"Scorpius," Rose mumbled into her pillow, "Stop staring at me."

He stroked her hair, "I'm just making sure you're okay."

"I had three healers check me out and stayed for observation for six hours. I've gotten about seven hours of sleep which is twice as much as I have been getting for the past few months." She informed him, with her eyes still closed. "I'm fine."

"Okay…"

Rose let out a small sigh and opened her eyes to give him a reassuring look. "Scorpius I'm perfectly fine. I have a scar, but other than that there is no lasting damage."

He nodded, his jaw clenched in anxiety.

"Did you sleep at all?" She questioned tentatively, brushing his cheek with her thumb.

"No. I couldn't." He answered flatly.

She frowned, but said nothing. There was nothing she could say. The fact was in two days time he would attend his mother's funeral and until then they would just be grieving with no outlet for their feelings.

"Well I'm going to take a shower, and get dressed. I have to get a lot of things in order."

"Like?"

"You think we can just pull the stunt we pulled without repercussions?" She scoffed, shifting the covers off of her. "And Kelly's wedding is tomorrow, and as Maid of Honor I have to make sure that goes smoothly."

"You are supposed to be helping today aren't you?" He asked distantly.

"No," Rose turned to face him and added, "Today I'm supposed to be with you."

A ghost of a smile flickered on his face right before she bent down and kissed him firmly on the lips. His arms slowly wrapped around her, holding her on his bare chest. It wasn't how they usually kissed, there was still the warm familiarity and the jolt of adrenaline as her arms curled around his back, but they both knew that they were both too depressed and tired for it to go any farther. Never before had they had something that weighed heavily on them both for this to occur, but it was all right, because that wasn't what either of them needed.

Promptly, she pulled away, resting her forehead on his while his arms hung around the back of her waist. "I love you."

He gave her a tiny grin. "I love you too."

"You try and get some sleep okay?"

"I will." He tugged her back towards him and held her firmly for a few more minutes.

She laid her head in the crook of his neck and traced small circles in his back. Rose waited until he released her to go and Scorpius took a few minutes to do so, when he did he finally looked like he was calm enough to sleep.

Rose took a long shower and changed into some jeans, a white tank top and an open violet blouse. There was an urge for her to put her hair up, but instead she decided to French braid her tumbled crimson hair. When she finished she did everything she said she would and made meals for Scorpius to heat up tomorrow incase he didn't feel like leaving to go get food.

It was starting to get dark out; she leaned on the bedroom doorway and listened to the sound of Scorpius gently snoring in the next room. He was so tired. She was glad he had finally given in to sleep. He needed it.

A loud knock echoed on her door, rolling her eyes, she shut the bedroom door and let her older cousin inside. James gave her a warm smile and shut the door behind him.

"How is he?" James asked, the concern clear on his face as he gestured to the bedroom.

Rose shook her head, placing her fist on her chin. "He's sleeping…It took him all night to fall asleep."

"We found your father," James began cautiously, reading her reaction carefully.

"How…" She clenched her eyes shut, released a slow shaky breath and then asked, "How is he?"

"Alive…a little deranged, but alive. They put him in the same hospital room as my dad."

"How's your dad doing? I owled my mum, but she hasn't given me any new updates."

James shrugged, his brown eyes drained of any energy. "He took a beating, but they said he should be able to leave in a month or so."

"Okay…" She let out another measured breath. "I'll see him the day after tomorrow."

James gave her a look. "Rose-"

"I need a minute…My fiancée's mother… and Kelly's weddings tomorrow," Rose wiped her face to clear the exhaustion from her face. "I just can't do that right now okay? I've always taken the reigns in the family. I can't do it right now. Now it's Hugo's turn to take over for a bit."

"How are you? You holding up okay?"

She opened her mouth, the lie was perfectly positioned on her tongue, but she swallowed it. "No…" She shook her head. "I'm not."

"I thought you were going to lie," He laughed lightly, his face wrinkling. "You never usually answer that question honestly."

"Well," Rose snorted throwing her hands up. "I can't fight it anymore…I've spent my whole life pretending I have it together…and now that absolutely everything has happened to pull that a part…I've realized it's not so important to keep everything to myself. It doesn't make me stronger, it just makes everything…harder."

James grinned down at her teasingly; "Well don't turn into a crybaby now."

"I make no promises." She smiled weakly.

"I'll come by later this week and make him go do something with me." James said enveloping her in a big, warm hug.

