Chapter Twenty-One

"You're a hypocrite."

"Huh?" Scorpius woke suddenly as Rose sat down at the edge of his mattress in the dark.

It was the middle of the night, and even though every fibre of her being told her not to go over to Scorpius' flat, she found herself over there, even turning the handle when he hadn't answered the door.

"You're a hypocrite," she whispered again, gently drawing her fingers through his hair. "Your door was unlocked. You're always giving me shit for not locking my door."

"I kept it unlocked for you," he countered sleepily, as though it were obvious.

"You did?"

"Although, I did think you would've come over hours ago," he said, squinting at his clock.

"I was a bit busy." After her mum had left, Rose had spent a long time going through the pile of mail, drafting a few replies but ultimately hadn't been able to make any decisions. Even though she still felt undecided, at least she wasn't 'wasting her time' as her mum had so directly implicated.

It had been quite late when she finished, but after eating a little too much of that frozen pizza – it wasn't so bad, really – she couldn't sleep. It didn't help that her brain was running on overdrive and anxiety was viciously squeezing in her chest.

"You look exhausted," Scorpius said, shifting over. "Come here."

Rose hesitated. "I didn't – um, we don't have to –"

The raise of his eyebrows was enough to stop her spluttering and climb under the covers. The spot was still warm from his body but she still fisted the blankets in her hands, snuggling in.

"Are you okay?" he asked, voice quiet.

"I'm fine." Her eyes closed as he pulled her into his chest, cheek meeting his soft t-shirt. "I should've just answered her letters."

"Hmm."

"She'll forgive me." Rose inhaled deeply; he smelled like soap and earth, and it was comforting. "Eventually."

Scorpius didn't reply. She didn't want to talk about it, and he understood.

Scorpius fell asleep soon after she arrived, breathing steady above her ears. Rose stayed in a half-asleep state most of that night, but her mind had thankfully halted its racing long before the sun lit the space in between the blinds, glowing reds and oranges across Scorpius' apartment walls.

His watch beeped early – seven o'clock was way too early for his fifteen-minute commute, in Rose's opinion – and she heard him silence the alarm, give out a low groan and burrow his face in her hair. An hour went by and he slept on, but Rose couldn't let him sleep any longer. No matter how warm and relaxed she felt.

"Scorpius, you have to get up," Rose whispered, squeezing his arm. "It's Monday."

He sighed deeply, pushing his lips onto her neck and keeping his eyes closed. He was clearly awake, but very sleepy. "Good morning."

"Good morning."

"I think I got used to sleeping in a bit more these past few days," he said quietly. "I haven't slept that much in years."

"Looks like you needed that vacation." And before she could stop herself, she blurted, "I didn't see you much this weekend."

"I knocked once, but you weren't home," he said, shrugging. Then he suddenly grinned. "Why, did you miss me?"

"No," she said quickly, "I was just wondering – you know, after what we talked about –"

"It's okay," he interrupted her, looking much too smug for her liking. "I missed you too, Rose."

And then he was kissing her, turning so he was nearly on top of her, lips sensibly closed. Any tension she felt from her slip-up melted away from her muscles as her fingertips brushed his jaw; they clearly had a mind of their own. Everything about it was soft, from his mouth to his skin to the cotton sheets around them.

He broke away and squinted at his clock, somehow making out the numbers even though his glasses were sitting on his bedside table. "I should probably get up, shouldn't I?"

"Probably." Her heart was still racing, so she took a couple of deeper breaths.

"What are you going to do today?" he asked, leaning back down onto his pillow instead.

"Nothing much," she said, tracing at the neckline of his shirt. She noticed he had a line of dark moles – not quite freckles – that led down his chest.

"You should get some more sleep," he suggested.

"Yeah," she agreed, though she was definitely going to work on her job search. She knew that she was being a little two-faced, hiding the barrage of interviews and offers from him, but she didn't want to rub it in his face. "Anyway, I know you just told me last night, but have you signed up for your classes yet?"

"Yep, should be getting confirmation soon," he said, smile faltering.

"What?"

"I dunno. I guess I keep doubting my decision. I'm not used to that, honestly."

"Is it expensive?"

