"I can't believe we have to do this," Rose groaned as she gripped the handle of her suitcase as they waited for the carriages. "This is the worst idea the Headmaster has ever had…and I'm saying that knowing full well that I don't know 90 percent of the decision's he's made."

Scorpius didn't seem too happy about this either. His pale face cringed at the thought of seeing his parents with Rose. "Well, after this the worst part is over right?"

"You think you're parents are the worst part?" Rose scoffed indignantly.

"I think my father's exact words were, 'what did you do to receive this punishment?' Followed by, 'we will see about that."

Rose groaned. "Great."

"You've told your parents …right?" He checked as she fidgeted nervously.

"Yeah…" Rose said unconvincingly, not looking at him.

"Rose."

"I told my mum! Relax would you?!" Rose breathed rocking back and forth on her heels. "…What are we going to do about the whole sleeping situation?"

Scorpius let out a raspberry, clueless to how to answer that. "I have no idea. My parents just said they would talk to me when I got there."

"Great, I'm so glad we're going to wing it." Rose started sarcastically, running a hand through her recently straightened hair.

"Come on," He helped her up into the carriage and noticed she smiled as he did. "What?"

She shrugged, "It's nothing."

"What?"

"I just...I like that you do that."

"Do what?"

"Help me. You don't even notice you're doing it." Rose looked away as her cheeks flushed.

Scorpius snorted and rolled his eyes at her. "You haven't been around men with manner's then."

"Oh so you've met my family then?" She laughed.

As the carriage started moving toward the train, Rose began to gnaw on the side of her lip and play with the ends of her hair absentmindedly. Scorpius notice and grabbed her hand to stop her from silently freaking out.

"It will be fine."

"How will it be fine?!" She shouted suddenly. "Your parents are…your parents. They're infamous…and intimidating."

"And you don't think your parent's are?"

Rose gave him a look. "Was that even a question?"

"Okay," He reasoned, "What exactly do you think is going to happen?"

"Easy. I'm going to go in there. Your mother is going to know I've snogged you…she's going to call me a whore. Your father is going to hate me and compare me to my father. And then I will mysteriously be set on fire."

Scorpius released her hand and gave her a dirty look. "Are you suggesting one of my parents is going to set you on fire?"

"I'm saying," She said, laughing at the idea, "That it will just happen. I'm not here to point any fingers."

"You'll be fine. I won't let them set you on fire." He promised.

"That was the most romantic thing I've ever heard." Rose pretended to swoon as she jumped out of the carriage.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows in amusement as she nearly fell into a vat of mud. "Well I try."

"I'm sure you do." She said grabbing her luggage and dragging it up to the train.

"You know," He began, holding himself back. "I could have just carried that for you."

"Then why didn't you?" She countered knowingly.

He said nothing.

"Ah," She turned to point at him. "Because it's too couply. And since we don't know what's going on here," Rose gestured to the air between them, "We shouldn't cross any international boundaries."

"International boundaries?" He repeated tilting his head down at her with a smile.

Rose nodded and heaved her luggage up on the train. "Yep."

"Where are you sitting?" He asked pausing for a moment.

"With Charlie and Blake. You?"

Scorpius gestured back to the Slytherin compartments.

For a second they both moved before remembering something very vital, they hadn't been separated. It was so incredibly thick of them to forget the main reason what was the cause of most of their problems and why they spent so much time together, but somehow in this new relationship they didn't think about the why's.

"Sometimes our stupidity astounds me." Rose started with a frown.

Scorpius shook his head, trying to hide a laugh. "I guess head compartment it is."

As she followed behind him, Rose began to wonder why she hadn't thought about the why's that were circling around them. In the past two days they'd snogged a lot, but there were heavy boundaries still in place. They still slept in their own individual sleeping bags. They didn't hold hands for prolonged period or touch each other that often. It was clear that they liked each other, but they were both nervous and unsure of what that meant.

Scorpius put her luggage up on the rack and then added his own. He had hoped stupidly that he could go sit with his friends. Not because he especially wanted to spend time with them or see them at all really. But more because he needed time away from Rose, to clear his head and think this through. She hadn't put any expectations on him, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Girls rarely let things just go naturally; they needed to know where they were headed. And that wasn't ridiculous, but the weird thing was their situation wasn't typical.

For them Rose was the one that was impulsive and took chances. Scorpius liked structure, he liked rules and whatever he was doing with Rose Weasley was definitely breaking them all.

Scorpius had gone from having a casual snog partner, to…feeling something. It wasn't specifically boyfriend/girlfriend territory, not that he really knew what that was, but it was something new, which terrified him, and thrilled him at the same time. He kept waiting for her to become boring, but so far even the tedious things she did entertained him. With most girls, he could see the effort they put into the whole thing, but Rose didn't. She straightened her hair because she couldn't stand that it was a mess, not because she worried what other people thought, but because it bothered her. When he thought about it, he couldn't understand why he liked that about her, but that was the problem. The longer he knew her the more things like that kept cropping up and he didn't know how to explain them.

Rose crawled up by the window, and glanced out the window. She saw Scorpius pull out the Daily Prophet across from her, and she noticed that his eyes weren't moving. Holding back a snicker, she grinned and focused her gaze back out the window. It was funny to her that he felt the need to hold a prop to be left alone. It would have been understandable if he had to spend a lot of time with people pestering him, but she knew that wasn't the case, so it confused her. The gesture would have been futile with the Weasley/Potter clan. With them it didn't matter if she had something labeled, 'national security,' on it, they would still insist on bothering her. The contrast between their families couldn't have been more defined, but Rose still hoped she had gotten the completely wrong impression of the Malfoy's.

