Chapter nine.

Tap tap tap.

"Go away," grumbled Rose, who proceeded to roll over and cover her head with her pillow.

Tap tap tap.

"Ten more minutes!" Rose pleaded, rolling over and squinting around her room. The source of the noise visible behind the curtains that flew in the wind from the open window; A tawny brown owl was perched on the window sill pecking the window, in it's beak a large package and letter hung from the sky blue ribbon. Groaning she heaved herself up and trooped over to the window, stroked the birds head and took the package from the owl.

Happy Birthday,

I love you

The letter was not signed. The color of the ink was charmed to match the color of the ribbon that Rose loosely used to tie her hair up with and then took the parcel and letter back to bed. She sat cross legged as she carefully opened the gift, making sure not to tear the patterned silver paper.

The box was an over sized ring bow and it was the same shade of silver and the wrapping paper. Pricing the lid open with her shaking hands, she audibly gasped. It was beautiful. The tiara (definitely goblin made) was encrusted with aquamarine diamonds that delicately lined the small tiara. It was shaped similar to a head band, not making a full circle and thin white gold wound its way around the front; it was simple but extremely beautiful. A single tear ran down her face when she thought of who could have been the giver. She hadn't spoken to Scorpius since the train.

Well that wasn't the truth. She had owled him but to no avail. He wouldn't hear it, and if she were in his position she wouldn't want to hear it either. The holidays were drawing to a close and then she would speak to him.

"Rosie! Quick! They're here!" her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts. Groaning she got off the bed and slouched into their kitchen where a yellow letter was laying on the bench waiting for her next to a pile of presents.

Too tired to even reply to her family's 'happy birthdays' and 'good mornings' she just opened the letter and after skimming it took a very noticeably double take and a pleased smile crossed her lips.

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

Pass grades: Outstanding (O)
Exceeds Expectations (E)
Acceptable (A)

Fail grades: Poor (P)
Dreadful (D)
Troll (T)

ROSE GINNY WEASLEY HAS ACHIEVED:

Ancient Runes: O
Astronomy: E
Care of magical creatures: E
Charms: O
Defence Against the Dark Arts: O
Herbology: E
History of Magic: A
Muggle Studies: O
Potions: O
Transfiguration: O

"Whoa, I did well," Rose said, taking a seat at the table and handing the letter to her mother. "No fails."

"Good girl. See, I told you you had your mother's brains. Open your gifts," said a very tired looking Ron. Beneath his eyes were dark bags and he still had sleep in his eyes. He watched amusedly though, while Rose opened her presents: A sneakoscope, a muggle book store gift voucher, chocolate frogs, a hand knitted scarf and gloves, ten galleons and a copy of Wizards and How to Charm Them (complements to Albus and James). More were to be expected at the burrow that night since all her family was going to be there.

She thanked her parents and retreated up the stairs to ready herself for the nights events.

"Master Scorpius, Mistress wants you ready within the hour; you are invited to Miss Rose Weasley's sixteenth birthday party this evening," Mittens the manor's house-elf, informed the blonde who had positioned himself on a chair beneath the door-sized window.

"Thank you Mittens, prepare my bath please?" the boy replied.

The elf nodded, causing its ears as big as bats wings to flap; as it retreated to the master bathroom Scorpius chucked his pillow that he had been hugging on the ground in rage – Rose! Filthy little traitor! Heaving himself out of his cream colored seat he walked towards the sounds of the running water removing his pieces of clothing one by one and dropping them on the ground; the blackness of his clothes contrasted quite well with the light neutral tones of his bedroom that was the size of his entire dorm at Hogwarts.

He hummed a soft tune as he exfoliated his pale white skin, picking up bubbles and throwing them where he pleased. He tried to relive the way he thought back when he was young, before girlfriends and responsibilities, when he could run around as if he were a puppy and come home covered in mud, no one would judge. To be in that state of mind brought no pain, no suffering and no Slytherins.

"Time to exit the bath, sir," Mittens interrupted his musing, speaking from the open doorway. "Mistress chose app-appr-appropriate clothing for the evening."

He didn't reply as he reluctantly left the tub and changed. Within the hour shockingly he was ready and was in fact waiting for his parents before the fire. The arrived, Astoria was wearing a peach colored summer frock and Draco was wearing trousers and a white dress shirt that was untucked and had the first two buttons undone. The family flooed to the already crowded burrow and retreated to the garden to find a miraculous sight.

The trees were all magicked to have the leaves change colors at random to the mood around them, at the moment it was gold with the odd orange leaf. There were white round tables scattered around the courtyard and that a low picket fence matching the color of the table. A space to dance was cleared and a Muggle contraption that had party music playing from it, people were dancing to the 'techno' music and smiles were all round.

Rose Weasley was in the middle of the floor in a high waisted skirt and singlet dancing with a huge smile plastered across her face. She was dancing with Louis, Liam and Hugo who were also laughing, hosting skinny leg jeans and surfy tee shirts. Her waist long hair was out in ringlets, swishing and bouncing to the beat of the bass.

Scorpius just stood stock-still watching her from the steps leading into the food covered kitchen. He watched her twirling and laughing and he wondered how she could not give a damn about him; how could she forget what they had in a matter of three weeks? She just smiles and dances without a care in the world…

"It wasn't her fault," she whispered, also staring at the Red haired beauty.

