Atria groaned and gave Scorpius a threatening look.

"Just apologize!" She threw her hands in the air.

"I haven't done anything! I'm not even sure what we're fighting about." Scorpius snapped. A few people looked at them and then went back to their coffee. They were sitting in a muggle cafe in some Spanish town that Atria hadn't bothered to learn the name of.

"That's why you need to apologize. You've upset Rose, so just talk about it and then move on. You lot have to room together this year and that's not going to be pleasant if you're at each other's throats." Atria hissed. "And she's mad at you because of Jenny and Sal." She told him. Scorpius gasped.

"Why would she be mad about Sal, I'm the one who's supposed to be mad about Sal?" He outraged and Atria shook her head. Seriously, for a top student/Head Boy prospect, Scorpius was an idiot.

"She's mad at you because you act like Rose shouldn't date Sal solely based on the reason that you don't like him-"

"You don't like him either." Scorpius interjected.

"I know, but I'm going to support her until we have concrete reason not to. And it's different that I don't like him, I'm not dating someone that she hates." Atria pointed out and dumped some sugar into her tea and stirred it.

"I'm not dating Jenny anymore." Scorpius said immediately.

"She just doesn't like it when people tell her what to do. She needs to come to her own conclusion about Sal." Atria told him him.

"What if they get together and stay together?" Scorpius looked like he might throw up.

Atria sighed, "Look, I'll support her, but I don't think that's going to happen. He's just not right for her," Due to the fact that Atria was pretty sure he was a Death Eater, "but in the mean time, I'll support her."

"Even if they break up, Rose will find someone new." Scorpius muttered hatefully.

"And you'll just have to accept that." Atria said slowly, taking in Scorpius's behavior. He took a long drink from his coffee, probably wishing it was firewhiskey. He looked extremely distressed by the fact that Rose had a social life outside of their circle. "What's with the overprotective act?" Atria asked bluntly.

Scorpius sputtered. "I don't like Sal." Hhe mumbled eventually.

"Me either." Atria agreed, "I think he had something to do with the dark mark over the school." She admitted and he blanched.

"And yet you're supporting Rose."

"Yes, because I have no proof."

Scorpius sighed and they sat in silence for a few minutes. Atria watched people come and go. She thought about the muggles and how boring their lives must be and how a few years ago she would have thrown up at the prospect of sitting in a muggle cafe.

"How do you like dragons?" Scorpius asked.

Atria shrugged. "I don't see dragons anymore. Now I'm stuck at a desk like the rest of you. Filing papers, doing reports… it isn't for me." She said dully, giving him a forced smile.

Scorpius opened his mouth but Atria didn't let him speak, "If you tell me that I'm too reckless I will punch you." Scorpius closed his mouth.

"How is Rose?" He asked after a long pause.

"She's freaking out. She can't wait to find out her test scores and she's worried that she won't be Head Girl… the list goes on and on." Scorpius nodded dejectedly, his jaw working. "And she misses you. So please, just apologize." She gave him a pleading look.

He wiped his hand down his face. "Fine."

"Excellent." Atria jumped up and took out a Euro. "I'll see you at the celebrations after the wedding!" She started to walk away.

"You're leaving?" Scorpius stood up.

"Yea, I just had to get you to apologize to Rose." She laughed and then left. He dropped his head back and groaned.

Scorpius arrived late to the afterparty. He immediately began searching for Rose. He ignored Freddie and quickly greeted Mrs. Potter, but then focused only on Rose. He could have sworn he saw a smirk on Atria's face, but he didn't pay any notice to her. Victoire looked beautiful, her hair was done up in a fancy way…

Scorpius's thought process stopped. The first thing he noticed was her neck. It was showing and looked like creamy porcelain. And then his eyes worked their way up to her face. Rose almost never wore anything other than some mascara, but today her cheeks were pinker and some freckles that usually resided on her nose were gone. Her lips were a deeper pink and her eyes looked more green than hazel, probably because of the eyeliner.

