For the rest of the day Scorpius successfully avoided Ron, but was not able to escape the looks the older man was giving him. Rose had said he would overreact, but Scorpius didn't fully understand until he was actually sitting there enduring his glares. Scorpius began to appreciate a bit of what Rose was getting at about not being together. He couldn't imagine how bad it would be if he was actually dating Rose. Still it didn't deter him from dating her as much as it should have.

He knew that in most relationships having the parents dislike the relationship of the couple made the couple want to be together more, but with them it wasn't like that. Scorpius wasn't trying to prove anything by being with Rose. He didn't want to fight her parents because it wasn't about them. It was about the fact that he could actually see a future with her.

Albus's brother James sat down next to Scorpius as all the cousins and Scorpius congregated in the living. He looked a lot like Albus, same hair, same build, but his eyes weren't the same. For one they were brown and for another thing they were glaring at Scorpius in away Albus never would.

"So what exactly is going on?"

"…Um I'm sitting on the floor." Scorpius offered. "What about you?"

"I mean with you and my cousin." James began harshly, his voice low enough to not involve Rose, who was deep in discussion with her cousin Lily about something only three feet away.

"Why?" Scorpius shot back, crossing his arms and giving the older boy a look.

James looked taken aback. He'd expected a denial. "Because she's my cousin and we happen to be a very protective family."

"Yeah," Scorpius scoffed, crossing his arms and leaning his back against the sofa behind him. "I've noticed."

"You still have yet to answer my question Malfoy." He pointed out tilting his head.

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"Are you shagging her?" He demanded threateningly.

"No," Scorpius answered, "I'm not."

James frowned and lowered his wand. "oh…"

Of all the people Scorpius wanted to talk to James Potter wasn't even in the hemisphere of the list. For years they hated each other, but after the ordeal with Rose he had to talk to someone. It was killing him to keep all of this to himself and since Albus clearly couldn't handle this. He might as well tell the only person who was asking.

"I am in love with her." Scorpius muttered under his breath after making sure Rose wasn't listening.

James's eyes bugged out and he scooted back away from him like he had told him he had dragon pox and it was contagious. "YOu..What?!"

Scorpius gave him a horrible look as Rose and Lily turned to look at them for a second before turning back around. "Merlin, what is with you Potters? Are you incapable of keeping anything quiet?"

James glowered at him. "Well at least we aren't known for being backstabbing cowards."

"No just attention-seeking jackasses." Scorpius replied crossly.

Pausing James considered getting up and leaving. He hated Scorpius. It was simple; he never liked the kid and had beaten the crap out of him at least seven times over the years. But looking at him in this light he didn't look like the same person. Not better not worse, but just different.

"Little piece of advice," James mentioned, bending over with a condescending look on his face, "I understand that your entire family are criminals, so you were taught and raised to be a sneaky, evil little git but it might be quicker if you just told my cousin how you feel so she can dump your sorry arse and you both can get on with your lives."

Scorpius said, "And if she feels the same?"

James looked at Rose who was shaking with laughter at an impersonation Lily was doing. "Then Merlin love her."

An hour or so later Hermione came down. She waited a minute to break up Lily and Rose's conversation and took a minute to get a good look at Scorpius. It surprised her to see he had taken out a book to read. It was clear that he didn't want to get involved in the girls conversation of Paris fashion, but Rose's mum didn't expect him just politely pull out a book and begin to read.

She shook her head and said, "Okay girls time for bed. Lily head up."

"Um what about us?" Rose asked gesturing at Scorpius though she wouldn't look at him.

"You two will be sleeping down here in the living room."

"The living room?" Rose groaned, "You can't be serious mum. Everyone is loud as hell in the morning."

She shrugged, "Your father wouldn't hear of any other option."

Scorpius laughed under his breath at that as grabbed a pillow and blanket and settled into the floor automatically letting Rose take the couch. Hermione frowned thoughtfully surprised again by this gesture.

"Um…Scorpius, here." She flicked her wand, and a temporary mattress appeared beneath him.

He tensed up for a second, looking down at the mattress in alarm before glancing up at her. "Oh…Thank you Mrs. Weasley."

"Oh for the love of god don't call me that…" She flinched, "Just call me Hermione. My mother in law is Mrs. Weasley and she would think it was odd if anyone else was called that."

Scorpius nodded, "Okay."

"Or you can just call me, 'Rose's mum,' if that's too informal for you." She offered worriedly.

"Mum," Rose laughed giving her mother a look, "It's fine. Thank you."

"Yeah," Hermione scoffed ruffling her daughter's hair as Rose settled into the couch. "You should be nice to me. If it weren't for me you'd both be sleeping outside for being here."

"Dad needs to calm down. He's acting like I'm pregnant and Scorpius is a terrorist."

"Well, that's exactly how he feels." Hermione laughed pushing her bushy hair out of her face.

Rose sighed tying her hair back into a bun, "Well that's ridiculous."

