"So, let me get this straight," Alice said, "He asked you out, you quoted Shakespeare at each other, and you still didn't fucking kiss?"

"Well maybe I would have if someone hadn't pushed me in the fountain!"

It was about two hours before me and Scorpius' date, and I was freaking out, to put it nicely.

We had spent a night in Stratford-Upon-Avon, in which I bored Alice's ears off with how hysterical with excitement and happiness I was. I think she enjoyed it, secretly. Now, though, we had travelled to Oxford, the last stop on the road trip and the site of The Date, and I was feeling less enthusiastic.

"What if I just clam up and have nothing to say!"

"You won't – you and Scorp have been talking each other's ears off since you first met!"

"But I'm so awkward –"

"— And Scorp isn't? Merlin, Rose your entire relationship is based on awkwardness."

I crossed my arms. We were in our room in a tiny hotel in Oxford, with great views of one of the colleges of the university, and Al and Scorp had gone out to find a place for the date. My date.

"Come on, just pick what you're going to wear," Alice said, gesturing to the wardrobe.

I took a deep breath and began rifling through my clothes, soon realising that I hadn't really packed for a "going on a date with a Malfoy" eventuality. Luckily there was a blue dress which I had thrown in just in case we did do anything fancy, which was a personal favourite of mine and showed off more cleavage than I usually did.

"Woah," Alice said as I tried it on, "It really won't matter how awkward you are now, Scorpius will be drooling."

"Shut up," I said, but smiled a little to myself. It was going to be okay; I was basically doing what I had always done with Scorpius – talking, eating food – except for now we could do it without the others interrupting us. In a fancy restaurant. With the possibility of me fucking it up entirely.

"Merlin's beard, Rose, from the look on your face you'd think you were about to be tortured, not going on a date with the very aesthetically pleasing Scorpius Malfoy."

"Sorry," I said, and tried to distract myself from my impending doom by reading. If the incredibly rude and socially inept Mr Darcy could get a date, then so could I. When I heard the door to the next room slam, signifying that Scorp was back and getting ready to go out, I put on my makeup, fretting over every smudged line, and dug out my heels. I was going to need to eliminate some of the height difference in order for kissing to physically be possible. Whilst I was attempting to tame my hair (very unsuccessfully) there was a knock on the door, and butterflies burst forth in my stomach.

Taking a deep breath I opened the door to see Scorpius shifting from foot to foot anxiously and holding a huge bunch of roses.

"A little cliché, I know," he said, grinning lopsidedly.

"I love them!" I said, before turning to Alice, "Can you put these in some water when we're out?"

"Sure!" she said, "And can I say, Mr Malfoy, you look very fit tonight."

She wasn't lying. Scorpius was wearing black jeans and a rather tight white shirt, in which I could see the muscles in his arms. His hair was styled, but only slightly; it still stuck out enough for me to want to run my hands through it. Merlin, I was already getting distracted but it was plain that I was having the same effect on Scorpius; he was trying to keep his eyes fixed on my face but was failing spectacularly.

"Rose," he said, sounding awestruck. "You look just…wow."

"You also look 'just wow'," I replied, grinning.

"So," Alice said, drawing us out of our reverie, "Al and I are going out somewhere as well and we'll text you when we're coming back just so we don't…interrupt anything."

Scorpius' ears turned pink, and before Alice could say anything else I stepped out of the room and began to drag Scorpius down the corridor.

"Where are we going?" I asked, as we left the hotel and Scorpius began to lead me down various streets.

"It's a surprise." He said, smiling, before taking my hand. I squeezed it, feeling lightheaded with joy, rather than fear, for the first time that evening.

We spent the next quarter of an hour chatting and walking, until suddenly Scorpius stopped me and led me to a door of what seemed to be a fancy but incredibly small restaurant.

"Can you walk up stairs in those heels?" he asked, smirking.

"Merlin, Scorpius, do you have no faith in me?" I scoffed, secretly curious as to what exactly the date entailed.

We entered, and walked up a few flights of stairs (I managed not to fall over or embarrass myself) until suddenly we emerged onto a roof terrace.

"Oh my God, Scorp!" I gasped, as I looked out onto the sea of roofs which seemed to glow almost gold in the late afternoon sun. The view was truly spectacular to behold, and I could just make out the shape of the iconic Radcliffe Camera in the distance.

