Chapter rated M for language and sexual content.

Chapter 44: Hands Down

Seven Months Later

"Ms. Weasley and Mr. Potter, could I have a word?"

The rest of the potions class ooh-ed and ahh-ed, joking about how Albus and I must have done something wrong, although all of them knowing that neither of us had. I rolled my eyes and Albus laughed as we walked up to Scorpius and the rest of the class trickled out.

Scorpius was gathering papers on his desk, and I couldn't help but admire the way he moved when he did it—when he did anything—the way his arms flexed under his robes, the slight crease that formed between his eyebrows as he concentrated, and the way his jaw worked when he was chewing over finding the right words to say.

Without looking up from his desk, Scorpius said, "I wondered if the group has made a decision yet."

Albus immediately stiffened and I stared at Scorpius, trying not to gape.

A few months ago, our band, Founders Four, got a second chance to open for a group called Wear the Wolves, a famous alternative rock band in the Wizarding World. It came on after we had gotten a chance to open for them when they threw a concert at Hogwarts at the beginning of the school year and Albus had sent them a letter and a tape beseeching them to let us open for them, and by some lucky chance, they had agreed.

But during that time while we prepared to open for them, I had pissed off Scorpius, and he had given me a detention for that night so that I would miss the concert. After I had a breakdown during his detention, Scorpius let me go so that I was able to catch the last song, but he had still felt guilty for making me miss the majority of it, so, unbeknownst to me, Scorpius had contacted his father, the CFO of Magic Wand Records—the label that represented Wear the Wolves—and asked if there was any way he could convince them to consider us again for another opening.

They agreed, and a few months ago, we went to a venue in Dublin and we stood before a crowd of hundreds of witches and wizards from across the globe and opened for Wear the Wolves. It had been, hands down, the most incredible night of my life. The crowd loved us, and all four of us were so into the music that we abandoned ourselves completely. Albus—who was usually so shy about singing—made one of our songs into an impromptu duet. Nate, our bass and keyboard player (and Albus and my cousin Lucy's boyfriend), dripped so much sweat onto his keyboard that it went out and we had to magic it back to life, much to the delight of the crowd.

But the thing that really kept my adrenaline pumping was the feeling of Scorpius's eyes on me from the side of the stage. McGonagall had said that the only way we would be able to go was if a representative from the school went to chaperone us since we were still under their care, and because none of the old professors was willing to go to a rock concert, Scorpius had been able to go (even though he had said he was going to sneak there either way).

He had looked so incredibly sexy that night in black jeans, a gray v-neck t-shirt that brought out his eyes and a light leather jacket over it. He looked like a sexy bad boy with his tousled blonde hair and his arms bulging as he crossed them from the side of the stage and watched us with a smile on his face. When I sang "A Man Named Merlin," a song I had originally written about Scorpius, I got so choked up that I had to stop for a second, but I was able to get through it with a smile on my face, and it was fine because the crowd completely ate up all my emotions.

When we were finished, it was chaos when we walked back stage—everyone was hugging and congratulating us. I saw my parents chatting with my Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry and Nate's and Lysander's parents, but I didn't get a chance to talk to them because Scorpius had dragged me into a secluded spot before I hardly had a chance to catch my breath. He found a mechanical closet, and although I protested weakly, saying that everyone would know we were gone and we were trying to be secretive, Scorpius hardly had to do any convincing before he had my skirt shoved up and he was pushing inside me, taking me wildly as I was as loud as I wanted to be since the music and everything around us drowned us out.

I wanted him again and again, and I tried to convince him to just take me away and find us a place where we could make love all night, but he had just laughed huskily and straightened us both out and made me go out and face everyone backstage who wanted to congratulate me.

I was having the night of my life, but there was still that very back part of my mind that was sad because I wanted Scorpius to be with me, holding my hand, and putting his arm around me and telling me how much he loved me and how great I was as I mingled with everyone else. I wanted him on my arm, and when other guys backstage flirted with me, I would catch Scorpius's eye apologetically and I knew he wanted me on his arm, too.

