Your eyes whispered,

"Have we met?"

Across the room, your silhouette

Starts to make its way to me.

The playful conversation starts,

Counter all your quick remarks like

Passing notes in secrecy.

And it was enchanting to meet you

-Enchanted; Taylor Swift

CHAPTER 15

ROSE WEASLEY

I was avoiding Scorpius. And I could tell that he knew I was, too. I couldn't face him after his… confession the weekend before. It's not that I didn't feel the same way. I did. I loved Scorpius. I loved him. I loved him so much it almost hurt, and I felt my heart break slightly each time he walked away and I felt it melt each time I looked into his deep, grey eyes, but I didn't know if I was ready to say it to him. I'd never told anyone I'd loved them before. Not even Lysander and I'd dated him for a year. He'd told me he loved me, but I couldn't say it back. That was part of the reason I ended it, actually. But I'd never admitted to loving someone as much as I loved Scorpius. I think I'd almost feel vulnerable, like he could hurt me so much easier if I said those three little words to him, if I confessed how I felt about him. How I loved everything about him. How I loved the way he spiked up his white-blonde hair, the way his eyes twinkled when he smiled, the way he ran his hands through his hair when he was nervous. How I loved when he stroked my cheek and when he kissed me the way he did. How I loved that when I was with him, it wasn't special because we were kissing, it was special because we were together. How I could stay forever with his strong arms wrapped around me, keeping me warm and holding me tight. How I loved that when I looked into his eyes, I knew he felt all of that too.

I lay on my bed while everyone went down to breakfast. I couldn't face going in there. Not when I knew Scorpius was in there. I was going to go get up and start getting ready when I realised someone was still in the room. Dominique. She was leaning against her bedpost, purposefully looking at anything other than me. I chose to ignore it and I reached out of bed to get my clothes.

"Rose, wait." Her voice said from behind me, and I immediately stiffened. I didn't want another black eye. I stayed silent and she took this as a sign to continue. "I… um… I didn't realise he… well… you know… I didn't realise you were…" She paused and cleared her throat, "I didn't realise the two of you were in love. If I had, I wouldn't have… well… gone so crazy. And I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Rose. Will you please look at me?" I turned to face her, not sure how to respond. One part of me was screaming for me to tell her that she could shut the fuck up and leave me alone, but the other part of me – the rational part that I usually listened to – was telling me to run and hug her, forgive her for everything because she was family, after all. When I didn't say anything, she carried on. "I just got angry, Rose. Ever since I've known you, you've always been off in your own little world. You were the peacemaker between Albus and me, but that was really the only time you weren't thinking about something else. I've never known anyone who could get through to you in that little head of yours. But then Scorpius Malfoy comes along and he snaps you out of your bubble and carries you off into the sunset. I guess I was just mad because I wasn't the one who could get through to you, and you were– are my best friend. Scorpius was the enemy, and he was able to get you out of the world that you've lived in for sixteen years and really get you to live. I guess I was ju–"

"Dominique, what happened to your wrist?" I interrupted, noticing something that wiped all other thoughts from my mind.

"What? What do you mean? It's… nothing." She shuffled uncomfortably, hiding her arm behind her back. I ran towards her and grabbed it, but not so it would hurt her. When I finally got a good look, I saw there were cuts all over her arms. Some of them looked quite old, like they were made months before, but others looked new and a few of them looked deep.

"Dom, what is this?" I asked gently, not able to hide my concern for her. She looked like she was going to make up an excuse until she saw the look I gave her. It was my 'don't lie to me' look. I saw her face crumble, and before I knew it, we had sunk to the floor, me holding her tightly as she sobbed into my shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so, so sorry." She kept repeating this until her sobs died down, and then she pulled away from me. She turned her head to dry her eyes, and when she'd finally composed herself I asked her again.

"Dom, please tell me."

"I'm sorry, Rose."

"And I forgive you. I forgive you for everything. We've been through way too much to let a few months of fighting over nothing pull us apart. But please, tell me. What happened to you?"

"I can't stop." She whispered, not looking at me. "Everytime I do it, I say I will but then everytime there's another reason to do it. But it's so stupid, Rose! I did it over such stupid things but they seemed so big at the time! There was Teddy, and then there was you, and then there was Albus, and everything got too much and after I did it each time I felt worse than before but then when something else weighed me down I just felt like there was no other way to help me and so I did it again and now I can't stop. It was all just too much, Rose, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She broke back down into tears again.

We sat on the floor like that for what seemed like hours, but could only have been a few minutes. I looked at my watch and saw it was almost time for Potions. I helped her up as she wiped her tears, and I wrapped my arms around her. I'd missed her so much. In those few minutes it seemed everything that had happened between us had simply vanished. It was all forgotten. And I didn't mind. She was my best friend. She was like the sister I never had. I needed her back, no matter what had happened.

We got dressed and headed down to Potions, our arms linked together as we laughed and wiped our eyes on the walk down. I realised as we rounded the corner to get to the dungeon door that we had Potions with the Slytherins, and that meant Scorpius. But I forced myself to be brave, because now I was with Dominique. Everything was back to normal. I could sit with her and Albus and we could finally all be together again. A nagging piece of my mind told me that I wouldn't be able to put off Scorpius for much longer, but I brushed the thought away quickly.

