"Rose," Scorpius said so quietly that if the room hadn't already been silent she wouldn't have heard him. Then the packages were tumbling from his arms as he strode across the room, yanked her to him, and kissed her with a need that she felt down to her toes. She threw her arms around his neck, pressing as close to him as she could get. They clutched at each other, desperate hands clinging to anything they could grab. The tips of his too-long hair tickled her face, but she was beyond feeling anything but his hands and his mouth and his warm, solid presence. His arms snuck around her waist and he lifted her off her feet, dragging his lips down her throat as he buried his face in the crook of her neck.
"This is a fascinating development," James said dryly, interrupting just as Scorpius had clenched her tighter still.
All at once she was aware of the rest of her family standing scattered around them. Her face flamed, and Scorpius, who also seemed to have recalled where they were, set her gently back on her feet.
"James," Aunt Ginny groaned. "I swear you're worse than Ron ever was."
"I was just saying that - "
"Sod off, Potter," Scorpius said, not unkindly, and never taking his eyes of Rose. Without daring to look about the room lest she see her dad's expression, Rose took Scorpius's hand and led him up the stairs.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind her and she'd set her locking charms, her back was against the door and Scorpius was leaning over her. His hand traced a slow path down her cheek, and his thumb stopped under her chin and tilted her face to his. Bending down he pressed his lips to hers. Here was the moment she'd waited eighteen months for - the freedom to kiss him properly and with no regrets or bitterness or lingering sadness lurking underneath. His kisses were soft, coaxing, and she relaxed against him, running her hands down his chest and sliding them beneath his cloak. His hands were on her waist when he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers.
"Merlin I missed you, Rose."
"You just saw me yesterday."
"Don't remind me," he grumbled, stepping away and pulling her to sit next to him on her bed. "I was a pillock and you know it. Should have seen the look on your Uncle's face when I came back with that bloody stone. Pleased as punch, but not for me."
Roe was immediately indignant. "Uncle Harry - "
"Had no idea it would be me that was sent to fetch the blasted thing," Scorpius reassured her. "One of the other auror's little jokes."
"But Uncle Harry knew - "
"He must have been told it was your final test. Or guessed – his sixth sense is creepily accurate. I know a trainee was supposed to go and fetch the ruddy mystery object and I know he had to turn whatever it was over to your department anyway."
"Moon said he would turn it over," she said. "My mentor." It was strange to have to explain things to him when he'd spent what felt like a lifetime at her side.
"Made me feel really excellent about myself when it turned out it was going back to your lot anyway."
"Don't," she objected, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad you said what you did. If you hadn't I'd have failed."
"But you passed? It's official?" She nodded and he smiled. "I'm happy for you. Thrilled even. Just don't ever vanish for eighteen months again."
"I won't," she promised, linking their hands.
"That reminds me," he said suddenly, pulling out his wand and waving away the security charms. "Accio."
Seconds later the door swung open and, a small, neatly wrapped box zoomed into her room. Scorpius caught it and shut the door with another wave of his wand.
"Happy Christmas, Rose," he said quietly, placing the box into her hands.
She stared at it, smiling, before standing to find her bag. Opening it, she too reached for her wand. "Accio," she said, and out zoomed a much less neatly wrapped package, which she handed to Scorpius as he pulled her back to his side.
They sat on the bed, each staring at their gift. "You first," he said finally, shaking his head.
Chuckling, she unwrapped the package. Inside was a broad, flat velvet box. With trembling fingers, she opened it and saw nestled within a small, silver pocket watch. A delicate filigree pattern was engraved on its cover, tiny twining roses which seemed to sway delicately in a non-existent breeze. It was the loveliest thing she'd ever owned and she looked up at Scorpius with tears shimmering in her eyes.
"Open it," he said gruffly, reaching over and placing his hand over hers to show her how.
When the cover popped open, Rose gave a little gasp. It was like her Gran Molly's clock in miniature, but this watch only had three hands: one for her, one for Al, and one for Scorpius.
"I had them made earlier this month," he said. "Took ages to find someone who even remembered a clock like your Gran's. I've got one, and Al has one waiting for him wherever his box fell. This way, no matter where we go or what we do, we'll always know that the other is safe."
"But the department - "
"Isn't as mysterious as it thinks. Al told me that your arm of the Weasley clock still worked while you were away. Every day it would indicate you were working and every night that you were at home. About eight months in you started traveling. Al and I used to sit around the pub and make bets about where you were and what you were doing. We were a pretty pathetic pair, come to think of it."
She pulled him into a tight hug. "You should open your gift now."
He paused to press his lips softly to hers before staring down at the parcel in his lap. "So lovingly wrapped," he teased and she bumped his shoulder with a scowl.
"Just open it."