"Money's not an issue," he dismissed. "I like Potions, too, I just blanked on my exam in Seventh Year. I'm just wondering if it's a waste of time.

Rose tried not to cringe at his choice of words; he couldn't know what her mother had said the night before. "I don't think it's a waste of time. At least you won't spend all that time wondering what you could've done, right?"

"I've spent a lot of time already, actually."

"Better late than never."

"That's true." He searched her eyes, but she wasn't sure what for. "I'm bracing myself for the lecture my father is going to unleash on me today."

"I know all about that," she said light-heartedly, making him smile. "Whatever he says, just remember the point is to try to get into that Herbology program, and in the long run, it will probably help the Apothecary. Even if he doesn't understand that right now."

He let out an exhausted breath and looked away.

"Scorpius." She tugged on his sleeve.

"I know they probably won't let me into that program, even after the course," he mumbled, sounding a little dejected, "and my father will point that out for sure."

"That isn't fair." She felt more upset about it than she thought she would. "That isn't fair at all."

"It's true, though."

"You'll still try, though, won't you? You'll talk to him?"

"Yes." She looked up and glared at him, and he laughed. "Yes, I will. Relax."

"Good. By the way," she asked, suddenly remembering, "what did you want to ask me last night?"

"Oh." He turned a little pink. "Right. Well, I was thinking how we've been hanging out for a while, and obviously we – oh shit, is that the time? I'm going to be so late –"

Scorpius leapt out of bed and jammed his glasses on his face, not noticing the very uncomfortable turn in Rose's stomach as he ran to his bathroom. She wasn't sure what he was about to say, but the way he was tripping over his words and rambling made her nervous.

Still, knowing he'd need some coffee but he definitely wouldn't have time to pick one up, Rose made her way back to her flat to quickly make him a cup. She caught him just as he was coming out and locking his door and handed him a travel mug.

"You're actually an angel," Scorpius said in grateful surprise, quickly pecking her forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned around and practically flew down the stairs.

Rose went back to her flat, shaking her head and wondering how Scorpius could put his head down and just keep at it, day after day. Especially now that she knew he had ideas and dreams that he had no choice to suppress.

She wanted to help. Somehow.

But what could she do, anyway? If she got a job at the Ministry, she certainly would be able to give him a referral, but it wouldn't be anywhere in Scorpius' field. And even if she wanted to, it would take months before she would be able to refer him to any job, let alone one in his field.

But… she was a Weasley, wasn't she?

Suddenly feeling a little more awake, Rose sat down at her table and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment.

Rose was pumped to run her 5K. No, really.

She'd spent the previous day sending a couple of responses out, but otherwise, she'd taken the day to herself. She drew up a bath, put a face mask on, lit a candle, turned on some music and spent enough time in there until she was thoroughly pruny and read through half a book. Maybe it was a little lazy, but no one could be productive all the time.

After a restful night of sleep, Rose met Skye early in the morning at the park. Skye was stretching by the water and pulling her long brown hair up into a ponytail, and she waved Rose over before leaning down to tighten her shoelaces.

"Ready?" she asked as Rose approached her.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Rose felt giddy energy building in her limbs as she joined the stretching. "I was really close to my goal last time. Thirty-one minutes."

"We're going to make it under thirty minutes even if I have to drag you there," Skye promised, grinning.

A few more minutes of stretching and they were off, Rose's stopwatch racing through milliseconds as they began their run. Skye was naturally a step ahead of her, but to her credit, she was doing her best to match Rose's slower pace.

Rose didn't let this bother her; in reinventing herself, running was about creating a habit of exercising. Before, she barely kept any habits she would be proud of besides being diligent in washing her makeup off every night. The running goal was simply a motivation to keep going. Really, she wanted to be one of those people who felt strange when they didn't exercise.

Maybe one day. Reinventing could take a while.

"Five days 'till the wedding, eh?" Skye said as they turned a corner on the trail.

"That's right," Rose replied, trying to not make her rapid breathing too obvious. "I'm surprised there haven't been any fires to put out yet."

"There have been, they just haven't told you."

