Oh, but you were so shy, so was I

Maybe that's why it was so hard to believe

When you smiled and said to me

"Are you gonna kiss me or not?

Are we gonna do this or what?

I think you know I like you a lot

But you're 'bout to miss your shot

Are you gonna kiss me or not?"

-Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not?; Thompson Square

CHAPTER 19

ROSE WEASLEY

"Rose! Rose, oh where is she? Rose!" I heard my mother's frantic voice and my eyes snapped open, I tried to sit up but my head spun. I went to reach up with my left hand but I found it already in use. Scorpius was sleeping beside me, my hand clutched in his with his head resting on my bed. He looked so beautiful when he slept. I reached up to feel my head with my right hand instead, and instead I felt a bandage.

Shit.

The fall. I remembered someone's hands on my back as I tried to make my way downstairs to the common room. I'd needed to talk to Albus about… Scorpius. I smiled as I remembered and I looked fondly down at him. I remembered a cackle of laughter and a swish of blonde hair; blonde hair that wasn't Dominique's and it could only have been one other person. Fate. Fate goddamn Brown. She was going to get it when I was out of here.

Then suddenly the doors of the hospital wing smashed open and Scorpius was wide awake, pointing his wand towards the door and not letting go of my hand. My mother and father burst through the door, accompanied by Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall. They all froze when they saw Scorpius at my bedside with his wand pointed at them, and my hand clutched in his. Instantly, I felt both of us let go and Scorpius lowered his wand sheepishly.

"Forgive me," He nodded towards them all, "Instinct, I suppose."

"Rose! Rose, are you alright?" My mother rushed over to me, not being able to find it in her to be curious about a Malfoy being at my bedside.

"I'm fine, mum." I grumbled, slightly embarrassed at my mother fussing over me with Scorpius in the room.

"Rose, what is he doing here?" My father said, as if Scorpius wasn't standing right next to him. I opened my mouth to answer, but Scorpius jumped to my rescue.

"Forgive me, sir," He was the epitome of manners, "Albus sent me to check on Rose in the night as he made sure Lily was alright and I must have fallen asleep. I'm very sorry." He said politely, inclining his head towards my father. Scorpius held out his hand for my father to shake, "I'm Scorpius Malfoy, sir."

Dad simply looked at him, and vaguely I wondered how it was possible for someone to look blank and disgusted at the same time. Scorpius lowered his hand, seeming to accept that it wasn't going to be shaken, and stepped back, allowing my father to stand beside me. For one guilty moment, I wished he hadn't.

"Rose, why is he here?" Dad said again, not even bothering to lower his voice, and I knew this time he meant why it was Scorpius Malfoy and not someone like James.

"Um… Well… remember at Christmas…?" I trailed off, seeing my father's face turn beetroot red with anger. I flinched as I prepared myself for the verbal beating I was about to endure. But then he stopped, noticing my reaction. He looked puzzled. Scorpius took this opportunity to speak again.

"If I may, sir, I would like to offer an explanation to why it is me here and not perhaps Dominique or one of Rose's many other cousins." My father nodded for him to continue. "Your daughter and I are a couple. I understand that you may not be comfortable with this, but I hope youunderstand how much I care for your daughter, and that I would never hurt her." He was saying this to me as much as he was saying it to my father. My father seemed to have some sort of head spasm, where he was trying to nod and shake his head at the same time.

"Out." He said to Scorpius as calmly as he could. Scorpius inclined his head towards my father.

"As you wish, sir." And he turned and walked out of the room.

"Rosie," Dad growled as soon as Scorpius had exited the hospital wing, "You told me there was nothing going on between you two!"

"Er, no I didn't?" I said, forgetting to be scared and looking sideways at my mum and seeing she was also looking confused.

"Ronald, what are you talking about?" She sighed exasperatedly.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Dad said, turning his embarrassment of being wrong into a sneer, "Because you're never going to be talking to him again."

"Ronald…" Mum warned, but Dad ignored her.

"Do you hear me, Rose? You are never to speak to that boy again!"

"Slight problem there."

"What?" He spat at me, leaving my mother looking scandalised.

"Scorpius is Albus' best friend."

"Albus can find new friends." He snarled, and now it was my turn to look scandalised.

"You have no control over Albus! He can do what he likes, you don't have a say in it. And if he wants to be friends with Scorpius, then he will. You can't stop him from that!"

"Oh yes I can!"

"No you can't, Ron." A new voice said. It was Ginny. Stood next to her were the bewildered faces of Harry, James, Albus, and Lily. "Don't you even think about telling my child who he can or cannot be friends with!"

"Ginny, you don't understand–"

"Oh yes I do, Ron, and better than you do!" Ginny cut him off, "I'm perfectly happy for my children to be friends with Scorpius Malfoy!"

"As am I." Mum joined in again. All four of us kids cringed as we listened to our parents argue.

"I've… er… I've gotta side with them on this one, Ron. Sorry, mate." Harry said awkwardly, seeing the guilt in his face as betrayal crossed the features of my own father's face.

"You've all gone mad. You've all gone bloody crazy." He muttered, walking out of the hospital wing abruptly.

"I should probably go calm him down – make sure he doesn't scare the living hell out of some of the midg–first years." He said, after receiving a sharp look from Professor McGonagall. He grinned sheepishly at her – a smile that she returned, unbelievably – and headed out the door, following my father.

