Chapter 8

"Good morning Rose," said Albus in a perky voice, as he leaned in through the doorway of Ron's room.

Noticing his overly sweet tone, Rose looked up from the book she was reading and glared. "What do you want?"

Albus gave a hurt expression. "Can't I just visit my favorite cousin without a reason?"

"Not this early in the morning you can't." She looked back down to her book, picking up where she had left off from.

Albus glided into the room with a thermostat of coffee in hand, grabbed the chair next to Rose and swiveled it around so that he could face her. Plopping down, he leaned forward and stared at her with a very wide smile.

"I'm not doing it," she said, and kept reading.

"You don't even know what I'm asking," cried Albus.

Rose popped her head up. "What is it?"

"Well I'm a bit behind on the paperwork for my case files and—"

"NO. No, no, no, no, no." She slammed her book shut. "I spend all day sitting in this room filling out nothing but files, I'm not about to do yours."

"Oh, come on," he groaned, slouching back into his chair–careful to not spill any of his coffee. "You could get it finished in half the time it would take me."

"HA," Rose barked. "That is the most ridiculous reasoning I have ever heard for why I should do your work."

"Not to me."

"Albus I—" Her words stopping as she caught sight of the thermostat in his hand. "Is that coffee?"

Albus looked uncertainly at the mug in his hand. "Yeah."

Rose reached out and grasped it, twisting the lid open and drinking from it. Though there was way too much cream and sugar in it for her liking, she leaned her head back and cherished the moment, closing her eyes as she took another sip.

"You alright?" asked Albus

Rose blinked a few times, her heart racing, and stared down at the mouthpiece of the cup where a small amount of coffee had pooled along the edge. Taking another slow sip, she nodded.

"Shouldn't you not be drinking that?" remarked Albus, and he reached out to take the cup away.

Hissing, Rose slapped his hand away. "Shouldn't you be working on telling your parents that you're gay?" she shot back.

"Okay." He wagged his finger. "Don't change the subject from my apparent laziness."

She moved the thermostat further away from him. "Don't try and take my coffee away."

"It's my coffee," he grumbled, but didn't try to take it away from her again.

They sat in silence as Rose took small sips from the mug. When she was apparently over her coffee fix, she asked, "How many files is it?"

"Two." Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "Plus ten."

"Twelve." Her jaw dropped. "How could you be so irresponsible?"

Albus shrugged. "I've been busy."

"Doing what?"

Sheepishly, he looked to the ground. "Preoccupying Ben from planning the wedding."

With an outrageous look, Rose swung her leg out and kicked Albus in the shin. "You are such an arse.

"Owoooah." She continued to kick him. "You're the one who proposed."

"Ouch, I know that." He scooted his chair farther away from her, until it hit the edge of Ron's bed.

Unable to kick him anymore, she suddenly stood up, her book falling to the floor and coffee spilling down her hand. "It's going to take a lot more to escape me Albus Potter," snarled Rose, placing the mug down and chasing after him.

Before he even had the chance to stand up and run, she was hovering over him and slapping him with her hands. Trapped in the chair, he did the only thing he could think of and curled his legs into his chest and tried to swat her hands away, but she was too fast.

"Ow, Ouch, Ow. Will you knock it off?" He squealed, unwilling to hit or kick her back for fear that he might accidentally hit the wrong place and harm the baby.

Rose understood that she was overreacting, but at the same time she felt justified in that she was standing up for someone who was in the exact same situation that she was in a month ago. The thought of poor Ben waking up every day, believing that everything was fine and happy, all the while unknowing to what was truly going on in his relationship. It was too similar to what she had been through with Scorpius. It made her aggravated and mad, and she just wanted to keep hitting Albus.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" she yelled, between slaps.

As she moved to beating on his head, Albus yelled the first thing that came to his mind. "I WASN'T READY!"

Upon hearing what he had said, Rose stopped instantly. "What?" she said in confusion, lowering her hands and staring at Albus in his defenseless position.