But my eyes were still drawn to Scorpius; the contours of his face softened by the dimming light, his eyes full of intensity as he turned to meet my gaze and my brain just went "oh shit, you're in love with this idiot."

"How – how could you possibly have pronounced that like that?" We were seated with our menus and I had managed to make Scorpius splutter with laughter over my pronunciation of angolotti.

"I didn't pronounce it wrong – I totally said anglo…anog…ugh forget it."

Scorpius burst out laughing again, and I admired the way his nose wrinkled as he tried to contain himself in the otherwise quiet restaurant.

"Anyway, your crap Italian aside, I was thinking we could order some wine."

I snorted, then realised the odd look on his face, "Wait, you weren't joking?"

"No!"

"You actually like red wine?"

"Yeah! What? It's a sign of a refined palate."

"Well, unlike someone who was plainly raised on merlot from birth in his poncy-arse mansion, I do not. 'Cause it's gross and we're not middle aged yet."

He rolled his eyes but giggled. "Fine, we'll get some cider – which is not in the same league as wine but anyway."

"How kind of you." I deadpanned.

"I know, I'm very accommodating," he replied with a smirk, reaching his hands out over the table to clasp mine.

"Are you both ready to order?" The waitress appeared, and for the first time I didn't feel like I needed to draw my hands away from his. It was strangely comforting.

"If Rose can pronounce the dish she wants then – ow!" I kicked Scorpius in the shins under the table.

After ordering we admired the view for a while and I took a couple of photos of the scenery, and several more of Scorpius as he looked out onto it. He even crept around and took a selfie with me, but at the last second turned and kissed my cheek. I felt buoyant, almost as if I was drunk as the conversation between us bounced back and forth. We were discussing the uselessness of Divination (we agreed on that one) when we were shut up by the arrival of our food.

"Holy shit this is fantastic!" Scorpius said through a mouthful of pasta.

"Woah," I said in agreement, "It might even be better than those sausage rolls you made."

"You remember those?"

"Of course – they were pretty unforgettable," I replied.

There was a moment of silence while we continued eating.

"How long?" I said.

"How long what?"

"Since you've known you…wanted to go out with me?"

"Umm…" he considered for a second, "Since we made that stupid blanket fort –"

"—I think you mean amazing blanket fort."

"Fine – it was pretty cool. So yeah, since when we were lying next to each other and I had this…like, overwhelming urge to kiss you."

My eyes fixated on his lips, which were being bitten and seemed even pinker than usual.

"What about you?" He asked, forcing me to look in his eyes again.

"Well," I started, "This is going to sound cheesy but remember when we had to share a tent –"

"I think that would be pretty hard to forget –"

"Yeah, well I woke up the next morning while you were asleep, and your face seemed so peaceful. Like I had been so busy listening to what you said and messing around that it only really occurred to me then that Merlin, you were fucking beautiful. And I thought that if I woke up next to your stupid pretty face on a regular basis I would be unbelievably happy."

Scorpius' eyes seemed to darken. "Would it be rude of me to grab you and snog you right here across the table?"

"Ooh, sorry to interrupt; do you want any desserts?" The waitress had appeared seemingly from nowhere, and I resisted the urge to flip her off.

"Yeah, could we have a look at the menu?" Scorpius said, his voice a little high pitched.

"She's as bad as Al!" He whispered as she went to find us some menus.

After the waitress returned we glanced at the menus, and both had to refrain from bursting out laughing.

"We'll have one slice of red velvet cake, and one slice of chocolate cake," I said, giggling.

The waitress raised her eyebrow a little but left us in peace.

"I still can't get over how amazing this place is," I remarked, looking out at the view once more which only seemed to grow more attractive as the sun set.

"I know! Al spotted it in one of his guide books; I had to full on flirt with the waiter to get us a table."

I laughed.

"Yeah, he seemed pretty disappointed that I brought a date along."

"It's been a great date, Scorp, like ridiculously great." I said, slightly more seriously.

"Thanks, I'd like to think it was one of my better ones as well."

"That makes it seem like there have been some truly awful ones!"

"Oh there have! With someone as socially inept as me, I've had some serious shockers."

