Disclaimer: JK Rowling created the wonderful HP universe; God I wish it was real...

The Magic Word Is Sorry, Not Please
(Chapter Thirty Seven- Looking Up)

Despite her family now being happily reunited, Rose was still unhappy. All because of her father.

She always knew he'd have a problem with her and Scorpius. Even before, when she'd just dreamed of them getting together, she'd known that if it ever did happen her Dad would kill her; she'd practically used it as an excuse. "Me and Scorp could never be together because of our fathers." For the last few months, she'd looked back on that and thought she was stupid; they were fully grown men, surely they couldn't still be holding a grudge? It turned out she was right before.

Of course, it wasn't just the Malfoy surname that had made her Dad angry. It was that article. That bloody article. Her Dad had, of course, panicked that she was going to be giving birth to a Malfoy in a few months, and become dead set against them being together. She would think that his reaction was fair, if it was true.

"Ro-ose?" Dom sang from her side. Rose turned and saw Dom looking at her expectantly. "You alright?" she asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, just thinking." She smiled sadly, then looked back at... wherever she had been looking before.

Her family was ridiculous; less than 3 hours ago they'd been yelling at each other and stressing out about being expelled, and now they were sat in their normal seats, joking about everything in the article and laughing like nothing had ever happened. But something had happened; and Rose was now pretty sure she'd never be Daddy's little girl again.

"Oh my god, you're back!"

Anna's voice rang through the noise in the common room from the portrait hole. She was stood, looking classically perfect without even trying as always, with two boys by her side; one of them was Jake, the other was Scorp.

"Hey babe, where've you guys been?" Fred shouted, kneeling up on the sofa, clearly enjoying that the entire common room had now gone quiet and was watching them; he was such an attention seeker.

"Creating the 'Weasleys+1' club, what do you think we've been doing?" she asked sarcastically, walking over and sitting on the arm rest of the sofa. "We've been waiting for you losers!"

"Where?"
"Downstairs!"

"Oh. Well we've been up here for like an hour now so-"
"I hate you." She replied, glaring at her boyfriend jokingly. Fred replied by grabbing her by the waist and pulling her off the arm rest and on top of him.

Jake had moved and was now sat next to Lily, kissing the top of her head, but Scorpius was still stood at the edge of the family.

"Sit down, mate." James told him, signalling to the empty seat next to Rose.

"Y-you sure?" Scorp asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, I'm sure." James smiled. "I actually need to apologise to you for everything."
"It's fine." Scorp replied, sitting next to Rose on her sofa.

"No, it's not. Seriously I'm so sorry for the way I treated you."

Rose smiled at her cousin appreciatively, watching how easy it all was and wishing everything could be so simple.

"I'm sorry to you too, Jake." James said, turning his head.

Jake just shrugged, seemingly too busy twisting his fingers with Lily's.

Al cleared his throat, and turned from his seat on the floor to look up at Scorpius. "I'm sorry for being the worst best friend ever."
"You don't need to be. I said stuff too."
"Call it even?"

Scorp nodded, and held out his hand, which Al then shook.

She was jealous of the simplicity of it all.

Fred and James returned to Quidditch conversation, and the rest of the family joined in. Except Scorp, who turned and looked into Rose's eyes.

"You okay? What happened?"
She shrugged. "I'm fine. And I'll tell you later."

He raised his eyebrows disbelievingly.

"You don't look fine."

"Well, I am." She lied.

She couldn't explain what happened. Not to him; he'd feel too guilty for something that wasn't his fault, and she couldn't put that pressure on him.

He still looked at her sceptically, and she shifted in her seat under his gaze.

"I'm going to bed." She sighed, standing up and avoiding looking at her boyfriend who stared after her confusedly.

"Rose, it's not ten yet..." Fred pointed out.
"I don't care what time it is." She sighed, heading upstairs.

She thought one of them might follow her; they all knew how upset she was. But they didn't; they returned to their own conversation, and laughed at a joke Fred made.

The laughter echoed up the stairway.

Yeah, for every other member of her family things were looking up but for Rose, things were worse now that they had ever been before.

...

James loved sitting at the table for breakfast with his family. It was a stupid little thing to appreciate, but he really did love it.

He hadn't realised how much he'd missed it until he got it back. Sure, he knew he'd missed his family, but he'd thought he'd only missed them because it was normal and he was used to it, but no; he'd missed laughing at the way Roxy ate her cereal, and the fact that Rose and Hugo were always in equally bad moods in the morning and only cared about the food they ate. He'd missed the fact that Fred was always disturbingly awake, and wouldn't rest until everyone else was, or that Dom would always fiddle with her hair all the way through breakfast. Louis claimed he was best at flirting in the morning, so would always be randomly winking at girls and Lily would always be there first and last. He'd not missed having his family to rely on and make him look cool; he'd missed just having them there.

"Right, what's everyone's plan for Sunday then?" Fred asked, energetically.

"Work."
"Work."
"Work."
"Work."
Scorpius, Rose, Roxy and Dom replied in sync.

