Hello everyone! I feel like I've made this apology too much in this story, but I am so sorry for not updating this sooner. This is such a lame excuse, but life has been insane and I have barely been staying afloat as it is. Just to get this chapter up I had to stay up until three last night writing/editing. I know that doesn't seem possible, but every time I have attempted to sit down and write, something has gone wrong (I get interrupted, my laptop battery dies and I don't have my charger, I get horrible writer's block, etc.) basically, what this comes down to is that I am a terrible fanfiction updater and that I will try my very best to be better.
Another reason that I am upset with myself: you all were so kind in giving me such wonderful reviews and I have yet to thank all of you individually. But I will, I intend to start after I post this chapter! But again, it's so rude of me and I apologize.

Enjoy :)

Chapter 38

For someone who has always been modest, having the entire school wanting to know your personal life is never a comforting thought.

So as Rose walked down the halls for the first two days after the game, she was conscious of every eye staring at her wherever she went. She couldn't understand what was so damn fascinating about the way she went to a class, but apparently the rest of the school loved to annalyize her movements. Of course, the rumor mill was still hard at work. It hard to put a stop to words once they are out in the open, and Rose had noticed more than a few people staring at her who were clearly looking for a baby bump.

Rose was still in a state of shock about what happened, so she remained in a rather numb state. Scorpious, however, had never been more hostile towards his classmates. Rose knew that this probably wasn't helping their cause, but he was so angry that she didn't want to make it worse by telling him to stop. She, after all, was the only thing that had made him smile since the game.

But by Wednesday, the novelty of it all had begun to wear off. Yes people were still staring and talking, but now there were other topics to discuss. The exams that were coming, the couple that was caught snogging in the broom cupboard next to the transfiguration classrooms for the 5th time this month.

Rose and Scorpius had even begun to get a little hopeful that in a week or two, it might seem normal. But on Wednesday morning, any chance they had at that was blown away.

Rose and her friends were sitting at the Gryffindor table, enjoying breakfast and hearing Lily tell a story about Albus when he first stole his Dad's broomstick that was hilarious, when they heard a great silence from the Slytherin table. Normally, you can't really hear silence, but the table became so quiet that the rest of the room hushed in antispitation.

Rose looked over to see what the problem was now when she realized what she saw. It was a howler, a green and black howler, which was about to burst open at the seams. Scorpius quickly stood up from the table and angrily stomped his way out of the great hall. He had only gotten past the door when the voice of a furious Draco was loudly projected in the Great Hall.

"Scorpius Malfoy!" His voice bellowed. "I am furious with your actions this term. Your disgrace to your family and your house will not be tolerated. How you have gone so wrong in such a short time I cannot comprehend. What I do know is that if you decide to return home at the end of the year, you will never see that filty half-blood for the rest of your life. If not, you will have an hour to collect your things before never seeing your mother and I again." The howler paused and the sound practically echoed off the walls. "You have betrayed everyone. I hope you can live with your choice." Rose could hear the fainter sound of the howler turning into shreds as it exploded. As quickly as the silence had come, it had disappeared. Rose could only imagine that the howler had confirmed half the rumors that had spread so quickly. Now even the teachers were talking amongst themselves over the outburst they had just heard. Rose was waiting for Scorpius to come back, but of course he didn't show. She quickly ran out the door and into the entrance hall, trying to find him. But he had disappeared.

She began to walk up and down hallways, searching in empty classrooms or hardly-used corridors. She had meant to work on her charms paper in her free block this morning, but she had decided against it. Instead, she went searching for her boyfriend.

She started thinking of the places he would go, attempting to guess his location. She walked to the library, the astronomy tower, the boathouse, the courtyard outside the great hall, and anywhere else she could think of. At last, she found him sitting beside the broom closet near the quidditch pitch.

"Hey," she said softly, as to not make him jump. He looked up slowly and gave her a small smile.

"Hey," he replied, and went back to playing with the grass.