Later that night, things had gotten wild because a representative for Magic Wand Records told us that they enjoyed our show so much that he wanted to offer Founders Four a deal with the label when the four of us graduated from Hogwarts in a few months. He said we would sign now and our first recording session with the label would be a few weeks later.

My parents had gaped, Harry had scowled and Ginny had cheered. The four of us were ecstatic, and the young man from the label, Guy, who had a mild French accent and who looked to be close in age to Scorpius, laughed and gave us the paperwork, telling us to think it over and get back to him as soon as we could.

It was perfect. It was one of the best nights of my life, but I wasn't known for my good luck, and about a week later, everything shattered.

Albus was Seeker and Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. The following weekend, Slytherin played a game against Hufflepuff to determine who would play Gryffindor in the final. Albus had played a phenomenal game, and when it was over, a scout for the Tutshill Tornados offered Albus a spot on their team for the following season.

I was ridiculously happy for Albus, but that created a difficult situation for all of us. There was no possible way that Albus was going to be able to work with the band full time and play for the Tornados. So we had to make a decision and we wanted to give Albus time to think, but Guy was getting impatient, and the Tornados were also getting impatient, and it was time for Al to make a decision.

"Albus is the only one who has to make a decision," I said, glaring at Scorpius. He knew that I wanted to support Al, but he also knew how desperately I wanted to be a musician, and now he was trying to get me what I wanted, like he always did.

"I…" Albus started. "I have to decide this week. I've let it go on too long."

"I just don't want you to wait too long, and then both opportunities go away."

"Guy said we have until this Friday to decide," I said, defending Albus.

"Tutshill gave me the same deadline," Albus said, frowning. "It's just—"

"Albus, you have until Friday. You don't have to say anything now, as impatient as my boyfriend might be." I shot a look at Scorpius, who just smirked. And as much as I wanted to be annoyed with him, it was so hard when he was so sexy and when he was just trying to look out for me. Ugh.

Al sighed and gave a forced smile. "Well my boyfriend is going to be impatient if I don't get to the Great Hall and meet him soon," he said. "I'll catch you guys later." And before Scorpius could say another word, Albus ducked out of the room.

"Scorpius—" I started as soon as the door was shut and Scorpius had flicked his wand at it to lock it.

"Not here," he said in warning. We had been really good these last seven months about making sure we kept everything in his quarters after both of us were on edge after what had happened months ago and we had almost gotten caught by my ex-boyfriend and Headmistress McGonagall, until I decided to obliviate them both. We never touched or hardly even looked at each other outside of his quarters, and as hard as it had been at first, after a while, it had actually made everything a bit more exciting than it already was. I mean, seeing Scorpius all day without being able to look at or touch him made me so wild for him that every time we were finally able to get into his quarters, the passion between us would explode.

As soon as we were safely in his quarters, I rounded on him. "You can't do that, Scorpius," I said, pulling my robes over my head as I walked into his bedroom and tossed my stuff in a pile next to his bed. I turned to him and saw him doing the same.

"He's had two months to decide," Scorpius said as he loosened his tie and tossed it onto his bed before putting his hands on his hips and facing me. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, facing him from the other side of his bed.

"This is the biggest decision of his life!" I said, throwing my hands up. "And he wants both. He always has."

"It's selfish of him to play Quidditch."

I gaped. "It's selfish of the rest of us to make him play with the band if his heart is in Quidditch."

"Rose."

"He'll resent us for the rest of our lives if he feels like we pressured him into giving up his dream."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "He's got a choice between two fucking amazing options. Excuse me if I don't feel bad for making him 'settle'"—Scorpius held up air quotes—"for something like being a fucking famous musician."

I shook my head and walked toward Scorpius's sitting room. "You don't get it," I said with my back to him.

I felt him grab my elbow when I was only a few steps into the sitting room, and as much as I wanted to be mad at him, I still got the familiar jolt that I got any time he touched me.

"Scorpius," I gasped when I turned. But I couldn't say a word because his mouth cut me off when he pressed it to mine. I sighed and melted in his arms. He cupped my face in his hands and tilted my head to the side so he could have the access that he wanted, and his tongue slid over mine, making me whimper softly and the tension slowly trickle out of me.