"Like what?"

"Oh, funny ones like when I took Angelica Tombolis to the Winter Ball and managed to fall all the way down the stairs."

"That's awful!" I said, but was still trying to contain my laughter.

"Yeah, I had to go to the hospital wing and get all sorts of potions poured down my throat, and then Angelica dumped me!" he exclaimed, "But the worst one by far was last year, when I took Simon O'Connor to this favourite restaurant of mine just off Diagon Alley. Except for when we walked in I saw that my dad was there."

"Oh, shit," I said.

"And I hadn't come out to him."

"Oh, shit."

"Yep, I mean, I went up to him and explained everything and he was totally fine with it, maybe a little shocked but for the rest of the date he wouldn't stop staring at me! And I think it really freaked Simon out, and it just added to the assumption that Malfoys are creepy weirdos, so he ditched me right after the first date."

"Woah, that sounds awful!" I said.

"Yeah, sorry that wasn't very jolly," he said, rubbing at the back of his neck, "Anyway, what was your worst date?"

"Oh, Merlin, there was this one time –"

The cakes then arrived and shut us both up – they looked absolutely delicious. Obviously I took the chocolate cake and Scorpius took the red velvet one, but he kept feeding me pieces of his slice in order to "persuade" me that red velvet was better. I did the same, and got slightly distracted by the sight of him licking the chocolate icing off the spoon.

After a brief debate over who should pay the bill ("this isn't the twentieth century Scorp, I am perfectly capable of splitting the bill with you without my 'feminine sensibilities' being hurt) we reluctantly left the restaurant, and began to wander around the very picturesque streets of Oxford.

It was getting a little dark, but being summer it was still light enough to see the amazing houses, the famous Bridge of Sighs, and eventually we found the iconic Radcliffe Square.

Our hands were tangled together, there was no table in between us, no annoying waitress to interrupt us. It was perfect. We turned into the square and I was amazed by the incredible architecture, and the huge Radcliffe Camera which dominated our view.

"Wow," Scorpius said, as I turned to look at him. His face had lit up in the way it did when he talked to me about interesting bits of history, and perhaps on another day we could have discussed the specific architectural details of the scene in front of us, but in that moment it was a date, and I really, really wanted to kiss him.

Scorpius stopped, almost as if he was reading my thoughts, and turned to face me. We didn't say anything, our faces close enough that we could feel each other's breaths. All I could see was the vivid blue of his eyes as they kept flicking to my lips.

Come on, Weasley, I thought. You're standing in the most picturesque square in all of fucking Europe, you've been waiting weeks for this – get your act together and kiss him.

"Rose, I – do you – urm –" Scorpius spluttered, and without thinking at all I shut him up by grabbing at his collar and placing my lips to his.

He froze for one heart-stopping second then softened, wrapping his arms around my waist and moving his lips to mirror mine in a way which made my stomach leap in the best way possible.

It was a kiss that said yes it was a kiss that said finally it was a kiss that said I love you but I'm too afraid to say it yet. It was a kiss that eventually turned into a rather aggressive and no doubt very unattractive snog, but to be fair we had had to deal with weeks of unresolved sexual tension.

I had hardly any idea what I was doing, just that occasionally I would move my tongue in a way that actually caused Scorpius to whimper, so aimed to keep doing that. It was after about a minute I realised we were in public, and pulled away.

"Well," Scorpius said, looking slightly shell-shocked.

We both burst out laughing, and I just couldn't stop, holding onto Scorp's shoulder for support as I cackled.

"You wanna head back to the hotel?" I gasped.

"Yeah," Scorpius replied, still looking as if he would self-combust at any moment.

The walk back seemed to take hours. I really wanted to grab Scorpius and snog him senseless, but we were in public and there were still large groups of tourists around. We were almost at the hotel when Scorpius caved and shoved me up against a wall, his hand cupping my jaw and his teeth pulling at my lips.

"Scorp –" I gasped, and he stopped.

"Sorry, too far?" he asked, looking a little shocked at how carried away he had gotten.

"No it's fine, fantastic actually," I said, "But I'm like 99 percent certain that one of the members of that Japanese tourist group just took a picture of us."