He slid his long fingers in the seam of the paper, pulling it neatly apart and turning over the small leather-bound book in his hand. Frowning, he opened it, and she couldn't help but smile as his eyes widened and he slammed it shut. "Rose - "
"I read my paperwork. I read it over and over. I am an Unspeakable. I cannot speak of what I do. But nowhere does it say I cannot write down how I feel and what the things I do mean to me. And nowhere does it say I can't share those feelings with you."
She watched as he sat, gazing in wonder at the book in his hands. "Merlin. Will you ever stop outdoing me?"
"You've always been in every part of my life, Scorpius. I couldn't imagine keeping the last eighteen months hidden away from you. You gave me the journal, and it was perfect. I didn't write the really secret stuff down, but I wrote about what mattered to me. I knew that, when I finally finished, and if I got to keep my memory, I wanted you to have this."
"What about Al?"
"Al? Are you mental? He'd have a pint and the whole pub would know. No. This is just for us."
"I don't deserve you," Scorpius said solemnly, staring at his hands.
"Yes," she assured emphatically. "You do."
She'd just leaned in for another kiss when the door opened and Al walked in.
"Oi!" Scorpius called with a glare at his best friend.
"Security charms," Rose groaned.
"Uncle Ron is downstairs looking mutinous. Believe me when I say that walking in on you was practically a favor." Al paused and took in the discarded wrapping paper. "You opened presents without me? Accio!" Two parcels zoomed into the room and Al chucked one at each of them.
"Cheers, mate," Scorpius said, directing Al's package, now zooming into the room, toward him.
Al's watch was gold rather than silver, with an impressively-maned lion etched onto the cover. He opened it and stared at its face for a long moment before squeezing between Rose and Scorpius and pulling them both to him. "You're both idiots. Don't ever leave me again."
Rose and Scorpius opened their gifts from Al next. Both packages contained compact mirrors, Scorpius's in an onyx cover and Rose's in an opalescent one. She looked at Al questioningly.
"My dad told me a few months ago about this two-way mirror that Sirius had given him in his fifth year. He used it to call for help when he and Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione were trapped…" Al trailed off and shot a glance at Scorpius.
"Trapped at the Manor. I'm a big boy, Al. I can handle hearing about it."
"Anyway, he used this mirror to communicate with someone. So I talked to your mum, Rose, and she helped me work it out." He pulled a jade encased mirror from his own pocket. "They're connected. Three-way."
"No three-ways, thanks. You're her cousin and I don't exactly fancy speccy gits, at that," Scorpius said with an exaggerated shudder.
Al blushed, but laughed. Rose just gave an aggrieved sigh. "Honestly. Will you two ever grow up?"
"Probably not," her boys said at once.
"But anyway," Al continued. "Inappropriate and childish jokes aside, I want us to always be together."
Tears were again filling her eyes and Rose swiped at them.
"Your other presents are downstairs, but I didn't want James, Lily, or Hugo to see the mirrors."
A knock at the door had them all looking up, and Aunt Ginny stepped in, smiling at them.
"Generally when there is a family gathering," she said, a look of mock reproach on her face, "people don't run off and hide themselves away. They gather. As a family."
"Coming, mum," Al said with a grin.
Rose reached out and took Scorpius's hand, beckoned Al to follow, and together, they went to join the other Potters and Weasleys.
Things went surprisingly well, once the three of them had made their way back downstairs. Hugo teased Rose and James tried his best to get a rise out of Scorpius, but both of them were too happy to care about the ribbing. Scorpius didn't stop touching Rose once, and she'd laughingly opened a beautiful, midnight-blue tweed cloak from Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny one handed.
Al had also given both she and Scorpius a strange silver phial with a series of tiny jewels running down one side. "It's for storing different potions," Al said. "That model will hold up to seventy-two. I've already filled it with every antidote I could think of."
"Gee, thanks mum," Scorpius laughed.
Al pulled a face at him. "I also put some useful stuff in there – polyjuice and the like – but there's still about twenty empty compartments."
"It's brilliant, mate," Scorpius said. "Thanks."
Rose agreed, handing Al his present. She couldn't give him secrets like she had done for Scorpius, and she hadn't exactly been able to go shopping, so she was pleased when Al stared in surprise at the little wooden box in his hand. "Tap it with your wand and say your name," she told him, and he did.
Everyone gasped as the box grew to be the size of a small cabinet. Tentatively, Al slid open a drawer and gasped. "Rose – "
"Seeing as half the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is standing in this room I wouldn't announce what's in there if I was you," she said, leaning close to his ear on the pretense of examining the cabinet with him.
"Potions ingredients!" Al announced loudly. "Loads. And some of these are, erm, really rare."
Uncle Harry snorted. "Just like your mother."
"Pardon?" Rose and her mum asked together.
"She's been nicking stuff from the potions stores for years," Uncle Harry told Rose, and her dad laughed. Rose was delighted to see her mum flush pink.
"Stealing!" Hugo crowed.
