Um... how can i say this? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Oh my god you guys are wonderful! Thank you to: XxUniquexX, Avanell, SiriusBlack345, Loslote, Maiqu, Pebbles827(I love your idea, I actually was planning on doing something similar to that in a few chapters from now, so stay tuned!), Molly, Silmarien189, , and MusicalMarvel (this was longest review I ever got, so thank you! So much great information!). You guys are all so wonderful, you have no idea how thrilled your reviews made me, so HUGE thank you.

Incase anyone was wondering, the chapter after this one will be the Hufflepuff vs. Gryffindor game. I know it's been mentioned a fair amount recently and I'm excited to write it!

Enjoy :)

Chapter 21

It was strange to Rose how life moved on even though Lily was in the hospital. She still got ready for classes and got back papers and ate lunch and went through her daily routine without fail. But it was ever constant on her mind that Lily wasn't there.

Even though her mind was a mess, there was something she knew she had to address that she was sincerely not looking forward to. But she was worried if she didn't discuss it soon that it could become more of an issue as it rested on someone's mind. After what happened with Lily the whole thing was momentarily put aside, but she felt it better not to put it off any longer.

She found Olivia in the common room on one of the rare moments that Albus was not with her. Although Albus wasn't with her, she was still sitting with other people and so Rose caught her eye and beckoned her over.

"Can we take a walk for a few minutes?" Rose asked her. Olivia looked around as if checking for Albus (he had been extremely protective of her after what happened with Lily), but nodded her head and walked out of the portrait hall with Rose. They began walking around the empty corridors.

"So, I'm guessing you wanted to talk to me about something." Olivia began because Rose had walked in silence thus far.

"Yeah, about that. I know you would have asked me about it if it hadn't been for what happened to Lily, so I thought I would just come out and tell you."

"About what George said?" Olivia helped her along in her explanation.

"Yeah, about what George said." Rose admitted.

"I knew it, there's a guy isn't there!" She beamed and looked over at Rose." You know, I noticed you seemed just a little too happy to be single on Valentine's Day. So, who is he? And why on earth is he a secret?" Olivia inquired happily as she sat down on one of the stone benches in the hall. Rose put a muffliato charm around them.

"There's a good reason he's a secret, I swear. And Olivia, you have to keep this a secret. From everyone but Albus and Lily, because they already know."

"Ok, I promise. Now tell me, who's the guy?"

Rose waited a second trying to figure out how to say it delicately. Should she tell her to brace herself because it was a Slytherin? Should she preface it with some kind of excuse? Should she tell Olivia to wait to judge her until after the full story has been told? These all seemed like wonderful options, but Rose blurted out, "It's Scorpious Malfoy." Rose covered her mouth with her hand instantly out of instincts alone. Rose couldn't read Olivia's facial expression.

"A Slytherin Rosie? After what just happened with Lily?" Rose admitted to herself, the timing for this confession was simply awful. But there was no way around it.

"No no, he's different. He's not like a normal Slytherin, I promise. He's caring, and compassionate, and all the things that we think Slytherins aren't. Please, just hear me out before you judge me." Well, at least that part of her earlier speech made it in there.

"I met Scorpious really for the first time on the train, expecting to hate him. But I didn't, he was actually a decent human being and from then on I wanted to know more about him. Really, he seemed to be different from how I had imagined him and I wanted to know why he was nothing like his father. It turns out he hated his family and their corrupt, old-fashioned way of looking at the world. He found their obsession with blood-purity ridiculous and felt isolated everywhere he went. At home his parents didn't understand him and at school he felt like there were few people in the Slytherin house that he could trust. It also meant that he was constantly compared to his father and he hated being compared to anyone in his family. So as I found out more about him I realized how misunderstood he was, how he never really fit in anywhere. We became friends, I told him my secrets and he told me his. I opened up to him in a different way than I have to anyone else. And then I dated Ben and you saw my meltdown at the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match. I lost it; I realized I loved Scorpious yet I was dating Ben. It was awful having that kind of knowledge and knowing that there isn't much you can do to change it. But I broke up with Ben and got together with Scorpious very soon after. But we both understood the only way it would work is if it was a secret."

