There were two days until Easter break and Rose and Scorpius hadn't said a word to one another about what had happened between them days before. It was like they had put up a veil between them, allowing them to speak and tease each other as before, but never sitting too closely or touching each other.

Rose had set a precedent after her cousin Lucy left her room, that she would never let herself be closer than three feet to him, which Scorpius silently obliged. Her feelings didn't just upset her or confuse her; they completely and utterly derailed her.

Rose Weasley hated Scorpius Malfoy, period.

There wasn't supposed to be anything after that. No friendship, no civility, no nothing. But now they were friends and that had shifted everything. They knew things about each other that no one else did. They had private quiet little conversations that nobody understood. Somehow in the course of forcing to be with one another for nineteen days and nineteen nights they had grown closer than some people did in years.

Now, she had no idea what to do. How was she supposed to go to his family's house? How the hell was she supposed to bring him to her house? Before she would have shrugged it off and said that it was just another bump in the road. But now she had all of these inconvenient…feelings, swirling around her head and chest, making her not to sure about anything.

Rose and Scorpius sat in their common room; she lounged on the couch while he sat beside her on the floor. His back was leaning against the front of her couch to the point where the collar of his shirt grazed her bare knees lightly. Whenever he shifted, it was so gentle that it lightly tickled the side of her knees. Still, she didn't move, despite her passionate feeling that she shouldn't be feeling anything of the sort.

"Mamihlapinatapei," Rose muttered under her breath, as she searched the dictionary in her hands, her schoolbooks tossed aside. "Mamihlapinatapei…oh! Here it is…" Her face turned dark. "Charlie you arse! I don't…he doesn't…we don't…Ugh!"

Scorpius looked up from his homework in interest. "What?"

Rose slammed the dictionary shut, "Nothing!...Are you…um…done with your…um, homework there?"

"Almost," He laughed at her, "Why?"

"We have rounds soon."

"Yes, yes we do." Scorpius finished the line he was working on and then turned to face her. "What are you doing?"

Rose tossed the dictionary aside, "Nothing."

"Well then let's go. I'm done."

Scorpius reached over to help Rose stand up, as she gripped his hand he felt a heat rise from his collarbone to his throat. He wanted to pull her closer and snog her senseless like he'd been wanting to do for days, but he didn't. Instead he released her as soon as she was sturdy on her feet and headed out.

At first he considered talking to her about what had happened, but the tension between them had been so elevated, so testy, that he decided it would be best to wait for her to make the first move. As they walked through the castle, they both stuffed their hands in their pockets and avoiding looking at each other if they could help it. Of course, they both broke that at least a handful of times each.

No matter how many times they both tried to go back to the way things were even an eight days earlier, they couldn't. What was between them now was too strong for them to ignore, but still under the radar enough for them to deny.

Rose tucked her long straightened hair behind her ear, as she walked along the large moonlit windows. Still in their uniforms, Rose had left on everything but her knee socks and proper shoes, opting instead to wear some house slippers. Scorpius on the other hand had left his Slytherin tie in the common room. They were perfectly relaxed, but at the same time completely on edge. It was simple and if they would just talk with one another they could have evaded all of the awkwardness, but they didn't. They, like all teenagers, preferred to muddle around in misery and angst instead of just communicating how they felt in the first place.

"So um," Rose cleared her throat, not looking at him. "How are we going to do this whole… Easter thing?"

Scorpius let out a low breath licking his lips in thought. "Well…we probably should do my family first. It will be the quickest anyway."

"So three days with your family and four with mine?" Rose clarified as they turned down yet another silent coridoor.

"That sounds about fair." He nodded.

"Okay…Are you going to like…" She laughed awkwardly, "Warn your parents?"

Scorpius frowned, the lines in his forehead creasing together in thought. "I will tomorrow."

"What are you going to say?"

"The truth." He said not understanding her question. "What else would I say?"

Rose shrugged, "I dunno…I'm not going to say anything."

"How are you not going to say anything?" He criticized her quickly. "I'm going to need somewhere to sleep for four days Weasley."

"As soon as you're there they will…. Well," She paused with a guilty flush thinking of her overprotective father, "At least mum will be… more than accommodating. I figure why give them time to prepare? It only gives them more time to figure out how to say no to you."

Scorpius smirked, looking down at her affectionately. "Is that how you approached them about your trip around Europe?"

"Yep," She beamed, tilting her chin up in pride, "I grabbed Albus, got all of the statistics and facts, had my Uncle George back me and attacked them in the middle of family dinner so they couldn't run away from it or say, 'not now Rose.' I love my family, they are the nosiest bunch in the world. As soon as I said the word, 'Europe,' my cousins were already talking about how great they thought it was AT my parents."