We returned back to the hotel, managing to keep our hands off in each other, and decided to go into my room as Scorpius' "smelt of BO and was an absolute tip."

"So," I said, leaning against the door, "Alice and Al shouldn't be back for an hour or so."

"So?" His face dawned with realisation and he became slightly flustered, "Oh, do you want to…?" He waved vaguely at the bed.

"What? Oh, I mean, maybe…"

"Oh Merlin, is that not what you meant? Because I thought…I mean, ugh, you're going to think I'm an utter weirdo…" he babbled. I smiled, and sat down on the bed.

"Scorp," I said, interrupting him, "Just, come here, sit next to me."

He sat down, and I leant my head on his shoulder, which he rested against.

"You're a complete dork, you know that?" I said, giggling slightly.

"Yeah, I know," he replied, self-deprecatingly. There was a moment of silence.

"I don't want to mess this up," he said in a small voice.

"Hey," I said, removing my head from his shoulder and looking him in the eyes. "You're not going to, I promise. We're both weird and awkward and kind of scared, but that's okay; we're weird and awkward and scared together."

He grinned, looking a little less morose and tilted his head down to kiss me, his hands threading into my hair. I sighed a little into his mouth, causing Scorp to blush bright red, and for me to drag him backwards until we were lying on the bed facing each other, giggling and slightly out of breath.

"Oh, and if I do want to have sex with you I will be very obvious and say so," I said, "But until then, I would very much like you to continue to do that lip thing you accosted me with on the street."

"Oh, okay then," Scorpius said, with a mischievous glint in his eye as he moved in and my eyes fluttered shut.

We lay there lazily for a little while. I found a way to move my lips which made Scorpius make very un-Scorpius-like noises, and that for someone seemingly so dorky and uncoordinated, Scorpius was a fucking hot kisser. It was also the most I'd laughed in a make-out session ever, chuckling when our noses bashed together and full on shrieking when his cufflink got caught in my hair.

We pulled apart after a while, Scorpius' hair all messed up and his lips swollen and red. He smoothed his hair back and smiled a little, the dimple in his cheek showing up.

"I really like you," I said, "Even all the incredibly awkward bits of you. Especially all the incredibly awkward bits of you," I rested my head on his chest, in a very similar way to how I had whilst unconscious in the tent, except for now I could relish in it, feel his breathing slow to meet mine.

"Me too," I could feel the rumble of his voice in his chest.

I smiled, feeling utterly content.

"Hey, Rose, you're really hot."

I snorted. Scorpius had stopped kissing me to tell me that, as if it was a deep and meaningful statement.

"Hey! I was complimenting you!" His nose was all scrunched up trying not to laugh.

I continued laughing. We had been kissing on and off for ages now, and we were both starting to get a little hysterical.

"Is everything I say funny to you?"

"Yup."

"Even…I totally won that Monopoly game at James'."

My face changed to one of fury, "NO YOU FUCKING DIDN'T."

I closed the distance between us and began tickling him aggressively.

"No! That's unfair!" He shrieked, before deciding to tickle me as well.

I hadn't thought this through – I was just as ticklish, if not more than him, and Scorpius knew it. We wrestled around the bed; I resorted to hitting Scorpius with a pillow since my tickling skills weren't on par with his but he shoved it out of my hands before trying to pin me down near the edge of the bed. I stopped, let him for a second, then grabbed him and flipped us over.

"Yes! I'm victorious!" I yelled, out of breath as I pinned Scorpius down beneath me. As we tried to recover I realised that we were in a pretty compromising position with my legs wrapped around his waist and my dress falling even further down my chest.

"Enjoying the view?" I said, with a smirk. It wasn't hard to tell that Scorpius was very turned on.

He swallowed, and I moved to kiss his neck, mouthing around his Adam's apple. His head fell back over the edge of the bed, giving me even more access to the pale column of skin. My hands smoothed over his chest, and maybe I could just undo that top button…

"What the fuck is that?" Scorpius said, causing me to stop and peer over the side of the bed, where a very large teddy bear was at Scorpius' eye level.

"You won it for me at that fair!" I said, as he moved away from the stuffed animal. "His name is Antonio."

"As in The Merchant of Venice?"

"Yeah and in Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest and Twelfth Night. Shakespeare must have really liked the name."

