Amortentia

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A Scorose Fanfiction by Goldensnitch18

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Rated M for Scenes of a Sexual Nature & Language

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Summary: In their sixth year, rivals Rose and Scorpius

have a moment of terrifying clarity when they

both inhale the sweet smell of Amortentia.

One year later, Rose is finally single and Scorpius is

determined to snog the crazy out of her.

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Disclaimer: I am not profiting from this story.

Anything you recognize belongs to the great and mighty JKR.

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Beta Magic: Many thanks to harpersbizarre and dragonjess

for their time and work on this story.

Chapter Thirteen

The next day was hard, but not at all in the ways that Scorpius had expected. Al knocked on Scorpius' door like he did nearly every morning, and Scorpius had let him in and then shut the door behind his best friend.

"So, how did it go?" Al asked. Scorpius had told him everything on the ride back to Hogwarts the previous day. He told Al about his grandmother, he and Rose having sex for the first time after he told her that he loved her, and their conversation the night Rose had come over for dinner. Al had been less than thrilled to find out what they had been up to over break, but overall he was supportive.

"Well, it could have been worse. She isn't saying no. She basically said she feels the same way, but she needs more time."

"So you two are …" Al fell onto Scorpius' bed to sit and wait for his friend to finish packing his bag.

"Just friends, now," Scorpius finished.

"How is that going to work?" Al asked, raising his eyebrow in doubt.

"I don't know, honestly, but we're going to have to figure it out. I'm not going back to never talking to her unless we're fighting," he said seriously.

"It might be easier."

"Yeah, but she wants to meet my family and have me meet hers." Scorpius shook his head. As much as he wanted to be out in the open in theory, he was still worried about how it was going to work out when they put it into practice.

"That sounds serious."

"Just as friends."

"I think it's a good idea," Al told him.

"Yeah, until my grandfather calls her a blood traitor."

"Would it really be better if she was your girlfriend the first time she met him?" Al asked.

"No, I suppose not," Scorpius admitted.

XXX

Two hours later, Scorpius and Albus were waiting outside of Potions when Rose and Alice arrived. Scorpius could tell Rose was nervous, and the smile she gave him and Al seemed forced. "Morning, Ladies," he told them as he attempted to calm his own nerves.

Al walked the few steps over to Alice and kissed her cheek. "Morning," she told them both, and Rose repeated the word as well. They all fell silent, and Scorpius tried to think of something to say.

"Not awkward at all," Al finally joked. To Scorpius' surprise, even Rose laughed. The rest of the class started to trickle in until Slughorn himself arrived to open the classroom

"So sorry," he roared. "Lost track of time." They filed in after him and took their seats at the tables. Over the last few weeks before break, Al had started sitting next to Alice, and Scorpius had moved next to Rose. It hadn't been a big deal at the time to let the couple sit next to each other, but now he was sitting next to her, and he had no idea what to do with his body.

Slughorn began to lecture, and Scorpius tried to listen, but the old man just couldn't compete with her lavender hair and the small bit of thigh showing below her skirt. Scorpius longed to reach out and rest his hand on her knee and pull it up to feel her skin, but he knew that was crazy and not allowed.

As the lesson ran on and Scorpius continued to be oblivious of what he was actually supposed to be learning, he grew warm and reached up to loosen his tie. Rose's eyes followed his hands, and he realized she had stopped taking notes several minutes previously. Her eyes met his and held them for what seemed like an eternity, but was in actuality only a few seconds. His eyes moved back down to that bare leg, and she twisted in her seat to cross her legs. This movement slid her skirt up further, driving him crazy.

His eyes flashed back up to hers, and he saw that she was grinning at him. That little … she was doing it on purpose. Scorpius pulled his wand out, glanced at Slughorn who was still droning, and tapped the Parchment in front of him. 'We're supposed to just be friends.'

She read his words, and her grin widened. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'You trying to kill me with that skirt.'

'I never promised to play fair.'

'Then I'm not going to either.'

'I'd like to see you try.'

'Game On, Red.'

XXX

After she had finished eating her lunch, Rose headed out of the Great Hall with every intention of studying during her long free period. Albus, apparently, had other plans for her. Her cousin met her at the door, walking fast to catch her. She didn't stop, but instead changed her path.