"It must be nice to have a big family," He acknowledged distantly.

Rose smiled, "I love it, but it can get a little crowded. Everyone's trying to out-do each other and be the rising star of the family. It sounds exhausting really. I mean I want to be successful and all that, but I'm not going to try and compete with my cousin's over it."

"Does Lucy?" Scorpius said, think in remarkable dislike of her cousin. "She seems the competitive type."

Rose snorted, "Oh that she is. I love her too death but she's so much like my Uncle Percy it hurts. It's all about the rules and what's written down to be proper." She shook her head, "She hasn't done a spontaneous thing in her whole life…and she thinks that means she's a shoe in for HeadGirl."

"There's more to our job than following the rules."

"We are perfect examples of that aren't we?" Rose laughed gesturing to their three feet constraints.

Scorpius laughed with her, "Yeah I guess we are."

Their eyes met, his grey eyes softened and her brown eyes widened as their walking pace slowed considerably. She tried to look away, her throat tightened as she fought herself. All she wanted to do was throw his tall, muscular body against the castle wall and throw her body at him like jaguar in the jungle…

As the fictional her and Scorpius ripped each others clothes of and broke at least 14 school rules…15 if she counted the part were he-

"Hey," Scorpius interrupted her thoughts to point, "Isn't that-"

"OH HOLY MERLIN!" Rose swore as soon as she saw who he was gesturing to, "SHITE! Move! Move!"

"Rose!" Scorpius called as she grabbed his wrist and dragged him through the castle, "We are supposed to punish students that are outside of bed not run from them!"

"It's Wood!" She wined as she tossed him behind a tapestry. "That bugger saw me! I know he did!"

Scorpius snorted, "Rose you can't hide from him forever."

"Look, he's not a bad person. And I don't normally run from my problems. He just doesn't understand that when I say I don't like him like that, I mean it. I'm not going to change my mind. Because I simply don't feel that way about him, and I hate seeing that look on his face of pure rejection."

Her face became serious as her big brown eyes filled with tears in the darkness he could see it. "I don't want to do that to someone."

"You have to think about it this way." Scorpius reasoned quietly, "He knows you don't like him, he knows it bothers you and yet he keeps trying. The kid keeps putting you in this position."

"He doesn't see it like that." Rose insisted. "We're about to graduate I won't have to do this much longer."

Scorpius frowned and gave her a dirty look. "For someone that always insists to not care what other people think…"

"I don't care what he thinks. I care how he feels, alright?"

Scorpius waited a beat, he saw how sincerely she wished to avoid this heartbreak, but he also saw what she couldn't, which was the truth. The boy was much better off being told off and moving on with his life that clinging to someone that could never feel something for him.

He knew she just didn't want to hurt his feelings, and he wasn't going to make her do it. Instead he thought of a much better and cleaner solution.

"This is ridiculous…" Scorpius wrenched open the tapestry and evaded her grip. "Oy! WOOD! WOOD!"

"You're an arse Scorpius Malfoy!" She spat hatefully still staying hidden. "An arse! Stop it right now-"

Scorpius wasn't fazed, "You might want to pipe down there Weasley, 'ere he comes now."

"Malfoy," Zach Wood addressed him formally looking around curiously slightly out of breath, "Where is Rose?"

"Why do you fancy her Wood?" Scorpius cut to the chase quickly, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"I think she's hauntingly beautiful."

Scorpius fought the impulse to laugh at this. "Yes, that's wonderful, but do you know anything else about her? Her likes, her interests?"

"I know she can't be further than three feet away from you." He began suspiciously, "So what happened? Where is she?"

"The headmaster took the spell off," Scorpius lied expertly, "But you didn't answer my question."

Zach said, "I know when her birthday is, she's top of her class-"

"Yes, well she's Rose Weasley." Scorpius cut him off as-matter-of-factly, "Those things are common knowledge. I'm talking about real things, like what she eats for breakfast, how many hours she sleeps a night things like that."

"No…but," He scrambled looking surprised, but then he jumped to attack. "What would you know?"

"The answers to both questions." Scorpius replied.

Zach scoffed, "You spend two weeks with her and you think you have the right-"

"Her favorite fruit grapes, favorite color blue, favorite season spring, she straightens her frizzy hair every morning and I know her greatest ambition is to write a travel column for the Daily Prophet." Scorpius recited from memory, "I know quite a bit about the HeadGirl, and I also know that she has absolutely no interest in you."