"Ok, so what about the ones of us who aren't complete geeks?" Roxy glared up at Fred, then continued to pour her milk off her spoon and eat the remaining cereal.

"Nothing, really. James, you could always hold Quidditch practice?" Al suggested.

"Great idea, Al!" Fred said, nodding and turning to James, looking excited.

Sometimes James thought that Fred would be a better captain that James, just for pure enthusiasm.

"I actually already have something I need to do today." James replied, looking at Fred apologetically. He did look disappointed; he clearly had a lot of free time now he and Anna weren't allowed to be alone together.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Dom asked nosily.

"I was thinking of, maybe, going to find Louisa." He mumbled.

Roxy looked up from her cereal again. "Really?"
"Yeah, I owe her an apology. Or, you know, a million apologies."

He felt guilty about a million things that had happened recently, but breaking up with Louisa was on the top of his list. He felt so stupid that after years of wanting and waiting for her, he'd given up on them so easily...

Roxy nodded. "I know where she is."

"Where?"
"Seventh year library."

James looked at Fred questioningly. "There's a seventh year li-?"
"Second floor, near the astronomy tower." She replied, before returning to eating.

James bit his lip. "Do you think she wants to see me?" he asked quietly. On reflection, he wasn't sure who he asked, but Dom replied anyway.

"Yes. Definitely. If nothing else she wants to yell at you but-"
"She really needs to talk to you." Anna interrupted, shrugging. "She's hardly mentioned you at all; sure sign she misses you."
"Can't say I have any idea why..." Fred joked.

"Oi! Who won hottest sixth year guy last year?"
"I came second!"
"Yeah, but it's not winning, is it babe?" Anna pointed out, nudging Fred in the ribs as he pouted.

James laughed, then turned and noticed that the area around them was now significantly emptier.

Rose, Scorpius and Al had disappeared at some point, as had Jake, Lily, Louis and Hugo.

"Right, I'm going to find Louisa." He sighed, standing up and trying to sound confident.

"Good luck." Fred smiled. "We'll meet you in the common room, yeah?"
James nodded, then headed out of the hall. He was amazingly optimistic about this conversation; he just had a feeling everything would be alright after he'd sorted everything out with Louisa. It'd all go back to normal, and be perfect again. He swore to himself he'd appreciate it so much more than he did before.

Of course, as he walked he heard gossip buzzing around him. There had been another article in the prophet, with his father denying all the false claims in Saturday's issue and asking for respect of his family. Of course, it didn't work.

Mainly because his Dad had said "I spoke to the children yesterday."

"Potter, was your Dad actually in here yesterday?" Someone yelled. "Damn, I could've got his autograph!"

James rolled his eyes and continued to walk in the direction of the astronomy tower, and then up a set of stairs that he swore hadn't been there before.

At the top of the stairs was a wooden door, which he assumed would take him to the seventh year library.

He opened it, and saw he was right. The room was similar to the common room; it had large armchairs and coffee tables around, but books were lining the walls.

It was completely empty, apart from one beautiful girl with her head buried in a book.

"So this is what a library looks like." He joked quietly, unsure of how else to alert her of his presence.

She turned, and her eyes hit his. He just stared into them, feeling guilty that he had ever made tears cloud her eyes.

"James." She said simply before closing her book and standing up slowly.

He took a few steps towards her. "Louisa I-"

"I don't want to talk, James." She shrugged, beginning to walk towards the door.

He automatically grabbed her hand.

"Yeah, and I don't want you to hate me."
"I don't." She sighed, shaking her head. "I don't hate you."

He nodded. Something was so different about her, and he couldn't work it out. She didn't seem angry, like he'd expected, she just seemed tired and something else James couldn't identify…

He decided to just say what he wanted to say, and be done with it.

"I'm so sorry, for everything. I know you did the right thing with Rose, and I-"
"Don't, James." She said simply, looking down at the floor and pulling her hand from his.

And then he realised that the emotion in her that he didn't recognise was sadness. She bit her lip, and shook her head. "Just, don't. We're ok, James, I just can't talk to you right now-"
"Well then that means we're not ok." He took her hands from her sides and clung to them. "I know I was wrong, and I'm so sorry for what I did. But Lou, I love you. And I just need you to forgive me so that I can prove it to you for the rest of our lives."

She blinked and a single tear trickled down her face from her overflowing eyes.

"I... I wish you'd come to me sooner." she sighed, pressing her lips together as if to stop herself sobbing.

"I know I took too long, but I'm saying it now; I love you. And I was stupid. I was stupid and protective and all you were doing was trying to look after a girl who came to you for help. I can see that now-"

She interrupted him so quickly that he took seconds to register what she'd said.

"You... What?" He felt her hands slipping from his, unsure of whether he'd let go or she'd tugged them away.

"Don't make me say it again." She shook her head, her eyes flooding with tears and choking back sobs.

"I didn't hear you." he lied, trying to hide his anger or heartbreak or betrayal or whatever he was feeling.

"I slept with Craig."