The ground beneath Scorpius's feet literally shook from the thunder and every few seconds lightning would make the world as white as Scorpius imagined death would be. But what really scared him was the figure he saw between the flashes, sitting on the wet grass, red hair soaked.
"What are you doing? Get inside, it's dangerous out here!" He shouted across the field, now running as fast as he trusted himself to on the slippery ground.
Rose's gaze on the distant lake broke and she smiled to see the pale boy approaching. "Exactly why you should be inside."
Scorpius sighed overdramatically, even though he really was a tad worried. "Well I should at least keep you from dying alone," he replied as he sat down beside her, his robes getting horribly muddy and wet. Grins lit up both faces like the surrounding lightning lit the sky.
"So why are you here?" she asked as they stared at the dancing lake.
"The world does this without anyone telling it to. Nobody can control it. It just does all these powerful things because it feels like it. No matter what anyone else wants, if the sky wants to storm, it storms. I guess I just like watching it."
Rose wanted to look at him, but she just nodded to the distance.
"Why are you here?" Scorpius murmured between thunders after a while.
"It makes me feel alive. It makes me feel Gryffindor."
Scorpius accidentally glanced at her and their eyes met briefly before fleeing back to the water. "Do you regret being Hufflepuff?"
"It's hard to say. I'm not sure regret is the right word. My life would be totally different if I wasn't. I love my roommates and Hufflepuff is nothing to be ashamed of, but..." She tried to keep her voice light. "It's hard not to feel weird, like nobody quite understands me. Like I'm a disappointment."
Scorpius practically scoffed as he turned to her. "You realize you're beautiful, right?" He knew his eyes were as wide as hers but words kept spilling out of him. "I don't just mean on the outside either. Your entire being is a masterpiece. You bring light everywhere and make people happy all day long, without even thinking about it. Do you know how powerful you are? Your parents are amazing people but they already exist. You don't need to recreate them. We only have one life, you know? We should live it how we want and not how our parents wa—"
Scorpius may not have ever been kissed before, but he had seen a few kisses in his time and knew they usually started off nervous and gentle.
That was not how Rose kissed. She knew exactly what she wanted.
Scorpius kept expecting some great roll of thunder or flash of lighting to make her realize what she was doing and leap back, but they just kept on kissing until the sun came out and Scorpius found Rose cradled in his lap with his arms around her.
Rose smirked up at him, obviously very happy with what had just occurred.
Scorpius grinned softly, and it was all his inner turmoil would allow him to do. It felt like someone had taken a dagger and slashed his insides to shreds. Because he may have known he liked Rose but he never knew it could make him feel like this. He didn't know how it was possible to feel like this. This was dangerous.
He sat still a moment, trying to take in every last bit of Rose, because he wasn't sure how long it would be until he'd be brave enough to let himself get caught here again, and kissed her softly one more time before whispering "We should go," in a tense voice, carefully helping her off the ground and running as fast as he could, his shoes slipping on the new mud and soiled robes dragging heavily around him. And even though he almost tripped several times, he wouldn't allow himself to look back.