"So …" Al started. She glanced over at him and saw him avoiding her eye.

Rose rolled her eyes. "That git. He told you."

"Everything," Al agreed, nodding gravely.

"Everything?!" Rose hissed.

"Well … not the details, but enough. Alice knows though, so clearly it was okay for her to know. You know, Rose, I'm starting to think you love her more than me." Albus threw her a feigned hurt expression, and she rolled her eyes again.

"I love you differently," she told him, and it was true.

"Yeah, well, differently better mean you love me more." She knew that he was just teasing, but part of her couldn't help but feel guilty. They had been busy this year, well, really they had all been crazy busy, and she hadn't spent nearly enough time with Al. She missed him. Rose turned into a small alcove, and Al followed her, dropping his bag next to hers on the floor before flopping onto one of the sofas.

"So, you love him?" Al asked her, with no warning.

Rose looked him straight in the face and sputtered. "I … well … yes."

"But, you didn't tell him that."

"No."

"Why? I know I haven't been thrilled with this whole thing, but that was when I thought my best mate was just trying to get in your pants. He's serious about this whole thing."

"Yeah, I know he is," she groaned. "He's cut me off."

"Yeah, he told me he was going to if you weren't able to commit to being something more."

"He's such an arse."

"An arse that you've fallen in love with," Al reminded her. "So why won't you tell him you love him, and just get together already?"

"I'm sure he told you."

"I want you to tell me."

"Well, the main reason would be the fact that both of our families would lose their minds over it. I want to ease them into the idea. My dad is still stubborn about me being his friend."

"I get that, but you could ease them into it and still be together. Plus, they would have months to cool down about it before you had to see them."

"I also need to figure out what my plan is without thinking about Scorpius."

"You're going to get into the Auror program, we both know it.

"I could be dropped. It's crazy hard to get into."

"Yeah, well, not for you, Rosie. If someone on this couch isn't getting asked to join it's me," he was smiling, but she could tell that he was serious.

"No way," Rose nudged him with her elbow. "You're a shoe in."

"But, you see you two together at the end of all this?" Al asked her and changed the subject.

Rose knew she could fight his obvious avoidance of the subject of whether or not he was going to get accepted into the Auror training program, but she decided to let it go. "Yes," she nodded, a small smile spreading across her lips. "I asked him to wait, and I meant it."

"What if it all goes to shit with your parents or his granddad?"

"We'll figure it out. We can't go back." It had taken every bit of that sleepless night and headache-ridden day for her to come to this conclusion. "I can get a flat with the girls, and Scorpius has his already. As much as it might hurt, I can't let go of what we have just to make things easier for my parents. I'm going to try to make it as easy as possible for them to stomach, but at the end of this, I see him and me together."

"Well, Scor definitely is in agreement with you. Did he tell you about Christmas?"

"No, what happened?"

Albus laughed and shook his head. "Such a gentleman," Al mussed his hair, and Rose frowned at him. "Somehow, the conversation got to you, and it was slightly impolite, and his mum slapped the table. Right in the middle of pudding!"

"She what?"

"She told them all you were friends now, and they needed to be respectful or get out of her house." Al was laughing out loud now, no doubt imagining the looks on the faces of Scorpius' grandparents.

"What?" Rose stared in disbelief, unable to believe that she was dinner conversation at the Malfoy's house, or that she had elicited such a strong reaction from Astoria Malfoy. Maybe there was more hope of bringing the Malfoy's around than she had been letting herself believe, especially if Astoria was this willing to support their friendship to the rest of his family already.

"I know. Scor was furious. You should have heard him ranting about them all." It was Al's turn to roll his eyes.

"Furious at his family?"

"Yep."

"I have to go."

"What? Where … ?"

Rose leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I love you, stupid jealous prat. I'll see you at dinner."

Al just grinned at her back as she hurried out of the alcove. Somebody had to do something to get these two stupid idiots together, and he was just right for the job.

XXX

Rose didn't really know where Scorpius would go on his break now, but she wanted to see him. She wanted to talk to him about Christmas. He hadn't told her any of that, probably because he was worried that she would insist it was just one more reason for her to think they should not be together. That was probably true, but regardless he should have told her.