"Like what?"

He shrugged, "I'll figure something out. When is the funeral?"

"Sunday."

"I'll be by on Monday then." He told her decisively. "Tell him that okay?"

Rose nodded, "You'll be at the funeral right?"

"Of course. All of us will be."

She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but James was already walking out of her flat by the time she thought to ask. He was most likely referring to the Auror's, but it didn't matter she would see what he meant on Sunday regardless.


Spinning around, she peeked into the bedroom to see if Scorpius was awake. It turned out, he was. He'd gotten at least five hours of sleep, which wasn't enough, but it was a solid start. Moving into the room, she smiled at the way his bright hair was sticking up. He stared wistfully at the ceiling with his arms behind his neck until he saw her face, immediately he relaxed and shifted onto his side.

"Hey." She whispered softly sinking down into the bed next to him.

"Hi." He muttered, his throat dry and hoarse. "Who was that?"

Rose lifted the covers and crawled under them, "Just James."

"Oh."

She cuddled into her pillow and glanced at him. "Do you want something to eat?"

"No."

"When's the last time you ate?"

He shrugged indifferently.

"I'll make you some pancakes. What do you want to drink?"

He laughed, the expression brightening his face for a moment. "I just said I didn't want anything to eat."

"Yes, but you are sad. And when people are sad they lose the desire to eat, but they still need to have food. So therefore," She paused briefly, "I will make you pancakes."

"I suppose you would know," He said thoughtfully, reaching over and playing with her hair. "Is that why you are always so tiny?"

"Well now that you're back I'm going to get really fat." She informed him.

"Oh? Because you can't be sad if I'm here?" He half-smirked at her.

"Yep. So I hope you are okay with me getting a lot of meat on me. Like pregnant with quadruplets weight."

He gave her a wistful look and said, "I believe we went over this seven years ago."

"We did?" She blinked trying to remember ever having a conversation about her being pregnant with quadruplets.

"We were laying in my bed, and we were talking about whether or not we should stay together."

"When?"

"Seventh year, we were playing the 'what if I…' game."

It took her a second, but then the memory came back to her and she smiled so wide her face ached. "I remember now…you were really sweet. I remember being surprised."

"That's surprising?"

"Not now. Now I know you, but then I still thought you were this cold hearted prick who liked to harass me."

"I'm still a cold hearted prick who likes to harass you." He retorted.

Rose shook her head, "You aren't cold hearted. Not even close."

Scorpius smiled, not in happiness or in despair, but more as an acknowledgement to what she had said. Rose leaned forward and cupped the side of his face that wasn't denting into the pillow. Her thumb glided across his jaw delicately and she grinned.

"I love you."

He scooped her up into his arms so hastily that all Rose could was wrap her arms around his neck in response. She didn't hear him cry, but she felt the tears sliding down the side of his face.

"I love you too." He muttered intensely, squeezing her body so close to his that there ribs were rubbing against each other. They only let go when a knock sounded on the front door.

Rose groaned, her lips brushed his unshaven cheek and she got up off of him. "It's probably Hugo." Rose sighed kissing his lips lightly before getting up to answer the door.

Once she opened the door she was shocked to see Draco Malfoy standing in front of her. Immediately she backed away to let him in, unsure of what exactly to say.

The man looked so lost, and so alone. His eyes flickered for a minute to her face, before he swung a bottle of firewiskey to his lips. "I'm…looking for Scorpius."

"I'll get him." She told him soothingly.

"Um…" She paused in the doorway awkwardly, not sure how to explain what she herself didn't understand. "Your father is here."

Scorpius didn't seem to know what to do with that information either. He leaned forward and rubbed his face in his hands. "Okay, let me put some clothes on I'll be there in a minute."

Rose nodded and went back into the living room. Draco was now standing unsurely in front of the couch. It was kind of ridiculous that there was still this tension between them. It had been a long time since she was a teenager, but every time she saw Scorpius's father she felt like she was seventeen again. For those minutes she wasn't a confident adult, but an unsteady kid who wasn't quite sure if they were in trouble or not.

"Do you-" She stopped and shook of any hesitance she had.

This man was going to be her father in-law some day and it was time for her to act like it. It was time for her to just break the boundaries and accept the consequences. So, Rose went over, and gently herded Draco to the sofa. He tensed up the minute she touched his arm, but he didn't fight her. Draco was too startled and way out of his range to fight back. This was not what his life was supposed to be. He shouldn't have been drunk on a weekday in the middle of the day. He shouldn't have been sitting on his son's fiancée's couch, doing everything in his power not to cry, but he was and there was nothing that couldn't make any of that right.