Albus breathed exasperatedly and looked around him to see that Rose was no longer going to hit him. Laying his head against the back the chair, he shut his eyes and relaxed his arms around his legs. "I wasn't ready," he said in a softer tone.

Rose scooted her chair next to Albus' and sat down, watching his red welted face scrunch up into a painful expression. "For which part? The coming out or the marriage?"

"Both," he said.

For the first time in her life Rose saw Albus look as though he was going to cry. Pulling her wand out of her pocket, she began to gently run it along the welts on his face and arms that she had caused.

When she was finished, Albus bowed his head to his knee and said, "He gave me an ultimatum. He said to tell my parents or he was going to leave me, and I didn't want him to break up with me so I proposed and it ended the argument."

Rose began to rub Albus' arm. "And what made you think that proposing would just solve the problem."

"I didn't think that it would." He peered up at her. "I thought I could do it. I thought I could tell my parents, but that night at dinner when I was supposed to tell them—" His green eyes were glassy and the tip of his nose red and oozing. "You and James just sort of knew about me. I didn't have to tell you."

Rose handed him a tissue from the bedside table.

"Ben wants too much," he said hoarsely, while blowing loudly into this tissue. "I wasn't ready to tell them because the second I said it then it would be out there for the world, and he knew that that was how I felt, yet he still pushed."

Rose took the dirty crumpled tissue and handed him another, which was covered in slime in a matter of seconds. Deciding to save time, she grabbed the box and placed it on the armrest of his chair.

When he was calm enough to speak, he said, "I just don't get what's so wrong with not being ready? I mean out of everything, shouldn't I at least get to decide this?"

"In theory, yes," said Rose.

"And it has just gotten worse recently. He's already pushing for me to tell the press as well, and I don't think I'll ever be ready for that." He started to pull his snot covered fingers through his hair.

"Albus, you can't keep up with this," she spoke assertively yet with a tender tone. "It'll destroy everything you have."

Albus dropped his hand and rubbed it over his knee. "In case you haven't noticed it already has. I'm not going to be able to give him what he wants."

"Yet you still want to be with him," she stated.

"I just wish it could be me and him. Why does the rest of the fucking world have to be involved?" He sighed.

Rose observed him in his childlike state. His mop of black hair stood up in fifty different directions. Slime seeped from his scrunched up red nose. He breathed deeply as though relieved with the conversation.

"Albus," she said pityingly.

"Hmm?" he asked.

"I'll do half of your files."

"Is this guy a ghost?" asked Harper, flinging a folder across the room, narrowly missing Scorpius' nose. It smacked the wall and slid to the floor, disheveling the papers inside.

Scorpius flicked his wand over his shoulder and without looking, he shoved the papers back into the folder.

"No," he said, "ghosts can't use mobiles."

"Of course they can't." Harper snatched the top folder off the stack in front of him. He breezily flipped through the pages of the folder, occasionally looking at Scorpius, who had barely moved the entire morning that they had been in the work room of the Auror office.

Their task was to determine the witch whose body washed up on the beach, a process that was becoming tediously long. They were in the wizards registration office, which was a small room cramped with floor to ceiling filing cabinets that extended out across the floor when opened. In the middle of the room there was rather large table with too many chairs squeezed around it. Harper could barely move when he took a seat; his stomach snug between the table edge and the chair pushed up against one of the file cabinets.

"You know computers do wonders for organizing files… and relieving space," he said.

"Not possible." The top of Scorpius head was facing Harper as he spoke. "The Magic interferes."

"Then how do you use cell phones?"

"With crappy reception, and even then they won't work in here." He shook his head to remove hair from his eyes.

"That's convenient," mumbled Harper, placing his hands over his cheeks and hunching over the file in a way that could only be described as a deep concentration to try and concentrate.

It was only after Harper had read the same sentence for the third time that his hand flung out beside him and a wild expression flickered in his eyes.

"How have you not gone crazy yet?" he asked madly.

Scorpius raised his head up with a sly smirk. "Mindy and I have been doing this for weeks."