"Because of my fight with Al, I guess." Rose was actually okay with that; dealing with wedding drama was extremely stressful, and she would love to be excluded from it.

Skye shrugged. "Six days until I break up with Everett."

"Wait, really?"

"Yep." Skye sounded nonchalant. "I dunno, it just hasn't been working out. He's so bloody needy sometimes, and I'm too fucking busy for it. But I already invited him to the wedding, so I'm kind of stuck with him until then."

Rose snorted.

They ran in silence for a while, and Rose tried to match Skye's slightly quicker pace. Generally it was fine, but every few minutes, she had to slow down considerably. Still, at least her slowest jog was faster than the walkers in the park. She could be proud of that.

"Do you ever get lonely?" Rose asked Skye sometime later.

Skye paused, as though she hadn't expected the question. "I mean, sure. But it's not a good reason for me to stay with Everett when we're at each other's throats." Skye glanced at Rose. "Why, do you?"

"Sometimes." She thought of Scorpius – specifically, why she slept with him in the first place. But loneliness was definitely not the reason she slept with him now. "Yeah."

Rose tried to push the thought away, but she couldn't help wondering what Scorpius had wanted to ask her. The curiosity had been nagging at her since the day before, even as she tried her best to avoid it. She had a sinking feeling that she'd driven him a bit mad, and he didn't want to put up with her bullshit she called an existential crisis. That maybe he didn't want to be friends anymore.

But how long were they going to keep this going? Rose was fine being single now, but she wanted to get married one day. She'd always wanted at least one kid. She wasn't sure, but Scorpius was obviously the marriage type; surely he wanted to get married again one day? Maybe he'd moved on and found someone he wanted to be with. Rose wouldn't want to get in the way of that.

"Earth to Rose?" Skye called, waving a hand in front of her eyes. "We're going to pick up speed for the last five minutes so we can make it."

"Really?"

"Your legs are going to burn," Skye said happily, and Rose winced. They were already burning.

Still, she gritted her teeth and channelled that nervous energy out of her brain and into her legs. Her breath was rapid and she couldn't hide it anymore. The pavement was steady beneath her as they sprinted towards the last part of the trail, right by the animal crossing post where Rose had measured out five kilometres on her map.

They passed the post. Rose's watch beeped madly at her wrist as it hit thirty minutes.

She did it.

She did it.

"That was definitely under thirty minutes!" Skye said as they slowed to a stop and Rose leaned over, trying her best to catch her breath. "Congratulations!"

"Holy shit," Rose panted, clutching her side. "That last… that last sprint…"

"Breathe," Skye advised, grinning. She was out of breath as well, but seeing as she made that run regularly, it wasn't nearly as strenuous. "Try not to die, yeah?"

Rose let out a breathless chuckle.

"The next goal would be to keep doing this, you know," Skye pointed out, "at least until you don't feel like collapsing every time."

"I have to do this again?" Rose joked, making Skye laugh.

"All right," Skye announced, slinging an arm around her and forcing her to start walking again, "this calls for mimosas!"

"It's the middle of the week, Skye," she said, laughing.

"So?"

Rose didn't have an answer for that. Really what she wanted to do was tell Scorpius about completing her goal; somehow, she knew that he'd be happy for her. But he was working. And Skye didn't know about him.

So, they went for mimosas.

Around midday, Rose received an owl from Albus to meet him at their favourite lunch place near the Ministry – but not for lunch. It was nearly five o'clock when she arrived at the restaurant, and with a quick peek through the window, she could see Albus already there, sitting at their table and stirring a spoonful of sugar into his tea.

It was quiet in the restaurant, and she heard the door jingle much too loudly as she walked in. Albus looked uncharacteristically nervous as she sat down, tapping his nails rhythmically on the table.

"You got out of work early," Rose acknowledged, settling in her seat.

"Yeah, just a little." He took a sip of his tea, and she noticed a notebook open beside his mug. There were quite a lot of scribbles and crossings out on the page, though she couldn't read it upside-down.

"What's that?"

He looked sheepish. "My vows."

"You left it rather last minute, didn't you?" Rose asked, trying not to laugh.

