"I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Rose Weasley blinked at her boyfriend blankly, wide blue eyes glazed over from the effects of far too much alcohol. She opened her mouth as if to speak but closed it with a hiccup, her perfect shoulders bouncing slightly.
In her silence, Scorpius Malfoy's brain caught up to his mouth and in a terrifying second, he realized what he had just set aloud. At that moment, a million thoughts flooded his firewhiskey addled brain causing him to feel a bit dizzy.
You see, it had all started when they had gotten together and Scorpius had felt a sense of finality between them. From the moment that he pressed his lips to hers in the Gryffindor common room, Scorpius has known that there wouldn't ever be anyone else, that he was meant to spend the rest of his life loving Rose Weasley. But at the time he was hardly 17 and the thought of anything past the next day seemed too far in advance. And so, on that achingly cold November night in his sixth year at Hogwarts, Scorpius accepted the fact that he was irrevocably in love with Rose Weasley and he tucked it away deep within him. After all, there was no need to scare her off right as he'd finally gotten her, right?
The thought was not lost on him though, certainly not. It came to him in the smallest of moments; in her hushed laugh echoing down an empty corridor while they did rounds together, in the deep red of her hair and how when she wore it in a ponytail, little wisps that looked like fire framed her face, in the way her blue eyes squinted as she scowled at him whenever he joked about the time he'd beat her at chess.
He finally told her at the end of their sixth year. With the scarlet Hogwarts Express as their background, he'd kissed her goodbye on the platform as they parted ways for summer hols. He was to spend three weeks with his parents in Paris, too far for either of them to apparate. Embarrassingly enough, he was dreading being apart from her more than he'd like to admit. He would miss having her just a few steps away, always ready to talk to him, make him laugh, or kiss him silly.
She'd pulled away from their kiss, a menacing smirk gracing her features that looked frighteningly like his own. "You seem like you're going to miss me a bit, Malfoy.
"Oh, never," he said with a wave of his hand.
"Oh yeah?" she asked, her chin jutted in defiance in an attempt to distract from the flush creeping up her neck. "Well, I'm going to miss you. I'm going to miss you a lot, actually."
At that he'd pulled her against his chest roughly and felt her sigh against him, arms wrapping around his middle. "It's only a couple of weeks. I'll be back before you know it."
She nodded into his chest and when she looked up at him he was horrified to find her blue eyes sparkling with tears. He dipped his head, capturing her lips in his once again. Much too soon for his taste, she pulled away and gave him a watery smile.
"You should go."
He nodded knowing that she was right. Over her head, he started at the sight of her father walking towards them, an angry expression on his face. Taking her hand in his, he gave it a gentle squeeze. She squeezed back and right as she turned away, without thinking, he shouted it out.
"I love you, Rose."
She whipped around at an alarming speed, eyes wide in shock. His expression had to look something similar and they gaped at each other, both oblivious to Rose's father approaching quickly.
"Rose," her father called, causing her to turn around again. A pained expression crossed her face as she realized that she needed to leave. Looking back to Scorpius one last time, she smiled that dazzling smile and said it right back.
It was only later through owl post that she'd inform him that he'd told her he loved her once before when Gryffindor had won the quidditch cup less than a week prior after several shots of firewhiskey. He'd been furious with himself for botching things so terribly even though she swore up and down she didn't mind; she was just glad he'd said it again, this time while sober. He swore off firewhiskey anyway.
But that was an entire year ago. They'd said it to one another loads of times in loads of situations. It was second nature now for him to write it in letters, whisper it into her hair as he hugged her, and moan against her skin as she did delightful things to him. His feelings for her were quite obvious as we hers for him.
What he had failed to mention though was how he didn't just love her. Love didn't even seem big enough to describe the way he felt. The sun seemed to rise and set with Rose Weasley and a future without her as the pinnacle seemed worthless to him and she needed to know.
In hindsight, he probably could have realized that these feelings too were implied at this point in their relationship, but he was a boy. A very stupid boy who'd happened to fall into the grips of the enemy he'd so dutifully sworn off for a full year.