"And where is Mindy? How come she doesn't have to be tortured?"

Scorpius chuckled and extended his arms in the air to stretch, making a popping sound with his laced fingers. "She is following the guy we saw with the girl last."

Disdainfully, Harper lowered his eyes back to the file, wondering how badly he really wanted to be on this case because he could make the argument that that it really wasn't in his jurisdiction even though he knew it was.

The door flung open, banging against one of the metal file cabinets and leaving a dent of the handlebar in it.

Mindy paid no attention to it as she strutted over to the table and dropped two paper bags in front of the men.

"You two look miserable," she said.

"We are." Harper stared at the bag before realizing that it was lunch.

His eyes drooped sappily at her. "I love you," he said, reaching for the bag and pulling out the large hamburger and fries that was inside.

Mindy wagged her eyebrows up and down. "I know," she stated. "And for you—" she turned to Scorpius, "I got one of those nutty salads."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "What kind?" he asked disdainfully, grabbing his own bag.

"I just told you. A salad with nuts."

Scorpius—his hand still in the bag—glared at Mindy. She was standing in a way that could one be describing as posing. Her short legs were stylishly propped in her tall boots and her hands placed flimsily on her hips. She flipped her hair so that it attractively fell over her shoulders, all while revealing a broad smile that sparkled.

Scorpius continued to stare, pulling out his salad and placing it on the table. "You're gloating," he said, reaching for the fork.

Mindy seemed pleased that he noticed. "I am."

"Why?" he asked.

Harper abruptly stopped eating and turned himself the best he could in his seat to stare at the confident Mindy. She began to swing her hands in front of her, snapping her fingers as she did so. "You have any luck on identifying the girl?" she said coyly.

"Please don't be mean," said Harper.

Mindy glided over to the table and picked at Harper's fries. "I may have gotten some news."

Harper's eyes widened with glint. "On the girl?"

"On the man." She said, turning to Scorpius. "His name is Randolph Gentry. He is an art curator for the Bond museum."

"Busy man," mumbled Harper, but Scorpius had a different expression on his face.

His lips were flat and stern as he became very stiff. "How did you find this out?"

Mindy's triumphant expression fell. "Calm down. I didn't talk to him. I followed him to his work and then talked to the front desk receptionist about him." Scorpius opened his mouth again but Mindy interrupted, "And before you ask, yes, I did a memory charm so she would forget the conversation."

Scorpius opened his salad plate. "You like to be rash."

Mindy stamped her foot. "I'm working on it," she said, sitting down. "I haven't told you the best part." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small rectangular business card. "He's also a private shopper and appraiser in his spare time, which means…"

"We have an in," said Scorpius.

"Exactly."

"When are you going to check him out?" asked Harper.

Mindy fumbled with the card, avoiding both of their eyes. "I may have made an appointment already."

Scorpius' fork stabbed through the bottom of his salad plate—oil and vinegar dressing dripping from the holes. "You did what?" he hissed.

Mindy threw her head back. "Oh, come on it's not that big of a deal."

"We haven't even discussed tactic yet. We can't just waltz in there without a plan."

"I have a plan."

"Right," he said, with an irritated voice, "And I bet it involves interrogating him right at the start."

She blenchingly lowered her eyes to stare at Harper's empty plate. Crossing her arms, she looked like a child in time out. "It's not that bad of a plan," she mumbled.

Scorpius had his elbows on the table, tasting the tangy residue of vinegar off his thumb as he chewed on the tip. "When is the meeting?" he asked, staring at the cabinet above her head.

"Monday," she squeaked.

Roughly, he smushed the side of his face into his hand, kneading his forehead with the pads of his fingers. Catching the time on his watch, he sighed and dropped his hand. "Fine. Monday then. I've got to leave."

He stood up, reaching behind him to grab his jacket and folding it over his arm. Mindy was narrowing her eyes to him. "While I'm gone," said Scorpius to Harper, "Get a better plan together."

"Will do," said Harper.