"I was hoping Ronald would've grown out of his prejudice by now." The professor said, shaking her head sadly.

"So had I." Mum and Ginny said together, shrugging their shoulders.

"Don't listen to him, though, Albus. Tell Scorpius he is welcome at our house at any time." Ginny said to her middle child.

"Yes, please tell him he is welcome at the Burrow for Christmas as well. Any friend of yours and Rose's is practically family. I swear that's all you two go around with." My mum smiled at both of us, noting our shocked faces. It was true though; Albus and I rarely strayed outside the family for our close group of friends. It was mostly just me, Al, and Dom. That was all we needed. Harry had said once that we were like the Golden Trio themselves, which all of us had cringed at.

I found myself tuning out of the conversation, and thinking about what Scorpius had said.

"Your daughter and I are a couple."

Did this mean he was officially my boyfriend? Lysander's face swam before my eyes and suddenly I felt dizzy. I saw spots dance around the room and then everything went black.

Again.

XXXXX

As soon as I woke up again, I was greeted by 10 faces all looming above me. I stared around as my family whispered down at me. Mum, Dad, Harry, Ginny, Albus, Dom, James, Lily, Fred, and Hugo all staring down at me, I almost blacked out again. I forced myself awake and realised the one person I wanted to see wasn't there. Scorpius.

But I needed to tell Albus and Dom too. Maybe they could get him here so I could tell him.

"Er, guys?" I said groggily, "Can I have a minute alone with Albus and Dom, please?" All my other cousins left immediately, respecting my wish to talk to my two best friends alone. Harry and Ginny also left, and as my mother turned to leave I noticed my father being reluctant to leave my side. "Dad, please, just for a minute?" He gave in to me, and he was dragged out of the hospital wing by my mum.

"Don't worry, we know." Albus said immediately after they'd left, startling me.

"What, how could you possibly know?" I asked, amazed.

"Come on, Rose," He scoffed, "With a Potter, Weasley and a Malfoy, there's nothing we couldn't figure out."

"Scorpius?" I looked up at the mention of my boyfriend's name.

"Er, yeah?" Albus looked at me quizzically, as if to say "Why wouldn't he be with us?"

"So he knows." My shoulders slumped in defeat. "He knows I can't be with him."

"What? Scamander was just being a prick. A really big fucking prick. Don't worry, we sorted him out." I saw the hint of a smirk playing about Albus' lips, and then his expression deepened into concern. "Rose, what did he threaten you with?"

I just shook my head as tears began to crawl down my face, and I felt Dominique's arm snake round my waist and she held me to her, letting me cry softly into her shoulder.

"Sorry, Rose, I didn't mean to… upset you. I just don't know what he could've possibly done to make you go along with him." Albus said, and the concern showed in his voice.

"Well, it doesn't matter what it is. Just know that we'll protect you. No matter what it is." Dom said, squeezing me tightly.

"Yeah, we won't let him lay a fucking finger on you, and neither will Scorp." Albus declared, and I noticed Dominique looking at him a fraction too long and I knew she was thinking about how Albus had just called Scorpius 'Scorp'. Merlin, things really did change.

"You know, Al, you really shouldn't curse so much. Lily is at a very impressionable age." Dom sighed at Albus.

"It's true, actually. You and Scorpius swear all the time. I think you guys need a new word." I agreed, and Albus almost looked offended. I noticed he chose to ignore the Lily comment.

"I do not!"

"You do!"

"Fuck off!" He said, and then he immediately covered his mouth with his hand. "That doesn't count…" He grumbled as Dom and I sniggered. It was so easy to wind Albus up.

"Tut tut, Al, you should be ashamed of yourself." Dom said, wagging her finger jokingly at Albus.

"Oh, ha-ha." Albus mumbled, and I knew he was groping about his mind for a new topic. "So… Quidditch. Er, I'm guessing you won't be fit to play the next few games?" I shook my head, noting that Quidditch seemed to be our go-to topic.

"Pomfrey says no, sorry cap'n." I said, grimacing. Albus looked thoughtful for a moment and then,

"Dom, you're a good chaser…" He began, and Dominique threw her hands up in the air.

"Hell no." She said bluntly. It took almost fifteen minutes to convince her to do it.

I think we all remembered our family at the same time, with Dom yelling "You can come in now" towards the door. We all shared one grin between us before they came bursting in again, with both Albus and Dominique redoing their hair.

This suddenly reminded me of mine. Careful not to touch my head wound, I felt my hair. Ugh, fantastic. It was greasy. And Scorpius had seen me! Oh great, now I was embarrassed.

"Rose, honey, what's wrong? You've gone all... cringey." My mother cringed herself at the word that sounded so much like what I would say. I dropped my hand immediately and smiled sheepishly.

"Er, nothing. It doesn't matter. Hey shouldn't you be at work?" This made my mother go on about why she wasn't at work in the first place, with Harry, Dad, and Ginny joining in, letting me zone out and think about a certain blonde Slytherin, without whom my hand felt oddly empty.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

OMG. Thankyou so much for the reviews, the 'favourite story's, and everything else, you guys make me smile!
I would've got this up last night but my internet decided to hate me. sadtimes...

This story only has approximately about four chapters left in it. Maybe less. I am currently planning a sequel in my head though, haha.

I love you guys, please review!

thanks guys!

beccasophX