"Wait, but you broke up with Ben a while ago. I mean, easily three months ago. You've been keeping this a secret for that long?" She asked.

"Yeah. I mean what could we do? Albus found out by accident and after the hickey incident we decided it was time to tell you too."

"Wow. Oh Rose, I'm so happy for you." Olivia said.

"You are?" Rose was astonished.

"I am. I don't really know him at all and from the way you describe him, he's a wonderful guy. And I'm so happy that you're happy, even if it means it's with a Slytherin. If you are both wiling to go through so much just to be together then it must mean you both really love each other."

Rose gave a huge sigh of relief, "You don't even care that he's a Slytherin?" Rose asked.

"I mean, I care but I don't like to judge people before getting to know them. It seems kind of unfair and I hate when people do that to me, so it has always been my goal not to."

"I wish my dad would see it your way. He's going to go mental when he finds out." She leaned back against the cool stone wall.

"When are you going to tell him?" Olivia asked.

"Probably when we get out of school. It will be hard to sneak around during the summer, and I couldn't go that long without seeing him."

"Wow. Remind me not to be around the Weasley family when that happens." Olivia said with a soft laugh. "Were you really so nervous to tell me?"

"Yeah, you and Al are probably the two people that will react the most calmly to this. And even he started screaming at me. It's a known fact that Weasley men hate Slytherins, especially anyone related to former death eaters. Can you imagine my father's face when I tell him? There's no way Scorpious could be there, he wouldn't make it out alive. My father specifically has told me to stay as far away from Slytherins as possible so that I don't get in to trouble. I don't think dating one was really what he had in mind."

"It's ok Rose, I'm sure it will be fine." Olivia tried to calm her down.

"But it won't be! There's no way he will let us ever see each other again after he knows and then what will happen? It comes down to a choice that I sincerely don't think I can make."

"Then what you need to do is gather enough people on your side before you tell him. Aunt, Uncles, friends, whomever you can get to agree with you. That can help you seem less crazy to your father." Olivia reassured her.

"Why do you always have to be right?" Rose asked with a laugh. "I mean really, you should have been in Ravenclaw, you're ten times wiser than I ever will be."

"I guess the sorting hat just saw everything in my past and thought I was more brave than I was wise. I love Gryffindor, I wouldn't trade houses for the world." Olivia finished her thought with a playful smile that told Rose not to ask questions about Olivia's past life. Rose knew there were some things about Olivia that only Albus knew, and she didn't want to force Olivia to tell them to her.

"Thanks for being such a good friend Olivia. I'm still shocked you took the news as well as you did."

"What can I say, I'm an understanding person. I haven't seen you this happy in a while, it's really hard to be angry at you." She stood up and extended a hand to Rose, "Come on. If we don't come back soon people will get worried. Namely Albus." The two girls chuckled and headed back in the direction of Gryffindor tower.

"Password?" The fat lady asked.

"Victorious." The two girls responded.

"Indeed," the fat lady replied as the portrait hall swung open.

"I know she set the password to get the students excited for the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff game, but Al nearly throws up at the thought of it and can barely bring himself to leave to common room because he knows he'll have to say the password when he returns."

"That's ridiculous." Rose said.

"So is quidditch. Albus is completely terrified. They did well in the last game, but he wants to win by a wide margin for this one so that if they lose the Slytherin game they still have a shot at the cup. He's losing so much sleep over that bloody quidditch match."

"Well then you should go find him and try to make him feel more relaxed." Rose said with a very un-Roselike wink. Olivia smiled nonetheless and went to go find him. Rose had to go meet with Scorpious soon for patrol anyway. So she walked up to their usual meeting place next to the portrait of the dragon with his trainer and waited. Granted she was a few minutes early so she simply started practicing one of the spells they had learned in charms while she was waiting. "Avis" she whispered and little yellow birds flew out of her wand and fluttered around her, their chirping filling the air. Rose smiled at how well her birds came to life, not a feather out of place. As they danced around her she noticed Scorpious, who was walked towards her.

"What's with the birds?" he asked, clearly amused at the way she was almost conducting them in a dance with her wand.

"Just practicing. Ready to go?" She asked as she got rid of the birds with a flourish of her wand.