"I think we need to talk," she said as she sat down besides him. She noticed the howler lying next to his jacket on the grass, ripped up but with the letter still intact.

"I guess I'm moving out at the end of term." Scorpius said to her.

"Maybe we could go try and reason with your dad, make him see that"

"No." Scorpius cut into her thought. "We can't. I can't. It's over."

"Between us?" Rose asked, terrified and shocked.

"No! No, god, of course not. Between my dad and me. We're done. I'll pack my stuff up at the end of the year and find some other place to live. Get a summer job or something."

"But Scorp, where will you go?" Rose asked him timidly.

"I dunno. I was thinking I might ask your uncle George if I could stay with him, live over one of the WWW locations and work there. It's not a perfect plan, but it could work short term. And it could pay for all of my books and such next year." He said somberly.

"I'm sure George would take you in with no problems. But I'm worried about you. This whole thing has taken such a toll, and with end of the year exams coming up I just don't want you to be distracted by this." Rose said softly.

"Well then distract me with something else," he said and then leaned in to kiss her. It was slow and soft, but filled with so much emotion that Rose started feeling faint.

"What was that for?" She asked with a smirk on her face.

"When I kiss you, I feel like everything is right with the word. I wanted to feel that way again, even if it was just for a moment." He admitted.

Rose didn't hesitate; she kissed him again only more passionate this time, with more want and desire than before. However, after a short minute, Scorpius gently pushed her away. "They can definitely see us from the castle Rosie, this probably isn't such a great idea."
She pulled back and rested her head on his shoulder, "you're right. I also might have to go to class soon, I spent so much time trying to find you that I'm pretty sure herbology starts in a matter of minutes." Rose said tiredly.

Scorpius looked at his watch, "we should probably start heading back to the castle, we have ten minutes and I have to make my way to transfiguration." He told her while he helped her up. The two of them walked hand in hand back to the Great Hall, before separating to their different common rooms. Rose grabbed up her materials for class and began to walk down to the greenhouses alone, appreciating the time without having to be pleasant to other people.

Rose was experiencing the strange but common feeling of wanting to be alone, but feeling very lonely once you were. So then you try to be with your friends, but find yourself wishing you were without company. She knew she was not the first of her friends to feel this way at some point, hell she had felt this way before. But she still felt lost all the same.

Rose made her way through herbology class without thinking much, the material was familiar and the repotting of flitterbloom was surprisingly easy. Her mind was far too occupied with other things that Rose simply couldn't shake; the image of her father's furious face, the voice of Scorpius' father still ringing through her ears, the feeling that the class was watching her every move, the pain in Scorpius' eyes. Everything was pulling her mind in different directions, and so she didn't even notice when Professor Longbottom told them they could leave class early that day to get a head start on their homework that evening. Before she knew it, the rest of the class was gone and Rose was still packing up her things.

"Alright there Rose?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"Not exactly…" she replied wearily as she attempted to shove her ridiculously large textbook back into her bag.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her cautiously, pulling up a chair to sit beside her.

"I don't really know where to start these days," She replied, but sat down next him anyway. "I'm sure you've heard what people have been saying about me."
"I, er, I try to not really" he admitted. "But, I have heard a fair amount as the teachers have been discussing it for the past few days."

"You're joking," she replied.

"Sadly, I'm not. I was hoping they'd take the high road and stay out of their student's affairs, but apparently that is not the case." The two sat in a slightly uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before Neville continued, "I am correct in assuming that none of that is true, yes?" He asked a bit nervously.

"Yes, merlin yes. All of it is a lie. Hopefully the pregnancy rumor hasn't reached the teachers yet?" Rose asked him.

"No, it has. It was one of the first ones I heard actually. Don't worry though, no one is giving it much weight beyond mindless gossip." He tried to assure her.

"Telling Ron went horribly," She told him out of the blue.

"How horribly?" He asked.

"He temporarily threw me out, and pretty much called me a disgrace." Rose said plainly as to avoid more tears.

