Sorry everyone! I realise it's been a ridiculously long time since the last chapter. I made this one longer to make up for me being so rubbish at updating :). Hope you all enjoy it, and don't forget to let me know what you think of it :). Back to older Rosie and Scorpius now...
- Peaches, xx
So, after many countless hours thinking everything over, a few discussions with mum, several letters to and from Kerry and Jess (in which one of them Kerry suggested I should just "sleep with him and get it over with – then you'll know if there's chemistry there") and unhelpful comments from Hugo… I still have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do.
I let out a long sigh, and Lily Potter glances over.
"Just stop thinking about everything that's going on in your head and just have fun today, alright?" she says.
"I'm trying but it's a bit bloody hard when you've got amnesia and you're still trying to work your life out," I reply.
Slowly, we're trudging up the hill with the rest of the Quidditch fans heading towards the stadium. Already the crowd in the stadium can be heard singing and chanting for their favourite team, even though the match isn't due to start for another half an hour. The wind is blowing bitterly against us, and secretly I'm wishing that I had bought a Puddlemere United scarf off the old man near the entrance of the narrow path that leads to the stadium.
Although obviously I'd never admit that to anyone. Instead I do up the top button of my coat and stuff my hands even further into my pockets. Lily unexpectedly links her arm through mine and I'm grateful for the extra warmth.
Lily guides me towards one of the queues into the stadium. She unlinks her arm and rubs her hands together. I take a quick glance around.
"He'll be here," Lily says.
"What? Who?" I reply quickly, turning back to face her and trying my best not to look guilty.
"Scorp," she says, knowingly, "he hardly ever misses a match."
"I wasn't-" I begin, but she gives me a look that tells me any sort of argument would be pointless and futile. I purse my lips together. "Anyway, how long do these matches of Al's usually last for?"
"Well, it depends on who they're playing," Lily replies, zipping her coat up as far as it will go. "Usually, if the match is going on for longer than four hours then I leave".
My wide eyes and expression clearly show my horror at having to stand in the cold and wind for that amount of time. She laughs and just shakes her head.
"We can leave whenever you want to," she adds, "although we're staying for at least an hour."
"Then it's not leaving when I want to, is it?" I mutter.
"Oh, shut up," she replies, laughing, pushing me gently on the back as the queue in front of us moves forward several paces.
The crowd have started singing a new song now. I can tell this from the change of tune, however I have absolutely no idea what any of the lyrics are. The words are just muddling all together, as people sing (if you can actually call it singing) at slightly different speeds.
There are so many people walking around, trying to get themselves into the correct queue that there's no point in even attempting to look out for Scorpius. Not that I am looking out for him, obviously.
Eventually we reach the front of the queue and Lily reveals two tickets she was keeping in her pocket and shows them to the man stood at the entrance. He gives us both a smile, and nods us through, pointing towards the stairs on the left. I follow Lily, as I have absolutely no idea where we're heading. She seems to know the way and keeps climbing up several sets of stairs, walks down the corridor for a bit, and then climbs another set.
At the top, I let out a long breath.
"Is it much further? The game will have finished by the time we get there at this rate," I say, trying to calm my heaving chest.
"We're just through here," she says.
Lily is standing in front of a door, with a portrait of a man painted onto it. She shows him the tickets, and after reading them, he leans back in his plush armchair and gives us both a grin.
"Welcome Miss Potter and Mrs Weasley," he says, as the door swings open, "Enjoy the game".
I walk inside and my mind is blown away. We have our own little room with comfy armchairs and sofas, and a large balcony with seats on that looks out over the pitch. I follow Lily across the room and over to the balcony and step outside. Not that I have been to many Quidditch matches, but I'd say we have the best view.
Looking around the crowd, I can see people wearing t-shirts and scarfs, which support their team. There's large banners with player's names on – and it somewhat surprises me to see one that flashes with "MARRY ME ALBUS!" with a big, red heart next to it, which keeps exploding little paper hearts every now and then.
"Are you sure we have the right seats?" I ask, still not quite believing it.
"Having a family member as a team player has its advantages, you know," Lily replies, grinning.
She heads back inside and closes the door over slightly, to keep out the cold and wind whilst we wait for the game to start. We both pour ourselves a drink and settle down on one of the sofas.
Suddenly, I hear the door clicking open. My heart stops, and my breath catches in my chest. I can feel a deep red colour rising up my neck and onto my cheeks. I try to act natural and take a sip of my drink, but I notice my hand is shaking slightly.
Damn it. Why does he have to have this effect on me?
I force myself to turn around and look over my shoulder casually, as if I'm not particularly bothered who's just come in. I prepare myself to say "Oh, hi Scorpius," as blasé as I can manage.