She had decided to try their library and then his room if he wasn't in there, but she got lucky. She pushed the portrait of the Head Girl open, and she saw him sitting at the table, shoulders hunched over the parchment, hand in his blonde hair, teeth biting his bottom lip.

"Scorpius!" she demanded as she walked in the room. He jumped, dropping his quill and knocking his knee into the table. He swore loudly as he grabbed the sore spot, and she crossed the room to him. "What the bloody hell happened at Christmas?" she asked, not bothering to make sure he was okay. He was a keeper, if he couldn't handle a bumped knee he had larger problems.

"What?"

"Don't act like you didn't hear me!"

"Albus bloody told you already, didn't he?" She put her hands on her hips and just stared back at him. "Fucking Al," Scorpius grumbled.

"I was Christmas dinner conversation at your house?"

"You came up," he admitted sheepishly.

"I came up?"

"Yes. My grandfather, Hyperion, wanted to know who the Head Girl was."

"And?"

"He called you a chit." Scorpius reddened at the admission.

"A chit?" Rose actually laughed at that. That wasn't really that offensive to her personally, maybe just to women in general.

"Yes."

"Is that it?"

"Er …" He avoided her gaze, staring at her shoes.

"What else?" she demanded.

"Well … my other grandfather may have started to make some comments about your parents." That would be the Malfoy side. The side that scared Rose. The side that her father didn't approve of.

"And?"

"My mother smacked the table."

"While you were eating pudding?"

"Yes," he confirmed, and her eyes grew wide.

"Wow."

"Yeah. I mean at the time I was just fuming, but now … it's kind of funny. She gave it a good whack." He smirked, and she just stared at him.

"You were fuming?"

"Hell, yeah, I was fuming. I love you, Rose. I don't want to listen to that shit." Rose leaned into him. She knew she was probably breaking his rules, but she didn't care. She laid her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his back. She felt his arms wrap around her and his breath under her ear. She turned her head to look up and him, and he was staring down at her. His lips were inches from hers.

He wanted to kiss her so badly, but he didn't.

She wanted to kiss him even more, but she didn't.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome." He moved a centimeter closer to her, and she pulled back.

"I'm sorry," she told him, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I shouldn't have."

"I thought you never promised to play fair." He cocked an eyebrow at her, and she blushed.

"Well, it seems a little wrong to use this to get you to break your rules."

"I wish you would," he admitted.

"Really?"

"Yes, but no. I'd rather wait."

"Okay. What are you working on?" She moved her attention to the table where he had been studying when she walked in.

"Charms Essay."

"Mind if I join you?"

"Sure." He moved back to his seat, and Rose moved around the table to sit at hers. Her heart was still racing, her palms sweating, and she couldn't stop thinking about his stupid, soft lips.

XXX

At dinner that night, Rose sat across from Alice which ended up putting her across from Scorpius as well. He was chatting with Euan and Al about something animatedly, and his hands flying through the air as he talked kept distracting her from Alice.

"Hello?" Alice said finally, waving her hand in front of Rose's face.

"Sorry." Rose blushed and looked back at her plate, pushing potatoes with her fork.

"Are you okay?"

"Al just told me some things about Scorpius' Christmas. Nothing major. Continue."

"I … well … I was just saying that Al and I are going to meet up after dinner, but I wanted to talk to you before you head out for your rounds if you can?"

"Yeah," Rose looked back up at her friend and noticed for the first time that she seemed off. Her voice was uneasy, and her smile that day hadn't been reaching her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Not really, but I'll talk to you about when we're alone."

"Ok. Just come to my room okay?" Rose reached across the table and squeezed her friend's hand. "I'll head there after dinner and wait for you."

"Okay." Alice tried to smile again, but pretty much failed. She looked down at her own plate and pushed her food around.

Over her shoulder, Rose saw Riley Greene approach Scorpius. That stupid cow had left him alone for most of the year after he had told her that he couldn't fix her schedule, but she seemed to have gotten over that now. She laid a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at her and responded to whatever she said with a smile.