"I'm so sorry Rose. No wonder you were distracted in class." Neville said as he pointed his wand at a nearby pot that someone had broken today and mended it.

"It's been extremely distracting. And then I'm sure you heard that Scorpius got thrown out too," she added.

"I did. That howler was one of the loudest ones I've heard since my second year at Hogwarts. Your father's, actually." He told her with a nostalgic smile on his face.

"Wait, my dad got a howler? From who?" She asked, surprised that she had never heard this story before.

"From his mum, he had taken the flying car because,"

"The train had left without them," Rose finished. "But he never told me he got a howler for it!" Rose said, smiling her now sporadic smile.

"Oh, it was awful too. His mum left him mortified for three weeks, everyone teased him for it." Rose and Neville burst out into laughter, Rose at the idea of her grandmother's voice in a howler and Neville at the memories of a clumsier, simpler version of himself.

Eventually, their laughter died down and left them sitting in thought. "What should I do?" she asked. "I just don't even know where to go from this."

"You never told me how Hermione took it," Neville said. "I couldn't imagine her throwing you out too."

"No, I think she'll try to work on dad too, but I haven't heard anything from her. And mum normally writes me once a week, so this is unusual." She replied somberly.

"Just give it time Rose. That's the only advice I can really give you. But your father is a stubborn guy, it took him seven years to realize how much he loved your mom. Give him some time to adjust; I'm sure he will. If you could have seen him on the night you were born, you'd understand that he loves you more than anything else in the world."

"Wait, you were there too?" Rose asked. She had heard the story of how she was born a few times, but only thought that Harry and Ginny were there.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you? You dad was on an assignment when Hermione went into labor, and Ginny happened to be having lunch with her in Diagon Alley and my apartment at the time was only a few streets away. And seeing as they couldn't apparate, Ginny ran down to get me so that we could call someone to get her to St. Mungos."

"You're kidding." Rose said. Normally, she wasn't a big fan of hearing the story of how she was born, but this was the first she had heard of any of this.

"No, the emergency bus, sort of like a slower version of the knight bus if you haven't seen it, came to pick her up from my apartment and then I went to go get Ron so he wouldn't miss you being born." Neville said nostalgically.

"Wow. So you were there with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny?" She asked.

"Yeah. Anyway, I found Ron and he immediately aparated from his mission, without even hearing if I had called his boss yet, so he could have lost his job. But he didn't really care at that point, and a few minutes later her found Hermione and I'm pretty sure you already know the rest." He concluded.

"Wow. I had never heard that story, I just knew my dad had to be tracked down." She told him.

"Well, the point of the story is that your father was the happiest man I had ever seen when you were born. The only time I've ever seen him cry out of joy besides that moment was when he married Hermione. And he did a better job of concealing his tears then," Neville chuckled. "He loves you more than you could ever know. You just have to let him realize the mistakes he made first. You don't want to push him into believing something he doesn't, trust me."

"I just don't want to have him hating me like this. I've never felt this horrible in my entire life." Rose said somberly.

"Just give it time. Try your best to trust in the fact that he will eventually come around if you give him some space." Neville assured her.

She nodded as she picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Thank you, you know, for talking to me about all of this."

"Any time Rose. I mean it," He said with a comforting smile that Rose returned before leaving the greenhouse. She began to walk up to the castle while trying to digest everything that Professor Longbottom had just told her. Before going through the doors, Rose put all of her things on the ground and sat beside them, leaning against the hard, cold stone. She looked down on the Hogwarts grounds, taking comfort in the fact that for all six years that she had been here the trees always changed the same way. No matter what changed in her life, she could look outside and see that everything was the same.

And sameness was the only thing that made her feel calm anymore. Some times, when she couldn't sleep, she would count all the things in her life that will stay the same even after all of this is over. It wasn't exactly comforting, but it made her feel a little less uprooted. She began to count again as she stood up, bracing herself for whatever she would find inside.
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