"Hey boys!"
"Hey Rosie", Scorp and Albus replied. The pair of them was sitting under a tree near the lake, having a boy-talk about a few things. About Rose, about Lily, about Potions, Quidditch and the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. Over the holidays, when Scorpius had stayed with Rose, Albus had been there half of the time so by now, nearly at the end of the school year, Albus and Scorpius got along quite well. To be precise, they liked each other.
Rose sat down next to them, hugged Albus and kissed Scorpius' cheek. She giggled at him blushing and laid down into the grass.
"Isn't it wonderfully warm today? And so… I don't know! Sunny, I guess. Yeah. Sunny."
Scorpius chuckled and nudged her side.
"You are adorable, Rosie. Of course it is sunny. It is May. Last days of school and during summer, you are going to spend two weeks with me."
"I am gonna do what?"
Rose sat up and looked at him, clearly confused.
"You are going to spend two weeks of your summer holidays with me. My mum talked to your mum and you are coming with us."
"Where? What? Bloody hell… Scorp! You could've asked me at least."
"Well, you are fine with it, are you?"
"Yes, I am… Just a bit… taken by surprise. BUT! I love the idea! That's amazing! So, what are we gonna do?" She looked at him, full of excitement. Her eyes were beaming, as she waited for him to answer. But Scorpius enjoyed her looking at him for a while before he answered: "We are going to enjoy ourselves, of course. Nothing special. I take you with me to our summer house in Italy. You can ride horses, swim in the sea, enjoy the sun. Does it sound good to you?"
"You have a summer house in Italy?"
"Is that a bad thing?"
"No! I would have never imaged you to have a house there. I thought… well. Maybe France. But not Italy. Don't ask me why, I have no idea!" Rose laughed and hugged him grinning. "I love the idea of spending some of my holidays with you in Italy! So, it means a week with Charlie in Romania, a week with Potters and Weasleys in France with Vic and Teddy and the baby and I am spending two weeks with Dominique, James and Albus traveling around Great Britain."
"You do? That sounds really nice! Where are you going?"
"We start off in London", explained Albus, who was still sitting with them, watching both of his friends carefully. Yes, there clearly was a tension between them. But Albus wasn't sure whether it was sexual tension, tension of two lovers or just a very good, very deep friendship. "And then we are going to Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and the last three days we'll spend in Belfast."
"Well, I hope to get some postcards then!"
"Of course you will! Albus and I, we will write you two postcards from wherever we are!"
"Two?"He raised an eyebrow, "why so?"
"Because, here is my plan: I will pick out one card and so will Albus. Of course both of us will write on both cards. You have to guess which card is from whom. And when we are back from our trip, you tell us. While we are still in the cities, we buy you a souvenir each. And for every card you guess correctly, you get the souvenir from the equivalent city. Good idea?"
Albus started to laugh and Scorpius nodded grinning. "Fantastic idea! But… your mum and dad let you travel the country on your own?"
"My brother and Dominique are off age, she's 18 and he 17, so both of them are allowed to use magic. Which doesn't calm down Aunt Hermione, but my parents and Uncle Ron. They think it's alright as long as we send cards and phone whenever we changed cities and moved into different hotels."
"My parents would never ever ever ever let me travel the country on my own. Or with cousins. Who I do not really have."
"You don't really have any cousins? Poor Scorpy-Cupcake! How come?"
"Well, Rosie-Pumpkin-Pie, to have a cousin you need aunts and uncles. My Dad is an only-child, my Mum has a sister. Her son and I… we do not get along very well. So I do have a cousin, but not really. I usually see him around Hogwarts, but hardly ever talk to him. Makes sense?"
"Makes perfectly sense. But that's really sad! I love my cousins!"
"Well, I am sitting next to you, I am your cousin, so you have to say you love me!", Albus chuckled.
"I'm saying it because I do! I wouldn't go on holiday with you, if I wouldn't love you."
"Anyway… are you on tour all summer holidays, Pumpkin Pie?"
"No, I am not, Cupcake. Between all of my journeys, I have a few days to wash clothes and stuff like that and our summer holidays are longer than six weeks, aren't they?"
"Where are you during your birthday?", Albus asked her.
"When is her birthday?"
"Why don't you ask me? I am here! Hello!" Rose waved in front of Scorpius' eyes, "can you see me?"
"Her birthday is the 3rd of July." Albus chose to ignore Rose. It was sometimes the best thing to do.
"Ah, alright. So should I get something for her?"
"If you ask me, you don't have to. I mean… she is really annoying from time to time and she calls you Cupcake. No need to get her a present."
"Well! Of course he has to! He is my friend! And friends get a present for friends! Not nice, Scorpius, not nice!" He chuckled and rolled his eyes.
"Of course I will get you a present. Something very special. So, to come back to Albus' question: where are you at your birthday?"
"I am with Albus in France and he should be aware of that fact!"