Riley then turned to sit backwards on the bench next to him, so close that their thighs had to be touching and that stupid slag probably had half her leg out for him. Rose couldn't see her face, but she didn't need to. The sixth year Slytherin Prefect put a hand on Scorpius' tie knot and pulled her fingers down it as her head leaned into him.

Scorpius laughed and smoothed his tie down, pulling it from her grasp, but Riley just moved her fingers down his shirt to his hip. Scorpius shifted his body towards her which allowed him to move a few inches back from her. He was still smiling.

Riley turned towards Al who had clearly said something to her that she didn't like. Her face was turned down in a frown, and she rolled her eyes. The next moment she leaned into Scorpius, and kissed his cheek. Rose dropped her fork, and Alice spun around to follow her eyes, as did Poppy. Tamsyn who was sitting next to Rose, and had been watching as well looked over at Rose and smirked.

"You totally do have the hots for him," she said, and Rose didn't pull her eyes away to confirm or deny. Scorpius had put a hand on that stupid little bitch's chest and leaned back. Riley said something else to him and then moved off the bench. She winked before she started walking.

"What a fucking slag." Poppy rolled her eyes. "She was just sucking face with Roland in the library before Christmas break."

"The Hufflepuff beater?" Alice asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Ugh ... the muscles on that one." Poppy groaned as if the thought of Roland's muscles hurt her.

"Who cares?" Tamsyn said, with wide eyes. "This one was about to cut her for touching Scorpius." She pointed her thumb over at Rose.

"Oh jeez." Poppy waved her hand. "Those two are totally doing it." She rolled her eyes as if the whole school knew this, and Rose choked on her pumpkin juice. "Well, you are, aren't you?" Poppy asked as if daring Rose to deny it.

Alice stared at Poppy with wide eyes as Rose tried to breathe properly again. "We … I … you … how?!"

"What?!" Tamsyn hissed, careful to keep her voice low. Rose blushed and tried to grin sheepishly.

"I'm pretty sure they've been going at it all year," Poppy said quietly and smugly.

"No! I mean ... not all year."

"Damn, I'm good." Poppy high-fived herself, and Alice shoved her with her shoulder.

"Oh, shut up."

"How?!" Rose asked again.

"You two are so obvious, you're always eye-fucking each other, and what else would make you go from wanting to kill each other to being buddy-buddy all the sudden?"

"You knew about this!" Tamsyn pointed her finger at Alice, and Alice just put her hands up.

"Oh, no, I'm not taking the blame."

"Can we stop talking about this?" Rose begged them all.

"For now." Poppy agreed, a smirk growing on her face.

XXX

Alice and Albus had found many perfect places to spend their evenings in the castle, but the one they chose that night was a small corner of the library that no one ever wandered into. It was surrounded on all sides by bookshelves with a small opening to allow a student to slip in. There were two armchairs, a table, and four chairs in the small makeshift room. It was quite nice for studying, but tonight they were not going to be studying.

Albus pulled her into him and kissed her softly. Alice let him for a moment and then pulled back and moved to sit down in one of the chairs.

Albus followed her and sat down. The chairs were angled towards each other, and he turned his body so that their knees were touching. "Are you ready to tell me what's wrong?" He had known of course that she wasn't the same. It had started at Christmas. She had been more withdrawn and harder to make smile. She had completely stopped talking about their plans for after school, changing the subject whenever it came up.

He didn't know what was wrong, but he knew it wasn't good. He had tried to give her space and time, but he was growing tired of waiting.

"No, but I need to." She pulled her knees up to her chest, and he couldn't help but feel like she was trying to keep from touching him, whether it was intentional or not. She pulled her wand out and cast a silencing charm.

"Okay," he replied uneasily.

"I haven't told you … or really anyone … everything about …"

As she spoke and struggle for words, Al suddenly realized what this was about. It had started at Christmas. James had been at Christmas. She hadn't told him everything about, "James," he finished for her.

"Yes."

"Okay. Tell me."

"We …" She closed her eyes. She had tried to find words so many times to practice this in her head, and she hadn't been able to figure out how to do it. Nothing ever sounded right. Nothing could express how sorry she was, how guilty she felt. "It started the summer before fifth year."

"What?" His voice was quiet. He knew that Alice and James had been caught snogging more than half way through their sixth year. So they had … "How long?"