I spotted Albus standing on his own and I lead us towards him, our arms still linked together. His face furrowed into a state of confusion when he saw us, but then he beamed.

"Okay, this is so an excuse to go out drinking!"

"With you, everything is an excuse to go out drinking." I rolled my eyes, but I grinned all the same.

"I like to celebrate, is that so wrong?"

"Do you even have a liver left?"

"Somewhere." We grinned at each other, my arm still wrapped closely around Dominique's. I'd used a spell to cover her scars and I'd promised not to say anything to anyone else about them, on the condition that she talked to me when something bothered her and not go straight to cutting.

Slughorn called us in and we sat down together at our old table, and I smiled.

This is how it is supposed to be.

But my eyes couldn't help but stray from the board to two rows across, where Scorpius was sat. I saw his head turn slightly and I quickly looked back to Slughorn. I felt Scorpius' eyes bore into me, and I felt so immensely guilty. I'd been avoiding him for a week now, it was already Friday. He knew I was avoiding him, too. He'd stayed out of my way a bit, but not enough so when if I went down into the Great Hall I knew he wouldn't come over. It's Scorpius. He still would. I just wasn't ready.

I felt his eyes on me for the rest of the lesson and for the rest of my lessons with him all day until dinner. Dominique and I changed out of our robes and into our normal clothes and headed down to dinner, where Albus was already sat, presumably stuffing his face full of chicken and potatoes and everything else he could get his hands on. We sat down, and sure enough, Albus had already piled his plate full of everything in sight.

"I fucking love house-elves. Why are they such damn good cooks?" He asked through mouthfuls of mashed potato.

"Do you ever stop eating?"

"I'm hungry." Albus shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which, I guess, it was. I rolled my eyes at him and helped myself to a spoonful of vegetables.

Then someone tapped on my shoulder.

I spun round and I expected to be looking up into Scorpius' beautiful grey eyes, but instead I was looking into a pair of light blue ones. Lysander Scamander. Behind him, on the opposite side of the room, I saw Scorpius straighten up and stare over in my direction.

"Hey Rose." Lysander spoke, snapping my eyes back to him.

"Er, hi, Lysander." I replied awkwardly, not really sure what to say.

"So I was wondering if you wanted to go out this weekend." He said, trying to act casual. It almost made me laugh.

"I… I'm sorry, Lysander, I can't. I'm sort of… unavailable." I said, glancing over at Scorpius. Lysander didn't seem to notice.

"Rose, can I talk to you over there a second?" He asked, and not waiting for me to reply he grabbed my arm and pulled me off to the side. Dominique and Albus shot me worried glances but I shook my head, mouthing 'its fine' to them. "Rose what do you mean 'not available'? I thought we had a thing?"

"Er, no offence, but why the fuck did you think that?"

"Don't play stupid with me, Rose, I know you like me." He said, pressing his body closer to mine. I tried to push him away but he stayed firmly where he stood. Some people on different tables turned to stare at us.

"Lysander, please stop, people are looking…" I said, struggling to break away from his strong hold.

"You don't care, Rose, you want this." He tried to tilt my head towards him. I fought against him, and more people turned to look at us.

"Get – Off – Me!" I said, finally managing to push him away. He grabbed my arm and gripped it tight.

"You know you want me, Rose. I know you do." He twisted my arm slightly, and suddenly Scorpius was over him in an instant.

"You know, Scamander, I don't think she wants you. Shocking, that." Scorpius said lightly, prying Lysander's hand off of my arm with ease.

"This has nothing to do with you, Malfoy!" He spat at Scorpius, yanking his arm out of Scorpius' grip.

"Hmmm, a lot of people have been saying that lately." He winked at me. "Only, you don't seem to realise you're wrong. Hey Dominique!" He shouted over at my cousin, and Dominique walked over to us as calmly as she could.

"Yeah, Scorpius?" I could see the mental struggle she had with herself as she battled not to say his surname.

"Sorry about the 'ugly whore' thing back in third year. Oh, and the stuff last weekend. My bad." He spoke lightly and cheerfully, and I resisted the urge to laugh. Dominique snorted.

"Sure, whatever. Sorry about that shit too." She held out her hand and Scorpius shook it, and I could hardly believe my eyes. Neither could Lysander, apparently.

"If you guys don't mind moving the girl-talk somewhere else, Rose and I were in the middle of something." He snarled at both of them.

And that's when Scorpius punched him.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

okay guys, I know my last few chapters have been quite short, but that's because we're just building up to the big one. This story is, inevitably, ending. I know the whole thing is pretty short, it's only going to be like 5 more chapters at the most.
Probably.
Most likely.
Whatever, you get the point.

I know some of you won't like the whole 'Rose forgiving Dominique' thing, because of everything Dominique's done, but Rose really needed her best friend back, and for her it was easy to forgive everything because they were family. Please don't put any comments about that, because it is there for a reason.

please review!

thanks guys,

beccasophX