"I have no idea when we are in France. I usually just pack my stuff when Mum tells me to do it."
"Oh Albus!" She started laughing. "I am so glad I'm half of a Granger! Otherwise I would just be like you: headless, confused and unplanned. No! Nothing for me. You see, Scorpius, when I am going on holiday, I pack outfits, not clothes."
"And… how does that work?"
"Well… a week before we head of, I start planning outfits. Where are we going, what do I need? So, when we are going to France, I know I don't need long trousers. I need beach outfits. One for the day, one for the night. So I have a look in my wardrobe and try to work out, what I can add to my day-beach-outfit to make it a night-beach-outfit. And that's what I do with all of my outfits. I am the one who needs the smallest suitcase. My dad needs the biggest, because he doesn't plan ahead. And don't even get me started on James and Lily! Awful! By now I have taught Albus a lot, so he is normal. But I am perfect."
Scorpius grinned. "You are perfect, are you? Well, I am curious to see what your suitcase will look like when you come with me to Italy."
"You'll see! Do I need something really, really fancy?"
"What do you mean?" He raised an eyebrow, "really, really fancy?"
"Yes. So… Yule Ball fancy."
"Pumpkin Pie, we will be enjoying ourselves. We will not be going on a fancy ball with lots and lots of rich people talking about their horses and swimming pools and shares and cricket."
"Good. 'Cause I don't like cricket. So nothing fancy?"
"Nothing you would not normally wear on a family holiday."
"Okay. But I do need a swim suit?"
"Yes. The house is at the sea and we have a swimming pool. And, I am so looking forward to seeing Rose Weasley in a bikini. So looking forward to it."
"And I am looking forward to seeing Scorpius Malfoy in nothing but his swim shorts."
Both of them grinned while Albus just rolled his eyes.
"Just get a room already. The pair of you is awful! If you two don't end up fucking each other one day, I don't know what's wrong with the world."
"Albus!" His cousin looked at him highly indignantly but Scorpius just laughed.
"You know, Al, I really think Rose and I might end up together one day. Even if it is only when both of us are drunk and one recently broke up and needs to fill the emptiness inside."
"You really think we will sleep with each other one day?"
"Yes. Sure. Why know? You look good, I look good, we like each other. Maybe we will never fall in love. But having sex… sure." Scorpius shrugged.
"Oh wow… I never… really weird, Scorp. Really weird. But you're probably right, I guess."
"Of course I am. I am flawless."
"I thought, I would be the flawless being, not you!"
"We are both flawless. Deal?"
"Deal." Rose nodded and kissed his cheek. She laid back into the grass, followed by the two boys. After a while of silence – which Rose sometimes didn't really like – she asked: "Anything interesting? Al? Scorp?"
"Hmm… oh! Guess who sent me a letter!"
"I don't know! Who did?"
"Dimi did."
"Oh did he? I haven't heard of him in ages! What did he write?"
"He'll be in England during our holidays and asked to meet up with him in Diagon Alley. Would you like to?"
"I'd love to! You know I had a huge crush on him last year. And his stories are so interesting."
"I am sorry to interrupt you two but… who is Dimi?"
"Dimitri Krum", Albus explained, "his dad is Viktor Krum. During the Quidditch World Club three years ago, he recognized my mum and talked to her. You know, Rosie's mum had a crush on him during her fourth year in Hogwarts. Ron still doesn't like him."
"Oh, he hates him! He got so mad when Mum invited Viktor over for dinner. So mad! My parents fight with each other, yes. Like every couple does. But I have never heard them fighting that badly. Hugo was so upset, he started crying and came into my room to stay in my bed. I mean, my little brother was 10 back then. Dad really, really, really hates him. He hates Viktor so much, he would rather see you getting me pregnant and leaving me than Dimi loving, worshipping and marrying me."
Scorpius chuckled. "Sounds bad. But trust me: if I ever get you pregnant, I will do everything to make you happy. But I do not think I will ever get you pregnant."
"It would be a flawless baby, nevertheless", Rose grinned, "anyway, Dad hates him, Aunt Ginny likes him, Uncle Harry and Mum as well. And all of us kids just adore Dimi. He is... how old is he, Albus?"
"He's two years older than Dominique, so he's 19."
"Yes, he's 19 and so cool and so damn good looking."
"So… you fancy him?"
"I did last year. But I don't know if I still do. Did you know that the pupil of your eye grows about 45% when you look at someone you love? You wanna meet Dimi, too?"
"Hmm…" Scorpius thought about it. At first, there was a random comment about love while she was talking about Dimitri. Secondly, would he like to meet the guy, Rose fancied? If he knew him, if he knew why she fancied Dimitri, it might be good for him. He could watch Rose's eyes and see if they really grew 45% when she looked at him. But did he really want to see Rose looking at some other bloke like that? Scorpius wasn't sure about it. He had to try it.
"Sure, why not? It would mean another day of seeing you two and going into Diagon Alley."