It had been a week since Sam's fight with his mother had resolved reasonably peacefully and Christmas was right around the corner.
He and Rose were out for dinner at The Blue Vinny, Puddletown's only restaurant.
Rose preferred the quietness of her small town over the hustling and bustling busy-body vibe of somewhere like the Leaky Cauldron or anywhere in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.
As they shared a pizza, Sam related how things were going at his new job.
.
"Working at the care centre is hard, I mean, they're mostly running around all over the country and continent studying new creatures, and only bringing back injured creatures or new species they wanted to catalogue. So I'm doing most of the day-to-day managing of the centre."
"That sounds like a lot of responsibility, how are you finding it compared to your old job?"
"I miss all the running around, chasing and capturing things, but I'm also getting a lot more in-depth knowledge about the creatures I'm caring for. I have to know their feeding or hunting needs, their medical needs, catalogue what we know about them - which is actually for Luna and Rolf's new book. They said I would get a writing credit."
Rose's face lit up in delight, "Sam that's amazing! Wow, what fantastic opportunity!"
Sam laughed at her reaction, "Yeah it's pretty crazy. It's different from was doing in India, but I feel like it's a step in a new direction and what I really needed."
.
As they finished up dinner, Sam delighted in paying the bartender in muggle money while Rose tried not to roll her eyes - choosing to live in a small muggle-town had meant as a matter of course she had sorted out with the Ministry a method of exchanging a few galleons for pounds.
She was rather used to it but indulged Sam's excitement.
As they began to walk down the main street of Puddletown back to Rose's house in the cold evening air, Sam reached into the pocket of Rose's coat to hold her hand.
"I know my hand is probably freezing, but this still feels like a novelty."
Along the walk it started to snow, softly and gently, the icy flakes drifted down landing on their eyelashes, hair and clothes.
.
When they got to Rose's street Sam restrained himself and didn't even make a Butt Close joke (impressive!).
Rose walked up to the door, waved her wand with a whispered alohomora and opened the door, she gestured for him to come inside.
"Come in, get out of the snow."
Sam hesitated for the briefest moment, his heart jump starting a little before stamping the snow of his shoes and following her into her warm and cosy house.
It wasn't that he didn't want to come but, but rather that Sam and Rose had been taking things quite slowly.
He didn't want to rush her into anything.
Besides, his throat was feeling dry while his palms were getting sweaty and butterflies rampantly flipped around in his stomach.
.
Taking off his coat as Rose brought to life a roaring fire in the grate, Sam cleared his throat awkwardly, "I don't have to stay you know, I can floo home if you're tired."
"I'm not tired and I have a late start tomorrow at Mungos… unless you want to be getting home."
"No, no, not at all," Sam backtracked quickly.
"I'm just a little nervous because, well, it's late and we're taking things slow and I only want to stay if you want me to..."
Rose smiled at Sam, basking in the heat of the fire and in how cute she found his nervousness.
She looked at him directly and took his hand, "Sam, I want you to stay."
They held the silence for a moment, intensely, until Sam squeezed her hand warmly, "Great,' he whispered softly.
.
Rose pulled him back and plonked them both down on her ugly purple couch, although its charm was growing on Sam.
She then leaned her head onto his shoulder, cuddling into his knitted woollen jumper and tracing the S on the front - a classic Nana Weasley production.
"I'm really glad you managed to sort things out with your Mum, by the way, thanks for writing me - I was worried."
Sam nodded gently, "Yeah, it was a really sad story and I just thought you and Al would want to know. Besides, you were so concerned about her opinion of us, I wanted you to know she apologised and agreed my love life wasn't much of her business."
They laughed softly and Rose turned her face up just close enough to give Sam a light peck on the lips.
.
"Do you remember when we used to talk constantly through those diaries we had? Those Protean Charm ones?"
"How could I possibly forget. I really regret burning them," Sam leaned his head on the top of Rose's soft red curls, his nerves fading away some.
"I don't, we must have send some really dumb stuff back then - our worlds were so bloody small."
"Well learning about what happened with Yatin, I kind of feel like our world is still small. We've never had to worry about evil forces taking over the world, killing our friends, fighting for our lives."
Rose grinned and looked up at Sam, "And that's how I bloody-well like my life! Quiet and simple."
"Yeah I got that from the whole 'I live in a place called Butt Close, Puddletown' Rose," Sam snickered.
"Fuck you Malfoy, this is a lovely town with no mean witches or wizards looking to snap my picture for Witch Weekly-"
"Oh so I don't understand the need to live at Butt Close because I'm not as famous as you? Believe you me, if I ever wrote about what happened with us or did some exclusive interview - we'd have books written about us in a heartbeat. I could be an international heart throb."
"International heart throb!?"
.
Rose's faux outrage was adorable and Sam couldn't help reaching out a hand to give her fringe a soft tug.
She reached her hand out to pinch his nose, but instead grabbed his chin and brought his face to hers, gently placing another kiss on his lips.
This time, lingering and deep.
Sam responded, wrapping his arms around her body and pulling her close, allowing the warmth from the fire to let him sink deeply into her, his eyes closed yet yearning to see her.
Rose's cold fingers ran along Sam's jawline, tracing softly along the exposed skin of his neck and collarbone.
He shivered, moaning softly.
She pulled off her jumper, hot from the heat of the fire and the heat of the moment, and pushed him horizontally onto the couch, straddling his waist then leaning down to pepper his neck with soft, sucking kisses.
.
As her hands roamed along his chest and her other cupped his cheek, Rose's hands found the rough scar alone the corner of Sam's eyebrow.
The one that had brought her back to consciousness all those years ago in the halls of Hogwarts after the Polyjuice Party.
She wasn't afraid of it anymore.
She was completely in control of what she wanted.
Diving her tongue deep into Sam's mouth, Rose let go of all her senses, lost in the experience.
They had waited so long for each other, without ever knowing they would be here. It was an almost uncontrollable hunger and soon, more and more pieces of clothing found themselves flung to the floor of Rose's living room.
.
"Rose, I love you, I love you so much."
"I love you too," Rose whispered back as the flames from the fireplace licked shadows across her body and Sam's curious fingers traced the patterns, chasing but never quite keeping up with the pace of the flickering.
"Are you sure? We don't have to-"
"Yes." She interrupted him, "I've never been more sure of anything."
She kissed him again, sucking his bottom lip as his arm searched the couch for his wand.
He pulled away from her kisses briefly to mutter a contraception charm and as soon as his wand tip glowed and died, Rose grabbed it and threw it aside.
She couldn't wait one moment longer.