"That's your father." She laughed again before looking back at Scorpius. "If you need anything feel free to ask Rose or I. I would like to say the men would be just as accommodating…but the men in this family are …stubborn."

"Yeah well they have to be able to stand up to the men." Rose snorted.

"We aren't that bad."

"I have to disagree with you there." Scorpius laughed in the darkness, the glow of the fireplace lighting only half of his face.

Rose instinctively rolled over and smacked him. "Watch it."

And he laughed, because for a moment they both forgot themselves.

Hermione smiled. "Night you two."

"Night mum," Rose said as Scorpius said, "Night."

Rose scuffled over determinedly so that she would be looking at the inside of the couch. She knew if she faced him he would say something to her. Though she had no idea what he would say to her it still terrified her to be all alone with him. The curse should have been lifted already. Mostly she had given up on the notion that he would do something to prove that she was wrong. There was just a small piece of her that still hoped he might and there wasn't anything she could do about that because there was always going to be a part of her that believed in him, that believed in them.

Tugging the covers up to her chin she tried to think of what Charlie or Blake would say. She had never talked to them about this. It all had happened so …unexpectedly and Scorpius was always right next to her so she never got the chance. Even if she did she wouldn't know what she would say. How could she explain this to her friends when she hardly ever understood it herself? The saddest part was that she had spent so much time with Scorpius in the past month that if she needed to talk to someone she would just automatically talk to him. It was just natural to talk to him about what was bothering her, but now when she needed to the most she couldn't because he was the problem.

When she was talking to Lily she insisted on talking about her cousin and all the other gossip Lily had at her disposal, she couldn't handle talking to Scorpius. It was incredibly and unforgivably rude that she brought him here just to ignore him, but she had nothing else to work with. If she even was nice to him for the sake of him not being isolated her male relatives would only attack him faster. It was better off to just talk to him as little as possible. That way they would get enough distance so that when the curse broke they wouldn't feel obligated to feel anything for each other.

That was a lie or mostly a lie anyway. He would move on and become successful without any drama or romantic entanglements with her. His life would go back to being by the book and simple, the way he liked it. She wouldn't bother at all. They just had to get through these last two days and they would be home free.

Clenching her fists she listened to hear if his breathing had evened out to see if he was sleeping. He wasn't and that made her heart race. Why wouldn't he just go to sleep? It drove her crazy to think he was awake so close to her and yet not saying anything. After awhile Rose fell into a restless sleep.

Scorpius couldn't sleep at all. He stared at the fire and thought about what he was going to do. When Rose started thrashing around in her sleep. He was going to sit up and wake her up when she spun off the couch and landed on him. He groaned as he elbow connected with his stomach. She moaned, her body was flat against his and his body wasn't exactly the best to fall on considering his body fat percentage. Her hair had slipped out of her hair tie and was all over his face.

She scoffed and moved her hair out of his face, her eyes half closed. "Sorry."

"It's fine," He grumbled.

She shifted to move and just as she did she looked her eyes caught on him. It was the first time she'd looked at him properly days. Once she did her heart caught in her throat and everything she had been telling herself disappeared as the warmth from the fire warmed the side of her face.

"You okay?" She whispered, her hands unintentionally resting on his bare chest.

"It was a short distance. I'm fine," He said quietly unable to look anywhere but at her.

Rose shook her head, her face filling with regret she pushed up from and was going to get off of him when his arms shot out to stop her.

"Wait." He insisted.

"Why?" She groaned her head hanging. "This isn't going to go anywhere."

"Why?"

She looked taken aback. "What do you mean why?"

"I mean why?" He sat up, cradling her in his lap. "Why do you think this can't work?"

"Uh…You want to be a healer. I want to be a traveling reporter, do those careers sound equal to you?"

Scorpius paused. "No. They don't."

"We…we are headed in two different directions. I'm not saying there isn't something here." She looked away. "I'm just saying that right now it just doesn't make sense."

"But...I... I love you." He admitted taking a sharp intake of air.

She gasped, her eyes watering as she analyzed the sincerity in his eyes. Rose knew it would be easier if she lied, but she couldn't. Not with him looking at her like that. "I…I love you too."

"So then can't we work this out?" He asked, his face tensing.

"Merlin…" She muttered giving him a hopeless look. "I…I don't know what to say. If we dated now we just would get everyone all rattled up and this would get worse….and I just…" Tears began to slip down her cheeks. "I just think it makes more sense to not do this."

"Don't cry," He breathed, rubbing her tears away with his thumbs, his own lip trembling. "Please don't cry Rose."

"I'm ss sorry." She cried shaking.

He pulled her into his arms, his hands running through her hair, tucking her into his chest. "Don't apologize."

His eyes grew wet, but he held it together. Getting upset wouldn't help anything. It would just make this harder on her. He just held her and running his hand through her hair and trying to control his breathing as the warmth of her kept him together.

