In that moment, everything else fell away and all Rose knew was Scorpius. His mouth was soft and hesitant against hers, and she smiled into the kiss before she responded just as carefully. He pulled away for a moment, breathing heavily. And then it was as if all his fears that this wasn't real fell away, and Scorpius was kissing her soundly, his lips firm as they moved against hers. Rose allowed all of her doubts and insecurities to disappear as she let go of his arms to rest her hands on his chest, slowly moving them up towards his shoulders until she was able to wind her arms around his neck. And then his arms were around her waist and pulling her to him as his lips tenderly caressed hers.

Rose was giddy with delight and contentment. It felt strange and different to be held by him, but definitely in a way she could get used to. His strong hands were pressing into her back and he smelled fresh and warm. Like fallen leaves and cedar and clean linens. Rose didn't want to let go, but his lips had hardly left hers and she was bound to pass out from lack of oxygen, combined with the rush of emotions that were pinging through her entire being.

He pulled away a moment later, breathing heavily, and they just stood there, his hands gripping her waist as she loosened her arms from around his neck. His eyes were bright with life as he smiled carelessly down at her, and she knew she was looking at him in the same disbelieving way he was looking at her.

Rose had no clue what to say. It blew her mind that she actually felt speechless. She'd already said so much, but it still felt like there was so much more to be said. At the same time, she didn't want to ruin the perfect moment they were currently in. Maybe she could suggest they take it up to his flat? Talk things through? Enjoy each other's company in private? He said one step at a time. Maybe that was the next-?

"No. Fucking. Way!"

The somewhat familiar voice had come from behind her, and Rose pulled her arms from around Scorpius' neck to turn and see who'd shouted as Scorpius let go of her as well.

Archie and Molly had frozen in place on the sidewalk, their faces twin masks of shock and disbelief as they took in the scene in front of them.

Rose heard Scorpius clear his throat uncomfortably and she glanced up at him. His face was red as he nervously ran a hand through his hair. She quickly looked away, only to meet Molly's incredulous stare and immediately direct her gaze anywhere but at her cousin, her cheeks burning bright pink.

"Welcome back," she heard Scorpius say in a falsely bright voice, obviously trying to diffuse the tension.

"Thanks," Molly said, her smile obvious in her voice, "but what's going on here?"

When Scorpius didn't say anything, Rose forced herself to look up at Molly and Archie.

"Long story. Aren't you two a little early?"

"We thought we'd come see Scor," Archie explained, still visibly shocked by what he'd just witnessed. "But he's obviously a little preoccupied, so…"

"No, it's fine," said Rose, her voice coming out a little higher than she would have liked. "I can just meet you all later-"

"Why don't we all go up," Scorpius jumped in, and Rose couldn't help stealing a glance at him. Her heart skipped a beat and she was vividly reminded of what had just happened when she saw his eyes looking almost uncertainly at her. "Get out of the snow?"

She nodded and he smiled, quickly walking up his front steps and leading them up to his flat. Rose followed quickly behind him, determined to not let Molly catch her attention as she was so obviously trying to do.

"Anyone fancy some tea?" asked Scorpius as they entered the flat. There was a chorus of affirmation and he strolled into the kitchen, Archie hot on his heels after a not so subtle glance from Molly. Rose's cousin barely hesitated before she turned on her with a curious and excited gleam in her eyes.

"What the hell happened?" she asked in an undertone. "I know you were starting to get along and everything but I didn't think you were getting along that well."

With a sigh, Rose gestured for Molly to join her on the couch after they removed their coats. She hadn't anticipated having to explain the change in her relationship with Scorpius so soon. If things went well, which they did, she'd been planning on talking to him about waiting to start going public with things until they'd been able to get used to everything and figure out what exactly they were doing. They hadn't even begun to have that conversation and now she had to explain herself to Molly and he was probably getting questions from Archie, so the idea of keeping things quiet seemed out the window. In spite of all the uncertainty, she was smiling, and she wasn't sure she could stop.

"Remember how we were supposed to be having dinner together the night before you left?"

Molly nodded.