"How can you say that, Lily? She just let that pig do-do that. She didn't even explain herself," he spat out, looking down at the youngest Potter, his face full of disgust. One of the leaves turned black.

"You ran off without letting her explain!" Lily cried, her hands found her hips and she stood in her mini-skirt in a strong posture.

Rose, unknown to the two, was no longer smiling. She saw the pair arguing and slipped away from the dance floor and sat down at a table across from Tim, her back to them. A tear slipped through from her eye- Scorpius did care, and Lily was defending her family with an air of purity about her.

"She shoved her tongue down another guys throat!"

Most of the party had caught on to the argument striking up between the two and Hugo walked up to Lily and stood beside her. "What's up?"

"Nothing," replied Scorpius, stalking past him and jumping over the picket fence and then broke into a run, he past the broom shed and kept on running into a paddock and beyond.

"Scorpius!" hissed Lily. "Albus, go after him!"

"Why me?" he replied stubbornly.

"I'll go," Rose sighed, not even Tim had seen her presence, and jumped at the sound of her voice. She stood up and kicked off her high heels, picked them up in one hand, and followed him the way he came in a brisk walk. Once she reached the broom shed though, she stopped to retrieve her Nimbus 2008 and flew side seated quite fast after him.

The party took a while to register what was going on. Eventually it settled and the green and blue leaves returned to their earlier golden color. The dancing continued and after an hour the two still hadn't arrived.

The field was plain, it was marked by a barbed wire fence and over-grown grass. Scorpius sat beside a dirty puddle throwing pebbles into it when Rose finally found him. He looked shocking- he had mud all over his previously white shirt and his pants were torn and his shoes missing. His legs were bent out in front of him and a look of rage upon his face.

Rose hovered on the broom silently for a moment watching him. She slipped of the broom and holding it in her left hand, her shoes in her right, she approached him. Faint party music could be heard from the distance, but from the sad young boy before her came heavy breathing and unrecognizable words muttered under his breath. Running out of pebbles her proceeded to pull out the dead grass and break sticks.

Rose look a step forward and when she spoke she hadn't realized how quiet it actually was. "You Jane, Me Tarzan."

"Rose? What do you want?" he asked, happy at first but then disgust clung to his voice.

She walked forward and took a seat beside him on the ground facing the rippled puddle. "Remember when we saw that movie at the drive-ins? That was one of my favorite nights- because I was with you."

"Why did you kiss him? Honestly," he whispered, he had turned to face her, his big silver eyes piercing hers, entering her very soul.

"He kissed me. Honestly, I thought it was you," she too whispered, watching his soul as much as he did hers. This was something that had drawn them to one another, being able to enter that realm of intimacy and friendship brought forth such strong feelings how could they have resisted?

"How did you think I felt? Seeing the person I love showing a Slytherin of all people, the same amount of affection I thought you had for me."

"I love you, much much more than could ever be put into an amount of words. I'm Heathcliffe and your Catherine, I'm Romeo and your Juliet, I'm Jane and your Mr. Bingley. The authors of those novels must have been able to witness an emotion so strong that not even they could attempt to put it into words, they witnessed us. My patronus is a Sow, yours the Boar. We match. See: Expecto Patronum!"

A silvery bear erupted from the tip of Rose's wand and it stood on it's hind legs and watched the paddock. Light illuminated the field and Scorpius couldn't help noticing the way it reflected in Rose's eyes; they sparkled like diamonds.

Unable to control himself his hands found the soft texture of her skin and he pulled her into a deep passionate kiss that reminded him of the way Jane Austen described every bit of detail in all of her works. His lips moved effortlessly along hers as she tried hard to get as close to him as possible; one of her arms was around his waist and the other tugged in his hair.

Soon Scorpius had removed his hands from her face and pulled her onto his lap, trying with all his might to close the ever so big feeling gap between them- the gap that had separated them from each other for so long.

They returned to the party twenty minutes later, lips swollen and hands grasped together. Everyone chanted the chorus of 'happy birthday' all out of sync and off key, Albus stood before the fifty or so people attempting to conduct them- failing miserably. Hermione (heavily pregnant now) levitated a big chocolate cake in front of her and by the end of the night everyone left with chocolate covered faces and fully bellies.

The Chair hit the wall rather spontaneously as a loud roar was made from the graying man who had previously been sitting in front of the fire in the darkened room when a cowering young woman entered the room to inform him Eleanor Malfoy had made a full recovery.

"The Malfoys are our biggest threat Cassi! After we finish them we have to rid the world of all Potters and Weasleys – who is the one responsible for not cursing her hard enough?" the man directed his question to his servant; Cassiopeia Lestrange was wild alike her mother who died fighting for what she believed in. her father a whore, sleeping with many woman once she died and now all he had left to show of his soul mate was a servant, whom he had given to the man in hope of living another day. He didn't.

"R-Rodolphus father," she whispered from her drity corner. Even if such a horrid person was threatening to kill her cousins, even If he made her do things any person would try to advoid, even if he beat her he was her father. She didn't know any better, and had no inkling that he was in no way related to her. He raised her, clothed her and gave her a roof over her head – in his eyes that's as good as it gets.

"Summon him to me immediately. Tell him to leave his wand with you," he chuckled, face the fire and he clenched his fists and locked his jaw, the battle scars upon his body appeared minor in the dim lighting.

"Of course."

A/N h t t p : / / w w w .borntowear . co .uk/images/Victoria_tiara_for a visual of what i imagined the tiara as.