I woke up (I don't know how many hours later) with an uncomfortable pounding sensation in my head, and surrounded by dark. At first I wasn't quite sure as to where I was, but as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I could tell that I was in the Hospital Wing. For a second I had to wonder why I was there, but then I remembered – a Quidditch match, Scorpius had the Quaffle, we called each other a number of mean things, and then we fell. The only good thing that I could deduct from all of this was that I at least had survived the fall.

I looked to my right and found an empty bed. I looked to my left, and there was Scorpius, sleeping on his side, facing towards me. His hair had fallen in his face, and he was asleep. He was breathing heavily, and his mouth was open. I couldn't tell if he was drooling, but it didn't really matter. Even if he was drooling, he was pretty handsome. Scorpius looked quite peaceful and quite relaxed, but then again, who doesn't when they are sleeping?

I closed my eyes and tried to be like Scorpius – in a deep, peaceful sleep – but for some reason, I couldn't seem to fall asleep. I was getting more awake by the moment and falling asleep was starting to seem impossible. Finally, I gave up and turned to look at Scorpius again.

He was in the exact same position as before, still breathing so heavily that I could hear it.

"Scorpius," I whispered.

There was no answer.

"Scorpius," I repeated, a little louder this time.

His first reaction was to scrunch up his nose, then he closed his mouth, swallowed, and turned over on his other side, so that his back was to me.

I guessed that that either meant that he was still asleep, or that he really didn't want to talk to me.

"Scorpius," I said again.

Nothing happened at first, so I almost decided to give up, before he turned around again, sighed heavily, and slowly opened his eyes.

"Ugh," he said when he saw me, and closed them again and pulled the covers over his head.

"Well, that's nice," I said.

There was another long – suffering sigh from under the covers. "It's not you I'm ugh – ing at," Scorpius mumbled. "It's my head."

"My head hurts, too," I told him. "If that's any comfort."

"It's not," he grumbled. "I want medicine."

"I think that Madam Pomfrey is sleeping," I said.

"And so should you," he retorted, emerging from underneath the covers and frowning at me. "What did you wake me for?"

I suddenly felt stupid. "I just – I just woke up and felt lonely."

"So you wanted to make me a part of your misery?" Scorpius asked, sounding bitter.

"No. Sorry. Forget it. Go back to sleep."

Scorpius groaned, then said, "I can't now, obviously, as I am now wide awake."

"Sorry," I said again.

"It doesn't matter."

We were both silent for a few moments, and I was beginning to wonder if he perhaps had fallen asleep again after all when he said, "I suppose one of us should apologize for what happened, but I don't know whose fault it was."

"Me neither," I said. "But I am sorry for calling you a Hufflepuff."

"Do you not like Hufflepuffs?" he asked.

"No, I like them well enough," I said.

"Then what is your problem?"

I felt uncomfortable. "I'm sorry," I said. "I just wanted to say something mean."

"It's all right," said Scorpius, surprising me a little. "I would have done the same."

We were quiet again, and I was starting to think that this was a strange conversation, and that this could turn into a potentially awkward situation, but I couldn't stop myself from saying, "What did you report me to McGonagall for?"

Scorpius didn't say anything at first. "I was hurt. And angry."

"Why?"

Though I couldn't see him properly, I got the sensation that Scorpius was rolling his eyes at me.

"Because, Rose, I had asked you to go out with me, and you said no. It was embarrassing. I thought we had a thing."

"A thing."

"You know," he said, starting to sound a little irritated, "I liked you, I thought you liked me, too, we had kissed – you are a good kisser – and we had the episode with the werewolf – a thing."

"I do like you."

"Then why did you say no?"

"I told you – James and Quidditch and all… but that's all changed now, I told James I didn't care what he thought – I broke his nose, because I threw my Herbology book at him…"

"You threw your Herbology book at him?" I could tell by his voice that Scorpius was repressing laughter.

"Yes," I said. "He deserved it."

"Funny," said Scorpius. "But then, if I asked you again, you would say yes?"

"Probably."

"Hmm. I'm not going to ask you again, though."