"Well," continued Rose. "That was so he could tell me that he's the one I'd been writing to for all those months."

The reaction this received from Molly was exactly what Rose had been expecting. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she stared at Rose in shock before she started to laugh.

"You're kidding?" she said through her chuckles. "That's a bloody remarkably small world."

Rose laughed along with her cousin. "I'm still wrapping my wind around it. It's bloody bizarre."

Rose filled Molly in as best she could given the current state of things, trying to ignore the distant voices coming from the kitchen. She'd just briefly explained what Molly and Archie had walked in on when the two men returned from the kitchen, each with two cups of tea in their hands.

"How's the family, Rose?" Archie asked as he took the remaining spot on the couch next to Molly, handing her one of the cups of tea.

"Fine," Rose said distractedly. Scorpius had approached her with her own cup of tea, a small smile on his face as he handed it over. She gave him one in return as he sat in one of the arm chairs. "Lots of people busy getting ready for the wedding."

"We've already seen Lucy," Molly said with excitement. "Wes said she's actually been remarkably calm all month. I'm just waiting for the one thing that sets her off. You know how much she used to stress in school."

Rose nodded, remembering perfectly well how poorly Lucy had handled her O.W.L. year. She'd bounced back in the end, but stressful situations had never been her friend.

"I hope everything goes well," said Rose, sipping her tea and realizing it was one of her favorites. She snuck a look at Scorpius almost involuntary and caught him looking at her for a moment before he directed his attention at Archie.

"How're things with your dad?" he asked his friend. Archie shrugged, giving the impression he wasn't too bothered by the falling out he'd had with his father.

"He's being an arse about everything but what else is new? Wants to make amends but only if I say I'll come back and work for him. Promising promotions and all kinds of things. I can tell there's nothing in it but professional gain as far as he's concerned. It's not like he really wants his son back."

"He heard you got back together?" asked Rose. Archie nodded.

"With as many people as there were at the Burrow that night, I'm not surprised. I haven't seen him but he wrote a few letters after I got in touch with our legal department about severing ties. He's trying his best to stop it."

"Just because you're back together with Molly?" Rose asked incredulously.

"Apparently I'm a desirable business advantage," Molly said with a roll of her eyes. "My Dad is rightfully annoyed by the whole thing."

Rose laughed, imagining a disgruntled Percy Weasley spurning the political advances of Roger Davies.

"Hopefully he'll give up once he realizes that my staying on would do him more harm than good," said Archie. "I'd do what I could to worm his power away from him if I stayed, and I think he saw the first glimpse of that today."

Archie was smirking and Molly was smiling at him in amusement, though still proud.

"What did you do?" asked Scorpius.

"Nothing much," said Archie with a shrug. "Just called a meeting of the board without his consent. And they listened."

Rose's eyes widened in shock. She hadn't been that present in Archie's life the past few years, but she'd heard enough to know how bold a move this was.

"We met this morning and discussed what it would look like for me to either dissolve my shares or allow someone to buy me out and replace my position on the board. Dad did his best to make it difficult, but the board was more than willing to discuss everything and be helpful."

"Probably because they want to get rid of you?" Scorpius said with a smirk. Archie's smile didn't falter as he answered.

"I don't even give a fuck, to be honest. They're all just about as big of pricks as he is."

Molly just shook her head, an amused smile on her face as she rested her hand on his knee. It seemed that nothing could get the two of them down. They were both bright with happiness and contentment.

"Looks like the past few weeks have been good for you both," Rose commented before continuing to drink her tea.

"They have been," Molly said with a smile at a beaming Archie, whose hand joined hers on his knee as he linked his fingers through hers. "But what about you two?" Molly asked, glancing between Rose and Scorpius. Rose did her best not to glare at Molly, who seemed to have momentarily forgotten the events that led to all four of them sitting in Scorpius Malfoy's flat. There was a momentary flicker of regret in Molly's eyes before Scorpius swooped in and somewhat saved the situation.

"I actually spent a bit of time out at the Manor," he told Molly.

"Really?" Archie asked in surprise. "I thought you'd be busy with the shop opening soon."