"No, no!" he protested, swiping a hand through his already messy jet-black hair. "I've been working on them for months, it's just… it got a bit lost among all the other bullshit I had to do."

The waitress came up to their table with a cheery wave. After Rose ordered a coffee, she leaned her elbows on the table and gave him a sympathetic smile. "Five days then?"

"Yeah."

"Are you ready?"

Albus rubbed his eyes, knocking his glasses askew. "The thing is, I'm really ready for this all to be over to just be married. I'm ready to not have this expensive, stressful thing looming over our heads and for Charlotte to stop acting so crazy."

"Is she all right?" Rose asked. "It seems like she's really losing it."

"Her parents have gone absolutely mad," he explained. "They want to change everything at the last minute. We booked a band for the reception, but we had to lose the deposit to get a DJ. We hired a videographer and their team, but they got confused and hired another photographer and the whole thing was just a mess."

"Wow," Rose said, taken aback, "that sounds –"

"Even the bloody flowers weren't the right colour anymore, but luckily we charmed those when her parents weren't looking." Albus' eyes were wide and wild, and she felt caught off guard.

"You're making me not want to ever get married," Rose joked, trying to lighten the mood.

He smiled, but looked pained. "Sorry."

"It's okay." The waitress brought her coffee, so she distracted herself by adding milk. "I didn't realize how much shit you had to deal with last-minute."

"You had your own thing going on. I get that now."

"Yeah."

"Listen." He sat up straighter and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the house. I swear I didn't mean to keep it from you, Rose."

"I know," she said, looking down at her coffee. "I know."

"I'm just not used to this," he continued. "It was easy when you were right there, you know? It was easy to just come home, find you sitting on the couch and just tell you everything. It's always been like that."

"Right." She nodded; it had been their reality since they were eleven, growing up in Gryffindor straight to living together after graduation. "I guess I just had more time to think about all this since I lost my job."

"Now I have to put all this effort," he said lightly, making her chuckle. "I'm not used to it. It's a shitty explanation, but I'll get better at this."

Rose smiled. "Thanks, Al."

"I'm sorry I kicked you out."

"I think I'm actually glad you did," she said slowly, fidgeting with the handle of her mug. "It took me a while to realize it, but it was time. I don't even know what I was waiting for, you know?"

"And now you're a new-and-improved Rose?" he teased.

"Something like that. I ran five kilometres in thirty minutes today."

"All thanks to me, of course."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," she said, rolling her eyes. He grinned.

There was a silence as they sipped their drinks, but it was comfortable. Rose felt herself relax a little bit; maybe they could work this out, after all.

"Did I tell you I've been trying to get back in the field?" Albus asked after swallowing. "Charlotte's been really upset with me."

"Why?" Rose asked. "You love the field."

"She's nervous. The field is obviously more dangerous."

"I suppose I can understand that."

"But I'm going insane in the office," he confessed. "I know it's only been a year, but I miss the field. I'd even work with my idiot brother just to get out, you know?"

Rose hadn't realized Albus had been going through his own job issues. The main reason Albus had transferred out of the field – besides the higher pay, of course – was because he absolutely hated working with James. She knew Albus would probably be complaining about his older brother as soon as they were working together again.

"I think you should do it," Rose said anyway, "and this time, you form your own Auror team. Don't let James bully you around."

"That's what I'm hoping for eventually. Wait, I nearly forgot," Albus said suddenly, jumping in his seat. "Speaking of work… there was actually more to why I asked you to meet me."

She frowned. "What's that?"

He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. "Congratulations, Rose. You got the job in the Auror Office."

Rose nearly fell off of her chair.

"Are you serious?" she asked weakly, taking the letter from him and unfolding it. But clear as day, stamped with the officially Ministry logo, Rose had an offer in her hands for the assistant position.

"I'm supposed to negotiate you down," Albus said, grinning as he slipped another piece of parchment her way, "but this is the highest pay we can do, and we need you, so… take it."

Rose read the amount and had to try her best not to spit her coffee everywhere.

"I was really worried," she said after a few moments, blinking a few times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "This whole time I was applying to a bunch of positions, but I barely heard back from anyone. I botched my interview with Spellbound pretty badly."

"It happens," Albus reassured.