"Twenty-one months." The number spilled out without permission, gut reaction to tell the truth. It sounded terrible out loud.

"But ..." Albus looked at her, confusion filled his eyes. "He was …"

"Snogging every other girl in Hogwarts? Yeah. That was the problem," she told him bitterly.

"Was it just … just snogging?" Albus prayed that the answer would be yes, but he already knew in the pit of his twisting stomach that it was not.

"No," she admitted.

"Did you … with him … you … slept … with my brother." It had started as a question and morphed into a statement as he watched her pick at her fingernails nervously.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Once."

"Once?"

"I thought it would change things. I thought he would realize that he was being an idiot, but he snogged someone else a few days later, and I was done."

"What?! He did that to you?" Albus leaned entirely forward in his chair, barely sitting on it at all.

"I know." She closed her eyes and sighed. "He was an idiot."

"He's a bloody arsehole!"

"I know."

"Fuck, Alice."

"I know," she told him, earnestly.

"Stop saying that," he huffed.

"I don't know what else to say."

"Why didn't you tell me this? Does Rose know about this?"

"I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want anyone to know."

"I guess …" Fuck. "I realize now why you didn't want to date me."

She closed her eyes, and Al could tell this was hurting her, but she'd had sex with James and never told him. "I tried to …"

"You tried to change my mind," he finished. "Fuck, I thought you just kissed a couple times."

Alice was crying then, wiping the tears off as soon as they started to fall down her face. "I'm sorry. I screwed up."

Al moved out of the chair and started to pace in the few feet of space available to him. "Why are you telling me now?"

"I …"

Albus stopped walking and stared at her. "What happened at Christmas, Alice?" Her eyes shot up to his instantly, her mouth fell open, and his heart dropped. He was right. Something had happened. "What happened?" he asked again.

"It was the first time I'd seen him since he graduated. We talked outside in the tent."

"And?"

"Al …"

"Tell me."

"You don't need to hear this," she whispered, shaking her head.

"You don't get to tell me that."

Alice rubbed at her face with her hands and then dropped them down in her lap. "He asked me about us. I told him that we were serious, but that my relationship with him made it complicated. I told him that you didn't really know what we had been. He told me …" She closed her eyes again, that pained expression covering her face, but Al didn't care. He was pretty sure he knew where this was going, and if she was going to destroy him, he wasn't going to feel guilty for making her tell him the truth for once.

"Yes?"

"He said he loves me, and I told him it didn't matter, and we can't ever be together again, and then he … fuck, Al. Can we just not?" she pleaded.

"No. I deserve to know what you've been keeping from me. Every minute of us was a lie."

"No, it wasn't." Tears were falling freely now, her eyes were dark and red and her cheeks were pale.

"Well, it certainly fucking feels like it right now."

"Al, I like you a lot. I wanted to … to just make this work."

"But, it doesn't."

"No."

"Why?" She was silent, crying into her hands. "What did he do after he told you he loved you?"

"He asked me if I love him."

"And?" She just sobbed louder staring down at the ground, trying desperately not to look at him. "Say it Alice."

"I love James." She choked out, finally letting it all out there.

"I can't believe you let me think that you wanted this, that you wanted me, that we could have ..." He was furious, and hurt, and embarrassed. He was shouting now, and his face was red, and his hands were flying as he yelled.

Alice stood crossing her arms. "You aren't exactly innocent, Albus," she snapped back. "I told you last summer that you should find someone else. I tried! You just kept at it, kept insisting that it didn't matter, that we could be together."

"Are you fucking kidding me, Alice? If I knew you had shagged my brother and were still bloody in love with him, I probably would have backed off!"

"I hadn't told anyone, Al. No one! I was ashamed that I let him treat me like that, and I couldn't get over him."

"Did you kiss him? Did you fuck him there on Christmas with my family inside? With me inside? My own fucking brother?"

"NO! I mean, no, we didn't have sex. He kissed me. Al, I'm so sorry."

"Stop fucking telling me that you're sorry!" Albus roared and punched his fist against the wall like she had seen him do when he was mad at Scorpius months ago. "You kissed him almost two weeks ago, and now you're telling me?"

"I didn't know what to do."