Zach paused, "I'm not going to believe that until I hear that from her."

Scorpius sighed and threw his hands up. "Fucking ridiculous bloke…Rose come on."

Rose came out, and shot Scorpius a nasty look. "Can we not do this?"

"Rose." Zach breathed excitedly. "I knew you were here!...Why were you hiding behind the tapestry?"

"Because…I…" She stammered embarrassedly.

Scorpius groaned, "Honestly, just say it."

"Fine, you prick!" She shouted at him harshly before turning softly to Zach. "Zach, I'm sorry, but I have no interest in you romantically."

"Well mayb-"

Rose repeated louder, "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to change my mind!"

"Is it me?" He whispered hanging his head self-consciously.

"No! No! I just can't choose who I like," She gave him a remorseful smile, "I honestly wish I could."

Zach frowned, "Do you like someone else then?"

Her eyes grew large as she tried to think of a response, but finally she had lost her patience. Rose had tried to be patient. She tried to just ride it out and hope that he'd just get the message, but her feelings were absolutely none of his business.

"Zachary Wood!" She snapped a bright flush taking over her face. "If you don't get back to the Gryffindor common room in the next ten minutes I'm going to give you detention until the end of the year!"

Zach scoffed in disbelief, "Rose you wouldn't-

"Twenty points from Gryffindor!" She announced, completely flustered. "Now move before I take more!" She then said, "You heard me! Move!"

Startled, Zach back away from her and then after taking a quick look at Scorpius he walked away, giving Rose an odd look.

Scorpius let out a delighted laugh. "About damn time."

"I can't believe him! Where did he get off?" Rose scoffed as they walked on, "Why did he think he could ask my something like that?"

"Since when is that such a personal question?" He asked, an amused smirk growing on his face. "You acted as if he asked what color your knickers were."

"Shove off Malfoy."

Scorpius continued unconcernedly, "You would think that you didn't want to answer that question."

"Malfoy," She growled warningly.

"Now," He said, moving closer and closer to her until she was pressed against the opposite wall and trapped between the arms he placed on the wall on either side of her. "Why don't you want to answer that question Ms. Rose Weasley?"

She gulped, her throat ghostly pale in the glow of the moonlight as she looked everywhere but into his eyes. For a minute she considered just maneuvering out of his clutches and moving on before things became …complicated, but the longer she stood there the more clear it had become that it was already complicated. It was clear from the way her feelings were bubbling up in her throat. It was clear from the way Scorpius cradled his body towards hers. And most of all it was clear by the way they were breathing, uneven and heatedly.

"Rose," He whispered almost inaudibly, his voice a low murmur, "Can I kiss you-"

"We-"

He didn't wait for her answer. Scorpius leaned forward, his arms, and body bending simply to press his lips down upon hers. Her response was soft and gentle, at first as if they'd never done this before. His body sunk down on hers, flattening her against the wall as he kissed her more and more deeply.

Finally Rose couldn't hold back any longer, the tension, the acceleration inside her driving her to throw herself at him became such a huge drive that she couldn't fight it anymore. She threw her arms around his neck, pulling his face harder on hers, and propelled her body against his. Groaning, Scorpius thrusted her back, his hands dropping off the wall and seizing the sides of her hips.

She gasped, as his lips feverishly left hers and trailed down to her neck. In one fluid motion as Rose's arched her neck back Scorpius hiked her up around his waist, pinning her to the wall. If they had more time, if they weren't running purely on adrenaline and heat, maybe they would have taken it further, they both clearly wanted to. But since clearly Rose wasn't able to stop herself, Scorpius had to take charge and stop them both.

It wasn't even remotely easy; Scorpius was in the middle of trying to unbutton her blouse when forced himself to put her down and shifted far enough away from her so he couldn't touch her for a few seconds. His chest was beating hard and fast, as he rested his head back against the wall. Rose didn't pull after him, she instead mirrored his reaction as she tried to catch her own breath.

"So," He breathed thickly trying to control himself, "Clearly, we have a problem."

"Clearly," She repeated letting out a small shadowy laugh as buttoned up the top buttons of her blouse.

"What are we going to do about this then?" He asked taking two strands of her fallen hair and tucking her hair behind her ears tenderly.

Rose shook her head in disbelief, "I haven't got the foggiest."

"Well then we have a problem then don't we?" Scorpius grinned down at her as he curled around the wall to face her.

"Yes, I reckon we do." Rose giggled as she did the same to him, "But can we do one thing before we go?"

"What Weasley?"

Impulsively, she tugged him by the collar and pressed his lips down on hers. "That's all."