When Scorpius was gone, Harper looked back to Mindy, who had gone back to pouting.

"It's not a bad plan," she grumbled.

"Yeah, besides the fact that it could get someone killed, it's perfect," chided Harper, crumpling up his trash and shooting it into the trashcan like a basketball.

When he missed, Mindy scoffed.

That evening, when Rose walked into her class, she was surprised by the amount of people in it. There were about twenty pregnant women—each with different sized round belly—huddled in the center of the room laughing and chatting with one another. She watched as a few of the larger women wobbled around with their hands pressed to their backs for support, while others were like Rose and barely showing.

The men were near the far side of the room in their own quieter group, occasionally glancing over to their significant others before turning back to who they were talking to. Quickly, Rose scanned for Scorpius' snow blond head and sighed when she didn't see him. Making her way to the back of the room to take a seat, she chose the table that was closest to the emergency exit but with a less conspicuous view so no one would notice if she left during the middle of the class.

She looked at the walls, noticing for the first time that these were obviously muggle classes. The still posters on the wall diagramed the proper ways to give a baby cardiopulmonary resuscitation or Heimlich procedure without a wand or potion. On the tables, which had been laid out before people showed up, were plastic baby dolls with puckered lips and a small hole in the center meant for a toy bottle, along with a blanket, diapers and two thermometers.

At her desk was an older doll that had participated as a fake baby for several mothers to be before. It had a scruff marked head and round plastic eyes. Black patches of synthetic lashes that jutted out from the fake eyelids lodged inside the eyes, and its head was crookedly twisted in a position that made them blink only a sliver of the way down.

Now, Rose was never one for baby dolls growing up. She preferred the rag dolls that her grandmother Molly would make out of old shirts with sewn eyes and knitted dresses. So it wasn't surprising when she found every doll in the room equally creepy. However, what set hers apart from the rest, and had Rose entirely convinced that it was possessed, was that no matter where she moved, its eyes seemed to follow her.

The crooked neck non-moving half blinking baby had its beady little eyes perfectly stationed on her as though it were plotting. Its outstretched hands and feet permanently flailed in the air in an upside down crawl that made it look like a demon right out of hell, and Rose was having no part of it.

She looked to her neighbor's slightly less scary doll and decided that the best course of action would be to just switch the dolls, still wanting to maintain her seat near the exit. Strategically, she scoured the women in the middle and the men in their corners and once she was certain that absolutely no one was watching, she moved to make the swap. It was a simple, easy, harmless plan until she picked it up and damn thing release a blaring caw like screech that in its brand new days probably resembled a cry.

The hands and the feet started to move back and forth—a buzzing robotic sound coming from the motorized sockets of its limbs—chafing her chest as the screeching reached an ear numbing pitch.

The women in the room had stopped chattering. The men looked up from their phones. All eyes were drawn to Rose as the baby continued to act like the demented creature she'd always suspected it be. She spotted Jill in the center of the group rubbing her forehead with her eyes down cast.

Flustered, Rose looked for an off switch, turning the baby upside down and backwards in search for it as it cried twice as loud and resisted the uncomfortable movements. Heat started to creep up her neck as she scrambled. Her search lasting way longer than she had thought possible. Noticing the silent conversing of the staring women Rose did the first logical thing that came to mind.

Please don't judge me, she thought to her baby, before she bashed the doll head first on the table.

Meeting the horrified expressions of the women, Rose grimaced, the screeching still continuing from the doll. Everyone who watched gave apprehensive looks to one another as though they all knew the solution.

Reviving her search for the switch, she was grateful when a pair of hands reached from behind her and uplifted the doll from her grasp, suddenly making it go silent.

Rose ignored the looks from the class and turned to her husband.

"Where was the switch?" she asked tiredly.

Scorpius was closing the battery compartment in the middle of the doll's back. "I'm surprise you didn't figure that out on your own," he said, flipping it over to stare at it before dropping it on the table. "Creepy doll."