Rose explained her whole mailbox debacle. Albus only nodded along and shrugged, and it was nice to finally talk about it with someone who understood their famous families. "As it turns out, I got a couple of interviews and offers. Some of them expired, but I set up some interviews for next week."

"Like what?"

"A lot of reception-type stuff at the Ministry," she explained. "You know, sort of like what I was doing before. And for a while, I was considering working at a bookshop –"

"Don't do that," he dismissed immediately, brow furrowed. "That's an absolute shit job."

"It's not!" She felt her stomach twist. "It's not bad, it's just not right for me."

He looked incredulous. "The pay's going to be awful, Rose. You know how bad the book business is right now."

"I know it's bad," she said quickly, and he seemed surprised. "It's in a dire state. I offered the owner of Flourish and Blotts some help in getting more of her owl orders up to speed, but she refused. I swear she hasn't thought about it since the nineties."

"I don't know why you bother," Albus said wearily. "See, this is why you should take the job at my office. You're way too smart to just sit around and wait for customers, and I swear you'll get promoted in no time."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "There's a lot more to it than that."

"Clearly not, since you just said the owner won't even let you update her owl-order service."

Rose pursed her lips shut, and Albus sighed.

"Look, don't take another shit job," he said, leaning forward. "You were stuck for so many years, but it actually looks like you're trying to figure something out for your life. Don't take a job where you can't grow, okay?"

"Merlin, Albus. Do you get a bonus or something if I sign on?" Rose jabbed back.

He leaned away, looking hurt. "No, not at all. I just care about you."

Rose sighed, knowing they were at a standstill again. Maybe they were communicating again, but he was still judgemental as ever. She couldn't figure out how he could be simultaneously so easy to talk to but also not understand her all.

"Don't shut me out, Rose," he said quietly, breaking the silence.

"I'm not, you just…" She trailed off. "You don't get it."

"Then make me get it," he insisted pleadingly. "I don't want to fight anymore."

"I don't want to fight either, it just keeps happening."

"Okay, okay," he said, holding his hands up. "I took tonight off from everything else to make time for you. I'm going to keep doing that after all the honeymoon, too. I promise."

Rose smiled cautiously. "You will?"

"Yeah." Albus dropped some change from his pocket beside their mostly-empty mugs on the table. "Do you want to come over? Takeaway and movie?"

"I thought you didn't do that anymore," Rose teased. "Remember? You said it was time for us to grow up and stop enjoying ourselves?"

"I was wrong about that." His voice was tight, like it was a difficult admission. "I was definitely wrong about that."

"Yeah, you were."

"I might be losing my mind." He stood, pushing his chair back. "Anyway, are you coming over?"

"Oh." Rose paused, tongue-tied all of a sudden. "I have plans."

"Oh, right. I should've checked with you." Then something seemed to dawn on Albus. "Wait, with Malfoy?"

"We're friends," she said immediately.

Albus started laughing. "Rosie, I might be thick sometimes, but I'm not blind."

"There may be certain benefits involved," she said, face feeling warm, "but we're just friends."

"All right," he said, amused. "I'll forgive you for not telling me about Malfoy if you forgive me about not telling you about the house."

"Deal."

"Good."

I really do mean it, Al," Rose said as they stood up. "We're just friends. All we're going to do is cook dinner and watch a movie."

She definitely wasn't going to add that when Scorpius mostly got bored halfway through the movie, he would either fall asleep or they would end up fucking on the couch. Could go either way, really.

"Well, if you're friends, you won't mind if I join, right?" Albus said with a knowing grin.

Rose opened and closed her mouth soundlessly; she couldn't argue with that.

"Fine," she decided as they got outside, heading towards her building. "But I'm picking the movie."

"It's been forever since I picked the movie!"

"That's your own fault," she pointed out, and Albus pouted. Despite the heat, he slung an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a sideways hug as they walked. The tension was easing, and even though they still had a wall between them, it seemed to be made of cardboard rather than brick.

She could work with that.

A/N: Hii! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Rose ran her 5K and she and Albus are working things out, sort of! haha. Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you thought :)

Next: Albus crashes Rose and Scorpius' movie night.