"Father?" Scorpius asked carefully standing in front of his father.

"It's my fault." Draco muttered rocking back and forth ever so slightly, his eyes red, but lacking any tears.

Rose sat down next to him and after a second of wavering she grabbed his hand. She gave him five seconds to shake her off before speaking. "No. It isn't."

"Yes," He breathed heavily, his body trembling, "It is. Astoria…she insisted on going to the ministry…she wouldn't wait."

Scorpius sighed and sat beside his father, his face darkened. "She was going to see Rose to see if she had any information on me. It's my fault. If I had just been honest with her-"

"Then she would have been in danger," Rose cut him off swiftly.

She then moved to sit on the coffee table so she could look at both of them. It was remarkable how similar the pair of them looked. Sometimes it was hard to see any of Scorpius's mother in him, but now she did. They may have had the same eye color, hair color, same face shape, and identical everything, but the look on his face was his mother's. Draco looked disoriented, but still there was something that shut off the flow of emotions from reaching his face entirely, a fraction of it registered, but Rose knew he was much more damaged than he appeared to be. Scorpius on the other hand held all of his emotions in his eyes like Astoria. Every pain he was feeling, was there at the surface. Rose could actually see his heartbreaking. She saw his guilt, his regret and his remorse, but she knew what Astoria would want. Astoria wouldn't want either one of them to feel guilty.

"If it's anyone's fault it's mine. She was looking for me. I could have sent her an owl telling her something, but here's the thing," Rose leaned forward with a calculated breath, "If you look for someone to blame you are always going to find someone that contributed to her death. We can punish every single person involved, and we can punish ourselves until we feel it is equal to her death…But it's never going to be enough."

Her voice was soft, her eyes bore into them and she said, "Nothing is going to be enough to compensate for her death, and it won't bring her back."


A hollow silence filled the flat as the controlled Malfoy's slowly relinquished any control they had left. Draco uncharacteristically grabbed hold of his son and apprehended him as they cried. They gripped each other so tightly, Rose was a little worried they'd bruise each other, but after a few moments the concern faded.

She stood up silently and went into the kitchen to start making some tea. It was clear they needed a minute together. They were once a family of three and Rose knew that no one would understand the loss like they would, so she gave them the time to properly address that. She knew she wasn't in the way, but still she wanted to respect what once was and not force herself into the situation.

By the time she had came back to them, they had managed to pull themselves together. Rose handed them the tissue box, Draco and Scorpius separated to different sides of the room and acted like it never happened. Rose normally would have laughed at how against showing affection and emotions men were, but she held back. Instead she handed Scorpius a cup of tea, and went over to Draco with his cup.

"I didn't know what kind you liked," She confessed.

"Earl grey?" He questioned.

"Yeah."

"I prefer it."

She smiled and lowered her voice, "I know…well I don't know how this is for you and I have no idea what your feeling towards me are, but I'm more than willing to help you in anyway I can. If you want to stay in or guest room, or if you need help at the mansion I will help. If I overstep my boundaries, or if you want me to back off…just say the word."

He studied her carefully in an expression she was used to Scorpius giving her. "Alright."

Rose turned to go back to Scorpius when he caught her arm to stop her. She was surprised and gave him a second to explain, but when she saw him having trouble getting the words out she frowned.

"What is it?"

"Rose…" He looked pained for a minute, but then let out a little sigh, his eyes locking with hers, "Thank you."

Her heart lifted and a small smile grew on her face. "You're welcome."

As she walked back into the kitchen, tears began to form in her eyes as her chest tightened. For the first time in a long time, she cried to herself, not because she was sad, but because she was genuinely touched by the simple gesture of Draco appreciating her. Mindlessly she began to clean her dishes the muggle way.

"Draco," She called after she finished the dishes, "What do you want to eat? I'm making pancakes!"

"I'm f-"

"If you say you are fine, I will force feed you." She threatened, only allowing herself to be so bold with the distance of the rooms between them.

"Can you cook?" He shot back with a tone of skepticism.

She peeked her head into the living room to glare at him. "Yes."

"Fine, then I will eat whatever you make."

"Good," She snapped back, heading into the kitchen and getting out the supplies necessary.