There was a collective mumbling throughout the group. Rose watched as they dispersed to their own tables. Jill looked as though she were about to go and talk to them, but when a stout man wearing a baseball cap walked in she went to a lone section of chairs instead.

Rose slumped down into her own seat and crossed her arms, staring in front of her at nothing in particular. She was annoyed that she hadn't thought to look inside the battery pack; a part of her feeling rather dim for not thinking about it. Reaching into her satchel, she pulled out a pen and notebook.

She looked to Scorpius. He was rubbing his eyes in a hard circular motion.

"You alright?" she asked.

His hand slid down his face, stretching the skin of his cheek. "Just work."

Rose thought about asking more, but the stout man had said, "Hello mummies and daddies," in a high pitched voice.

She turned forward to pay attention.

"In case you don't know me, I'm Andy." The man paced the front of the room with his fingertips pressed against each other, creating a triangular shape with his hands.

"We've had a few new people join recently, so I thought it might be time to have another discussion about—" He stopped walking and spun on his heels, letting the fingers fall between their spaces, "labor."

"Am I the only one here who finds it weird that this class is taught by a bloke," Scorpius whispered midway through the discussion.

With the prospect of learning, Rose had seemingly recovered from her embarrassing incident earlier. She dove into the familiar and comfortable mindset of sitting in a classroom, absorbing everything that the instructor had to offer. Already, she had several pages of notes written down.

Giving little acknowledgement to Scorpius' statement, she made and abrupt "Shh," not willing to miss a single word of the lecture.

"All I'm saying is how could he possibly understand the experience?" mumbled Scorpius, watching Rose still scribble at a rapid pace. "It's not like he's ever going to go through it."

"I'm trying to listen," said Rose turning to look at him.

"To what?" A sardonic look crossed Scorpius' eyes. "We've been here an half an hour, and the only thing I've seemed to learn is that you're going to be in a lot of pain. And to be completely honest, I already knew that… So did you."

Defiantly, Rose moved to pick up her pen again but after a futile glance to Andy decided to leave it down. Mimicking Scorpius' relaxed position, she leaned back, covering her barely visible stomach with her hands.

"You're in a mood today," She commented.

Scorpius released a low grumble. "I'm fine."

She glanced to the front of the class to make sure she wasn't being disruptive. "What's going on with work," she asked, casually scratching the back of her neck.

"Nothing to worry about."

"That is the absolute worst thing to say to someone when you don't want them to worry."

Andy's voice had stopped talking. Realizing the silence, Rose looked to him staring at them. The rest of the class staring as well. "Sorry," she mouthed, watching as Andy turned back to the rest of the class and began speaking again.

Scorpius held his lips with his cheeks slightly puffed together, suppressing a laugh.

"That is not funny," whispered Rose, reaching for her pen in attempt to go back to her note taking.

"It's a little bit funny."

Rose scratched feverishly to catch up with the lecture, though she had already read most of what was being said.

Scorpius let her write for a moment and stuck his hands into his pocket, purposefully demonstrating that he wasn't going to corporate.

"And are you worried about me?" he asked, in a low cocky tone.

Rose continued to scribble, trying her best not give attention to Scorpius. "Shh, you are very distracting."

Scorpius shrugged and gave a cheeky grin, slithering his arm out across the table, over her notebook. "But are you?"

Rose slammed her pen down and stared. His eyes were twinkling and playful. Whatever mood he had been in before had disappeared.

Rose gave an icy glare, but it was contradicted by the broad smile on her face. "Not particularly at the moment."

Scorpius snickered, moving his arm off her notes.

"Alright class," Andy's soprano voice said, sounding like a peeved mother. "Now, let's move on to our lesson."

"Finally," Scorpius sighed.

"So today we are going to talk about how to take a baby's temperature." Andy reached to his desk and picked up the thermometers. "Now, there are a few things you need to know. First there are two ways to do it depending on what kind of thermometer you have."

Rose and Scorpius both stared at the simple battery operated ear thermometer that Andy was holding up. Instantly they met each other's eyes, collectively knowing that the little power in that would not be able to withstand the magic that surrounded their apartment.