Firewhiskey.
The Burrow was buzzing with life with all members of the Weasley clan fluttering about, bouncing between eating, talking, laughing, and of course, drinking. Scorpius had been joining in on their family gatherings since he, Albus, and Rose met in their first year. Being the son of Draco Malfoy made things awkward in the beginning, but both Al and Rose did a fairly good job of ignoring the opinions of others. So, before much could be said, Scorpius was a regular at Weasley events.
Being an honorary Weasley meant many things, specifically an insane amount of family gatherings. Between the dozens of birthdays, anniversaries, and celebrations, there was never a shortage of parties to be thrown. But graduation parties, in particular, were not taken lightly amongst the Weasleys and Scorpius had been anticipating attending Rose and Albus' for years. But what he hadn't been expecting was to show up and see a banner with not only their names on it but his too.
His parents were even there, something that had to have been awkward for all parties involved. He couldn't ignore the stinging in his eyes as he looked around at his family: the Weasleys, Potters, Lupins, and of course, his mum and dad too. He looked down at Rose to see her giving him a smile that made fireworks burst in his chest and he knew that she must have helped plan this.
Before he could get too sidetracked by staring at who was most definitely the love of his life, his mum had swept him into an uncharacteristically long hug. She pressed a kiss to his temple and whispered that she and his father were proud of him. His father squeezed his shoulder and explained that they'd only be able to stay for a bit, making an excuse about having to leave for work. He knew that his dad was only leaving to spare further awkwardness with Rose's family, and as much as that pained Scorpius, he was glad that his dad had at least made an effort to come and support him.
He lost sight of Rose as he was tossed between her family members who all wanted to know things about the internship he would soon be starting at St. Mungos and where he and Rose would be living. Rose's mum hugged him tightly and dove into a conversation about the books she'd been reading about the wizarding medical field. Rose's father clapped him on the back and they easily began talking about the Cannon's recent win, the first one in nearly a decade. It touched him that Rose's family cared so deeply for him. It had been a bit overwhelming at first, but he'd learned to lean into it and was incredibly relieved that their treatment of him had never reflected his familys' past.
Now he sat at the edge of the small pond behind the misshapen house with one arm loosely around Rose's waist and the other gripping what had to be his third or fourth glass of firewhisky. James had created quite a large bonfire where all of the cousins, much more inebriated than their parents would care for, sat around drinking and recounting stories from years past at Hogwarts. It had become a tradition of sorts and it was something that Scorpius looked forward to every year. Rose was leaning against him as they watched Lily and Hugo give a lively performance of what Professor Flitwick might look like if he fell off of the large stack of books he so often stood on.
Everyone was too busy laughing to notice Scorpius and Rose slip away and leave the circle to make their way to the water's edge. No one but Rose knew how much he loved the pond behind the Burrow. The murky water seemed to hold some of his favorite memories: the summer before his second year when Scorpius, for the first time in his life, had a best friend, the moment that he realized that he properly fancied Rose, the feeling of her tackling him into the water from behind and capturing his lips in a searing kiss. The Burrow, the pond specifically, gave him back pieces of a childhood that he had never properly received and so he gladly visited every chance he got.
Both leaning on each other for support, they collapsed on the dewy grass in a fit of giggles. Lying on their backs, they stared at the stars and Rose, having had several more drinks that Scorpius, continued to drunkenly laugh while making up names for different clusters of stars, claiming that she was going to create new constellations.
"And that one there is called Celestina Warbeck's left arse cheek," she said, sending herself into hysterical peals of laughter.
"Oh is it now?" he said with a snigger.
She nodded and clumsily rolled on top of him, a task that made the pair laugh even harder. Her shock of red hair fell around them and served as a curtain, masking them from the outside world. She leaned in to kiss him but missed, getting a face full of wet grass instead causing her to shriek with laughter. She collapsed against him and pressed a kiss to his neck instead causing shivers to run down his spine and his mind to cloud over.