"We're nearly done," said Scorpius with a nervous glance towards Rose. It was obvious he wasn't sure how this topic of conversation would go. They'd talked about it pleasantly enough before, the previous animosity the subject brought having faded. But things were different now, weren't they? It would make sense that it would feel a little more personal to her than before. And she knew it could get messy in the future, but it didn't have to be now.

"It looks fantastic," she said with confidence, and all three sets of eyes turned to stare at her in shock. Scorpius' shock turned to curiosity, and she remembered her earlier inquiry about the shop when he'd first shown up.

"I've passed by a few times," she said with a slight shrug, trying not to look too embarrassed. "It's coming along nicely."

His look of incredulity turned to one of pleasant surprise as he grinned at her, and Rose found herself smiling back.

"What about you, Rose?" asked Archie, quickly pulling Rose and Scorpius out of their own little world. He was smirking and Rose knew she was blushing.

"Actually, I've been spending a bit of time getting things sorted with St. Mungo's. They're working on mass producing my burn paste and they're giving me access to one of their labs for testing and research."

"That's brilliant, Rosie!" Molly said in excitement. "So, business is good?"

"Yes," Rose said with a smile, before feeling daring and shooting a smirk at Scorpius. "Business is better than ever."

Her smirk turned into a smile when Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," she said with a chuckle, "I'll probably spend a few days a week over there. Especially once I get things going on whatever my next project will be."

"Aren't you going to be doing the same?" Archie asked Scorpius, and Rose's gaze quickly turned to him in surprise. Scorpius was nodding and doing his best to keep his focus on Archie.

"Once the shops all good to go, I'll probably be spending more time there than my office."

This was news to Rose, and she was sure the surprise showed on her face. They'd both be at St. Mungo's throughout the week? Both working in potions labs? They'd probably be working near each other. It wasn't outside the realm of extreme possibilities that they'd be running into each other, and she wasn't the only one who thought so.

"Seems like the two of you might be seeing a lot of each other," Archie said with a smirk. "Not that you weren't going to anyway. You definitely seem to be getting along better than I remember."

Rose knew she was bright pink now as she took a sip of her tea and Scorpius said Archie's name in embarrassment and warning.

"What, like we're not going to address the giant hippogriff in the room?" Archie asked innocently.

"Maybe they're not ready to talk about it, Arch," Molly said in an understanding tone, giving Rose an apologetic grimace. She felt extremely grateful for her cousin. If it were just about any other member of her family sitting there, she would have been brutally grilled for details she most definitely wasn't ready to give.

Thankfully, Archie didn't push it, and they only had a few moments to try and find another topic before a quick knock sounded on the door and Al and Abigail saw themselves in. They seemed reasonably surprised by the scene they walked in on, though didn't make too many comments about it. They were each provided their own cups of tea and Molly and Abigail did most of the talking for awhile, which Rose was perfectly content with. It gave her a chance to study Scorpius a bit, and she even let him catch her looking a few times, reveling in the ability to be caught staring. She'd caught him doing the same a few times as well, and it was roughly half an hour after Al and Abigail showed up that they all decided it was time they head over to the pub and secure a table before everyone else arrived.

Rose was doing her best not to be frustrated by this point. Part of her was fine with not talking to Scorpius about what had happened between them. The part that was always telling her to run and hide. But her much more courageous side had been kicking in a lot more lately, and she found herself wanting to do something that would most certainly draw attention to herself. As she put on her coat, she was so caught up in how she could possibly grab a moment with him, that she jumped in surprise when she heard him talking quietly to Al from right behind her.

"We'll catch up, yeah?" were his only words. She looked over her shoulder in time to see Al nod, a knowing grin on his face. He saw Rose watching him and shot her a wink before moving past her and out of the flat, leading their other companions down towards the street.

All of the nerves that had dissipated since their encounter on the street now came roaring back, and Rose stood nervously still as Scorpius came around to stand in front of her, pulling his coat on as he took a deep breath.

"You got us into this, you know," he said with a smirk, and Rose felt her jaw drop in surprise, her nerves quickly replaced with indignation.