Scorpius took a deep breath and then strode toward her. She was on the outskirts of the dancing floor, her hands folded in front of her, watching the party. When her gaze met his, he stumbled a bit. Scorpius had forgotten how piercing Rose's eyes were, he had always felt like she could see right through him.

"Hi." He said softly.

"Hello." Rose replied, looking at the ground.

There was an awkward pause. Scorpius looked around and tried to think of something to say. "You look lovely." He noticed that she was wearing Slytherin colors and smiled. "Really lovely."

"Thank you." The right corner of her mouth lifted and then smoothed back into a flat line, but it gave him hope to see that ghost of a smile. He opened his mouth. "So who talked you into it?"

"Hmm?" He mumbled stupidly.

"Albus? Atria? Amanda? I bet it was Attie. When did you even see her?"

Scorpius held his hands up. "Slow down. Yes, I spoke with Atria, but I came to talk to you because I wanted to." He took a step forward, giving her his softest smile.

She looked up at him through her long lashes. "Really? Are you going to apologize?"

He took a deep breath. "Yes. I shouldn't have tried to control you. You are allowed to spend time with whomever you so choose, even if I don't approve." He clenched his teeth, thinking of slimy Salvatore.

"And…?"

"And I was a hypocrite." He concluded and dropped his head in shame.

Suddenly he was thrown back as Rose jumped into his arms. "I've missed you." She whispered in his ear.

His throat felt constricted as he said, "Me too. I never want to go that long without talking to you again." She pulled away and smile up at him keeping her arms around his waist.

I love you. Scorpius's eyes shot wide. Judging by the way she hadn't sprung away from him he hadn't said that outloud. He immediately tried to rationalize his thought process by telling himself of course he loved her. Like he loved Attie or Amanda or even Albus.

That lasted two seconds before he realized that he wanted to kiss Rose senseless. He leaned in, but she just took that as an invitation to hug again.

"So how have you been?" She pulled back and stepped away. Scorpius felt a severe drop in the temperature as he lost her body heat.

He cleared his throat and pushed his temporary loss of sanity to the back of his mind. "Alright. Busy working at the ministry and everything." Rose nodded and frowned.

"I feel like we've missed too much this summer. It's our last summer before Hogwarts and we've barely seen each other. And I'm not talking about you and me, it's everyone - Amanda, Attie…"

"It does feel like things are falling apart." Scorpius agreed and downed a glass of butterbeer.

"Two of our best friends were poisoned, one of them by Death Eaters… this year isn't turning out the way I always dreamed it would." Scorpius saw her eye shine and knew that she was about to cry.

"Everything will work itself out. The Death Eaters will be gone and everything will go back to normal." Scorpius assured her, but even he didn't believe it. No matter how this played out there was going to be casualties and things wouldn't ever be the same. "So depressing," Scorpius murmured and Rose bit her lip.

Scorpius forced himself not to stare.

"Oh, Grandma's calling me over. I'll be right back." Rose said and she walked past him. He turned to watch her go. She was talking to more relatives that he didn't know and he watched the way she played with the hem of her dress.

"Hello, Malfoy."

Scorpius focused his eyes and realized that Ron Weasley was standing next to him.

"Hello, Mr. Weasley." He cleared his throat nervously.

"How've you been?"

Scorpius swallowed, not sure where this was going. "Alright. And you."

Ron nodded. "Busy with the Death Eaters."

"Do you know anything? I mean, anything you're allowed to tell me." Scorpius prodded.

"We don't know a whole lot either. We know that we captured Death Eaters, and technically we're not supposed to call them death eaters, but we don't know who they are. We don't have a lot of information." Ron sighed and rubbed his temple.

"Why not?"

"Well, once they were in Azkaban we didn't see the need. They disappeared and it wasn't until they broke out that it was confirmed that they are Death Eaters, but by then it was too late to get personal information."

"You didn't get names?"

"More like they wouldn't give names."

Scorpius sighed, "Brilliant. So you have nothing." Ron glared at him and Scorpius swallowed. Maybe insulting Rose's father wasn't the best idea so he took a deep breath.

"We need information. Unfortunately, there is no one who can give us what we need."

They both took long gulps from their drinks.