Chapter 12

A/N: For those of you who reviewed with a question (I always answer the reviews with questions), I'm sorry if I haven't answered them yet. I have read them, and they made me so happy, but I couldn't find time to answer them. Anyway, soon!

Thanks to thestarlitrose and irianaceleste for betaing and to everyone who reviewed!

Aaaaaaand! *drum roll* (one of you guys is going to have to supply the drum roll. While I was a band kid in high school, my rhythm kind of sucks, and I certainly wasn't on drums.) The final chapter! Only the epilogue left to go...

~Frosty

Accurately reading her silence and shocked expression, Scorpius elaborated, "Rose... You predicted this – you can't claim you didn't."

He let out a quiet grunt of irritation when her chin jutted out stubbornly. If she thought she was going to be able to convince him otherwise she was both stubborn and delusional. Scorpius wasn't much of a believer in Divination either, but he wasn't so blind that he couldn't recognise how disturbingly accurate her dream must have been.

"The other night when you burst into my dormitory, you kept pressing your hands to my abdomen." Lifting the corner of his shirt to reveal the white gauze resting underneath, he pointed to the padding. "This is the exact spot where you kept putting your hands; don't think I didn't put two and two together when I woke up in the hospital wing."

He knew because when she'd been continuously pressing her hot little hands against him it had felt like they had branded a permanent mark into his skin that he could feel even now. It had been torture to have her hovering over him and smoothing her fingers across his skin while in his bed and not be able to touch her like he wanted. She had been distressed; it would have been wrong.

Plus she had a bloody boyfriend.

Even if she'd somehow changed her view of him and wanted him to touch her the way he longed to, she would have felt horrible about it afterward because she had Lysander, someone who trusted her to stay faithful.

Rose blushed at the memory of her behaviour from the previous night. He'd probably thought she was some kind of nutter, bursting into his room at a ridiculous hour and molesting him before bursting into tears and crying all over him. Scorpius was a true gentleman for not complaining even once about the tears she'd probably gotten all over him.

"I told you before; I had a dream that you were hurt, it wasn't a vision," she mumbled. It was hard to lie when she no longer believed the lies herself. At this point, it was a kneejerk reaction to deny that she had seen the future. Besides, if her dream had been accurate, that would mean her other glimpse into the future was probably true as well, and that was impossible.

All of her logical thinking and carefully constructed walls were having trouble stifling that little spark of hope that was growing in her chest. It didn't help that there was something eerily familiar about the position they were in, something that was poking around in the back of her mind, trying to make itself known.

"It wasn't just a dream." His voice was completely firm, showing his conviction. Scorpius knew he was right and he didn't understand why Rose kept denying it. "It happened exactly the way you saw, didn't it?"

She looked away, not wanting to answer. Her eyes caught sight of that red stain in the snow and darted back to her friend. There was really no point in lying to him.

Just as she was about to answer in the affirmative, Scorpius tired of her silence and spoke again.

"Don't try and deny it. Everything you've ever predicted while reading my blasted tea leaves has been right. You're a seer and yet you're too blinded by your disbelief to see that you are."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to remember everything she'd read in his tea leaves. So much of it had just been whatever complete nonsense she'd been able to piece together with the assistance of their ridiculous textbook.

Abruptly, her confusion slipped into a grin. "I knew you were a hopeless narcissist with some sort of obsession with yourself!"

Scorpius was not in the mood for jokes. He was having trouble believing that she didn't know exactly what he was talking about. She was going to force him to actually say the words as some sort of revenge for worrying her with his injury, he just knew it. It didn't seem like something she would do, but his mind wasn't exactly in a logical place in his emotion-driven state.

When she continued to just smile at him, her eyes dancing with amusement and anticipation of his answer, something in him snapped. He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her a little. "It's you!" he yelled. "That first reading that you did before the narcissism accusation, the one that said I'm harbouring feelings for someone close to me. It's true and it's you."

Staring up at him with large, startled eyes, she opened her mouth to speak.

Scorpius ignored what was sure to be a protest of some sort and continued right over her. "'You've been poisoned and it's eating you up on the inside. The only cure for this poison is sharing it so it can become something good.' Do you remember saying that?"

Her brows furrowed again as she tried to grasp what he'd said. She vaguely recalled saying something along those lines, but how was it relevant? Hell, she hadn't even heeded her words when she's been saying them; they were just a bunch of nonsense. Yet Scorpius seemed to have been taking those words to heart all along.

Maybe there was more to them than she'd initially thought?