"Now, this one," Andy was holding up a skinny stick like glass thermometer, "is a bit more complicated so I would like you to do it along with me."

Rose picked up the duplicate thermometer on their table and turned it around in her hands.

"So, with your baby you are going to have to use petroleum jelly to dip the thermometer in, but since these babies aren't real, we are going to skip that step," said Andy. "Now, you're going to dip the end in the jelly and then carefully insert the tip into its bum."

Rose dropped the thermometer on the table, not loud enough for anyone to hear, and whipped her head to Scorpius. His face extremely pale, and his eyes wide and disturbed.

"Where did he say that you stick it?" Rose asked.

"Up its bum." Scorpius nodded, sucking in his lips.

"Thought so," she stated, refusing to look at the thermometer. Altering her glance to stare at the edge of the table, she chewed on her lip. "You can brew a temperature testing potion right?"

"I'm going to learn."

"Right." She looked around the classroom as the other parents practiced putting glass thermometers in the baby dolls' bums—some looking as disgusted as Rose and Scorpius. Andy was walking around the room giving helping those who were having trouble. Rose finally got up the courage to stare at the thermometer and then to the creepy doll. There was no way.

"Want to sneak out the back?" she suggested.

"You have no idea."

Quickly gathering their things they tiptoed to the back exit near their seats. They would have plenty of opportunities to prove that they weren't going to be awful parents but both of them agreed that today wasn't that day.

The second they were outside, they rushed out of the alleyway and onto a sparsely crowded street. There was about a foot of space between them as they moved in a hurried fashion as though trying to get as much space between them and the school as possible. Neither of them noticed that it was nearly dusk, or the streetlamps that flicked on as they walked by. Their only goal was to get somewhere populated.

Finally reaching a street with several restaurants and shops that seemed to be well stocked with customers, they felt it safe to stop and take a breath.

"We are going to be the world's worst parents" Rose said, plopping herself down on a bench.

"No," Scorpius corrected. "We just have a better alternative."

"That's one way of putting it." Rose ran her hands over her stomach, taking large heavy breaths.

Scorpius leaned back with her, feeling his heart return to normal. They both looked at each other, silently chuckling at what they had just done. When the moment passed they both looked straight ahead not sure what to do next.

"What's going on at work?" asked Rose.

"I really don't—" But after catching Roes' eyes, he knew that he couldn't avoid the subject much longer. "It's really nothing, just my partner likes to make plans without consulting me first, and it's stressing me out."

"Well that's ironic," she said.

"What?"

"That she's a bit rash. Sounds like you."

Scorpius gave her an outlandish look. "I am not rash."

"Ha." Rose tipped her head back in laughter. "I've worked with you on two cases and both of them wound up with you in the hospital."

Scorpius' jaw dropped but he had no argument. "There's a difference. I only make rash decisions that will get me killed. Not the rest of the team."

The smile that was on Rose's face faded into a flat stern line. Her eyes beamed into him as though trying to examine his brain. "Yeah…well…" she cut off, turning her gaze to the pavement.

She pushed herself up off the bench and started to walk away. Scorpius stared at her, watching as she walked in a steady but fast pace. Realizing what he had said, he stood up to follow.

"Rose," he called after her, keeping a good distance between them.

She marched forward and shook her head.

"Rose, come on." Scorpius followed. "I didn't mean it like that."

"You don't think," she stated urgently, flapping her arms to the side. She stopped walking and pivoted to look at him. Scorpius had quit moving, seeing the upset on her face. "You never think about the consequences. As if the state of marriage isn't enough, one of these days you are going to get yourself killed, and damnit I need you to stop."

Scorpius did not dare move forward. For the first time, he noticed how ill-fitting her clothes were. The tightness of her shirt revealing the small bump that she usually kept hidden under baggier t-shirts, and her shorts leaving little room to conceal a wand strap.

"Where's your wand?" he asked concerned.