"Why not?" I asked. I felt a little hurt by this. Actually, I got that feeling like I was about to cry again. I had been a little over – emotional the past few days.

"Because then it would be begging, and Malfoys don't beg."

"Well," I said indignantly. "Neither do Weasleys," although I had never heard anyone in my family say so, and my father often begged my mother for permission to do different things. "Maybe we could be friends, though."

"Maybe," said Scorpius, not sounding convinced. "By the way, Rose, you have scarred my hand."

"Sorry. How?"

"Your bloody long fingernails that cut into me while we were falling."

"Sorry."

"Yeah, you said that."

I tried to make amends. "You flew well."

"I know I fly well," Scorpius said. "And I know that I'm a good Chaser. Remember when I beat you at our competition?"

"Yes." I had actually forgotten. Perhaps I had repressed it in my memory. "I've wondered," I said tentatively. "Did you choose the Hufflepuff Keeper because of her… you know, her chest?"

"No," said Scorpius. "What about it?"

"Well," I said, feeling stupid for having brought it up. "Her breasts are huge."

Scorpius laughed, actually laughed, quite loudly. "You thought I chose her because she has big breasts?"

I felt even more stupid now. "Yes," I muttered.

"No, of course not," said Scorpius, still laughing. "I've only ever had eyes for you."

I didn't know what to say to this. "Oh," I said. Clever, Rose, very charming and romantic.

Maybe this disappointed Scorpius, because he didn't say anything. I thought about how he apparently had been in love with me since forever. And then how he had kissed me during our detention, and kissed me again outside the Forest. I thought about how in the past few weeks I had gotten into much more trouble than ever before, and I had been much more unhappy than ever before, but I had also been much more alive than ever before. I thought about the friends that I had gained, lost, and gained again, and how all along I had been thinking of him, blaming him, when really, I should be blaming myself. I thought about how obsessed I had been with him, and how many things I had experienced. And then I remembered how many times I must have hurt him, by turning him down, ignoring him, or whatever else.

I remembered him telling me that he was almost sorted into Hufflepuff, and then I remembered what the Sorting Hat had said to me – that it would have put me in Ravenclaw, had it not had the feeling that I would become braver one day, a bit more daring than the careful, rule – abiding girl that I was.

Then I thought about Al, who had loved Felicia since forever, who had suffered through her boyfriends, and who had finally stood up for himself, proven himself and risked everything in front of everyone. And then I decided to prove myself and risk everything, too.

I slipped out of my bed, quietly, and walked over to Scorpius' bed. I sat down on it. Scorpius was looking up at me, confused. He had a bruise over his left eye. We looked at each other, or perhaps we even really saw each other. I examined his face – his eyes, wide and grey in the dark, though I knew them to be green in the light; his skin, not as pale as his fathers, but tan – and his white hair, looking ghostly. I examined his arms, skinny and bony through his pajamas. His wrists were scratched – from the fall, probably – and his right hand was in bandages; his left hand had marks from my nails. I think he was examining me, too.

I kissed him. I didn't give myself time to think about it, because then I would chicken out and regret my decision. Besides, if I hadn't done something, he would have thought that I was a complete freak for just sitting there and staring at him.

Scorpius kissed me back. For the first time, his tongue slid along my teeth gently, and I did the only thing that felt natural – I opened my mouth – and then we were actually snogging, for the first time in my life. Scorpius' bandaged hand was in my hair, and for the longest time – it could have been minutes or hours, I didn't really know or care – we just kissed.

Eventually we stopped, and Scorpius smiled, and I smiled, and then I lay down next to him.

"I'm going to beg," said Scorpius. "But it's the last time I'm asking."

"Yeah," I said. "I'll go out with you."

We smiled some more, before he snaked an arm around me and yawned into my ear. I shuddered and he snickered.

I muttered something about being ticklish, so he blew air into my ear and I shuddered some more. Eventually, he mumbled into my hair, "Goodnight, Rose."

"Goodnight, Scorpius," I said. And I barely had time to register the nice feeling of my back against his chest, and his arm around my waist before I fell asleep.