When she realized that Scorpius was waiting for her answer, she weakly nodded. Yes, she remembered saying those things in that clouded way one remembers words they had disregarded as joking nonsense even as they were leaving the lips.

"You were right. I am being poisoned from the inside. I've loved you for years and it's killing me that you only see me as a friend." Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair.

She blinked her large blue eyes. Okay, that hadn't been what she'd been expecting to hear. She was sure that he'd never looked at her so intensely, yet the expression itself was familiar. Rose looked around the snowy Quidditch pitch, feeling a strange sense of déjà-vu. The entire scene was strangely familiar to her.

"Bloody hell, I'm a seer," she whispered, the dawning realization in her voice.

Scorpius felt a pang of hurt that she was ignoring his heartfelt – if a little frustrated - confession, but he understood that she had a lot to sort out in her mind. He gave her a sharp nod of acknowledgement, willing to allow her a moment to gather her thoughts before he let the hurt sink in. Once she had her feet under her once again, they'd deal with his confession.

"I've seen this before," she continued, voice still barely a thread of sound. Her eyes took in everything around her, catching on the place she remembered standing and watching the very scene in which she'd now become a participant.

A small smile edged its way onto her lips. The fact that he'd admitted to having feelings for her hadn't escaped her notice, it had just been briefly sidelined while she got over the shock of the recent revelation that she was in fact a seer. The jury was still out on whether she was insane; it could go either way with her.

He tried to hide it, but now that she was calm again, Rose could see the hurt in Scorpius' eyes. She hadn't meant to hurt him; he didn't deserve that right after laying himself bare as he had - particularly when she was actually thrilled by the revelation.

Recognising where in the vision they were, her tiny smile widened slightly.

"I know what happens next; this is the part where you kiss me," she said, her lips tilted into a small but joyous smile.

He only had time to widen his eyes in surprise before she was flinging her arms around his neck and pressing her lips against his.

Like the other times she'd kissed him, Rose was immediately lost in a whole other world that centered solely on his touch. Even through all their layers of clothing they were both wearing, he still managed to set her never endings on fire. Her blood was suddenly alight with sparks of pleasure and happiness.

She was insane for not discovering her love of kissing him sooner. They could have been together years ago if only they both hadn't been so blind.

Ignoring his injury, Scorpius pulled her against him, not allowing even a single millimetre of space between them. He could never have her too close, and if she was willing to allow the contact then he was going to take full advantage of that.

For a brief, wonderful time, his world was comprised entirely of Rose. Her scent, her touch, her lips were everything. The same was true for Rose.

It was Scorpius who regained his senses first. He pulled away from her and put some space between them so he could see her face once more. Her cheeks were flushed and her blue eyes were darkened and sparkling. Never had she been more desirable than in that moment.

"We can't do this," he said sadly, tenderly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She pressed her cheek against his fingertips as he let them linger there. "Why not?"

His struggle to break the contact was clouding his eyes, but he couldn't seem to completely sever the connection between them. She was glad.

"You have Lysander and–"

"He dumped me this morning," Rose interrupted, smiling a little. Lysander really was so full of kindness. She hadn't deserved him, but she knew he was going to make some sweet girl very happy one day. That girl just couldn't be her; some other bloke had already stolen her heart.

Scorpius blinked. "Well, there's still the problem-" he broke off with a large sneeze that left him clutching his stomach as pain ripped through it.

"We can finish this conversation inside. You need rest," Rose said, grabbing his hand and tugging him back towards the castle. She was just now noticing how cold his fingertips were and how thin his shirt was. Merlin, she hadn't even noticed he was without a coat. He must be freezing.

She had to slow her pace when she noticed that Scorpius was lagging behind. With his long legs, he was usually the one leading the way with her trotting to catch him.

In the process of throwing a teasing comment about him being the slow one for once, Rose caught sight of his hand pressed tightly across his wound and the sudden pallor of his face. She swore as she caught a glimpse of red on his shirt underneath when he shifted slightly.

"You need to go back to the Hospital Wing," she said sternly. He never should have left in the first place, but she had a feeling he'd known that when he snuck out. It was touching that he'd disregarded his health and come to find her, but it was also stupid.

"No. Not the Hospital Wing. Take me back to the Head Dorms and let me sleep on the sofa or something, but don't take me back to that Medical Nazi." He turned his gaze on her in full force, pleading with his expressive, silvery eyes.

Rose sighed; she was such a softy when it came to him. Unfortunately, he knew this and exploited it mercilessly.