But I jerk as if the quaffle just flew in through the door and smacked me on the head. It's not Scorpius. A short man with a rounded belly and a beard enters, along with what I assume is the rest of his family. They all give us a little wave and say 'hi' to us.
A woman, who I figure is his wife, scurries over to me and places her hand on my shoulder. I look at her, completely baffled as to who the hell she is. She looks at me, with a concerned and friendly expression on her face.
"Rose, how are you feeling? We heard about your accident. We were devastated," she says.
"I'm good now thanks," I reply, nodding. I know she doesn't know anything about me losing my memory. Merlin, this is awkward. I have no idea what to say to her at all.
"That's excellent news," she replies, pulling me into a brief, tight hug.
I smile, although I'm feeling quite uncomfortable about it all.
"How are you?" I ask, when she pulls away.
"Oh fine, fine," she says, smoothing down her short brown hair.
"Tabitha," the short man calls to his wife, gesturing for her to go over to where he is stood, in the corner of the room by the drinks, "Oh hello Rose, how are you? After your accident?" he says, just noticing me.
I open my mouth to answer, but I'm cut off.
"Well that's exactly what I was just finding out Charles," she replies, huffily.
When she's out of ear shot and back with her family, I let out a sigh of relief.
Lily lets out a giggle, "probably should have warned you about them," she says. "They're the Mulgrews. Their son is also on the team too. Beater," she says quietly so they can't hear us.
I nod. "Are there others too?"
"Do you mean other players' families?" she asks, "yeah, I'll tell you who they are as they enter. You'll be fine, honestly. Once the game starts up, as long as you're stood out on the balcony, not many people will start a conversation with you."
"Right," I say. Merlin this losing your memory thing is hard – especially when no one actually knows you have it.
After the Morgan's, Campbell's and Lang's have all arrived, the game eventually starts (after a slightly uneasy conversation with Clarissa Campbell, who wanted to discuss what exactly happened with Randall after she left the party early). I stumbled through the conversation and eventually Lily saved me by calling me over to the balcony.
"Do we all have parties together?" I ask, gesturing to everyone in the room.
"Yeah, occasionally. If the team has had a really good win or something. Why?"
"Clarissa Campbell was asking about it that's all. And, she mentioned some guy called Randall?" I say, furrowing my forehead.
Lily bursts out laughing, and can't talk for at least a few minutes without falling back into another set of giggles.
"Oh, Rosie, you really don't want to know," she says, "be thankful for the amnesia in this case."
"No, you have to tell me," I say, feeling like a teenager who the last to find out the latest piece of hot gossip that's making its way around the school.
Lily shakes her head, "let's just say Scorpius can be quite the jealous type at times and poor Randall won't be doing anything like it again – unless of course he wants to stay another night in St. Mungo's."
"Lily! You have to-" but I'm drowned out as the crowd starts cheering madly. A Puddlemere player has just scored, and I realise there's no point trying to have a conversation now.
The Quidditch match soon gets going. Twenty minutes have gone by and already the score is 50-30 to Puddlemere United and a player from the other team has been punished for committing a foul. Scorpius is still not here. Not that's I've been looking out for him or anything.
A flash of blonde hair from the room catches my eye, and has me holding my breath. I franticly move my head left and right, so I can get a clear view of who it is. The person stood behind me, who's blocking my view gives me a weird expression, but moves to get a better look at the match. I realise that the blond hair is not him; it's just Clarissa going to get another drink.
I frown and curse myself for being stupid. It's not like I can actually remember being in a relationship with him, is it? So Merlin knows why I'm acting like some loved-up teenager. Honestly, it's pathetic. I'm quite glad Lily hasn't noticed how much I'm turning around and searching the room. She's too enthralled in the game to notice anything else.
I should just be concentrating on the game anyway. That's what I'm here for after all. I give a quick search of the pitch, trying to distinguish Al from the other players (which are all just basically blurs of colour). Lily suddenly grabs my arm and starts jumping up and down.
"Al's seen the snitch," she squeals, pointing to the far left of the pitch towards a blurred shape that's shooting towards the ground.
Bloody hell, he's going to crash straight into the ground. I can't watch. I hide my eyes with my hand. The crowd around me groans. I quickly uncover my eyes and instantly look to the ground, expecting to see Al sprawled there, limbs all sticking out at odd angles.
"What? What happened?" I ask Lily.
She sighs, "The other seeker got in his way so Al had to quickly turn left to avoid crashing into him. He's lost the snitch now."
Then it happens.
I feel a pair of warm hands gliding around my waist, and pulling me close, into a hug from behind.
I know it's him, straight away.
Those tingles and bolts of lightning start low, in my stomach. I can't help the grin that appears on my face. He leans down and kisses me on the cheek. The tingling sensation starts to slowly creep up my spine.
"Hello darling," he says, loud enough for the people close to us to hear. They give us a look which says 'look how cute and loved up they are'. If only they knew the truth. I turn around and look up at him, giving him a smile.