The next morning, he was gone. I hissed "Scorpius!" several times to no result, except that Madam Pomfrey came out from her office and declared that I was good to go, and gave me a bottle of some potion that I had to take every night for a week to reduce headaches.

I left the Hospital Wing and wandered around, looking for him. I didn't know what to think about him being gone. Had he regretted what happened during the night? Had he perhaps had a little too hard bump to the head and started saying things that he didn't really mean?

I went back to my dormitory to change into something fresh. Eurydice was looking at me in awe.

"I thought that you were dead," she told me.

"Sorry to disappoint you," I said, my voice muffled by the shirt I was trying to pull over my head.

"I thought Scorpius would be dead, too," she continued, probably not having heard me.

"Again, I think he's fine," I said, unless, of course – the thought suddenly struck me – he had died during the night and he had been removed and Madam Pomfrey hadn't told me, because she felt sorry for me that I had slept next to a corpse.

I told myself that I was being ridiculous. But honestly, what if something horrible had happened to him?

I decided to intensify my search. I tried the Library, the Great Hall, I looked out every window that I passed, in case he was flying outside, and I walked back and forth in front of the portrait leading into the kitchens, in case he was in there. Finally, I was reduced to loitering around the dungeons, because I knew that the Slytherin dormitories were somewhere around there, but I wasn't sure where.

I was about to give up when I turned around a corner and almost bumped into Demetria.

"Where's Scorpius?" I asked her immediately.

"Good morning to you too," Demetria said, sounding annoyed.

"Oh, right," I said. "Good morning. Have you seen him?"

"As a matter of fact, I have," Demetria said. "Decided that he was worth it after all?"

"Oh shut up," I said, surprising even myself. "I guess I just realized that I was being stupid."

This seemed to please Demetria, because she smiled at me and took my hand, which I thought was very unlike her.

"Come, Rose," she said, and she led me down the corridor, before stopping in front of a seemingly random spot. "Maggot," she told the wall, and it opened, revealing the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room.

Demetria pulled me inside. At first I was mostly a little shocked by actually being in there; then I started to look around at the slightly cold atmosphere in the Common Room. Almost everything was green. I thought that the Gryffindor Common Room was much cozier, but then again I was probably biased.

Several Slytherins looked at me with disgust or irritation, as though angry that I was in there. I didn't blame them. Others didn't really seem to care. Ophi smiled at me tentatively and I smiled back, feeling that I should do something to make him feel a little better.

And then Scorpius was there, and he was smiling at me.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey," he said.

"Where did you go?" I asked.

Scorpius shrugged. "I had to leave – Madam Pomfrey seemed to think that I was some sort of pervert for sneaking into your bed, though technically it was the other way around, but she didn't seem to believe me, even though she assigned the beds."

I smiled. "So… we're still on then?"

"Definitely."

The Slytherins were starting to stare at us curiously.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Scorpius asked. "It's early; we could spend the day together or something."

I beamed at him. "I would love to."

We left the Common Room and wandered around the school, talking about everything and nothing, really.

"I have to ask you something," I said eventually.

"What, Weasel?"

"Don't call me Weasel."

"It's cute, it suits you."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. I wanted to ask you something serious, if you're capable of that."

Scorpius arranged his face into an extremely somber expression, looking as though someone had died. "Okay."

"After the werewolf thing, you said "I don't hate you, I –" something that I didn't catch. I've been wondering what you were going to say." I tried to say this very casually, as though I didn't really care.

Scorpius stopped looking ridiculous and looked serious, for real this time.

"I was going to say that I love you, of course."

This made me smile, widely. "Who won the Quidditch match?" I asked.

"Your team, unfortunately," Scorpius said.

"Good," I said. "Then James will be in a good mood when I tell him how I'm hopelessly in love with you."

So I took his hand, and Scorpius, looking frightened, allowed himself to be lead up to the Gryffindor Common Room, where I would show him off.

Thank you very much for reading! Please remember to REVIEW, as reviewing can only make me a better writer. :) The next chapter is the last – thanks for sticking with me and Rose :)