"Fine," she grumbled. It would serve him right if he was permanently scarred for refusing proper medical attention.

They got some strange looks walking through the halls with Rose dripping snow and Scorpius obviously injured, but the pair ignored the gaping idiots. Being the children of such well-known parents made them used to ignoring people who were watching them. Sparing attention to everyone who followed them and judged with their eyes would have driven them insane back in first year. Everyone had an opinion or lingering grudge from the war, and many people weren't above passing those grudges onto their children. It would take the world a while to recover from the horrors of the war.

When they entered the Head's common room, Albus wasn't there, which was actually a relief to Rose. She didn't feel like facing her cousin while spending time with Scorpius. Albus would probably be shooting knowing looks at Rose's hand, entwined so firmly with Scorpius'. It felt nice and she didn't have any intentions of letting go unless he wanted to – which he didn't seem inclined to do.

Scorpius made for the sofa, but Rose stopped him. "You need sleep, and you'll be more comfortable in a bed," she said, not able to quite meet his eyes as she led him into her room. Her cheeks were warm, but she tried not to think about it, else she'd only blush darker. It was part of the annoying curse of being a redhead.

There was a slight awkward pause as they stood inside the room. Neither of them was quite sure where the boundaries lay anymore; the lines between them had drastically shifted.

Rose broke the awkwardness with all the grace of a wrecking ball.

"Take off your shirt," she ordered.

He raised an eyebrow, looking amused. "You don't waste time."

"Just do it," she snapped, not in the mood to joke while he was standing there bleeding. Her curtness was partially to do with her discomfort and partially irritation over his refusal to obey the Healer's orders.

Still looking amused, he pulled his shirt over his head, trying to hide a wince of pain as he lifted his arms.

Rose wasn't fooled.

She stared at where his injury was bleeding through the gauze. What kind of idiot would just leave the hospital so soon after receiving such a life-threatening injury? She did her best to make her gaze reflect those sentiments. It didn't seem to be effective, because he just kept smirking at her.

"Lay down," she said.

When he obeyed, Rose carefully removed the pad of gauze. There was a large, purple scar where the wood had pierced him. It would take a few days for the scar to fade back into his normal smooth skin. Luckily, the blood was only coming from a tiny spot right in the middle of his injury, where it had had the least time to heal. She knew a spell that would help with the pain and stop the bleeding, but it would hurt like hell first.

"Tell me what problem we still have." She was trying to distract him, and he could probably see right through her. Continuing their earlier conversation seemed like the best option.

Regardless of knowing her motivations, he answered. "You still look at me like a friend, nothing more.

Rose huffed in irritation. Did friends really kiss like she'd kissed him? If they did, she'd been doing the friendship thing wrong for years.

"Remember when I showed up at your house without a wand?" she asked.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small bottle that his father had handed to him. "You used a Heart's Desire potion? I assumed your heart's desire was to be friends again."

Rose cast the healing spell.

His back arched and tendons bulged from the pain, but he didn't utter a sound.

Hating causing him pain but not knowing another way if he insisted that he didn't want to go to the Hospital Wing, Rose tried not to look into his eyes. She didn't want to see any accusation there. Instead, she focused on the little tear in the centre of his scar. In a matter of seconds, it healed, leaving him with a smooth expanse of skin. The scar was still present, but it wasn't bleeding anymore.

When he relaxed again, Rose climbed into the bed, leaning over him. Her long hair flowed over her shoulder and brushed against his neck. She had a knee on either side of his hips so she could see his face. His eyes were tightly shut, looking like he was still hurting, even though he shouldn't be suffering from any residual pain. The spell she'd used involved an initial burst of pain and then a numbing sensation.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," she repeatedly whispered under her breath as she lay one hand over the scar and used her other to stroke his cheek.

When he still didn't open his eyes, she grew concerned. "Scorpius?"

"Just finish your explanation," he gritted out. She could feel that his teeth were clenched from where her fingertips were repeatedly running over his jaw.

Rose tilted her head to the side; maybe the numbing took a moment to come into effect?

"I had this vision of us together – well, of us on the Quidditch pitch a few minutes ago. It made me look at you differently. When I saw the vision, I realized something; I wanted you to look at me like that, to touch me like that. I thought of you as more than a friend even then. It took me a bit to sort out that I love you; I think I have for longer than even I realized."

Suddenly she was looking into the grey depths she knew so well. "You mean it?"

Her nod was only half finished when he grabbed her. Unprepared, Rose fell against him with an undignified 'oof'.