He walked and pushed me with his body until my back was against the wall, and he reached down and gripped the backs of my thighs to lift me up against it. I wrapped my legs around his waist and groaned when I felt him harden against me. I was in my school skirt and since it was getting much warmer out, I no longer wore stockings so the only thing separating us was the thin material of my knickers and the material of his slacks and whatever under garments he was wearing.

Scorpius pulled his mouth away from mine and looked at me.

"Baby, I want you to have everything you want."

I felt my heart squeeze in a familiar way that only he was able to do. "I know," I said.

"I love you," he said as he leaned in to kiss along my jaw. I sighed, feeling my fingertips start to tingle. It amazed me that that feeling I used to get at the tips of my fingers when I first started to fall for him was still so present after so long.

"I know, Scorpius," I said, my voice raspy. "But I—"

"You deserve to have this," he said as he kissed my jaw and neck and I felt his breath ghost across my skin, making heat erupt across my body. "And it's not fair that Albus holds all the cards and gets to decide the fate of four people."

I couldn't think clearly—not when he was so, so slowly grinding his pelvis against me as he kissed along my collar bone, and not when I could feel him slowly undoing the buttons of my white school shirt after already undoing my tie and crossing it across the room.

"I know, baby," I managed to choke out even as I felt his fingers brush against my stomach and it quivered in response. "I want everyone to—to have what they want."

"I know what I want," he said huskily as he pulled my shirt down my shoulders and it fell to the floor.

I was trying to unbutton his shirt the way he had done for me, but my fingers were too unsteady from the tingling and the shaking with anticipation. "Take your shirt off," I begged as I snaked my arms around his neck and pulled him to me so I could kiss him deeply. It was a wet, erotic kiss that I felt all the way to my core. He thrust his pelvis against me and I whimpered and pulled away so I could try to work at his shirt again.

"Come on, baby," I begged again when I still couldn't do it. He grinned at me and did nothing, and I gave a frustrated growl and reached forward so I could rip the shirt open.

Scorpius looked momentarily shocked when the buttons went flying everywhere, but I didn't care. He had teased me long enough, and I wanted him badly. He was so hard against me, and I couldn't stop imagining what it would feel like once he was inside me.

I yanked his white button-down off and then reached down to pull the white t-shirt he wore underneath it up and over his head. He then reached around and unclasped my bra, and my already hard nipples peaked almost painfully at the rush of cold air. I groaned and pressed into him as I sighed his name. He dipped his head and sealed his mouth over one of my erect nipples and I cried out, grinding into him. I reached in between us and was able to make better work of undoing the buckle of his belt and opening up his slacks than I was able to do with his shirt.

I slipped my hand into his slacks and he jerked and moved his mouth away from my nipple so he could groan and press his forehead to mine.

We were both panting, and before I knew what was happening, he reached his hand up and I gasped when I heard the snap of my panties. I leaned forward to tug his slacks down and they were barely below his erection before he was sinking into me.

"Scorpius," I moaned. I tightened my legs around his waist and ground down on him, meeting each of his upward thrusts. I could feel myself building already, and I bent my head down to bite Scorpius's shoulder to stop myself from crying out loudly.

"Don't hold it in," he growled, thrusting hard into me.

I could feel myself building up, up, up, my walls clenching and unclenching around him, making him gasp and groan loudly, and my limbs started to tighten right when he stopped his movements. I had no time to protest, however, because he was kicking the rest of the way out of his slacks, and then he gripped me under my arse as he carried me out of the sitting room and into his bedroom.

When Scorpius slid slowly out of me, I whimpered as he set me on the bed. He crawled in after me, and kneeled in front of my legs that I had bent up and closed in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure. He smiled and reached forward to grip the waistband of my skirt. He slid it slowly off me, and then spread my knees apart so he could position himself in between them.

I let my head collapse onto the pillow as he slid inside me again, and he leaned forward on his elbows and held my head in his hands, his gray eyes only inches from my blue ones.