Scorpius chuckled, "Dork face," he said, kissing me on the nose.

"No, you're a dork face," I replied, kissing him back.

"No, you're a –"

My phone began to ring, and seeing as it was Albus, I picked it up.

"Dork face." Scorpius mouthed, and I flipped him off.

"Hey Al," I said, shuffling to the end of the bed, "What are you up to?"

"Oh, not much," Albus replied. Scorpius had moved closer to me, and had begun to plant small kisses on my collar bone. "We wandered around the town, Alice met up with Louis – it's weird, I'm like a third wheel on their date."

"Uh-huh," I said. Scorpius' kisses were moving further downwards. He was definitely doing this on purpose.

"But, bonus, super cute waiter at the restaurant."

"Ooh Al, what would Zara say?" I said jokingly, whilst hitting Scorpius on the head.

"She said 'uber fit' – I sent her a picture!"

"He's not uber fit!" Alice appeared to have snatched the phone off Albus. Scorpius was now mouthing at my neck and I gave up trying to stop him.

"Oh, you wouldn't know Alice," I heard Albus say, "You only have crushes on weird part-Veela French boys."

"A weird part-Veela French boy who is sitting right here!" Louis had now joined in the debate.

The three of them then began to argue, seemingly forgetting that I was on the other end of the phone. Not that I was much better. Scorpius was essentially attacking my neck, and I was having to bite my lip to make sure no inappropriate sounds came out. I threaded my hand in his hair and dropped my head back, allowing a small gasp to slip out.

"So – how was the date?" Albus had returned and I tried to keep my voice steady.

"It's going fi—"

Scorpius snatched the phone out of my hand, "It's going great thanks for asking bye Al!"

"Wait wha-?" I heard Albus say before Scorpius hung up on him. We both burst out laughing.

"Right," Scorpius said, clambering on top of me, "Where were we?"

"Merlin guys, get a room!" Albus exclaimed.

"We're in a room!"

"We were asleep!" Scorpius and I said at the same time.

"Err, Scorp," I said "Your hand is on my boob, it's pretty damn obvious we weren't asleep."

Scorpius removed his hand like it was scorching and buried his head in the pillow in shame. Alice just laughed. Apparently the phone call that Scorpius had terminated had been to tell us that Al and Alice were heading home, but since we ignored it the two of them had walked in on us mid make-out.

"Shall we leave you two alone?" Alice said, grinning.

"Nope, give us a minute to compose ourselves and we'll be okay." I said, smoothing down my dress. The date had been amazing, but I really was exhausted now. It looked like Scorpius was too, as he yawned loudly in a way which was incredibly endearing before standing up, a little unsteady on his feet, and walking to the door.

I got up with him, and planted a small chaste kiss on his lips. He peered at me through his eyelashes, smiling into the kiss.

"See you," he whispered.

"Night," I said, watching him as he made his way down the corridor.

"So, how was it?" Alice said as soon as the door was shut.

"Absolutely fucking amazing," I beamed, the enormity of the night still sinking in. "Thank you, Alice."

"You're welcome," she said, trying to sort out the mess we had made in the bedroom. "And how was the shagging?"

"Alice!" I exclaimed, "We didn't shag, actually. We just made out and giggled. A lot."

"Dorks," Alice chuckled. She turned and peered at my neck. "Wait…" she said, before bursting out laughing, "Is that...is that a hickey?"

Shocked, I ran over to the mirror and noticed a very prominent mark on my neck. I stormed into the corridor.

"SCORPIUS HYPERION MALFOY GET YOUR ARSE IN HERE!" I yelled, probably waking up half the hotel.

Scorpius appeared out of his room, looking flustered, "What?" he said.

"LOOK AT MY NECK!"

Scorpius saw and turned beetroot. "Oops."

"We're seeing my dad TOMORROW!" I yelled.

The weight of my own statement hit me, "Oh shit, we're seeing my dad tomorrow."

This was going to be interesting.

Hey! Hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it (so much fluff omg) and I am sad/excited to say this is the penultimate chapter for ija! The last chapter should hopefully be out by around July 4th, since that is a year since we published the prologue. Please please leave reviews and tell me what you think of SCOROSE'S FIRST DATE!

-Lily