It wasn't until she'd finished undoing the buttons on his shirt and his hand was halfway up her skirt that he sobered up enough to realize that her family was sitting only a few meters away from them. As drunk as the lot of them might have been, he wasn't going to risk all of Rose's cousins seeing the parts of themselves that they saved explicitly for each other.
Breathing heavily, Rose flopped down next to him and gave him a smile that made his insides twist. Her skirt was still hiked up giving him a clear view of her creamy, freckled skin, leaving him to hazily reminisce on how soft she was.
"What are you thinking about," she said, blue eyes still cloudy and dark from what had almost happened between them moments ago.
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you," he blurted out before he could stop himself.
She opened her mouth and then slowly closed it, giving him a strange look. He hadn't meant to say it, it had just slipped out. And now she was staring up at him with a pensive look and he wanted to disappear because of course, he had screwed things up. They'd been having a lovely evening and as always, his great big mouth had ruined it.
"Well I would hope so," she replied after a few moments, causing his heart to stop.
"I mean it, Rose," he said once he'd gotten a grip on himself, head spinning from sitting up too quickly. "I love you and I don't ever want to love anyone else."
"I'm happy that we're on the same page then," she said with a laugh. If she knew one thing to be true it was that her boyfriend could absolutely not hold his alcohol. He blinked at her owlishly and instead of replying he offered her his hand and shakily helped her into a seated position.
"I don't think you understand what I'm saying," he said finally, looking at her like she'd grown an extra head. "I want to be with you forever. As in the rest of my life. Like, until I'm dead," he finished unceremoniously.
"This better not be a proposal, Scorpius because I will absolutely say no," Rose said with a smirk, giggling at the look of horror that crossed his face.
"Fuck no," he said quickly. "We haven't even moved in together yet! I just mean that I love you so much and that I want to do it all with you, Rose. Every last bit of what this life has to offer."
"Scorpius," she said, unable to suppress the grin from spreading across her face. He always did get soppy when he was drunk. "I want that too."
He stared at her dumbly. "Did you hear what I said?"
She laughed and brought up a hand to cup his cheek, the world around her spinning slightly. "Of course I heard you, silly. I'm pretty sure the entire world did too. You're very loud."
"So you want to be with me too? Forever?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
She nodded and slipped a hand into his. "I do. I thought that was a bit obvious by now but I guess I need to remind you more often."
"You want to be with me forever," he repeated, eyeing her warily.
"Scorpius," she said firmly, her sincerity helping to sober both of them up a bit. "I love you completely. You love me the same. That's all."
"That's all?"
She smiled and shrugged, her blue eyes sparkling. "The rest is confetti."
Looking at her, her soft smile and fiery red hair and the freckles that seemed to cover every inch of her, he couldn't resist the pull inside of himself. Grasping her face between his hands, he moaned unabashedly as her lips glided against his. He would never be able to verbalize all that she meant to him, but he hoped that it was conveyed in the tenderness of his touch, the way he worshiped the ground she walked on.
They stayed like that, lying near the pond's edge, legs intertwined and lips locked until something crashed into the water in front of them. They hadn't even noticed James and Fred sprinting past them, hurtling themselves to the murky water of the pond. Still not thinking clearly, Scorpius pulled a laughing Rose to her feet and pushed her in only for her to drag him along with her. Soon the pond was overtaken by the (mostly) redheaded group of teenagers who were, quite frankly, drunk off of their arses.
It wasn't until later on that their parents trickled outside to find them laying over one another on the grass, all sleeping soundly. No one batted an eye and Rose curled up next to Scorpius. They belonged together and anyone with a brain could see it.
And when Scorpius and Rose woke up the next morning to the sun rising and being much too bright for their liking, their heads were pounding and Rose had to refrain from throwing up all over her who was now confirmed as the love of her life. It was hot, they were tired and felt like they'd been hit by the Hogwarts Express. But they were together. They loved each other and it was going to stay that way forever. And at that moment, Scorpius wouldn't have changed a thing.