"You're so beautiful," he said as he began to thrust. He groaned as I clenched and moaned around him. It was as if he had never left me and I was on the edge quickly once more. "And you feel so good."

He didn't take his eyes from mine as he picked up the pace of his thrusts, pounding my hips into the bed as I spread my legs open even more to let him slide even deeper. I felt him so hard and big and thick inside me, and when he gave a particularly powerful thrust, I felt him hit the end of me, and I cried out with the pleasure and very slight pain.

"Wrap your legs around me," he ordered, and I immediately complied. My hands were above me, gripping the pillow under my head, but I wanted my hands on him, so I put my hands on his back and slid my nails down, knowing I would leave scratch marks. Scorpius growled and pounded harder and after a few more deep thrusts, I was coming hard around him, moaning over and over and crying out his name. With a low growl, he jerked and spilled himself inside me, grinding into me as we both continued to ride out our powerful orgasms.

A sob choked its way out of my throat and I felt something hot and wet on my temples. It wasn't until I felt Scorpius reach up and wipe the moisture that I realized I was crying. It was so rare that he gave me orgasms that completely broke the barrier of all my emotions, but this was one of those times, and the wetness continued as I felt the tremors of my orgasm continue throughout my body.

Scorpius looked at me with a sweet, beautiful smile and wiped my tears away.

"I love you," I said shakily. "More than you'll ever know."

"Trust me, I know," he said before he leaned in to kiss me. "Because I feel exactly the same way."

Later, after my classes for the day were finished, I walked up to Gryffindor, preparing for the speech I was going to give Albus at dinner about him making the right choice for him and no one else.

After I had been with Scorpius earlier, I showered and he got ready to go teach another Potions class and I had to get to Ancient Runes. After that, I went to the library to think. We had N.E.W.T.s starting next week, but I couldn't concentrate on anything but Scorpius and the decision that Albus would soon make.

I had thought about Albus and the band for a long time before my thoughts drifted to Scorpius and the afternoon we had had. God, but did he ever know how to please me. He knew exactly what I liked, exactly how to use his mouth, tongue, and cock to please all the erogenous parts of me. He always tried to pleasure me over himself. I didn't know much about sex. Everything I knew, I knew from Scorpius. He had taught me so much about love and sex and intimacy and relationships. I didn't know anything but his love and Hadley's selfishness. They were so completely opposite in every respect that it almost worried me that I had absolutely no knowledge of any middle ground. What would it be like to just have a normal boyfriend – a boyfriend who was decently cute, decently nice, and decent in bed? What would it be like to not hate your ex so passionately? What would it be like not to be so madly in love with your boyfriend that even the thought of living without him made you do drastic things?

I had no idea what it was like to be normal in any respect. I was a witch. My parents and my uncle were three of the most famous witches and wizards of all time. My family was huge and crazy. My boyfriend was also my professor, who happened to be so good at sex that it sometimes made me cry. Yeah, I wasn't normal.

And when I thought of all of that, I remembered how Scorpius felt every time he pleased me—how my body would quiver and arch toward him; how he would slide into me and I would feel every bit of him; how he would bring me to the brink and then stop, making me beg for him and his body.

I had had to physically shake myself out of those thoughts since I was starting to become hot and bothered in the library, and I knew I wouldn't have a chance to see Scorpius for hours. So instead, I thought about Albus and how at the end of this week all of our lives were either going to change for better or for worse.

I got to the Fat Lady, needing to clear my head before my big speech, and my mouth fell open when I saw Albus come out of the portrait hole. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Were you looking at me on the map?" I said, referring to an old family relic called the "Marauder's Map," created by Albus's late grandfather and his friends years ago.

The tips of his ears turned pink—a Weasley trait—and he grinned sheepishly at me. "Sorry," he said. "I was meaning to come talk to you, and when I saw you coming…"

"Yeah, yeah," I said after he trailed off. "Were you with Fergie?" I asked. Things with my cousin and his boyfriend were better than ever after a minor bump in the road months ago when Albus had cheated on him with his old boyfriend and a family friend of ours and member of our band, Lysander Scamander. But there hadn't been any funny business since, and I had a really good feeling that there never would be.