"Aunt Hermione!" James exclaimed, sounding distinctly impressed.
"You don't know the half of it," Rose's dad said, leaning back in his armchair and pulling his wife into his lap. "I'm pretty sure half her plans involved something illegal."
"In fairness," Rose's mum said primly, "everything was illegal when I came up with most of those ideas."
Aunt Ginny launched into a story about her seventh year at Hogwarts with Hermione, and Rose used the distraction to lean over to Al.
"Better put that away," Rose told him quietly. "Tell it you're a brilliant boy and it'll shrink back down."
Scorpius snorted and Al rolled his eyes.
"I hate you, sometimes," he said, grumbling the words and carefully stowing the box in the pocket of his robes.
The rest of the evening was one of the most pleasant Rose remembered having, and she was amazed by how seamlessly Scorpius seemed to slot in to her family. He chatted about work with her Uncle and dad, got trounced by Hugo in chess (mostly because he ignored Lily's increasingly exasperated suggestions), and even argued Quidditch with Aunt Ginny.
After the Potters left, Rose, Albus, and Scorpius sat around the worn kitchen table drinking hot chocolate. Scorpius had one hand resting on Rose's knee and every once in a while she'd catch him watching her with a look of serene contentment that she was sure was mirrored in her own expression.
"Are you going to stay here?" Al asked, propping his feet on a spare chair.
"I don't know," Rose sighed. "I didn't think I'd have to plan that far ahead. I have two weeks before I have to officially report back to work, and dad told me mum had gotten together some listings."
"You could stay with me," Scorpius suggested. When Rose whipped round to face him he put both hands up in anticipatory surrender. "I have a spare bedroom! Blimey, it was just a suggestion."
"I can't just move in with my boyfriend," she sputtered.
"You're damn right you can't," her dad called from down the hall.
"Ronald!" her mother scolded.
Scorpius grinned. "Is that what I am?"
"Don't be thick," she muttered. Al was watching them keenly, and it took a lot of effort not to just bury her face in her hands. "Course you are."
"About bloody time," Al said. "We can double date."
Scorpius and Rose both wrinkled their noses. "Date?" Rose asked.
Al looked at her like she'd sprouted bubotuber's all over her face. "Yes, Rose. Date. That thing two people do when they're going out?"
She turned to Scorpius, who shrugged. "Don't look at me. Never tried it before in my life."
"You two are hopeless. Also insufferable. But mostly hopeless."
Scorpius tugged Rose to his side and she leaned into him. "Sorry mate," he said. "I think we're past that."
"Honestly, I don't know why I bother sometimes," Al huffed. "You're having dinner with Margaret and me and we're telling her it's a double date because that's something she'll understand and you'll suck it up and go with it because I'm your best friend. Got it?"
"Merlin you sound like your mum," Rose's dad said, coming into the kitchen for a ginger newt. "And that's not a compliment."
"I'll tell her you said that," Al said angelically.
"Go ahead," her dad laughed, biting off the ginger newt's head. He turned his attention on Rose and Scorpius. "As for you two. I want to see at least ten inches of space between the pair of you at all times in my house."
"Dad!" Rose exclaimed, and Scorpius stared at his hands as the back of his neck reddened.
"Some things will never change," her mum said, wandering into the kitchen. "Really, Ron. Rose is an adult."
"Still my house," he mumbled and Rose caught her mum's eye and smiled.
"Come along, dearheart. Let's let the kids catch up."
Shooting one last reproachful look over his shoulder, her dad followed her mum from the kitchen.
"You can't stay here," Scorpius said, peering around her to look down the hall. "Your dad makes me twitchy."
"What's that mean?" Al asked around a mouthful of ginger newt.
"He's an intimidating bloke," Scorpius said simply.
"Uncle Ron?" Al asked. He and Rose looked at each other before bursting into laughter.
Scorpius just nodded seriously. "You've not seen him at work. It should be illegal to know as many hexes as he and your dad. And this voice he gets?" Scorpius gave a little shudder.
Al and Rose were crying now, bent over the table and choking on their giggles. "Uncle…Ron…scary," Al gasped.
"Oh sod off, the pair of you.
When Rose and Al finally stopped laughing, Al looked at the clock. "Bugger. I've got to get home. I promised Lily I'd hang around for a while tonight."
Rose got up and pulled him into a hug. "See you tomorrow?"
Al nodded, chucking Scorpius on the shoulder before throwing a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and heading home to Grimmauld Place.
When he was gone, she and Scorpius sat, staring at each other. The strange tension that had seemed to hover all evening settled heavily over them now that they were on their own. His fingers drummed on her knee and everything inside of her seemed to be vibrating. She thought of the kiss they'd shared when he'd first seen her and the kiss that Al had interrupted and knew what she wanted.
"Scorpius," she whispered, eyes averted. "Take me back to your flat."