"You tell me that day! You tell me then!" He backed away from her and buried his fingers in his hair.

"Al…"

"No." He dropped his hands, and his voice grew calm as he cut her off. "Just so we're both clear, and I'm pretty sure this is where you were going with this anyway, this is bloody over." He turned away from her and slipped out of the small corner. He heard her fall to her knees behind him, sobbing, just before he moved out of the silencing charm. His heart ached, urged him to go and scoop her up, that stupid girl that he was in love with, but his adrenaline pushed him forward, urging him away from her.

XXX

Rose held her stupid, stupid friend. Her arms wrapped around her, her quilt on top of them as they lay side by side in bed. She was going to kill James. She was going to hunt down that stupid, egotistical, fucker and kill him.

Alice had barely been able to get the words out, even after Rose had given her a Calming Draught. She had sobbed uncontrollably through it as the words rushed out in broken thoughts and half sentences, but Rose had figured it out. The broken words told the sad, stupid tale of her idiot cousin, and her stupid, naive friend, and her poor Al.

Albus.

Rose tried not to think too hard about how hurt he had to be right now. She prayed that he had gone to Scorpius, that Scorpius, Euan, or Darius had been able to track down Firewhisky, and that Al was getting shitfaced right now. She didn't even care that Scorpius was Head Boy, and Albus was a Prefect. Alice had pulled that boy's heart out and stomped on it tonight, and he needed to get wasted with his friends and forget her.

Alice.

She was finally starting to calm down though tears had long since soaked the pillow beneath her and half of Rose's shirt and sobs had rocked through her body for a good thirty minutes after she had finished trying to talk. That was the only thing saving her right now. Anything short of this raw and, frankly, terrifying emotion about the pain she had caused Albus would have left Rose shoving her other best friend out into the cold and chasing down Albus.

Rose couldn't believe how stupid Alice had been. All year she had been warning her, cautioning her about getting too close to Scorpius without any sort of commitment, and though she understood now where her meddling had come from, Alice had failed to realize she was making an even larger and more painful mistake with Albus. For some reason Rose was really not able to understand, Alice had fallen in love with James.

James was Rose's cousin, and she loved him, but that boy was … crazy. He had always been a player, always been so natural in the attention paid to him as Harry's son, always been so easy to smile, so easy to like. James was wild, and passionate, and he loved to have fun, feel good, and live in the moment. He was basically the opposite of Rose in every way, except his brain. That idiot spent more time on his guitar than he ever did with a book and somehow he still managed to skate by with incredible N.E.W.T. scores, which he was doing nothing with.

His friends had all committed to trying music for two years. Harry and Ginny hadn't loved the idea. They had pushed him to find a real career, to give something else a chance, but James wasn't having it. He was convinced that his band was going to be the next Weird Sisters and no one had been able to convince him otherwise.

Rose tried to see how she had missed her best friend and her cousin meeting up in secret for two years, but try as she might, she couldn't make it make sense. Neither one of them had ever given any inclination to the fact that they might be more that her friend and her cousin until they had been caught snogging. It had been just that one time, and Alice had played it off as a silly little infatuation so smoothly. She'd admitted that she liked him, and Rose assumed that they had snogged a couple more times before Alice finally told her she was giving up on James. She hadn't even seemed that upset about it, certainly nothing to elicit this.

Rose looked down at her friend and then over at the clock on her bedside table. It was nearly ten. Rose pulled her arms back, and Alice curled into a ball but didn't get up. Rose knew that Alice was aware that she had to go to her rounds. She sighed softly as she moved her eyes away from her friend and crossed the room to her closet. She changed her shirt to one that wasn't damp and pulled on a sweater. She moved over to grab her wand from beside the table and went through the portrait into her library.

She waited in her chair, legs bouncing, heartbroken, for twenty minutes before Scorpius appeared. His face looked devastated as his eyes met hers. She jumped up and went to him. "How is he?" she asked, knowing that he had to have seen Albus.

"His hand was broken. He broke a bunch of shit before he let me fix it."

"Oh, Merlin."

"Euan and Darius are getting him pissed. I was … surprised you didn't come looking for him." He looked disappointed and a little angry.

"She's not doing well."