He nodded. "Yeah." And then he blushed slightly.

I smirked. "Did I interrupt you guys or something?"

"No, no," Albus said quickly. "I just happened to glance at the map and see you coming right when we were about to… start something."

"Ew," I said, and then I noticed the red mark on Albus's neck. "You guys are such boys."

Albus just smiled. "Walk with me," he said. I nodded and tried to seem cool and collected even though my insides were raging.

When we turned a corridor, he sighed. "Rose, I've made my decision."

"Albus," I said quickly, interrupting him. "Before you say anything, I just want to say something, okay?" He nodded and then I stopped so I could face him. We were only just around the corner from the portrait of the Fat Lady. "I love you, Al," I started. "You—you're the best friend I've ever had, and more than that, you're my family. I—there's nothing I want more for you than for you to be happy. Since we've been kids that's all I've ever wanted. That's—well, that's why I would get so upset about Lysander and all of that bullshit. Because I wanted you to be happy and because I love you.

"And anyway, I know you haven't made this decision lightly, and I know you would never do anything without thinking about how it would affect everyone because you have such a big"—my voice caught and I put a hand to my chest, trying to keep my tears and emotions at bay—"you have such a big heart," I said, my voice trembling. "And I'm not saying this to try and guilt you or make you feel bad. I mean it when I say that I would truly be happy with whatever decision you make. You are a phenomenal Quidditch player," I said, as a tear fell out of my eye and I hastened to wipe it away. "You are a phenomenal musician, and what—whatever you choose"—I smiled through my tears—"you're going to be incredible at it.

"I just wanted to tell you that before you told me about your decision. I just wanted you to know—before you even say anything—that no matter what, I'll be happy. Okay? So…" I reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "You do whatever your heart tells you, okay?"

"Rose." Albus's eyes were glistening and I gasped and laughed when he suddenly pulled me into a tight hug. "You're the best friend anyone could ever have, you know that right?"

I laughed and shrugged, wiping my tears away as I pulled out of his arms.

"Come here," he said before he could tell me his decision. I frowned. He led me back to Gryffindor Tower, and I figured it was because whatever he wanted to say, he wanted to say it away from prying ears and in a place that I could either cry with sadness—or happiness—in peace.

Albus told the Fat Lady the password and she frowned at him—knowing he wasn't a Gryffindor and shouldn't have the password—before she swung open.

As soon as the door opened, I was overwhelmed with how loud it was in the Common Room. My frown deepened, and I climbed in after Albus, and when I looked up, I saw Scorpius standing there next to…

My parents.

And they were all grinning like idiots.

"What's going on?"

That's when I looked up and saw the huge banner hanging above everyone.

CONGRATULATIONS FOUNDERS FOUR!

I jerked my head to Albus.

"Albus, what—?"

"As much as I love Quidditch, I can't imagine anything but being apart of this band. I chose you," he said, before glancing over his shoulder. I looked over my shoulder and saw Nate and Lysander walking out of the crowd, grinning from ear to ear. "I chose all of you."

I jumped giddily and moved to pull all three of them into a hug.

The crowd of people erupted into cheers, and faintly I heard the popping of a bottle of champagne.

When I pulled out of my group hug, I glanced at Scorpius and smiled at him, knowing I couldn't do more than that. But the smile he gave me in response was enough. He had known all along—the bastard. The stupid, adorable, lovable bastard.

I glanced around and saw everyone I loved—my brother and his girlfriend, Meg, Ainsley and Lucy and Harriet, Fergie and a bunch of other people from the Gryffindor Quidditch team (although Hadley was conspicuously absent), a bunch of Al's Slytherin Friends and bunch of people from all of the houses, including every member of my family. I had never felt more loved.

I was enveloped with hugs and congratulations for the next several hours as everyone celebrated the next steps in all of our lives.

It was, hands down, the best day I could ever remember.

Next chapter:

The final chapter and the last present day chapter.