"If you are I am." He said with a wide smile.

"Then lets go." The two of them walked down the hallways in silence for a moment, both avoiding the huge elephant in the room. Finally Scorpious spoke up.

"Rose, what's bothering you? You're never this quiet." He said as he wrapped his arm around her waist. They used to be more careful about how they acted during patrol, but they never ran into anyone so they started becoming more relaxed.

"It's just… I can't help but feel guilty for what happened to Lily. It's bothering me more and more and I know I shouldn't care, but I do."

"Rose," he said and pulled her in closer so that he could whisper to her, "listen to me. You can't blame yourself for what happened. None of that was your fault. Whether she had known about any danger or not is irrelevant; she would have done the exact same thing."

"I know. I know but I still feel awful."

"But it's really ok. She's leaving the hospital wing tomorrow, trust me I know. I went in there to ask Madame Pomfrey to fix my eyebrow color after someone dyed it wrong during charms and I saw her there. She kept 'suggesting' to Madame Pomfrey that she just go back to the common room and relax instead of being stuck in her hospital bed for another night. Honestly, even with visitors she still seems bored out of her mind. So she seems to be doing just fine."

Rose laughed at the thought of that, of course her cousin would be going mad in there. That's two days less of quidditch practice. What were they thinking?

"I know you're right Scorp, I just worry."

"Well then maybe this will help." Scorpious leaned in and gave her a sweet kiss that barely parted her lips.

"You are such a tease." She said laughing and leaned in again, kissing him now with a little more intent but still slowly and tenderly, not needing anything else but him. Rose could have stayed there happily for a very long time, but they heard footsteps echoing down the hall and quickly broke apart. The footsteps they heard belonged to none other than Professor Longbottom. He turned the corner and Rose waved.

"Professor Longbottom!" Rose said with a warm smile. "How are you?"

Her parents' old friend smiled and walked over to her. "I'm good. I was just out harvesting one of new dittany plants. I needed some to show tomorrow's class. What are you doing out at this hour with Scorpious?" Neville asked her, clearly unsure as to whether she was supposed to be punished or not.

"Oh, well we're just doing prefect duties. Tuesday is our night to patrol." Rose explained.

"Oh right." Neville said, clearly relieved that she was not out trying to find a place to snog Malfoy's son. An awkward silence filled the space between Rose and Neville, both of them not really sure where to take the conversation from there. "Well, I'll see you both in class! Er, goodnight." Professor Longbottom waved, clearly happy to be out of that strange situation. It was a known fact that Neville hated the Malfoy family and tried his best not to show it too often. As Neville turned the corner Scorpious whispered to Rose, "Well, he hates me."

"Oh, you don't know that." Rose said halfheartedly. It was true: Neville did hate Scorpious. Just the sight of him reminded Neville of Draco (although Rose thought that Scorpious was much, much more attractive) and so Professor Longbottom had never given him a chance.

"It's ok Rose, I know he does." He laughed and they began walked down the hall again. "Speaking of people who hate me, are you planning on writing a letter to Victoire and Teddy?" Scorpious asked her.

"I haven't given it much thought with what's been going on, but I think in the next week or so I'll write one." Rose didn't even bother denying that they hated him; it was too much of a blatant lie.

"Good, I'd really like to meet them, I've heard so much about them from you."

"I'm so glad. I think it will help a lot, getting some advice from them. I'm really excited about it actually. I mean, there will still be a lot of explaining to do but I think Victoire will be receptive."

"And Teddy?"

"The death eaters killed his father Scorp, he's not quite as forgiving around them. I just hope she can help him see past that. But I always was one of his favorite cousins, so maybe he'll be happy for me." Although she said the words, she didn't really believe it. Teddy was known for hating Slytherins with a passion of a thousand suns, Rose doubted it would be easy for him to make an exception. But still, she could hope.

"But enough of this serious talk! Come on," Rose grabbed his hand and walked him over to a broom cupboard. "I want to finish what we started. And this time, not get interrupted." She gave a coy smile a shut the door behind her, happy for a few stolen moments with her boyfriend.

Wanna review? Tell me what you want to see in the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff game, because I haven't started writing it yet :)