"If you'd rather I hadn't said anything, we can just pretend like nothing happened," she said in a huff. He grinned at her, obviously amused by her response.

"Do you want to pretend it didn't happen?"

Rose scowled while he continued to grin at her, but it wasn't long before a blush and a smile began to take over her own face, memories of less than an hour ago flooding her mind.

"No, I don't," she managed to say, and his smile brightened, if that were possible. "We obviously have some things to talk about, but how do you want to handle tonight?"

"I don't care if the whole bloody world knows that I love you at this point," he said sincerely. "But if you'd rather take it easy in front of your family, I can understand that."

She sighed and stepped closer to him, wanting to reach out and touch him in some way, but the idea of showing affection still feeling foreign. Not to mention it was still bizarre to be openly discussing how they would handle their relationship.

"I might have taken a big step today, but this," she gestured between the two of them, "will take some getting used to. I'm not usually good at letting my walls down. In multiple areas."

Scorpius nodded in understanding, and Rose took in a sharp breath of surprise when she felt his hand touch hers. Her gaze immediately snapped down to watch as he linked his fingers with hers before raising her hand to his mouth and planting a kiss on the back of it.

"Lucky, I am pretty good at this stuff," he said with a smile. "I don't want to hide this, but we'll take it slow. Play it by ear, yeah? One step at a time, right?"

Rose quickly found herself nodding, her hand gripping his as a smile grew on her face. With that, he turned and led her out of the flat and towards whatever awaited them at the pub across the street.

As soon as they showed up at the pub, they were on the receiving end of knowing grins and smirks from all four of their friends. It was obvious Molly and Archie had told Al and Abigail what they'd witnessed earlier in the day, and they weren't nearly as discreet as they began asking numerous questions.

They'd secured a long table along the back wall and Scorpius pulled a chair out for Rose next to Molly and across from Al and Abigail. He took the seat next to her as the Potters continued to throw questions at the pair that had walked in hand in hand.

"What happened?"

"You sort things out?"

"Does this mean you're together?"

"How'd it all go down?"

"Calm down, will you?" said Scorpius in a reasonably patient manner. Seeing Rose's wide eyed look of fear at having to answer all these questions, he used more of the courage that had managed to get him to this point. "It's our business and we appreciate that you care, but tonight's not about me and Rose."

He indicated Molly and Archie and immediately felt a foreboding sense of doom when Archie grinned wickedly at him.

"I think I can speak for both of us when I say we're more than fine with discussing the two of you. We've talked about us more than enough the past few months. Feel free to open up."

Scorpius scowled at him. Archie had been determined to get the full story out of Scorpius when they'd been in his kitchen earlier, but he hadn't cracked. He wasn't sure why he was so determined to keep this close to the vest, but he had an inkling it had to do with not wanting to speak too soon or out of turn and ruin the whole thing before it had barely started. Scorpius assumed Rose felt the same, so it surprised him when she spoke up.

"Fine. I'm sorry, he's sorry, I love him, he loves me, we snogged and then you two showed up," she said with a nod towards Archie and Molly. "We stayed back so we could have at least some discussion of how to be tonight, and we're just taking it one day at a time. Does that do?"

They were all looking at her with combined looks of shock and delight. Scorpius didn't know what to think about her little outburst. Rose gave a shrug when they all continued to stare at her.

"I figure the four of you have heard us bitch and moan about each other enough to earn a little bit of truth."

This brought a good natured chuckle, and various forms of well wishes began pouring forth as Al called Sam over and ordered pitchers of butter beer and bottles of fire whiskey for the table.

"And feel free to join!" Archie hollered after Sam, who laughed as he headed back to the bar, though not before throwing a wink towards Scorpius and Rose. Al began regaling them with some story from work and Scorpius took the opportunity to subtly rest his arm along the back of Rose's chair and lean forward so he could speak to her without being overheard.

"I wasn't expecting you to do that," he said. Rose didn't turn to look at him, but smiled lightly as she pretended to be paying attention to Al.

