Fixing What We Broke
Rose,
Wow. That letter was … unexpected. And incredible. Whatever you might say about the other houses being brave, I still believe you Gryffindors have more courage than the rest of us. I wrote you a letter once, before we started going out, that was a bit like the one you just sent me. I didn't send it though. I wasn't brave enough.
There are a lot of things I'd like to say, but I'll start with some of the most important ones. Firstly, Julie is not my girlfriend. She's Steve's fiancé, and a good friend of mine, but there's never been anything romantic between us. The same applies to the other girls in the group, and every girl I've ever met apart from you. I love you, Rose, and it was stupid for me to try and kid myself otherwise.
Secondly, when I mentioned you in that newspaper article it was far from meaningless. I'd been avoiding even saying your name for months, but when the reporter asked me about people who'd supported and influenced me, I had to talk about you. You believed in my dream when nobody else did, and without you I would never be where I am today.
Thirdly, it wasn't just your fault. We were both being immature and stubborn, and I think the sooner we can both take responsibility the sooner we can move on. Because yes, I would love to try again. We're both older now; let's hope we can make it work this time.
Before we do anything else, however, I think we should write to Al and apologise. He's been stuck between us for the last three years, having to put up with his two best friends refusing to even talk about each other. That can't have been easy.
I love you, Rose.
Scorp
Scorp,
I agree. We should definitely apologise to Al, and then the three of us should go out together at some point. In fact, now that we're all in London we should make it a regular thing. And I want to meet all your new friends. Julie seemed like a lovely person – more so now that I know she's engaged to someone else – and I have to meet this Steve who you seem to get along with so well.
Now that we're not mad at each other anymore or whatever, I suddenly want to see you as soon as possible. Are you free this evening? Do you want to go out for dinner?
Rose
Rose,
It's Sunday so it's my day off; I'm free all day. Dinner sounds great. I'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron at six.
Can't wait to see you!
Scorp
Al,
We're back together. We've apologised and stopped being stupid and childish, and we want you to know that we both appreciate the way you've been here for both of us over the last few years. You're the best friend either of us could wish for, and we're both really sorry for the way we've been acting recently.
If you're not busy this Wednesday evening, it would be great if the three of us could meet up for lunch. What do you say? For old times' sake.
Rose and Scorp
Dear Grandma,
Rose and I have been back together for six months now. It's brilliant. Along with Al, we hang out together all the time, the way I guess we would have back when we first left school if we hadn't broken up, and talk about our jobs and how everything's going. Al's a proper Auror now, and Rose is working at Flourish and Blotts until she can start working at Hogwarts. It's just like it used to be. Sometimes it's like the last three years didn't happen.
Except that they did. It's fine when we're reminiscing about our time at Hogwarts, or even when we're talking about the present, but sometimes one of us will mention something that happened more recently, and then realise that the other wasn't there at the time. It's probably a good thing, though. Since the moment we met we've been just about inseparable, even when we weren't dating, and it was probably good for us to spend some time apart. We've both made our own memories and our own friends independently, and I think that's been good for us. I wouldn't do it again, though. Now that I've got Rose back I'm not going to ruin this ever again.
All my friends from work absolutely adore Rose. She gets on brilliantly with all of them, and has become so close to Julie that she's going to be a bridesmaid at her wedding to Steve in June. Apparently Julie always realised there was a girl I couldn't get over and recognised Rose as her the moment they met. Sometimes people are scarily perceptive. Or perhaps I'm just very easy to read.
Another friend who's spending a lot of time with us is Rose's flatmate Ruth. She was the one I think I may have mentioned a while ago, who called Al a heartbreaker and had him questioning his whole attitude to dating. Sometimes the four of us go out together, and she and Al seem to be getting on a lot better than they used to. I don't know if he's just trying to prove to her that he's grown up a bit, but he's always a lot more mature when she's around, and I think she's a little surprised at how nice a guy he actually is. I don't want to jinx it, but I think as well as being the girl who made him stop dating she might be the one to make him start again. Rose agrees with me.
I can't believe you still haven't met Rose. It just seems like there's never a good time. We're all very busy in London with work, but hopefully it'll happen eventually.
I'd better go now, but I'll write again soon.
Scorp