"Yeah, well forgive me, but I don't give a fuck."

"Scorpius, she's still our friend."

"Don't Scorpius me. She lied to Al. She shagged his bloody brother and then tried to date Al while she is still in love with James. James is a fucking tool, and we both know that. I don't feel bad for her."

"She's destroyed over this. She's been sobbing for hours." Rose wouldn't let him turn her against Alice, not after what she had just held her through.

"Rose, she destroyed him." Scorpius pointed back behind him towards the Slytherin dungeons. "I've never seen him like this. I've never seen anyone like this."

"Well, neither have I. I love him, and I know she did the wrong thing, but I'm not just going to kick her out of my room when she can barely function even after a Calming Draught."

"I don't care what you say, I'm not going to feel bad for her. She fucking kissed James on Christmas with you lot inside. She was apparently snogging him out in some tent," he told her, indignant.

"Well, I don't really think you should be casting any stones, Scorpius. She's just a girl. She's not perfect."

"What the bloody fuck does that mean? I didn't kiss anyone else when we were together, and we weren't even dating, and I certainly didn't love anyone. I fell in love with you!"

"First of all, we weren't together. Second of all, you seemed pretty bloody cozy with Riley Greene tonight at dinner." Rose had her hand on her hip, sparks of anger fllying through her.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me, Rose!" A red heat was inching up Scorpius neck and into his cheeks. "I told you I love you, and I want to be with you! I don't give a flying fuck what Riley Greene wants, or who she screws, and I told her as much at dinner."

"Yeah, sure you did."

"You don't get to tell me to wait and be patient and then attack me every time some other girl shows interest in me! Of course, they are going to. As far as any of these girls know, I'm single, unattached, and haven't been seen with anyone in months, so probably desperate."

"Any of these girls?" she hissed at him. "Who else is trying to get in your pants?"

"Merlin Rose, leave it! I'm not letting anyone but you in my bloody pants, and not even you until you let me be your fucking boyfriend!"

"Good!" she screamed back. "And, don't be an arsehole to my friend! She's young, and stupid, and in love, and if anyone can understand that it should be us, so just get the fuck over yourself and find a way to forgive her for what she did to Al."

"I can't do that!"

"She's one of my best friends, Scor. She isn't going anywhere. Chances are she's going to be my roommate now, and that drunk arse in there is going to be yours, so if you want us to work you're going to have to find it in yourself to figure it out!"

"I fucking hate you sometimes." Scorpius screamed, and he grabbed her shoulders and smashed his lips down onto hers. Rose moaned instantly, her mouth opening to let his tongue explore hers. She gripped at his back while he ground his body into hers, and her nails dug into him as he bit down hard on her lip. Rose pushed him back against the wall, and his hands moved down to cup her arse and pull her up against him. His mouth moved to her neck, and he bit down on her shoulder. He turned them to shove her back against the wall to help support her.

"Scor," she moaned his name, her voice deep and hot, and she rocked against him. She was so fucking perfect, and he wanted her right here against this wall.

"Fuck." He pulled his lips away from her neck and leaned his head against the wall. His hands squeezed her one last time and let her legs fall. "Fuck," he repeated and moved back from her, his breathing heavy. "Fuck." He gripped the back of a chair and closed his eyes as he tried to calm down.

"You alright?" she asked quietly as her hand landed on his shoulder.

"Please," he took a step away from her, "just give me a second."

"I'm sorry," she told him softly.

"It's not your fault. We haven't fought like that in a long time." Rose laughed at that. They had used to fight like that all the time, screaming and being idiots until one of them drew their wand. Now, apparently, it just made them want to jump each other. "I'll try with Alice eventually, but right now I just need to be angry at someone for hurting him."

"Well, if that's your problem, be angry at James. He's a prat, and this is all his damn fault."

"Oh, I'm definitely going to punch that arsehole in his fucking nose the next time I see him." Scorpius nodded vehemently.

"Not if I get to him first."

"Good. We can both punch him in the nose. He'll still be better off than Albus. Do you think Alice is going to get together with that git?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask." They were both silent for a while, worrying about their friends and what was going to happen from here. "We should go do our rounds."

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear what you think of this chapter!

XOXO

Meg