"I felt like they deserved a little something. They've had to put up with quite a bit from us over the years. Are you angry?"

Even though she wasn't looking at him, he could tell she was nervous. He smiled and scooted slightly closer so his arm wrapped more fully around the back of her chair and his hand hung off the end. He lightly knocked his knuckles against her arm and grinned when she turned to look at him.

"I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing you say you love me. So no, I'm definitely not angry."

She grinned back at him and their conversation was cut short as others began to arrive. James showed up with Ben and Dom, who hugged Molly tightly and looked like she was struggling not to cry.

"She feels bad about not being supportive," Ben explained as he sat next to Al. "Plus the pregnancy hormones."

Ben didn't seem at all upset as he said this, still obviously delighted that he was going to be a dad. Rose started asking him questions about how things were going as James slid into the chair next to Scorpius.

"Getting cozy with my cousin, Malfoy?" he asked, taking note of Scorpius' arm that was still draped across Rose's chair. He only hesitated a moment before he drew it back and reached for the pitcher of butterbeer that was on the table in front of him and poured himself a glass.

"I'm not complaining," James assured him as Scorpius passed him the pitcher. "That is, as long as Rose is aware you're making moves on her."

"She's aware," Scorpius said before he could stop himself. James' response was to raise his eyebrows at Scorpius, who quickly took a few gulps of his butterbeer. He'd hadn't thought too much about what the reaction would be from Rose's family members that were outside their mutual circle of friends. He and James got along fine, but he was more intimidating in that moment than he'd ever been before.

"Relax, mate," James said as he clapped Scorpius on the back. "Most of the family thought something would go down between you two eventually. They're probably all fine with it, so long as you don't hurt her."

He could sense the warning tone under the teasing ribbing. Scorpius nodded before placing his arm once again along the back of Rose's chair.

"I don't plan on it."

This got an actual smile out of James, and others began to show up before they could continue or change the conversation. Within an hour, most of Rose's cousins had shown up, as well as a few significant others. Lily had brought her new boyfriend, and Hugo and Jane Ryan had shown up with them, which confused Scorpius for a moment before Rose leaned in and explained that they'd been seeing each other.

"Is that weird?" he asked, the territory unfamiliar to him as he'd never had siblings to worry about dating his friends.

"A bit," she said with a chuckle, watching as Jane laughed and wiped some foam off Hugo's chin with her thumb. "They've been spending time together since January and he finally asked her out just last week. I've had some time to get used to it. And they're both so happy. I couldn't possibly be against it."

Scorpius nodded, smiling as he watched Rose observe her brother and best friend. He jumped a bit in surprise when she suddenly turned to look at him, the sounds of the pub fading as he focused solely on her brown eyes that were staring intently into his.

"Are we really going to do this?" she asked in a quiet tone. "There's still everything between us professionally and that could all blow up in our faces if something goes wrong."

She seemed genuinely worried by this thought, and he couldn't think of a good answer that would put her perfectly at ease, but he had to try something.

"Rose, I don't know what's going to happen. But I do know I'll regret it if we don't at least try. And I'm willing to try really bloody hard."

He said it with conviction, and it floored him to see a look of admiration cross Rose's features as she looked at him.

"I want to fight for this too," she said, her voice strong yet gentle. And he wanted so much to kiss her in that moment, but he settled for reaching under the table and gripping her hand in his. It meant the world to him to know this wasn't just a fling for her or something to get out of their system. This was as real to her as it was to him. And they were both prepared to face whatever life might throw in their way.

A/N: THANK YOU SO MUCH for the wonderful outpouring of support for the previous chapter. It was great to hear from all of you. There were a lot of ideas and opinions on how I should continue this, and I've decided there will be a few more chapters sorting out some of the other aspects of the story, with maybe an epilogue into the future, and as of right now, I don't have any type of sequel in the works. If I were to do that, I'd want a solid story line, and one has yet to come to me. I do have my Show a Little Faith universe that I'm still working on, and I have another story idea that I've been hashing out that I'm super excited about. It's based off another favorite story of mine. I'll probably wait to start posting that after this one is finished.

Much love to you all!