"Do you want to get a drink?" he asks.
I nod, and then turn to let Lily know, but I realise there's no point. She's busy jumping up and down and screaming "GET THE QUAFFLE, CAMPBALL YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER IDIOT!", much to the dismay of Clarissa, who's just walked back out onto the balcony.
Scorpius takes my hand and leads me back inside the room. No one else is in here. He closes the door behind us, blocking out the sounds from the screaming crowds, and makes his way over to the drinks.
"Sorry, about that," he says, hastily, looking concerned.
For a moment I have no idea what he's apologising for, before realising it must be for the way he greeted me.
"Oh, it's fine," I say, smiling. This makes him happy, but then I add "I remembered we had to pretend my memory was still intact", and he looks a bit wounded. Merlin, I can be so stupid sometimes.
I want to tell him that even if we weren't pretending I wouldn't have minded; that it felt completely natural and just, well… right. But somehow I just can't find the words. I clear my throat instead. He hands me a drink, and then pours one for himself.
"So," I begin, after a few moments of silence, "how was work?"
He smiles. "Nice to hear you playing the wife duty, but there's no need. No one can hear us in here," he says, gesturing to the balcony.
"Oh, I know. I was just wondering," I say, "genuinely."
His mouth pulls into a smile at his. He takes a seat on one of the chairs by the table. I follow his lead and sit on the chair beside him.
"Well, darling," he begins, looking at me intensely with those lovely grey eyes of his, sending shivers through my whole body, "work was fine. I had a meeting this afternoon which is why I'm so late. How have you been?"
"Oh, you know, alright. Hugo's being an absolute pain but there's nothing new there," remembering with frustration the loud bang that came from his room, which woke me up at 6am this morning.
"I've missed you," he says suddenly.
I give him a small smile. "I've missed you too," I say quietly, and to my surprise, it's the complete truth. I have missed him.
"Listen, Rosie-," he begins, in a tone of voice which tells me he's going to say something which he knows I'm not going to like.
"Scorp!" says Lily, opening the door of the balcony and letting in a blast of sound before she closes it again. "I didn't realise you were here."
She walks over to the table, and to my surprise, Scorpius stands up and greets her by kissing her on the cheek. She shakes her head, and pulls him into a hug instead. Like he's a family member she hasn't seen in ages… well, I suppose that's exactly what he is.
"I haven't seen you in so long, how are you?" she asks, grinning.
He nods, "good, you?"
Lily looks from him, to me and back to him again. "Oh Merlin, I've just interrupted something haven't I?"
"No, it's fine," says Scorpius. Is that relief on his face? Relief that he doesn't have to tell me whatever it is for a few more minutes.
"I'll go back and watch the game, I don't want to miss anything anyway," Lily says quickly, starting to head back towards the door.
Another blast of noise; the door has been opened again. This time, most of the people are coming back inside, chatting and laughing with each other.
"Half time," says Lily, more to me than anyone else.
I nod. Silently wishing everyone would just get back out onto the bloody balcony and just stay there until Scorpius has told me whatever he needs to. I hide my annoyance and force myself to smile sweetly.
Lily starts talking to a young woman who introduced herself to me before, but I've completely forgotten what her name is. I turn to Scorpius, and lean close to him.
"What were you going to say?" I ask, quietly.
He shakes his head, "Doesn't matter now," he replies. "We need to discuss it properly and we can't really do that here. It can wait until the match has finished."
No it can't. There is no way I am waiting until the match is over. Who knows how long it's going to go on for? I need to know, now.
"Actually, I was just thinking about leaving anyway." I say.
"Oh," he replies, looking saddened.
"We could leave together. I know you've only just got here, but-"
"Lily, we're going," he says, cutting me off.
It takes an unbelievable amount of time to say our goodbyes to everyone, and make promises of how we should all get together soon so we can all have a proper catch up. I swear it takes about forty minutes, but after checking my watch as we exit the room, I realise it's only been just over five. I need to calm down.
Excruciatingly, Scorpius is silent as we both make our way down all the flights of stairs. He takes hold of my hand as soon as we have left the stadium. The man on the door, who checked our tickets earlier, says 'bye' to us, and Scorpius gives him a small nod.
Oh Merlin. What, in the name of all things magical, is so bad? Why can't he just tell me now? Is it something I've done, that's made him really angry? He can't really blame me though; I can't remember what I've done and what I haven't done. So it's not really my fault.
Or, maybe it's something he's done. Maybe, he's found someone else. I feel a lump in my throat and I try to blink the tears away that are quickly forming. Not that I would blame him of course. I haven't exactly been a wife to him, have I? It's not surprising that he would get bored of waiting around for me to remember and for everything to go back to normal. It's not as if me remembering is a certainty anyway.