She hoped beyond any realistic whim that they were cold, but they were also polite so the worst that could happen would be that they ran out of things to talk about. That wasn't that bad at all, especially in comparison to the things she was picturing in her head. Sure her father had poisoned her mind about their family since an early age, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that at least some of those words had been true. What if they absolutely hated her?

The farther they moved away from Hogwarts the more realistic that possibility became.

For almost the entire journey they said nothing to one another. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable, but content as they both were perfectly fine keeping their thoughts to themselves. Once they were about twenty minutes from the station Scorpius broke the silence.

"So," He cleared his dry throat, intertwining his fingers as he leaned forward. "A few warnings."

"Oh Merlin," She breathed in apprehension. "Your family puts house elves heads up on the walls don't they?"

Scorpius paused. "They used to, but my mum took them down."

"…they used to?" Rose said under her breath with a flinch.

"Anyway," He continued, "I wouldn't bring up the following things…Death Eaters, The Ministry, and flowers."

Rose gave him a look. "The first two I can get…but why flowers?"

"My mum lost some garden competition…" He rolled his eyes in distain. "She gets very bitter when someone brings it up."

"Alright, I won't mention flowers, but she might bring it up."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would she do that?"

"I don't know…maybe because my name is a flower."

"It will be fine."

"You keep saying that." Rose replied wryly, crossing her arms.

He shrugged, trying to seem unconcerned. "Because it will."

There was a loud knock on the compartment door and Rose smiled when she saw it was Albus. She gestured for him to come in, but was curious to see why he looked so worked up.

"What's wrong Al? Quidditch not going so well?" Rose asked naturally.

"That can't be it, he hasn't had practice in a week, because of the Quidditch delay." Scorpius interjected knowingly, "It's about a bird."

Rose smirked, "I wonder who the lucky girl is."

"Oh sod off," He glared at her, running a hand through his hair hopeless. "I didn't know I fancied her."

"How could you not know?" Rose questioned in disbelief.

Albus gave her another dirty look. "I'm not always aware of my feelings like you are Rose…Besides it's not like she made it easy on me."

Rose smacked his arm. "You're an idiot! How was she supposed to make it easy on you? Was she supposed to write you a letter explaining your feelings TO-YOU?"

"No…I didn't…I…" He started and stopped getting furious with her. "I came here to talk to Scorpius!"

"That sucks." Rose said giving Scorpius a smirk.

Scorpius laughed and wiped the side of his face.

"Whose team are you on anyway?" He exclaimed angrily to Rose, expecting her to immediately say his name.

"Charlie's," Rose scoffed as if it were obvious, leaning back in her seat. "Why would I back you?"

"I dunno," He said his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Maybe because I'm your cousin."

Rose waved that away. "That has no barring here."

"Since when is dating exempt from relatives?"

"I've never intervened in your relationships," Rose pointed out coyly. "You, and James are the one's who seem to think it appropriate to bud into mine."

Albus's face shifted into a smirk. "Well it's a good thing you aren't intending to date anyone isn't it?"

Rose's face flushed as she pursed her lips furiously.

The gleam in Albus's eyes was triumphant, as he knew he caught her right where he wanted her. She couldn't say she didn't want to date anybody in front of Scorpius, but she couldn't exactly say she did either. Neither of them may have said anything to Albus of what was going on between them, but they didn't seem to have to. Albus had figured it out and was now using it against her, much to her overwhelming disapproval.

"So what are you going to do?" Scorpius questioned, pretending he didn't notice Albus's last statement.

Albus threw his hands up. "I haven't the foggiest. I mean she has a boyfriend now…wanker."

"Why don't you try talking to her?" Rose suggested, her tone softer than before.

"Uh, your missing a part of the puzzle there Rose." Albus let out a short laugh. "That requires me to put all of this…out there."

Rose sighed, "James-"

"My name is Albus," He grinned at her.

"Right sorry…Albus," She said apologetically. "The point is, she kissed you in a hall full of people. Yes it was dare day, but there were a bunch of different one's that didn't involve or require that. She already put it all out there. So the question is what are you so afraid of?"

Albus glanced at Scorpius for back up, "Mate?"

Scorpius took a second before saying, "I think Rose's right. You don't have any other options."

"What happened to, 'birds come and go,' 'you'll get over it'?" Albus whined to Scorpius.

"She is the one who moved on this time. So it changes things."

"Ugh, I hate feelings…They are so …clingy." Albus groaned moving to stand up.

Rose smiled at him. "Just go get it over with, and then you can go get smashed with James at home."

"Good idea Rosie." He pointed at her approvingly. "I guess I'll see you guys in a few days. Good luck Ro."

She nodded back as he shut the door and left in the direction of Blake and Charlie's compartment.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" He asked lightly.

She shrugged, "I don't really know. I can't really see them together, but that doesn't mean anything."

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, but both their minds were on the same part of the conversation. Rose considered saying something, but she held back. This wasn't the time to have that conversation. It was more important now to just focus on getting through the week.

The train stopped like it always did, but this time Rose didn't look for her parents. Instead her eyes locked on the Malfoy's and she let out a slow breath. Scorpius saw this and he pulled her to her feet.

"Come on, don't be overdramatic."

"Okay," She frowned, "You remember that you said that when it's your turn."

Then she followed him out of the compartment and off the train with a stomach full of anxiety.