She immediately tried to struggle off of him, worried that she'd injured him further, but he wouldn't let her budge. His arms were tight bands of muscle and bone, holding her exactly where she wanted to be; against him. Still, he was being careless and stupid with his injury after so recently suffering for his last bout of idiocy.

When she looked up to scold him for being reckless again, he stopped her with a kiss. This time it was slow and gentle, filled with promises for the future.

It was lucky that she was lying down and he was holding her so tightly; had she been standing, her knees would have been liquefied. It would have been embarrassing to melt into a goopy puddle from one kiss. Even worse, Scorpius would have taken the action as a compliment, a boost to his already large ego.

"We're both idiots," he said. "We could have been together so long ago if we hadn't insisted on ignoring what was right under our noses." He kissed the tip of her nose to accentuate his point. "I can't believe Father showed me that Heart's Desire potion and I still didn't get it."

"He said he wouldn't tell you," Rose said. There were no feelings of resentment towards Mr. Malfoy, but he'd given his word and then broken it.

Tracing her fingers over the hard planes of his chest and continuing down until she was playing with the top of his pants, she marvelled at how she could touch him now. No more pointless longing while having to keep her hands to herself. Really, there were no hard feelings towards Mr. Malfoy; he'd only tried to get them to this point sooner.

Scorpius shrugged, shivering slightly at her attentions. "He was a Slytherin, he tells the truth when it suits his goals and lies his arse off the rest of the time. Getting us together was apparently one of his goals."

Trying to shift her weight off of the place he'd been injured, Rose accidentally brushed against the hardness between his legs. Scorpius breathed out a quick breath of air and rolled his hips involuntarily.

Wide-eyed, she looked up into his darkened silver orbs. "Sorry," she whispered, worried she'd hurt him.

Scorpius barked a laugh before kissing her again, telling her how sorry she didn't have to be.

When she felt his hands creeping up the back of her shirt and toying with the clasp to her bra, Rose turned her head to the side, breaking her lips away so she could speak. "Scorpius, as much as I'd like to do this, you're hurt."

"I'm fine," he insisted, but Rose knew he was lying. Once the numbing effect of her spell wore off, he would be in pain. Almost as much pain as he'd been in prior to the healing spell she'd cast.

"You're not. This isn't happening tonight. I'll get off of you if you want," she offered, not wanting to move but knowing it would probably be easier for him if she gave him some space to calm down.

His arms tightened. "No, don't leave."

Rose stayed, unable to go against both what she wanted and what he wanted. She justified the selfish action by telling herself that he was still too cold from his time outside; he could use the extra heat. Grabbing her wand, she dried her butt, which was still wet from the snow, and covered them both with her blankets.

She must have drifted off, because next thing she knew, it was dark outside the window and there was a loud thumping on her door. Why could no one just leave her alone and let her sleep?

"Rose, Scorpius is missing! Do you have any idea where he could be? He just disappeared from the Hospital Wing," Albus called through the door. He didn't wait for an answer, bursting into the room uninvited.

"What aren't you out there searching for him?" her cousin demanded. He was fumbling for his wand, unable to see anything in the dark room.

"Quiet!" Rose hissed. She was still on top of Scorpius and didn't want to talk too loud. The blond was asleep and desperately needed his rest after the day he'd had.

Never was she going to forget a locking charm again. This time she was going to remember the promise to herself.

Albus finally managed to light his wand. When he saw Rose's reason for her order of quiet, he started laughing, still not bothering to keep his voice down. "Took you long enough! Lily and I were beginning to worry we were going to have to dose the two of you with a strong lust potion."

Backing out of the room at Rose's death glare, Albus tried to muffle his laughter. "I'll go tell the rest of the castle he's... uh, well taken care of."

With a sigh, she thumped her head down onto Scorpius' shoulder. "I'm going to strangle him," she muttered under her breath.

"Don't be too hard on him, love. He's had to deal with us dancing around each other for years," Scorpius mumbled, burying his nose in her hair. He didn't sound like he was fully awake.

Woken by the noise and the brush of her words across his skin, he hugged her close, happy his memories of the previous night weren't a dream.

"Did we wake you up?" she asked. Scorpius needed time to sleep if he was going to heal properly.

"There's no better way to wake up than in bed with you."

Rose smiled as he placed a kiss in the dip under her ear. She rather liked waking up with him as well. But if he thought a few hours of sleep had healed him enough for any strenuous activity, he was in for some disappointment.