My mind is racing so much that I haven't even realised Scorpius has led me into a shop on the corner of the street, at the bottom of the hill. I'm not quite sure why we're in here. But then I see the fireplace at the back of the shop. He walks over to it silently, pulling me along with him.
This is just awful.
"Ivy Cottage," he says, as he's standing in the flames. I didn't even see where he got the Floo powder from; I was too distracted by my own thoughts.
I notice a small, red pot on the floor beside the fireplace. I take a handful of powder from it, and follow Scorpius to the cottage, feeling slightly terrified as to what he's going to tell me.
I fall out of the fireplace ungraciously. Scorpius is pacing the living room floor. My eyes follow him. I can't take it anymore.
"Scorpius, what's going on? If it's someone else, then just let me know. Now," I snap, hands on my waist. I'm aware of how heavily I'm breathing.
He looks at me, confused. "Of course there's not someone else, bloody hell Rosie," he replies.
I feel instant relief. I feel myself calming down slightly. I sit down on the squashy sofa. Scorpius looks over, and then comes and sits beside me.
"How could you think that?" he asks.
I shrug, and start to mess with a thread that's hanging off the corner of a cushion.
He raises his hand and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. Then he lets out a long sigh.
"Okay," he begins, "my parents want us to attend a small party they're having at their house."
I narrow my eyes, searching through the sentence to try and work out the part of it that's so bad that he was worried about telling me. Are his parents that bad?
"And?" I say, encouraging him to continue.
"And," he winces, "we'll probably be staying over, for the night."
"Right," I say slowly. I still don't understand.
"And, they don't know you've lost your memory," he says quickly.
"What?" I ask, jumping up from the sofa.
He stands too, "They don't know you've lost your memory," he repeats, "Rosie-".
"They're your parents! It's one thing to not tell all those people back there at the Quidditch match that I've lost my memory, but your parents? Merlin, Scorpius. Are you ashamed or something?" I ask.
"No, of course not," he says, grabbing hold of my hands, "I just – I don't know – I couldn't bring myself to tell them what had happened. I didn't want to admit it was true I guess," he says, "I'm sorry Rosie, it was just hard and-"
"So, you want me to go to this party and lie to your parents, who I have never met?" I ask.
"You've met them before," he says, quickly.
"You know what I mean," I snap. "Scorpius, do you not think they're going to work out that something is going on?"
"I'm sorry, okay?" he retorts, "I just couldn't tell them what had happened. Then, afterwards I couldn't go back on it, could I? 'Oh, by the way, did I forget to mention my wife has completely forgotten our entire relationship'. I understand it was stupid, and I shouldn't have done it but it's too late now."
"So, we've got to go to this party at your parent's house and pretend like everything is fine?" I ask, angrily, "Do you not realise how awkward and difficult that's going to be for me?"
"Yes," he replies, mirroring my anger and frustration, as if he's been holding in this worry for some time and now it's all coming out.
There's silence for a moment. He's ran his hand through his hair several times, causing it to look dishevelled and messed up. Those grey eyes are glaring at me, with a sneer on his face that instantly takes me back to Hogwarts.
Suddenly we're rushing towards each other. His hands grab for my waist and pull it close. I run my hands through his hair. Our lips crash together in a passionate and mind-blowing kiss. I feel my legs buckling underneath me. He holds me up. His hands are running up and down my body, causing sparks of electricity to jolt through me, wherever his fingers trace.
I can't help it. I want him. I need him. Now. I can't think of anything or anyone else, but him and this moment. I bite his bottom lip playfully, and he lets out a small groan, causing me to push my body even closer to his.
We pull our lips apart at the same time, and look intensely into each other's eyes. His forehead is resting on mine. His breathing is rapid, like mine. He swallows, hard. He looks like he's trying his best not to rip my clothes off there and then. A small part of me wishes he would.
"We shouldn't have done that," he says.
I nod, "I know."
"I'm sorry," he says. "I just-" he looks lost for words. "I couldn't help myself," he says, smirking.
"Must be this new blouse I have on," I reply.
"Must be," he says. "Under normal circumstances I'd suggest something about you taking it off. Right now."
I give him a kiss on his cheek. I feel his slightly stubble scratching against my lips.
"I should go," I say, pulling away from him.
"Will you come to the party?" he asks, "I could always make up some excuse so we don't have to."
I think about it, and then shake my head.
"No, we'll have to do it eventually won't we? And we can't exactly wait until my memory comes back as we've no idea when that will be. When is it?" I ask.
He looks relieved, "its tomorrow night," he says, looking slightly guilty that he didn't tell me sooner.
After arranging to arrive at Ivy Cottage tomorrow afternoon to get ready for the party, I leave - wondering exactly how bad tomorrow night is going to go.
Thanks for reading :) xx