighing, I reached up and let Scorpius pull me to my feet, leading me through my crowd of relatives until we reached the back door into the freezing garden.

"What d'you want?" I asked roughly. Once he shut the door, I folded my arms, partly out of defending myself, partly out of cold. "I'm not about to stand here freezing my arse off while listening to you yell at me some more."

"Shut up," Scorpius said. "I'm not here to yell. I'm here to give you this and say I'm sorry." He handed me the box. The tag on it read, 'To: the gorgeous, fantastic Rosie. From: The idiotic prick who excels at being an arsehole'.

Ok, my heart softened slightly. "I thought you hated me." I said.

"Aw, c'mon," Scorpius shrugged. "I know I was a prick and an arsehole and an idiot to you–"

"Don't forget a knobhead and a dick." I pointed out.

Scorpius snorted. "God, I missed you. Look, I'm sorry, Rosie and I love you. Please accept my gift and my humble apologies. Go on, open it." he added, since I was just staring at the box sceptically.

"You got me a … 'Bad Scorpius Bottle'?" I asked in confusion, pulling out the already-full and ready for action squirt gun bottle that you would typically fill with water to spray the plants, if you were a middle-aged Muggle lady. Only Scorpius had indeed written, 'Bad Scorpius Bottle' on the side in big letters.

"My grandma uses one for her cat," Scorpius said. "Every time he acts badly, she sprays him, so he knows he's done something wrong. Since I never seem to know when I'm pissing you off," He gave a sort of smile. "I thought we could apply the same principle to us."

"You … oh, screw it," I couldn't help it. I grinned back. "I love you, Scorpius."

He gave me a full blown grin before practically leaping forward to kiss me. However, he only got a decent snog for about five seconds, before I pulled away and started spraying him, yelling, "Bad Scorpius! Bad Scorpius!"

"Holy shit–!" Scorpius cried, ducking and trying to run away from me. "What the bloody hell?! What did I do?!"

"That's for storming out on me!" I said with satisfaction. "And that's for every other time you've yelled at me!"

"Ah, no – ROSE!"

Conclusion to Christmas, fighting and work:

-We might be on speaking terms again, but somehow, Scorpius has still managed to evade the topic of moving in together.

-Christmas is tiring and my present to Scorpius was complete overkill compared to his; I got him what I thought would be a simple decorated box stuffed with biscuits and chocolate, but next to a squirt bottle, it looked like a bloody diamond!

-There's no winning here.

Rose: 14, Scorpius: 14.

(Knew my lead wouldn't last).

A/N: Ok, so I guess it's a little late for Christmas, but oh well. Bit of obvious foreshadowing, bit of Lily and that wedge between Scorpius and Rose is still there and managing to cause problems.

I'm going to warn you now. The next couple of chapters aren't going to be pretty. I ask that you bear with me and keep in mind that it's all for the story. :)

I hope you're all enjoying it still! Many of you reviewed the last chapter and it was great getting feedback, so I thank you all! Please keep telling me what you think.

Until next time -

- Moon. :D