The didn't say anything to each other the next day or even the day after that when they were getting ready to head back to Hogwarts. It wasn't the best Easter break he had ever had what with Ron Weasley glaring him down and everything with Rose, but Albus noticed the mood shift and made it his mission to cheer them both up. Even James tried to be nicer to Scorpius. He didn't question why, he was too heartbroken to think on it, but Rose had a feeling that one of them had overheard their conversation and told the other. She never found out though because she really didn't need to know. It didn't change anything.

James stood next to Scorpius while Rose took turns hugging her family goodbye. "You know, we used to mess with Rose the most... Lily's the baby of the family, but Rose was always one of the boys so we didn't think anything of it."

"What did you guys do?" Scorpius wondered watching the guilt form on James's face.

James cringed, "We used to fly her around when she was sleeping and then she'd wake up and freak out."

"That's why she's terrified of heights…" Scorpius whispered thoughtfully.

"Yeah…" James groaned running a hand through his hair. "Not our finest hour, but what's a childhood without a few scars?"

"That's one way to look at it." Scorpius said, feeling sorry for Rose as he pictured her younger self spazzing in the air.

"Watch it," James eyed Scorpius darkly. "Look I know I gave you a rough time and we both know you deserve it, but…maybe down the line you two can work it out."

"Yeah maybe." Scorpius muttered, watching Rose scold her father before embracing him in a large hug.

Albus, Rose and Scorpius apparated back to the train station and climbed aboard. Albus sat with them in the Head compartment and filled in all the silences with all of the stories Teddy had told him over break. Both Rose and Scorpius appreciated it because the last thing either one of them wanted was to be alone together stuck in the silence with nothing but the remainder of their dwindling time to think about.

Once they arrived at the castle they headed up to the headmasters office much slower than necessary. Neither one of them were particularly happy to end this. They didn't talk. His hands were stuffed into his pants pockets, while she crossed her arms, trying not to count every step. Soon enough they had made it to the Headmasters office though they both couldn't remember how all of the time could have passed so quickly.

"I'm proud of you two." Headmaster Higgins proclaimed taking the curse of with a flick of his wand, "I really thought this might have backfired but you two proved me wrong. And if you want to know a secret…I love being proved wrong."

Rose grinned, but as soon as she looked at Scorpius it faded.

"You both are free to go and you are no longer on probation. Good day to you both." He said smiling at them.

Scorpius lead the way out of the room and they both walked down together. It wasn't even on purpose anymore it was a habit now for them to stay in pace with each other. Even now they couldn't shake it. Once they made it to the stairs, they paused and looked at each other.

He felt like someone was slowly draining his heart of blood. It was hurt, but it weakened him to look at her and know that he couldn't be with her. She felt exactly the same way. Scorpius moved to walk away, but she charged forward and hugged him. He clenched his eyes shut as he locked his arms around her. She stood up on her tips toes to get as close to him as possible.

Then, her lips brushed his ear as she whispered, "Someday… Scorpius," before releasing him and running down the stairs away from him.

Rose sat in the Gryffindor common room a few days later feeling incredibly old. She looked around the place and felt nostalgic for a place she would soon leave. It had taken her awhile to get up the courage to explain to her friends what had happened, but now that she had they were both staring at her with sad looks on their faces, like puppies that were denied treats.

"I believe you have, La Douleur Exquise." Charlie told Rose philosophically.

"Are you going to tell her what that is or is it just supposed hang in the air?" Blake questioned playing with the end of her braid idly, her blue eyes centering on Charlie.

Charlie sighed shifting to the coffee table to sit in front of them both. "It means the exquisite pain of wanting someone that you know you can never have by circumstance or subjective decision."

Rose groaned rubbing her face. "That fits about right."

"How long has it been since you've seen him?"

"A couple of days." Rose muttered, her face looking paler than normal.

"Well I'm sure it's for the best right?" Charlie said looking at Blake for back up.

Blake nodded, giving them both a supportive grin. "What's that saying? Anything that's meant to happen…happens when it's supposed to?"

"That's the gist of it." Rose nodded sighing. She gave them a look and clapped her hands together. "Well Blake you should get to the pitch for the match. Charlie, I'm meeting you and Alex at the game?"

"Yep." Charlie nodded before giving Rose a look. "You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah," She smiled weakly, "I just want to change into a Gryffindor shirt for the game you know?"

"Okay." Charlie nodded knowingly.

Rose wandered back to her common room, passing students who were running out of the building with their face painted getting pumped for the match versus Slytherin. There were only a few weeks left of school. She had already gotten the internship she wanted for the summer so her future was pretty much set with or without final grades. It had been long enough for her to get past the point where she would cry herself to sleep. Scorpius stuck to his word and didn't speak to her or bother her at all.

So it surprised her when she went into the common room just as he was walking towards the door. Their eyes locked for the briefest of seconds and Rose felt all the anxiety she'd been feeling build up in her chest, her stomach and throat tensing up. It was the feeling people felt before they were slammed by cars, she was sure. He wanted to say something to her, but he knew he shouldn't so he stayed silently and just looked at her.

"Well…" She blushed, "Good luck."

"Thanks Rose." He smiled faintly before grabbing his broom and leaving the room.