Rose stared at him with empty eyes. Her lips pressed together in an expressionless line, they parted the slightest bit in the center to breathe through, making her look younger. She tilted her head. The iridescent light from the street lamp showing the dark circles under her eyes that had been tactfully covered up by makeup, but slowly worn away throughout the day.

"At home."

Scorpius didn't ask her why, under the impression that Rose hadn't even noticed that she was missing such a key piece of equipment.

"How did you get here?"

"The underground," she mumbled, her cheek giving an indistinguishable twitch. "I like to feel normal on it."

Scorpius wasn't sure if the look on Rose's face was fear or stress, but regardless he noticed just how fragile she was. How easily she would break if something else were to happen. Taking small steps, he filled the distance between them, stopping just out of reach to her.

"I'll do better," he whispered.

Rose lifted her head up, her lips pursed and her eyes squeezed shut as though she only wanted to sleep. "I don't want to see you in the hospital again." She opened her eyes. "I can't deal with another person in the hospital."

"I'll be better," he said.

Rose nodded and composed herself again. Tuning, she walked at a gradual paced; Scorpius following along beside her. They continued in silence. When they reached the stairway to the underground they both walked down.

Quietly waiting at the station, Rose indulged in the comfort of having Scorpius near her, even though he didn't have to be. When her train whizzed by and came to a stop they both got on and stood near the back of the compartment, holding onto the rail above them.

"You don't have to do this," Rose said.

"You're my wife. That does tend to mean that I love you and care about your wellbeing."

Rose bent her head down and smiled, feeling her body pull forward as the train began to move.

"Can I ask you a question?" Scorpius asked.

"Like what?"

Scorpius moved in to her to give himself space from the man's knees behind him. "How did you get pregnant?" he asked.

Rose shot her head up almost knocking him in the chin. "You were there for it."

Scorpius chuckled. "I know, and I'm not complaining. I'm just curious." He leaned closer into her ear. "You told me not to use anything because you were on that monthly potion and that it was a hundred percent guaranteed."

Rose pulled her head back and nodded in agreement. "And it is," she stated. "When you take it."

Realization crossed his eyes. "So you didn't—"

Rose averted her eyes down the train at a couple pleasantly sitting with their arms wrapped around each other. "You know, after Christmas everything wasn't perfect." She turned back to Scorpius. "I was happy to be with you. I really was, but that didn't mean that my parents disappeared from my thoughts."

Scorpius softened his grip on the steel bar he was holding onto and listened as she continued. "The week in March when I was supposed to take it, I had that case that was going to trial that I had to testify for, and it also was the week of my father's birthday."

The train screeched to a stop, jerking everyone forward. The doors slid open while several passengers got off, leaving seats available, but Rose and Scorpius remained standing.

"I kept debating if I should go to his celebration, or send a present, or card, or… do something. I didn't, but that was all I could think about. And then that with the case…I just forgot."

Shocked, Scorpius ran his free hand through his hair, letting it stick up messily.

"You mad?" Rose asked, in a voice that sounded as though she didn't care if he was.

"No. We all make mistakes."

Rose rolled her eyes up to the roof of the train. "Me and you sure know how to make some big life altering ones."

The train come to another halting stop. Rose could feel her grip loosening on the railing, as she lost her balance and crashed into Scorpius chest. His arm instinctively wrapping around her, holding her in place as a passenger from behind her got up to leave. "Isn't this your stop?"

Rose looked back to the open doors. Her ear pressed against his chest, and her cheek taking in his warmth. She inclined her head in, burying her nose into his shirt to take in the smell of pumpkin spice. For the first time in a while feeling safe even though she knew that her heart was at risk.

"There's other stops," she said, and curved her own arm around his back to hold onto him. Both of them watching as the train doors closed.

A/N: So I know I'm a bit late, but I promise I will become more consistent with this story again. This year has just been busy and full of drama. Anyways, thank you so much for reading and please let me know what you think. How about the insight to Albus or The Rose/Scorpius scenes at the end? Hope you liked it.